Of Piano & Philosophy

All in all August was grand. I am reading a book entitled The Openness of God, cowritten by five authors including Clark H. Pinnock, and learning how the Greek god of the philosophers was fused with the Biblical God, and how this has led to some misunderstandings of God as immutable, impassible, and omniscient about…

A new development this year is banjo! I have had a nice 5-string for 30 years, but now I am finally learning the rolls, and playing Take Me Home, Country Roads, Worried Man Blues, Rocky Top, The Old Home Place, Fox on the Run, and many more including Paul McCartney’s Rocky Raccoon. It is so…

Hello, I’m back! And studying Ancient Greek again through the Balme/Lawall Athenaze first edition book. Also getting ready to play Schubert’s Marche Militaire for a jury next Thursday. Reading through a good Notre Dame Press anthology, The Problem of Evil; and starting Mozart’s Piano Sonata #10 in C Major. Grieg Lyric Pieces I play late…

Well, Ancient Philosophy is going at full tilt, with me having to do a short presentation on Ancient Scepticism for the class, and other students doing presentations on Stoicism and Epicureanism. I am compiling my syllabi for the Spring 2025 semester. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 10-0, which is fascinating. On piano I am getting better…

Hi everyone, I am enjoying this incredible Fall weather. The trees are lagging behind; usually they are at their peak around October 20th. Dr, Kim’s Ancient Philosophy class is going wonderfully, and I am reading the Timaeus to get Plato’s view of God which I am going to contrast with Aristotle’s view of God for…

Hi everyone, I took a trip to Montana and saw the land of the Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir tree, with mountains. It was fantastic and my brother Tom and sister-in-law Kathy were wonderful, as was Patrick. The only thing we didn’t do that I would have liked to do is go fishing–maybe next time.…

Hi everyone. We had four tornadoes in the Cleveland area on August 6th about 4 p.m., and we lost power until today, 8/10/24. I got to see the U.S.A. barely beat France in the men’s basketball Olympic finals, which was exciting. Working on Philosophy of Religion, and hoping for Intro to Philosophy as a second…

I am excited about my Montana trip and was emailing Tommy yesterday. On the philosophical side, a philosopher argued that God couldn’t be omnipotent and omniscient at once because an omnipotent being wouldn’t deep down existentially know what it is to fear, be frustrated, or despair. That philosopher was David Blumenfeld, who is Emeritus from…

Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great, says that God didn’t make foliage green to be easy on the eyes, as his teacher when he was nine years old held, as opposed to orange or purple; but that the eyes followed nature, which I think means that our eyes adapted to the colors around…

In the late twentieth century, philosophers including Clark Pinnock and Richard Swinburne held that God is a person, changeable, not impassible, not really simple, having beliefs and desires, and so on. But the traditional view, as of Anselm and Aquinas, was that God was immutable (not changeable), impassible (not subject to passions or suffering), and…