With so much nonsense going on in the world (I mean TRUMP of course), I
am worried about something. The more idiocy I see around me, the more the rise
of the stupid, the more I start wondering, not so much whether God exists,
which I wonder all the time, but an option not infinitely better: Is God rational? Even the manner in which we
humans define ‘good’ today, thanks to the trouble philosophers have gone to
over the ages to ferret out various definitions of the word, more or less tends to
be rational. But, we have no means of knowing today as we didn’t back then
whether God himself/herself/itself is rational.
And suppose for a moment that God’s definition of ‘good’ is not a
rational one. What happens then? Truth, honesty, justice, integrity, loyalty,
equality… all this good stuff… all these values… what happens to them? What if
all this doesn’t exactly lead you to God or to heaven? We don’t know what else
does except that some extremely religious folks seem to think you could go to
church as a sort of backdoor entry to heaven without all the other inconvenient
claptrap.
I guess life would cease to have any meaning if it weren’t founded on a
rational system of ideas, not just rationality on earth but equally important
as seen from above. If someone committed a crime and did not get caught, one
could still say that he will one day meet his maker and have to answer for his
crimes. One could say that because one believes that one’s idea of crime and
justice are the same as that in heaven. But what about the complex modern day crimes
or onslaughts against ‘good’? They are not as simple as a murder where a life is
clearly lost. How would God judge those crimes? There is no way to know.
I for one believe that rationality is the best means we have with us for
apprehending a ‘good’ world. Rationality not disconnected from empathy, of
course. What I fear are ironically people who make an appearance of
religiosity at the expense of rationality. I’d rather have the philosopher’s version
of ‘good’ than the priest’s—no offence to the priest but his followers don’t
give one confidence.
posted by Sylvia D'souza at 5:43 am
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