SolitaryWalker
Tenured roisterer
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 3,504
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- 5w6
- Instinctual Variant
- so/sx
This is the question most commonly asked by religions. The most obvious answer we see is that you simply do what you're told. 'Monkey see, monkey do!'
This is the true compelling motto of religious thought and action.
In the book that I have just published, the Poverty of Conventionalism, Book Store Search Results
Religion is defined as a worldview propounding a metaphysical perspective, an inquiry into ethics, an inquiry into the afterlife (eschatology), yet also necessarily accept at least some of the axioms as incontrovertible.
Obviously such an attitude is very alluring to the mindset of any reasonable person searching for meaning in his life as we all need to have a coherent worldview, all want to have a sound system of ethics and all of us want to know about the questions of the afterlife. Religion offers all three of those. Yet what vitiates religion at the very core is that whatever views shall be propounded on those matters are to be accepted on authority. It does not matter if they are good or true, and in fact I may be compelled to call them good or true, not because in my own judgment they are so, but because religion exhorts me to believe that whatever is religious is good or true by definition. Or in other words, as Boxer from Animal Farm says, killing pigs is bad, but now if Napoleon has said this, it is a whole another thing. Or, I personally feel that murder and rape are an evil, yet if Stalin, the Pope, Zeus, Yahweh, or whoever my god is say that rape is virtuous I shall humbly acquiesce!
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This at the very essence is what it means to have faith. I shall guard this proposition with my whole being, lest I incur the wrath of my gods! I really do not know what the heck it means, but the well-being of the entire universe is contingent upon the scrupulous adherence to this! The more scrupulous, the better. And out of my undying love for my neighbor, I shall stop at nothing to have all think as I do, it is my own personal happiness that compels me to do so!
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Certainly, any reasonable person shall deem for all this to be stark non-sense, yet no propagandist of religion shall admit to this being the case. Only through genuine reflection can one possibly free himself from the tyranny of conventionalism, or the compunction to accept whatever non-sense has been inculcated upon us as immortal wisdom. Only genuine philosophical inquiry could shed light on such matters, and only the love of truth can lead man to acquisition of meaning in life.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This book analyzes the idea of Theism to the end of showing how such an idea relates to man's pursuit of meaning in life, and the development of civilization by and large. As must be clear by this point, the conclusion appears to be far from favorable to the belief in the personal god, yet because I wish to inculcate no dogma, I shall not impose any particular philosophy on the reader. It is my only purpose to show that philosophy has the potential to lead man to meaning in life. If that point is not to be proven, for the very least it can show that following this path can lead one to avoid the many difficulties the conventional religious individual is afflicted with. This point is to be taken solely by virtue of equation of philosophy with independently minded pursuit of truth, which religion is diametrically opposed to by virtue of the fourth definitive aspect. Namely the problem of sacrificing his whole inner being in favor of a rigid regime of thought and action that he neither understands nor values.
Arguments have been propounded, both on epistemic and ethical grounds in favor of the desirability of philosophy as guide to meaning in life and undesirability of religious authority. Ultimately, the just reader cannot fail to notice that the salient advantage of a philosophical worldview over a religious is that whilst both are able to fulfill the first 3 criteria, the philosophical view renders the fourth possible, so is not the case for the religious. In other words, philosophy does not lock one into a particular worldview which he shall have no hope of escaping, yet leaves him with the freedom of embracing what he truly deems sound. A religious view, no matter how sound in the light of objective truth or in light of ethical judgments, can make no pretense regarding providing man with meaning in life as in pure essence it exhorts him to prostitute his values in favor of the vainglory of the orthodox teaching. Or but shove his values and thoughts aside to pantomime the teachings he is expected to know 'with all thy heart and all thy soul'. In condensed form, religion cannot give man meaning in life because it does not allow for him to do his own thinking, thus whatever accomplishments he may reach due to religious influence shall doubtlessly be worthless because he pantomimes. Only what a man has reached on his own endeavor could he truly claim as integral to his identity and lifestyle, thefore only independent thought could claim to hold potential to endow man with meaning in life that religions vainly promise.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book Store Search Results
Poverty of Conventionalism, available through the publishing company for 15.95, shall be available through retail services for a significantly higher price within 45 days.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Authored by yours truly,
Co-author:Lind.
http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/members/lind.html
------------------------------------------------
Philosophical questions this book is concerned include, limitation of human knowledge, essence of divinity, possibility of religious prophecy and the ethical notion of what it means to have meaning in life.
This is the true compelling motto of religious thought and action.
In the book that I have just published, the Poverty of Conventionalism, Book Store Search Results
Religion is defined as a worldview propounding a metaphysical perspective, an inquiry into ethics, an inquiry into the afterlife (eschatology), yet also necessarily accept at least some of the axioms as incontrovertible.
Obviously such an attitude is very alluring to the mindset of any reasonable person searching for meaning in his life as we all need to have a coherent worldview, all want to have a sound system of ethics and all of us want to know about the questions of the afterlife. Religion offers all three of those. Yet what vitiates religion at the very core is that whatever views shall be propounded on those matters are to be accepted on authority. It does not matter if they are good or true, and in fact I may be compelled to call them good or true, not because in my own judgment they are so, but because religion exhorts me to believe that whatever is religious is good or true by definition. Or in other words, as Boxer from Animal Farm says, killing pigs is bad, but now if Napoleon has said this, it is a whole another thing. Or, I personally feel that murder and rape are an evil, yet if Stalin, the Pope, Zeus, Yahweh, or whoever my god is say that rape is virtuous I shall humbly acquiesce!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This at the very essence is what it means to have faith. I shall guard this proposition with my whole being, lest I incur the wrath of my gods! I really do not know what the heck it means, but the well-being of the entire universe is contingent upon the scrupulous adherence to this! The more scrupulous, the better. And out of my undying love for my neighbor, I shall stop at nothing to have all think as I do, it is my own personal happiness that compels me to do so!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certainly, any reasonable person shall deem for all this to be stark non-sense, yet no propagandist of religion shall admit to this being the case. Only through genuine reflection can one possibly free himself from the tyranny of conventionalism, or the compunction to accept whatever non-sense has been inculcated upon us as immortal wisdom. Only genuine philosophical inquiry could shed light on such matters, and only the love of truth can lead man to acquisition of meaning in life.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This book analyzes the idea of Theism to the end of showing how such an idea relates to man's pursuit of meaning in life, and the development of civilization by and large. As must be clear by this point, the conclusion appears to be far from favorable to the belief in the personal god, yet because I wish to inculcate no dogma, I shall not impose any particular philosophy on the reader. It is my only purpose to show that philosophy has the potential to lead man to meaning in life. If that point is not to be proven, for the very least it can show that following this path can lead one to avoid the many difficulties the conventional religious individual is afflicted with. This point is to be taken solely by virtue of equation of philosophy with independently minded pursuit of truth, which religion is diametrically opposed to by virtue of the fourth definitive aspect. Namely the problem of sacrificing his whole inner being in favor of a rigid regime of thought and action that he neither understands nor values.
Arguments have been propounded, both on epistemic and ethical grounds in favor of the desirability of philosophy as guide to meaning in life and undesirability of religious authority. Ultimately, the just reader cannot fail to notice that the salient advantage of a philosophical worldview over a religious is that whilst both are able to fulfill the first 3 criteria, the philosophical view renders the fourth possible, so is not the case for the religious. In other words, philosophy does not lock one into a particular worldview which he shall have no hope of escaping, yet leaves him with the freedom of embracing what he truly deems sound. A religious view, no matter how sound in the light of objective truth or in light of ethical judgments, can make no pretense regarding providing man with meaning in life as in pure essence it exhorts him to prostitute his values in favor of the vainglory of the orthodox teaching. Or but shove his values and thoughts aside to pantomime the teachings he is expected to know 'with all thy heart and all thy soul'. In condensed form, religion cannot give man meaning in life because it does not allow for him to do his own thinking, thus whatever accomplishments he may reach due to religious influence shall doubtlessly be worthless because he pantomimes. Only what a man has reached on his own endeavor could he truly claim as integral to his identity and lifestyle, thefore only independent thought could claim to hold potential to endow man with meaning in life that religions vainly promise.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book Store Search Results
Poverty of Conventionalism, available through the publishing company for 15.95, shall be available through retail services for a significantly higher price within 45 days.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Authored by yours truly,
Co-author:Lind.
http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/members/lind.html
------------------------------------------------
Philosophical questions this book is concerned include, limitation of human knowledge, essence of divinity, possibility of religious prophecy and the ethical notion of what it means to have meaning in life.
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