tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post6545879000660547747..comments2024-03-28T13:47:00.644+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: First love God - only then can you love neighbour. Likewise first love Truth - only then can you do philosophy or scienceBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-61308918926342004032014-01-26T07:49:47.690+00:002014-01-26T07:49:47.690+00:00@Don. Thanks for this.
When I was a young atheist...@Don. Thanks for this.<br /><br />When I was a young atheist (aged six or so!) I was horrified that I was being told to love God more than my own Father. And indeed, I now believe this is a silly/ counter-productive thing to tell young children. <br /><br />But I now recognize that love of my (earthly) father, and family, needs to be underpinned, or needs the context of, love of my Heavenly Father - otherwise love of family collapses into mere personal feelings - and if or when those feelings weaken for any reason at all, then there is no basis for re-building them and love tends to collapse.<br /><br />So when a marriage is based on love of spouse as the primary and ultimate imperative - then if or when love of spouse weakens or disappears; so does the marriage - because there is no reason why it should not. <br /><br />Therefore, in an ultimate sense, all our loves in this world must be subordinate to our love of God; and this is not a matter of how relatively intensely we feel love of God compared with spouse or family.<br /><br />Perhaps very few people really *feel* love of God as intensely as - at peak - they feel the love of their parents, their spouse or their own children - but that is not a problem! - so long as we fully acknowledge the primacy of God, then relative intensity of feelings is irrelevant.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-58868568729968578542014-01-26T05:32:21.274+00:002014-01-26T05:32:21.274+00:00@Bruce,
This is the same reasoning I use with my c...@Bruce,<br />This is the same reasoning I use with my children regarding the nature of true love. God's gifts include the capacity for love. My thought is God wants us to exercise all his gifts. Just as we can become better artists or teachers by practice and achievement, so can we learn to love bettter by practice and enjoyment. <br /><br />Don<br />P.S. perhaps all this practice is in anticipation of what the LDS church believes. Perhaps God has plans for us in the next life that his gifts in this life and how we use them are preparing us for.Donnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-41302948827332932512014-01-22T15:32:00.447+00:002014-01-22T15:32:00.447+00:00@D - thanks. Glad to have your endorsement. @D - thanks. Glad to have your endorsement. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-2091115804586221262014-01-22T14:20:12.728+00:002014-01-22T14:20:12.728+00:00This is spot on Bruce. Further, the two are linked...This is spot on Bruce. Further, the two are linked - without a love of God it is more difficult to orient oneself toward Truth. By focusing on the physical world and nothing else one necessarily turns towards falsehoodDominicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-23631658548741087142014-01-20T00:33:59.979+00:002014-01-20T00:33:59.979+00:00"Let God be true, and every man a liar."..."Let God be true, and every man a liar."<br /><br />--Romans 3:4<br /><br />BASIC epistemological advice for every person, regardless of his opinions on whether Christ rose. Truth truly is the ONLY source of knowledge and wisdom, and there ought not to be any distinction between truth and reality when we use language to engage these matters. (I suppose that's why give Truth the capital-T treatment.)<br /><br />Truth-- as God Himself does, one might say-- always speaks for itself. I am working on some very as-of-yet undeveloped ideas regarding the nature of <i>ideology</i>, understood pathologically, as systematic thinking closed off from this basically revelational character of knowledge and truth. Ideologies presume an autonomous claim to true statements.<br /><br />P.S. <br />From a young reader, thank you Dr. Charlton for your refreshingly original and realistic way of thinking these subjects through. You always challenge what I believe in a constructive manner, and I am grateful for this.John Fnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-73603701205100144112014-01-18T12:50:41.995+00:002014-01-18T12:50:41.995+00:00Liberals try to break our understanding of this. T...Liberals try to break our understanding of this. They forget God and twist love of neighbor into love of sin. True love calls for rejection and punishment of sins like murder - not embracing and hugging a rapist or destroyer.Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-66184679632356013722014-01-18T09:08:03.409+00:002014-01-18T09:08:03.409+00:00@Don - I think that is true - so long as we do not...@Don - I think that is true - so long as we do not assume that the 'remedy' for loving God insufficiently is first to love more the person you love least. <br /><br />This is a complicated matter! But the way into it must be clear and simple - or else people won't even try to understand it. <br /><br />My way into it, is to use our Love of Men (especially family) to understand the nature of God's love for us (like a wise and loving Father) and ours for him (a grateful, trusting, loving child).<br /><br />I personally think this is a deeper truth than mere analogy - but even if regarded analogically it is the best 'way in' in my opinion. <br /><br />Therefore, the subversion of the understanding-of and respect-for the family is among the greatest evils of modernity - because it prevents (or inhibits) people from understanding God.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-74522041009866796342014-01-18T08:36:32.777+00:002014-01-18T08:36:32.777+00:00This was the subject of Bible study this week. On...This was the subject of Bible study this week. One person offered you only love God as much as you love the person you love least. Because we are made in his image and he has commanded us to love one another.<br />Donnoreply@blogger.com