49) Intelligence is far too generous a word to be wasted on intellectuals.
50) We neither need secularism 'more than ever' nor a return to religion in its corrupted and degenerative state. What we need is to be able to act with more kindness and compassion and impartiality, unaffected by other people's chemistry. We can start by having the humility to question our opinions and our constant need to justify them.
51) In order to know 'the Truth', as opposed to 'our truth', a very refined quality of energy has to penetrate the human heart.
52) If we think about the way we use the words 'faith' and 'belief', when removed from their ordinary religious associations, we realise that they mean something quite different. We are quite open to the fact that we may have been naive to believe something which turns out to be untrue whereas we say that we have faith in something or someone because of the confidence that previous and repeated experience gives us.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Philosophical Musings 45-48
45) Debating is nearly always 'points-scoring' not truth seeking.
46) If, after a debate, my opinions are as fixed as they were before I enterered into the debate then the interaction has done nothing to bring me to a new understanding of something and has almost certainly been a waste of time.
47) Technological evolution is not necessarily synonomous with human evolution.
48) Shakespeare said far more with the English language, when there were far fewer words at his disposal than there are now, than perhaps any of us are capable of today.
46) If, after a debate, my opinions are as fixed as they were before I enterered into the debate then the interaction has done nothing to bring me to a new understanding of something and has almost certainly been a waste of time.
47) Technological evolution is not necessarily synonomous with human evolution.
48) Shakespeare said far more with the English language, when there were far fewer words at his disposal than there are now, than perhaps any of us are capable of today.
Philosophical Musings 41-44
41) Those who are impatient to do away with those things which have very deep roots in our culture, no matter how irrational aspects of such things seem or even are, may well do far more damage than they could ever have envisaged.
42) What has come to be known as the 'new atheism' is simply replacing one form of superstition with another, which is the worship of the intellect as a form of cognition of far greater value than any other form of cognition. However the intellect alone is completely inept when it comes to knowing how to drive a car or ride a bicycle; such knowledge can only be acquired by the intelligence of the body. Likewise, the intellect alone cannot understand feeling, cannot even sense what another person is feeling and it is genuine feeling which gives colour to life.
43) If we are capable of observing ouselves we will see that the intellect, feeling and the intelligence of the body all work at different tempos and that this is at the root of many of our difficulties.
44) The origin of the word 'religion' is believed to come from the Latin verb 'religare' meaning to 'reconnect'. Could this 'reconnection' have originally meant working towards a greater balance of our intellectual, emotional and physical energies which, at the same time, may give us forms of perception that are available to us only when the intellectual, the emotional and the physical are working harmoniously together?
42) What has come to be known as the 'new atheism' is simply replacing one form of superstition with another, which is the worship of the intellect as a form of cognition of far greater value than any other form of cognition. However the intellect alone is completely inept when it comes to knowing how to drive a car or ride a bicycle; such knowledge can only be acquired by the intelligence of the body. Likewise, the intellect alone cannot understand feeling, cannot even sense what another person is feeling and it is genuine feeling which gives colour to life.
43) If we are capable of observing ouselves we will see that the intellect, feeling and the intelligence of the body all work at different tempos and that this is at the root of many of our difficulties.
44) The origin of the word 'religion' is believed to come from the Latin verb 'religare' meaning to 'reconnect'. Could this 'reconnection' have originally meant working towards a greater balance of our intellectual, emotional and physical energies which, at the same time, may give us forms of perception that are available to us only when the intellectual, the emotional and the physical are working harmoniously together?
Philosophical Musings 37-40
37) 'To do unto others as we would have ourselves be done by' is advice that is difficult to disagree with. Perhaps we can start by refraining from heaping scorn and ridicule on those we consider to be less intellectually agile than we ourselves are.
38) We can only understand and know what God is in those rare moments when we are completely free of egoism.
39) It is extraordinary that we delude ourselves into thinking we are qualified to comment on how to resolve the conflicts in the outside world when we cannot even resolve the conflicts raging inside ourselves.
40) 'I and my Father are one'. What do these words mean? Not literally, but allegorically or psychologically? Usually we are not one but many, a whole range of moods and reactions which exhibit contradictions and inconsistencies which others can see in us far more easily than we ourselves can. Perhaps 'I and my Father are one' when 'I' am able to act and speak free of inconsistencies and contradictions and according to an Objective Conscience.
38) We can only understand and know what God is in those rare moments when we are completely free of egoism.
39) It is extraordinary that we delude ourselves into thinking we are qualified to comment on how to resolve the conflicts in the outside world when we cannot even resolve the conflicts raging inside ourselves.
40) 'I and my Father are one'. What do these words mean? Not literally, but allegorically or psychologically? Usually we are not one but many, a whole range of moods and reactions which exhibit contradictions and inconsistencies which others can see in us far more easily than we ourselves can. Perhaps 'I and my Father are one' when 'I' am able to act and speak free of inconsistencies and contradictions and according to an Objective Conscience.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Philosophical Musings 33-36
33) When certain events are so shocking that they make us uncontrollably angry it is wise for us to wait until the anger has been transformed into the more positive emotion of profound sadness before deciding how we should act.
34) Nearly all our criticism of other people is not only unconscious but rooted in our inability to understand how difficult it is for them to change and accommodate themselves to our own subjective view of the world.
35) We should be wary of having too much pride in what we believe to be our strengths. They have a shadow side that can turn them into weaknesses.
36) If we think we understand precisely the nuanced language of texts written several hundred, perhaps thousands of years ago, we are not only somewhat brave but extremely foolish. The shades of meaning of many words change over time and the same word may well have had a completely different effect on readers of 400 or 500 years ago from the effect it has on readers today.
34) Nearly all our criticism of other people is not only unconscious but rooted in our inability to understand how difficult it is for them to change and accommodate themselves to our own subjective view of the world.
35) We should be wary of having too much pride in what we believe to be our strengths. They have a shadow side that can turn them into weaknesses.
36) If we think we understand precisely the nuanced language of texts written several hundred, perhaps thousands of years ago, we are not only somewhat brave but extremely foolish. The shades of meaning of many words change over time and the same word may well have had a completely different effect on readers of 400 or 500 years ago from the effect it has on readers today.
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