Didactic Mind

Domain Query: The Age of Apostasy

Time for another Domain Query - this time I answer a very interesting question from reader "H" about whether or not there is any hope for apostates. Here is the original question:
Forgive me if this is an annoying question you would rather not answer - I understand if that is the case. If you’re inclined to answer, I wanted to ask what your thoughts are about apostasy and returning to the faith. I was a Christian 10 years ago and said that I no longer believed after believing atheist arguments I read about online. Now, I see that many of those arguments are unsound and I feel like our overly hedonistic culture is empty and I’ve been lied to. I’ve wondered if I can return to Christianity and if God would accept me back... but there is the verse in Hebrews that suggests otherwise and I feel I may be damned and there is no hope. Perhaps you can’t answer whether or not an apostate can return. I wanted to ask a Christian who really seems to follow the Bible, as I have read Christian websites saying that verse in Hebrews is misinterpreted. As you point out on your blog, though, many modern churches and Christians are unbiblical and twist or ignore scripture. I don’t want to lie to myself, and I must accept the consequences of my choices. But do you think an apostate can return to God, or is that not possible? 
I answered this at some length in writing, and decided to address the same issue in spoken form here.

Domain Query: Focus and Discipline

Longtime Reader and FotB Kapios had a couple of interesting and thoughtful questions for me a couple of days ago with respect to GETTIN' SHIT DONE!:
Lately, my mind has been preoccupied by thoughts on boredom. I had my head in a cloud for years about the lie that I have to feel like doing something before doing it or the usual ‘follow your passion’ advice. I’m not about to advocate working for a soul sucking finance job, but finding work or starting a business that has 2-3 exciting aspects about it and another 10 boring tasks that you have to go through is the norm. I have to admit, I just started to make serious abstinence from the vices that you mentioned and I feel better.
I have not fully integrated that belief in my mind yet, so I was wondering what would be your advice on propelling yourself towards a desirable belief and outcome once you start cutting off the anchors that hold you back?
As a general rule isn’t it true that passion is cultivated and not something that you already have, with maybe a few exceptions around the world?
I answer this in the latest Domain Query podcast:.

Domain Query: The missing Arab armies

Commenter Sasha Hrongmitts had a rather interesting follow-up question to my last post about the early history of Islam:
Are you sure the Persian Empire used Arabs as troops against the Byzantines? I could be mistaken, but I thought one of the reasons the Arabs were so successful against the Byzantines was their war manual, the Strategikon, did not have any info on Arab armies.
I don't discount the possibility that the Byzantines simply didn't know how to fight the Arabs, but it's worth asking whether the Arabs had made any significant military impact on the world stage before Islam's rise. The answer is almost certainly "no".
In this Domain Query podcast, I explain why, at least based on what evidence we have today:.

Domain Query: Gen-Screwed

Reader and friend JohnC posted a long series of questions about generational differences between the Baby Boomers, GenXers, Millennial(tard)s, and GenZ in a couple of comments on the Great Mondaydact Browser Buster from earlier this week:
Hey Didact what are thoughts on Gen X bosses? Gen X parenting?
I know many blame the Baby boomers on this and that. I myself am a Gen Y.
I have worked with Silent, Baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and now Z. I find the Baby Boomers would say a lot of crap on things like SJW things but really not mean it. As long as the company is making money.
Gen X on the other hand push health, safety, anti bully and equality far more often in the workplaces and see it more important than money.
I think what you are seeing in the world today in major companies in the USA is the rise of Gen X bosses. I could be wrong, but I don't think many companies are run by Gen Y at this moment in time. I think Gen X now are taking over the companies.
Also parenting, my gosh the anti racism, anti bully campaign and the push for young girls in higher education by the Gen X's is amazing bad. Gen Y are now parenting but we are still at the early stage since many of us did not kids until we were 30s (I still don't have any at this moment in time). I went to school in the 90s and Baby boomers teachers are the type that will say something but don't care to push it hard. Gen X teachers are the type that if they say it they enforce it.
Gen Y are the type that push the ideas to the limits until it fails hard and then move on to other ideas. That is why Gen Y try Veganism, Atheism, women working high careers and voting to the left at a higher rate when they were young compare to Gen X and Baby boomers.
Again I could be wrong.
Also a thought many of the pastors in the US today are Gen X and what do we see. The stupid anti racism and pro rainbow flags.
This is not to hate on the Generation X but to show that things don't get better just because the Baby boomers are retiring. The Baby boomer were and still are bad compare to the generations that come before them. And it is amazing that many of them still think the world owes them.
Now that Gen X is in charge you would think that they would want to reverse some of the damage but instead they push it into high gear.
I also don't believe that Gen Y or Z will do any better when they get into power.
My prediction is that many companies today will over time give up higher positions to women of Gen Y. They (gen Y women in the positions) will then destroy the businesses.
You can not put your faith in the Generations, since they are people.
Also it sad to think that instead of trying to make positive changes now, many are relaying on the younger generations to fix the problems cause by their generations and the older ones. People had given up on Gen Y but i will tell you, Gen Z can not fix it (at least not on their own) and Generation Alpha will not fix it. It will take all generations to make sacrifices and a turn to God.
Like I said - a LOT of questions all strung together. So I answered them at some length. Here is the embedded podcast.

Domain Query: The Jackass and the Cow

Commenter Johnny asked a number of questions on the back of last week's Friday T&A post related to Indians in America. They are mixed in with lots of other stuff, so I'll break them down into simple chunks:
Why are Indians in the West (especially America) so vocally and uniformly left-wing? They vote like 80% or more Democrat, as a high-income group.
Are they resentful about being weak and ugly, and as such, hate White people?
Are Jews encouraging them so as to set Indians up to take the heat once the general collapse of the USA happens?
Why does it make logical sense that Hinduism and Leftism go together very well?
Building on the previous question, why do Indians in America support both loony-Lefitst Democrats AND the current right-wing leader of India? Isn't this a complete self-contradiction?
I endeavour to answer all of these questions, and quite a lot more, in a Domain Query podcast.

Domain Query: A Problem Without a Solution

Reader JohnC911 had another couple of questions for me on the back of my post a while back on the subject of race riots in the USA:
If the US President and/or the American congress ask for your advice on how to solve Race relations?
If Race relations can not fix peacefully or the solution will be too resistant and requiring many long term fixes that the president (or the congress) could not achieve what are some temporary (temporary being for the next 4 to 8 years) fixes that you could come up with?
As is my wont nowadays, I answered this via a Domain Query podcast:.

Domain Query: The Russian Bear

Longtime reader and friend of the blog Kapios posed an interesting set of questions to Monday's browser-crusher:
On another note, do you think the neo tsar has obtained the 'Daddy Putin' status to the Eastern European countries or is this just a front? Sure the countries around Russia are in NATO and they are littered with American military bases, U.N and so on, but Putin seems to have won the culture and religious war. The former communist countries are strengthening their economies, because most of them don't follow the Keynisian economics as closely as the U.S and the Christian Orthodox Church seems to be going strong as well. They have their problems too, with high ranking religious figures being corrupt, but they are not the spotlight of the world and they don't seem too eager to play politics like the Vatican. Maybe these countries are giving Putin a submissive nod given how Western countries corrupt everything they touch.
The West is a sinking ship, so I don't see a reason why they shouldn't side willfully and maybe happily with the Russians.
As is my practice these days, I decided to answer this via a Domain Query podcast.

Domain Query: Sinasian War

Reader JohnC posed a battery of queries to me in response to a video in my Monday browser-crusher:
Hey Didact,
In your opinion what would a war between India and China be like?
Also could a small war between India and China had any benefits?
It is a weird question to ask but in regrading to the surplus of men to women in both countries such thing might help the gender divide. Also wake up the average Indian up to the threats.
I was thinking about after WW2 with the Russians. Yes the country was trashed and a lot of family lost loves ones. Millions die. The gender balance change afterwards has affected the men and women. And the war has psychology affected them. This is one (as well as years of living under a communist system) reason why Russians did not sign up for the immigration crisis like Western Europeans.
You have commented in the past on Indian men and women, Indian military ranks and the Caste system is in part why India is what it is. A war might be force them to rework or change. Though this might require such a disaster to force change.
It's an interesting series of questions. I answered them at length in a Domain Query podcast.

Domain Query: The Indian Blue Pill Beta

Reader MrUNIVAC posed a very interesting question to me in response to one of my comments in a chain from Monday's post, in which I stated that Indian men are generally huge blue-pill Betas and this has a major impact on how they deal with actual problem-solving in the real world:
I always got that vibe just by being around and talking with them, but why is that the case? I think there's a very strong matriarchal bent in their society, but are Indian mothers just that incredibly overbearing?
It's a great question. I answered it in today's Domain Query podcast, which I admit went on for a bit longer than I would have liked, but it's an interesting topic for me:.

Domain Query: Christian Libertoonianism

Reader JohnC911 asked an interesting question in relation to the Scripture that I posted up on Sunday regarding the compatibility of Christianity and libertarianism:
Is it possible for a Christian Libertarian society to exist if they chose to put Jesus as their King? and could it last?
In my view the only reasonable answer to this question is: "Not possible and not for more than about 3 generations, on average".
The first part of that answer has to do with the fundamental incompatibility between the libertarian ethic of individual as sovereign and the Christian ethic of God as sovereign. The second part of that answer has to do with the evidence on hand, which shows that every attempt to setup a Christian republic where people are left more or less free to live their lives in peace, has always ended quite badly, because of the fact that we are a flawed and broken creation.