An excellent series of reflections and observations over at Laeth’s place today. I found the following particularly striking:
i find myself more and more at odds with both classical religion and mainstream attitudes to reality. the first one refuses to accept just how random and chaotic a world of true freedom is. the second refuses to understand it, and own it.
it is precisely because we are free that there is randomness (i act this way, you act that way, someone else acts another way, every single being, not just humans, acting all the time at cross purposes: the result is unexpected; cannot be predicted). and it is precisely in freedom and in freedom only that there is meaning. that's the fun. and the tragedy. can't have one without the other. and why would you want to.
My two cents. Mainstream materialist assumptions about reality are essentially devoid of meaning. Stuff happens, sometimes according to some physical/natural laws, sometimes not. There is no big “why” behind why stuff happens. It simply happens, often quite randomly, perhaps even chaotically.
Classical Christian metaphysics posits an Omni-god as the big “why” without actually providing any meaningful or coherent explanation for the “why.” Thus, randomness or chaos cannot exist in classical Christian metaphysics because it also defines God the big “how,” “what”, “where,” “how,” and “who.” Put another way, classical Christian metaphysics leaves no room for the sort of authentic freedom beyond its rather contradictory doctrine of free will. Thus, what we perceive as randomness or chaos is our limited and obtuse interpretation of Divine Will unfolding.
The assumptions Laeth shares align with mine and offer another way forward. What we perceive as randomness or chaos is the commotion of all the Beings in Creation simultaneously and continuously expressing their uncreated freedom and the subsequent interactions of these expressed forms of freedom. What appears as random is actually expressions of freedom rooted in consciousness/intelligence and driven by motivations, including but not limited to desires, aspirations, commitments, love, and fear.
Laeth concludes:
that's the whole point. we have to participate in making meaning. not 'find' it. we have to make it. God makes it for himself, not for us. what he did is give us an opportunity. why would i want him to pilot the ship for me. it's enough that he gave me a ship. the point is to become more like him, not less.
the other side of the coin is mainstream atheism, which looks upon the often chaotic results of freedom and concludes that there is no meaning. what a stupid and unwarranted conclusion. just another type of cope. to refuse responsibility.
randomness is a product of free beings acting (and acting requires purpose, hence, meaning). now, the result of course is often chaotic. it has to be. but that just means improvisation is one of the skills (perhaps the main skill) we're meant to master here. but most people want a script, i suppose.
Read the rest in the link above.
i find myself more and more at odds with both classical religion and mainstream attitudes to reality. the first one refuses to accept just how random and chaotic a world of true freedom is. the second refuses to understand it, and own it.
it is precisely because we are free that there is randomness (i act this way, you act that way, someone else acts another way, every single being, not just humans, acting all the time at cross purposes: the result is unexpected; cannot be predicted). and it is precisely in freedom and in freedom only that there is meaning. that's the fun. and the tragedy. can't have one without the other. and why would you want to.
My two cents. Mainstream materialist assumptions about reality are essentially devoid of meaning. Stuff happens, sometimes according to some physical/natural laws, sometimes not. There is no big “why” behind why stuff happens. It simply happens, often quite randomly, perhaps even chaotically.
Classical Christian metaphysics posits an Omni-god as the big “why” without actually providing any meaningful or coherent explanation for the “why.” Thus, randomness or chaos cannot exist in classical Christian metaphysics because it also defines God the big “how,” “what”, “where,” “how,” and “who.” Put another way, classical Christian metaphysics leaves no room for the sort of authentic freedom beyond its rather contradictory doctrine of free will. Thus, what we perceive as randomness or chaos is our limited and obtuse interpretation of Divine Will unfolding.
The assumptions Laeth shares align with mine and offer another way forward. What we perceive as randomness or chaos is the commotion of all the Beings in Creation simultaneously and continuously expressing their uncreated freedom and the subsequent interactions of these expressed forms of freedom. What appears as random is actually expressions of freedom rooted in consciousness/intelligence and driven by motivations, including but not limited to desires, aspirations, commitments, love, and fear.
Laeth concludes:
that's the whole point. we have to participate in making meaning. not 'find' it. we have to make it. God makes it for himself, not for us. what he did is give us an opportunity. why would i want him to pilot the ship for me. it's enough that he gave me a ship. the point is to become more like him, not less.
the other side of the coin is mainstream atheism, which looks upon the often chaotic results of freedom and concludes that there is no meaning. what a stupid and unwarranted conclusion. just another type of cope. to refuse responsibility.
randomness is a product of free beings acting (and acting requires purpose, hence, meaning). now, the result of course is often chaotic. it has to be. but that just means improvisation is one of the skills (perhaps the main skill) we're meant to master here. but most people want a script, i suppose.
Read the rest in the link above.
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