christalyss's Journal: On my willingness to discuss religion

I used to be freejung, but I have decided to let that persona rest. I took part in the debates over the war on Iraq, and I want the comments I made there to be the last thing freejung says. I feel that they are important, and I encourage you to read them.

However, one of the things I realized in the course of that discussion is that I believe politics is morally wrong. I can show this by an argument similar to my case for pacifism. Lying is immoral. Politics involves lying (although it doesn't have to, it does). The end does not justify the means. Ergo, politics is immoral. Therefore, I do not want to discuss politics any more.

However, I would love to discuss religion, which I feel is morally right. I have a lot to say about religion, and the most interesting people I've met on slashdot are those who are also interested in discussing religion. So I want to talk about religion in this journal, and I will be posting a series of journal entries on the subject. I invite you to join in this discussion, and would love to hear your thoughts.

ok, but

[pyrrho]

religion also involves lying.

It shouldn't, but it does.

Religion without lying is called, "philosophy". Unfortunately, philosophy+lying is also called "philosophy".

Good point!

[christalyss]

This is an excellent point, pyrrho. Religion as currently practiced by the majority of religious institutions involves lying. But I think the involvement of lying in politics is more inherent to the nature of the practice. I cannot imagine practicing politics in today's world without lying, whereas I can and do practice religion without lying.

You are very much correct, though.

I have another justification for discussing religion and not politics. Politics is the game they want us to play. In politics, th

Open up your journal!

[christalyss]

Hey Pyrrho, open up your journal for comments, will you, I want to talk about Beyond Good and Evil with you. I have some quotes which relate to your analysis:

"The Truth shall set you free" -- (Who said that, anyway)

"Only in silence the word; only in darkness light; only in dying life; bright the hawk's flight; on the empty sky." --Ursula K. LeGuin

"Objectivity is the epistemological stance of which objectification is the social practice." --Errr, not sure of this one either. Famous anthropologist and f

Re:Open up your journal!

[pyrrho]

I enable comments. It's just over two weeks old and I think that slashdot turns off comments and archives threads in that period of time.

I'll post to your journal next time I add an aphorism and give you a chance to pick it apart (or not as you see fit). At least, I'll try to remember to do that...

later

Re:Open up your journal!

[christalyss]

pick it apart

Hardly! I don't want to attack your views, I just want to talk about them! Don't worry about notifying me, I've got email notification of friends journals on.

I think your interpretations so far are right on. I do, however, think that consciousness is an inherently subjective phenomenon. Indeed, it is what permits subjectivity. The trick, in my view, is to extend your consciousness to include the whole universe, so that you recognize the arbitraryness of all distinctions (including the dist

Re:Open up your journal!

[pyrrho]

There are a thousand interesting issues surrounding "objectifying" one's self and "objectivity".

N. is not an objectivist (ooh, a spoiler!), but then, of course we are objects in the world.

I think it's key to relativistic thinking to understand that the centralness that we view ourselves as is more or less a trick of the light. However fundamental the trick is. However important and inevitable it is to embrace our own perspective as our own, as defensible, as special, it's still special for us. Understa

Universal Subjectivity

[christalyss]

key to relativistic thinking

I am not a moral relativist, but I am a metaphysical relativist. One of my best friends once asked me, long ago, to help her solve one of her fundamental questions: "how do you ground an absolutist ethics in a relativist metaphysics?" I'm still working on this question.

the centralness that we view ourselves as is more or less a trick of the light

Exactly! That's what I'm talking about. I replied to your first comment without reading this one, sorry, but that's exactly what

Re:Universal Subjectivity

[pyrrho]

I think the next step is for them to become a subject in your world, and vice versa.

interesting