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Rebellious

Feb. 8th, 2009 09:31 am
poliphilo: (Default)
[personal profile] poliphilo
We're not going to church today. There's still ice on the ground- and Ailz is afraid of falling- or of me losing control of the wheelchair on the hill.

Isn't it odd? I've been going to church for just over a month- and already I see it as some sort of an obligation. Do I think God will be angry if I don't go? Well, maybe, because that's how I thought as a child and we never entirely shrug off such things. Of course with my upper- adult- mind I scorn the idea. Why I don't even believe in God.

So why am I going at all? Is it because I feel I owe it to the people?

Here's something I haven't written about yet- or only hinted at.  It's about feeling the need to choose sides. I've been getting increasingly annoyed over the past few years with what I see as the largely mindless embrace of atheistic materialism by the intelligentsia, the commentariat, by the sort of people who set the tone in our world. I don't mean David Attenborough- because his atheism is clearly part of a well-articulated, Darwinian world-view.  I mean journalists, reviewers, comedians, actors- that sort of cannaille. They haven't thought things through or considered the evidence- how could they when they're so busy with their careers?-  they're merely conforming to the fashionable philosophy of the day.  They make me cross.

And rebellious.

Yes, I believe in ghosts/fairies/aliens/angels. Why not?  Show me the evidence that they don't exist. In a quantum universe where over 90% of the matter that must exist is invisible to us I don't see how anything can be ruled out as too far-fetched.

The materialists are still working with a mid-nineteenth century model of the universe.

"What do you believe in, Johnny?"

"Whaddaya got?"

Anyway, that's one of the many reasons I'm going to church- to take my stand alongside the believers- even though their beliefs are not exactly mine.

Oh, and another thing I believe in is intelligent design. Not Genesis, not the Biblical account- which is plainly myth- but in the possibility that evolution is a process set in motion and helped along by intelligence.  Yes I know that's not science- and I don't care. I don't think science- with its dogmatically materialist,19th century guidelines - is capable of giving us a full account of the universe.

Date: 2009-02-08 12:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] upasaka.livejournal.com
Well said! Part of the reason I have remained active in Freemasonry (which does not allow atheist members, at least in all but one large French jurisdiction) is that very desire to stand with the believers. To most of the guys in my lodge, that means Protestant Christianity -- post-Wesleyan Methodism in particular -- but the details are not as important as is broader idea.

I'm not sure I like the phrase "intelligent Design" because it puts a picture in my mind of God As Behavioural Psychologist with the earth as his Great Maze and Humans as lab rats, but I don't for a momet believe that all this has happened completely randomly, either. It's also a phrase that in this country has become associated with evangelical fundamentalism, which I have very little patience with.

And I haven't seen the word cannaille since I was preparing for the SATs in 1978. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Date: 2009-02-08 02:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
Intelligent design is a tainted phrase, but I don't know of a better one that's in common use. "Creationism" is even ghastlier.

Sometimes the right word is the French word- especially when one is curling one's lip in elegant scorn.

What I tell people is...

Date: 2009-02-08 07:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jubal51394.livejournal.com
Intelligent design is not a question of whether God created the heavens and the earth. It is only a dispute about how.

Re: What I tell people is...

Date: 2009-02-08 07:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] daisytells.livejournal.com
I'm with jubal on this one. That's what my Roman Catholic upbringing held to be so. Thank you Teilhard de Chardin!

Re: What I tell people is...

Date: 2009-02-08 08:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
Ah yes, I read Teilhard back in the 70s. Fascinating man.

Re: What I tell people is...

Date: 2009-02-08 08:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
Nice way of putting it!

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