Friday, October 28, 2022

On the Value of Intelligence and Satan's Big Idea

Let’s get back to Chesterton’s claim that both reason and religion are “methods of proof which cannot themselves be proved.” 

Let us stipulate up front that Chesterton was no one’s idea of a proper philosopher, but rather, the opposite: a man with common sense. And what is common sense?

the father’s house to which philosophy returns, every so often, feeble and emaciated.
Now, because we are always stalking the miracle of unity — i.e., simultaneously looking toward and through the One in One Cosmos — we are drawn to the Idea that there are ideas about which we should all be able to agree, so long as we value intelligence. This has to do with the very nature of intelligence as such, and let Sr. Dávila explain what I mean; first, that
Agreement is eventually possible between intelligent men because intelligence is a conviction they share.
Well, do we? Or do we not? This is the first question to sort out. But let me get to the second aphorism, which adverts to the promise that 
In each moment, each person is capable of possessing the truths that matter.
Is this true, or even possibly true? Yes, and I want to say it is because we are persons (change my mind), and that our mysterious ability to *possess* truth is precisely one of the essential attributes of persons as such. 

Put conversely, who else but a person has this potential? And who else but a person could be so stupid as to disagree with Bob, let alone Petey?

Having said that, despite Petey’s quasi-omniscience, “possess” makes me wince just a little, because it is a good rule of thumb that when someone claims to be in possession of Truth, it’s time to reach for one’s revolver. Others insist that there is no such thing as "truth," in which case it is time to reach for one’s machine gun. 

As we know, it’s all about the philo in philosophy: a love of wisdom, never its ownership. We have both a right and an obligation to wisdom, but this presupposes a source and ground that is not us

The first and most consequential error of which we know is man’s presumption that he is this source, and the rest is history, 32 feet per second per second, which is to say, the speed of our vertical plunge. It's like the expansion of the cosmos, which is always happening.

Vis-a-vis Chesterton’s comment above, reason is a method, while religion is usually thought of as a content. But a method is not a recipe, and content is not arbitrary. Moreover, we are able to reason about religion, while reason elevated to rationalism becomes a pseudo-religion. It is religion stripped of intelligence, precisely. 

It is also possible to have the intelligence of religion without the reason, but this betrayal ends in fundamentalist nonsense. I suppose it’s less deadly than atheistic nonsense, but I wouldn’t want to live in either form of stupidity. 

Ideas that matter. Do they exist? What are they? You will have noticed that left and right can be defined by the ideas that matter to them. 

For example, what the left calls “diversity” not only doesn’t matter to me, but I regard it as literally diabolical (as in the devil as scatterer-in-chief). 

The same can be said of other Important Ideas such as relativism, multiculturalism, equity, materialism, feminism, queer theory, transgenderism, socialism, ablism, atheism, fascism, racism, “antiracism" (but I repeat myself) and many more.

Is there a common thread that unites these diabolical ideas, besides their author? Or, put another way, what is Satan’s Big Idea?

Before getting to that, another aphorism: 
In certain eras the intelligence has to devote itself merely to restoring definition.
Here I have to disagree with my Colombian friend, because this must occur in every era.

How did it get to be 11:30? I have to go, but one last point: above I said that religion is a "content." But what if the ultimate content is Personhood and all it implies? Let's save something for tomorrow.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’ve long wanted a science of cosmology. But some say “Well isn’t Tsoukalos a scientist? His hair’s even crazier than Einsteins!” Then others say “Well I’m a cosmologist and could probably fix that hair.” And then the conversation devolves from there.

The problem we have is that while science hammers the postulations down into theorems and eventually laws, the cosmologist blow the laws up into theorems and postulations which don’t even come close to jibing. IOW, we get lots of people saying all different stuff. All that babbling gets confusing.

Cousin Dupree said...

Sometimes not even confusing.

julie said...

Or, put another way, what is Satan’s Big Idea?

A good article touching on that (if not in precisely those words) here. TL;DR: Men and women aren't having children.

Scrolling through Instapundit to find that link, a passing post on the religion of climate change had me thinking of another distinction between the Truth and what the other guy has to offer: The Truth gives people a reason to live; and not just to live, but to hope in the future even when things seem bleak in the present. The other guy? Well, he offers sterilization, the destruction of most of humanity in order to save the earth, hopelessness, a complete lack of mercy, and especially any number of reasons both to die and to kill your offspring before you start developing feelings for them.

Way of life vs. the way of death, or: same as it ever was.

Gagdad Bob said...

Translation of Japanese review of the Allman Brothers:

Hey, I was surprised. You should be listening to “mountain jam”, but you can hear Birdland and oh shenandoah in weather reports.

Speaking of 2004, Greg 56 years old, other members also got oil, sweet and ripe in fruit. Some kind of alchemy has been subjected to a series of amazing performances that are completely different from the “Ikeike feeling.”

I'm a highly favorite listener and age, so I haven't listened to locks since the 21st century, but that level of rock (can you call it?) I don't think the music and this live are of the same value.

“Leila” and The night they drop old dixie down and Don't think two it's alright is also a repertoire to be surprised. And Greg's throat strong!

Only those who compete for their individual arms and continue to reign as a live band is a fertile rock.

Nothing to say, you should buy it. And you should take it to the graveyard.

Anonymous said...

Not all things in humankid form are persons because some are demons in empty shell bodies and those are called SJWs and the Left and rightly called NPCs.

Gagdad Bob said...

Demons are considered persons, just not human persons. NPCs are an interesting case, but still, only a person can sink beneath his own personhood.

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