okay...back after the campus christmas service, and some time to think.
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Originally Posted by wilbjammin
My fundamental argument with most religion is that many of the answers to questions about existence are to questions that cannot be answered. Additionally, I think those answers still are mired in absurdity that is much more convoluted than accepting that there are many things that we just cannot know fundamentally.
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To me, this is precisely the reason why we talk about them. i don't have many Answers, in an absolute and final sense. But, niether will i resign myself to simply not knowing. My faith life is the continued exploration of these questions, using the vocabulary and constructs of Christian practice. I find that by doing so, i am brought deeper in to the knowledge of the love of God for all creation. This, alone, is enough to justify my faith. That my seach might someday provide an "Answer" in this life or the next...is almost superfluous. If i wanted an asnwer, i'd say 42. I'm much more interested in the question.
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As for language... I understand the power of language, I'm a fan of literature and I'm a poet. I think one can respect literature and religions for the language used and the metaphors and stories of their mythologies. And it really is impossible to ignore religion (particularly Christianity) because the language pervades our society. As Flannery O'Conner says, we are haunted by Christianity at the least.
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One of the main reasons i'm a Christian. If i want to think theologically, all i have to do is pick up a book written in this culture. bright, soulful and gifted women and men have recorded their thoughts in this language for 2000 years, many thousand more in the Hebrew traditions. This wealth of language is one of the most precious gifts i have recieved.
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The problems I see with the language center around when the interpretations of the language go on from being recognized as semblances and are treated the same as the tangible situations around us now. I don't understand how you could come to a conclusion like, "It's a deep part of my idenity because it has brought me to realize the power and beauty of God's love for creation." via figurative/religious/metaphorical language by itself. There's something more than language that you've latched onto, and your belief in it transcends metaphor and reason.
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Exactly. I'd offer no arguement to that. My language is trying to draw the line right up until the fuction hits error. Now, at that point there can be either God or the existentially absurd...but our math doesn't really cover that yet. So, i draw the rest of the line...and tell you what's going on, as much as i can.
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Kierkegaard would call this sort of transcendance absurd (and he appreciates it as a "knight of faith").
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My life is currently poorer for not reading Messuir Kierkegaard. I have long intended to correct that, but i must confess i will be a step behind your metaphors here.
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I have enough absurdity in my existence without leaping into more of it. I don't see why one would need an absurd ultimate meaning to go on living life... other animals certainly don't.
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I think there are better reasons than "other animals" but i digress.
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There is no logical explanation to believe in the stories of the Bible, though you can gain an absurd understanding of the universe through it that you can't get otherwise (except in other religions and beliefs that center around the same absurd understandings).
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If the stories were to relate to us in anything like a real way...could they have fairy tale endings, simple morals, clean plot lines, and rational proofs? Who would even read such a thing? The story must be engaging if it is to bring us out of ourselves, able to see a new way that is not dependant on the violence, competition, insecurity, and posessiveness that we humans seem to bask in as individuals and cultures.