Didactic Mind, Ep 61: One Bright Star to GuideThem

May the peace and blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, brothers and sisters. Today's podcast is all about the miracle of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and the meaning and power of that miracle in our miracle-denying modern age. I cover a whole range of topics in this podcast:

• The "Saturnalia" myth, which I addressed in much greater detail in a previous Domain Query podcast (and it was Kapios that asked the question - sorry dude);
• The "impossible conundrum" that God solved through the Immaculate Conception and birth of Jesus;
• My absolute contempt and utter hatred for the lukewarm blasphemies of "progressive" Christianity - you might need to lower the volume a little for that bit;
• Some concepts introduced through my reading of C. S. Lewis's classic apologetic work, Mere Christianity, which I cannot recommend strongly enough despite its evident flaws;
• A look through various passages in Scripture that demonstrate the kind of King that Jesus Christ really was - and is;
• A comparison between Jesus's teachings and The Way of Walking Alone by Miyamoto Musashi to show that Jesus was a hard man teaching a hard path - a warrior's path;
• Looking at waging war in the spiritual realm in a way that we might understand through Dr. Michael Heiser's breakdown of "the Upside Down" in Netflix's hit series Stranger Things;

... and quite a lot more besides. This one is a dense podcast, and deliberately so, since I deal with a lot of serious issues. But the core of it lies in a sincere appreciation of what Christmas is and why it is so important.

By the way, the title of this podcast does not come only from the story of the Three Kings who journeyed under the guidance of a bright star to pay homage to the newborn King. It also comes from the superb novella and short-story collection by the greatest living Grandmaster of science fiction, John C. Wright. Unfortunately, I cannot actually find the book on sale anywhere - I think the author yanked it from publication. I have no idea why, because it truly is wonderful. I would kill for a mere one-tenth of the writing talent that Mr. Wright has.

As always, remember to like, share, comment, and subscribe either at the site or on Podbean itself.

And, most importantly - MERRY CHRISTMAS!