great essay...lots of interesting points..like
"This tradition of discouraging doubt and encouraging ignorance and blind faith is again seen in John Milton's classic Paradise Lost, with its unforgettable portrait of Lucifer the fallen angel, expelled from glory for questioning God's absolute authority, railing against his maker and proclaiming that he would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. But the most compelling and frightening (for believers) thing about this Satan is that he makes sense. Many of his arguments against God seem reasonable, even persuasive - why should he get all the power, why should everyone have to do what he says? Is it because might makes right? But, again, the same theme recurs. No matter how much sense Satan makes, he is the father of lies, the prince of deceivers, and he has nothing in mind for you but evil. No matter how compelling his arguments seem, you must not listen to him. You must ignore everything he says."
perhaps a parallel thought: philosophy, as it is taught in college, is presented as a search for truth, as a rational search for a this-worldly alternative to religion...and yet, after studying philosophy, it actually is nothing of the sort...it is almost completely comprised of viewpoints put together by theologians or by those who are/have been strongly religious, and in retrospect can be seen as an attempt to re-cast religion into secular language. Why would philosophers do this? it allows them to cull those who are interested in reason, distract them for years with the study of confusing, convoluted, impractical ideas...burning their energy and leaving them either with a lack of desire to continue, or, if they accept the philosophy, nothing that is materially different from religion...and by the time the student figures out this ploy (if they ever do figure it out)..it will be long past graduation day...philosophy professors are child-molesters of the mind...
rp |
