We need deciders (and ice cream).

Click to enlarge: George Bush said “I’m the decider.” Every organization needs a decider, from a pride of lions to the United States. George W sounded a little like a frustrated child on the playground, but there was a lot of grownup truth in it.

Something I wrote in a recent email:

 

I know the practical aspect of Christianity doesn't sit well with most believers, but the infallibility of the pope when speaking from the office is IMHO mostly a political necessity to maintain order. As long as papal pronouncements are within orthodox tolerances (to use a mechanical metaphor), no harm done.

 

I read today that TS Eliot said something to the effect that it's worse to promote Christianity because it's helpful than because it's true. I agree that's ideal, but if that is the only way to gain tolerance or even adherence and belief, so what? And where does behavior cross over into belief anyway?

 

Comment on what I wrote:

That last underlined part interests me. Behavior and belief are inextricably intertwined. We can certainly behave a certain way despite our beliefs, but then we are really only behaving a certain way according to some other belief (perhaps a small exception or extenuating circumstance).

Acting according to beliefs and believing according to acts must be regarded as equivalent on some level, otherwise we wind up saying “I know you say you believe that, and I know you act like you believe it, but you really don’t.”

Eg, “I know a Presbyterian who voted for Obama and drinks beer. He can’t possibly be a real Christian, and if all Presbyterians are that way, then they are not real Christians, either.

What does this distil down to? Someone is so fundamentally different from me, I won’t let them claim to be anything like me in any other way. And that participates in everything from religious denomination to misogyny to war. 

(BTW, I don’t know any Presbyterians at all. That's why I chose that example.)

[2013-09-26]

c0

Am I supposed to be happy?

 

That’s like asking, “Am I supposed to like ice cream?”

Sure you are.

Do you expect to have ice cream every day?

Am I supposed to be content?

 

Yes, and that is something entirely different from happiness, though they can share moments, like grief and anger, or sadness and closure.

[2013-09-26]

c0