Jonathan Emerson-Pierce
@logocentrist.bsky.social
Former atheist and communist exploring history, culture, politics, science & leadership via Christian theology & philosophy🕊️🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇦🇺🇩🇪🇸🇪🇳🇴🇫🇮🇩🇰
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."
- Gustav Mahler
- Gustav Mahler
January 3, 2026 at 10:06 PM
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."
- Gustav Mahler
- Gustav Mahler
“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
January 3, 2026 at 9:06 PM
“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
― Martin Luther King Jr.
January 2, 2026 at 3:37 AM
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
― Martin Luther King Jr.
Friedman is right - but incomplete.
Citizens can regard government as an instrument only if a culture has nurtured enough discipline to govern themselves and to assume civic responsibility for others.
Limited government is a cultural achievement before it is a political one.
Citizens can regard government as an instrument only if a culture has nurtured enough discipline to govern themselves and to assume civic responsibility for others.
Limited government is a cultural achievement before it is a political one.
January 1, 2026 at 10:07 PM
Friedman is right - but incomplete.
Citizens can regard government as an instrument only if a culture has nurtured enough discipline to govern themselves and to assume civic responsibility for others.
Limited government is a cultural achievement before it is a political one.
Citizens can regard government as an instrument only if a culture has nurtured enough discipline to govern themselves and to assume civic responsibility for others.
Limited government is a cultural achievement before it is a political one.
“Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.”
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- St. Thomas Aquinas
December 31, 2025 at 8:05 AM
“Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.”
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- St. Thomas Aquinas
"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is."
- Albert Camus
- Albert Camus
December 31, 2025 at 12:08 AM
"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is."
- Albert Camus
- Albert Camus
A reminder that the purpose of Western art - often in combination with architecture - was once meant to elevate the human soul.
December 29, 2025 at 9:15 PM
A reminder that the purpose of Western art - often in combination with architecture - was once meant to elevate the human soul.
Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith” isn’t blind irrationality. It’s the courage to step beyond reason and entrust oneself wholly to God. This is not a rejection of reason. True faith simply evolves beyond its inherent limitations.
December 29, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith” isn’t blind irrationality. It’s the courage to step beyond reason and entrust oneself wholly to God. This is not a rejection of reason. True faith simply evolves beyond its inherent limitations.
"There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy."
- Albert Ellis
- Albert Ellis
December 29, 2025 at 8:17 AM
"There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy."
- Albert Ellis
- Albert Ellis
“You can only come to the morning through the shadows.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- J.R.R. Tolkien
December 28, 2025 at 2:59 AM
“You can only come to the morning through the shadows.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- J.R.R. Tolkien
"As God’s revelation, Jesus is at the same time the revelation of the human nature and of the destiny of man."
- Wolfhard Pannenberg
- Wolfhard Pannenberg
December 25, 2025 at 10:42 PM
"As God’s revelation, Jesus is at the same time the revelation of the human nature and of the destiny of man."
- Wolfhard Pannenberg
- Wolfhard Pannenberg
"Sin makes man a coward; but a life in the Truth of Christ makes him bold."
- St. John Chrysostom
- St. John Chrysostom
December 24, 2025 at 11:52 PM
"Sin makes man a coward; but a life in the Truth of Christ makes him bold."
- St. John Chrysostom
- St. John Chrysostom
"Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart."
- Washington Irving
- Washington Irving
December 24, 2025 at 3:55 AM
"Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart."
- Washington Irving
- Washington Irving
“I live in that solitude, which is painful in youth but delicious in the years of maturity.”
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
December 24, 2025 at 3:17 AM
“I live in that solitude, which is painful in youth but delicious in the years of maturity.”
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
- Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind
- Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind
December 22, 2025 at 9:17 PM
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
- Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind
- Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind
"The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
December 22, 2025 at 1:06 AM
"The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
"There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future."
- St. Augustine
- St. Augustine
December 21, 2025 at 11:36 PM
"There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future."
- St. Augustine
- St. Augustine
“People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.”
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
December 21, 2025 at 1:57 AM
“People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.”
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
“The world will ask who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.”
- Carl Jung
- Carl Jung
December 20, 2025 at 8:02 AM
“The world will ask who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.”
- Carl Jung
- Carl Jung
At its peak, socialism governed roughly a third of humanity.
Across cultures and continents, results remained consistent: scarcity, coercion, and collapse.
Western European trial-runs fared no better.
An economic system based on a faulty understanding of human nature will not succeed.
Across cultures and continents, results remained consistent: scarcity, coercion, and collapse.
Western European trial-runs fared no better.
An economic system based on a faulty understanding of human nature will not succeed.
December 20, 2025 at 4:47 AM
At its peak, socialism governed roughly a third of humanity.
Across cultures and continents, results remained consistent: scarcity, coercion, and collapse.
Western European trial-runs fared no better.
An economic system based on a faulty understanding of human nature will not succeed.
Across cultures and continents, results remained consistent: scarcity, coercion, and collapse.
Western European trial-runs fared no better.
An economic system based on a faulty understanding of human nature will not succeed.
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
- Flannery O'Connor
- Flannery O'Connor
December 19, 2025 at 3:11 AM
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
- Flannery O'Connor
- Flannery O'Connor
“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals.”
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie
December 18, 2025 at 5:40 PM
“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals.”
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie
- Maria Skłodowska-Curie
"Blessed is the person who makes themselves deaf to every pleasure that separates him from his Creator."
- St. Isaac the Syrian
- St. Isaac the Syrian
December 17, 2025 at 8:23 PM
"Blessed is the person who makes themselves deaf to every pleasure that separates him from his Creator."
- St. Isaac the Syrian
- St. Isaac the Syrian
"Very liberals" cut ties with both friends and family at twice the rate of "liberals" and "very conservatives."
"Very liberals" cut ties with both friends and family at about four times the rate of "moderates" and "conservatives."
research.skeptic.com/american-pol...
"Very liberals" cut ties with both friends and family at about four times the rate of "moderates" and "conservatives."
research.skeptic.com/american-pol...
December 13, 2025 at 11:26 PM
"Very liberals" cut ties with both friends and family at twice the rate of "liberals" and "very conservatives."
"Very liberals" cut ties with both friends and family at about four times the rate of "moderates" and "conservatives."
research.skeptic.com/american-pol...
"Very liberals" cut ties with both friends and family at about four times the rate of "moderates" and "conservatives."
research.skeptic.com/american-pol...