Friday, September 05, 2008
Have I Lost Bob Crane?
I'm sure the two of you are asking yourselves, "what happened to this: http://dongately.blogspot.com/2004/07/60s-sitcom-star-inadvertently-shows.html?". Well, the short answer is that it didn't take. Or to put it with some hope, it hasn't taken. Faith is difficult when research into genetics and biology reveals daily more and more about what makes us tick. And when a close friend of mine, one whose intellectual and philosophical chops I respect a great deal said to me, "I'm through with God", that was a significant blow to my confidence in being able to reconcile God to the modern world(or the modern world to God). It's not impossible, mind you, just more difficult, and it may prove to be beyond me.
But since I haven't updated on this topic since my last post on it, I have an anecdote. After writing it, I went to an Episcopal church near my home, to see what the service would like. This was more for the benefit of my children, who I still haven't gotten around to getting to church. That's another subject. Anyway, I took my place in a pew, followed along with some hymns, after which it was time for the sermon.
The priest got up and began to talk about what was wrong with Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. As he went on about how Reagan didn't understand how tough life was for the lost and the least, all I could think was, "most people devote one hour a week for spiritual succor and a time away from the world where they can meditate on God and worship Him, and you're blathering on about 20-plus-year-old drug control policy? At least Nancy Reagan gave her audience credit for being autonomous beings possessed of free will. You're taking the typical Marxist tack of describing people merely as ciphers of input and ouput." (maybe we are, but the Marxist explanation would then still be hopelessly reductionist) Instead of yelling this at the guy, which tempted me, I just got up and walked out. And that was it for that church.
I may still just join the Presbyterian church near me, holding my nose whenever the brain-damaged politics of the PCUSA rears its ugly, utopian, head. ¶ 19:34
But since I haven't updated on this topic since my last post on it, I have an anecdote. After writing it, I went to an Episcopal church near my home, to see what the service would like. This was more for the benefit of my children, who I still haven't gotten around to getting to church. That's another subject. Anyway, I took my place in a pew, followed along with some hymns, after which it was time for the sermon.
The priest got up and began to talk about what was wrong with Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign. As he went on about how Reagan didn't understand how tough life was for the lost and the least, all I could think was, "most people devote one hour a week for spiritual succor and a time away from the world where they can meditate on God and worship Him, and you're blathering on about 20-plus-year-old drug control policy? At least Nancy Reagan gave her audience credit for being autonomous beings possessed of free will. You're taking the typical Marxist tack of describing people merely as ciphers of input and ouput." (maybe we are, but the Marxist explanation would then still be hopelessly reductionist) Instead of yelling this at the guy, which tempted me, I just got up and walked out. And that was it for that church.
I may still just join the Presbyterian church near me, holding my nose whenever the brain-damaged politics of the PCUSA rears its ugly, utopian, head. ¶ 19:34
