Os Guinness on an Augustian Moment for Pastors

Os Guinness is one of the fine Christian minds of our era. He has invested deeply in the next generation, helped us understand the nature of Calling and influenced leaders for the church and marketplace of ideas. Over at Kairos Journal Guinness has a great charge to the pastor - that he see his role pivotal in this time in our history. Some have accused Os of being too centered on western culture - you will find fuel for that critique here. But what I have loved about Guiness is that he stands for that which is BEST in our western tradition. Literature, learning, charity and love for our neighbor, and most importantly the rock and foundation of the western tradition; the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Judeo Christian Scriptures.

His essay, which will be rolled out in parts, centers around three excellent questions:

First, will Islam modernize peacefully? Second, which faith will replace Marxism as the faith to lead China into her super-power future? And third, will the West recover or sever its relationship to its roots?

The essence of his encouragement to pastors if found in the conclusion of part 1:

Third, because of the chronic weaknesses of the faith of most American Christians at the popular level, in spite of their numerical strength, there is special responsibility for Christians in two particular callings: pastors, because they stand Sunday by Sunday between God and the people of God and are therefore in a unique position to awaken and empower God’s people; and leaders who are followers of Christ in positions of secular leadership, especially at the national level.

If the overall challenge facing Christians is expressed spiritually rather than strategically, it may be stated even more simply. A central reason for the weakness of the Christian faith in the West is the deficiency of discipleship among those who are Christians, including many leaders who are committed to Jesus Christ.

The result of this deficiency in discipleship is plain: despite our far greater numbers than any other group in America, Christians today have less cultural influence than far smaller groups and special interests. The problem is not that we aren’t where we should be—though there are important areas such as the universities and the media where we are severely underrepresented—but that we aren’t what we should be where we are.

In sum, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we face an urgent situation for both the Church and the West: the central spiritual imperatives of our faith converge with the central strategic imperatives of the challenges of today’s world to underscore that people of faith must live and act decisively to meet the challenge of the hour. No calling is more pivotal at this Augustinian moment than that of the pastor.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term "Augustinia moment" the following may help.  Augustine stood in the gap for the church in a moment of huge cultural chaos, the fall of Rome itself. During the aftermath, Augustine penned the classic The City of God and his leadership stabalized the church and led it into a future which was not to be found in the "Eternal city on Earth" but in the city whose architect and builder is God.  When Rome fell, many pagan religious thinkers blamed it on the adaption of Chrisitianity throughout the empire.  Augustine engaged the pagan philosophies of his day and exposing them and demonstrating the beauty and truth of the Christian gospel...both in understanding tragedy and the shifting of the city of man, but also placing our hopes in the city of God.  A city always within the civilizations of men, moving with God towards the culmination of all history at the end of the age.

Here is the Link Pastors Pivotal in Our Augustinian Moment by OS Guiness.

Judas Snakes

 
Last week it was the gospel of Judas, but this week we have Judas Snakes.

Skip Snow, a 54-year-old veteran wildlife biologist with the U.S. National Park Service, has a problem. Burmese pythons, released by pet owners into the everglades over the last several decades are breeding in the wild and eating everything in sight. The park service is working to control the population through several interesting methods. One mentioned below is something calledJudas Snakes. Oh Judas, you just can't get a break!  These are snakes who betray their own - which is more in line with the Judas of the 1st century biblical gospels than the pseudo savior of the 2nd century gnostic gospel of Judas.  Here is the quote featuring Mr. Snow's labors to fight the pythons.

He recently experimented with a beagle puppy nicknamed "Python Pete," using him to ferret out the snakes and said he also had some recent success with "Judas snakes" -- using pythons implanted with radio transmitters to track down other pythons.

Full Link here: US biologist battles killer pythons in Florida park.

Archaeological Finds and So Called Lost Gospels

There have been some amazing archaeological finds in the last six decades dealing with the early centuries of the Christian faith. Many are familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran which contains the scrolls of an apocalyptic sect of Judaism known as the Essenes. This find in 1947 was a fascinating find and of great particular interest to Old Testament Scholars. What the scrolls provided was a look at copies of many of the books of the Old Testament which date back to the time just before Christ. Due to the fact that the earliest still existing Hebrew manuscripts dated to the 10th century AD, the scrolls of Qumran gave us an opportunity to examine the transmission of the books over a gap of some 1000 years. What we found is that the text had been copied quite faithfully even over this long period of time.

Perhaps a less known discovery took place in 1945 in the Egyptian dessert at Nag Hammadi. It had been known for millennia that in the 2nd century the Christian church combated a heresy known as Gnosticism. This teaching held a radical dualism between matter and spirit with spirit being good and matter evil. Through secret gnosis (Greek for knowledge) people could escape the bondage of the physical world and achieve salvation. The Christian version of this teaching held that Jesus was not really a human being, but merely appeared as such. As the human Jesus suffered and died, the divine Christ hovered above laughing at the confusion of people taken in by the appearance. This hyper-divine Christ would reveal secret knowledge to his elect via religious experience rather than conveyed truth in the apostolic writings. Early church fathers such as Iraneus wrote against these 2nd century teachings including many of their writings which he enumerated by name (To see his reference to the content of the gospel of Judas, see this segment of Against Heresies. Additionally, the early church historian Eusebius also named many of these writings. The point to be made is that these writings: Gnostic gospels, epistles and apocalypses were known to the church and rejected by the Christians as false. The great interest of the archaeological find at Nag Hammadi is that some codices (early books) of these works were actually dug up. Believe it or not the discovery was made by a guy named Mohammed Ali (no, not the one who floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee).  This of course shed light on the early debates within Christianity and the sources of the doctrines which the church rejected.  A great archaeological find.

Why then all the buzz about “Lost Gospels” of Thomas, Judas, Mary etc. (Greg Koukl has a good commentary on the use of the term - Lost Books of the Bible) First, for the most part many people, Christians included, are ignorant of church history and have no idea about the world in which the church was birthed, grew and confounded false teachings. Second, there is a new school of scholars and practitioners who paint the early Christian world as a battle between equally valid, possible expressions of Christian faith. Therefore the poor Gnostics, losing the popularity contest years ago, need a new hearing today. Third, the media sensationalizes these things with titles like “Lost books of the Bible” being recovered, etc.

What believers need to know is this. The first several centuries of the church were filled with theological spaghetti and a myriad of writings. This in fact led the church to recognize and canonize the apostolic witness found in the 1st century gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. That which was false, which did not match the tradition handed down from the apostles was rejected and not included what eventually became the collection of the 27 books of the New Testament. The gospel of Thomas, The Apocalypse of Peter, and the gospel of Judas were never part of the Christian Bible, nor will they be. They were lost to history, but not to the Word of God. They were lost to us in manuscript form, many of which we have now recovered. This is a great thing for our understanding of the Gnostics, who they were, what they taught. But it is not ground shaking in that it gives us a “new Christianity.” It simply gives us an up close look at beliefs that were deemed not Christianity at all. And that was decided a long time ago; by the Christians. 

Now don’t get me wrong, people are welcome to believe the Gnostic teachings if they choose (but they are pretty convoluted and esoteric); but let us not come up with some nonsense that the Gnostic way is just another way of being a Christian. This is simply not the case.

Sit Down Richard

Physicist John Barrow had a message for Richard Dawkins, Darwinianism's current bull dog...His comment:
 

“You have a problem with these ideas, Richard, because you’re not really a scientist. You’re a biologist.”

Link over at Uncommon Descent - Uncommon Descent � Barrow to Dawkins: “You’re not really a scientist.”

On "New Gospels

With all the buzz surrounding the Gospel of Judas, I found this to be pretty funny...

The Gospel of Brutus: A Revolutionary Revelation About the Real Jesus

I'll have a short post on Gnostic gospels up soon...very short, but lots of friends have been asking questions, so I thought I would throw my stick in the fire. 

More on Beckwith

World has an article on Frank Beckwith's denial of tenure at Baylor University. Beckwith's writings have been an encouragement to me over the years of rigorous scholarship from a person of Christian Conviction.

This I suppose is the sad state of pseudo-Christian colleges. I personally would send my kids to a state University or private secular school over one that is Pseudo-Christian. At least then the student knows the actual academic environment in which she stands.

Link - New Tenor on Tenure

(HT - William Dempski)

Calling All Geeks - The History of Apple Computer

 
This week TWIT has a great little podcast dialogue with some of the founders of Apple Computer.  The format is a round table discussion and is quite fascinating if you are at all interested in the history of technology.  If you are a true geek, you will be tasting sweet fruit by taking the time to listen. 

Two Pictures From Early Apple History

Apple II Plus with Disk Drive (Apple was first with a floppy disk drive)

1984 - The First Macintosh Computer 

For true Mac Geeks - Wikipedia has a ridiculous timeline showing the history of the Mac.

Still not a convert, but I do like my iPod.

Spooky Wacko Stuff

A friend sent me this link - file under kooky, spooky, wacko, misguided, strange, evil, sick...did I say wacko?

Apparently an ecologist, Eric R. Pianka, thinks there are too many of us around here on planet earth, and apparently thinks there are some good ways to get rid of a bunch of human primates in one fell swoop.  One he apparently recommended was airborn ebola to knock out a bunch of people. Save the planet, kill the people.  Strange Logic. This is a result of a worldview gone madly consistent, where human beings are no longer unique in the cosmos and are secondary to other concerns.  Ideas...yes, they matter.

Here is the link: Meeting Doctor Doom.

(HT - Georfrey Lessel)

Book Review - Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades

Challies has a review of a book on Islam Challies Dot Com: The Politically Incorrect Guide To Islam and the Crusades

Here is an exerpt:

"May Allah rip out his spine from his back and split his brains in two, and then put them both back, and then do it over and over again. Amen." Such is the kind of "endorsement" garnered by The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades. In this case, the endorsement was written by the Islamic web site, RevivingIslam.com. The author of this book, Robert Spencer, is the director of Jihad Watch and an Adjunct Fellow with the Free Congress Foundation. He has written several other books on the topic of Islam and, as per the brief biography within this title, "lives in a Secure, Undisclosed Location." That is no doubt a wise precaution for a man who writes books and articles warning against the dangers of Islam.

The author of this book maintains the two web sites Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch

These sites are worth taking a look...

American Idols...

I just read a little ditty by Gene Edward Veith on the show American Idol - his thoughts are here.

He also asks some questions about TV watching that are interesting.

While you are thinking American Idol, you should check out the recent knock off we did at Inversion. Here is the link - Inversion Idol - Open Mic Night.

Or just click the image below (it is an .m4v file that plays through iTunes, Quicktime)

 

Folk do read your blog you know...

There is an interesting article in the Boston Globe about employers reading people's blogs, MySpace, Facebook, etc. when they are interviewing them for a job. 

The counsel and commands of the Scriptures do apply to blogging

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; James 1:19 ESV

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor...Ephesians 4:25 ESV 

If you are interviewing for a job and you say: This job really sucks, I may just work there a year, and you write it on your blog.  Well...it seems you are being a bit two-faced, duplicitous with your possible employer, and stupid to write it on the blog. Here is an exerpt from the Boston Globe piece:

In October 2002, after an interview for a job at a nonprofit, she said, someone at the organization read her blog, where she had broadcast to the world that she wasn't actually all that interested in the job and didn't plan to stay for even a year if she were hired.

Don't lie to people, that is wrong.  Then to go and publish the truth on your blog...that is wrong and stupid.  One solution that was offered doesn't seem that great in my mind:

Natalie Gioella, a senior at Northeastern University, knows students who received offers for internships and co-op jobs, but were later turned down because of their postings on Facebook.com. So, Gioella, 23, doesn't post.

The other option would be: Post with integrity so people see who you actually are.  Or don't post and put on whatever face people want to see in your interviews; but that is a very hard way to live.

Here is the link: Job applicants' online musings get hard look - The Boston Globe

Not (Not Like) Mark Driscoll

Public repentence is good. I keep finding reasons not to not like Mark Driscoll (for those who like logic not (not like) = like).

A little while back Driscoll reacted to some remarks made by Brian McLaren (which were pretty obscure and lacked conviction) about the issue of homosexuality on the blog Out of Ur. It was a pretty amped up response, really funny at times, and a bit over the top in a few places. It seems like Driscoll realized he stepped over some lines

It is good to see that there are men who have Driscoll's heart and ear. Here is an exerpt from his post:

A godly friend once asked me an important question: “What do you want to be known for?” I responded that solid theology and effective church planting were the things that I cared most about and wanted to be known for. He kindly said that my reputation was growing as a guy with good theology, a bad temper, and a foul mouth. And after listening to the concerns of the board members of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network that I lead, and of some of the elders and deacons at Mars Hill Church that I pastor, I have come to see that my comments were sinful and in poor taste. Therefore, I am publicly asking for forgiveness from both Brian and Doug because I was wrong for attacking them personally and I was wrong for the way in which I confronted positions with which I still disagree.

Here is the full text: Apology | Resurgence

Marriage is for White People?

Al Mohler has an insightful commentary on marraige up on his blog. See - “Marriage is for White People”—The Decline of Marriage among African Americans To all my young brothers out there, both black and white. This call is for us:

In order for this to happen, couples of all ages, races, and ethnicities need to live out the fullness and fulfillment of marriage before the watching world. Christians have a special stake in this, because we understand that marriage is not only a social institution, but that is also the unique arena in which the glory of God is demonstrated in the holy relationship between the husband and his wife and in the proper ordering of the household as a testimony to the grace and goodness of God. Furthermore, we are the ones who know that we will give an answer for our responsibilities in marriage--and every single Christian has an important stake in this mission of recovering marriage. Above all, the church should be the one place where healthy marriages are nurtured, expected, supported, and lived out, not only before the congregation, but before the entire society.

God, preserve your vision for marriage in us, and through us...by your grace and to your renown. Help us we beg - redeem our sexuality, our marriages, and our children.

Minister and "Sexologist"

One of my good buddies who is a student at Vanderbilt, attended a most interesting lecture Tuesday night by a woman who is a "minister and sexologist."  His comments on the evening are insightful and pithy.  And here at Power of Change, we love both insight and pithiness:

So tonight the CG indeed went to hear the sexologist speak.  If you're tremendously bored and can't find a cordless drill to bore into your head, you can read her blog (http://debrahaffner.blogspot.com/).  The really interesting thing about her talk was not the outlandish things she said (in support of abortion, homosexuality, etc.), but the fact that about 15 minutes in I looked at Brett and made the comment that she had started with much of the same stuff you said on Thursday.  Sex is good; it's created by God, for a reason; sex is not merely for procreation, etc.  It's so interesting how much damage the church has done.  The people in the crowd bought the early stuff (that we probably would agree on), and they ate it up so much that they followed her as she went to some very wrong and stupid places.

On a slightly different note, Ben and I have this curmudgeonly philosophy professor, who actually believes in things like absolute truth.  He made the statement that in the absence of truth, there is only power.  That, he says, is the basis of feminism.  There is no truth; therefore, there is no equality, just power.  That seemed to be the underlying reality of her talk.  There is no truth in the Bible or in religion (or anywhere else), so it's all about imposing our agenda.  She made the statement that for the sake of "sexual justice," religious "progressives" need to reclaim the Bible, and reclaim the debate, and, finally, reclaim God.  I almost made a comment to her about how God is not to be colonized in that way.  He doesn't get claimed, or tamed, or whatever the heck else these "sexual justice" folks want him to do.  God claims us, and the terms of claim are stated in the Bible.

One last note:  she used a hilarious hermeneutical method when she talked about the parts of the Bible that disallow homosexuality.  This is near quoting: "In the Bible, and in the entire Judeo-Christian literary tradition, when something was important, they said it over and over.  If they only said it once, that doesn't mean anything."  YIKES!  So if the Bible only says it once or twice, it's just a joke?  Wow.  Great job, Deb.  Thanks for the talk.

 Tim, I'm glad we are on the same team...

The Problem of Goodness - Rejoicing in a Kind Providence

Many an atheist has shaken a loaded fist towards the heavens about the problem of evil.  God, how could you allow such suffering in this world if you are good and powerful?  In moments of existential angst, many attempt to deny God's existence while railing againsts this same "non existant" being. Yet the problem assumes a real distinction between "good" and "evil" as many have pointed out.

Though many are quick to ask "why evil" not as many are as quick to ask "why all the goodness?"  I have asked myself this question today.

Over the years my wife and I have experienced six miscarriages; five before we had any children at all.  After the first few I asked myself the question: Is God good and satisfying even if he does not give us children?  By his grace I was able to answer a resounding yes!  Then, for reasons of God's choosing, we had two beautiful little girls; Kayla and then Kylene. 

A few months ago we found out that  we were pregnant with baby #3.  We cautiously rejoiced and taught our oldest (Kayla, 4) that some babies make it to this world while others do not; we need to pray and hope this one will make it.  So I asked myself one more question: Is God good and satisfying even if he does not give me a son, and fills my house with an all female squad?  By grace, I was able to answer with a resounding yes!  Then today, for reasons of God's choosing, we saw some amazing pictures on an ultrasound screen.  We are pregnant with a little boy, man, wrestler (if he wants)...son.  Why? I don't know.  But I sensed and rejoiced with joy unspeakable today.  Not so much that I am having a boy.  But more that God would give us this gift.  I did not need it, I did not really ask for it as much as one would think (though I did pray here and there), I only know that I was so overwhelmed and touched deep in the gut with joy today...at the goodness of God.

Why would he be so good to us?  I don't know.  He is who he is.  There is a problem of goodness.  Joys unexplained and gifts so rich; we dare not miss them because of our travails.

O to the Gracious Father of Lights
From Whom Every Good Gifts Comes
Give Grace and Peace to Receive Thy Joy
From Thy Divine Benevolent Love. 

Is this Good?

OK, there is an upcoming debate on "Calvinism" in October. Over at the fun fundamentalist site, Challies says "this could be a good one".  Here is my question.  Is this a good use of our time?

Pro - Why this could be good

• Every generation does not understand or been exposed to the historical discussions (Pelagius/Augustine, Luther/Erasmus, Whitfield/Wesley, White/Caner???) surrounding election, sovereignty, foreknowledge, etc.
• Believers are a bit doctrinally apathetic...well, lets just say ridiculously, sadly, pathetically even, doctrinally apathetic.  So this debate shows that doctrine matters.
  
• Some may be encourage at the majesty of God seen in the Bible through a debate like this.
• I just love debates...I am convinced this is predestined, I just can't help it.
  

Con - Why is this good?

• Here we have major teachers, professors, evangelists, apologists "going at each other" - don't we have enough deceitful philosophies "out there" to deal with rather than putting all this energy into intramurals?
• Could this not just polarize the Calvinist groupies and the Arminian groupies and make a big mess?
• Are there not enough people needing compassion and the gospel that need our attention rather than putting our efforts into such an event?

I find myself a bit ambivalent about this event...What do you think? Is this good?

Dream a New Dream about Sex

This past Thursday night we taught a message with Inversion entitled Dream a New Dream about Sex.  It was a great night.  I owe a great debt to God, His Word, and the book Sex and the Supremacy of Christ for shaping and reshaping my thoughts on this issue.

• The bible study version is found here.
• The MP3 of the message if found here.
  

Highly recommend the Bible on Sex - Justin Taylor's intro to Sex and the Supremacy and Pipers first two chapters are a great roadmap into its depths.

A Sword for Geeks

 

I am sitting here reading Tremper Longman's NICOT commentary on Ecclesiastes with my new favorite toy.  A friend of mine put me onto "flags" to get me out of a habit of abusing books, folding down corners etc.  So I fumbled with Highlighter, pen, and flags as I did some reading.  Well, chalk one up for convergence, as I have found a very cool tool for my reading.  The 3M Highlighter that has a refillable flag resevoir!  Oh yes, flags and yellow ink may now fly furiously together.  

 

To quote Ecclesiasters, "Of the making of many books there is no end."  Yet, thank God I have a tool like this to read some of the good ones out there.  Now I just need a pen/highlighter/flag - with both highlighter and flags refillable...naw, that would make me spoiled.

 

For all the geeks who love their highlighters - in the car, on the bedside table, in the office, and everywhere in between.

 

Favorite Podcasts

Podcasting has really changed my life. Really. I know that sounds cheesy and a bit of an overstatement but I have been greatly encouraged by great audio content over the last several months that I don't feel weird saying that. Driving back and forth to my office and around town to meet with people affords some time in the car. What better time to fill the mind with some edifying stuff...or at least some fun stuff. The more I have listened to good content from podcasts, I have found I listen to thinks like "talk radio" much less often. The stuff on talk radio really can be filled with such vitriol and guile that it bums you out and just can make put you in a funky state of mind. The effect of talk radio (left wing or right wing) on the soul will be saved for perhaps another post.

In all seriousness though, I thought I would share a few of the podcasts that build up my life. For those who are new to podcasts, I'll include an intro at the end of the is post.

Desiring God Radio - This is the radio broadcast of Desiring God Ministries featuring the biblical teaching of John Piper. It comes in 25 minute segments so you can chew reasonable sized bytes (sorry for the pun). The teaching of Piper could be described as theological exposition which aims to provoke the mind and the affections towards God. In short - it just fires me up and points me in a godward direction.

Feed URL:http://rss.salemweb.net/oneplace/ministries/podcasting/356.xml
Click Here to Subscribe Using iTunes

Mars Hill Featured Audio - I listen to this for the Film and Theology discussions as well as the weekly teaching of Mark Driscoll. Driscoll is a bit abrasive for some but I really enjoy his mixture of humor, theologically driven messages, and a nack for communicating to our generation. Current series is entitled Christians Gone Wild: 1 Corinthians. The messages are usually about an hour.

Feed URL:http://feeds.marshillchurch.org/feed/featuredaudio/rss.xml
Click Here to Subscribe Using iTunes

This Week in Tech - This is one of the most popular podcasts out there. This is basically a bunch of techno geeks and tech journalists talking about all things geeky. The show consists of news, commentary, banter, humor and cool stuff coming out in tech world. Being one who has some past education in Computer Science this makes me feel still part of the club. Even though for the most part I am now a wanna be geek. Shows are about an hour each week.

Feed URL:http://leoville.tv/podcasts/twit.xml
Click Here to Subscribe Using iTunes

Stand to Reason  - STR just entered the podcasting world but has quickly picked up a good following. Last week they had climbed to #1 in the religious/spirituality category in the iTunes Podcast directory. The show is a big two hours long and contains the audio from Greg Koukl's weekly call in show. For those interested in discussions of ethics, theology, philosophy, culture and apologetics, add this to your queue.

Feed URL:http://www.str.org/podcast/weekly/rss.xml
Click Here to Subscribe Using iTunes

Now for the newbies. The following was written by my friend Neal Joseph and tweaked by yours truly. I think it is a good overview for non techie people who are new to podcasts.

What Is a Podcast?

A podcast is a subscription format designed to deliver audio or video content directly to your computer. The advantage to podcasting is that you don't need to remember to go back download the newest media from your favorite online source. Once you subscribe to the podcast it will automatically update new content to your reader as it becomes available. The readers are usually free or low cost. The most common podcasts deliver audio files in the MP3 format, syndicated through an RSS (XML) file. Other formats and other types of files, such as video, are increasingly being podcasted. The content is downloaded to your PC, Mac or mobile device. It's not streamed, so you can access the content whenever you want. You may subscribe to podcast feeds by using a Podcast client program. Once it is installed on your local computer, the program will regularly check for and automatically download the new audio content to which you have subscribed. Any computer with audio-playing software can play podcasts. You can also download the mp3 files to any portable mp3 player to take it with you.

Finally, here are the URL's for the Podcasts from Fellowship Bible Church, where I serve:

• For Sunday Morning Messages, use: http://www.fellowshipnashville.org/messages.xml
• For Inversion (this is where my teaching lives), use: http://www.inversionfellowship.org/inversion_podcast.xml

Let me know some of your favorites...though I must admit my car time is just about filled up!

The Great Philosophers on March Madness and Bracketology

What Would They Say About March Madness and Bracketology?

[Updated 3/20/06 : Due to UNC's recent loss to lowly George Mason University (no offense), the illustrations below of the philosophy of the great thinkers lose some force.   However, not being a fair weather fan, I stand by the arguments below.  Though I may have to be an antirealist to hold the one that says Dook sucks...they still look pretty good]

Plato	There is a perfect basketball bracket, but all brackets are but shadows of the form. Though the bracket last year where UNC defeated a powerful Illinois team came very close to the good. I came to this through use of the dialetic with a Dook fan.
Aristotle	Ethically, one can find a a good bracket by approaching the golden mean. One should not just pick all top seeds, or all upset games, but in moderation, you may approach a virtuous good life in March Madness.
Plotinus	The basketball teams all emerge from the world soul and all eminates and flows forth from the one. Do you know what the heck I am talking about?
Augustine	You cannot teach me about basketball brackets using signs and symbols for we all innately know by divine light the truth about basketball.
Boethius	God knows all things from a standpoint of eternity, even though the games must be played in time with players making good shot selections. For we indeed are guilty of taking bad shots.
Anselm	In all knowledge of basketball, I have faith in my team, though my faith is seeking understanding. In fact, I have an a priori proof that UNC is a necessary team. First, would you agree that UNC is That Than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Thought?
Aquinas	One must properly demonstrate from the principles of reason that UNC is the best team. Anselm is a fine boy, but on crack. We have no knowledge in the mind except that which first exists in the senses. Here are five ways (a posteriori) that demonstrate that UNC is the greatest team, by way of observing their effects.
Descartes	Here is how I pick my bracket. I just doubt I can do it...but then, because I am doubting, I know I have the foundation from which to build my picks. I pick, therefore I win!
Pascal	The one who picks Dook and the one who picks UNC both make a wager. But are both choices equal? Say if I choose UNC and they win it all - I have gained everything, say I pick UNC and they are not the greatest, I have had a good pick and still loose nothing. If I pick Dook and I am right, great I win, but don't really know this for I am dead. But if I am wrong - I have lost everything
Hume	Do we really have knowledge of the causes for our bracket choices and the winner of games? We think we do, but we just know this by custom. For it is neither a matter of fact or a relation of ideas.
Kant - Ethically	Categorically, one has the imperative to pick the Tarheels. If one does not, it makes all picking impossible.
Kant - Epistemologically	Concepts without Brackets are Empty. Brackets without Concepts are Blind. So the categories in your basketball mind, structure the reality of your bracket.
Hegel	The thesis that Kentucky is the greatest basketball program is challenged by the antithesis that Dook is the greatest. I think the synthesis that is spawned is the UNC must be the best - we are moving towards an ideal.
Wittgenstein	I don't really think we can talk about brackets and basketball, but you have your own language game, so by all means talk about basketball games.
A. J. Ayer	Mr. Ayer, Dook sucks! Well, Reid your feelings of basketball ethics are meaningless, only statements that are either analytic or empirically verifiable are meaningful. Wait Mr. Ayer, that statement is neither analytic or empirically verifiable. I knew you were wrong...so Dook sucks!
Deridda	Car-olina or Carolin-a. Yeah Jaques, but South Carolina sucks, and there is a difference!
Plantinga	Belief that UNC is the best college basketball team is properly basic in one's noetic structure. As long as one can defeat the defeaters for such a belief one is rationally warranted in holding it. A broader foundation is appropriate in religious epistemology. Joe and Suzy Tarheel are rationally justified to believe that UNC is the best; even without proof. But Reid has developed a dozen or so proofs that many other believers ought to make use of