Those who adhere to the instructions of the Constantine approved bible and practise Constantine's approved paganized BSreligion are anything but Christians as espoused by their founder!

Early esoteric Christians did not exclude anyone from their ranks, practised charity as a way of life, built no great edifices to glorify God. Nor did their founder claim that he was God/the personification of God when he allegedly said, it is not I who does these things, but the father within me. Quote, unquote.

It's quite amusing to listen to ignorant fanatics misquoting from the Continue approved religious text as if either it or they had even a scaric of a grain of verifiable truth or moral authority. Or that of any religion officially allowed by a pagan sun worshipper!

Those who would live by the true original Christian ethos need to advocate for a war on poverty and unmet need, the only war worth fighting or winning.

This only justifiable war, can be won by the gifted rollout of not for profit, MSR thorium and gifted deionisation dialysis desalination.
Given to those who have neither, is the only way we are ever going to attack and remove poverty. And in so doing, save both the planet and all life! The holiest of holy causes!

What won't do anything to address and remove endemic generational poverty, is bible bashing, paganised, control freaks with their own begging bowl thrust in impoverished faces, all while commanding them not to practice safe sex, just endless and entirely unnatural abstinence!

All while conferring on themselves, solely self-granted, moral authority that borders on pedantic absolutism!

Verily I say unto you, those creatures have never ever had such Authority or Command! Only an everywhere present God knows what is truly in your heart, whether or not your eternal soul is actually worth saving!

If we with the endless advocation of fanatical falsehoods (FOLAU) have contributed to the suicide of just one other human being, we will be judged as if we had tied the rope, kicked the chair, loaded and fired the gun!
Alan B!

There is less than a subtle connection between the two articles today.

The attack on Assange by the liberal elitists, here described as the David French-ists, and the counter forces of neo conservatives, which draw the following conclusions on the position of the masses.

Lifted from the Sohrab Ahmari reference is this:

*...Voters across the developed world have had enough of depoliticized politics. In the United States, this great “no” culminated in 2016’s election of Donald Trump. With a kind of animal instinct, Trump understood what was missing from mainstream (more or less French-ian) conservatism. His instinct has been to shift the cultural and political mix, ever so slightly, away from autonomy-above-all toward order, continuity, and social cohesion. He believes that the political community—and not just the church, family, and individual—has its own legitimate scope for action. He believes it can help protect the citizen from transnational forces beyond his control...*

Hard to argue against this reality...

Dan

Continue in the above comment, should be read as I originally wrote before Grammarly correction, as Constantine.
Alan B.

To Mark Christensen. (The author)

You said near the end of the article, "As rewarding as The Second Mountain is, it therefore represents a missed opportunity."

Can you explain what you mean by the missed opportunity? Having not read the book " The Second Mountian, I don't know what parts of the article is a review of the book, based on what was in it, versus the review of what it lacked. What was the missed opportunity?

Either way thanks for the review, It's enough to put the book in the list of books to look into to read or to buy.

To Alan B.

In Mark's article he says, "The New York Times columnist comes to realize just how radically different religious consciousness is from its secular counterpart. How “big and absurd the leap of faith is”. " (last sentence of the seventh paragraph).

If this review is accurate of the book the second mountian, then your comment on the lack of justification about Christianity in the world might be addressed in the book. I don't know I haven't read the book yet.

As for the MSR Theorium reactor. I've read what you've written on the matter since I've started on OLO. Enough to search for the information on my own. If the reasurch is valid on the reactor type then it is more then worth it for implementing, developing and building. Even if the reasurch is lacking and still new on the reactor it's solutions are worth looking into. (A much better green solution that can be available without harming the cities around a power plant). Hopefully one day, a country will take the financial challenge and risk building the Salt Reactor. Test drive it so to speak so that other nations seeing the results might follow. Maybe one day.

(Continued)

None the less even with a reactor like that there will still be poverty. Wish that wasn't the truth but greater resources doesn't fix the issues of corruption and politicians that no longer care for the people. If the housing market is still manipulated so that no one can afford it, then even granting the promises of a MSR reactor won't solve the issues that aren't because of a lack of resources.

This is where the weakness of human nature come in. In the large scale, where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer; the need for God to alleviate, direct, and save people is a real need for everyday people. Because the goodness of mankind's hearts isn't fixing the problems. It either ignores the problems in a heartless way, or it tries to be a bleeding heart and support everyone who won't (or can't) help them self, making them even more dependent on government assistance instead of actually helping them.

As good as the salt reactor hopefully is, the problems aren't just good resource management. None the less. I hope the reactor is as good as I've read about it, and that one day it will be test driven by one country or another.