Jim Sgian

Historically, Christianity raised the status of women: "Jesus consistently treated women with respect. Yet unless we know something about the prevailing attitudes in Jesus’s day, we will not understand how revolutionary his behavior really was. Take the account of mothers asking him to bless their children. Today, this strikes us as sentimental, soft-focus Sunday school moment. But to understand how significant Jesus’s action was, you need to know that in ancient Roman culture, children had little value. They were regarded as non-persons. It was considered normal to beat them. Fathers even had the legal right to kill their children for any reason. Abortion was widespread. So was infanticide. Unwanted children were abandoned, left outside to die of exposure or to be devoured by wild animals. In fact, leading thinkers of the ancient world—Plato, Aristotle, Cicero—recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy. The practice of infanticide was so widespread that a pagan writer in the second century remarked that one of the oddest things about Christians was that “they do not destroy their offspring.” It is a general truth that a culture that devalues children also tends to devalue women —because bearing children is women’s unique biological and social contribution. Their capacity for fostering new life is the central fact that makes women biologically and psychologically different from men. Of course, women are more than their biology. (Jesus showed respect for women’s spiritual and intellectual capacities as well, as we will see below.) But it is a historical fact that whether a society respects women’s biological functions has a huge impact on whether it respects women generally. Knowing this cultural background, we’re not so surprised that when the mothers brought their children to Jesus, his disciples wanted to shoo them away. We’re also able to appreciate how significant it was that Jesus scolded the disciples for their callousness: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). Jesus was not only showing kindness to children but also respect to mothers. Their love for their children was deserving of respect. It was a reflection of God’s own character. Jesus also said, “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Mark 10:15). His words were shocking at the time. No one before had set up children as a positive model for adults. Jesus even pronounced some of his strongest condemnations on those who mistreat children: “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). Historian O. M. Bakke, in When Children Became People, says it was Christianity that created our modern concept of children as precious beings worthy of special love and tenderness. And in the process, it also raised the status of mothers, who devote so much of their time and emotional work to bear them, give birth to them, and care for them. The fact that the early church prohibited abortion and infanticide was another reason women flocked to Christianity. Today, people who oppose abortion are accused of being anti-woman. But in the ancient world, women recognized that to be against abortion was to be pro-women. The church’s opposition to abortion and infanticide communicated that Christians cherished the female contribution in bringing new life into the world. They treated women’s uniquely female role and functions with respect." (The Toxic War on Masculinity)

How becoming a father literally activates a man's brain: "In the social sciences, it has long been assumed that motherhood is natural but that fatherhood is merely cultural. Anthropologist Margaret Mead famously wrote, “Motherhood is a biological necessity, but fatherhood is a social invention.” But today that commonplace assumption is being proved wrong. Neuroscientists are uncovering the biological underpinnings of fatherhood. In the first few weeks after a child is born, a father’s biochemistry changes. His level of testosterone goes down, which makes him less aggressive. At the same time, his level of oxytocin rises, which creates a sense of empathy and bonding. The baby’s oxytocin rises as well, so that a biochemical bond is forged between the father and his newborn. Their brains begin to function symbiotically. These benefits accrue, however, only if the father is actively holding and playing with his baby. As one study found, “Infant contact itself seems to modulate endocrine systems and activate neural circuitry in fathers in a manner that is strikingly similar to that in mothers.” In short, becoming a father literally stimulates brain growth. Warren Farrell, author of The Boy Crisis, explains: “When a man becomes a hands-on dad, he activates his ‘dad brain’—a nest of neurons that would otherwise remain dormant.” The discovery of the dad brain has revealed how important it is for workplaces to offer paternity leave. When a father holds his newborn baby, his “dad brain” is activated and the quality of their relationship is stronger for years afterward. In his book All In, journalist Josh Levs says men who take paternity leave “are more deeply involved in their children’s lives for years to come”—and it is well known that kids with involved dads excel in all areas of life, from their personal relationships to academics." (From the Toxic War on Masculinity)

@TABYTCHI Heard it was written by a guy in Springfield who works at a nuclear power plant.

Who cares if Helen of Troy is played by a black chick? It’s an obscure story nobody would even know about without the movie exposure Christopher Nolan gives it. Please stop pretending like they’re ancient poems that outlasted empires, plagues, book burnings, and total cultural resets.

@Lukewearechange @realJennaEllis Duped by the Deep State.

How did we go from fighting the deep state to fighting fellow conservative Republicans?

@WittyEchoes Fine, as long as she hasn’t taken in the indoctrinated nonsense of most academia. Louise Perry or Jennifer Frey type would do splendidly. Know any?

MEN ONLY: Would you date a girl who’s more educated and has a higher degree than you?

250 Twelve score and then a decade more since Hancock flared his name, and half the country’s lost its mind. The other half’s insane. Conceived in Liberty for Life and Happiness pursued - an oligarchy run amuck as criminals collude. Our only hope a Patriotic fervor now reborn, As citizens seek justice and demand a full reform. The Union may be faltering, yet freedom still can rise, If young Americans yet sing the beauty of the skies, And love the land, and see the last great hope we represent, And kick corruption from the land so we can all repent, And heal our nation’s heart and soul and make a brand new day. Two hundred fifty years is young, if we can make a way. @elonmusk

The Non-Brutal Inquisition youtube.com/shorts/iGlyFXh… via @YouTube

Wholesome reading. Wittgenstein and Anscombe were interesting as human beings and not only as thinkers, in part because they embodied the Socratic ideal of philosophy as something that is not a mere profession but ought to transform one’s life.

This is mind ATP Synthase The energy pump that powers every cell in every lifeform on Earth, slowed down by over 1,000x. Without ATP Synthase, life cannot exist. This little nano-machine is made up of a minimum of 8 distinct proteins, all designed perfectly to fit together and operate in a coordinated system that takes in ADP and turns it into ATP, which the cell uses to power metabolic processes. It's designed to only allow certain molecules in & out. Any mistakes, and it could flood the cell with toxic waste in a matter of seconds, killing everything. Each protein building block must fit perfectly together, much like all the pieces inside your phone. Without all the proteins fit & working together from the start, ATP Synthase cannot function, and Life cannot exist. But making things even more complex, ATP Synthase doesn't operate alone. It's located inside the cell membrane, where it actively works with other molecules to ensure the ATP it creates gets to the right place. It's a whole integrated network of energy movement within each cell, without which, Life could not exist. All these pieces must exist together, from the beginning, for Life to be possible. Which means it can't arise piece by piece through evolution - because the very process of evolution requires the whole system. Life requires this system in order to produce the energy it needs to replicate & evolve - but replication & evolution is supposed to have created it. You can't have one without the other. There are no simpler versions - it's literally all or nothing. This is clear evidence of an intelligently designed system. What more evidence do you need?

The Most IMPOSSIBLE Sculpture EVER Created youtu.be/sMMJ4SwdBf8?si… via @YouTube

@MurraySuggests Massie for President!

If you support Thomas Massie, drop a comment below. I’m trying to make sure I’m following every liberty-minded American still standing on principle.

Free the political prisoners in Britain!

Aquinas says the damned had no second chance because the will is fixed after judgment. For angels, the point is even sharper. They do not deliberate the way we do. Human beings move from premise to conclusion, from partial knowledge to fuller knowledge. We change our minds because new considerations are presented to the intellect. Angels are not like that. In ST I, q.63, Aquinas treats angelic sin as the act of a pure intellect. The fallen angels did not sin from ignorance, passion, weakness, or confusion. They saw the relevant order of things in a single intellectual act and chose against God anyway. That is why repentance is not available to them afterward. Not because God is petty. Not because mercy is weak. But because there is no new fact to learn, no cloud of passion to clear, no later discovery that would re-orient the will. The choice was total because the knowledge was total. A fixed intellect makes a fixed will.

Professor Jiang: World War 3 Is About To Begin, Let Me Explain! youtu.be/BTJGr78-zyw?si… via @YouTube

You’re welcome! youtu.be/Hkm88bfZHGs?si…

Papal primacy does not appear in the Middle Ages. It appears in the first three generations after the apostles. Three writers. Three different locations. Three different decades. All treating Rome's authority as an established fact. Clement of Rome wrote to the church in Corinth to correct disorder there. Nobody invited him. No Corinthian council asked Rome to weigh in. He simply wrote with the tone of someone who had standing to do so, and commanded the restoration of deposed presbyters. That assumption of jurisdiction is the evidence. Ignatius of Antioch wrote seven letters on his way to martyrdom. Six of them correct local problems. The letter to Rome corrects nothing. He also singles Rome out with honorific language he uses for no other church, calling her the one that "presides in love" over the rest. That phrase appears nowhere in his other six letters. Irenaeus of Lyon, writing from Gaul against the Gnostics, needed a test for apostolic truth. He chose Rome. Not Jerusalem. Not Antioch. Not Alexandria. Rome, because of what he calls her "more powerful principality" and her unbroken succession from Peter and Paul. Italy. Syria. Gaul. Three different regions of the ancient world. No coordinated project connecting them. Their convergence is independent attestation, not a Roman propaganda campaign. This is not a medieval invention. This is the record of the first post-apostolic generations. The question worth asking: if Rome's primacy was a later power grab, why did three of the earliest writers outside the New Testament treat it as already given?

These tyrannical people are not just evil. They’re wrong in their assumptions. There is nothing wrong with the climate & eating less meat is not necessary at all. Can we please overrun Davos? facebook.com/share/r/1BY6am…

20 million people did not die from COVID. Perhaps 1 million might’ve but we will never know actual figure due to misuse of PCR tests, false positives, and incentives for hospitals getting paid by the number of “Covid deaths” that were actually death from other things. Far more died from the lockdowns, hospital closures, and bad batches of the mRNA death shots they falsely called a vaccine.

The worst part of Covid was that 20 million people died

@profdwh @ok6ixx Would take all the fun out of it, but sure.

@JSgian1 @ok6ixx Or to put it another way: all fiction should come with a good INDEX, just as non-fiction does.

Am I the only one that thinks novels should have a page near the back that lists all the main characters and a brief synopsis so that i am not constantly flipping through pages to figure out who someone is?

@Hero_OfThe_Day The Jussie Smollett’s is OKC’s new nickname.

🚨🚨UPDATE 🚨🚨 It’s finally here!! 20+ minutes of Shai and OKC flopping, falling, and 50/50 calls that all coincidentally went their way, through the first 2 rounds of the 2026 NBA Playoffs. We are finally EXPOSING these paper champs!! 👀🔥🔥