COMMENTARY
By George Templeton
Gazette Columnist
Seasons Thinking
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” Soren Kierkegaard
The New Normal
Thank
goodness, Trump has at long last given us permission to say “Merry
Christmas”. Exactly what does he mean? Do you suppose it would even
the score if we said “Islamic Terrorism” and “Happy Holidays”? We
should remember that vagueness is a tool that can be used by politicians
to build unjustified charisma.
Is
Trump trying to divide us and demonize people that don’t say it? Is he
trying to suggest that his tribe is compassionate and that if you don’t
say Merry Christmas you belong to a ruthless and agnostic clan?
Is he trying to justify and promote his ethic of “telling it like it
is” by arguing against political correctness? Humility is not as
powerful a motivator as fear and greed.
Are
we worried that we might offend someone? Are we trying to force our
beliefs on others? Will loyal followers be obliged to say Merry
Christmas because it has particular religious connotations? Do we want a
separation of church and state? Does our religious freedom require
official proselytization?
Trump
apologists explain that he is really no different than Obama and
Clinton. Obama deported illegal aliens and Clinton would have a fence.
It is a utilitarian view of morality, John Stuart Mill’s “greatest good
for the greatest number”. But “Good” is qualitative. It cannot be
easily measured or counted.
It
is in the instruction that people should vote Republican in the
December Alabama election. The argument is that a Democrat can’t be
good for Alabama. That is the justification for electing a possible
pedophile whose moral character and respect for our Constitution is not
beyond reproach.
Numbers don’t characterize our feelings about these things.
Scientific
The
science section is at the end of Google news. What it discusses is not
science. Real science requires an understanding of math, experimental
design, and the role of evidence. It is about numbers, equations, and
statistics. Sometimes things just happen by chance. Sometimes there is
a cause. We need to be taught how to tell the difference. Studies
don’t show and things are not linked. What seems different isn’t. What
seems important is not. Are the results lasting? Only time will
tell. We need to learn how to distinguish between science, business,
religion, and politics.
Most
people do not live in a scientific world. Their world is aesthetic and
emotional. The scientific method is poorly suited to understanding
human nature. Individuals are not universal like the laws of physics.
Meaning
is incomplete until a thing is finished. Old folks give us perspective
to see how seemingly slow changes add up to create a very different
image. Like a work of art, it is concrete only when it is finished.
Then it becomes eternal and transcendent. New things can be discovered
in antiquity and old things in the new. There are few discoveries that
are completely original. Personal and social circumstances change.
It
is a mistake to read the bible thinking that our perspective has not
changed. We know that the universe is more than lights in the sky. To
cast demons into a herd of swine, causing them to commit suicide in the
sea, was a stunt worthy of the God of thousands of years ago. Today we
might expect a more impressive demonstration.
Convictions
Freshman
college students used to be required to read Soren Kierkegaard
(1813-1855). He was serious, melancholy, and solitary. To him, it
seemed that rationality got in the way of choosing, deciding, and making
demanding individual commitments.
Trying
to figure out where Kierkegaard was coming from was difficult. He
wrote, “… without understanding spirit it is impossible to understand
despair… the dearest and most attractive dwelling-place of despair is in
the very heart of immediate happiness.” It meant being honest about
self-contradiction. We experience this when we are simultaneously happy
that a loved one’s suffering has ended but sad about our own loss.
More universal and fundamental are our subconscious “monsters from the
Id” that were portrayed in the 1956 science fiction film, Forbidden Planet.
According to Sigmund Freud, (1856-1939) they are part of our split
personality, one that divides between conscience, rationality, and a
primitive brute that says, “I want it all and I demand it now”.
Young students need to be challenged! At their age, Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death
is not interesting. Are they suffering from despair when they check
their smart phones every four minutes? Someone or something might be
trying to get in touch with them! They are anxious, but don’t realize
it. Their smart phone can help self-realization or it can be an escape
from that. Solitude helps one to find truth.
Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling
concerned the Biblical story of Abraham. He admired Abraham’s faith
because it made no excuse and was free from rationalization. In
contrast to the culture he lived in, Kierkegaard found God to be
mysterious and hard to understand. Abraham, who was the only one
hearing God’s command to sacrifice his beloved son, was curiously the
supreme example of faith. How did his son feel after he discovered his
dad intended to kill him?
The Hebrew Bible’s Book of Job
describes the problem of pain and suffering. Surprisingly, Job does
not become disappointed or unfaithful even though he suffers in
despair. In the end, Job receives the reply from God that he had wished
for, but it consists of questions that he cannot answer. If we are not
careful, we will get both what we want and what we fear.
Students
could conclude that Kierkegaard was a Christian. He thought that faith
was too superficial, too easy, and too universally accepted in the
culture of his time. Faith was only an opinion. There was no need for
real faith. He wanted to make it authentic and that meant more
difficult, but he believed in life’s subjective truth and in facts that
could not be confirmed. Kierkegaard needed to accept the absurd to
traverse the chasm separating man from God. For many, that is no longer
a requirement. Passionate faith is their intent, but a belief in
everything is faith in nothing.
They
could conjecture that Kierkegaard was trying to become a Christian and
having difficulty in making the “leap of faith”. God created man
because he needed one smaller, weaker, and dumber than himself. When
God became less easily knowable mankind was isolated and alone. The
consequence was that man became responsible for making his life what it
would be.
Hard core American religion cannot countenance this, because they “just believe”. They have their Elmer Gantry (Sinclair Lewis 1927 novel and 1960 film). Roy Moore hears God’s word so clearly that he took it upon himself to write his Legal Theory of God’s Supremacy. He has a religion of his law, instead of a celebration of life.
David
Hume explained, “A wise man … proportions his belief to the evidence.”
The objective truth is that Moore, twice removed from the Alabama
Supreme Court, is an unyielding extremist who does not compromise. For
only one to be right, everybody else has to be wrong.
It’s
Biblical! Adlai Stevenson, the 1952 Democratic Presidential nominee,
would not be elected because of his divorce. But the Bible also claims
that disrespectful children should be stoned to death or mauled by
bears. Elmer’s religion says that only Christians are allowed to engage
in the prayers that he wants before public and government meetings.
But it’s prayer first, and then effort to make it happen. There is a
risk of planning the answer and not being open to developments.
The Season
The
season used to start after thanksgiving. Does it need a three month
binge? Commercialism has made Christmas materialistic. Poverty does
not exist without need, but what is necessary? The poorest man is not
the one who owns the least.
Christmas
has been a secular holiday since the time of Queen Victoria and the
rise of the commercial age. It needed an excuse. That was provided by
Christianity. Now, aggressive marketing sees no need for excuses.
Computers that used to be mind amplifiers have become entertainment
devices. They have the same advertisements that interrupt television
programs. You are not taking the initiative. That has been left to
programmers and big data about you. They have a deal for you.
God Said
Christmas
can be criticized because of its pagan roots, but today it is in
literature, folklore, poetry, and the Santa Claus myth. It is in
charity, peace, good will, and gifts for children. It is in drunken
parties, time off, the celebration of life’s meaning, and the birth of
Christ.
There
are many religions in America. All of them are explanations for the
meaning of life deserving of respect. Like Santa Claus, none of them
are accurate in every detail, but they have continued through the
millennia because of the truth of their message.
America
will continue to grow less white, Anglo-Saxon, and protestant. Other
cultures will continue to have festivals. Many are already assimilated
into America, one that we have all created. They make our lives
interesting. However, life is not just something to be studied. It is
to be lived. Christmas reminds us about the tension between what we are
and what we wish to be. That is important.
ne
of the world's largest underground bodies of fresh water—the Ogallala
aquifer—is quickly shrinking, threatening the livelihoods of farmers in
eight U.S. states.
ere
is a look, by the numbers, at all the known contacts between Trump
associates and Russians. From meetings to emails, to text messages and
Skype sessions, these lists have been growing throughout the year as
more details drip out in the investigations into Russian meddling in the
2016 US elections.
