Re: Acceptance and growth
- From: jjsargent@xxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:01:26 GMT
On Jun 28, 8:38=A0am, Bob Crowley <bobcrow...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[snip most]
[quoting Simone Weil:]
The spectacle of this world is another, more certain proof. =A0Pure
goodness is not anywhere to be found in it. =A0Either God is not
almighty, or he is not absolutely good, or else he does not command
everywhere where he has the power to do so.
If God does not command where He can, and therefore
chooses to let evil go on and hurt people, and therefore
gives His implicit support to evil, the third case reduces
to the second, that He is not absolutely good.
I find Nietzsche's description of his sufferings and his
handling thereof (e.g., in his odd autobiography,
_Ecce Homo_) much more helpful than any Christian
theodicy; as I've said before, theodicy (such as that
of Weil's which you quoted) is always unconvincing.
Indeed, I find Nietzsche's writings in general more
bracing and healthful than Christian writings.
I would not go so far as to say of *all* Christians
what Nietzsche wrote -- that he felt the need to
wash his hands after contact with religious people --
but I can see his point. I have gradually come to
feel freer and healthier since I left Christianity than
I ever did while I was a Christian; perhaps I might
still have gotten some of the insights I have gotten
had I remained a Christian, but I believe having the
latitude to be secular has really been helpful.
(Indeed, Harvey Cox in his classic [1965] book
_The Secular City_ suggested that secularization --
the disappearance of Christianity from its total
influence over every aspect of society -- is a
realization of the Kingdom of God.)
Ernest Renan, who wrote a controversial
_Life of Jesus_ in the 1800s, imagined Christ
saying to him, "You must leave Me if you would
be My disciple." Even Voltaire, who regarding
the Church famously said "Ecrasez l'infame!"
(Crush the infamous thing!), prayed to God,
"I am not a Christian but that is to love You
better." Perhaps I am in the same line as those
two Frenchmen, despite having very little French
ancestry....
-- Jeffrey J. Sargent
.
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