I’m hoping that J.D. Vance declares himself Pope and we have an American Antipope as well as a Pope, the multiple papacies in the 13th century was an entire vibe that people forgot about.
"reason is the only thing that works equally for the Muslim and the Christian and the atheist..."
"Obviously not," he snarked. "If the Muslim and the Christian were capable of reason, they works be neither Muslim or Christian, because magic is not real."
Forgive me, I was an atheist before my age was in double digits, because it really is that simple.
What the author calls solidarity I call love. God is love, according to the bible, and I'd be surprised if there was even one religion that did not also embrace the concept that God is love, or at least loving. Love, like the author's solidarity, puts us all on the same level and makes the same selfless demand on us, that we treat each other the way we want to be treated and that we see each other as important as we are to the world.
I've never heard it said better. Happy New Year to all. May we see our way through the insanity of this presidency to a sense of the common good that unites us.
I agree with your sentiment about solidarity, Hamilton, but I'd look a little further into what's going on in Nigeria. I think the protecting Christians line is just a cover for getting military into the region. And, of course, Nigeria is an oil rich nation.
Solidarity-we are all in this together is the only sound orientation for logical thinking towards the common good. The problem is that most Americans don't have the time nor inclination nor thinking skills nor thinking habits to think logically - to think thoughts thoroughly through. They do have the time inclination and habits to believe in the simplest sensational short takes presented to them. We remain for the most part, too dumb for democracy.
“I would not knowingly extend everlasting salvation to an unrepentant sinner disguised as a spiritual leader of a church that supposedly has a shared faith in My command to love one's neighbor regardless of nationality," the Son of God told the New York Times, "I mean, it's right there in My Parable of the Good Samaritan, for My sake!"
"That person would be in sin by being a complete racist douchebag," the Lion of the tribe of Juda opined, "Christians should obey the word of the Bible if I have anything to say about it."
Instead, the main way the Messiah would minister to Pastor Richerson would be “to help him submit himself to the consequences,” the Lord said. "He should absolutely deport himself to that Dad-awful CECOT mega-prison and let the Venezuelan deportees help him to correct his sinful ways."
"That oughta set him on the right path,” the Savior added.
Reading your piece made me think of Chesterton’s saying: “There are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it, and those who accept dogmas and don't know it.”
I’m not sure that you know you have dogmas. Do you realize that you’ve smuggled a library worth of value judgments and assumptions about how the world works into your writing when you claim that all we have to do is look around to see the truth of solidarity?
All of those value judgments and assumptions are at the very least disputable, and yet you present them as if they were a matter of simple observation.
Some of what you’ve written seems obviously false, or at least only true if understood mystically. For instance, you claim that all of us will get further ahead than we otherwise would have if we banded together. How would Elon Musk get ahead if he embraced solidarity? Certainly not economically. How does the striking coal miner who dies after getting his head bashed in by police get ahead? Certainly not through personal happiness.
For the record I'm all for the sentiment, but strict logic and empirical, cruel-world observation overwhelmingly points in the opposite direction. You've entered the domain of mysticism if there's some deeper poetic (yet real and meaningful enough to sacrifice yourself) sense that it is true. I just happen to think there's nothing unreasonable about that.
The bottom line is that value judgments are rooted in our answers to the big questions. You might find religion an archaic and unworkable way to answer those, but your pragmatic agnosticism is not a substitute - by definition it can't be. You can only be pragmatic relative to a goal. You either have a basis for choosing that goal, or you don't. If you don't have a basis, you can't wag your finger at religions for using faith. If you do have a basis, you've entered into a conversation that's spanned all of human history and features some of the greatest minds to ever live, and the seed bed of all religions and ideologies.
Jeez. That’s an awful lot of words. I take the point of Mr. Nolan’s piece to be that if everyone practiced solidarity with their fellow humans (or as many would call it, the Golden Rule), the world would be a better place. If you disagree, well, good for you.
It’s been pretty clear to me since I was in grade school that men (yes, most likely men) invented their god or gods (I’ve always been partial to Aphrodite), and associated religions, for any number of reasons.
And while anybody should be free to believe in whatever version of god or gods they prefer, irrationality has no place in determining how others live their lives. And yes, believing in a god is irrational. Not necessarily bad, and often of great value to the believer, but definitely irrational and illogical.
Hi Mark, that’s just the thing though, by what standard do we determine how people should live their lives? Again, I’m glad that you and Nolan have settled on the golden rule, I just don’t buy that you can get there by sticking strictly to logic.
An interesting piece on page 18& 19 of the Garrett Evangelical Seminary (Northwestern U neighbor) on religious intolerance and religious nationalism. Great Column -- Solidarity Forever! https://www.garrett.edu/about/aware-magazine/
“We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools”.
Martin Luther King, March 22, 1964.
One of the best. The truth-- think how many have suffered agonizing deaths because their Gods--all made by humans, were "different".
I’m hoping that J.D. Vance declares himself Pope and we have an American Antipope as well as a Pope, the multiple papacies in the 13th century was an entire vibe that people forgot about.
God is real, and the Pope is his infallible representative on Earth except when I disagree with him.
"reason is the only thing that works equally for the Muslim and the Christian and the atheist..."
"Obviously not," he snarked. "If the Muslim and the Christian were capable of reason, they works be neither Muslim or Christian, because magic is not real."
Forgive me, I was an atheist before my age was in double digits, because it really is that simple.
What the author calls solidarity I call love. God is love, according to the bible, and I'd be surprised if there was even one religion that did not also embrace the concept that God is love, or at least loving. Love, like the author's solidarity, puts us all on the same level and makes the same selfless demand on us, that we treat each other the way we want to be treated and that we see each other as important as we are to the world.
I've never heard it said better. Happy New Year to all. May we see our way through the insanity of this presidency to a sense of the common good that unites us.
I love this!!!
I agree with your sentiment about solidarity, Hamilton, but I'd look a little further into what's going on in Nigeria. I think the protecting Christians line is just a cover for getting military into the region. And, of course, Nigeria is an oil rich nation.
Solidarity-we are all in this together is the only sound orientation for logical thinking towards the common good. The problem is that most Americans don't have the time nor inclination nor thinking skills nor thinking habits to think logically - to think thoughts thoroughly through. They do have the time inclination and habits to believe in the simplest sensational short takes presented to them. We remain for the most part, too dumb for democracy.
This moved me. Thank you.
Well that’s a banger.
Thank you!
My prayer is that a key legacy of the Trumpian nightmare will be a solidarity of purpose. Will I live to see it?
Won’t be too long now Linda.
One of the best pieces you’ve written, brother.
“I would not knowingly extend everlasting salvation to an unrepentant sinner disguised as a spiritual leader of a church that supposedly has a shared faith in My command to love one's neighbor regardless of nationality," the Son of God told the New York Times, "I mean, it's right there in My Parable of the Good Samaritan, for My sake!"
"That person would be in sin by being a complete racist douchebag," the Lion of the tribe of Juda opined, "Christians should obey the word of the Bible if I have anything to say about it."
Instead, the main way the Messiah would minister to Pastor Richerson would be “to help him submit himself to the consequences,” the Lord said. "He should absolutely deport himself to that Dad-awful CECOT mega-prison and let the Venezuelan deportees help him to correct his sinful ways."
"That oughta set him on the right path,” the Savior added.
Reading your piece made me think of Chesterton’s saying: “There are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it, and those who accept dogmas and don't know it.”
I’m not sure that you know you have dogmas. Do you realize that you’ve smuggled a library worth of value judgments and assumptions about how the world works into your writing when you claim that all we have to do is look around to see the truth of solidarity?
All of those value judgments and assumptions are at the very least disputable, and yet you present them as if they were a matter of simple observation.
Some of what you’ve written seems obviously false, or at least only true if understood mystically. For instance, you claim that all of us will get further ahead than we otherwise would have if we banded together. How would Elon Musk get ahead if he embraced solidarity? Certainly not economically. How does the striking coal miner who dies after getting his head bashed in by police get ahead? Certainly not through personal happiness.
For the record I'm all for the sentiment, but strict logic and empirical, cruel-world observation overwhelmingly points in the opposite direction. You've entered the domain of mysticism if there's some deeper poetic (yet real and meaningful enough to sacrifice yourself) sense that it is true. I just happen to think there's nothing unreasonable about that.
The bottom line is that value judgments are rooted in our answers to the big questions. You might find religion an archaic and unworkable way to answer those, but your pragmatic agnosticism is not a substitute - by definition it can't be. You can only be pragmatic relative to a goal. You either have a basis for choosing that goal, or you don't. If you don't have a basis, you can't wag your finger at religions for using faith. If you do have a basis, you've entered into a conversation that's spanned all of human history and features some of the greatest minds to ever live, and the seed bed of all religions and ideologies.
Jeez. That’s an awful lot of words. I take the point of Mr. Nolan’s piece to be that if everyone practiced solidarity with their fellow humans (or as many would call it, the Golden Rule), the world would be a better place. If you disagree, well, good for you.
It’s been pretty clear to me since I was in grade school that men (yes, most likely men) invented their god or gods (I’ve always been partial to Aphrodite), and associated religions, for any number of reasons.
And while anybody should be free to believe in whatever version of god or gods they prefer, irrationality has no place in determining how others live their lives. And yes, believing in a god is irrational. Not necessarily bad, and often of great value to the believer, but definitely irrational and illogical.
Hi Mark, that’s just the thing though, by what standard do we determine how people should live their lives? Again, I’m glad that you and Nolan have settled on the golden rule, I just don’t buy that you can get there by sticking strictly to logic.
Of course you can’t get there by logic. You get there by being a decent, moral person.
An interesting piece on page 18& 19 of the Garrett Evangelical Seminary (Northwestern U neighbor) on religious intolerance and religious nationalism. Great Column -- Solidarity Forever! https://www.garrett.edu/about/aware-magazine/