In the first three paragraphs, John Ruskin is describing his 1849 visit to the Grande Chartreuse. This is the head-monastery of the Carthusian (Catholic) monastic
Tag: work
Is Corbyn’s Betrayal of Labour Greater than Ramsey MacDonald’s?
The Story of Ramsey MacDonald I have written extensively in the past about the uneasy relationship between the Socialist left (Marxist-Leninism) and the Labour Party. This is
Invalidation of the Worker Part III: Torturing Disabled Children in British Academy Schools (6.4.2019)
Mother sues over daughter’s suicide attempt in school isolation booth The manner in which disabled people are treated as adults in society is exactly the
The Error of the Church in Defining ‘work’ and Denying Socialism
The error in theology is this: whereas the monastics perform a selfless and voluntary labour (copying their saviour) within a serene setting where everything is
When the Conformist Revolutionaries Come to Town!
Conformist Revolutionaries are easy to spot. They state (without any reliable evidence) that Mao and Stalin were tyrants and mass killers, and that Hitler was a very maligned and misunderstood world leader (conformist Revolutionaries, whilst having no time for Marx or Lenin, nevertheless are perfectly willing to entertain the thought that Hitler might have been ‘innocent’ of the crimes he committed).
The Science of Epigenetics Verses the Pseudo-Science of Epigenetics! (4.3.2018)
This is not an attack on religion or a denial that belief systems are useful for human existence. On the contrary, what follows is a short and concise explanation of a very complex biological process which strives to identify the subject of epigenetics as a material or ‘hard’ science, and epigenetics as a belief system. When epigenetics is interpreted as a belief system (and consequently serves the function of a religion) it still presents its ideas in the language of science, when the underlying ideology is one of theology. The battle occurs because religious epigenetics insists upon being interpreted as a ‘science’. This insistence by a religious movement to be seen as a science attracts the descriptive label ‘pseudo-science’, which we use here, but with no intended disrespect. Although we advocate a continuous search for good knowledge and self-understanding, everyone has the right to decide for themselves and make their own minds up. As practitioners of Chinese Buddhism, we confirm that meditation practise has a positive affect upon the health of the mind and body, but we do not assert that the mind ‘interferes’ with natural biological processes. Instead, it seems clear to us that a proper scientific understanding of biological processes enables the mind to ‘assist’ by making good and informed choices in life that aid the natural biological processes unfold in a positive manner. This is more a matter of not ‘getting in the way’ of naturally unfolding processes, rather than entertaining the mistaken notion that the mind can interfere in these natural processes. This is just our ideas – think for yourselves.