From: Elizaphanian (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Thu May 15 2003 - 12:26:18 BST
Hi Phyllis,
: Ever hear of these folks? I'm not affiliated in any way, just wonder if
: anyone sees this as an alternative to the traditional or individual mystical
: religions.
: http://www.ethicalhuman.org/whoweare.html
Interesting site. I do sometimes think that the basic choice to be made is between whether life is
meaningful or not (Wittgenstein: "to believe in God is to believe that life is meaningful"). That
stance does not have to be explicitly religious, eg with Camus' existentialism, but it does require
an ethical stance and associated notions of self-worth and value judgements. If this stance is
followed through to the end, I suspect that the practical outcomes are indistinguishable, eg a
consensus that torture is wrong and giving food to the starving is right. (Hence, for Jesus - not
everyone who says 'Lord Lord' goes to heaven but those who do God's will, ie healing the sick,
visiting prisoners, clothing the naked etc etc). So the fundamental choice is between saying that
there is Quality or denying it. If Quality is acceped, then there are various ways to ascend the
mountain - which must, if there is Quality - be able to be compared and assessed.
I think the choice that life is not meaningful is the essence of 'absurd', and is ultimately
unsustainable (ie leads to the various forms of 'suicide', not all of which involve killing). I
suspect that many who reject a meaning for life are simply not wanting to undergo the psychic stress
and labour of investigating the matter, and in practical terms, they act *as if* life was
meaningful, even when they deny it.
What do you think?
Sam
"Great though books may be, friends though they may be to us, they are no substitute for persons,
they are only means of contact with great persons, with men who had more than their own share of
humanity, men who were persons for the whole world and not for themselves alone." (Thomas Merton)
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