Here’s something I haven’t seen before: a Nigerian e-mail spam taking me to task for being so foolish as to trust in Nigerian e-mail spam:

Attn:

Sometimes, I do wonder if you are really, really with your senses. How Could you
keep trusting people and at the end you will loose your hard Earned money, or
are you being deceived by their big names? They Impersonate on many offices,
claiming to be Governors, Directors/Chairmen or one position in an organisation
of one Office or the other. Their game plan is only just to extort your hard Earned
money.
Now, the question is how long you will continue to be Deceived? Sometimes, they
will issue you fake cheque, introduce you to fake Diplomatic delivery, un-existing
on-line banking and they will also fake wire transfer of Your fund with Payment Stop
Order and even send you fake atm cards etc.

Anyway, by the virtue of my position I have been following this transaction from
inception and all your efforts towards realizing the Fund. More often than not,
I sit down and laugh at your ignorance and That of those who claim they are
assisting you, it is very unfortunate that at the end you loose. Although, I
don’t blame you because you are not here in Nigeria to witness the processing of
your payment in Nigeria.The problem you are having is that you been told the
whole truth About this transaction and it is because of this truth they decided
to be extorting your money. The most annoying part is even fraudsters have
really taken advantage of this opportunity to enrich themselves at your
expense. Those you feel are assisting or working for you are Your main
problems.

I know the truth surrounding this payment and i will prove to you and you will
later testify to people that truly good people still exist even in the midst of
gullible ones. Repose your confidence in me and give me your trust and see if i will
fail you, I am The only person who will deliver you from this long suffering
if you will abide by my advice and follow the instructions.

I also know that recently you have been dealing with people claiming to be the
EFCC. They claim that they are helping you and you forward all the fraudulent
e-mails you received to them. At the end they do nothing about the fraudsters.
Soon they will ask you to pay money to receive a compensation of $1,500,000. Do
not pay any money to them because they are only interested in your hard earned
money and you will never receive any compensation in return, they will always
keep coming back to ask for more money.

Please I beseech you to stop pursuit of shadows and being deceived.Feel free to
contact me immediately you receive this mail so that I can Explain to you the
modus-operandi guiding the release of your Payment. Do not panic, be rest
assured that this arrangement will be Guided by your Embassy here in Nigeria.

N/B: You are urgently requested to provide me with the following information
for me to establish the truth about your fund.

Full Name:

Address:

Age:

Telephone Number:

Occupation:

Contact me upon the receipt of this mail if you wish to receive your fund and
stop wasting your hard earn money.

Thanks and remain blessed.

Yours faithfully,

I’ve just started reading Etienne Gilson’s The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, a thick book based on a series of Gifford Lectures he gave around the 1930’s. I usually have trouble writing about this kind of book, because there are so many ideas in it; and by the time I get to the end I’m so tired and so unable to summarize the mass of them that I don’t usually say much more than, “Oh, I liked this one,” or “Oh, I was disappointed.” That is, if I say anything at all. But my previous posts of philosophy have been reasonably popular, and so I hate to say nothing.

Consequently, I’m going to say something about the two chapters I’ve read. That way, I’ve said something, even if I say nothing else. (And by the time I’m done, perhaps the coffee will have kicked in, and I can get on with working on the novel.)

One of Gilson’s big topics was the notion of “Christian Philosophy”; and at the time he gave the lectures he was swimming against the tide, for most people thought that there was no such thing. The argument against “Christian Philosophy” is fairly simple:

• If you’re dealing with truths that can only be known by divine revelation, then you aren’t doing philosophy (even if you’re using the methods of philosophy); rather, you’re doing theology.
• If you’re dealing with truths that can be known by pure reason, then these truths are accessible to anyone, and hence aren’t specifically Christian (except in the sense that, God being Truth, all truths are Christian).

This argument presumes that truths are divided into two distinct, non-overlapping categories: truths known by divine revelation, and truths known by pure reason. Theology deals with the first, philosophy with the second.

Gilson’s counter-argument is also simple: these categories overlap. There are truths that God has made known by divine revelation that can also be known by pure reason. St. Thomas Aquinas says that God has revealed many truths needed for salvation that can also be known by philosophical methods, because relatively few men have the time to do the philosophical work needed to discover them, and because men are inclined to make mistakes.

Because of this overlap, the Christian Philosopher is inspired to seek the rational foundation for revealed truths, and so comes to understand the purely philosophical in a deeper way. For example, says Gilson, Aristotle understood the Unmoved Mover as Truth but not as Being itself; that was a truth revealed by God, who told Moses “I Am”. But if the Unmoved Mover is Being itself, then all other being flows from it; we have a Creator. From this comes St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument, and St. Thomas’ Five Ways. These are truths accessible to reason, but which reason did not attain until Christianity pointed the way.

Go to Google Maps today; and click on Quest Mode in the upper right corner for the complete 8-bit RPG experience.

(No, really. I imagine they put this up for April Fool’s Day, but it really works.)

A couple of days ago, Lars Walker reviewed Bullet for a Start, a light hard-boiled detective novel (if that makes sense) by Stuart M. Kaminsky. I was looking for books to read yesterday, and it sounded light and entertaining, and for the most part it was.

The book is set in the 1940’s; the protagonist is one Toby Peters, a small-time PI who used to be a security guard at the Warner Brothers studio. He’s called in to investigate a blackmail attempt against Error Flynn, and along the way runs into Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and others. Oh, and he gets beat up repeatedly.

This is the first in a series of novels first published in the 1970’s, and in the usual way of things (according to Lars) Toby isn’t quite himself yet.

If this sounds at all interesting, you should go take a look at Lars’ post; I don’t see any point in repeating his perfectly accurate review.

I love the sound of jackhammers in the morning. It smells like…masonry!

OK, this is silly. (H/T Brandon)

From my quote journal:

Charles Williams, in his analysis of the fall and of redemption, points out that when man learns from the devil to know good and evil, this involves his coming to see good as evil; there is nothing but good for him to see or know. If he is to know evil, it can only be by a distorted vision of what is good. That is how evil is conceived and, in due time, brought to birth.

— Simon Tugwell, The Beatitudes

And it is by a distorted vision of good that we choose what is good at the wrong time, or in the wrong way, or in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason, or by the wrong means.

I’ve rather gotten out of the habit of writing book reviews; but rather than give up on it entirely, here’s a list of some of the books I’ve been reading recently.

Law of the Broken Earth, by Rachel Neumeier. This is the third book in Neumeier’s Griffin Mage trilogy, which I’ve written about before. I got the first volume as a review copy, and bought the second and third myself, and I was not disappointed. Much fun.

First Lord’s Fury, by Jim Butcher. This is the sixth and (presumably) final volume in Butcher’s high fantasy series the Codex Alera, which began with The Furies of Calderon. I enjoyed it thoroughly; and as I think I’ve said about the previous four volumes, you should go find a copy of The Furies of Calderon and get started. Note that the Codex Alera has a very different feel than Butcher’s Harry Dresden books (which I also like).

Light of the World, by Pope Benedict XVI and Peter Seewald. I was overjoyed to hear about this book, as I really liked Seewald’s two previous books with then Cardinal Ratzinger. It’s a good book, but not quite as good as I’d hoped; which is to say, I prefer its predecessors (Salt of the Earth and God and the World).

Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion, by Jane Austen. Every once in a while it’s time to re-read Jane Austen, except for Northanger Abbey which I enjoyed well enough but have never felt any urge to pick up again, and Mansfield Park, none of the characters of which I liked at all. I shall most likely re-read Emma in short order, and then I shall be done.