Sunday Nights Radio is a change of pace. Tonight we’re going to see how the expert Newton was proved wrong by John Harrison, a mere carpenter. We’ll about optimism, generational families who passed the torch that defies the idea that we are just a bunch of neurons and DNA. And as always, some good music.
Forgotten Havens for Families
The Enlightenment Freed Us and Perhaps Removed Our Connection With the Transcendent
There is speculation that Francis Bacon is the “Prince Tudor” and is the son of Edward de Vere and Elizabeth.
https://www.fbrt.org.uk/bacon/royal-birth/
Francis Bacon’s intellectual prowess was so respected, and his political philosophies so similar to the themes of William Shakespeare that is has been theorized that he is the author of Shakespeare’s work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baconian_theory_of_Shakespeare_authorship
Even mainstream Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard Furness, wrote that “Had the plays come down to us anonymously – had the labour of discovering the author been imposed upon future generations – we could have found no one of that day but Francis Bacon to whom to assign the crown. In this case it would have been resting now upon his head by almost common consent
In fact Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a tale of sailors blown of course to a far away island to the west bears striking similarities for Bacon’s famous unfinished work The New Atlantis.
Francis Bacon’s God
…contends that Bacon is responsible for transmuting Christian hope for spiritual salvation into a secular dream of material comfort and argues that the Christianity of Bensalem is actually a “fundamental assault upon, transformation of and ultimate displacement of Christianity.” Denise Albanese asserts that Bensalemite Christianity “first serves as yet another instance of reverse colonialism, with the natives’ conversion already an accomplished fact” and as the “code for an intellectual imperialism.”
Bacon uses this primordial history to portray a golden age that has been virtually lost from memory; as a result, humanity has been left with a truncated account of its past achievements. Bacon refers to an ancient wisdom that has been lost and replaced by impotent, inferior philosophies. Yet the purpose of the Platonic myth in “New Atlantis” is to instill hope that this knowledge can be recovered and the state of civilizational excellence restored.
Bacon was a transformer, without a doubt. Some say he cleverly used Biblical themes in New Atlantis to plant themes of the enlightenment and removed God from his position of primacy. The the main city of the New Atlantis was Bensalem, which translate to Son of Peace or Son of Submission. Note that 40 days the period of time the characters remain in Salomon’s Stranger House in Bacon’s New Atlantis. 40 is indeed very Biblical.
- Sailors can stay 40 days in Stranger House. 40 Days is clearly a Biblical reference, and is generally a journey or a period of transformation. Many times a tribulation.
- Noah
- Moses
- Jesus – exile in the desert with temptation by Satan, time to teach disciples.
There are many indications that Bacon was deeply religious and believed that a covenant with God should be entered, and that transformation would create a nation guided by God. There is an interesting twist here, one that is grounded in Reformation reform: the New Atlantis is the result of direct dispensation from God, for all inhabitants, and the failed understanding of past religious interpretation is set aside for a new relationship with God.
Locke and Hume were central to forming the school of thought called Empiricism. Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge can only (primarily) come from sensory experience. This meant that all knowledge and wisdom came from observation first. For Locke, the individual was of the utmost importance, as the Creator granted him the ability to use his reason to derive knowledge and wisdom from what he observed. We are born as a clean slate. For Hume, there was a very different outcome. Hume maintained there was no proof for God, that only what you could observe and verify is valid source of knowledge, all is unknowable because it is cannot be proved.
Critics of The Enlightenment Say Empiricism Disconnected us From God
Empiricism gives rise to Materialism; that is, all the exists in the World is the material, the tangible. According to Nietzsche, Christians seek the truth with Empiricism, and in the end they fall into Nihilism once they accepts Hume’s ideas.
But They Forget That Natural Law Also Comes from the Enlightenment
Without Natural Law where The Creator gave each of us qualities that were unique and our self evident, inalienable rights, we would not have had Jefferson and the birth of our nation.
We feel that Natural Law and Conscious Control where you engage in the real work, where you start with observations and use your reason is the answer to Severed Conscience. Severed Conscience is the opposite, you can’t even use your mind to observe. Artificial Intelligence, essentially a tool that has no ability to reason, shuts down your thinking.
Transhumanism – An Ugly Cousin to Artificial Intelligence
Because everything is merely material, the elite think they can copy your mind digitally. In other words, digital recordings are the equivalent of your conscience. But they will also tell you that your soul doesn’t exist, that you are just a random assemblage of matter, and by chance, we have evolved to speak. There is no real consciousnesses, but they can copy your conscience and therefore you will live forever.
transhumanism, philosophical and scientific movement that advocates the use of current and emerging technologies—such as genetic engineering, cryonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and nanotechnology—to augment human capabilities and improve the human condition. Transhumanists envision a future in which the responsible application of such technologies enables humans to slow, reverse, or eliminate the aging process, to achieve corresponding increases in human life spans, and to enhance human cognitive and sensory capacities. The movement proposes that humans with augmented capabilities will evolve into an enhanced species that transcends humanity—the “posthuman.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/transhumanism
Sounds impressive until you see how absurd it is.
A Different Point Of View
A mere carpenter proved The Great Newton to be wrong about how to improve navigation.
The sources highlight John Harrison’s H4 clock as “One of History’s Greatest Inventions”. This invention is deeply embedded in the larger context of Harrison’s significant achievements in solving the notorious “longitude problem”.
Harrison’s achievements, culminating in the H4, addressed a critical challenge for seafaring in the 1700s:
Isaac Newton did not believe that John Harrison had fully solved the navigation issue with his maritime clock early on. Newton expressed skepticism about the feasibility of making a watch that could keep accurate time at sea due to challenges such as the motion of the ship, temperature variation, humidity, and changes in gravity in different latitudes. Newton stated at a committee meeting in 1714 that such a watch had not yet been made. He thought that methods relying on astronomy, such as observing the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites or the position of the Moon, were more likely candidates but also had practical limitations at sea. This was before Harrison developed his successful marine chronometer designs.