Religion
In reply to the discussion: Can You Prove It Didn't Happen? [View all]thucythucy
(8,048 posts)I keep suggesting to some of those pushing atheism in the religious forum that they at least read some of the more basic texts about the nature of what it is they're so busy trying to debunk. For instance, William James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience," which I know is dated, but is still I think a very good basic primer on the why and what of religious revelation.
I especially like his nutshell description of "religion" in his essay "The Reality of the Unseen."
"Were one asked to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto."
To me this is a sort of foreshadowing of Rev. King's comment that there is a "moral arc to the universe, and it bends toward justice." That might not be the exact quote, but you'll know the one I mean. Which assertion, BTW, was met with a hoot of derision from one of our resident atheists. Dr. King being one of those "smart people" that religion, according to this particular OP, has so much trouble dealing with. My response was that I didn't see religion having a problem with smart people so much as certain atheists having difficulty with smart people of faith. Their explanation, according to this OP, was that smart people of faith are either emotionally stunted, or lying to themselves and the rest of the world. Dr. King, Mahatma Gandhi, Reinhold Niebuhr, Christopher Durisingh, William Sloan Coffin, all of them evidently just not up to the intellectual snuff you need to be a devout atheist.
Someday I'd love to start a discussion here of "Moral Man and Immoral Society"--and the effect it had as a catalyst for Dr. King's political work. Also, have you ever read Carl Jung's introduction to "The Tibetan Book of the Dead"? I can't lay my hands on it just this moment, and it's been a while since I read it, but judging from your comments here I think you'd really enjoy it.
Best wishes and happy new year, and please forgive my late night ramblings.