Philosophy and the Christian writer - and what there is to be done

CathNews reported last Wednesday that two women who had had themselves professionally mutilated won a brilliant decision in the Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia. The Tribunal made the legal determination that those who were once women are now men - that they now be recognised as men. How can this be, most people would be asking? How can surgery and drugs be thought to effect such a supernatural change? What gives the Administrative Tribunal the authority to make such a miraculous pronouncement?

The answer is straightforward. It's there for anyone who wants to look. The nation's dominant ideology has conferred the divine power and authority. The Administrative Tribunals around Australia are stacked with devotees who are ideologically sound and can be counted on to use the class legislation for the proper purposes, namely, to advance the goals of the political class that dominates (and oppresses) Australian life.

It's the same situation in all Western countries. Holland is in an even worse predicament. I mean the same political class has even more power in that poor decaying country once so proud of its traditions and way of life. There are many good people in Holland who see the problems, but they appear to lack the resolve to do something about it. The leading party of the right plans to take part in gay pride celebrations. Caving in. There is obviously not the courage to stand up to the homosexual activists who have the power to destroy reputations and careers - and would not hesitate to do so to those straying from the approved dogma.

In some ways, the US seems further down the legislative track than Australia. Imagine in the country of the Declaration of Independence and the First Amendment legally banning the word "God" on school premises. What a cynical ideological victory by those who have rammed their ideas about freedom and equality down gagging throats for the last fifty years - and shipped their cargo cult ideological packages across the Pacific to infect susceptible minds in a country that boasts of being down-to-earth. How things have changed. Those born after 1970 can have no idea of the seismic ruptures that have occurred in Western society, freeing theoretical gases that have so many smarting and choking - and unable to think straight.

For those maintaining even a modicum of commonsense, mutilated women remain mutilated women, whatever the power of the class imposing their grotesque political fantasies on the rest of us.

That a political class has successfully manipulated the democratic process to gain power is clear enough. What is not so clear, at least to me, is why they continue to consolidate that power - why many in the community who share the dismay and outrage I feel at the destruction of our way of life seem unable, even unwilling, to do anything about it. Is it a lack of resolve generally across Western society? I am convinced that's part of the problem, partly a result of the intimidation by a class unrelenting and merciless in pouncing on the ideological infidels who raise their voice. It is compounded by a lack of strong institutions, associations and clubs that will forcefully articulate dissenting views and defend them competently and persuasively. The problem is exemplified by a string of personalities across the world who have stood up to the dominant class: Pauline Hanson in Australia and Pim Fortyun and presently Geert Wilders in The Netherlands among many. In each of these cases, the full might of the dominant class establishment has risen against them.

Let me take the Pauline Hanson case for my purposes. Here we have an ordinary Australian woman divorced and running a fish and chips take-away in an outer suburb of Brisbane. In contrast to the extremely articulate and intellectual Pim Fortyun (who was murdered by an environmentalist and animal rights fanatic) Pauline Hanson was philosophically and politically illiterate. She could not even articulate coherently the views she held. What set her apart was her courage and her daring to ask the right questions, though she could never see the right answers. What followed her dramatic political rise was really a pathetic hysterical political farce.

An army of academics rose as one and churned out reams of learned pieces about the monstrous "far-right" fish and chips shop owner from Ipswich. Many of their articles were collected by our foremost publishing houses, bound and released to their deeply worried (and affronted) constituency. Senior reporters and leader writers turned themselves inside out warning about the grave danger of the reincarnation of Hitler. Comics had a ball lampooning and ridiculing the redhead, her dress and her manner of speaking. In all this Pauline Hanson stood her ground. Apart from former Prime Minister John Howard, who suffered twenty-five years of leftist vilification and slander, there has hardly been a greater display of personal and political courage in Australia's history. Alas, the PC machine was always going to crush her.

But there was a second feature of Hanson's demise and, in my view, more important than the political muscle of the dominant class. If Hanson showed herself philosophically and politically illiterate she was hardly more so than her following, which at its peak showed ominous electoral signs for the established political parties, conservatives and leftist alike - as Geert Wilders is now demonstrating in Holland. Even those supporters with experience and education failed to lock horns successfully with the PC class whose dogmatic rhetoric is so deep-seated and prevalent in the community, particularly the educated community, that it is mindlessly reeled off at the drop of a hat. Indeed, the most effective defenders of their class are those who simply regurgitate PC scripture like the unthinking Bible-thumper on Hyde Park corner who is also ill-equipped to explain what he is expounding. I arrive now at the point of this comment.

It seems to me that conservative people and groups, most of whom are Christian, have forgotten how to defend themselves philosophically and politically. Younger conservatives have probably never known. Unconsciously they allow the opposition home ground advantage by failing to challenge the assumptions and terms of discussion of their adversaries. Even a fallacy so basic as scientism - the claim that all knowledge comes by way of scientific observation - is allowed to pass unchallenged. In more technical terms conservatives throw the game by not challenging the metaphysical and epistemological assumptions of materialism.

The established conservative party in Australia, The Liberal Party, seems to have forgotten what conservative thought entails. If one picks up the reflections Afternoon Light of Sir Robert Menzies (the founder of the Liberal Party) one encounters an articulate conservative mind that often invokes pure Burkean ideas. John Howard knew what conservatism was, as does up and coming federal MP Tony Abbott. Indeed, Tony Abbott is a case in point. The dominant class sniffed him out a long time ago. The smear and slander machine went into operation. He is now referred to as the "mad monk", a term that the Nine Network's political editor Laurie Oakes uses as a short hand put down of Abbott, giving evidence of the quality of the political commentary of the Nine Network. Tony Abbott and a small number of conservative politicians are the exceptions. There is evidence that the same malaise is affecting to differing degrees conservative groups and parties around the world.

It seems to me that at this time in our history Christian writers have a duty to have a clear understanding of what their gift is calling them to do. I know that there are many outstanding Christian writers dealing with faith and scriptural matters. This is needed. But often such writing is designed for the edification and understanding of those who already have the faith and for those showing an interest. As I say, this is necessary. What is missing is a similar number of authors eager and competent to do battle with the anti-Christian ideologues who are determining social and political policy around the world while they kick heads that stick above the levelled multitude. Let me give two examples of the sort of fearless competent writing I am talking about.

There was in the 1930s to the 1950s a notorious atheist professor of philosophy at Sydney University. John Anderson was not afraid to speak his thoughts. Indeed, he acquired a following of admiring students and fellow academics who propagated his atheistic views with much energy and sneering bluster. He and his intellectual storm troopers might have had the intellectual debate to themselves in Sydney if it were not for one lone Catholic priest who fearlessly met them at every point. Dr Paddy Ryan, an MSC priest and now sadly forgotten even by most Catholics, had the intellect and learning to deal with Anderson. His one-man campaign against the propagators of leftist theory reached a peak when in 1948 he met one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Australia in a debate at Sydney Stadium before 30,000 people. Dr Ryan subjected Edgar Ross to a humiliating intellectual defeat.

In 1936 he had a three-way debate with Professors Anderson and Vonwiller of Sydney University on "Science, Philosophy and Christianity" in which he gave a philosophical defence of natural and supernatural religion and an explanation of the relationship between religion and the experimental sciences. I have reproduced the text of what he said here. This is a great example of the clarity and intellectual competence that is needed to confront the West's dominant political class. Let me stress that the philosophical arguments Dr Ryan deploys are of interest to all Christians. At the political level all Christians should be one. We are all in it together.

The second example is What's So Great about Christianity (no question mark) by Dinesh D'Souza. This is one of my favourite books and I strongly recommend it to all people interested in philosophy, science method and history, not just Christians. Written in a clear entertaining and aggressive style, D'Souza takes on ferocious anti-Catholic bigots Dawkins & Co, deploying philosophical argument, scientific fact, and historical fact that shoot holes in their claims. In particular, D'Souza has done a job that was long overdue in destroying some well-known slanders against Christianity, especially those about the Inquisition, Galileo, and the Crusades. I have included links to two reviews below.

Of course, I acknowledge that not all Christian writers are naturally interested in philosophy and political theory. Nevertheless the call is there for all of us engaged in one way or another in the writing process to join battle to the extent of our ability with those who are attempting to destroy Christian Civilization. There is a diversity here in approaches both in fiction and non-fiction for every style and writing interest. The important task is knowing what we are dealing with and then incorporate it into our writing, in whatever form that takes.

Besides my website which I have been maintaining since May 2002, there are two initiatives I have undertaken. This first is a section on my website about conservatism which I will be developing in the coming months. The form of conservatism I am outlining is that of Edmund Burke who is considered the father of modern conservative thought. His arguments against the materialist theorists of the French Revolution are just as powerful today as they were two hundred years ago. Indeed, the haters of Christianity and religion today are the descendants of the Jacobins.

The second initiative is the "cause" I have set up on Facebook to "Encourage and Support Christian Writers". I set this up on impulse, not having a clear idea of how it would developed. I am pleased to see that there is already a small membership without any development taking place as yet. The subject of this comment - the task of the Christian writer - is meant to give to the cause its opening orientation. Clearly, it reflects my interests. In the near future I will add two essays (Philosophy and the Christian Novelist and The Christian Novel - Where are the Limits?) to carry the orientation through. Both essays are in draft form and need a little more work. I would be interested in reactions from members to what I have written and any suggestions or comments on the cause itself. For those on Facebook who want to join the cause the link is:(http://apps.facebook.com/causes/328955/76317237?m=6d54c0aa). Or it can be accessed through my "Info" page or by becoming a friend. Otherwise one has to join Facebook and become my friend.

Links to reviews about What's So Great about Christianity:

Review What's so Great About Christianity

Review What's So Great About Christianity

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com