Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

   Post 93. July 30, 2019

  The Case for G*D

   Logos, Ousia, World Soul  

 Just as she is ambiguous about the nature of God, Armstrong is somewhat indirect and mysterious about the Christ Myth. “You can never know the essence of the divine. But God has adapted this ineffable transcendence to our limited understanding and has come to meet us.” I suspect that she still considers herself to be a Christian, but primarily due to her cultural background, rather than to faith in the myth and doctrine of her Catholic upbringing. Perhaps Jesus is merely a teacher and role model like the Buddha, instead of a savior and redeemer. When asked about heaven, she replied, “I'm not interested in the afterlife.” Presumably, as a Jew, Jesus didn’t have a tradition of expecting a life-after-life in the kingdom of heaven3. That concept began when Paul reinterpreted scriptures referring to the literal Jerusalem-based kingdom of Israel, as a figurative spiritual place, and re-imagined Jesus in the symbolic role of a ghost Christ. So, in rejecting Paul’s new post-Jewish spiritualized4 religion, she seems to be more like a rational Deist, than a faithful Catholic.

However, she is broadly catholic5, in the sense of being open to learning about divinity from a variety of traditions and cultures. She thinks the religious instinct is universal; yet, “We can't reproduce the spiritualities of the past because we are 21st-century people, but we can learn from history and make the huge creative effort to translate its wisdom into our own time.” Rather than adopting an exotic religious practice and doctrine from other parts of the world, she advises seekers to remain true to themselves. “I think it's best to stay with your own because all the religions teach the same thing — com-passion. Stress those aspects of tradition that speak of compassion and practice and humility and openness.” As for those labeled  “spiritual-but-not-religious” or who dabble in selected samples from various religions, such as meditation or Yoga, she’s indifferent at best. Ironically, though she is interested in learning from the wisdom of other religions, Armstrong is not keen on Relativism : the notion that all religions are equally true, hence each community should pursue its own path. All religious traditions may have learned some useful truths about God and the world, but some may be closer to Truth than others.

At the end of the interview, Karen Armstrong was asked, “what verb do you think best captures your relationship to God?” And she replied, “Seek. I seek and will seek forever without possibility of finding the clinching moment.” Unfortun-ately, that existentialist6 answer may sound futile and hopeless to those who have convinced themselves that they know God directly and communicate with him daily. It sounds like those who seek to find aliens among us, or to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot, when they are always just around the next corner. Nevertheless, the BothAnd philosophy is likewise open-ended : with no claim to final Truth. Apparently, Armstrong doesn’t accept the Christian Bible as the divinely-revealed Word of God. So, lacking the assurance of Faith, she has no choice but to seek for herself, using her limited reason and wisdom. And that’s all any of us can do. As she might say, religion is not a resting place, it’s a journey.  

End of Post 93             

“Ousia”
“I AM”
“Logos”
“Tao”
“”Brahman”
“BEING”

3. Afterlife :
   An essential motivating belief of Christianity, that was not commonly held by Jews, such as Jesus. Perhaps inherited by Christians from the minority sect of Essenes.
“Judaism is famously ambiguous about what happens when we die.”
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/life-after-death/

4. Spiritualized :
  Focused on the idealized afterlife, instead of the real now-life. Emphasis on inner Faith, rather than practical “works” as objective evidence of loyalty. Judaism took faith in God for granted, but required outward demon-strations of that belief, such as rituals & sacrifices & charity. The pragmatic Catholic church realized that non-theologians need things to do, to keep them from straying from the fold.

5. Catholic :
    Universal; general; liberal; inclusive; embracing a wide variety of beliefs.

6. Existentialist :
   In the cryptic words of Sartre, “existence precedes essence” BEING is more fundamental than beings.
   According to Kierkegaard, “each individual—not society or religion—is solely respons-ible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or "authentically".
   Armstrong seems to accept the apparent absurdity of a world without a revelation from God, but she Stoically pursues her own authenticity.

How not to talk about God:
1. As if the deity is a fact to be proven empirically.
2. In absolute terms of Either/Or.
3. As if you know God personally.
4. In terms of a single tradition’s dogma.
5. As a tyrannical king on a throne.
6. As if the universal BEING has a favorite race of people.