Saturday, June 20, 2009

Rationality

I no longer worry about the exclusionary principle of rational people, promoting exclusively rational things, to other exclusively rational people. Particularly troublesome is the attitude of dismissiveness toward anything that cannot be accounted for by a mechanistic view of life. I'm sure when it comes to things like how long it takes to cook a loaf of bread, or a bus schedule, that approach makes sense. Rationality is then an appropriate assertion. What about the big questions of life? Rationality is never certain therein. There is always the next unexplained phenomenon. Religion is never certain,because many things are inexplicable and undermining, despite faith. We all live by the seat of our pants, and faith is omnipresent, religious or irreligious. If rationality is a step in the twilight, with things undiscovered but faith that they will be, religion is a step in the dark with things yet undiscovered but faith that they will be. No one I think, has a choke hold on truth. Most have given up abstract thought or existential reasoning as too opaque and too troubling. Leave it to the experts,the philosophers, they say. Why leave the most important aspects of our time to experts and seek diversions that buffer your reality? Truth, from whatever standpoint, only exists for those with a candle, and candle power is only so bright. It is however, bright enough to let some walk the path, but where they are going is at best, only glimpsed. There is no place for dogma on either side of the big questions of life. We have to deal with uncertainty as a matter of humanness. It encourages us to explore , think and grow. Better to know what you don't know than know what you can't know. Pity the person who has arrived at the full knowledge of the God filled or Godless universe. A portion of humility and a capacity to listen to the world, your neighbor,or the Ground of all Being may serve you in good stead.I have found that each step of insight seems to raise more questions than more knowledge. I suppose it's better to know what questions you'd like answered than not knowing what questions there are to ask.

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