"Christian Science": A Term In Need Of Reclamation

Mary Baker Eddy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Baker_Eddy 

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ: "Research As Adoration" 
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/scientific-research-as-adoration-pierre.html

Dear Fred,

As a culture, we would do well to normalize a critique of "Young Buckism" which, until now, has been the default impulse compelling idealistic-but-idiotic young people to join the military chiefly for "hormonal reasons" before they have any clear understanding of politics and the Big Money manipulation that undergirds The Machine.

One of the great tragedies of modern propaganda -- perhaps the greatest tragedy -- is that The Military Industrial Complex, promoted by lickspittle agents on Capital Hill, can muster majoritarian support for any war against any "designated enemy," no matter how absurdly chosen that enemy may be.

Here is how "public opinion" unfolded in Vietnam:

"Public support for the war decreased as the war raged on throughout the sixties and beginning part of the 1970s.

William L. Lunch and Peter W. Sperlich collected public opinion data measuring support for the war from 1965–1971. Support for the war was measured by a negative response to the question: "In view of developments since we entered the fighting in Vietnam, do you think the U.S. made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam?".^{[111][112][113]} They found the following results.

Month	Percentage who agreed with war
August 1965	61%
March 1966	59%
May 1966	49%
September 1966	48%
November 1966	51%
February 1967	52%
May 1967	50%
July 1967	48%
October 1967	46%
December 1967	48%
February 1968	42%
March 1968	41%
April 1968	40%
August 1968	35%
October 1968	37%
February 1969	39%
October 1969	32%
January 1970	33%
April 1970	34%
May 1970	36%
January 1971	31%
May 1971	28%

After May 1971 Gallup stopped asking this question."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_United_States_involvement_in_the_Vietnam_War 

"Do War's Really Defend America's Freedom?"

(Homage To Marine Commandant, Major General Smedley Butler)

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/do-wars-really-defend-americas-freedom.html

I have been pondering "Christian science" --- not the organized religion but the need for Christians to cultivate science as devotedly as any other doctrine.

Despite widespread apprehension, a fundamentally scientific worldview does not preclude reverence, devotion or transcendental belief but rather provides a constant touchstone of truth in whose absence humankind will -- as night follows day -- crash and burn.

While in Spain last month, I reflected on the age-old need for social engineers to channel "young buck energy" into warfare as the only available mechanism for dealing with irrepressible testosterone surge. Prior to "the scientific framework" there simply weren't enough real-world goals to absorb that energy. 

Just agricultural cycles and the eternally recurrent outlook of peasants.

Over human history and pre-history, most people did not "have lives" except those ruled by the dominance/submission violence imposed by jockeying royal houses. (To glimpse human degradation, study the royal houses of Europe starting with the Emperor Constantine who at the behest of his wife, St. Helena, assassinated one of his children.)

In historical (and pre-historical) context very few people enjoyed individuated lives because there were scant productive goals (other than bearing the "grunting fardels" of agricultural production) to which human energy could be devoted.

The age-old proposition of xenophobic tribalism ruled all.

Now, as the number of knowledge-based occupational options multiply, "everyone" -- for the very first time -- can "have real lives" based on nonviolent goals.

Curious confirmation of this nascent transition to widely-distributed human development is found in the popularity of Islamic jihad, a movement populated by "middle school dropouts" dead-set against knowledge because learning threatens "The Simplicity of Violence as Perceived Solution."

Notably, Boko Haram means "western education is evil."

Blessedly, we enjoy the witness of Malala Yousafsi, a teenage girl who puts all "young bucks" -- over all time -- to shame.

Pax tecum.

Alan

The following "Story Corps" report unwittingly reveals our quandary. PPS I recommend my post on 2 Years of Obligatory National Service. It's the quickest way to educate "everyone" in the rigors of "meaningful living" as an alternative to "unmeaningful posing."

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/04/419569854/two-marines-one-deployment-and-the-end-of-a-marriage