to know anything at all is, implicitly, to know that God exists, for it is to accept the reign of the Logos or transcendental intelligibility.
This is one of those Yes/No questions: either you are arguing toward this logoistic principle or from it. In other words, you can begin, as we do, with transcendental intelligibility as an axiomatic truth; or you can track contingent truths up the epistemological mountain to the invigorating air of the logosphere, where all truths converge upon the One Truth from which they have descended. You might say that
Christianity does not deny the splendor of the world but encourages us to seek its origin, to ascend to its pure snow (Dávila).
It's cool but bracing. No one is obligated to live here, just as no one is obligated to live among the tenured apes, the media mob, the credentialed barbarians, all sunk in the urgent nonsense of the day.
Paradoxically, you're never more alone than when you're down among these babbling rabble, and never less alone than when up here by the waters of the crystal clear spring. How does this work, exactly? Well, on the one hand, to put it aphoristically, The most dispiriting solitude is not lacking neighbors, but being deserted by God (Dávila).
But come to find out that the "primordial intelligibility" of the world isn't analogous to just discovering an object or arriving at an abstract mathematical equation. Rather, it turns out -- SURPRISE! -- that it
is a being-with-the-other, or better, a being-in-the-other, a coinherence.... Therefore relationality, being-for-the-other, must be the form that, at the deepest level, conditions whatever is and the truth that satisfies the hunger of the mind (Barron).
Or, to put to put it aphoristically, To be a Christian is to not be alone despite the solitude that surrounds us (Dávila).
Allone in a crowd, twogather in God. For Any shared experience ends in a simulacrum of religion (ibid.).
Indeed, if you closely examine the meaning of this mysterious word -- experience -- you may find the key to the whole existentialada, because "unshared experience" is a contradiction in terms. To put it conversely, at the deepest level of our being, experience is always experience-with; experience is with and with is experience.
Bob, I'm not saying you're full of it -- yet -- but could you say a little more about this?
Well, think about the principle of Incarnation. What does it imply? What does it presuppose, and what does it bring about? For me, it isn't just the most radical idea ever, but literally the most radical idea conceivable, because it is the con-ception of infinitude in the womb of finitude. Barron puts it more plainly (in reference to the prologue of John):
The primordial divine conversation partner becomes a creature in order to draw creation into the embrace of the divine life.... Through the incarnation, the coinherence of the Father and the Logos seeks to provoke a coinherence of creation with God and of creatures with one another.
Reality is a coinherence, and coinherence is an unending conversation; or better, a trialogue at the edge of the subjective horizon where Self and Other meet in a mutually indwelling I AMbrace.
This being the case, a philosophy such as atheistic materialism is still going to be a conversation -- for it cannot not be -- but the person engaging in it is simply talking to himself. Truly, it is a glorified cognitive onanism, which is precisely why they are such infertile eggheads even if they're master debaters.
Let's wrap this up:
any philosophy, science, or worldview that does not see relationality, being-for-the-other, as ontologically fundamental must be false.... what the mind correctly seeks as it goes out to meet the intelligibility of the real is always a form of coinherence (Barron).
Put it this way: when your intelligence goes out to meet the world, the world meets it more than halfway, and is pleased to engage you in nonstop conversation via its own intelligibility.
Indeed, the world never stops blabbering, not just truths about itself, but how about all the beauty? Sometimes we are tempted to say: okay, we get it. Awesome. Numinous. Marvelous. Can I just eat my waffle?
But the same principle applies vertically; and it only applies horizontally because of this. In other words, if you have ears to hear and eyes to see, the experience of revelation (and the nonlocal experience that is revelation) never stops.
6 comments:
The most dispiriting solitude is not lacking neighbors, but being deserted by God;
To be a Christian is to not be alone despite the solitude that surrounds us.
I'd add that to be a Christian is to not be alone even in our worst moments of fear and panic.
Most people I know seem to be dealing with the circumstances of the day with a certain amount of anxious acceptance, and trying to focus on getting through this day, as best they can. There is one I know, though, who is enraged, terrified, and fearful; she's a doctor, seeing things up close, so I get it. But it's clear, too, that she has no awareness that even in the midst of this, she is not alone. We are not alone. And whatever happens, even when it is terrible suffering, the suffering is shared by the One who loves us and suffers with us, no matter how isolated we may feel.
We don't understand it, we can't control it. But we are not alone, and knowing that can make all the difference.
The circumstances of the day...are not exactly trivial in the scheme of things. What we know about ourselves boils down to the following:
Each of us is here to implement a specific life plan which involves making sure certain experiences happen. It is our curriculum vitae as it were.
Your soul is not going to tolerate any attempt to withdraw from life. The soul is your captain, and it has ways of making sure sh*t happens the way it is supposed to.
Each day is a significant chunk of potential and is not to be squandered or frittered away. Yes you can have some slack, but you will not be permitted to overdo it.
Therefore, spending time among the tenured rabble will be carried out if that's what it takes. There will be ample time also to be in the presence of God by the rushing waters.
Balance. Moderation. Keep your eyes on the ball. This is an important game. Play well.
- Intimate Moment
The Bible is full of moderation. And it isn’t of the milquetoast kind like a Woody Allen character, or the devious third way centrist kind like Clintonism, but an honest and well thought out kind of moderation. A proper balance between personal responsibility and social responsibility.
Lies are the enemy. The people of the lie are the enemy. And they’ve gotten very good at their lies. They've gotten so good at lying that people being lied to believe that God would never ever let them be lied to.
The liars know us little people better then we know ourselves. They know how to get people to vote against their interests, to make enemies of good people, to get people to substitute mammon for Christ by making Jesus out to be some kind of cold-hearted asshole who rewards loyalty to Him with wealth and power.
There’s also a fair amount of wisdom in the Bible, especially when it comes to detecting these liars. But little people tend to be very good at fully immersing their entire being in the rationalization of other peoples lies. But where in the Bible does it offer the keys to unlock oneself from the prison of their own rationalizations for other peoples lies?
The children know this and are leaving Christianity.
Anonymous 10:36, all prior attempts understand your emphasis on sociopaths, liars, and little people versus big people, have been in vain. I can't fathom what your weltanshaung may be. Certainly you have been traumatized.
The function of any religion, be it Christianity, OnanO, or what have you, is not to provide keys to unlock oneself from the prison of one's own rationalization for other peoples lies. That is not it. The purpose of religion is to address existential anxiety in toto.
The children are not leaving Christianity. They are joining it. Christianity is extremely popular and grows more so over time. Where did you obtain your idea the children were leaving? Certainly most youth go through a period of rebellion and turn away from religion, but by age 25 this is done and they come back. Perhaps this temporary separation is what you are noticing.
Regarding lies: People lie like rugs, one learns to be careful, it need not be a preoccupation.
Politics is very bent, very spun, rife with untruth, but it has to be that way to function. That is just how it works. Somehow policies get implemented, food gets on the table, and law and order mostly prevails.
Happenstance can be very objectionable, life is unpredictable, bad things happen. But, to dwell on the negative is not really a good way to spend a life.
That being said, I do enjoy your comments, and every time I encounter a sociopath I say to myself, "Anonymous, there goes another one."
-Daddy Issues
https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
Some say the decline of Christianity simply mirrors the decline of everything meatspace social. The young don’t join the Elks, Masons, or other civic organizations much anymore because they're doing Facebook instead.
Others say that they’re still religious, but are exhausted working multiple jobs and attend service once a month or whenever they’re up for it.
I myself used to try and comfort my aging minister uncle about the demise of many of his brother ministers churches. Buddies he’d graduated from seminary with and traded decades of Christmas newsletters with, were one by one closing up their churches he'd pout. So I’d tell uncle that it was just the Costco-ization of America. Why go to the little corner grocery when Costco gives you so much more to choose from? Megachurches have live bands and laser light shows, dude! But then I noticed that my sisters Christmas megachurch service, always packed, was only half full this year.
My catholic in-laws say their parishes are still busy but have gone mostly Hispanic.
Internet searches yield many reasons and theories about what’s going on. I don't think the Democratic Party colluding with China and Islam can be fully to blame.
My problem is that whenever I sense something on a grand cultural level, especially if it’s sociopathic, I try to confirm or dispel my sensings objectively. Believe me, I’ve considered just being a good consumer livestock animal who bleats about his latest Amazon purchase, or doing a full Vanederleun and just minding my own business as long as others just mind theirs, or doing some end of days homesteading like a guy I know who has a basement full of Bakker Buckets. But there seems to be something seriously wrong with me. Why can’t I just price gouge for mediocre services like a normal human? Or cheat on my wife like my one neighbor or encroach on my property like my other neighbor or pretend to be my buddy while conning me like my still other neighbor? Sinning’s supposed to be great fun because you don’t give a damn since you can rationalize anything. But I’m different. Maybe this is what insanity is?
My jury is still out on this fellow, but this is interesting, and some Meister Eckhart ref's as well.
Vertical Causation and Wholeness, Philosophy of Physics, Wolfgang Smith:
Vertical causality made its appearance in the context of the measuring problem in quantum mechanics, where it could be identified by the fact that it acts “instantaneously.”1 Whereas the previously known modes of causation — subsequently referred to as “horizontal” — operate in time by way of a transmission through space, vertical causality operates directly, without the mediation of any such process. That “instantaneity” or lack of process came thus to be taken, in effect, as the defining characteristic of vertical causality. But whereas this criterion may serve to identify VC, it does not tell us whence it acts and what it effects. It is time, now, to broach these deeper questions: time to delve into the metaphysics of VC, in the hope that this may shed light as well upon questions of scientific significance. I begin, then, with the definitive claim that vertical causation is nothing more — and nothing less — than the causation effected by wholeness...."
I haven't finished it yet, but... interesting.
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