Hypocrites and Helium Balloons

Who am I? Have you ever thought about that question? Undoubtedly, you probably have. Who hasn't thought about themselves. What I deserve. What I desire. What I know. What I don't know. Who am I, and where I am going. But really, what about me? That question probably echoes in the recesses of your mind the epitome of why you exist. Who am I and what is the meaning of my life. For most of us, the question is simplified to, where am I going?

If you are athletic, maybe you'll go to the NFL. Dramatic, a movie star. Intelligent, a doctor. Good looking, a model. Funny, a comedian. You get the point. But more fundamental is the question, who are you and where are you going? The underlying premise is that who you are is much more than what talent/characteristic you have. Who you are is mostly centered in what you believe about the world around you, and your place in that world. Also, who you are and where you are going finds its origin in where you have come from. Lets think about this ontologically.

If you came from a single-celled organism, one that has evolved over millions of years, then you are presently in a world of billions of people who are also in the same category. The meaning for your existence can only come from your circumstances. Only the strong survive.

If your existence derives from outside yourself, where does that come from and what impact does that have on the meaning for your life. Are you measuring yourself against the teachings of Muhammad. Maybe you see the world as god. God is in everything. Maybe the world is supernatural itself. Their are certain fairies, or demigods, that we must respect in order to have harmony. Maybe you rely upon the teachings of Jesus, found in the Bible.

I don't know where you stand. However, it seems apparent that what you think about yourself inevitably begins with what you think about the natural or supernatural. Inevitably, you will live what you believe. The problem is that most people do not live what they profess to believe, thus, they do not know who they really are because they have deceived themselves. Its like breathing in air from a helium balloon. You breathe in the world around you, only to expel it in a way contrary to how you usually do. Thus, your profession is changed because your source is not substantive, or solid. You become a hypocrite.

So, what source are you drawing from. And more importantly, is the source you draw from consistent with who you truly are. If not, maybe you should look at your source more carefully. Helium can only last so long before it disappears.

Think on That!

My bread and butter.

As promised, this is a post on my reading involving education and the Christian. This post comes by way of the book I am currently reading, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling. It is authored by James Sire.

The portion of this book that struck a chord in my mind is under a heading labeled, The Intellect as Battlefield. Sire claims that Intellectuals "watch ideas clash, pick up the pieces and start over again." Now, let it be known initially that Sire notes the difference between those who are intellectuals seeking after ideas compared to those who are intellectuals seeking after truth. This should clarify the inherent purpose that each category reflects.

What I like about this section is that Sire denotes that ideas, and the apprehension of those ideas in the university, are flawed and even re-worked. They are not absolute, like say, truth. They are more flexible, like butter spread over too much bread. There is plenty to go around, but the farther it goes, the more shallow and less rich it becomes. To prove this point, listen to Sire's point. His comment will end the blog for today.

"Philosophies lie like dying soldiers on the pages of history. Aristotle bests Plato; Plotinus leapfrogs Aristotle to save Plato by transforming him. Augustine raids the neo-Platonic Plotinus and Manicheans, then rejects the latter and transforms the former. Aquinas raids Aristotle and transforms his philosophy. These are not the sounds of ignorant armies clashing by night; they are the sounds of ideas launched by bows and cannons and missile launchers, fended off by shields and bucklers and pillboxes, or detected by radar and destroyed midair. The intellectual battlefield is strewn with corpses. Then out of the barracks of the universities come new heroes, young intellectuals. Each one surveys the filed, spies a corpse or perhaps a battalion of corpses, breathes new life into the bodies, and a new army forms. So arise the neo-Aristotelians, the neo-neo-Platonists, the neo-gnostics, the neo-scholastics. Freedom fighters or guerrillas - take your pick - from the ranks of the pseudo-intellectuals join the fray - the deconstructionists, the mere sociologists of knowledge, the postmodern brokers of power."

Thus, ideas are shaped and changed, usually by those who received their education in the university. But who cares, right? We will always have the butter of different ideas. To that I say you may be right. But be careful! Your excitement over the butter may leave you with little, or no, bread. And, by the way, no one can live on butter forever.

Think on That!

BTW: A big thanks to Bilbo Baggins for the butter and bread illustration.

Philosophy: My faithful friend and educated counselor

Philosophy. What does that word strike into your mind. Do you think of meaningless prattle. How about noble ambitions. Do you feel disgusted or excited. Is it boring or thrilling. Is it meaningful or bland. I would submit that philosophy is, in essence, an intemplation (my own word) of reality. It is discovery, experience, deduction, inference, discussion, and validity all mixed together.

In an abstract sense, philosophy is the beat that ideologies dance too. In a concrete manner, philosophy is the discipline that complements all other disciplines. It is the discipline that gives validity, and clear meaning to the primary discipline. Philosophy is a second-order discipline with a first order punch. But the most exciting thing about philosophy to me is that it is endless. It seems to go on forever, and yet their is a rhythm to its truths. Philosophy is, for me, one of the most challenging and freeing things I have ever encountered. What about you? Are you enthralled too?

Think on That!

The Golden Compass: Rehashed

After a brutal day at work last week, I stopped by the local movie store to rent some movies for a surprise movie night with the wife. I picked up The Golden Compass and Atonement. Needless to say, neither movie left us feeling exhilarated, interested, or even excited. Inherently, they left us empty, as meaning was apparently aloof. However, it did leave one desirable point of compensation. It engaged my mind to think of the inherent emptiness that life has within an Atheistic/Naturalistic world view.

Can this be true? Is Atheism meaningless? From an experiential side, I don't know! I have never been an Atheist. I can only comment subjectively. However, the strength of meaningless Atheism does not come from those who have never experienced it, but from those who have experienced it, and are continuing to live in it. Inevitably, Atheism brings to my mind anger, intoleration, deception, justifiable interest, and aggression. I don't mean to imply that people who are Atheist act like this, but it seems apparent that many do (e.g. Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, etc...) Now, while these men are labeled the "New Atheist", they share these condescending flaws with everyone else, supposedly, who is a practicing Atheist.

What does this have to do with the movies previously mentioned. Well, for Atonement there is not a whole lot. However, for the Golden Compass, everything. For those of you who have training in the liberal arts, you will immediately be able to see trends that are very common in our world today. Intolerance, Feminism (as the girl winds the heart of the boy in this movie), Vigilant Justice , Anti-Authoritarianism (Since the Magisterium, the version of Christianity in their world, are deceptive and intolerant), Tyranny of the Majority, Torture, Rebellion, etc.... Needless to say, most of these concepts propose might, power, and chaos. There is nothing that proposes meaning for the betterment of society. This movie, from my observation, promotes humanistic existentialism, laced with Atheism, that encourages children to change the world and authority structure to the way they want it if things seem to be 'unfair'! In other words, challenge your authority and change the world! That may be true. The question is, What authority, if any, should be challenged?

Also, if you have children, PLEASE DO NOT LET THEM WATCH THIS MOVIE. I am not saying that because I am a Christian, and I think that everything NOT CHRISTIANIZED (YES, THERE IS AN -ed) is bad. I am saying it because there is nothing heroic, noble, or just in this movie that seeks to serve a greater purpose.

Think on That!

P.S. All comments desired and appreciated. Tell me what you think, and if you have seen the movie.

Announcement

I am back! For any of you (friends, readers, co-workers, etc...) that were reading my blog, I am now back, making a triumphant return here on June 1. My apologies for not writing in the month of May. If you are or have been a student, you understand that term papers, finals, and a 30 hr a week job do not mesh well with blogging (or anything else for that matter).

I have not forgotten that I have scheduled some writing events for the next couple of months. While I intend to cover some of those areas, I do not know how concretely I can explore them. Currently, I am working about 40 hrs a week, with about 30 hrs of training to complete for my job over the next two months. I also have a steady reading plan laid out, so some of my blog's may come from insights gleaned from these readings. These readings include:
Philosophical Foundations for a Christian World View; Decision Making and the Will of God; Guide us, Guard us; Consensus and Renewal; Renewing Minds; Reasonable Faith, A Theology for the Church, Kingdom Triangle, and a few others.

I highly doubt that I will be able to read all of these by the end of the summer, but I should get to them all by the end of the year. Anyway, I am back and my next post will be on the topic of Atheism and the Movies. I look to do that tomorrow evening, probably late after work. I hope to hear from you who are reading my blog, and I will continue to write as best I can. Remember, "Life is never as exciting as when you are exploring a new idea!" Think on that.