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Sitaram
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 1079
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 Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:41 am Post subject: Slaying Our Dragons |
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One reader responds:
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Wow! Sitaram! You put so much thought into your post that I hate to be
such a spoil sport- almost. Saved from what? From being the animals we
are? There is no salvation. There is no damnation. All the people you
mentioned, imho, are deranged and self serving. There are many wisdom
books and ways of inviting other humans to extend mercy to one another.
Hope is something we give ourselves and bring to fruition alone.
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Sitaram replies:
Thanks for the wow.
I was hoping for a "Holy cow!"
Consider the game of Chess.
Imagine that I had written, not about the history and development of
theological doctrines, nor the inchoate weakness of various scriptural
arguments, lying in waiting to refute scholars with their own words, but,
rather, that I had written about the history of chess, the supremacy of
certain strategies, the essential character of those few in each age who
become grand masters, and the mystery of IBM's Deep Thought program.
And, after you read my monograph on chess, you dismiss it all by pointing
out to us the obvious: Chess is only a game, you say, and not a matter
of importance in the course of human events; the chess pieces are merely
carved wood or ivory at best and plastic at worst, you say. You take
your hand and sweep the pieces off the board and onto the floor with a
laugh, and give us a look of satisfaction.
But, have you told us anything we did not know before? Have you added
to or detracted from anyone's observations regarding the game? Of
course, in theory, the world might go on without the game of chess,
though in practice it shall not, for chess and religion are human activities.
It is not the pieces or the board, or even the players, which are of
significance, but, shall we say, the mathematical patterns, eternal patterns
of logic and illogic, which are the real object of study. And shall there
ever be a Kurt Godel of chess, to unravel the seeming infinity of moves in
our Sisyphean labors and put Deep Blue forever to rest with a
meta-mathematical model of incompleteness?
Have you made a point, or missed the point?
There are those who pose challenging questions. There are those who
find clever answers or solutions. And then, there are those who neither
pose nor solve questions and problems, but dismiss them as insignificant.
Whenever we are confronted by a dragon, we have a choice. We may
attempt to slay the dragon. Or, we may dismiss the dragon as something
which does not exist. We slay non-existent dragons in our imagination
and our fiction, using our minds. Dragons exist as ideas and ideas are
very real, and can sometimes be very dangerous. Epics are always
peopled by heroes who are dragon slayers, and not nay-sayers.
We must be careful not to dismiss or write-off too many questions and
problems, or our mind may suddenly find itself unemployed.
We can never prove conclusively to everyone that God and heaven and
hell exist or do not exist, but we all know there is a Northern Ireland.
Belfast requires no phenomenology.
We need to be saved from ourselves. As e. e. cummings said, "The mind
is its own beautiful prisoner."
The mind is a faithful servant, but a cruel master.
We must try to save ourselves from the damnation of our own intolerance
before terrorism and retaliation destroy us all.
Being, myself, more Hindu and Buddhist than Christian in my personal
beliefs, I have other fish to fry. But I know a few interesting things about
Christianity.
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