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Fisherman

Standing on liquid

mood: relaxed relaxed
music: Jane Monheit, "If"
Couldn't go to the office today. Just couldn't. It's gorgeous today, and all I want to do right now is be here, on my patio, finishing my late breakfast, reading for pleasure, jotting out thoughts as they come, listening to music, and enjoying the perfect mix of sun and shade. John's out and everything I have to do will keep.

Here's the catch-22 about belief:
  1. We all do what we do based on what we believe. Not what we say we believe, but what we really believe, even if only in the moment. All of us. Every one.
  2. We live in a time and culture where we are told all beliefs are to be valued/appreciated/celebrated equally. One of the only "wrongs" is not to agree with this.
  3. Some of us (and in some ways, all of us) do some horrible things based on what we believe (see pinkroo's post and thisglimpse's post for this morning's examples on a governmental scale).
  4. Because of #2, those things can't really be classified as wrong, because they were based on #1.
I'm not saying anything new or revolutionary here; I guess I'm just surprised that we're surprised as much as we are. We still experience the outrage of knowing something is wrong, but immediately run into dissonance, because we aren't really allowed to use that category for anything anymore. If we do, it's conditional and relative, shifting so quickly that it's much more liquid than solid. And good luck standing on liquid.

But Jesus could do it, so I'll trust Him.
Tags: ,

Posted on Jun. 20th, 2005 at 11:40 am | | Communicate | 6 communications |

Comments


thisglimpse

CS Lewis talks about this a bit in Mere Christianity - how we allow our fellow man to believe whatever he wants, until he doesn't something he "oughtn't." But "oughts" come from belief systems.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2005 07:17 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

thisglimpse

More shrewd thinkers would divide it into personal and public - you can believe and think and do whatever you want, as long as it doesn't affect anyone else. The problem with this is that we end up settling on a very crude and basic definition of what affects everyone else, rejecting the more subtle and profound ways our actions affect others. As a result, we end up with a severely disconnected society, with little sense of community. And that degrades us.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2005 07:20 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

musicismath

exactly! moral relativism. ugh.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2005 07:34 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

banzai

I really like seeing you around these parts again.
Posted on Jun. 21st, 2005 01:35 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

agy

i appreciate what you've said because you've pointed to a problem in this postmodern thought that there is an obvious Answer and yet making the Answer relative to current society. call me idealistic, but i do think its possible to appreciate the current time period of thought and keeping the focus in place. i dunno...
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2005 08:02 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

rachelheather04

And good luck standing on liquid.

But Jesus could do it, so I'll trust Him.


love this.
Posted on Jun. 21st, 2005 04:32 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply