Characterized by a Certain Emptiness

Sat !
2013-02-16


Religious commentary may not always be logical, rational, or compelling, but it's often sincere and genuine.

Have you spent much time listening to atheist/progressive talk? I have. It's fascinating, informative, insightful, and entertaining, but it's also often characterized by a certain emptiness[1]; you can detect it after a lot of listening, and the same echo can be sensed in radio, TV, print, etc., and in fact anywhere there is no ultimate appeal to a deity or a fixed measure of fairness, justice, etc.

At the moment, I'm making no claim that this is good or bad, right or wrong. It's just an observation.

c0

[1]
It's impossible to describe this feeling without emotionally-loaded language, but it's proper to note it and treat it separately, which is why I am footnoting it. The feelings I am often left with after listening to a conversation among atheists is depression (being right is just about outwitting the other guy), frustration (the other guy is often an embarrassing rube), and hunger (an hour of talk yields nothing new or satisfying).

It's very possible, given my upbringing and the materials I consume, I am "tuned" to hear sincerity in some religious matters and hollowness in some atheistic ones, ie, that my cognitive filter sifts new information in a way I can't control.

How does one know this?

I think that is impossible. It would take someone outside myself to explain where I am wrong, but that person thinks through his own filters, so that's no help.

Until we're able to be sure that the color you call green is the same color I call green (the mental perception, not the light wavelength), I cannot trust another person's insight into my own.

Of course, that is, unless we allow for revelation (divine messaging) in which this insight bypasses our filters, or corrects them so we see things rightly.

I'm not a a philosopher. Others have devoted lifetimes to this subject. Clarence just thinks about it a l lot.

c0

Started: 2013-01-29