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Posts tagged as “First Things Foundation”

Discerning Truth and Alligator Gallbladders

Discerning Truth and Alligator Gallbladders

By Guest Post on October 26, 2023
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On the hunt for the higher things

by John Heers, First Things Foundation

Let’s take a look at truth. What is true, what is fake? How might these ideas be related to things sacred and things profane? How should we understand these terms as war rages on and human beings plug into all variations of media? And is it even possible for Light People, people of the Enlightenment, to come to grips with truth if in many ways we’ve neutered the sacred? 

Re-reading that introduction just gave me anxiety. Talk about heavy things done heavily. If you are still reading this I love you, and to reward you let’s begin with something odd and interesting. Let’s talk about alligator gallbladders.

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What’s a Human Right, Anyway?

What’s a Human Right, Anyway?

By Guest Post on August 7, 2023
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Or more accurately, what is a human?

by John Heers, First Things Foundation

What is a human right? To answer this question I propose that we investigate first things first. What is a human? 

From the Isle of Mann in the sea between England and Ireland, sometime around the 7th Century AD, we find this story: Human beings are the survivors of the events of Ragnarök, a great war between the gods of the Norse. The two survivors, Lif and Lifthrasir, man and woman, gave birth to humans and it is the goal of these humans to appease and stay in alignment with the victorious gods of the Ragnarök. 

From Nicea, a town in modern-day Turkey, in the year 323 AD, we see this: A human being is by grace, what Christ is by nature. God became man so man can become like God.

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Race: Science or Fiction?

Race: Science or Fiction?

By Guest Post on July 11, 2023
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by John Heers, First Things Foundation

I’ve just returned home from a trip to the Georgian Republic. I went there to visit one of our First Things Foundation field workers. His name is Oswald, a great guy. During my trip I was reminded by a Georgian friend that some of the oldest human remains have been found in Georgia. He told me the Caucuses is the original home of humanity. And that made me think about the word Caucasian, and the word race and all of that wondering has led to this month’s article. Let’s talk about race, shall we?

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Evolution: The Greatest Story Ever Told?

Evolution: The Greatest Story Ever Told?

By Guest Post on April 28, 2023
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How evolution evolved from the minds of men…

by John Heers, First Things Foundation

In this edition of Heavy Things Done Lightly, the plan is to take a walk through history to discover something like antecedents. Where does Darwin’s evolutionary theory come from? Is it a scientific discovery, or is it a philosophical treatise, one many thousands of years in the making?

But first, a look at how clunky the theory of evolution is in this bifurcated world of ours. It’s a good place to start when trying to answer our question.

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Light People, an Obelisk, and The GTI

Light People, an Obelisk, and The GTI

By Guest Post on March 22, 2023
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Why Light People Marriage Must End In Gay Marriage

by John Heers, of First Things Foundation

First, before we dig into some heavy things, did you know that there is something called the Gay Travel Index?

Here’s what this index does: It ranks the world’s nations for friendliness toward gay people. The index is published by The Advocate, an LGBTQ+-friendly magazine. They use certain criteria. Things like same-sex marriage prohibitions give your country a low score. Gay rights enshrined in law, like the right to adopt as same-sex couples, those things create a high score. The best score is a 10. The worst score is -14.

Do you know who scores very, very high on the Gay Travel Index (GTI)?

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The Symbolism of the Supra

The Symbolism of the Supra

By Guest Post on February 17, 2022
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by Daniel Padrnos

The Supra is essentially a banquet feast in which the tamada, the toast master, leads the table through various themes by speaking words in the form of poetic toasts. The nature of the toasts, the food, and the embedded rituals of the Supra deeply reflect the ethos of Orthodox Christianity, the religion adopted by the nation in the 4th century. It is said that the Supra emerged from the ancient Agape feast, the early church tradition commemorating the Last Supper shared by Christ and his disciples.2 The Supra did not supplant the fundamental Christian ritual of the Divine Liturgy but should rather be understood as an overflowing of sacred liturgical life into the world. Therefore it is no coincidence that the traditional cosmic symbolism of Genesis permeates the Supra, and hence Georgian culture, even today. Like many traditional rituals, the Supra is a way for participants to be united in community, cultivate awareness of cosmic forces, partake in the beauty and wonder of the universe and recognize when created things fall out of line with their ultimate spiritual ends.

This essay will explore the cosmic symbolism of the Supra, using Matthieu Pageau’s commentary on the traditional cosmology of Genesis, The Language of Creation as a guide.

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Give Me Your Germs

Give Me Your Germs

By Guest Post on January 21, 2022
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by Kevin Cullen

Entering into a country isn’t as straightforward as presenting a border agent with your passport (and these days—a PCR test) and traipsing through customs at the airport. That process, the physical act of crossing a border, is merely a shadow of another, more profound crossing that happens on some other less tangible plane of reality.

What does it really mean then to enter into a country? The surface-dwelling visitor (i.e. the tourist) is content to know the physical geography of a place; its ski slopes and hiking trails, its coastlines, beaches and museums. But authentic immersion requires somehow penetrating to a more subterranean, treacherous strata of national topography and attractions; that of a nation’s collective unconscious. It means charting the peaks and valleys of a nation’s neuroses, its hinterlands of domestic ecstasies, its marshlands of child-eyed dreams and despair. It means finding that basement bar hidden beneath the basement bar, where its ancient epics and folklore and ballads are secretly brewed.

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