Secular Mind vs. Religious Mind

Before there was such a thing known as blogging, I kept an on-line personal journal.  Every few months I would print out my personal journal and keep it in a binder. Now, on my other blogs, which aren't really all that personal, I only print out the posts that get lots of hits to save.  I'm accepting public opinion as to the quality of my work, which I don't know is entirely correct to do or not.

William James

 I just read something in my journal from 2001 that I think applies to the current political climate in the USA.  William James in his essay "The Will to Believe," said  "As a rule we disbelieve all facts and theories for which we have no use."  To me that describes the political climate in the USA at the moment, and especially the mind set of the right-wing Republicans, which is almost all of them.  Even though that may be human nature, I think at certain historical times, it's more emphasized than at other times,  both in people and in societies as a whole.

Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard talked about "A Leap of Faith."  I noticed that William James talks about the same thing only he calls it something like "A leap into the dark."  The same idea but one from a religious mind (Kierkegaard) interpretation and the other from the psychological mind (James) that doesn't consider itself religious.


Being "Saved."

The complete "Being Saved" experience is like the philosopher Blaise Pascal's night of fire in which he experienced a total conversion from a mathematician to a man of God.  (I had the same kind of experience myself).  This is also like St. Paul's "Burning Bush" experience in the Bible. There are people who will experience the same psychological experience, but some will explain it entirely in psychological terms (like William James did) and won't even connect it to religion, or to a God, and then another type of mind will only see it in religious terms.  I think there have been great minds of understanding who were not basically of the religious mind, like William James, Carl Jung and Freud. However, I think that the greatest minds embrace both points of view.

Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, also, like Pascal, ended up being a completely spiritual mind.  Even so, I don't think they ever disregarded the truth of mathematics.  It's just two different worlds, which brings up the basic philosophical problem of which world is more real.  For me, the people who only believe what they can see and hear, in other words dead to the spiritual side of life, are also dead in their souls.  I think that this type of personality most often self-destructs, if they don't ever are blessed enough to change.

Because It's Sunday

Luke 6:35-36

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; 

and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High. 

 For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.  Therefore be merciful, 

just as your Father also is merciful.

I experienced major disappointment last week that is, unfortunately, frequent with me, and I think most people experience this problem, too.  It's when you are doing something that has some benefit for another person, and they don't respond with any appreciation, either because perhaps they don't appreciate it, or perhaps don't appreciate as much as you think they should; or if they do appreciate it, they aren't able to show their appreciation.  It's the universal problem of giving but getting anything in return.  One of the biggest regrets of my life, is that the people who did the most for me, I didn't show enough appreciation.  Disappointment is a very bad feeling, not only for the person who is disappointed in the other, but for the person who does the disappointing.

The deep feeling of disappointment is caused by expecting something in return in the first place.  When you expect something in return it doesn't happen, because that expectation is wrong.  I think you have to try to give your most and best to everyone, and expect nothing in return from that person.  If one does that, God will reward that person in better ways than if the unappreciative person had given something in return.  As I heard someone say recently, "You can't out do God."

However, I still think it damages a relationship when one person can give more than the other person.  I think that means that the people aren't evenly matched for a successful relationship, and they both should just move on.  But, you shouldn't hate each other, but just understand that's the way it is.  Everything in life evens out.

Thoughts about the Future

Marcus Aurelius

Do not allow the future to trouble your mind; for you will come to it, if come you must, bringing with you the same reason that you now apply to the affairs of the present.

...from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Proverbs 27: 1-3

Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
someone else, and not your own lips.
Stone is heavy and sand a burden,
but provocation by a fool is heavier than both.


Most people have had the experience of telling everyone they knew that something was going to happen, like getting a certain job, or going to a certain school, and then it doesn't happen, and one is left feeling embarrassed because they already told everyone about it.   Because God only knows the future and they are trying to cross over into his area of expertise.  If you say something like "next month I'm taking a trip to Europe" that's not bragging about the future.  Bragging about the future is like saying "When my child grows up, he's going to Harvard," or "I know that next year I will finally receive a Nobel Prize."  Only God knows if those things will happen or not, and if you state that you know they are going to happen, they won't, because God doesn't like it when people have so much hubris that they can say what their future will be.


Also, this morning I was reading Psalm 34 and felt I had some new insight, which I thought I would share as soon as I did turn on my computer.

Psalm 34:13-14

Who appointed him over the earth?
Who put him in charge of the whole world?
If it were his intention
and he withdrew his spirit and breath,
all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust.


What I got especially from reading this is the line "and he withdrew his spirit and breath..."

Our spirit and breath is not OUR spirit and breath, it is God's spirit and breath, and when he withdraws it from us, we die.  He can withdraw it from groups of people as well as one person.  He could withdraw it from all of mankind instantaneously  if he wanted to.  Our spirit and breath either from ourselves or from others, is not ours to withdraw, that is the ultimate in hubris, because we are doing something that is God's responsibility alone.  Hubris and pride are really the same thing.

It's often said that God punishes pride more than anything else.  I think the reason for this is that when people have excessive pride, which can be called hubris, we are taking credit for something that God is doing through us.  I think God punishes for not being given credit to him when it is due.  He punishes most when man crosses over and does things that God is really in charge of doing, like providing life and death, like discerning the future.  Only God knows the future.  When people brag about something that they think is going to be their future, or something that is going to happen to them, have you noticed it never happens.  If a person states a fact: i.e., next week I'm receiving an award for excellence, that's not bragging.  That's just stating a fact.  Bragging about the future is making hope sound like fact.