“What greater reversal of the Golden Rule could there be than to put your own life above the life of your children? To invigorate yourself with their blood, to abort them in service to your freedom, to sacrifice them to win the favor of your idols? As you know, the ancient valley where children were burned in sacrifice was called Gehenna. Christ used the name as a synonym for hell. Likewise Planned Parenthood.” What better summarization is there of the state of our nation’s soul? Help me, God to promote life to the younger.
Perhaps I should follow Lincoln's admonition, but at my age, being thought a fool is among the higher compliments I get. That said, I'm still struggling to understand "our memory cannot contain the self who remembers" - why? Why can't the mind "contain"? (I do not challenge the proposition, just seek to understand in a meaningful way that advances the journey.) To say that "the whole self is held in the mind of . . . God," seems to be a clue, but not an answer.
I don't know if this is what Drew meant but to me it means the "self" of memories is a constructed self. That "self" is soulless, a manufactured entity much like the way some try to deconstruct truth with superficiality through rationalizations of society, emotions and perceptions. I treasure my memories of self but they in themselves are not what I am. The only true self is that which is created by God--the soul. The image bearer. That's my two cents. Hope I didn't muddy the waters.
This the mystery of consciousness. We have the ability to see that we are seeing, understand that we are understanding. The question of the possibility of A.I., which is principally the understanding our own ability to understand, hinges on how we know that we know. The Christian understanding of our consciousness is that our understanding proceeds, is a power from, our spiritual soul, which, seemingly, is boundless and infinite, along with being our true self or identity. Since you cannot contain the infinite, by definition, and knowing is a kind of containing, also by definition, you cannot contain, or know, the whole self, the whole soul. Yet God alone, who is both infinite and omniscient, can know the totality of your self, and, as an added bonus, love that soul, that self, your self, infinitely and in your entirety.
Thanks for yours. I think death makes it real, makes the beauty poignant. Without that sense of an ending, there is no shape, there is no plot, no story. A eukaryotic cell “knows” what is happening inside its plasma membrane and outside its plasma membrane and reacts accordingly to stay alive. I think searching for meaning in the world of culture is equivalent to an organism trying to stay alive in the biosphere. I definitely believe in meaning and I also believe in a Higher Intelligence. My stumbling block is the Incarnation. Like Dostoevsky’s character Shatov “I want to believe,” but my heart has trouble FEELING it.
I still think the greatest mystery, which I confess I don’t understand, is the incarnation. The word (spirit) become flesh (mortality). Wallace Stevens says death is the mother of beauty. Is that a pagan sentiment or a Christian one?
How about some tomato juice for Gods sake?
Wow. Saved this!
“What greater reversal of the Golden Rule could there be than to put your own life above the life of your children? To invigorate yourself with their blood, to abort them in service to your freedom, to sacrifice them to win the favor of your idols? As you know, the ancient valley where children were burned in sacrifice was called Gehenna. Christ used the name as a synonym for hell. Likewise Planned Parenthood.” What better summarization is there of the state of our nation’s soul? Help me, God to promote life to the younger.
Perhaps I should follow Lincoln's admonition, but at my age, being thought a fool is among the higher compliments I get. That said, I'm still struggling to understand "our memory cannot contain the self who remembers" - why? Why can't the mind "contain"? (I do not challenge the proposition, just seek to understand in a meaningful way that advances the journey.) To say that "the whole self is held in the mind of . . . God," seems to be a clue, but not an answer.
I don't know if this is what Drew meant but to me it means the "self" of memories is a constructed self. That "self" is soulless, a manufactured entity much like the way some try to deconstruct truth with superficiality through rationalizations of society, emotions and perceptions. I treasure my memories of self but they in themselves are not what I am. The only true self is that which is created by God--the soul. The image bearer. That's my two cents. Hope I didn't muddy the waters.
This the mystery of consciousness. We have the ability to see that we are seeing, understand that we are understanding. The question of the possibility of A.I., which is principally the understanding our own ability to understand, hinges on how we know that we know. The Christian understanding of our consciousness is that our understanding proceeds, is a power from, our spiritual soul, which, seemingly, is boundless and infinite, along with being our true self or identity. Since you cannot contain the infinite, by definition, and knowing is a kind of containing, also by definition, you cannot contain, or know, the whole self, the whole soul. Yet God alone, who is both infinite and omniscient, can know the totality of your self, and, as an added bonus, love that soul, that self, your self, infinitely and in your entirety.
Thanks for yours. I think death makes it real, makes the beauty poignant. Without that sense of an ending, there is no shape, there is no plot, no story. A eukaryotic cell “knows” what is happening inside its plasma membrane and outside its plasma membrane and reacts accordingly to stay alive. I think searching for meaning in the world of culture is equivalent to an organism trying to stay alive in the biosphere. I definitely believe in meaning and I also believe in a Higher Intelligence. My stumbling block is the Incarnation. Like Dostoevsky’s character Shatov “I want to believe,” but my heart has trouble FEELING it.
I still think the greatest mystery, which I confess I don’t understand, is the incarnation. The word (spirit) become flesh (mortality). Wallace Stevens says death is the mother of beauty. Is that a pagan sentiment or a Christian one?