This erosion of a sense of the reality of values has been compounded, in the worldview of many, by the removal of the supernatural antagonists, God and Satan. Without such personifications of vast moral and spiritual forces, any notion of forces of "good and evil" embattled in the world seems to many an primitive superstition.
In other words, much of the secular part of Liberal America has cut itself off from the sources of moral and spiritual passion because that has seemed to be required by rationality and intellectual responsibility. Perhaps the false certainties provided by religion can inflame people, according to this point of view. But many of those who see themselves as having moved beyond such false certainties into a better-founded set of beliefs regard the loss of that flame as the cost of seeing things as they truly are.
Although I share the commitment to coming to our beliefs by applying rational processes to the available evidence, I reject all those conclusions.
The evidence at hand -- though subtle and complex, but still discernible -- can lead us, I will argue, to an understanding that 1) "value" (both positive and negative) is a fundamental part of our reality, and 2) a central dynamic operating in the human world has characteristics that warrant its being called "the battle between good and evil."
In the upcoming piece "Ideas that Can Make Liberal America Stronger: Value is at the Heart of Our Humanity," I will substantiate the first of those points.
Then, in "Ideas that Can Make Liberal America Stronger: What Would You Call This, if Not an "Evil Force"?" -- and in much of the series to follow -- I will show how rational and empirical thinking -- in a purely naturalistic framework -- can discover a dynamic appropriately called "the battle between good and evil."
By seeing the deep reality of good and evil, and the battle between them -- understood in entirely naturalistic terms -- we can tap into a power within us, connect with those passions that empowered our movie heroes -- like Luke and Sully and Frodo --
In other words, much of the secular part of Liberal America has cut itself off from the sources of moral and spiritual passion because that has seemed to be required by rationality and intellectual responsibility. Perhaps the false certainties provided by religion can inflame people, according to this point of view. But many of those who see themselves as having moved beyond such false certainties into a better-founded set of beliefs regard the loss of that flame as the cost of seeing things as they truly are.
Although I share the commitment to coming to our beliefs by applying rational processes to the available evidence, I reject all those conclusions.
The evidence at hand -- though subtle and complex, but still discernible -- can lead us, I will argue, to an understanding that 1) "value" (both positive and negative) is a fundamental part of our reality, and 2) a central dynamic operating in the human world has characteristics that warrant its being called "the battle between good and evil."
In the upcoming piece "Ideas that Can Make Liberal America Stronger: Value is at the Heart of Our Humanity," I will substantiate the first of those points.
Then, in "Ideas that Can Make Liberal America Stronger: What Would You Call This, if Not an "Evil Force"?" -- and in much of the series to follow -- I will show how rational and empirical thinking -- in a purely naturalistic framework -- can discover a dynamic appropriately called "the battle between good and evil."
By seeing the deep reality of good and evil, and the battle between them -- understood in entirely naturalistic terms -- we can tap into a power within us, connect with those passions that empowered our movie heroes -- like Luke and Sully and Frodo --
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
5
5
2
