"Human credulity is beyond imagining. Man's refusal to see the obvious, his longing fro a better deal even if it is based on pure fiction, his determination to remain blind have no limits. Far better to swallow fables, fictions, myths, or fairy tales than to see reality in all its naked cruelty, forcing him to accept the obvious tragedy of existence. Homo sapiens ward off death by abolishing it. To avoid solving the problem he wishes it away. Only mortals have to worry about death's inevitability. The naive and foolish believer knows that he is immortal, that he will survive the carnage of Judgment Day."
"Just as psychonanalysts often treat others in order to avoid questioning themselves too closely..."
"My atheism leaps to life when private belief becomes a public matter, when in the name of a personal mental pathology we organize a world for others."
"The pathological grip of the death fixation does not heal itself through chaotic and magical muckspreading but by philosophical work upon oneself."
"Atheism is not therapy but restored mental health."
[rework enlightenment...radical enlightenment v. theist mainstream]
"Atheology"
"confronted today by nihilism...not fertile field in wake of death of god."
"God, manufactured by mortals in their own quintessential image, exists only to make daily life bearable despite the path that every one of us treads towards extinction."
"...they include horror of death's void, the inability to integrate death as a natural process with which we must come to terms, in whose presence intelligence alone can have any effect. And there is denial, the absence of any meaning beyond what we ourselves have to offer, with absurdity as a starting point."
"doubt is coeval with belief"
"the neurosis that impels men to forge gods results from the usual workings of the psyche and the subconscious. Creation of the divine coexists with terror of the void in a life that must end."
"Atheism rejects the existence of God as a fiction devised by men desperated to keep on living in spite of the inevitability of death."
"Spinoza...taught a hedonist morality of joy beyond good and evil."
"Nietzsche introduced transvaluation: atheism is not an end in itself. Do away with God, yes, but then what?"
"We celebrate collectivity over the singularity..."
"Presenting the case for atheism requires delving into the religious impulse. It stems from fear, misgiving, unease, inability to look death in the face, the feeling that something is lacking, and distress at teh realization that human life is finite; the primary components of existential angst."
"because god exists, everythign is permited."
"Where does the Catholic substratum survive? And where the Judeo-Christian epistemology/ Simply in the notion that matter, the real, and the world are not all there is. That something remains outside all the explanatory apparatus: a force, a power, an energy, a determinism, a will, a desire. And after death? Well, certainly not thing. Something..."
"Atheism implies the banishing of transcendence. With no exceptions."
"Atheist Christianity-or Christianity without God. Yet another curious creature! The phenomena exists: it characterizes one who denies God but at the same time asserts the excellence of Christian values..."
"...they consider that the cure for the nihilism of our period does not require a post-Christian effort but a secular and immanent re-reading of the message lef by Christ."
"But philosophy, reason, utility, pragmatism, individual and social hedonism-these constitute so many invitations to maneuver on the terrain of pure immanence, in the interests of men, by themselves and for themselves, and not by God and for God.
"Shared fundamentals of monotheisms...:waves of hatred...hatred of intelligence....hatred of life...obsession with death...hatred of here and now...hatred of the corruptible body...investment in eternal, immortal, divine...hatred of women..."
"all three monotheisms have a negative attitude toward the joy of life and even toward some of the basic human drives."
"might point to the advantages of a guiding principle less obsessed with the death wish than with love of life."
"We speak, think, live, act, imagine, eat, suffer, sleep, and conceive as Judeo-Christian, constructed by two thousand years of formatting by biblical monotheism"
"at the level of public life, institutions, forms, powers-in other words the essential-remains Judeo-Christian!"
"...we must fight for a post-Christian secularism, that is to say atheistic, militant, and radicall opposed to choosing between WEstern Judeo-Christianity and its Islamic adversary."
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Eagleton: Reason, Faith, and Revolutoin
"god for Christian theology is not a mega-manufacturer...Rather, God is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, the condition of possiblity of any entity whatsoever." [7]
"He made the world with no functional end in view but simpy for the love and delight of it." [8]
"He made it as gift, superfluity, and gratuitous gesture-" [8]
"If we are God's creatures, it is in the first place because, like him, we exist (or should exist) purely for the pleasure of it. The question raised by radical Romanticism, which for these purposes includes Karl Marx, is that of what political transformation would be necessary for this to become possible in practice." [10]
"...a disagreement of why there is anything in the first place, or why what we do have is actually intelligible to us." [11]
"Aestheticians are seized by the beauty and sensuous particularity of things, theologians by the fact that their existence is so mindbendingly contingent..." [13]
"On this theological view morality is quite pointless...it is a question of how to live most richly and enjoyable, relishing one's powers and capacities purely for their own sake." [13]
"the morality jesus preaches is reckless, extravagent, improvident, over-the-top, a scandal..." [14]
"self authorship is the bourgeois fantasy par excellence." [16]
"Men and women are called upon to do nothing apart from acknowledge the fact that God is on their side no matter what, in the act of loving assent which is known as faith." [20]
"His death and descent into hell is a voyage into madness, terror, absurdity, and self-dispossession, since only a revolution that cuts that deep can answer to our dismal condition." [23]
“What is at issue is a slashing sword, not peace, consensus, and negotiation.” [24]
“Given the twisted state of the world, self-fullfillment can ultimately come about only through self-divestment.” [24]
“Fullness of life is what matters; but working for a more abundant life all around sometimes involves suspending or surrendering some of the good things that characterize existence.” [25]
“becoming a eunuch for the kingdom.” [25]
“we need to have faith that, against all appearances to the contrary, the powerless can come to power.” [25]
“’eternal life’, life at its most richly and exuberantly human, intoxicated with its own high spirits and self-delight.” [28]
“concept of political love” [32]
“…even if the account I have given of it is not literally true, it may still serve as an allegory of our political and historical condition.” [33]
“The difference between science and theology, as I understand it, is one over whether you see the world as a gift or not; and you cannot resolve this just by inspecting the thing….” [37]
“the difference between Ditchkins and radicals like myself also hinges on whether it is true that the ultimate signifier of the human condition is the tortured and murdered body of a political criminal, and what the implication of this are for living.” [37]
“Christian faith, as I understand it, is not primarily a matter of signing on for the proposition that there exists some Supreme Being, but the kind of commitment made manifest by a human being at the end of his tether, foundering in darkness to the promise of a transformative love.” [37]
“your average liberal rationalist does not need to believe that despite the tormented condition of humanity there might still, implausibly enough, be hope, since they do not credit such a condition in the first place.” [38]
“money is a great breeder of unreality” [41]
“New Age religion…offers a refuge from the world, not a mission to transform it.” [41]
“postmodernity is the era in which religion goes public and collective once again, but more as a substitute for classical politics than a reassertion of it.” [44]
“what is the point of faith or hope in a civilization which regards itself as pretty well self-sufficient, as being more or less as good as it gets?[45]
"He made the world with no functional end in view but simpy for the love and delight of it." [8]
"He made it as gift, superfluity, and gratuitous gesture-" [8]
"If we are God's creatures, it is in the first place because, like him, we exist (or should exist) purely for the pleasure of it. The question raised by radical Romanticism, which for these purposes includes Karl Marx, is that of what political transformation would be necessary for this to become possible in practice." [10]
"...a disagreement of why there is anything in the first place, or why what we do have is actually intelligible to us." [11]
"Aestheticians are seized by the beauty and sensuous particularity of things, theologians by the fact that their existence is so mindbendingly contingent..." [13]
"On this theological view morality is quite pointless...it is a question of how to live most richly and enjoyable, relishing one's powers and capacities purely for their own sake." [13]
"the morality jesus preaches is reckless, extravagent, improvident, over-the-top, a scandal..." [14]
"self authorship is the bourgeois fantasy par excellence." [16]
"Men and women are called upon to do nothing apart from acknowledge the fact that God is on their side no matter what, in the act of loving assent which is known as faith." [20]
"His death and descent into hell is a voyage into madness, terror, absurdity, and self-dispossession, since only a revolution that cuts that deep can answer to our dismal condition." [23]
“What is at issue is a slashing sword, not peace, consensus, and negotiation.” [24]
“Given the twisted state of the world, self-fullfillment can ultimately come about only through self-divestment.” [24]
“Fullness of life is what matters; but working for a more abundant life all around sometimes involves suspending or surrendering some of the good things that characterize existence.” [25]
“becoming a eunuch for the kingdom.” [25]
“we need to have faith that, against all appearances to the contrary, the powerless can come to power.” [25]
“’eternal life’, life at its most richly and exuberantly human, intoxicated with its own high spirits and self-delight.” [28]
“concept of political love” [32]
“…even if the account I have given of it is not literally true, it may still serve as an allegory of our political and historical condition.” [33]
“The difference between science and theology, as I understand it, is one over whether you see the world as a gift or not; and you cannot resolve this just by inspecting the thing….” [37]
“the difference between Ditchkins and radicals like myself also hinges on whether it is true that the ultimate signifier of the human condition is the tortured and murdered body of a political criminal, and what the implication of this are for living.” [37]
“Christian faith, as I understand it, is not primarily a matter of signing on for the proposition that there exists some Supreme Being, but the kind of commitment made manifest by a human being at the end of his tether, foundering in darkness to the promise of a transformative love.” [37]
“your average liberal rationalist does not need to believe that despite the tormented condition of humanity there might still, implausibly enough, be hope, since they do not credit such a condition in the first place.” [38]
“money is a great breeder of unreality” [41]
“New Age religion…offers a refuge from the world, not a mission to transform it.” [41]
“postmodernity is the era in which religion goes public and collective once again, but more as a substitute for classical politics than a reassertion of it.” [44]
“what is the point of faith or hope in a civilization which regards itself as pretty well self-sufficient, as being more or less as good as it gets?[45]
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