Category: Philosophy

comformist

No post – sorry. I have not spoken with anyone since the beginning of the year. So, maybe that helps?

I am reading. Lots of different books. I am trying for a book a week – non-theological and non-philosophical. I would like to read more literature. The first one is Never Let Me Go. A little slow at the start but gets a lot better. It has been banned in some states in the US.

Yesterday was a Desert Christian day. The following intrigues me:

We live in a society that is at once deeply individualist and deeply conformist; the desert fathers and mothers manage to be neither, and they suggest to us that the church’s calling likewise is to avoid both these pitfalls.

Williams, Rowan. Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert

The analysis is good. Yes, conformity is the only virtue. Perhaps it goes a little deeper:

Conformity is the tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behaviors in ways that are consistent with group norms. Norms are implicit, specific rules shared by a group of individuals on how they should behave. People may be susceptible to conform to group norms because they want to gain acceptance from their group.

Conformity

The modern tendency is to think, “If we can measure it, we can build it”. Perhaps Kierkegaard’s leveling?

Anyway, back to solitude and silence.

Day 6 – recovery?

Day 6, and I think I am back to normal – whatever that may mean. I am unsure what I did yesterday – did I read or dance? Anyway, here is a thought for the day.

During this version of a COVID lockdown, I learned that I have an issue with “the church” as a whole and not individuals. Yes, that sounds like Kierkegaard and maybe he is the driving force in my thinking. And the problem is not the institution but rather the emphasis people place on the institution. The modern church has replaced the individual before God with a collection of congregational members called to follow a faceless organisation. There is no accountability to God for my actions but rather an urging to conform. In more philosophical terms, I wonder if the modern world, post-scientific revolution, is stuck in actuality. And the institution of the “church” is living without hope.

Anyway! Maybe a fever-induced hallucination?

do you believe in aliens?

Completely random question! The first thing that hits me is “believe”. What does it mean in this context? Perhaps I will leave that question for another post.

Absolutely. I think there is intelligent life outside of Earth. All the theological questions aside, why would God only create humans here? And, to paraphrase Bill & Ted, why would movies lie to us? An encounter would raise some interesting questions concerning our assumptions.

Anyway, do you believe in aliens?

truth and facts, and all that

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

1 Corinthians 8:1

“Truth? What is that?” Pilate asked Jesus, The Truth (John 14:6). There is a lot of talk about facts and truth. Perhaps, there should be?! Yet, some of this talk comes from a “scientific worldview” that has simply been baptised.

So, the above verse came to mind. And, to be a Kierkegaard fanboy, there is a difference between something being “true” (whatever that may mean) and something being “upbuilding”.

Maybe I spend too much time alone. I do not understand the idea of “truth moving people to action.” Simply knowing the truth does not make my life any different. And there are a plethora of words that are used as synonyms.

It is an ugly ditch – history and knowledge.

So, anyway …

this answer is very unique

Daily writing prompt
What is a word you feel that too many people use?
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While I have a “philosophical issue” with language, I dislike how people use the word “unique”. And especially how sometimes people say “very unique”, “extremely unique”, or some other superlative qualifying “unique”.

A word I feel people use too much is “surreal”.

words and silence

Daily writing prompt
What are you curious about?
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My day is largely in silence. Yes, I listen to music and the radio (for the news). But there are long periods of silence. (I also read books etc but in silence.)

One thing that has made me curious about this context is how we see language. Or, how metaphor and language interact. Augustine wrote about language before he wrote about Christianity. But we seem to think that we can simply march past the problem and declare absolutely what is (and what is not) a relationship with God.

I have no answers and maybe there isn’t one. But I am curious!

Measure and create

Daily writing prompt
What would you change about modern society?
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Let me preface this by saying I am no philosopher, theologian, or sociologist.

I think “modern society” lives with the belief that “if I can measure it, I can create it”. The problem is that it is somewhat true. Yes, physical things can certainly be measured and then created. But what about things like beauty, community, fellowship, or love? Can I measure these and then create them?

The church is not immune. Sometimes people preach a gospel of “let’s do it”. All of that is fine without any thought to sin. God creates community and fellowship by His presence, as He does beauty, not by our agreeing with each other or being “nice”.

So what would I change: the certainty that it is within human reach to create everything.

Anyway …

… asceticism and freedom

I am reading Asceticism – a collection of papers on various topics related to … yes, you guessed it … asceticism.

The opening paper has a quote from The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn when the prisoner says to the Minister:

I’ve got nothing, see? Nothing! … You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power – he’s free again.

I was reflecting on that quote in the context of the oft-quoted Albert Camus:

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

As a community (ie the Church) we often speak of not being ruled by the world. But in reality what does that mean for the individual? There is a political aspect to the solitary life: a life not ruled (in theory!) by the standards of the world. For me, and I have thought about this a lot in the last month, the solitary life is a place and that place is a person. I refuse to be objectified! I refuse to be put in a box and then told, “see you are not acting right (ie according to the box which you have been put into)”. For many years I have looked for the “right box” – the right objective truth that defines me.

The only freedom is in Nothing (ie a NOthing, a Person!)

Anyway …

… zombie apocalypse

Would you survive a zombie apocalypse? (Without discussing the likelihood of such an event or the possibility of the walking dead.)

Maybe I would struggle! I have no practical skills. So I think I would be some zombie’s lunch before I could starve. Maybe I could lock the doors and just live as I do now? But I would still starve. The library would come in handy for heating. But a complete collection of Kierkegaard’s works will be of little practical help. The person who has read the complete collection even less. I would still starve. My phone would quickly become a paperweight and I would struggle without coffee. Maybe I could survive a little but not long? I would most certainly not thrive in such a context. I am not a fighter, nor a leader, nor a motivator of people. I would starve.

If this zombie apocalypse would happen, what would remain of this life? Money? Paper money may serve another purpose. Yet the numbers on a computer somewhere would be absolutely useless. No more internet so no way to pay with my phone. Time? The sun would still rise but after all the batteries have run out, would there still be an 11:00 am meeting? Would there still be a church? Would there be theological debates about the nature of the current issue?

So, with this possible scenario before me, what really matters now? What is simply for this time and place (contingent) and what would be useful in a zombie apocalypse? To what extent is my life now defined by contingent things and ideas? As a follower of Jesus, there is a time coming when “heaven and earth” will pass away and will be no more. Then what will remain? So maybe the question is not so much about zombies?