Walking On The Edge
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Transcript of Walking On The Edge
Walking on the Edge
of Reason and Awe
We discover our world through reasonWe are also emotional beings
The ineffable
To defy description, words are not enoughTranscend language concepts
The Human Paradox
Concealed within our reason, is something unknown.
Imagine living in the ‘awe-filled’ state all the time.
Who’s going to take out the garbage?
Pre-Socratic Philosopher
THALES“You don’t need God to understand the world.”
THE WORLD IS A RATIONAL PLACE ANDREASON IS YOURFIRST TOOL.
Christopher DeCarloHow to Become a Really Good Pain …
Be epistemically responsible
Episteme = Greek for knowledge
Any monkey can have an opinion – Be responsible for your beliefs and
question their truth.
Socrates: humble enough to admit he didn’t know; bold enough to challenge others that they didn’t either.
Plato’s unseen world of forms: the realm of absolutes is knowable by reason: the
senses can be deceiving
Math is not invented but discovered.
Aristotle’s syllogistic logic
Wants to standardizeLogic:Premise 1 = truePremise 2= trueConclusion= must betrue.
Begins the Age of Enlightenment
Humanism: We don’t need God or the church to know what is true and goodReason is the key that unlocks human potential.
What might be a ‘rational conclusion to that belief?
The Empire of Illusion: Is this society really better than those of the past?
The danger of utopian thinking:ethnocentric thinking (my tribe is better than yours)
Some use reason to support prejudice.
Religious fundamentalists
Allows no room for debate or dialogue
Fundamentalism is a mindset that refutes any other ‘truth’ but their own.
New Atheists (scientific fundamentalism)
Allows no room for debate or dialogue
Scientific fundamentalism does the same thing: example of Hawkins‘memes’…no empirical evidence they exist
The sublime nature of realitygenerates a sense of awe and wonder
We are a living miracle: the ineffable is a part of daily life. – Rabbi Michael Lerner
Susan JacobyWhy is an experience of beauty any different than other experiences?
Why put them in a ‘transcendent’ category?
Narrator’s POVAn inquiry into a question must begin with a presupposition.
We make statements that presuppose things to be true without actually having proven them.
Example: Will the party be any fun?
This presupposes that parties CAN be fun.
Narrator: We can ask questions about the world that presuppose reason to be the only way to the truth.
He maintains that experiences are possible that ‘feel’ to be more than that.
Rabbi Michael Lerner: The universe functions as a seamlessly integrated whole. This includes its
physical and ethical dimension.
Chris Hedges: observes many of the world’s cultures try to respond to a common human experience – something that is transcendent and ineffable.
Sometimes this awe is experienced as fear.
Art : articulate the unutterable
Ecclesiastes and its author: Kohelet(It’s an ancient question – what’s the point?
Value life and live the present
Who can understand everything?
Susan JacobyBelievers say, “I don’t
understand” but what they really mean is
“I don’t accept it.” Then they ascribe it to MYSTERY.
Dead is dead. Get over it.Reason helps us cope.
Christopher DeCarloA rationalist will refuse
mystery because they see it as ignorance.
Different ways of knowing: symbolic representation (like math) and other forms of reason will never get to the heart of the ‘mystery’ of life.
Why is there something when there could be nothing?
Martin Buber
Faith is not about holding beliefs and doctrines about what you think is true. It doesn’t fit into a formula.
Worms in one pocket; angels in the other.
What do we know for certain?
Reason can only take us so far.
Reason enlivens the mind.
The ineffable enlivens the heart.
The true battle is not between reason and faith but between hope and despair.