The theistic concept of life sees humanity, and above all us, caught up in a drama in which evil is all around, and we are the rest of the hope of mankind. This seems to be independent upon what theistic worldview we have and, of course, the methods we apply to act our role out.
In Theism, Go(o)d will prevail, but the drama always foresees great danger issuing from the godless, so that it will be a very narrow victory.
The problem with this concept is that the “good fight” could very easily be construed by another (theistic) view to be the danger they are fighting against. Consequently, we have two sides fighting the “good fight” against each other in the name of some god that may in fact have the same characteristics on both sides.
It becomes very evident that good and evil is then an issue of interpretation, depending on the angle at which I look at the world: My cultural, geographical and economic background lets me see the world as I will, and self-preservation assures that we are the “good guys”!
In this way, the fight that desolates the world could well be the fight for “the good of mankind” and probably even has an atheistic brother, who is willing to fight the two already at war. Can it be that we will never come around to see the fact that we are in fact the victims of our self-importance?
A. Huxley noted that where there is hubris there will be nemesis. The West may have to be brought down low before it can realize that we are not the savior or the policemen of the world.
I’m not exactly sure that this is an issue with the west alone. Any theistic concept is prone to the same kind of problems, and in fact the state of the world shows us this. But is it Christianity alone, or not equally Islam and Judaism? I think that the whole concept of a Deity has had its failings in the past, as documented by the Bible, and has its failing today, simply because of the issue “my God-your God”. I deeply appreciate the OT as a lesson of how little we are able to serve a Deity - or even some idealistic idea of perfect humanity. The lesson of the NT, that this is overcome by Grace and imperfection forgiven, doesn’t go far enough. There is no perfection! The only way is humility in the face of this truth.
Curiously, the lessons on humility are overseen - then and now - by the followers of Gods, who even go so far as to kill heretics and non-believers. Thereby the lesson of thousands of years of “civilization” is ignored and we try to fight the “good fight”, completely overlooking the fact that, if we were really thought we could to do some good with violence, we would cut our own throats and hope that following generations would learn from this suicidal atrocity. The fact is, that it has been said over and over again, “Nothing good comes from violence and murder!” “Those who live by the sword die by the sword!” It has been forbidden in commandments, it has been portrayed as the downfall of mankind, but governments and people given authority over others continually make the same mistakes.
It is even so ingrained in our subcultures, that movies have the same plot in almost every “action film” ever made - in some cases even the faces are the same. Probably because it is big industry and these movies are just an indoctrination to justify such a behaviour. The good fight will turn bad every time, until in the end there is no-one left to fight another …
Each small, very small, region “should” wisely control itself. The effort to control everyone else not merely causes all of the atrocities that Man has become so well known for, but destroys all hope of doing anything else until Man is no more.
How can the ‘good’ win against death & disease? And is the world more good than it was 2000yrs ago? Or isn’t the world the same but only it’s hue’s have changed.
Worse, if good did win, wouldn’t humanity become lame?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonite
Part of my family is or was Mennonite. Very anti-war style ideology, though I don’t know much about it.
The jehovah’s witnesses have a different thing than “the good fight”, I think they call it
“Be faithful unto death”. Then they say faith is dead without works.
Self control and control of others are inversely proportional. The more insecure a person is, the less confident he is of controlling himself. This appearent resulting lack of self control, seeks an outer agency of control.
In times of insecurity , moe and more people feel this
way,and the least self controlled person, will stop at nothing and proclaim the ability to give security to others
.
Once this is believed, this causes a chain reaction,
and everybody starts to believe the least self
controlled, who, thereby gets the power to control
others. The effect of controlling others gives the impression of self control to the least secure. And
thus, a Hitler is born out of obscurity.
The time of heros is no longer. The annual chore of vanquishing the villian can only be done so many times before error. A new villian will always be there to replace the last. Link must not rely too much on his sword. Hercules cannot be counted on to save us each time. Eventually, villians will prevail, and become so powerful no hero can ever defeat them.
We must save ourselves. Saving ourselves, our very minds and bodies, from the cycle of history, by superior DNA.
If I completely ignore the self, making only selfless decisions, all that is left is uncertainty, and that could be scary.
If I solely consider the self, making only selfish decisions - this can still lead to uncertainty, and that could be scary.
Maybe we can change both the cause of the problem and the perspective of whether or not it is a problem - to be less self-important (to be more selfless), but also to not exclusively think of it as “victims” - maybe we are the benefactors of our own self-importance.
I dunno, it seems more like certain monotheisms than theism in general. Pagan and indigenous theisms do not seem like this to me. Nor do ultimately monotheistic hinduisms, let alone the more on the street polytheistic versions.
I do see this pattern in the subgruop I mentioned.
It becomes very evident that good and evil is then an issue of interpretation, depending on the angle at which I look at the world: My cultural, geographical and economic background lets me see the world as I will, and self-preservation assures that we are the “good guys”!
In this way, the fight that desolates the world could well be the fight for “the good of mankind” and probably even has an atheistic brother, who is willing to fight the two already at war. Can it be that we will never come around to see the fact that we are in fact the victims of our self-importance?
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That last seems like a leap to me. I guess you mean the idea that the believers (a subset of humans) are special warriors for the true God kind of self-importance. Though this idea of self-importance tend to reduce the individual into a vehicle for a transcendent God and his wishes. IOW there is a radical (and I would say sick) humility involved right from the get go. From there, sure a kind of riding on the coattails of importance - like, say, the self-importance of entourage members of a rapper or rock star. ‘I’m a nobody close to the light, who knows where the light is.’
This may seem a petty point, but the theisms, it seems to me also crush proper self-estimation - through critiques of self-importance - the valuing of say humility - and this causes all sorts of problems on the individual level and on the societal level. I don’t see any problem with self-importance, per se. It depends on what that turns out to be in the specific case. Self-importance, or what might be judged as less than humble, can lead to resistance to all sorts of abuse. People who think their own intuition that this other person is a human,s ay, even though they are an X - can override whatever experts, theologians, scientists, politicians say the right thing to do to that person is.