I've seen God
Posted: Tue 31 May, 2016 20.28
i think we can agree that even over the last few years and certainly in our lifetimes our society has moved and will continue towards secularism.
whilst this is in theory no bad thing - i can really only comment on the christian belief system and it's gospels as intellectually unsatisfying, i wonder if the gradual erosion of an organised religious belief and more generally, the notion that there is "somebody up there" is having an interesting side effect;
there are a great many people these days who are completely and utterly obsessed with the self.
you've only got to look at twitter and facebook to determine that in many places the hot topic of conversation is the self.... thousands upon thousands of photos of themselves. hundreds of thousands of words all about the self.
do you think the loss of an outward 'god' in many peoples lives has forced people to look inward, to the self for worship and adoration rather than a god? or do you think the obsession of the self is more of an internet age construct?
and has this almost surreal obsession with celebrities private lives got something to do with this lack of a 'god'?
a quick check on the Daily Mail shows the following people on the front page: Kate Middleton, Hugh Grant, Kate Beckinsale, Rocco Richie, Jonhhy Depp, Amber Heard, etc all in non-stories about nothing in particular right on the front page.
and whilst you might say this is just the pre-occupation of the daily mail, the reality is that each and every one of these stories has attracted hundreds, if not thousands of comments - people clearly are interested in this stuff.
a few years ago, i would have described myself as an atheist (i suppose i consider myself a pantheist these days) - again - i can really only comment about the christian teachings - which seem arbitrary and contrived and my belief system has always been rooted in science, or so i thought.
problem is, the more you learn about science and the universe and the more reductionist you become, you realise even science becomes unsatisfying. it can tell us lots about about how fundamental particles interact and how these building blocks create more complex system, but it can't tell me why, indeed it can't tell me why anything that we see is the way it is at all.
i almost see humankind stuck in an intellectual and philosophical no man's land.
if religion has been debunked by science, science itself has hit a brick wall and wonder whether the answers about who and what we are, even if they are not the domain of science, lie beyond our grasp.
whilst this is in theory no bad thing - i can really only comment on the christian belief system and it's gospels as intellectually unsatisfying, i wonder if the gradual erosion of an organised religious belief and more generally, the notion that there is "somebody up there" is having an interesting side effect;
there are a great many people these days who are completely and utterly obsessed with the self.
you've only got to look at twitter and facebook to determine that in many places the hot topic of conversation is the self.... thousands upon thousands of photos of themselves. hundreds of thousands of words all about the self.
do you think the loss of an outward 'god' in many peoples lives has forced people to look inward, to the self for worship and adoration rather than a god? or do you think the obsession of the self is more of an internet age construct?
and has this almost surreal obsession with celebrities private lives got something to do with this lack of a 'god'?
a quick check on the Daily Mail shows the following people on the front page: Kate Middleton, Hugh Grant, Kate Beckinsale, Rocco Richie, Jonhhy Depp, Amber Heard, etc all in non-stories about nothing in particular right on the front page.
and whilst you might say this is just the pre-occupation of the daily mail, the reality is that each and every one of these stories has attracted hundreds, if not thousands of comments - people clearly are interested in this stuff.
a few years ago, i would have described myself as an atheist (i suppose i consider myself a pantheist these days) - again - i can really only comment about the christian teachings - which seem arbitrary and contrived and my belief system has always been rooted in science, or so i thought.
problem is, the more you learn about science and the universe and the more reductionist you become, you realise even science becomes unsatisfying. it can tell us lots about about how fundamental particles interact and how these building blocks create more complex system, but it can't tell me why, indeed it can't tell me why anything that we see is the way it is at all.
i almost see humankind stuck in an intellectual and philosophical no man's land.
if religion has been debunked by science, science itself has hit a brick wall and wonder whether the answers about who and what we are, even if they are not the domain of science, lie beyond our grasp.