The Pugcast

This week’s podcast looks at the important book by Tobias Rose-Stockwell: Outrage Machine: how tech amplifies discontent, disrupts democracy, and what we can do about it. The pugs engaged the book, recognizing that the author is correct to note how social media and contemporary technology serve as environments of spiritual and moral formation. But what is being formed is something that actually makes worse the passions, such as an anger, rather than fosters virtue. This is where classic Christian moral psychology and spiritual formation become key ingredients in a proper solution to the vice producing machine. The pugs also engage the question of how a concern for solidarity first prior to any concern for democracy is key to a Christian spiritual formation.   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

In this episode, Glenn leads off the discussion by citing recent claims by scientists that we need to reduce global population by more than half by 2200 for the sake of the planet. The guys note the failed predictions of Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book The Population Bomb that have led to disastrous things like China’s one child policy and constant calls for reducing population even as we’re facing a birth dearth. They also bring in other failed predictions of imminent ecological disaster and note the importance of human creativity in solving problems, such as reducing the rate of severe poverty despite dramatically increasing population since Ehrlich’s book.   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Today the Pugs reflect on an essay from Matthew B. Crawford’s Substack entitled, The Fate of Liberty in the American Experiment. One feature of the essay is a reflection on the understanding of virtue assumed by the American Founders, does it have more in common with the classical understanding or is it modern in character. If the latter, is the experiment doomed? If the former, is there any hope that we can recover it? Tune in and judge for yourself!   Substack Article: https://mcrawford.substack.com/p/the-fate-of-liberty-in-the-american?r=1gxyb8&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

This week’s episode looks at a variety of social and ethical visions that aim for the perfect society or state of being through, especially in the West. These visions, some of which have religious and even Christian roots, end up bracketing out a full Christian view of transcendence and replace it with one or another type of reality immanent in nature or the human or in human invention alone. The result has been anything but utopia!   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

On today's show the Pugs respond to a variety of questions submitted by Patreon patrons. Tune in for a wide ranging conversation!   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/