Posts Tagged ‘Christianity’
Thoughts on Coexistence
This is my obsession as of late: what am I to do with believers?
Empiricists have long been subject to ridicule and doubt by the devout, scorned for their intellectual snobbery and their sneering “reason.” When the science and the scripture conflict, God tends to win… for a while.
Trace the progression of religion, however, and you cannot help but get a sense that with each passing year literalistic dogma and creed pass further into obscurity. Certainty has become relative, a condition I see directly provoked by postmodernism. Of course this is not true for all religious belief; the fundamentalist remnants continue to wreak havoc on human society, rending its fabric into absolutes.
With such a range of theistic belief and, simultaneously, a common thread of certainty running throughout each of them, how does a passionate secularist respond?
Time and Again
Time and again, I am astounded at the disctinct pleasures of humanism. Coming into work today, I had no way of knowing that the random old man sitting behind me for the past week was a lapsed Lutheran minister, not to mention an outspoken and committed humanist and freethinker.
Ray grew up in Nebraska in the thirties and fourties. During Korea he was drafted, and served a brief stint in Alaska but (details are hazy here) never went overseas. In his words, it was just another “chance to goof off; they gave me a jeep and everything!”
Though Ray chose to forgo traditional secondary education, he eventually took the GED test and passed. Despite this, when he sought receipt of an official high school diploma, his request was denied. Choosing not to attend high school at all, he said, precluded the granting of a diploma — though partial high school attendance and later GED testing was, oddly enough, acceptable. A friend suggested to Ray that he apply at a small bible school, and he did; he sent in a copy of his GED and the school (the name of which I cannot recall) accepted him, on the condition that he send them $200.
Revisionist Creationism
The first thing I ever learned was how to create myself.
Though, of course, other factors were involved, I wish to take full credit for this feat, and this is why: while my copulating biological contributors provided the seed necessary for life, it was I, in rudimentary cellular form, who learned how to live.
It took no exposure to the trials and temptations of this world, nor any semblance of morality, ethics, or even thought, to convince me to do so; the fact is that I really had no say in the matter, and my own insignificant life could easily enough have been extinguished without an afterthought before its very beginnings had been allowed.
Before my first sunrise, or rainbow, or kiss, I taught myself how to exist.
Viva la (Human) Revolucion
Read the following, if you dare. It is my letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, which was produced during a feverish writing session yesterday evening. It is long, but I would appreciate your reflection upon it — both its content and its form.
Linked HERE.
As described to a friend, this essay is one-half poetry, one-half philosophy, and one-half social critique. Thus it is 1 1/2 of everything.
