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March 21, 2008 at 19:54:30
Morality is grounded in nature not institutionalized religion. |
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This is the teaching of the Holy Grail. The 12th Century didn't only profoundly see through the meaningless hypocrisies of institutionalized religion and realize that authentic humanity is grounded only in our spontaneous hearts, but they further and incredibly realized that being true to yourself is "nature itself" raised to its highest form, as opposed to absurd conflicts with the "supernatural" or "metaphysical" (the babble of intellectualizing theologians and philosophers). 
Alas, this vision has been mostly lost to fanatical religious cults such as Baptist Big Bang Armageddonites and George W. Bush, whose limitless hatred of nature is matched only by rapacious Texas energy corporations.
It must be taken in that these people HATE NATURE and see "it" only as a planet sized money cow.
But God without nature is a meaningless abstraction. Indeed, "God" is a metaphor at best for a mystery beyond concepts and institutions. In other words, nature.
This is all of a piece with the terrifying truth (to most of the human race) that ultimate realness is where we already are. This, as they say, is "It" my friends, unless you'd rather masturbate away your lives in 65 I.Q religious games.
But birth and death have NOTHING to do with catechisms, pamphlets, and fear of life sermonetts. They have to do with the spontaneous raw ongoing ness of immediacy which is itself reality process. Indeed, it is exactly this "untheoretical" raw ongoing ness which is the land of souls, not libraries jammed with dead abstractions.
Indeed, the thinking about point of view IS the pseudo identity of human beings, but that "about which" it thinks is nature, nature, and nothing but nature.
The 12th Century knew this. They knew, for example, that love is a creation of spontaneous nature. An ancient Chinese word for nature is TZU JAN, which means (very roughly) that which is so of itself. And so nowing is the of itself soing of that which is so of itself.
In a sentence: nowing is realitying is selfing. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.
Our country is now controlled by people who are hypnotized with religious/nationalistic games. They are literally insane (i.e., TOTALLY out of touch with reality).
But this is the evil foam, merely, on an ocean of bottomless mystery, and this mystery is the reality in which we live and move and have our being. It also doesn't answer to the foam.
So we should keep the faith that from the depths of nature will still come our salvation. Also, that these depths are also ultimately "our" depths.
So much sorrow. So much despair. So much loss. But keeping the life and death mystery faith will save us in the end. It always has. It always will.
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W. Christopher Epler (Bill)
<http://theliberationofrealism.blogspot.com/>
www.theliberationofrealism.blogspot.com
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| 7 comments |
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Mankind is not a moral actor.
He is a crook, sucker, and lazy coward. He is a great moralizer though. by John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1760 comments [39 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Mar 22, 2008 at 10:59:59 AM  (0+)
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Morality is grounded in human nature.....
And that is the problem. Humanity is up against the limits what human nature is capable of conceiving as a practical, working ethical cultural construction built upon written laws. Humanism and atheisim by falling under the this category, are self limited by definition. It is also what makes institutional religious claims an illusion, for their lack of any realizable moral insight greater than human nature. Religion only begins when such insight is made available to humankind. That is the character of a true revelation. by R. A. Landbeck (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 78 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Mar 22, 2008 at 5:52:54 PM (0+)
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Reply: lovely comments
Lovely comments. Thank you. I agree. The mysteries of human nature . . . by W. Christopher Epler (Bill) (291 articles, 59 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 763 comments [44 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Mar 22, 2008 at 7:44:32 PM (0+)
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Reply: EVEN ANIMALS ACT ALTRUISTICALLY WITHOUT RELIGION
The idea that morality can only exist if it is grounded or supported by something supernatural is refuted when we look at the behavior of non human animals. Not only mamals but birds and even some reptiles care for their young. Birds will spend an entire season devoting the majority of their energies flying back and forth from the nest to bring food to their offspring. They are devoting the majority of their efforts to the benefit of something other than themselves, i.e. their offspring. And they do this although they have no religion. They don't have to believe in a supernatural being who will reward or punish them for moral or immorals behavior to behave morally. And to say they are not acting morally because they are not human is to resort to the tautology that the behavior must be done by humans to be moral. If the behavior is the same as moral behavior, humans can codify this behavior in spoken moral precepts and justify it without the aid of a belief in something supernatural. This same caring for offspring exists in communities of primates, and as primates evolved to the point where they had language, they codified the moral behavior they were already practicing into spoken precepts. Robert Halfhill rhalfhill@juno.com RobertHalfhill@gmail.com by rhalfhill (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 325 comments) on Saturday, Mar 22, 2008 at 11:18:01 PM (0+)
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Reply: Right On
Right on. Morality or good is the way nature functions and for humans the belief in god and religions corrupt that. by arlen custer (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 466 comments [69 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Sunday, Mar 23, 2008 at 9:06:35 AM (0+)
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Reply: wonderful reminder -- thank you
Oh, how true, how true. Those of us who love animals (and are loved back by them) see this truth over and over again. And how wonderful it is to know that spiritual mystery and even compassion isn't limited to human beings! Thank you so much for this wonderful reminder! 'm so sorry I mislaid the title of a book about such things written by an animal trainer (really, animal lover) that was so gorgeous. He had story after stroy about the incredible perceptions and intuitions of dogs (mostly) -- almost beyond ESP. My God, what these animals KNEW was humbling and virtually miraculus. It was the sort of book that renewed your faith in life -- and now I've gone and forgotten the name. Anyway, thank you again. Bill by W. Christopher Epler (Bill) (291 articles, 59 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 763 comments [44 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Mar 23, 2008 at 1:29:58 PM (0+)
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so true
All so true but how did this religious madness spread so effectively, plagues spread and die having, like forest fires done their work, when will this curse of religion come to an end, what has mankind done to nature to be forever punished by this insanity. The trouble is this desease is self sustaining, it feeds on itself and grows, why is it so potent, why does the human brain alone suffer this enormous catastrophe. Did nature inflict religion on us in order to limit our numbers through the inevitable conflict it brings, I don't know the answer but I suspect nobody else does either. by douglas kay (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 83 comments) on Tuesday, Mar 25, 2008 at 10:09:49 AM (0+)
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