12/2/08

The Godhead’s Goathead

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Posted by Ken
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9 comments:

  1. **December 3, 2008 at 12:54 PM

    I just have to share this article about the death of atheism.

    http://catholicexchange.com/2008/12/03/113796/

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  2. Scary JesusDecember 3, 2008 at 6:19 PM

    If you think there will be a time when atheism doesn't exist you are fooling yourself.

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  3. AnonymousDecember 4, 2008 at 2:43 AM

    Scary, to be honest, the mystics and the ecumenical religious world will make you irrelevant very soon. Relativistic nothingness cannot beat relativistic religion. People are getting bored with atheism. Unless it leads to Christ Consciousness and self-deification through mysticism and social justice, it's just materialism. Atheism is much too dogmatic to exist in our pluralistic climate as relevant for very long. One of these days you'll be bowing at some altar because Deepak, the Pope, or Tony Blair tell you to, 'cause no one's dying for atheism.

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  4. Scary JesusDecember 4, 2008 at 6:59 AM

    Blue3, intersting point. I suppose you could be right up to a point. Even more possible is that the muslim world will be succesful in it's goal of breeding the rest of us off the map and all but wiping out Christianity in its wake. But I'll never bow at any altar. I've done my share of that.

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  5. AnonymousDecember 4, 2008 at 9:05 AM

    "Atheism is much too dogmatic to exist in our pluralistic climate as relevant for very long."

    I think this misses the point completely. At least the point as I see it. Once religion becomes a private affair that respects secular governance and community, then atheism does not need to exist, and can instead melt away naturally. It is not mysticism that will make atheism irrelevant, but the secular welfare state. When people stop citing religious scripture to justify social policy, then atheists will be out of a job, and be the happier for it. By the time atheism has become irrelevant, so has theism.

    Since you made such a funny prediction, I'll make one too, if not so funny. Within the next two decades atheism and theism alike will become irrelevant, when survival instinct kicks in.

    The Earth civilization is facing a global crisis on multiple fronts. Exponential economic growth has become unsustainable, and the system is heading for collapse. Population growth is becoming unsustainable, and birth control must eventually become a worldwide policy. Are religious doctrines going to help there? Natural resources are being depleted, an energy crisis looms, and we are killing the environment. (Economy killing the Earth, Economic collapse, Overconsumption, Take the Crash Course)

    If not already obvious to most people, it soon will be, how powerless and impotent religious ideals are in dealing with these problems, and even exacerbates them by subverting the scientific effort and turning public opinion against those on whom the task ultimately falls to fix this g**damned mess. The solutions aren't going to come from religions.

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  6. **December 4, 2008 at 12:38 PM

    adonais, you are 100% wrong.

    All of the problems you mentioned have already been addressed in Catholic social teaching

    The problem is the secular world refuses to even consider the solutions because they reject the source. It is self-defeating bigotry in action.

    The rejection is solely because the authors answers are in harmony with both science confirmed natures and God's revelation.

    Secularists for the most part will only consider answers that are inconsistent with God's revelation.

    All your answers are right here:
    http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

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  7. **December 4, 2008 at 12:40 PM

    adonais, you are 100% wrong.

    All of the problems you listed have already been addressed in Catholic social teaching.

    The problem is the secular world refuses to consider the solutions because they reject the source. It is self-defeating bigotry in action.

    The rejection is solely because the authors answers are in harmony with both science confirmed natures and God's revelations.

    All your answers are right here:
    http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

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  8. AnonymousDecember 4, 2008 at 7:03 PM

    "Child of God" -

    Is this a joke? This document contains all the answers, you say?

    I must confess I do not see them, perhaps you would be so good as to point out a few. Just one practical solution to any of the issues I mentioned earlier would be interesting to see.

    As far as I can tell, in between all the Bible verses and exhalations about transcendence, this compendium seems to do little more than to document the Church's attempt to play catch-up with modernity. Its "solutions" and answers appear to be of the form:

    The Church appreciates “the advantages that result — and can still result — from the study and applications of molecular biology, supplemented by other disciplines such as genetics and its technological application in agriculture and industry”.[956] In fact, technology “could be a priceless tool in solving many serious problems, in the first place those of hunger and disease, through the production of more advanced and vigorous strains of plants, and through the production of valuable medicines”[957].

    So, we shall employ modern science and technology etc. I can't argue with that, but you know, a fifth grader could have come up with this as well. This is just endorsement, stating the obvious. Are you trying to give the church credit for the science that enables us to attack these problems? It appears to be all of this kind. Further down it goes on saying:

    465. The Magisterium underscores human responsibility for the preservation of a sound and healthy environment for all.[977] “If humanity today succeeds in combining the new scientific capacities with a strong ethical dimension, it will certainly be able to promote the environment as a home and a resource for man and for all men, and will be able to eliminate the causes of pollution and to guarantee adequate conditions of hygiene and health for small groups as well as for vast human settlements.

    That is very reassuring, and I'm glad to hear it. And how will it be accomplished? And in the event that humanity eventually succeeds with this ethical assimilation of science, the church will take credit for it?

    Technology that pollutes can also cleanse, production that amasses can also distribute justly, on condition that the ethic of respect for life and human dignity, for the rights of today's generations and those to come, prevails”.[978]

    Fine. So, when do we get to the part that tells us how to do all these things? Wait - that was the end of the section?

    And so on.

    Religions are incapable of fixing the problems that are going to need fixing in the near future. All they can do is pontificate, condemn and endorse. Now this is a significant power that the church holds, but it is all squandered on idealistic fantasies about transcendence and God's Plan. Religions could potentially be a much more useful and constructive force, if they weren't dragging around that ball and chain called the Bible and the Koran.

    And for all its lofty talk about "human dignity" and respect for life, religious conservatives have under the Bush administration subverted democracy and done great harm to US welfare policy. This is required reading: The Stupidity of Dignity.

    But perhaps I'm being too harsh. I certainly have not read the whole compendium carefully - perhaps the novel practical solutions really are there and I just missed them. If this is the case, then perhaps you would help me along with some pointers to the substance that I am looking for. How will the future economy work? Will money exist? How should we regulate population growth? Etc.

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  9. Derek_MDecember 8, 2008 at 5:44 AM

    Thanks for posting this Mariano. It is a wonderful little essay.

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