RE: Comfort in Faith at Death
July 5, 2019 at 10:48 am
(This post was last modified: July 5, 2019 at 10:50 am by The Grand Nudger.)
We can sanitize the debate between antitheism and positively valued things and people by referencing a dead culture.
Massively summarizing the Havamal to just two statements. Don’t be an idiot, and be generous to guests. Neither of these things seem objectionable in surface analysis, no more so than the nebulous idea of comfort in distress. What antitheism contends in both cases is not that comfort, wisdom, and generosity are bad things, but that in the context of divine mandate and the subtext of human psychology they each -become- so.
The wit and group generosity of Norse dictates necessarily constrained targets of violence( this was their explicit purpose- regardless of whether they were fully effectual). The divine voice mandating these things left human beings with a need to export their otherwise internecine violence to achieve full piety.
In this way, theism transformed wit and and generosity as the twin crutches of raider ethos. As hitchens put it....religion poisons everything. Not just our base urges but our loftiest aims.
Maybe that helps to clear up antitheisms rejection if otherwise positively valued things and people? Yes , comfort is good, but the aim of comfort is predictably subverted through the conceit of divine license or mandate.
Massively summarizing the Havamal to just two statements. Don’t be an idiot, and be generous to guests. Neither of these things seem objectionable in surface analysis, no more so than the nebulous idea of comfort in distress. What antitheism contends in both cases is not that comfort, wisdom, and generosity are bad things, but that in the context of divine mandate and the subtext of human psychology they each -become- so.
The wit and group generosity of Norse dictates necessarily constrained targets of violence( this was their explicit purpose- regardless of whether they were fully effectual). The divine voice mandating these things left human beings with a need to export their otherwise internecine violence to achieve full piety.
In this way, theism transformed wit and and generosity as the twin crutches of raider ethos. As hitchens put it....religion poisons everything. Not just our base urges but our loftiest aims.
Maybe that helps to clear up antitheisms rejection if otherwise positively valued things and people? Yes , comfort is good, but the aim of comfort is predictably subverted through the conceit of divine license or mandate.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
