Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.

• Deuteronomy 18:10-12

“You shall have no other gods before me.

• Deuteronomy 5:7

“’Science Superstition sets the whole world in flames. Philosophy quenches them.’ – Voltaire”

• Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

François-Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire (1694-1778) was a French philosopher and advocate of civil liberties.  He fought for freedom of speech and the separation of church and state.

Voltaire makes two statements, but are either of them true?

Do superstitions set the world on fire?

If they did, we would no longer be around.  Almost everyone has a superstition that they just don’t mess with.  They quickly apply the cure for the ”curse” whenever they make a mistake in their superstition area.  For example, have you ever seen someone spill some salt on the table and they take a little salt in their right hand and throw it over their left shoulder.  First, there is no bad luck here. Second, you have just wasted more salt.  Maybe the salt producers of the world started that one.  And what is bad enough with a superstition, in other words something that you trust in and adjust the way you live…  Yes, superstitions are a form of idolatry, but then the early church encouraged people to toss salt over their left shoulder to throw the salt into Satan’s eyes.  That would temporarily blind Satan and you are then delivered from the curse of bad luck.

Let’s recap – We believe in the blessings from God and when bad things happen they happen to teach us or test us.  No bad luck here. Next, this is worshipping a false god when the superstition causes you to change your pattern of doing things.  And finally, we only trust Jesus.

So, superstitions are not good for us unless they were born from safety concerns.  Do not walk under a ladder.  The person working above you might drop something on your head.  And walking backwards under the ladder does not reverse the curse.  It doubles your chance of getting injured.

But what of the second part of Voltaire’s quote?

It puts us right back into the trust in something other than God.  Philosophy cannot quench the fire.  It adds to the fire.  For every philosophy that thinks it has explained the world, there is another philosophy created just to argue against their ideas.

It is very rare indeed when you can argue your way into peace and tranquility.

The protest signs are wrong.  You cannot agree to disagree.  That philosophy leaves both sides seething in anger because they did not impose their idea on the other person.  Peace for a day, or a few hours…

Then the giant explosion comes.

This ends the book by Brian McGee.  I think I may move back to John Calvin.  I finished Volume 1 of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion in December 2020.  It is probably a good time to review my thoughts on Volume 2.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.