I actually agree with the gist of this one.... I think....
Eva
>
> Harvey Cox is speaking in terms of Ultimate Concern and its working out through
> the practical but in the Market's case there is no church because there is no
> competitive alternative except for the now defeated Communism. To claim
> that the market is the church is like claiming that the Puritan's church was a
> hospital since their marital practices "cured" syphilis through taboo. Or
> that their church was validated by the disappearance of disease in their
> communities while the natives died all around them from the germs they carried
> as a natural part of their biology. It certainly made no difference in the
> lives of the natives, by their becoming Christians, as to whether they lived or
> died by the Puritan germs. 98% died either way. But the Market as God
> seems absolutely reasonable in the theological doctrines and climes where Cox
> lives. It could be much of the same as with the Puritans.
>
> I tend to like what Lord Russell said about Religion and Science even though he
> was a bit biased:
>
> "Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we
> forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very
> great importance. Theology,. on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that
> we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance, and by doing so generates a
> kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe. Uncertainty, in the
> presence of vivid hopes and fears, is painful, but must be endured if we wish
> to live without the support of comforting fairy tales. It is not good either
> to forget the questions that philosophy asks, or to persuade ourselves that we
> have found indubitable answers to them. To teach how to live without
> certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief
> thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it."
> >Bertrand Russell, "A History of Western Philosophy.
>
> I suspect that Cox was claiming the Market as Idolatry. "That shalt have
> nothing that is less than truly Ultimate before the Ultimate Bottom Line." On
> the other hand Russell would say that the Market's need for psychological
> security has caused it to claim the validity of all kinds of credos that are in
> truth nothing more than fairy tales and a "dogmatic belief that we have
> knowledge where in fact we have ignorance."
>
> Since the Market as well as the study of Economics has such an effect on our
> lives in spite of our wishes, I am reminded of an earlier section in which
> Russell claims that an "individual facing the terror of cosmic loneliness" is
> forced to study and become an amateur philosopher:
> >"To understand an age or a nation, we must understand
> >its philosophy, and to understand its philosophy we must
> >ourselves be in some degree philosophers."
>
> It seems that today's situation demands that we all become "in some degree"
> economists and sophisticated about the political implications of both the
> Market and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat simply in order, not to face
> Russell's Cosmic Loneliness, but the likelihood of financial ruin. (See
> Sunday's NYTimes Front Page on the effects of the "Welfare Reform" on the
> elderly poor forced to go through another age of childrearing.) It makes one
> envy the poor economist/philosopher who is only required to have only one job,
> and be good at it, rather than the rest of us being required to work two or
> more ( i.e. Arts and Economics) just to survive. Makes one long for the days
> of benevolent Chiefs chosen carefully by the Clan Mothers.
>
> Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
> The Magic Circle Chamber Opera of New York, Inc.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
