I have since joining wordpress decided to be less self-censorial and just to say what the heck I mean… Which you’ll be able to see if you read some of my old posts and some of my new – I hope, even though I have changed my outlook. Let’s face it, given any two states of our lives we will have changed attitudes in some ways…
The One Thing above all is a little known idea from the archives of psychological thought – Cognitive Dissonance or to put it bluntly – intellectual rigour both in the working sphere and in my personal life, which also means a kind of disciplined spirituality.
Let me give you a couple of examples – in his book which has been passed off as science Richard Dawkins starts off by saying that he has done the hard work of finding out the statistical probability of evolution occurring anywhere and that given there is an infinitesimal, nay almost infinite number of planets then it [evolution] must happen somewhere… This statement makes a rather large presumption of how the dynamics of the universe is governed without stating any of his presuppositions – bluntly no model of physics – classic/Newtownian or quantum would agree with him. Where is his scientific rational? It is lost as soon as he begins and continues to slip even when he tries to regain it…
My spiritual discipline is based on the fact that I am a christian, and as such seek to follow Christ’s teachings (often failing) but I deny that something happens to be Christian because christians do it; take Ash Wednesday – this year I went to a church where the Gospel Reading had Jesus telling his followers not to make an outward sign of their suffering for his sake followed by a procession to get a cross of ash marked on your forehead… People told me that they found God very much present with them – God does react to those who seek his presence and God does choose to be with us in our folly – so yes, it is no surprise that there is a spiritual moment with the divine, but that does not make the way we reach out to God to be right, or even christian…
Whilst I remain in some ways a disembodied head I do try to also have compassion, but at what cost should we let folk go about their lives without pointing out mistakes or mistaken beliefs and how should we go about doing that is something I struggle with. Nevermind letting someone go on their way without listenning or not even telling them because I think it would be the wrong time to tell them. Perhaps this answers the problem – we should perhaps use compassion and discretion wherever we can, for perhaps we should all learn to tread gently on other’s lives…
I would just like to leave a note here of thanks to all who have commented on my blog. Genuine comments are always appreciated.
If there is no point to reply to in particular it is rare that I’ll comment but that in no way lessons my appreciation of the effort you have spent.
And to all you drifters who just pass on by with the merest of electronic footprints – thanks for passing this way…
“… at what cost should we let folk go about their lives without pointing out mistakes or mistaken beliefs and how should we go about doing that is something I struggle with… we should perhaps use compassion and discretion wherever we can, for perhaps we should all learn to tread gently on other’s lives…”
Good question! In my own life, I think I have too often been scared to stand up for something important, and could rationalize it away too easily. So, treading gently is good, but one question I ask is, will pointing something out make the world a better place? For example, I feel like I have a moral responsibility to not be silent if someone makes a racial slur. To not say anything implies that it is okay with me, and I feel like I have a responsibility to address it, and not add to the problem by being silently complicit. By no means do I need to be rude when addressing it, but I think it needs to be addressed. If a comment won’t make the world a better place and there isn’t a moral imperative, then I feel like I ought to keep my judgments to myself. Just my two cents.
Glad to find your blog!
Happy to find you here at last!
I think the point I’m trying to make is one of style, rather than substance – an old friend of mine was at a dinner when a very proper lady made a comment about the speaker’s sexism – ie he used male dominated language – now that may well be true but she just confronted the guy. My friend was turned down by a publishing house because he was a guy – it was a feminist publishing house (and if you really want to know it’s name then ask…) and he then barracked the poor victim…
I’m not saying we should not confront the issues we are faced with – I am asking, How do we do this? Compassion and discretion are what I think of as the basic ‘tools’ if you like to do this – I was at a rather interesting conference where there were a few speakers which included a rabbi – my friend took the time to ask in a quiet aside about his perception of Judaism and its sexism – and I think that is entirely appropriate if you have those concerns, whilst to finish the story – he was very impressed with the ‘balance of power’ answer he was given – male dominant outside the home & female dominant within thus creating a balance…
I did not mean by ‘treading gently’ that we say nothing – just trying to grasp for a way to do this…