fragilekeys

In this post, I will try to spell out what makes “mainstream atheism” so loathsome in my eyes. Then, and throughout this post, I will offer a contrasting view of “atheism” that I think is more intellectually and spiritually respectable. Finally, I will try to show how atheism is not enough. To begin, I will take Alain de Botton as a case study. Since you are probably unfamiliar with him and his ideas, I’ve embedded a video of him at TED. But if you don’t feel like watching him (I don’t blame you!), don’t worry; I go over all the main points in my discussion. Continue reading →

Life would become endurable only among a humanity which would no longer have any illusions in reserve, a humanity completely disabused and delighted to be so. — Emile Cioran

So goes the deceptively straightforward guidepost for the following expressions of disgust. I constrain myself to none of them, and deliberately betray myself. Continue reading →

For those who wish to get clear of the difficulties it is advantageous to discuss the difficulties well; for the subsequent free play of thought implies the solution of the previous difficulties, and it is not possible to untie the knot of which one does not know. But the difficulty of our thinking points to a ‘knot’ in the object; for insofar as our thought is in difficulties, it is in like case with those who are bound; for in either case it is impossible to go forward. Hence one should have surveyed all the difficulties beforehand, both for the purposes we have stated and because people who inquire without first stating the difficulties are like those who do not know where they have to go; besides, a man does not otherwise know even whether he has at any given time found what he is looking for or not; for the end is not clear to such a man, while to him who has first discussed the difficulties it is clear. (Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book B, 1) Continue reading →