Eric Djebe
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Eric Djebe commented on Why does anyone lack faith in humanity? on March 5, 2008, 10:04 AM
I call this attitude the 1914 creed. Just before WWI a long period of peace in the western world had given them the idea that humanity as a whole was progressing to higher and higher levels of civilization.The bloodbath of the world wars, the holocaust, the homicidal Communist rulers, etc. etc. shook that idea to the core. But, in my observation, a few decades of prosperity and peace in a country is enough to resurrect it there in serene ignorance of the past and the present beyond their borders (e.g. in Kenia).Why does this participant lack faith in humanity? One example: Because he sees their members moving around their lonely little asses in gigantic SUVs and flying passenger jets all around the globe, which has already dammned much of the beauty of this planet to eternal extinction.Understanding, perhaps. Faith, no.
Eric Djebe commented on To Whom is God Answerable? on March 5, 2008, 9:24 AM
cosmos: Waiting to get your list. When you're finished, will you condense it into an idea and post it? In that case, drop me a comment on one of my own ideas, so I get notified (with the usual 4-days delay).QuickEye: Yes, the discussion is interesting. But I am definitely at the point where I have to continue with my own ideas to clarify what I mean with the theroroid of monotheism. Then you can decide how close together or far apart we are.I will drop both of you a comment when I got on with that task. Hope that is ok with you. Right now I am working on something lighter: The question whether religion causes wars on outsiders.
Eric Djebe commented on To Whom is God Answerable? on March 4, 2008, 6:10 AM
QuickEye, I am probably overworking the analogy between a scientific theory and a religious "theoroid". But sometimes you have to do that. My main problem is that I cannot state monotheism here in a few sentences. But the difference is not between gravity being there and god not being there.Apples always fell to the ground. But what did people see when they looked at it? What educated europeans saw after Aristotle for way over a thousand years was the apple trying to return to his natural place in the middle of the earth at a speed proportional to his weight. What they saw after Newton was "gravity", i.e.an apple being attracted by the mass of the earth at a speed which was, for all practical reasons, the same for all objects once the resistance of air was removed.The theoroid of god is about what you see when you see an apple falling to the ground, when you see a child being born, when you see a plane crashing into a skyscraper. If there is no difference in all of this between an atheist and a believer, when there only is the question about whether evolution should be scrapped and whether you got to heaven or to hell, wherever that is, THEN I agree that this faith is superfluous and of extremely questionable value.cosmos, IMO monotheism is about ommnipotence. Creation, however understood, would only be a part of this. But I am curious about which religions you want to lead together. Perhaps that could be an idea of its own.
Eric Djebe commented on To Whom is God Answerable? on March 3, 2008, 11:33 AM
cosmos: This is a subject I find very fascinating. A theoretical term is, in a certain sense, "in your head", but also denotes something in the world. Take gravity again. This is not a natural kind, as stone is - every language has a word for stone. But gravity was not thought of before Newton formulated his theory, put it in our heads, and yet, "gravity" refers to something outside our heads.I see the god of monotheism in the same way. Monotheism was developed at a certain time and place in history, and since then, "god" is in the head of people, but it isn't about the interior of their heads.Just a memo: Not all religions are about god. Buddhism and Confucianism definitely aren't.
Born 1951 in Germany, german father, US mother, spent some toddler years in Wisconsin. Background from fathers side a deep historical & therefor critical understanding of catholicism, later very advanced enviromental thinking. From mothers side old fashioned mid-western liberalism.
Me: PhD in philosophy, specialty formal logic & theory of science. More then 20 years in a small software company, lastly in leading positions, shouldered out by the owners. Now president of a german NGO of academics in precarious employment (www.nea-ev.de)
I wrote 3 books on the deep foundations of christian faith, taking into account all of the available scientific and historical data. I have ardent fans among the editors of several publishing houses (e.g. Random House), but their bosses doubt the sellability of novel ideas on religion here in Germany. The weirdest thing that happened to me was one of them throwing me out of bed on saturday morning with a phone call and going on for about ten minutes about my absolutely fantastic work. Punch line: He practically laughed at me when I asked him wether he would publish it. No way! Much too challenging.
Eric Djebe commented on The power of Faith on March 5, 2008, 10:22 AM
rezzerektion, I really wish I could start an analysis of the Book of Job here, but it would go far beyond the possibilities of a forum. I have thought about loading it up as a video, but nobody looks at a 30 min. video. So, I have to keep myself to a few hints.The story you detail is only the beginning of the Book of Job. The real content of the book are the discussions between Job and his friends and later the speech of God and Jobs reaction. This dark and bloody beginning has the function of clearly explaining that Job suffers innocently, i.e. that he is right in insisting against his friends that his fate cannot be a punishment for wrongdoing.And, the God of the Book of Job is not the God of Love. He is something terrible and deep at the bottom of monotheism. Satan completely vanishes after the introduction, the battle goes between God an Job, and God takes full responsibility for all that happens on earth.