This may seem unrealistic, even delusional; and much of the time, it has felt that way to me. But I’ve been here before, and know it’s not unrealistic at all. One drawback: it will pull me even farther away from the societal mainstream. But if I feel a “call” toward anything at all, it’s this path that I feel called to.
Rationalism cannot save us.
“Embracing what is,” a four-part series:
• As seen on TV: The new, improved hubris
• Belief: The unforgivable sin
• Rationalism cannot save us.
• Hell has an exit.
———— ♦ ————
Rationalists insist that love doesn’t matter. Neither does hope. Neither does joy.
“Rational” and “rationality” refer to the activity of reason. Well and good.
“Rationalist” and “rationalism” refer instead to the dogma that one’s affect ought not be allowed to inform or influence one’s thinking. This is a problem.
Enamored of fact
And seeking courage.
Encounters with clairvoyance
Originally posted in July 2005 at Messiah Truth; originally posted here 2015-03-04:
Religiosity can express any of various impulses, including these:
(1) Desire to placate the gods.
(2) Desire magically to assure desired outcomes. This is the essence of the Baal cult. Robert Jenson says it is also the essence of all religions except Christianity (:lol ).
(3) Desire to understand, and live in harmony with, the truth.
My earliest childhood memories are of a sense that there is more to the world than we perceive with our five senses, and of a desire to understand and correctly relate to that larger world. I have my moments or months of what some call doubt, of agnosticism or atheism, but in the end this thing always comes back. I feel it in my flesh and bones. This is ONE foundation of my religiosity.
Podcast – Political strife is all about the bogeyman
Political strife is all about the bogeyman
Related: The Bogeyman
Related: The wandering will
Music: Jim Croce, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”
Stymied: I have a lot to learn.
I talk a good game sometimes.
Sometimes, I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Psychopaths’ brains don’t grasp punishment
Kvetching about homelessness
I don’t do this very often …
Belief: The unforgivable sin
“Embracing what is,” a four-part series:
• As seen on TV: The new, improved hubris
• Belief: The unforgivable sin
• Rationalism cannot save us.
• Hell has an exit.
———— ♦ ————
A timely quote from Bertrand Russell: “Zeal is a bad mark for a cause. It suggests one is not quite certain. It is not the vaccinationists, but the anti-vaccinationists, who are zealous. No one is zealous about arithmetic.”
The homeless shelter where I stay makes us sit through chapel for an hour every night. A few days ago, this new preacher addressed us for the first time. Shortly into his presentation, he became hysterical, and stayed that way for fifty minutes. He wept. He screamed. He did not persuade anyone of anything.
Jeffrey Tayler sets forth that atheism is just as settled as arithmetic; but he is just as zealous as that preacher — and just as unpersuasive. In effect, he preaches only to the choir.
Disagreeing with Gandhi
Evil exists.
The Homeless Blogger 