Okay, forgive me. I'm toying around with history and Christianity, and how we got where we are today. So, way the hell back in the middle ages the Church body of Christ found itself out of touch with the Word and the Mind of God. The vast majority of Christians, by this time, received their faith through practice--through cult. The Church itself had been corrupted through acquisition of--rather than submission to--a sort of sovereignty that it had previously attributed only to God and to Caesar. The great minds of the Faith who engaged with and rationalized Scripture and dogma, who reasoned their way through the relationships between the material world as it was coming to be known of and the immaterial realms of God and spirituality--these men were beginning to bust a move toward the discovery of Science, and inadvertently connecting knowledge of Creation with the human conceptualization of the Creator. The mind of man could reason toward the Mind of God through the study of the nature of God's creation...soon to be thought of merely as Nature.
In parallel histories, theology was attempting to make Scripture more accessible to a laity that was growing impatient with an authoritarian streak within the hierarchy of the clergy, science was trying to better know the material nature of Creation, and philosophy was reaching for a new sort of metaphysics that might maintain the reality of "Truth" given a growing certainty that some things are experienced only through a subjective framework. The affairs of man were conspiring to raise up an age of reason, and through that very age Reason would serve inevitably for our consumption a very bitter dish: doubt. We had somehow turned a Faith in God's Purpose into a faith in our own Reason, and thereby reasoned our way into a certainty that we could never again know Truth. I think, therefor I am, but to what end?
Over the past several hundred years we've moved through certainty in God to certainty in Reason to certainty in Science to certainty in Progress to certainty in nothing but the Oppression of Humanity through Structural Systems of Injustice.
So, any thoughts on where/when to look for why?
1
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)
God has never changed , only man's opinion of Him has.
warminster100
Level 9
Oct 13, 2020
0
I recently saw Hume targeted as the father of decimating notions of Truth. If the nature of things simply is what it is, you can't have oughts. You can't Reason why from what is. At best we're reduced to impressions of why, where in reality only cause and effect actually exist.
govols
Level 8
Oct 13, 2020
0
You could try Jordan Peterson's maps of meaning or Daniel Dennett's how to create meaning In life.
To some extent asking the question reveals the problem. I have never had trouble finding meaning in life. The joy of being alive seems enough of a miracle. Perhaps I'm just simple minded.
If you are an extrovert you will only find meaning in the affirmation of others. You are probably prone to negative emotions as well. It's biological so adapting is the only solution.
Our education system is a disgrace. It has only taught what it deems useful to society. What is useful to the individual it largely ignores. By teaching that we not animals it has deprived us of the most powerful way to understand ourselves. We go around trying to satisfy instincts that can't be satisfied. Then they tell us that we should develop emotional (instinctual) intelligence. Never acknowledging that instincts by definition are not rational.
The question becomes how we overcome being slaves to our emotions. That is not the same as suppressing them. You will here people say that they only feel alive when they are having an experience. Sensory experience is the only way we can develop properly so it shouldn't be discounted. For example It has been shown that exercise is important in preventing depression. A good sex life is probably important to as are arts and literature. But there us also an internal element and it to has to be exercised. It's called imagination. The power if positive thought.
I understand I haven't answered your question. Everyone has to find the why for themselves. As for me it is sufficient to simply accept that life us a miracle and enjoy it.
If you want a more intellectual answer evolution does not have purpose. Humans assign purpose. That doesn't mean purpose isn't real it's just abstract. You will probably be happier if you accept the purpose assigned to life by the people around you unless they are spiteful mutants. Avoid the mutants and their ideas. Find people that are healthy and reasonably happy.
wolfhnd
Level 8
Oct 13, 2020
1
Well, the point about education being dismal touches the topic, for sure. Crap. Blank slate and constructionism. We are products of our environment. We are MERELY products, so change the manufacturing process to make better products, to construct better environments.
As a note, I'm personally about as well adjusted as I could ever hope to be, but what I'm exploring is more about how sociopathic so many around me seem to be. Where/when did it begin that so much intellectual effort went into dismantling the purposes that societies used to more readily provide? Oddly, I'm beginning to wonder if the latest faith, the SJW sort of religiosity, isn't actually providing just exactly what I might be mistaking as lack of purpose...
You meant Dennett, I suppose? Peterson's Maps strikes me as almost self-evident once I saw it laid out...
Oh, and the piss poor presentation made in education about how we're all the same, we're all unique, we're all subjective, we're all emotion, but we're something other than, at root, high functioning monkeys. It would be most helpful I think if more of us realized how subject we are to our appetites--our emotional gods and demons.
We should keep this going for a while. Give us another go at your concept of the significance of the why question.
I have a question why didn't you post this in philosophy? I'm not asking from a personal perspective but as a technical question.
P.S.
Spell check occasionally changes words as I'm submitting a post. I guess I may have to turn it off.
I dropped it here because of the connections I was making between premodern psychology, sociology, Creation and how exploring Creation through science changed the way "modern" people experience the reality of Nature as it becomes more and more accidental rather than lived within as according to a devine plan.
It could have gone either way...
Yes, I'll attempt to carry some side or another of the topic for a while in hopes it might find others interested. If you dig into why,do it in a new comment, just for the bump up the menu.
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