Christianity

2007-03-12T19:53:11Z

John Birch: /* Controversy */

'''Christianity''' is a [[religion]] that follows the teachings of [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]], as described in the books of the [[New Testament]]. It is currently the world's largest religion, with over two billion members. Some forms of Christianity posits that anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as their personal lord an savior will end up in hell. This means that at least two-thirds of the people alive today will go to hell.<ref>http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html</ref> Other forms say that [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] is the ultimate judge of who goes to Heaven or Hell.<ref>http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/second-coming-of-christ.htm</ref>

== Beliefs ==
Christians believe that [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] died for their sins and rose from the dead three days after dying. Because of this Christians believe that they must be "born again" spiritually by confessing their sins, taking [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] as their personal lord and savior, and trying not to sin again.

Not all Christians and Christian denominations share the same set of beliefs. According to a Harris poll from 2003 <ref>http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=359</ref> 99% of all American Christians believe in God, 96% in the resurrection of [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]], 93% in [[Heaven| Heaven]], 93% in the [[Virgin Birth|virgin birth]], 92% in survival of the soul after death, 82% in [[Hell|Hell]], 50% in [[Ghosts|ghosts]], 27% in [[Astrology|Astrology]] and 21% in [[Reincarnation|reincarnation]]. Note, that the latter two beliefs are in opposition to the religous dogma of many Christian [[Christian denominations|denominations]].

== Controversy ==
Some Christians, mostly fundamentalist Christians believe that [[abortion]], [[homosexuality]], sex out of marriage, and the theory of evolution are wrong. This has caused political problems. It should be noted that fundamentalist Christians are a minority, but rapidly growing community. In recent years, Christianity has experienced a move towards more traditional interpretations of the Holy Scripture with an emphasis on purifying religious study and thought. Prominent exponents of secular humanism, moral relativism, and logical humanitarianism have tended to unjustly characterize Christianity's stance on the immorality of sodomy, Onanism, female suffrage, slavery abolitionism, organic farming, and other Neo-Leftist institutions as an intractable and prejudicial position. Mainstream Christians counter that such views are historically valid and do not reflect the depth of Christian scholarship on the tenets in question.

== See also ==

*[[Catholic Church]] (the original Christian Church)
*[[Roman Catholic Church]] (Western branch of the Catholic Church)
*[[Orthodox Church]] (Eastern branch of the Catholic Church)
*[[Christian apologetics]] (Defenses of Christianity)
*[[Conservative Christianity]]
*[[Liberal Christianity]]
*[[Judaism]]
*[[Islam]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Religion]]

Objectivism

2007-03-12T19:13:32Z

John Birch: /* Esthetics */

[[Objectivism]] ([[Latin]] ''ob-'' out of and ''iacio'' I am throwing, and [[Greek]] '''-ισμος''' or ''-ismos'' the doing of a thing) is a school of [[philosophy]] that holds that things in the natural world exist independently of anyone's perception of them or efforts (or lack of effort) to understand them. Objectivism ''also'' holds that ''nothing'' is provably real that one cannot ''demonstrate'' independently of one person's percept of it.

== History of Objectivism ==
Objectivism as a formal discipline began with [[Ayn Rand]], a [[Russia|Russian]]-born émigrée to the [[United States]]. Rand had no formal training in philosophy, but in her work showed more than a passing familiarity with the great philosophers of ancient Western civilization. The only ancient philosopher for whom she had any respect at all was [[Aristotle]].

By far the most complete expression of Objectivism in a single volume is in her novel, ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''. However, her philosophy found expression in innumerable essays, which she published in a number of newsletters and magazines that she edited from time to time: ''The Objectivist Newsletter'', ''The Objectivist'', and ''The Ayn Rand Letter.''

Since her death in 1982, other students of hers, most notably [[Leonard Peikoff]], have tried to carry on her work. Whether they have enjoyed any success is a debatable question. For better or worse, the history of Objectivism is largely the history of Ayn Rand herself, and by the time she died, the name ''Objectivism'' was known chiefly to her admirers and to readers of her works.

== The Fundamental Tenets of Objectivism ==
Objectivism attempts to be a "unified theory of everything worth thinking about." As such it addresses prominent issues in [[metaphysics]], [[epistemology]], [[ethics]], [[Political philosophy|politics]], and [[esthetics]].

=== The Central Axiom and its Corollaries ===
Objectivism starts with a simple [[axiom]]: ''existence exists.'' To grasp that axiom is to realize two other, corollary axioms:

# Something exists that someone perceives.
# Someone exists who possesses ''consciousness'', which is the faculty of perceiving what exists.

=== Metaphysical Axioms and Theorems ===
Objectivism continues with a number of other corollaries:

# A is A. This is also known as the Law of Identity and suggests a similar law in [[formal logic]]. But more than that, the Law of Identity holds that A has certain properties, or ''attributes'', that distinguish it incontrovertibly from B or C. If a thing has no attributes, then it is a nonentity--it does not and cannot exist.
# Consciousness exists--the Law of Consciousness. But consciousness implies something independent of consciousness. What one perceives, one does not invent--and furthermore, a thing exists whether one perceives it or not.

From these axioms, several [[theorem]]s necessarily follow, among them the Law of Non-Contradiction. Aristotle stated it thus: "the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject in the same respect." Objectivism states it more simply: ''contradictions do not exist.'' Therefore, if one encounters a contradiction, one should check the assumptions he has made, because at least one of them is false.

=== Epistemology ===
[[Epistemology]] (from [[Greek]] words roughly meaning "the word stands on something") deals with what a human being knows and how he knows it. Objectivism states that perception is only the beginning. Perception is sensation extended over time, and perception becomes knowledge only through ''measurement.'' On the other hand, one forms a ''concept'' of something by developing a list of attributes ''without'' the measurements of them. Apply the measurements, and instead of a concept one has an object that fits the concept.

One important result of pure Objectivism is that what one cannot perceive, one cannot know--and what no one has perceived, no one need admit the existence of. Indeed, [[Nathaniel Branden|Branden]] observed that Objectivism teaches that <blockquote>(A)ny form of irrationalism, supernaturalism, or mysticism, (and) any claim to a nonsensory, nonrational form of knowledge, is to be rejected.</blockquote>

This includes [[God]], a Concept that almost no Objectivist has ever accepted. This might be Objectivism's greatest weakness: that it will not admit that which one cannot perceive directly, but which has affected ''something else'' that one perceives, and that in a measurable way.

=== Ethics ===
[[Ethics]] is about values. What is value? From ''Atlas Shrugged'':<blockquote>"Value" is what one acts to gain and/or keep; "virtue" is how one acts to gain or keep it.</blockquote>

The central contribution of Objectivism to ethics is the definition of morality. Again from ''Atlas Shrugged'':<blockquote>"Value" presupposes an answer to the question, "Of value to whom, and to what?" "Value" presupposes a ''standard''...A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.</blockquote>

Objectivism then declares that the only moral code proper to man has ''man's life'' as its standard of value. Rand, Peikoff, and other students of Objectivism have always drawn a stark contrast between this standard and the standard of those they regarded as their opponents: "the greatest good for the greatest number."

But this does not mean that Objectivism extols what most people mean by ''selfishness''. Objectivism regards that sort of "selfishness" as shortsighted and non-rational. Objectivism requires that a person ''choose'' to be rational in his thinking, and should work to enhance his self-interest ''after determining what that interest is after rational and logical analysis.''

Objectivism makes at least two definitions that non-adherents might find harsh and symptomatic of [[Logical fallacy#Overgeneralization|overgeneralization]]:

# "Sacrifice" is the giving away of a greater value in favor of a lesser value or a non-value.
# "Altruism" is sacrifice, as defined above, for the sake of persons other than oneself.

Actually, what Objectivism calls ''sacrifice'', other schools of philosophy call ''waste''. Sacrifice, according to these other schools, is actually the giving of a great value for another, still greater value. Furthermore, the definition of ''altruism'' implies that no man should be obliged, let alone forced, to care or act for the sake of other people.

Indeed, in only one context does Objectivism itself lay any obligation on its adherents to act for the sake of another, and that is in an ''emergency''--which Objectivism defines as an immediate life-threatening casualty event or condition.

Rand, Peikoff, and other adherents to Objectivism held that their greatest objection was to the use of force in social relationships. This leads directly to the Objectivist theory of politics.

=== Politics ===
[[Political philosophy|Politics]] (from the [[Greek]] '''πολις''' a city, from the organization of [[Greece|Greek]] civilization around independent city-states) is the philosophy of [[government]]--the need for it, its proper sphere, and the obligations of its subjects. The central axiom of Objectivist politics is that<blockquote>Force is permissible ''only'' in retaliation and ''only'' against those who initiate its use.</blockquote>

This is the Law of Retaliation, or ''Lex talionis'' in [[Latin]].

Thus a government ought not compel charity--and in this context, ''compulsion'' is the application of force to induce another person toward an action he might not otherwise take. Nor should the government compel anyone to associate with those with whom he would prefer not to associate. Freedom of association is very important in Objectivist politics.

Objectivism holds that an individual has a fundamental right to life--but this "right to life" means the right to live one's life as his self-interest dictates, not the right to expect someone else either to protect his life or to guarantee his survival.

From these principles, the only economic system with which Objectivism has any sympathy is [[capitalism]], with its emphasis on the rights of the individual. Objectivism rejects the [[welfare state]] as an improper exercise of the government's police power. (But Objectivism also would object strenuously to the body of special tax incentives and other legal provisions and regulations often called "[[corporate welfare]]." Objectivism holds that every individual, and by extension every business, must stand or fall on his, her, or its own merits.)

However, Objectivism also holds that the government ought to reserve to itself a [[monopoly]] on the exercise of force, when necessary, in retaliation against the initiators of force. As a repeated theme in Rand's novels and essays, a government ought to confine itself to three major functions:

# The police power--to protect against criminals.
# The military power--to protect against invasion from without.
# The judicial power--to protect contracts from breach or fraud, and to provide a forum for the settlement of disputes without resort to force.

From the above, one may conclude that Objectivism rejects the [[code duello]] as an improper feature of society, and even as an attribute of [[anarchy]]. In fact, Rand herself specifically stated that government must be a [[monopoly]], because any "competitive [[economy]]" of government would inevitably lead to a state not much different from gang warfare.

However, Rand herself advocated many things the support for which, from a strict read of Objectivism, is doubtful. She repeatedly stated, in a number of essays and in at least one magazine interview, that <blockquote>Just as the [[United States]] had the right to invade [[Nazi]] [[Germany]], so the United States has the right to invade [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Russia]] or any other slave pen.</blockquote> She justified this aggressive foreign policy stance by drawing up a set of four evil policies that, if any country engaged in all of the same, would make it liable for invasion by a society that did not do these things:

# Execution without a proper, fair trial
# Detention without charge
# Denial of the right of dissatisfied subjects to emigrate
# Censorship

By "censorship" Rand meant not only restrictions on political speech, but in fact any restriction on any form of artistic expression--even on forms of expression that she explicitly despised and suggested that any rational being would despise.

By her theory, then, if people were at least free to leave a society that executed people without trial, then if they did not leave, no country ought to be obliged to relieve their suffering by invasion. But if they ''could not'' leave, then their country would be liable for invasion, because they could not rationally help themselves. The freedom of emigration follows from the freedom of association--and the obligation, such as it was, of other nation-states and their militaries to come to such people's aid follows from the Objectivist ethic of emergencies, defined above.

Of course, any country that invades or otherwise attacks another, either directly or through surrogates, lays itself open to a counterinvasion by the country so attacked. This follows from the principle of the Law of Retaliation defined above.

=== Esthetics ===
[[Art]], according to Objectivism, serves a need to allow man to ''perceive'' directly that which normally he can only ''conceive''. Art, in short, makes things real. An [[artist]] is any person who presents abstract concepts in concrete ways.

Objectivism's take on art is simple: art should uplift, and present uplifting things. The favorite school of art among students of Objectivism is [[Romantic realism]], the name that Rand gave to a school of art that emphasizes human reason and ideals and primarily portrays people striving to do great deeds, rather than suffering great disasters--in short, being ''proactive'' rather than ''reactive''. Good art, in other words, celebrates that which Objectivism itself celebrates: the ideal rational man.

Certain forms of expression receive nothing but scorn from adherents of Objectivism. One is [[pornography]], which Rand herself said was "unspeakably disgusting," and <blockquote>not because [[sex]] is bad, but precisely because it is ''good''--too good, and too important, to be the subject of a public ''anatomical'' display.</blockquote> Rand was known to abstain from sexual relationships, believing the value of intercourse in the free market markedly increased as the effective supply was reduced. Since submission to another's advances was considered tantamount to slavery, Rand advocated the practice of mutual rape, redefining the term with a benevolent and unabashedly empowering connotation.

Another form of art which Rand disdained was that which emphasized emotion over reason, and especially anything that divorced emotion from reason. Similarly, Objectivism decries any form of art that shows human beings being reactive and slaves to emotion.

== Controversies ==
[[Nathaniel Branden]], Rand's closest-ever associate and confidant, set forth in 1984 a number of defects in Objectivist philosophy, or at least Rand's theory and practice of it:

# A tendency to confuse "reason" with "the reasonable," essentially a problem in informal logic.
# The encouragement of its students to repress all emotion as somehow unworthy, all in the name of being proactive rather than reactive.
# A tendency toward "moralizing," or condemning others for not adhering to a strict emotional discipline.
# The [[Logical fallacy#Conflation|conflation]] of "sacrifice" with benevolence.
# Emphasizing philosophical premises to an unhealthy degree, leading to an often unwarranted judgment of ''character'' by the criterion of ''belief''.
# A dogmatic, inflexible approach to philosophy and its various disciplines, leading to the inability to forgive a mistake in philosophical formulation or application.

In this last context, Branden specifically decried Rand's conclusion that "no woman should aspire to be [[President]] of the [[United States]]." Rand did say that, and her justification of that stance flowed directly, oddly enough, from her theory of [[sex]].

(In this context, Rand had no patience with the proponents and practitioners of [[feminism]] that were contemporary to her. She once said of them, with questionable justice, that they complained about the sexual objectification of women, when those who complained the loudest were "clearly in no such danger." Yet on the other hand, she regarded homemakers as "uninteresting women," and then suggested that some of them were "[[monster]]s" for advocating, for example, the prohibition of [[abortion]] and restrictions on [[contraception]].)

Rand's surviving friends tend to dismiss Branden's criticism as [[Logical fallacy#Argumentum ad hominem|argumentum ad hominem]] (or perhaps more accurately, ''argumentum ad feminam'') arising out of the rather brutal break-up of Rand and Branden's eighteen-year association. But those arguments tend to commit the same [[logical fallacy]] whereof they accuse Branden. Branden's wife [[Barbara Branden|Barbara]] presents perhaps the most balanced treatment of the Rand-Branden Affair and the ensuing controversy.

Objectivism's unabashed advocacy of capitalism often led to repeated charges that Objectivism was the ally of "big business." (In fact, on the occasion of a 1980 political demonstration called "Big Business Day," ''The Objectivist Forum'' commented quite wryly on the irony of the spectacle of hundreds of anti-business conventioneers using the services of "big business" to attend an event intended to advocate increased regulation of the largest corporations merely because they ''were'' large.) But Branden said quite clearly that the executives of large business companies ''were not'' friendly to Objectivism, because Objectivism advocates a market completely free not only of onerous taxes but also of the myriad special protections that some businesses tended to win from [[Congress]] against their competitors.

Rand has not excited much enduring controversy, mainly because those who do not hold to her philosophy, or to the political theory that flows from it, have generally preferred to ignore her. One important exception was the famous (some say infamous) review of Rand's ''magnum opus'', ''Atlas Shrugged'', by [[Whittaker Chambers]]. Chambers "panned" this novel severely and charged that Rand, and by extension Objectivism ''per se'', owes more to the harsh, "conquering-man" philosophy of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] than to Aristotle. He also charged that Rand, in her relentless attack upon the [[Communism|Communist]] philosophy of [[Karl Marx]], had almost become that which she professed to despise. Specifically, he suggested that while Marx advocated a [[Socialism|socializing]] elite, Rand advocated a technocratic one, to which all less technically adept men must bow. Chambers' objections mirror those of Branden to the "moralizing" and dogmatic tone of much of Rand's material, in both that novel and her later essays.

== Can Objectivism develop further? ==
This question is [[Can Objectivism develop beyond Ayn Rand's original formulation?|debatable]]. Many students of Objectivism are not likely to admit that Ayn Rand's original system had any flaws. Branden, of course, asserted that Objectivism ''was'' flawed, but was not prepared to reject it entirely. He still found its emphasis on logic and of an independent reality important and beneficial.

Objectivism's chief limitation appears to be the unwillingness of its adherents and formulators to consider that anything might exist ''outside'' of perceptual reality, that might nevertheless influence that reality. This either led to, or followed from, the [[atheism]] that is one of this school's most prominent attributes. Branden reports one interesting interaction, however: Rand was not willing to accept the theory of [[evolution]] as more than an hypothesis. She couldn't accept [[Creationism|creation]], but evolution discomfited her nevertheless--perhaps because it blurred the distinction between man and animal.

== References ==
* [[Barbara Branden|Branden, Barbara]]. ''The Passion of Ayn Rand''. New York: Anchor Publishers, [[1987]], 464 pages, paperback. ISBN 038524388X
* [[Ayn Rand|Rand, Ayn]]. ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''. New York: Random House Publishers, [[1957]], 1168 pages, cloth. ISBN 0394415760
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_%28Ayn_Rand%29 Objectivism] by [[Wikipedia]]
* [[Nathaniel Branden|Branden, Nathaniel]]. [http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/articles_essays/benefits_and_hazards.html The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand]. Association for Humanistic Psychology, [[1984]].
* [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers, Whittaker]]. [http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback200501050715.asp Big Sister Is Watching You]. ''[[National Review]]'', [[December 28]], [[1957]]. Republished on [http://www.nationalreview.com/ National Review Online], [[January 5]], [[2005]].

== See Also ==
* [http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/ The Objectivism Wiki]
* [[Logic]]

[[Category:Philosophy]]

Ayn Rand

2007-03-12T18:50:38Z

John Birch:

'''Ayn Rand''' (1905-1982) was a Russian-born philosopher, screenwriter, and novelist, who used her novels to promote her philosophy, known as [[Objectivism]]. Her best-known novels are ''Atlas Shrugged'' and ''The Fountainhead.'' Although her philosophy differs in many respects from [[Libertarianism]], it also emphasized invidual freedom, and her novels, particularly ''Atlas Shrugged,'' contain lectures that are considered touchstones for libertarian thinking.

While criticized for presenting misogynistic and homophobic themes in her writing, most historians now applaud Rand for depicting American values triumphing over the misguided philanthropy of the earlier twentieth century. Similarly, her works have been faulted for their ostensibly turgid and didactic style and minimalistic character development, but such claims have been rightly discounted by contemporary reviewers, as Rand's approach to literature became widely popular for its astute depiction of the writer's struggle to overcome psychological turmoil and mental limitations.

[[Category:Biographies]]

Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Christianity

Objectivism

Ayn Rand