Sunday School

[PopeBeanie]

I liked Pinker’s presentation of data, but found VOX’s criticism pretty much irrelevant, probably to everyone except those with a philosophy degree? 🙂

[Simon Paynton]

“How secularism cuts the Gordian knot in education.”

– I like this article.  Why do we have faith schools anyway?  But I find the author’s reasoning weak.  The proposed benefit she cites is to the churches – that their teachings won’t be watered down, while the present harm she cites is to children – that they are taught all kinds of backward, repressive and divisive practices.  Also, she says the present system is illogical, while the religions would simply say that their freedoms to be un-free are curtailed.  So that’s not much of a reason to change.

The real reason we need change is that children are being indoctrinated with harmful attitudes and practices.

[Simon Paynton]

“a theory about knowing the difference between hard won knowledge and superficial opinion.”

– I find that what shapes theories, or hypotheses, is counter-examples to the predictions that they make.  If one is dealing with the past, all we get are hypotheses.

[Simon Paynton]

“Maybe “Spirituality” means one’s “philosophy of life” but if so why call it spirituality?”

– I think it means one’s “philosophy of improving life”.

Why call it spirituality?  Good point.  People talk about an inner spark, an inner flame, or an inner light, and presumably, spirituality has this attribute associated with it (the pressure to thrive; thriving, surviving, reproducing).

This seems not a million miles away from talk of a “higher self” and “transcendence”.  So, perhaps, the “spirit” is defined as this transcendent higher self, in general usage.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Ok, but to me “transcendence” is another meaningless word. What is a “higher self”? As far as I am concerned they are “Woo” terms.  Theologians use such words because they seem to appears to be descriptors of their beliefs.

I mean if your god or spirit is imaginary in the first place it does not matter what color you think it is. It still does not exist so there is no point trying to describe it.

There is no inner self or higher self or some astral plain that can be reached. It is all in the mind. We reach clarity and an understanding of reality by thinking critically about our perceptions and not by giving them not just ambiguous labels but also misleading or meaningless “Woo” definitions.

[Simon Paynton]

“higher self” is the part of you that acts for your own long-term advantage, which, being human, generally includes other people’s long term advantage too.

Jordan Peterson defines “spirit” as a pattern of behaviour, or pattern of being, so we can say we do something “in the spirit” of person X.

If we put these two things together, we can say that spirituality deals with thriving as much as possible: one’s “pattern of being” is the “highest” it can be.

[Simon Paynton]

Therefore a good definition of spirituality is that it aims to produce a more thriving pattern of being.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

What is a “thriving pattern of being” ?

“higher self” is the part of you that acts for your own long-term advantage.

At what age do we get this “higher self”? How long is “long-term”. As far as I am concerned in the long term we are all dead.

[Simon Paynton]

“What is a “thriving pattern of being” ?”

– thriving more, long term, as a pattern.

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