God Sees from All Perspectives

Epistemology, or the study of knowledge, is an issue that all philosophers tackle at one time or another. How do we know things? Opinions range widely, and rightly so, for each person has his or her own perspective on things. But of course I am getting ahead of myself, applying my own epistemology. Nevertheless, one must admit that if there is a God, he is the only being with complete perspective, the only being with complete knowledge. Or, John Frame:

God knows absolutely everything, because he planned everything, made everything, and determines what happens in the world he made. So we describe him as omniscient. One interesting implication of God’s omniscience is that he not only knows all the facts about himself and the world; he also knows how everything appears from every possible perspective. If there were a fly on my office wall, my typing would look very different to him from the way it looks to me. But God knows, not only everything about my typing, but also how that typing appears to the fly on the wall. Indeed, because God knows hypothetical situations as well as actualities, God knows exhaustively what a fly in that position would experience—if such a fly were present—even if it is not. God’s knowledge, then, is not only omniscient, but omniperspectival. He knows from his own infinite perspective; but that infinite perspective includes a knowledge of all created perspectives, possible and actual.

A Sober Intoxication of Burning for God

Bernard of Clairvaux:

Dearest indeed, who are intoxicated with love, intoxicated indeed, who deserve to be at the wedding feast of the Lord, eating and drinking at his table in his kingdom, when he takes his Church to him in glory, without blemish or wrinkle or any defect. Then he will intoxicate his dearest ones with the torrent of his delight, for in the most passionate and the most chaste embrace of Bridegroom and Bride, the rush of the river makes glad the city of God. I think this is no other than what the son of God, who waits on us and he goes, promised....Here is fullness without disgust, insatiable curiosity that is not restless, an eternal and endless desire that knows no lack, and last, that sober intoxication that does not come from drinking too much, that is no reeking reeking of wine but a burning for God.

Stossel! on Healthcare

Ok, last post on healthcare today...

Our Heathcare is Just Fine, Thanks

Scott Atlas, head of neuroradiology at Stanford U, writing for the Hoover Institute, lists ten reasons why America's healthcare is in better condition than is assumed. Heh:

1. Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the United Kingdom and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.

2. Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. Breast cancer mortality in Canada is 9 percent higher than in the United States, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher, and colon cancer among men is about 10 percent higher.

3. Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries. Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit from statin drugs, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease, are taking them. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons, and 17 percent of Italians receive them.

4. Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians. Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate, and colon cancer:

Nine out of ten middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to fewer than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).

Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a Pap smear, compared to fewer than 90 percent of Canadians.

More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a prostatespecific antigen (PSA) test, compared to fewer than one in six Canadians (16 percent).

Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with fewer than one in twenty Canadians (5 percent).

5. Lower-income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report “excellent” health (11.7 percent) compared to Canadian seniors (5.8 percent). Conversely, white, young Canadian adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower-income Americans to describe their health as “fair or poor.”

Click over for all 10.

Exit question: But isn't the main issue the fact that not all Americans have access to healthcare? Or, isn't it the duty of the people (i.e. the government) to provide healthcare for all?

HT: JG

Psalm 23 or Antipsalm 23?

Which one do you pray? From David Powlison:

Antipslam 23:

I'm on my own.
No one looks out for me or protects me.
I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing's quite right.
I'm always restless. I'm easily frustrated and often disappointed.
It's a jungle — I feel overwhelmed. It's a desert — I'm thirsty.
My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can't fix myself.
I stumble down some dark paths.
Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.
But life's confusing. Why don't things ever really work out?
I'm haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.
I fear the big hurt and final loss.
Death is waiting for me at the end of every road,
but I'd rather not think about that.
I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort.
I'm alone ... facing everything that could hurt me.
Are my friends really friends?
Other people use me for their own ends.
I can't really trust anyone. No one has my back.
No one is really for me — except me.
And I'm so much all about ME, sometimes it's sickening.
I belong to no one except myself.
My cup is never quite full enough. I'm left empty.
Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?
Sartre said, "Hell is other people."
I have to add, "Hell is also myself."
It's a living death,
and then I die.

Or, Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So Many Links (31 July 2009)

Bill and Ted's Excellent Quiz! (I got 5 out of 8)

Peeing on a wall, finally made practical.

"Look, he may be a great president or a lousy one, but when he acts in this way, when he stands above the fray in a patronizing and condescending way, instructing us on the ways of the world, I find him insufferable."

Obligatory camel beauty contest of the day link.

Horton's top five books on Calvin.

Perhaps the Kindle could be used to read music too.

I will buy 7 if it not only replaces Vista, but actually strangles it to death first.

Word of the day: Prestidigitation.

How do I please God?

Idolatry Fail

Or, Isaiah 2:18: "And the idols shall utterly pass away."

HT: AN

Dubious | UPDATE

Update:

When my wife saw this post she said, "Thank you Lord for the juice!"

Making Connections

Steve McCoy writes compassionately and practically about how you can reach out to those around you, how you can make friends with strangers without much work at all. His ideas?

1. Always have church invite cards on hand (to those in my church, we have THOUSANDS that you can get from us).

2. Keep a tennis ball on hand and play "hotbox."

3. Keep extra ______ on hand to give to others.

4. Make sure you have a camera handy.

5. Be courageous.

See the whole thing for descriptions of each. Really good.

Can't Stand the Reformed Community

Matt Chandler:

I'm unapologetically Reformed, but nine times out of ten I cannot stand the Reformed community. I don't want to be around them. I don't want to read their blogs. They can be cannibalistic, self-indulgent, non-missional, and angry. It's silly and sad at the same time. Reformed doctrine should lead to a deep sense of humility and patience with others. How it produces such arrogance baffles me.

HT: OOU