I am rereading “Irrational Man” by William Barrett…
as I have noted before, this book has been one of the most
important books I have ever read…in many ways, this book
has defined “My” problems over the last 40 years… the copy of
the book I am reading has my name and address in it and the address
listed is in Palo Alto and I haven’t live in Palo Alto since 1980 or 1981,
so this particular book goes back almost 40 years……
This book brings up this question of the long running clash between
human beings of faith and human beings of reason……
Plato could be defined as a man of faith and Aristotle could
be defined as a man of reason…
but as with any two distinct and separate idea’s, we often find
that when they are correctly understood, the two distinct and
separate idea’s become two sides of one coin, as does the idea
of good and evil go from two distinct and separate idea’s to two
sides of the same coin and then upon further reflection,
we see that good and evil are really the same idea…
depending upon where one’s viewpoint exists… standing in one
place an idea can be good or change the viewpoint and the idea
becomes bad/evil…….the viewpoint one has changes if/whither
an idea is good or evil…….scoff at the nature of concentration camps
but they fulfill a very important function, they create jobs… and if we
accept the proposition that one of the function of human beings is to work,
then concentration camps create jobs and thus are good…a viewpoint
I personally don’t accept, but arguments have been made to the same
idea, that jobs are the most important aspect of the human existence
and we must do anything to create and maintain jobs… thus we refuse
to sign the Paris climate accord because it might, might cost jobs… as flimsy
excuse as one can find, but no more flimsier then approving of concentration
camps because they create jobs……. it depends upon where one stands
that we may approve or disapprove of any given action… good and evil
changes depending upon where we stand, our viewpoint of any given
position………situationally understanding of what good is and what evil is…
and men of faith and men of reason fall on along different viewpoints on
whether something is good or something is evil…for the record,
I am person of reason… I have very little faith… and thus I condemn
our current concentration camps for children and I condemn all the things
the humans of faith take upon faith…that the immigrants are destroying
America and all the other conspiracy theories the men of faith hold as faith…
theories about the Jews and chemtrails and vaccinations and freemasons and the deep state,
and how George Soros runs the world…men of faith hold these theories as being true
and it is a shame that their world view or viewpoint is dominated by theories
that have no basis in facts… just as they have belief in god, who has no basis in fact.
for human beings of faith can believe in things without any proof
and indeed they express their faith as believe in something that
cannot possibly be true, for example, the rebirth of Jesus,
that is a physical impossibility and because it is impossible,
that makes faith even more necessary… to believe regardless
of any facts opposing that faith is the definition of faith…
to believe regardless of any facts that oppose that belief…
to hold faith even in the midst of all kinds of evidence
opposing that faith…… a man of faith might hold as faith,
that the world is flat… even though the evidence showing
the world is round is overwhelming and indisputable…
what matters to the human of faith is the faith, not the facts…
the important thing to a person of faith is the faith and everything
else is secondary……
but I see the two distinct and separate idea’s, faith and reason…just
like good and evil… we can understand that faith and reason
are just two sides of the same coin and then understand that
faith and reason are simply the same thing, depending
on your viewpoint , upon where you stand…
so, are you a person of faith or are you a person of reason?
mind you, there is no wrong answer nor is there a right answer…
there is just an answer……
Kropotkin