All my life I've been attempting to reconcile three important resources; one original (or so I assume) and two well-known. The first resource is M. Scott Peck's book "The Road Less Travelled" which I have used over the past 30 years to continue to devise humanist alternatives to the miracle-dependent moral content of religious dogma. The second resource is Robert Pirsig's second book "Lila", which contains many profound and original concepts, not the least of which was that moral behavior can be identified by how much it perpetuates adaptability. Add to these, my own longheld belief in the value of what I call "Equilibrium Argumentation", which asks two opposing forces to explore the possibility that the world is not yet ready for either of them to claim victory.
Each of these three concepts will appear consistently in this blog. As in any business's organizational chart, the secret to success lies not in how the boxes are labelled or placed, but rather how well the dotted lines between the boxes are managed to optimize idea exchanges and sharing of duties. For example, how is the morality of a non-religious person perceived by a religious person? How far can "community-building" go before it becomes "communism"? What role does "love" play in the real world? What are the functioning compartments of spirituality?
George W. Bush courted independent voters by using the term "Compassionate Conservative". Ronald Reagan defined his perception of human nature in his famous statement "How can you create a safety-net without it becoming a hammock?" Does this represent evolution in the Republican party?
Ideas evolve. Science plans for the obsolescence of every theory. Any thinking person seeking validation had better be satisfied with a temporary consensus. I'm not looking for universal truths...I'm looking for progress. Let's explore our own evolution with a microscope.
I got in trouble the other day by responding to a NY Times article defending atheists' morals. I added that a religion stops evolving as soon as its source materials are published. And that atheists benefit from those resources as "history" or "philosophy", without being forced to think they are "finished" or "perfect". A good Catholic immediately wrote to remind me of Aquinas and others that wrote much about the original documents, but failed to convince me that their enforced loyalty to the original materials minimized consideration of competing philosophies and thus made internal evolution unlikely, thus the Reformation...
"The Road Less Travelled defines love as "a commitment to the spiritual growth of another". Which word (other than "another") doesn't require hours of conversation to reach agreement on a definition? Let's get started.
Evolution is a river...religion is still water. We must learn to live to evolve...to welcome change...paraphrasing Pirsig, "death prevents evolution". Be alive!
More soon. Let me hear from you!
