God Talk (Part 1)

New York Slimes (surprisingly) ^ | 3 May 2009 | Stanley Fish

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

In the opening sentence of the last chapter of his new book, “Reason, Faith and Revolution,” the British critic Terry Eagleton asks, “Why are the most unlikely people, including myself, suddenly talking about God?” His answer, elaborated in prose that is alternately witty, scabrous and angry, is that the other candidates for guidance — science, reason, liberalism, capitalism — just don’t deliver what is ultimately needed. “What other symbolic form,” he queries, “has managed to forge such direct links between the most universal and absolute of truths and the everyday practices of countless millions of men and women?”

Eagleton acknowledges that the links forged are not always benign — many terrible things have been done in religion’s name — but at least religion is trying for something more than local satisfactions, for its “subject is nothing less than the nature and destiny of humanity itself, in relation to what it takes to be its transcendent source of life.” And it is only that great subject, and the aspirations it generates, that can lead, Eagleton insists, to “a radical transformation of what we say and do.”

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Thought-provoking, read the whole thing.

Like the last paragraph,

"The other source of his anger is implied but never quite made explicit. He is angry, I think, at having to expend so much mental and emotional energy refuting the shallow arguments of school-yard atheists like Hitchens and Dawkins. I know just how he feels."

You know our civilisation is in decline when Hitchens and Dawkins are considered "intellectuals."

[GunRunner]

“...like saying that thanks to the electric toaster we can forget about Chekhov.”

"...like seeing ballet as a botched attempt to run for a bus.”

Enough of these ridiculous metaphors.

All religions make certain claims about the nature of the universe. Religion is not tackling anything different than science or philosophy. It is giving you a proposal for the state of the world; a proposal that is either true or false and should stand up to scrutiny just as any other claim would.