Recent content by Michael Hatley

Aristotle is great without all the Aquinas :) They had just recently rediscovered Aristotle (via Islamic scholars, ah the irony) and he was bending it to Christianity. I don't mean to sound glib, but to me its a bit like trying to true astrophysics with Revelation, or oceanoagraphy with Moses...

Personally, I do not believe in a Judgement Day. I don't personally believe our decisions are tallied up at the end of our lives and weighed on a scale. That allows me to see Calvin's, Aquinas' and others "compatabilism" as the, well. To be be direct, it paints them into a corner which...

I've been a critic for years, and I agree most heartily with this. They came through. In spades. We've got a lot of work to do to secure this victory. It is almost inevitable that there will be challenges to it. Lets please please focus on successful visitations, education and so forth...

Control myself? Sure. Be distracted? Sure. I've backspaced over several crass jokes, but in shorts, I'd leave :)

I'm Membership Chairman of Arabia Shrine Center here in Houston, Texas so part of a whole bunch of stuff. Patrol (marching), Provost Guard (shotguns), Director's Staff, Golfers....I think I'm forgetting at least one thing. The one I pour the most time into is a new club named YABAN, which...

Faith affirming. I've used the word triumph today, and that is what it is. For all those who worked toward it. For those of us who will enjoy it. For those to come. May we never take it for granted, Brethren.

Thats Pikian for "hippie" Bro :24:

Same here. I am a Scottish Rite Mason, as many here are, and in the southern jurisdiction. Personally, I do not revere Pike as some do. I don't despise him either. He was obviously a brilliant man, but I wish more folks were genuinely interested in primary sources. There is, in one man's...

Shoot, we've got a battle to fight here in Texas in December about table lodges - hope everyone knows that there is a resolution on the table to ban them outright. But that is another story. I think we most certainly should care about the Shrine going its own way. But this is becoming a real...

Yes, I am. Because then, and perhaps only then, you and your Brethren will make a real stand against this. And once you have done I'm all for returning said recognition. Look, I'm for you guys sorting it out - but so far that hasn't been done. Truth is there is no way my suggestion would...

Folks may not like this - but I'll tell you how Masons across the country could work to nip this in the bud. Withdraw recognition for the Grand Lodge of Arkansas. Seriously. You want to talk about forcing them to come to the table and fix this mess? That is how.

Oh I think both, my Brother. I think you do really, really well - you come off as most patient and dignified in my opinion. But a man with as many skydives as you have under your belt? Haha, I'll just say I've been enough to know what it means about you :) :51:

Re: Traditional observance lodges are they good fo Tuxedos are in reality pretty inexpensive. Not all that much more than a couple of good pair of overalls. Anyone can use an iron. And they certainly do lend most any situation a bit of gravitas if carried off right. And sometimes I just...

You know that means that if you use Tennessee rubs or BBQ sauces you now get a rash dontcha? And cooking with some gawdawful wood like hickory or pine or whatever it is those yankees or quasi yankees use? Boils, Brother. Boils. It is either mesquite or nothing!! :30: So hows that...

I've skimmed some of Darwin's original, but by the time I got to him, Freud and the later thinkers I was already fairly happy with a rather "impressionist" view of metaphysics in general. I blame it on the granularity of the early philosophers, then hitting Spinoza, and then wandering to the...