Monthly Archives: June 2024

Verbal diarya

Posted on 25/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

Over the weekend, I had the notion that it might be worthwhile gathering the posts I did on COVID-related matters during the madness into a small paperback, and getting a few copies privately printed to hand out to friends as a kind of “war diary.” Everyone has their own baneful memories of those times, of course, some of which are slowly starting to heal. But my USP, I thought, might be of historical interest as a doctor who had just completed a book on propaganda and state deception when the business began.

Posted in Politics and sociology | 4 Comments

Falconry and parrotry

Posted on 21/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

I always seem to be picking on Springwatch, whose last programme of the season I watched from a recording yesterday. But the show exemplifies the “we now knowism” of popular science, in which all the uncertainties and frank contradictions are air-brushed away to produce a religious faith in Science™. In this case the subject was birds of prey.

Posted in Science | 1 Comment

She don’t lie, she don’t lie, Cochrane

Posted on 15/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

What started me investigating propaganda and related topics, around nine years ago now, was the strange phenomenon of how public attitudes on sexuality had (ostensibly) been dramatically reversed in just a decade or so, as if by magic. Another decade has shown up many of the mechanisms, such as institutional capture, mass formation and so on. But it still remains strange how it is far easier to sell lies than truth to ordinary people.

Posted in Medicine, Philosophy, Politics and sociology | 6 Comments

Teach your children well

Posted on 13/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

I’ve been considering another unhealthy feature of Charismatic theology, but realised that it largely arises from a wider modern misunderstanding of the whole human condition. And that feature is the prioritisation of unrealistic supernatural expectations in children. In particular, I’m remembering how our kids were taught at a Well Known Bible Week held in Spring. Our bad for acquiescing in it.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Tell me the old, old story

Posted on 10/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

If I look back over the thirteen years of this blog, its various preoccupations might be summed up in the idea of “threats to the Christian faith.” Being a Christian, I might also interpret that as “threats to the human soul” or even as “threats to the well-being of mankind.” Even Richard Dawkins seems to be on board with that last conclusion now!

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Exactly why did the gift of languages cease?

Posted on 04/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

More to the point, why did it start? After all, there is no Old Testament precedent for the gift of tongues, and (unlike the ecstatic glossolalia shared by many groups) it is not a common feature of religion like prophecy, divine healing,or exorcism.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 4 Comments

Trump and the antichrist (sounding the last trump?)

Posted on 02/06/2024 by Jon Garvey

When I wrote my e-book Seeing Through Smoke in 2019, it was because I saw the increasing waves of deception in public life, and the role of propaganda in effecting them. Seeking to tie this into a Christian worldview, I mused (without pretending to be prophetic) that the final deception foretold both by Jesus in the Olivet discourse, and by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, could only realistically envelop the world now that the tools of mass-manipulation have been perfected, and the Internet and social media have made instant communication possible around the globe. At that time, I counted as factors against our days being this climax of history (a) … Continue reading →

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