On 2 Jan., 05:19, "Chris Jenkins" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I agree 100%. Pure deconstructionism leads to nihilism. Pure materialism
> removes all wonder, imagination, and leaves us with a sense of the utter
> pointlessness of life.
I think I agree with you Chris, although your use of terminology
leaves me somewhat confused. I'm not sure that the espousal of a
"materialist" point of view necessarily connotates abandoning wonder,
imagination and a sense of individually chosen (or communally
accepted) purposes and goals in life. I suppose it depends on what you
mean by materialist. I remember confusing some people here some time
ago with an expressed wish for a "secular spirituality."
It's not always easy to precisely pin this down. Basically I'm not
prepared to accept the common view touted by theists that atheists
have no sense for the depth or the spiritual in life. As Neil put it
here on Christmas Eve (quoting Polly Toynbee):
"Secularists take offence too at the way the religious paint
unbelievers as poor desiccated rationalists, not only without values,
but joyless, lacking a sense of mystery, devoid of awe. Yet,
earthbound, there is enough wonder in the infinite capacity of the
human imagination, in a magical world of thought, dream, hope, memory
and fantasy. To be human is not to be particularly rational, the
senses often overwhelming common sense. There is no emotional or
spiritual deficiency in rejecting religions that infantilise the
imagination with impossible beliefs."
There's a lot of interesting stuff in this vein happening in the
sphere of influence of the Brights movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brights_movement
http://www.the-brights.net/
Francis
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