Philosophy is Dieing; Let's Finish the Job
While everything posted in this blog is representative of only my personal views and no academic findings or research, I feel like I can make whatever claims I feel like as long as I acknowledge that they are my beliefs. If you don't like what I say, fine. Read no further. There's nothing that compels you to read this blog, save personal interest or boredom.
Anyways, philosophy is dieing, and religion is losing its humanity (which is kind of like dieing). Together, the two are losing their grip on the human mind, their utility for the average person. While philosophy is dieing because of its failure to possess significant meaning for the average person and for its increasing focus on abstract theories that are absolutely meaningless for the average person, religion is beginning to fade due to its instutitional decadence and increasing focus on divisions rather than unity that most religions aspire to create.
Philosophy is dieing, and its time to put the old dog to rest. Shoot it, and terminate this aging enterprise. Burn the house that the fathers of philosophy built, and from the smoldering embers, build a new foundation that concerns itself with making issues relevant to humanity. Philosophy was once a subject held in higher regard; now it is something reserved for a handful of devoted academics. I love philosophy, and I have aspirations of becoming a philosophy professor and an active participant in the philosophical community. But I want things to change. I want the philosophical community to become the greatness it should be, a study where the concerns of humanity mesh with the day-to-day lives of human beings. It should attempt to help people create their own worldviews in such a way that philosophy takes personal meaning for them.
The same should be true for religion. Religion is frequently an organized or detailed way of increasing one's personal connectedness with their concepts of the divine. It should also possess a community aspect, in the sense that it should bring people together in their endeavors for a greater understanding of their perceived ultimate reality. Community growth deteriorates when religion becomes more of a mechanism for control and an excuse for individual stupidity. Religion is supposed to be a personal experience involving individual revelation combined with community growth and guidance. When people fail to think for themselves and they let other people control more and more of their thought process, the religious experience becomes very political, one in which the objective becomes one human being (or beings) controlling other people. Religion isn't to blame here though, people are.
Any concept can become distorted through its intercourse with reality, giving birth to a conceptual confusion, a loss of meaning, a perversion of the beauty that permeates every inch of our world. Religion and philosophy can represent human thought at its greatest, showing two ends of a conecptual spectrum. Religion shows humanity's endeavor to discover its place in the cosmos, and align itself with the greater powers that seemed to have created it. Philosophy represents humanity's attempts to apply the patterns it sees in the world to everyday experiences, ultimately seeking to create a coherent and logical picture of reality. Together, they show that humans want to have a personal connectedness with the potential divine all while maintaining and including the seemingly obvious logic that dictates the patterns of our world.
It's time to sweep out century old decadence and start over again. This does not mean abandoning all the greatness that philosophy has accumulated over the millenia, but it does mean creating a new foundation for the philosophical community. The world has plenty of worthless drivel to fill its volumes of literature; it's time to restore philosophy to its former greatness. Let's reconnect it with the humanity that created it, and thus return it to its former glory. Philosophy should not be the hobby or interest of just academics, it should be the tool by which the masses confront and understand the world. Philosophy should be the literacy of reality, meaning that the most philosophical mind is the most literate mind, able to read and understand reality like a book.
Religion does not need to be destroyed. It just needs reform and rejuvenation. Humanity needs to reclaim its religion for itself, and take back the power over their souls. Our souls are our own, and no other human being can take that away from us. While someone can claim power over God, if they're human (which we all are), then the only power they have over our cosmic self is that which we give them. Take back your power, and recreate religion in your image. Share that image with your fellow travelers, and reform religion in your image, abolishing the power dimension that has seized it in recent centuries. Religion is human imagination and emotion at its greatest, but when distorted, it can depict humanity and all its desires at their worst. Restore it, and you will create a vision of humanity at its finest. Fail to, and you may live to witness humanity at its worst. Modern-day crises in the Middle East and in our own country have proven that while all religions contain a perfect beauty at their core, the practice often corrupts. The practice manifests itself from human belief merged with reality, and careful attention is often required to prevent the fall from grace that ritual and religion have taken lately. The problem is not irreparable though, and with time and effort, things can and will improve. People only need to want.
There is much greatness and potential in philosophy and religion, but for everything great, there is an equally great potential for corruption or loss of meaning. Philosophy needs to reconnect with the human beings that gave rise to it, and cease to be the specialized subject that it has become. Similarly, people need to seize the reigns of power in religion back from the few who manipulate them with it, and restore religion back to its beautiful and wondrous residence in the hearts and souls of people. We are all responsible in some way for the corruption of religion, be you atheist or faithful devotee of some faith. The cure lies in the actions of us all; no one person can hope to salvage what lies in the collective hearts of humanity. As soon as we all begin to fix these things, humanity itself will improve, shining like the bright star of cosmic genius that we are. There is no evil in the world save that which is self-created, and the greatest evil right now is letting two of the greatest self-created entities in the world decay. Humans cannot create science, they only discover it; they cannot create math, they only find it; religion and philosophy however, issue forth from human experience and our own inner greatness. Abandon the failures of the past, but don't forget them. Let's restore these to their positions of greatness among human thought. There is only good to gain and bad to lose.
Good night, and I apologize if you actually read all of this.
Anyways, philosophy is dieing, and religion is losing its humanity (which is kind of like dieing). Together, the two are losing their grip on the human mind, their utility for the average person. While philosophy is dieing because of its failure to possess significant meaning for the average person and for its increasing focus on abstract theories that are absolutely meaningless for the average person, religion is beginning to fade due to its instutitional decadence and increasing focus on divisions rather than unity that most religions aspire to create.
Philosophy is dieing, and its time to put the old dog to rest. Shoot it, and terminate this aging enterprise. Burn the house that the fathers of philosophy built, and from the smoldering embers, build a new foundation that concerns itself with making issues relevant to humanity. Philosophy was once a subject held in higher regard; now it is something reserved for a handful of devoted academics. I love philosophy, and I have aspirations of becoming a philosophy professor and an active participant in the philosophical community. But I want things to change. I want the philosophical community to become the greatness it should be, a study where the concerns of humanity mesh with the day-to-day lives of human beings. It should attempt to help people create their own worldviews in such a way that philosophy takes personal meaning for them.
The same should be true for religion. Religion is frequently an organized or detailed way of increasing one's personal connectedness with their concepts of the divine. It should also possess a community aspect, in the sense that it should bring people together in their endeavors for a greater understanding of their perceived ultimate reality. Community growth deteriorates when religion becomes more of a mechanism for control and an excuse for individual stupidity. Religion is supposed to be a personal experience involving individual revelation combined with community growth and guidance. When people fail to think for themselves and they let other people control more and more of their thought process, the religious experience becomes very political, one in which the objective becomes one human being (or beings) controlling other people. Religion isn't to blame here though, people are.
Any concept can become distorted through its intercourse with reality, giving birth to a conceptual confusion, a loss of meaning, a perversion of the beauty that permeates every inch of our world. Religion and philosophy can represent human thought at its greatest, showing two ends of a conecptual spectrum. Religion shows humanity's endeavor to discover its place in the cosmos, and align itself with the greater powers that seemed to have created it. Philosophy represents humanity's attempts to apply the patterns it sees in the world to everyday experiences, ultimately seeking to create a coherent and logical picture of reality. Together, they show that humans want to have a personal connectedness with the potential divine all while maintaining and including the seemingly obvious logic that dictates the patterns of our world.
It's time to sweep out century old decadence and start over again. This does not mean abandoning all the greatness that philosophy has accumulated over the millenia, but it does mean creating a new foundation for the philosophical community. The world has plenty of worthless drivel to fill its volumes of literature; it's time to restore philosophy to its former greatness. Let's reconnect it with the humanity that created it, and thus return it to its former glory. Philosophy should not be the hobby or interest of just academics, it should be the tool by which the masses confront and understand the world. Philosophy should be the literacy of reality, meaning that the most philosophical mind is the most literate mind, able to read and understand reality like a book.
Religion does not need to be destroyed. It just needs reform and rejuvenation. Humanity needs to reclaim its religion for itself, and take back the power over their souls. Our souls are our own, and no other human being can take that away from us. While someone can claim power over God, if they're human (which we all are), then the only power they have over our cosmic self is that which we give them. Take back your power, and recreate religion in your image. Share that image with your fellow travelers, and reform religion in your image, abolishing the power dimension that has seized it in recent centuries. Religion is human imagination and emotion at its greatest, but when distorted, it can depict humanity and all its desires at their worst. Restore it, and you will create a vision of humanity at its finest. Fail to, and you may live to witness humanity at its worst. Modern-day crises in the Middle East and in our own country have proven that while all religions contain a perfect beauty at their core, the practice often corrupts. The practice manifests itself from human belief merged with reality, and careful attention is often required to prevent the fall from grace that ritual and religion have taken lately. The problem is not irreparable though, and with time and effort, things can and will improve. People only need to want.
There is much greatness and potential in philosophy and religion, but for everything great, there is an equally great potential for corruption or loss of meaning. Philosophy needs to reconnect with the human beings that gave rise to it, and cease to be the specialized subject that it has become. Similarly, people need to seize the reigns of power in religion back from the few who manipulate them with it, and restore religion back to its beautiful and wondrous residence in the hearts and souls of people. We are all responsible in some way for the corruption of religion, be you atheist or faithful devotee of some faith. The cure lies in the actions of us all; no one person can hope to salvage what lies in the collective hearts of humanity. As soon as we all begin to fix these things, humanity itself will improve, shining like the bright star of cosmic genius that we are. There is no evil in the world save that which is self-created, and the greatest evil right now is letting two of the greatest self-created entities in the world decay. Humans cannot create science, they only discover it; they cannot create math, they only find it; religion and philosophy however, issue forth from human experience and our own inner greatness. Abandon the failures of the past, but don't forget them. Let's restore these to their positions of greatness among human thought. There is only good to gain and bad to lose.
Good night, and I apologize if you actually read all of this.
posted by Andrew McKenna at 9:28 PM
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