i fancy myself a tolerant individual. however, there are particular world views that are simply deal breakers for me. at the forefront of this brief (but distinguished) list is the belief that everything happens for a reason. now, i could accept this claim if it were to be backed by some sort of physicalist mentality like, for example, that of hard determinism. however, dear reader, i believe we both know the majority of the people who utter this statement are coming from a different background. for brevity's sake i am going to focus on two different people who may make this claim...
but first, a disclaimer: i have this blog to have fun. believe it or not, writing this is fun for me. please do not take any of the following too personally. while we may disagree on certain points it does not mean i think you are stupid, or a lesser person than me. in fact, i would love to talk about it with you sometime. however, it does mean i probably won't marry you.
person #1: the christian.
christians get a lot of shit. furthermore, they get a lot of shit they do not deserve. however, christians who believe that everything happens for a reason are simply digging their own grave. i would like to outline a few essential problems this sort of world view creates for the christian. (footnote: there are many different types of christianity. some of which the following problems i am about to go over would not have a problem with at all. i think, for our purposes, we should imagine that christian who is non-denominational and overly conservative. we will call this christian the nu-christian).
the nu-christian holds that everything that happens is a part of God's larger plan. this larger plan, of course, excludes homosexuality, rap music, women's studies and communism (these phenomena are, naturally, arosed by the devil). what this christian has failed to realize is exactly what is at stake if he/she actually holds this doctrine. the problem is that for one to accept this belief he/she ought to admit that we do not have free will. this is because if everything happens for a reason, and this reason is a part of God's predetermined plan then it is going to follow that we ourselves are determined!
quite frankly, i'm some sort of a determinist (but not the christian kind). so, this conclusion doesn't completely bother me. however, the nu-chrstian certainly does not hold himself to the rigorous problems that his own beliefs have created for himself. certainly, we cannot punish the murderer-rapist-fag-commie if he was simply acting out God's will. so, the natural move for the nu-christian is to say that the murderer-rapist-fag-commie (we will call him Scott from now on)was acting on his own accord. but what room is there in a world where everything happens for a reason for Scott's own accord? well, there isn't any room but the nu-christian has tried to respond to this apparent inconsistency.
the next move we will often hear is that there is no way for us to know what God's plan is. this, i think, is actually a clever move. this sort of attitude is also being taken up by contemporary philosophers of religion who just claim that we do not have the cognitive capacity to understand God. again, this doesn't bother me. however, there is a conflict of interest between claiming both that we do not know God's plan, and such and such is a sin. it seems to me that if we do not know God's plan than we probably know nothing of God, including what he considers a sin. finally, if we do not know anything of God then we certainly do not know whether he has a plan for us or not.
i could go on, but i am feeling a bit pretentious right now. so i am going to ask you guys how you feel about this post. please be honest as this is a deviation from my standard 2-4 sentence punch line i usually throw up on here. also, I’m not really sure who reads this or even cares. The poll to the right should help me figure out if I am just wasting time or not.
12.9.07
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9 comments:
The nu-christian is a bit more clever than you give her credit. There are things they can say that actually defend their world view. Eg. Since we are all deserving of eternal damnation for our imperfection, even if it was caused by god, those who are created imperfect are getting what they deserve. It is up to us as those who are not the followers of satan, which occured thankfully because of god's will, to create laws as to erect this world in god's image as we have been ordained. (And yes i can not do otherwise, and i think there is a huge problem with this agency debate that goes way past could have done otherwise that makes this entire discussion worthless) Anyways, they have wiggle room.
This fits in well with the conversation in Russell's seminar. I'd prefer you not cut yourself off when you feel frustrated or exhausted. That's teasing your readers (me) because, from the way you began your writng, we (i) expected at least one more example. Even so, i know our (my) time wasn't wasted in reading and i hope you do not feel that your time was wasted in writing.
Yeah, there's an important difference between "Everything is caused" (a possible route to determinism) and "Everything happens for a reason" (a one-way ticket to philosophical bankruptcy.)
Everything happens because of the distribution of matter after the big bang, which had to do with collisions of extra dimensional spaces and other natural (magnetism, weak/strong nuclear force etc) forces.
I believe that everything happens for an inverted reason.
E.G. God wills a stick to fall, so it jumps.
It jsut makes the world more confusing. I LIKE IT!
brenan,
i agree. i could probably be a bit more charitable. however, the point you have raised has made me wonder how we can defend our knowledge of God. Eg. We know he has a plan, but do not know what the plan is. BUT we do know that we were created in his image to carry out his will (then it follows everything we do carries out his will...etc). How do we distinguish between what we know of God and what we can't know of God? It all just seems to fall a part at the end of the night.
And I think it does matter that we could have done otherwise to the nu-christian. this seems to be the basis of their ethics, as problematic as that discussion can get.
anyways, good stuff guys! keep it coming.
Yes, everything is determined by God's plan. It was God's plan that you got bacterial meningitis which made you go deaf and almost blind, which in turn caused you to lose your job and then your home. But, when you're out on the street and homeless, don't worry, it was all part of God's plan! The Lord will provide. (I just love that phrase). So don't bother trying to change your fate, because somehow the Lord will provide for you. You won't starve and die living on the streets. A job will just magically appear for you. It's all part of God's plan. The Lord will provide. But if He doesn't, well then, that was part of God's plan too. ;)
On a more serious note, while many christians are determinists in a sense, I don't think this phrase is a literal phrase. I think it is said in place of "Everything happens, and there are reasons." So as to say that when the phrase "everything happens for a reason" is said, it doesn't mean "everything happens for A (one) reason". It's more of a just a non-statement. It's like a shadow filler statement. Cause stuff happens all the time for all kinds of reasons. Open theology, which is the basis for a large amount of Western Contemporary bible teaching, is actually for a retro-active determinism. That all things do not happen because it's God's Will, but that God's Will began the motions that we know shape. So that "everything happens for a reason" becomes something of a karmatic claim. (And not karma in the dumbed-down american 'you get what's coming way', but in the deeper sense of interconectivity and action.)
So....maybe I'll just blog on this later cause there is much more to say.
FYI:
**shameless plug for my blogs**
http://www.thoughtgarbage.com
http://www.predicatesubject.com
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