First things first. For those who were offended by my statements regarding religion in my previous post "Madness returns...with a vengeance": Calm the fuck down! (Yes, I can be nice.) I have nothing against religion, as long as one man's religion does not step on the toes of another man's liberty. Now, if that's true, why would I say the things I said? That post was supposed to be one long (OK! and somewhat twisted) joke - I was trying consciously to dance on either side of the border between sounding coherent and launching into a 'nonsenseical rant' on the subject of rational thought - I thought it would make for a few good laughs.
That being said, two questions have come up that I would like to address. The first and by far the easier one to answer concerns my rationality. I don't presume to consider myself a rational being. Rather I'm stark raving mad , grasping at the frayed ends of rational thought from time to time. (Maybe I'm just using colorful words describing myself as 'stark raving mad' but for some odd reason it makes me really happy, so, I must really be mad.) [Please tell me you laughed at this one, or else!]
Now for the other question. Being someone who describes himself as a 'man without beliefs', where do I stand on the subject of faith? Nowhere really. Let me clarify. To me liberty is the ultimate and all-encompassing virtue. One who comprehends liberty will value equally his own and that of his fellow men. Thus, such a person automatically seeks the noble within himself. So then, where does the big G fit into all this?
What is God but a construct to rationalize morality (dharma, to be more precise)? It takes little effort to see that this is a construct very much of human making. The understanding that walking the right path is its own reward simply obviates the need for the construct. In essence, a truly rational atheist rejects not the ideal but merely the construct, the packaging of the idea, if you will. A long time ago, a very wise people put this succinctly when they said, “Anbe sivam”. And yet, those who now stand upon the shoulders of these are blind to this truth. Why? Because, millennia of intellectual lethargy have led to the construct replacing the very ideals it stood for. Method has given way to madness, vision to myopia. And the fear bred by myopia feeds on itself, restricting thought even more. Indeed, what a wonderful instrument of control the idea of blasphemy is!
Rather than launch into another lengthy tirade as I am wont to do, I will just say that ignorance is the villain, as always. And should the light of reason ever break through this fog, perhaps people of the different faiths and those of none may see that they are after all more alike than different.
P.S. What could be more human than hope?
That being said, two questions have come up that I would like to address. The first and by far the easier one to answer concerns my rationality. I don't presume to consider myself a rational being. Rather I'm stark raving mad , grasping at the frayed ends of rational thought from time to time. (Maybe I'm just using colorful words describing myself as 'stark raving mad' but for some odd reason it makes me really happy, so, I must really be mad.) [Please tell me you laughed at this one, or else!]
Now for the other question. Being someone who describes himself as a 'man without beliefs', where do I stand on the subject of faith? Nowhere really. Let me clarify. To me liberty is the ultimate and all-encompassing virtue. One who comprehends liberty will value equally his own and that of his fellow men. Thus, such a person automatically seeks the noble within himself. So then, where does the big G fit into all this?
What is God but a construct to rationalize morality (dharma, to be more precise)? It takes little effort to see that this is a construct very much of human making. The understanding that walking the right path is its own reward simply obviates the need for the construct. In essence, a truly rational atheist rejects not the ideal but merely the construct, the packaging of the idea, if you will. A long time ago, a very wise people put this succinctly when they said, “Anbe sivam”. And yet, those who now stand upon the shoulders of these are blind to this truth. Why? Because, millennia of intellectual lethargy have led to the construct replacing the very ideals it stood for. Method has given way to madness, vision to myopia. And the fear bred by myopia feeds on itself, restricting thought even more. Indeed, what a wonderful instrument of control the idea of blasphemy is!
Rather than launch into another lengthy tirade as I am wont to do, I will just say that ignorance is the villain, as always. And should the light of reason ever break through this fog, perhaps people of the different faiths and those of none may see that they are after all more alike than different.
P.S. What could be more human than hope?
