Kant on Freedom

Hence in a practical context (whenever duty is at issue), we understand perfectly well what freedom is; for theoretical purposes, however, as regards the causality of freedom (and equally its nature) we cannot even formulate without contradiction the wish to understand it.

Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason

On God

The starting point of our theological investigation is not whether there is a definitive proof for the existence of God (there can be no such empirical proof), but allowing that God exists, what can be definitively said about such a being.  We find, apart from the formal and thoroughly socialized subjective fantasies and wishful thinking of a great many people, that there isn't a hell of a lot.  We find the god of the churches almost undeniably does not exist.  This has been realized in the West for almost 300 years, and this by theologians themselves!  Where it hasn't been realized one continues to find the most powerful illusion at work, propagated by laypeople and theological upstarts, pastors and other parasitical people of "good intention" (at least initially), not to mention a programme of systemic indoctrination in the form of emotive collective music, sermons, and what amounts to religious self-help literature.

The strongest "proof" this God doesn't exist: He hasn't saved the Christians from Christianity.

Father God

The fundamental dogmas of Christianity are realised wishes of the heart; – the essence of Christianity is the essence of human feeling.  Feuerbach

 

I recently read something a friend wrote in which his experience of father was connected to his Christian understanding of God as Father.  This is a recurrent theme in Christian circles.  After a little reflection, however, it should be apparent how mistaken this is, or at least, how much wishful thinking goes into such comparisons.  God is perhaps the worst father that has ever lived.  It does more credit to my friend personally than to any neglectful, absentee father in heaven.  My friend may hold his son's hand when he is scared, but God is nowhere to be found when tragedy strikes.  The sense of God's "presence" that some Christians say they feel during troubling times is of course no more than wishful thinking or a heightened self-consciousness.. They attribute a divine quality to their own human feeling.  This kind of blasphemy from those who call themselves lovers of the truth never ceases to amaze and should have been stamped out with the paradigm shift inaugurated by Kant. 

 

On universal salvation

Note: the idea of universal salvation follows from a misunderstanding of God's love and grace. It is consistent in that it relates to a notion of God's infinite qualities, but it is not consistent with the teachings of Scripture.  The idea of universal salvation can only be found in obscure passages, and by following an interpretation already favourable to the assumption of infinite, unconditional, grace and love.  While one may argue humans do not merit this grace, this one nevertheless overlooks the fact that love and grace are conditional on God himself.  One's inability to earn grace does not equate to its being unconditioned.  It is still conditional on Divine will, and Scripture is clear that "who He wants to harden he hardens" and those he bears now with patience, so that later he may make his power and mercy known to the elect, he "prepares for destruction." 

How distasteful and horrifying some find this!  How shaped they are by a modern church culture that is itself shaped by a certain theory of parenting and school discipline, products of a liberalism now under attack.  To what lengths these Christians go to erase all hint of scandal from their faith in order to pay obeisance to their meek cultural god and season it with what they feel is more suitable to the delicate suburban palate. 

 

They don't see this for what it is:  a betrayal.

Aix-en-Provence

Près de La Ciotat, je suis tombé en amour ...

Marilyn

On this day 51 years ago a beautiful soul passed away.  Raising a glass to Marilyn..
Media vita in morte sumus.

"After-thought" by Tennyson

I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide,
As being past away. -Vain sympathies!
For backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,
I see what was, and is, and will abide;
Still glides the Stream, and shall not cease to glide;
The Form remains, the Function never dies;
While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,
We Men, who in our morn of youth defied
The elements, must vanish; -be it so!
Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour;
And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,
Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,
We feel that we are greater than we know.

Looking-glass

Once more come, see if you can.  You certainly only love what is good, and the earth is good with its lofty mountains and its folded hills and its level plains, and a farm is good when its situation is pleasant and its land fertile, and a house is good with its harmonious symmetry of architecture so spacious and bright, and animals are good with their animated bodies, and the air is good when mild and salubrious, and food is good when tasty and health-giving, and health is good without pains or weariness, and a man's face is good when it has fine proportions and a cheerful expression and a fresh complexion, and the heart of a friend is good with its sweet accord and loving trust, and a just man is good, and riches are good because they are easily put to use, and the sky is good with its sun and moon and stars, and the angels are good with their holy obedience, and speech is good as it pleasantly instructs and suitably moves the hearer, and a song is good with its melodious notes and its noble sentiments.  Why go on and on?  This is good and that is good. Take away this and that and see good itself if you can.

Augustine, De Trinitate

The Calmative

[A]nd it was always from the earth, rather than from the sky, not withstanding its reputation, that my help came in time of trouble.  -Beckett

Watts on Faith

“This attitude is not faith. It is pure idolatry. The more deceptive idols are not images of wood and stone but are constructed of words and ideas and mental images of God. Faith is an openness and trusting attitude to truth and reality, whatever it may turn out to be. This is a risky and adventurous state of mind.” Alan Watts

In my boyhood days -Hölderlin

In my boyhood days
  Often a god would save me
    From the shouts and from the rods of men;
      Safe and good then I played
        With the orchard flowers
          And the breezes of heaven 
            Played with me.

And as you make glad
The hearts of the plants 
When toward you they stretch
Their delicate arms.

So you made glad my heart,
Father Helios, and like Endymion
I was your darling,
Holy Luna.

O all you loyal,
Kindly gods!
Would that you knew how
My soul loved you then.

True, at that time I did not
Evoke you by name yet, and you
Never named me, as men use names,
As though they knew one another.

Yet I knew you better
Than ever I have known men,
I understood the silence of Aether,
But human words I´ve never understood.

I was reared by the euphony
Of the rustling copse
And learned to love
Amid the flowers.

I grew up in the arms of the gods.

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Poverty is not a measure of relative wealth.  It is, rather, the sense of hopelessness one feels in relation to a survey of one's resources and felt needs.  This is why poverty is a universal phenomenon felt in all world contexts.

Heidegger on Being and Faith

If I were to write a theology - to which I sometimes feel inclined - then the word Being would not occur in it.  Faith does not need the thought of Being.

Backstab

 'If the reports are true, it is reminiscent of the actions of enemies during the cold war'

When your friends act like enemies... When your friends have lost their way. 

Gay Marriage

What is the privileged status of male-female marriage?

I will say from the beginning that it has no intrinsically privileged status.  During the present gay marriage debate in the United States I've heard the phrase "sanctity of marriage" used by religious factions, without a single definition of what this means, other than the formula: "One man, one woman."  This formula doesn't give us the meaning of the term "sanctity" but it must be related to it.  I think when a Christian speaks about the sanctity of marriage what they must really mean is that in its founding moment (think Adam and Eve), God blessed the union of a man and a woman, i.e. his intention was that this fundamental relationship be comprised of male and female.  Furthermore, from the theology of the Christian scriptures one can derive a notion of marriage whereby the partners in a relationship have analogical significance, i.e. man=Christ, woman=Church etc.  Christian marriage is the sign of some greater spiritual reality.  Insofar as a Christian believes this it is sanctified, though a Christian will maintain that whether or not they believe it it is still sanctified.  This is their belief.

So a marriage that is sanctified is one that is pleasing to God (and therefore blessed by him).  What is pleasing to God?  What scriptures tell us is pleasing to God, what pattern one sees there, what tradition holds to be the case.  One who opposes gay marriage will not say love sanctifies a marriage, because obviously gay couples love one another, or one will qualify love by adding a "male-female" in front of it.  But we now know that gender is to a large extent socially-culturally constructed, and I don't know many Christians who would want to reduce the sanctity of marriage to the interaction of sexual organs (or at least admit to it).  No, marriage for these is about God, a qualified kind of love, and scripture.  I won't waste my time commenting on how a qualified love is a rather sad pretender to the real thing.   When you look into the eyes of your beloved, tell me, is the first thing that comes to mind "thank God you're the proper sexual orientation"? 

This still doesn't answer the question asked at the beginning.  "Sanctity of marriage" turns out to mean little more than "sanctity of my definition of marriage."  This can never be the ground for a universal determination or privileged status.