tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post1884514207670801884..comments2023-08-20T04:55:39.436-07:00Comments on Ars Psychiatrica: Material ObjectionsNovalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-54460726362559784092009-03-04T05:58:00.000-08:002009-03-04T05:58:00.000-08:00Thanks for this--much food for thought.Thanks for this--much food for thought.Novalishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-63662596827872546832009-03-03T20:05:00.000-08:002009-03-03T20:05:00.000-08:00You might find food for thought in Job 38. Then a...You might find food for thought in Job 38. Then again, it might just madden you. <BR/><BR/>Personally, after being raised Episcopalian, two Ivy degrees, work in human rights, then the ministry, then a mom, then a day job, I'm happy now as a Christian who is evangelical but not fundamentalist. <BR/><BR/> I like the words of Jesus when he said "By their fruits ye shall know them." I also love his promise of "I am come that ye may have life, and have it more abundantly." <BR/><BR/>I'm sure that if you see loathsome hypocritical Christians, you probably despise the church. That was true for me in youth attending beautiful and soulless Anglican worship with toadie priests. But if you find a loving congregation who testify to the power of God to transform their lives, and who show Christian love to the hurting world, it's hard not to be convinced. <BR/><BR/>One good cliche about it is that Christianity isn't taught, it's caught. People sometimes say that the church is a bit like the way you M.D.s are trained, learn it, do it, teach it (apologies if I havent got the phrase exactly) <BR/><BR/>I often wonder what it must be like for a highly educated agnostic like yourself living in the Bible belt. I should imagine it must be excruciating at times. About as painful as for a liberal to be cooped up on a plane next to some Ugly American, like the book of the same title. <BR/><BR/>Karl Barth, the German theologian, was once asked to summarize all his life's work (indigestible tomes of theology). He replied that it was "Jesus loves me,this I know, for the Bible tells me so" that he had learned in Sunday School. <BR/><BR/>I don't say any of this to convince you or to insult your intelligence. The "no atheists in foxholes" is probably part of my own family's fervent faith-- so bludgeoned by tragedy, only sustained by faith in God. <BR/><BR/>I don't, however, share your problem with the multiplicity of religious conceptions. It's just as a woman in our church described the Trinity as like a person who is parent, sibling, spouse or some other role, one person with many manifestations. <BR/><BR/>ALthough I personally get sick of people endlessly quoting him, C.S. Lewis writes well about this in "the Last Battle", where it becomes clear that God's true followers are not necessarily those those labelled or self-perceiving, but rather those who are virtuous, honest, altruistic, etc. <BR/><BR/>Sophocles said "Wonders are many and none so wondrous as man" (sic?) So of course there are multiple wondrous ways that people conceive of the divine and worship Him/Her/Whatever. <BR/><BR/>Wonder is a good place to start.Retrieverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09036341287285545932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-37622911815010159532009-03-02T15:53:00.000-08:002009-03-02T15:53:00.000-08:00Anonymous--fear and guilt, yes, but also the wish ...Anonymous--fear and guilt, yes, but also the wish for a reliable spiritual magnetic north, the impossible possibility, like free will. Both free will and the concept of God, Kant argued, are necessary yet beyond the realm of reason. But to paraphrase Wittgenstein (philosophy 101 I know), whereof reason cannot speak reason must remain silent. Perhaps we can only hum God--God as melody, without content technically, but crucial as form (even if only the contour of an absence). Agnostics can manage only a minor key. And let us not forget the naturally unmusical...Novalishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-33139444354496794982009-03-02T15:42:00.000-08:002009-03-02T15:42:00.000-08:00And if you would see the result of the absence of ...And if you would see the result of the absence of spirituality grounded in some base ground of being, you have only to look about you. <BR/><BR/>It's not pretty.vanderleunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10296245324443413545noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-74198501883398002802009-03-02T15:24:00.000-08:002009-03-02T15:24:00.000-08:00'God' is the spiritual magnetic north; the totalis...'God' is the spiritual magnetic north; the totalisation of the relentless human inclination for pattern affinity and the interpretive illumination thereof; the eternal fractal that spirals into repetitve meaning/unmeaning; the gloss, the fundament, the sinewy cohesion that synchronises forms and life in spite of decay and the entropic nature of beingness; the toneless colour that infuses with a blind seeingness; the structural negative space that concretises substance; the eternal present.<BR/><BR/>Spirituality is the ultimate dopamine mediated gamble that paid off at some stage in the evolution of human consciousness and scarred them for life in an endless loop of loopy self-feeding reward driven belief.<BR/><BR/>It's mostly just fear and guilt, really.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-89966866608416572832009-03-02T14:16:00.000-08:002009-03-02T14:16:00.000-08:00Yes, the notion of God would seem to be necessary ...Yes, the notion of God would seem to be necessary for most human societies to function. And yet life must have a meaning, and ethics a basis, regardless of whether God is held to exist.<BR/><BR/>A few years ago I was discussing religion and ethics with a psychiatry resident, a likeable and thoughtful fellow who was also a devout believer. At one point he acknowledged, a la Dostoevsky, that if he concluded that God didn't exist, he would see no reason not to indulge in whatever mayhem necessary to satisfy his whims or gratify his desires. This scares the hell out of me--on such a slender metaphysical postulate civilization rests.Novalishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-65413425432417755812009-03-02T13:48:00.000-08:002009-03-02T13:48:00.000-08:00"That is, we cannot justifiably specify God in suf..."That is, we cannot justifiably specify God in sufficient detail for belief in "Him" to make specific moral or metaphysical differences in our lives. "<BR/><BR/>And yet we see and know, in thousands of lives known or reported, that it is precisely the belief in "Him" that does make for specific moral and metaphysical differences. <BR/><BR/>The existence or nature of God may well be up for debate, but I think that the effect that belief in God makes in the moral and metaphysical lives of billions is beyond question, now and throughout recorded history.<BR/><BR/>Conversely, we can also see that absence of such a belief can well lead to vast moral catastrophes of an unprecedented scale in recent history. (Not to say that the obverse has not also been true.)<BR/><BR/>Perhaps it is true that God is a myth. But He seems to be a very necessary myth. And it would seem that without it, the people wither.vanderleunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10296245324443413545noreply@blogger.com