notes from Peter Popper's Book - Is anybody there?
own translation
1.1 FAITH - Paul defines faith in Hebrews 11 as “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. So on the one hand faith is being certain of what we hope for. This implies that you can only live the transcendent and not know it. On the other hand faith is the doubling up the existence, thus, creating a dualistic world view. There is a microcosm, the material world that you can physically sense. And there is a macrocosm, beyond space and time, that you cannot sense, things never seen.
1.2 TRUTH - Knowledge is based on scientific truths, which are provable and rebuttable. However, time passing by new scientific truths emerge and overwrites former truths. Therefore, in science there is no absolute truth. There is only relativism. We can say that the story of science is actually a story of human errors. On the other hand there are truths you cannot prove in a rational way. For instance, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) This is true for those who are sure it is true, who feel the truth. In mathematics this is called conjecture. Nevertheless, every culture is composition of conjectures and superstition.
For there are questions in the improvable truths concerning the details; such as Satan appeared to Jesus in a physical body? Lazarus was a novice to John, who was beloved by Jesus, and is Rudolf Steiner really his reincarnation in the 20th century? You may say that for Life the Truth is indifferent, only the effect counts. Faith is usually composed of mosaics of faith. That is, you fear being punished for your sins by God (Christianity), but you also believe that underground waters affect your well-being (Feng Shui).
1.3 The RELIGION is faith in a framework. Teachings are built upon each other. Teachings are about 1. God and the transcendent world – this is Theology; 2. The World and its origin – this is Ontology; 3. The Human, his purpose, life and death – this is Anthropology; 3. Morals, Good and Bad, Redemption and Damnation – this is Ethics. Every Religion deals with the relationship between God and the Man. It seems that for a religion to emerge 3 features are required: consciousness, self-reflexion and mortality. The main point is that the Humankind is continuously quarrel with Mortality. You may say, however, that the purpose of Religions is solely the Consolation. Freud writes about the Unconcern of the Nature – Man creates religions against a cosmic solitude. Nevertheless, almost everyone has felt the existence or the effects of something supernatural and he that has something to do with infinity and eternity. This is called Oceanic Feeling, by Romain Roland.
For those who have not experienced the oceanic feeling, religion is no more than a formal rite. Troy was only a legend before Schliemann and there were only stories about the labyrinth of Minos, but we now know they have existed. World religions are considered “world” due to their influence. 3 of them emerged in the Far East and are based on ENLIGHTMENT. Another 3 of them emerged in the Middle East and are based on REVELATION. The histories of each of them are characterized by a process of separation and fragmentation into different groups. For instance, Jews formed distinct ethnic groups, such as Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and the Sephardi Jews of Spain, Portugal and North Africa. From another point of view, nowadays there is Haredi Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Reform, Liberal and Conservative Judaism, inter alia. It is also worth mentioning, that modern religious regulations are usually quite different from their origins. Anyway, Religions exist, and will exist, since the mankind is always searching for reasons and rational assurances, and they severely fear of the empty (horror vacui).
own translation
1.1 FAITH - Paul defines faith in Hebrews 11 as “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. So on the one hand faith is being certain of what we hope for. This implies that you can only live the transcendent and not know it. On the other hand faith is the doubling up the existence, thus, creating a dualistic world view. There is a microcosm, the material world that you can physically sense. And there is a macrocosm, beyond space and time, that you cannot sense, things never seen.
1.2 TRUTH - Knowledge is based on scientific truths, which are provable and rebuttable. However, time passing by new scientific truths emerge and overwrites former truths. Therefore, in science there is no absolute truth. There is only relativism. We can say that the story of science is actually a story of human errors. On the other hand there are truths you cannot prove in a rational way. For instance, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) This is true for those who are sure it is true, who feel the truth. In mathematics this is called conjecture. Nevertheless, every culture is composition of conjectures and superstition.
For there are questions in the improvable truths concerning the details; such as Satan appeared to Jesus in a physical body? Lazarus was a novice to John, who was beloved by Jesus, and is Rudolf Steiner really his reincarnation in the 20th century? You may say that for Life the Truth is indifferent, only the effect counts. Faith is usually composed of mosaics of faith. That is, you fear being punished for your sins by God (Christianity), but you also believe that underground waters affect your well-being (Feng Shui).
1.3 The RELIGION is faith in a framework. Teachings are built upon each other. Teachings are about 1. God and the transcendent world – this is Theology; 2. The World and its origin – this is Ontology; 3. The Human, his purpose, life and death – this is Anthropology; 3. Morals, Good and Bad, Redemption and Damnation – this is Ethics. Every Religion deals with the relationship between God and the Man. It seems that for a religion to emerge 3 features are required: consciousness, self-reflexion and mortality. The main point is that the Humankind is continuously quarrel with Mortality. You may say, however, that the purpose of Religions is solely the Consolation. Freud writes about the Unconcern of the Nature – Man creates religions against a cosmic solitude. Nevertheless, almost everyone has felt the existence or the effects of something supernatural and he that has something to do with infinity and eternity. This is called Oceanic Feeling, by Romain Roland.
For those who have not experienced the oceanic feeling, religion is no more than a formal rite. Troy was only a legend before Schliemann and there were only stories about the labyrinth of Minos, but we now know they have existed. World religions are considered “world” due to their influence. 3 of them emerged in the Far East and are based on ENLIGHTMENT. Another 3 of them emerged in the Middle East and are based on REVELATION. The histories of each of them are characterized by a process of separation and fragmentation into different groups. For instance, Jews formed distinct ethnic groups, such as Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and the Sephardi Jews of Spain, Portugal and North Africa. From another point of view, nowadays there is Haredi Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Reform, Liberal and Conservative Judaism, inter alia. It is also worth mentioning, that modern religious regulations are usually quite different from their origins. Anyway, Religions exist, and will exist, since the mankind is always searching for reasons and rational assurances, and they severely fear of the empty (horror vacui).
image credits: dharmalog.com; softwarehamilton.com; photographyblogger.net; thiennh2.deviantart
UPDATE - REMARKABLE COMMENTS
JP Reville What is there to fear? WHO is there to do the fearing, for that matter?
T Mandrake purgatory would be pretty grim I guess, and this photo is quite close to how I picture it. but actual death is a snap, the light goes out, you know no more.
A Kahn I cannot be certain about anything. Anyone honest would say the same... we all have doubts because so much is unknown. A fear of nothingness is a fear of the unknown... so were I to fear nothingness I would spend all my life in fear and I'm not willing to do that. Therefore I despise any religion or science that tries to instil fear in me or anyone else.
L Latta in science there is no absolute truth. There is only relativism. We can say that the story of science is actually a story of human errors. I Love that!
A Kahn I like it too... but couldn't we extend it by saying that life itself (of which science is just a part) is a story of human errors? And perhaps we never uncover truths but can only expose untruths.
M Clark I fear nothing! I've always regarded it as something inconceivable--I've never known the sheer absence of anything material--so, fascinating to contemplate it.
T Mandrake those cages in time bandit
K Wright //and they severely fear of the empty//
That is, of course, if they can 'sense' the empty. I cannot imagine why one would or how one could. The picture above, by the way, is not empty..
D Blair Do you fear being God, the only God, no peers, no "others?" Stuck with yourself, by yourself, of yourself? Demiurge? Does Creation make better sense now? No-thing-ness is the same as all-one-ness (alone?) I kinda wonder about that. Creation being God running away from his all-one-ness, his no-thing-ness.
K Wright All one can ever lose is consciousness, Vikor. Ever been under anesthesia? Total oblivion. The only difference between that and death is that one lasts longer. I can never understand why things would be more complicated after I die. I will never understand that notion..
D Blair Kevin,
hi. My wife's a neurologist. Empirically, I'm not sure it's
(consciousness) quite as simple as that. There are degradations of
consciousness and awareness it would seem. Who knows? Viktor. Even from a strictly materialist approach "I" who am
a thing, cannot "have" everything, in any meaningful sense of the word.
Even if some Corporation forms and starts selling distant Galaxies to
folks, time-space effects get in the way of objectively "having"
everything. Time-space wise, not everything is "mine" to have, least as
I see it. Gotta drop the Empirical Materialist approach to address the
Whole in any meaningful way to us puny humans, I think. Anyway, I was
suggesting that perhaps each of us is perhaps a part of the Demiurgic
creator god. Each of us can indeed come in and out of existence at the
whim or folly of the greater/'behind-our-limited-dimensionality creator
god. Each of us little humans can (usually do) become
"lost/acclimated" in/to this created world during our usually brief time
of existence/creationality. Did that make any sense? It's not just
the "bigger" demiurgal god that does all the
"creating/forgetting/loosing itself" in its own created existence, it's
all the many-layered sub-parts as well.
EC Lee-O'Neal I'm not sure why ending w nothing is a bad thing? What's worse for me is a bunch a dangling carrots of non-nothingness w no proof
K Wright I take you have never received propofol, D Blair? Pure oblivion. Consciousness is a brain function. Remove that function and you have oblivion. No thought, no passage of time, no awareness whatsoever. Death cannot be dissimilar, to my mind..
D Blair Kevin. I've been under general anesthesia. Don't know the name of the anesthetic, though. It would be interesting to crawl inside the brain of a late-stage Alzheimer's patient. Consciousness with no working memory? Perhaps ego consciousness is just a useful illusion of the brain, much like stereoscopic vision is a useful illusion?
EC Lee-O'Neal I'm not sure why ending w nothing is a bad thing? What's worse for me is a bunch a dangling carrots of non-nothingness w no proof
K Wright I take you have never received propofol, D Blair? Pure oblivion. Consciousness is a brain function. Remove that function and you have oblivion. No thought, no passage of time, no awareness whatsoever. Death cannot be dissimilar, to my mind..
D Blair Kevin. I've been under general anesthesia. Don't know the name of the anesthetic, though. It would be interesting to crawl inside the brain of a late-stage Alzheimer's patient. Consciousness with no working memory? Perhaps ego consciousness is just a useful illusion of the brain, much like stereoscopic vision is a useful illusion?
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