The name of the website site said it all, (eg abstrusegoose.com).
#--------------------
Excerpt:
Abstruse Ab*struse", a. [L. abstrusus, p. p. of abstrudere to
thrust away, conceal; ab, abs + trudere to thrust; cf. F.
abstrus. See Threat.]
1. Concealed or hidden out of the way. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
The eternal eye whose sight discerns
Abstrusest thoughts. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. Remote from apprehension; difficult to be comprehended or
understood; recondite; as, abstruse learning.
[1913 Webster]
Profound and abstruse topics. --Milman.
[1913 Webster]
-- From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
abstruse
adj : difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary
understanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures
were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them";
"a deep metaphysical theory"; "some recondite problem
in historiography" [syn: deep, recondite]
http://abstrusegoose.com/
#---------------------
Regards,
LelandJ
Bob Calco wrote:
> http://bit.ly/EKOPK
>
> - - -
> But Brown doesn't have the soul of a true-believing Enemy of the Faith. Deep
> down, he has a fondness for the ordinary, well-meaning sort of Catholic, his
> libels against their ancestors notwithstanding. He's even sympathetic to the
> religious yearnings of his Catholic villains - including, yes, the murderous
> albino monks.
>
> This explains why both "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" end with
> a big anti-Catholic reveal (Jesus had kids with Mary Magdalene! That
> terrorist plot against the Vatican was actually launched by an
> archconservative priest!) followed by a big cover-up. A small elect (Tom
> Hanks and company, in the movies) gets to know what really happened, but the
> mass of believers remain in the dark, lest their spiritual questing be
> derailed by disillusionment and scandal. Having dismissed Catholicism's
> truth claims and demonized its most sincere defenders, Brown pats believers
> on the head and bids them go on fingering their rosary beads.
>
> ...
>
> The polls that show more Americans abandoning organized religion don't
> suggest a dramatic uptick in atheism: They reveal the growth of
> do-it-yourself spirituality, with traditional religion's dogmas and moral
> requirements shorn away. The same trend is at work within organized faiths
> as well, where both liberal and conservative believers often encounter a God
> who's too busy validating their particular version of the American Dream to
> raise a peep about, say, how much money they're making or how many times
> they've been married.
>
> These are Dan Brown's kind of readers. Piggybacking on the fascination with
> lost gospels and alternative Christianities, he serves up a Jesus who's a
> thoroughly modern sort of messiah - sexy, worldly and Goddess-worshiping,
> with a wife and kids, a house in the Galilean suburbs, and no delusions
> about his own divinity.
>
> But the success of this message - which also shows up in the work of Brown's
> many thriller-writing imitators - can't be separated from its dishonesty.
> The "secret" history of Christendom that unspools in "The Da Vinci Code" is
> false from start to finish.
>
> The lost gospels are real enough, but they neither confirm the portrait of
> Christ that Brown is peddling - they're far, far weirder than that - nor
> provide a persuasive alternative to the New Testament account. The Jesus of
> Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - jealous, demanding, apocalyptic - may not be
> congenial to contemporary sensibilities, but he's the only historically
> plausible Jesus there is.
>
> For millions of readers, Brown's novels have helped smooth over the tension
> between ancient Christianity and modern American faith. But the tension
> endures. You can have Jesus or Dan Brown. But you can't have both.
>
> - - -
>
> An excellent article, with which I find myself in agreement mainly. As a
> recovering Catholic, my main problem with modern Christianity is its
> fractured, fratricidal character. A deeper reading of Scripture than is
> currently possessed by any denomination to which I have belonged or belong
> reveals a Creator whose creative purpose is so much more wondrous than a
> mere reading of any of their catechisms and doctrinal position papers gives
> clue.
>
> I think many Christians are lured by the desire for a deeper spirituality in
> modern mysticism, but herein lies the danger: The god of this world, Satan,
> has a smorgasbord of false spirituality to offer, complete even with
> whatever kind of healing power "makes you believe", ostensibly to set us
> free from "organized religion", but in fact to put us under his harsh
> dominion, while he still has "time" to play God and boss his demons around.
>
> I will even go so far as to suggest some Christians, irrespective of
> denominational affiliation, are prone to accept his spiritual authority
> sooner than the Lord's, because in our fleshly nature there is this harsh
> logic of kill-or-be-killed that we identify with a kind of universal truth
> (in fact its mainly a fleshly truth, thus ephemeral). So, "religiosity" as a
> phenomenon is also an expression of a desire by well-meaning folk to embrace
> the nicer side of faith, but unchecked by real spiritual growth it
> eventually becomes an expression of the same fleshly logic for which Christ
> suffered on the cross. Christians need I guess to find the least common
> denominator of the faith before they can grow into its fullness, but how to
> do that without losing the sense of wonder one experiences at the moment of
> conversion? Maybe that is the key--capturing and keeping that child-like
> wonder--I don't know, I just heard that somewhere. ;)
>
> I'm not talking about some doctrine-leveling ecumenism, which reduces Jesus
> to some "least common denominational" checklist of do's and don'ts, but a
> total view of the Gospel that uproots all the man-made traditions and myths
> that confound the plain meaning of Christ's message of reconciliation and
> peace with God. This is why I think Catholicism is such an easy target in
> the modern era by the Dan Browns of the world: it's loaded with that kind of
> arbitrary and cultural-historical crud Jesus himself railed against when
> trading barbs with the Sadducees and Pharisees. But other denominations,
> yea, all of them, have their substitute made-up traditions as well.
>
> (I currently attend and am even a freshly-minted deacon at a Baptist church
> here near Tampa, where I really enjoy the fellowship and worship, but for
> the life of me cannot find evidence that Jesus and the apostles drank
> Welsh's Grape Juice at the last supper anywhere in the Scriptures... ;) )
>
> Only in the spirit is true religion found---not that "big tent" kumbaya crap
> that fosters cognitive dissonance and fake co-habitation of thought between
> mortal enemies, so much the focus of modern secularism. (Because while we
> are still in the flesh, these enemies do exists, and we cannot mix with them
> in spirit or truth without risk of spiritually damaging consequences.)
>
> The thing I struggle with, naturally, is that part of my soulish nature that
> wants constantly to take this physical world and all its goings-on so damned
> seriously. Evidence of it even in this esteemed list's archives abounds, as
> recently as this morning. :) It matters spiritually what is happening but in
> the big scheme of things the physical here-and-now is an illusion that, once
> it passes away, will in retrospect I think be full of "Oh, now I get it"
> proofs of what is good and true, even to those who refused to seek or
> embrace it while "alive in the flesh", though it will be a bit late for them
> to jump on the bandwagon.
>
> And when that moment of universal revelation happens, it won't even be as
> obtuse as Ed's comic strip joke at Stephen Russell's expense. ;)
>
> - Bob.
>
>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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