It really is amazing how so many modern people cling to a world view that offers them literally nothing!
...A world view that describes a universe without purpose or meaning - where things happen only from some mixture of rigid determinism with randomness.
A human life that comes from nowhere and ends in utter extinction; and where 'morality' is (somehow!) both a thing that has no objective basis and gets made-up and changed at will - yet at the same time is overwhelmingly important, such that anyone who breaks "today's taboo" deserves to have his life destroyed.
Clearly, nobody could actually want such a world view to describe reality; yet (probably) a billion and more people operate on that basis (whatever superficial religiosity they affect) - presumably because they have become convinced that it is and must be true.
This is the nature of sin for modern Man.
Sins are the consequences of turning-away-from, rejecting, God's creation and destiny for the world and oneself.
Modern Man is hardly aware of 'traditional sins' - especially not those related to sex. He is also unaware of his own habitual and strategic dishonesty, unconcerned about greed, sloth, etc.
But modern Man is made miserable by consequences of sins such as loneliness (alienation, cut-offness from life and the world), fear (angst, mistrust of the universe), and despair (hopelessness).
Modern Man does not recognize these as sins - but he is made deeply miserable by them; and one might have supposed that such intractable misery would lead him to seek relief in the positive and optimistic world view of Christianity.
Instead, however, modern Man seeks relief from what he perceives as a multitude of specific miseries - with tactics such as forgetting-himself by immersion in work or social life (travel, tourism etc); in relationships and thoughts of sex.
And especially the mass media; and in a therapeutic attitude to life ('healthism') that hopes for relief from (a multitude) of physical and psychological problems, from a range of medical and other therapeutic sources (including psychotherapies and social engineering).
The globally-mainstream atheist-materialist world view is a kind of Leftism for this reason: its morality is rooted in the double-negative purpose of alleviating-suffering - my means of a vast spectrum of socio-political, inclusive of 'health', interventions.
One of the deepest and most urgent reasons for opposition to religion, is that religious restrictions and prohibitions are regarded as interfering-with these above tactics for alleviating the miseries of life - thus the fear that religion would make life unbearable.
In sum: People have painted themselves into a corner where they have pre-defined life and reality as futile; and then they are trying to prevent themselves from remembering and realizing this!
Understandably; these tactical palliatives are not fully effective all of the time. Distraction is unable to make life feel worthwhile, given the underlying and pervasive conviction of hope-less-ness.
Yet it is a fact that this whole 'modern problem' is self-created; because we each choose our own fundamental convictions (i.e. our metaphysical assumptions) - or else we choose not to choose, and to accept whatever society feeds-us!
Either way; whether we acknowledge our own choice, or passively choose to follow orders - ultimately our choice is still our personal responsibility.
So, the situation (as I well recall it from the decades when I was a believer in the mainstream modern world view) is of being-in a nihilistic situation, in which - once nihilism has been internalized and accepted as reality - there is apparently no possible theory or evidence that can convince us of anything better.
Because, in a purposeless and meaningless universe, nothing means anything, and everything means nothing.
What is a possible escape from this inevitable despair, and to a better world view?
That is the situation of one important type of the potential modern convert; and I think it can be seen that The Church (any church) - with its mandatory and complex "package deal" combination of beliefs and doctrines, requirements and rituals - is not an answer to the modern Man's deepest and most intractable problem.
What modern Man actually needs; is a different fundamental set of assumptions, regarding the nature of reality (i.e. a different metaphysics).
If Christianity is to be recognized as a possible and valid escape from known-sin and into positivity and hope; then it needs primarily to be concerned with the world-view of the individual Man; and this needs (certainly initially) to be distinguished from the package-deal offerings of any actual or potential Christian Church-ianity.
In other words; modern Man needs to be able to look-out-from his alienated despair and perceive a pure, simple, clear and metaphysical Christianity.
A choice of Church may, or may not, come later.
But metaphysics is the first and essential step.
4 comments:
Excellent!
This was excellent. I have read your blog almost daily for 12 years and mostly agree with everything. It saddens me that none of my acquaintances have been able to escape leftism during this time. Even those that entertain spritual ideas have a therapeutic approach and don't the magnitude of lies and sin in Western societies.
Just to clarify, I don't always practise what I (you) preach but at least I confess my beliefs when asked and repent when I have failed.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Many materialists draw more of their energy and purpose than they realize from scorning and mocking the religious. It gives them a feeling of always becoming, never quite arriving.
@a_p "a feeling of always becoming, never quite arriving" - an apt description of my early adult life.
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