What inspires us?

Whoever has followed my posts will know that I am not the scholar that some are here, but my contribution is mainly that of experience. Having had an extensive Bible schooling over several years, teaching and preaching in various settings, and having been an elder in a parish, I ‘came out’ as someone who saw the biblical sources as inspired, but to a large degree containing legend and mythology, leaning only slightly on historical fact. I also see many scriptures of other traditions as inspired, but also as legends, mythology, allegory, parables, fables and metaphoric in nature.

To inspire means literally to breathe or blow upon, or to infuse (something, such as life) by breathing. Infuse also means to drink, which is also a taking in. To me, to be inspired means inhaling (figuratively) and thereby having a particular strong feeling or reaction, feeling that one wants to do something and can do it, and gaining an insight into the nature of things. “It propels a person from apathy to possibility and transforms the way we perceive our own capabilities”. This can be achieved by any experience, whether by observations in nature, by the actions or words of someone, or by means of literary sources. Inspiration is therefore not primarily religious, and even the inspiration from religious sources need not be religious in nature.

The fact that the God of the OT breathes life into the clay form he’d made, and man came to life is a typical metaphor for the ‘inhaling’ of consciousness, something that is continually experienced when new-born babes take their first breath. In fact, everything we say about inspiration is taken from what we observe and experience in natural life, and our colloquial vocabulary doesn’t differentiate much between mental and physical processes. That is why the ancients also used stories about spirits, people or animals to carry information to inspire people to behave in a certain way or understand the world.

There has been dispute on ILP between believers and non-believers, often absurd disputes, because we fail to understand the nature of inspiration and its value for our lives. Einstein was inspired by his imagining he could travel alongside a light beam, which is absurd in one sense but inspiring in the other, producing the theory of relativity. We all use such imaginations in our lives, and such as have been transmitted over thousands of years can continue to inspire us, if we take its figurative speech into consideration. Some stories are irrelevant, some contain wisdom between the lines, some are expressively wise. We have the capacity to differentiate.

This capacity is, however, dependent upon us not just dwelling on the particulars, but expanding them into our everyday experience, because whatever wisdom is contained in these stories is only useful, if we can apply it in our lives. An academic interest may reveal things hidden in language or symbol, but it is the application in our lives that makes a story relevant or not. I therefore propose that we talk about those stories, or other sources that inspire us.

Do you have any proposals?

The astral plane inspires me plenty.
So much that it is even more than sufficient.
There is a reason why star wars is so popular.
It resembles the future.
It is inspirational.

Many experiences can inspire one. There are experiences with Nature, with music, with good reading, with friends, with the very joi de vivre, with being a part of the vastness of the awesome universe, all of which lift one above the mundane plodding of daily existence. As a poet, I have found inspiration in all of these sources. I still hold that whether one is an atheist or a theist these sources of inspiration are God experiences. One does not have to believe that to feel the inspirations. They are human as well as divine.

Here’s some inspiration for ya…

youtu.be/vSdGr4K4qLg

So Bob starts a thread says nothing advocating Christianity opens the door wide to invite people to say whatever inspires them and your response is the post a video attacking somebody else’s religion. Surely something or someone positive somewhere inspires you. No?

I still get inspired by the earliest blues artists from places like the Mississippi Delta. People like Son House, Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Skip James, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, all the way up through BB King Albert King Freddie King and Albert Collins and RL Burnside and the people playing locally carrying on that tradition. Their music and their lives have inspired me since puberty when I came to participate in the Blues scene in Kansas City. The way they overcame their situation by sheer creativity transforming it into a living art form and way of life inspires me and millions of others around the planet.

Weak people are inspired by hate.

So your response is not to say what inspires you positively but to attack someone else negatively. I could ask was that inspired by hate? But in the spirit which Bob started this thread, why don’t we turn it around and you tell us something or someone that inspires you? It would be to take a break from the usual game we play on ILP.

Yes, sort of. So first of all, one cannot be inspired by something that doesn’t exist. It is neither the articles of faith nor those historical figures who claimed to possess revelatory knowledge of ‘god’, that inspire anything. In fact, they only serve to increase the dread and despair that so riddles the people who are searching for answers. What inspires people are the real, material problems society faces… only they’re unable to be aware of the kinds of ways these problems can be addressed, and instead engage in a kind of reverie with imaginary religious ideas floating around in their empty heads. It’s in this way that religious thinking IS utterly offensive… not just simply an exercise in futility and nonsense. Every time a religious idea is passed to someone, they are poisoned, and become either hopelessly impotent and irrelevant, or, an active part of the problem mankind is facing.

But let me back up. The thought that a human being 4,000 years ago received instruction from a ‘god’ and as such became an authority in anything, is synonymous to believing ecmandu has special powers. Tell me, why don’t you believe ecmandu is a prophet or a messiah? What’s makes jesus’ or mohammed’s or paul’s or john’s nonsense any better and more believable than ecmandu’s?

Nevermind. What I meant at the opening of this post is that the things which inspire you guys in these threads, are not the words of some divinely significant personality, but that person’s struggle against very real, material conflicts that still exist to this day.

Not jesus the ‘son of god or man or whatever’, but jesus the broke ass peasant carpenter who hung out with all the rabble and downtrodden created by systems and institutions put into place by a host of parasitic aristocratic elite of rulers.

But instead of recognizing this, you share in the same delusions as jesus and exacerbate the problem even further by contributing to the impotent pacifism of those who suffer these systems and institutions.

A macabre circus is what this is.

“Surely something or someone positive somewhere inspires you. No?”

Well yes I find Sam Harris to be incredibly positive and inspiring, thank you.

… and another thing. Even if all that shit WAS true (the abrahamic religions), one should be especially poised NOT to be obedient to its tenents on account of how badly this ‘god’ has done everything.

It’s inconceivable how these weaklings grovel at the feet of this nonsense despite the glaring absurdity and senselessness of it all. The lengths they go to to rationalize it and make excuses for it like little yes-men, is sickening to anyone with any respect for human life.

In the shortest and most concise words possible: fuck god. Bring it. Burn me for eternity. Set the buzzards to my liver. But you’ll never get my praise, asswipe.

Yes I find Sam Harris inspiring too as someone with the intelligence and courage to stand up for his humanistic values. I’ve enjoyed his books and many lectures and debates including the one from which the video you shared was taken. Also he’s a model of civility in discourse.

Couldn’t I say the same thing about you right now? - Why do they always have to be what they bitch about the most?

What inspires me - is the truth being revealed.

Sure you could.

Would that be truth from on high? Or truth uncovered like archeology? Or both? Or neither and something else?

So your response is to bitch about what other people are saying?

I guess what inspires you is divisiveness and scapegoating.

There are reasons for me having him on ‘ignore’ but your post is spot on.

Being unexpectedly hugely in demand, I’ll probably be able to reply tomorrow morning. Sorry, but there are people at the door.

And then, for some – and just some – this part:

1] For one reason or another [rooted largely in dasein], you are taught or come into contact with [through your upbringing, a friend, a book, an experience etc.] a worldview, a philosophy of life that inspires you.

2] Over time, you become convinced that this inspiration expresses and encompasses the most rational and objective frame of mind. It then becomes increasingly more vital, more essential to you as a foundation, a justification, a celebration of all that is moral as opposed to immoral, rational as opposed to irrational.

3] Eventually, for some, they begin to bump into others who are inspired by the same thing; they may even begin to actively seek out folks similarly inclined.

4] Some begin to share this inspiration with family, friends, colleagues, associates, Internet denizens; increasingly it becomes more and more a part of their life. It becomes, in other words, more intertwined in their personal relationships with others…it begins to bind them emotionally and psychologically.

5] As yet more time passes, they start to feel increasingly compelled not only to share their inspiration with others but, in turn, to vigorously defend it against any and all detractors as well.

6] For some, it can reach the point where they are no longer able to realistically construe an argument that disputes their own inspiration as merely a difference of opinion; they see it instead as, for all intents and purposes, an attack on their intellectual integrity…on their very Self Soul.

7] Finally, a stage is reached [again for some] where the original inspiration has become so profoundly integrated into their self-identity [socially, psychologically, emotionally] defending it has less and less to do with actually being inspired at all.

It could revolve around God. But, really, it could revolve around anything that you come to believe is vital in sustaining your peace of mind on your own particular sojourn from the cradle to the grave.

You can’t read!

You have your take on inspiration and I have mine.

Or, as Ierrellus notes:

“Many experiences can inspire one. There are experiences with Nature, with music, with good reading, with friends, with the very joi de vivre, with being a part of the vastness of the awesome universe, all of which lift one above the mundane plodding of daily existence.”

My concern here has always been the part where those who feel inspired as they do are not content with letting it lift just them above the plodding minutia of the “daily grind”. They become eager to inspire others as well.

I mean, just look at the world around us. Inspiration abounds! That some don’t embody it as you do however is just something I feel compelled to dwell on.

You were expecting uncritical acceptance? Unconditional positive regard? Sorry I let you down bro! You ignored my questions about how you think.

Four words:

1] The
2] Coalition
3] of
4] Truth

Not in it?

Then Urwrongx1000.

Not only that but, given his own inspiration going back to the…

Extraordinary Commission (Cheka)
State Political Directorate (GPU)
Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU)
People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD)
Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB)
People’s Commissariat for State Security (NKGB)
Ministry of State Security (MGB)
Committee for State Security (KGB)

…you are being observed.

Unless of course you are a colorblind dog?

If only I had been wrong just x1000 in my lifetime I would have been a different Dasein than I am.