tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post7377723424133341575..comments2024-02-13T12:50:30.457-05:00Comments on Rants Within the Undead God: Philosophy in the WastelandBenjamin Cainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-21725902959729358432018-08-15T08:41:57.902-04:002018-08-15T08:41:57.902-04:00Well, I criticize Christianity specifically on aes...Well, I criticize Christianity specifically on aesthetic grounds (link below). Experts on religion, from Bishop John Spong to Joseph Campbell realize that the enchantment power of myths can come and go, even if the religious institution clings to power. Nietzsche made this point most powerfully, that God is dead, that the old-world myths need to be replaced to hold back nihilism.<br /><br />Gnostics are the ones who understood the power and personal relevance of the myth of a godman, and they were demonized and persecuted as heretics by the Western Church. One upside of the rise of Russia is that the Gnostic version of Christianity in the Eastern Orthodox Church may finally supplant the literalistic, exoteric Christianity of the West.<br /><br />http://rantswithintheundeadgod.blogspot.com/2012/06/christian-crudities-aesthetic.htmlBenjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-68731474256039430952018-08-14T21:11:45.354-04:002018-08-14T21:11:45.354-04:00["Merely withdrawing in horror or insensitivi...["Merely withdrawing in horror or insensitivity from nature's mindlessness isn't so honourable. Replacing the wasteland with something meaningful seems like the truly divine course of action."]<br /><br />Yet, couldn't we consider the myth of the personhood of Jesus something incredibly creative? For centuries this was something very meaningful for millions of people. Its aesthetic power and wonder was in good taste for quite awhile. <br /><br />How did it become so distasteful?<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10578993072924566050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-57492986649632544932018-08-11T14:06:29.590-04:002018-08-11T14:06:29.590-04:00I think you're right that Eastern religions ar...I think you're right that Eastern religions are less egoistic than the Western ones. The problem with Christian mysticism is that even if the Christian says God's essence as a whole is unknowable, as in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the Christian also says this essence was fully expressed in the life of a particular person, in the Son of the divine Father. So Christian religious experience is bound to be egoistic because the Christian is supposed to be Christ-like, which means she has to follow a human's example, not look up to some transcendent reality. Of course, the character Jesus is selfless rather than selfish, so the Christian ideal isn't egoistic in that moral sense, but personhood is crucial to Christianity in a way that it isn't in other religions, because Christians identify God with a human person. <br /><br />I stress in this article that there's no escape from nature's living-deadness. But that's only the ultimate existential truth. There's also the relative truth of the superiority of certain lifestyles. My problem with Eastern mysticism and asceticism is that they don't leave much room for the power and wonder of art. Merely withdrawing in horror or insensitivity from nature's mindlessness isn't so honourable. Replacing the wasteland with something meaningful seems like the truly divine course of action.Benjamin Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00661999592897690031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-80494554511214648822018-08-06T22:46:41.120-04:002018-08-06T22:46:41.120-04:00It is perhaps the highly developed ascetic mystici...It is perhaps the highly developed ascetic mysticism of the Orient, such as Taoism, Buddhism and suchlike that are paramount in coming the closest to grasping the living-deadness of "reality," as far as religions go. Christian mysticism claims to go further, but I doubt that, because the Christian ascetic claim is to keep the ego intact, while it is assumed that the oriental mysticism aims to relinquish the fictive identity entirely by being absorbed into nature's undeadness. <br /><br />I notice that both western and eastern ascetic traditions acknowledge the need to "zombify" one's self, but the Christian only seems willing to go half the distance. I presume this is the case, because the Christian tradition will not relinquish the personal, individual or subjective myth of the Christ.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10578993072924566050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320802302155582419.post-4648319729305895262018-07-31T00:35:35.536-04:002018-07-31T00:35:35.536-04:00beautiful.beautiful.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08894194584361086630noreply@blogger.com