Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

This book is impossible to review, as it’s one subtle argument after another. The main thrust of it is that there had arisen by the time of the book’s publication an academic movement of “analytical Marxism” which attempted to use rigorous philosophy to heal the dying body of classical Marxism. If that required drastic measures [...]

I find it slightly annoying that people often say that the three main attributes to God are omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness. In fact, the third attribute is not goodness but love. This way the attributes correspond properly to the persons of the Trinity. Goodness is ascribed to God as such and can mean either [...]

If there is nothing else “really” but quarks and electrons, are we not ascribing some primal existence to things which, in Thomist’s words, “least exist”? If there was such a thing as prime matter, would we confer on this pure potentiality the exalted status of “building blocks” of every material object? I think what matters [...]

Nozick points out that no matter what we do, there exists a point of view — in fact, numerous points of view — from which our actions appear insignificant and pointless and futile. Therefore, I argue that “that’s as good a reason as any to tie your destiny to God. And that’s the meaning of [...]

Am I guilty of expatiating on the Absolute as if it were my pocket watch? Do I also fail to shrink from announcing eternal absolute values and from establishing moral codes unconditionally binding on all men?

Ain’t no such thing, says Thomist.

Good stuff here. I think Thomist has zeroed in on the idea that an operation can be both an activity and at the same time something “at rest.” Thus, in contemplating some truth the mind is “rotating” about that truth’s particulars, yet in fully grasping all the facts and connections, it is at rest; you [...]

1. Grace completes nature; it makes us into what we are meant to be, viz., “like unto God.” 2. Grace is intelligent design of the soul. I write that God cannot flood everyone with grace. I’d like to suggest that grace is not something you can “flood” someone with. Grace is not a uniform substance, [...]

Aeon has heard about Trevor’s new method for creating exact human duplicates… Scafandra is being tied to a chair. Aeon is watching above. Trevor: Alright, I think we are ready to start. Twikka: You cost way too much, buddy. Henchman 1: You’re one tough little cookie… let’s see how crusty, what’d you say? Scafandra: (struggling) [...]

On faith: If the question be put: In how many truths as a means… must one believe to be saved? many catechists answer Six things: God’s existence; an eternal reward; the Trinity; the Incarnation; the immortality of the soul; the necessity of Grace.” It seems to me that some of these, like existence of God, [...]

Consider a typical process of conversion to Catholicism. You start your RCIA some time, let’s say, in September; incubate in the womb of the Church-Mother for a few months; and are reborn into the Church, that is, baptized and confirmed, on Easter. The question is, do you enter the Church clean or dirty? Does baptism [...]

To add to my previous discussion, the Father realizes His own perfection in the begetting of the Son and comes to love it in the procession of the Spirit. It seems to me that God’s loving Himself is unforced. He beholds something infinitely perfect, namely Himself, and falls in love with it naturally. But He [...]

I want to throw it out as a possibility that in heaven the blessed do not make choices, because there is only one good, namely, God Himself, and He perfectly satisfies every desire. The saints are not capable of not choosing God, because they are “closed up”; they are confirmed in goodness. We might also [...]

The Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone is, in my view, incomplete, yet the Catholic doctrine of justification by grace and works is defended poorly. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia argues: In the Protestant system, however, remission of sin is no real forgiveness, no blotting out of guilt. Sin is merely cloaked and concealed [...]

Here is the first part. Consider these two sayings of Jesus: “If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” (Jn 14:28) “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you [...]

In this FOX Business interview Ron Paul is challenged to justify his opposition to central banking and fractional-reserve banking, even though “[t]he fact that the banking system was allowed to make loans for which it didn’t have the capital allowed new enterprises to exist that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. Our entire computer revolution was built [...]

Why it won’t work, proves Rothbard: Another alternative right-wing strategy is that commonly pursued by many libertarian or conservative think tanks: that of quiet persuasion, not in the groves of academe, but in Washington, D.C., in the corridors of power. This has been called the “Fabian” strategy, with think tanks issuing reports calling for a [...]

Almost every point in this critique of ID is off the mark. It is simply not true that ID deals with the origins of life; and evolution, with the “progress” of life once life arose. ID claims that numerous biological systems could not have come about via the Darwinian pathways from whatever their physical precursors [...]

Suppose that instead of a good you have n units of an economic bad. Now an economic bad is something that takes away your utility, deepens your dissatisfaction, provides services you’d rather be without. In other words, a bad is something it costs (money, let’s say) to get rid of. For a normal good, the [...]

The “divine love is holy, meaning that God accomplishes God’s purposes over against all opposition,” says D.W. Congdon. So much for Craigian limits on God’s power to save. In other words, God’s judgment destroys opposition, while God’s mercy and grace build up the new you. (Assuming the purpose of judgment is to correct rather than [...]