robertb Wrote:
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> I suppose you could make the case that any
> person's history is ultimately trivial. When you
> get under your philosophizing it seems to me that
> you are taking a cynical position.
Interesting that you should detect that. I'm somewhat
influenced by Mack's view of Jesus, as a provincial
Cynic -- or, at least suggesting that he attracted a
body of followers of that philosophical persuasion.
My friend the late Vernal Holley spent the last few
years of his life pondering these sorts of questions.
You'll find a link to a Burton L. Mack excerpt among
those in the on-line Holley "library"
http://sidneyrigdon.com/vern/VH_Lib.htmBut the tenet of triviality is likewise something we
might ponder -- the idea that we each can tread lightly
upon the fabric of history, leaving only the faintest
of evidence for our existence. During his lifetime
Jesus appears to have worked in that fashion -- being
more of a harbinger of a messianic era than conforming
to the contemporary Jewish idea of a National Messiah.
>
> I also wonder if you haven't thought that perhaps
> one of the underlying issues here--and an
> important one for me--is how we arrive at answers?
> There also is the matter of some people find it
> pleasurable to try, not a small value.
For me, at least, it has been a journey. I could not
supply the same answers that satisfy me today, back
when I was 5 years old, or 15 years old. But how can
any of us hope to define a process as personal as our
own pathway to discovery? I suppose I could cite
Reason -- Science -- Experience -- even those life
events which remain outside of rational explanation.
But I would not expect my method of arriving at
answers to match up perfectly with anybody else's.
> Henry Bemis is a character from Twilight Zone who
> is frustrated because he is not left alone to read
> books. When he becomes the sole survivor of
> nuclear war, he is delighted to have time to read
> but he breaks his glasses.
Yes -- I'm familiar with the story -- and with the parody
that the Futurama folks came up with. The tools of
observation only take us so far, in our quest for
knowledge and understanding. Hopefully, once we reach
a sort of happy plateau in that upward evolution, we
can trust enough to now and then set aside our pondering,
and be ready for other sorts of realization.
If so, I'd reserve my deepest interaction with the words
of Jesus for those times when I've set aside Science and
Reason for a while. Perhaps the fictional Mr. Bemis was
unable to find within himself satisfying novels, essays,
expositions, rhetoric, poetry and scripture. Too bad...
UD