So at breakfast this morning the discussion had to do with photons and entropy. Are single photos obedient to time? Is the universe totally chained to entropy with an inevitable final condition of equal distribution of atoms across infinite space?
You might think this was happening at some exotic campus breakfast hangout involving students with nothing better to do than solve the issues of the ultimate universe early in the day. No - these were the subjects of discussion at a chain restaurant in a city of the American prairie a long way from the Ivy League or the Berkley/Palo Alto atmospheric heights.
This was Christian Methodist church men having a quiet morning discussion. Religion is obviously not always an exercise in escape from worldly matters and complex reasoning. Stereotypes of religion are so 20th century. The place of reason and careful thought in church life today is rising quietly and will soon chart a revised course for the church in a world of technology and materialism.
Photos at breakfast are way outside of the usual menu. Entropy is enough to quell any "have a happy day" outlook. Religious topics? It depends on the customers.
Delton
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Ayn Rand and Frederich Zarathustra
The conflict of political philosophy revolves around people and issues. The adoption of Ayn Rand as heroin by Paul Ryan and Rush Limbaugh among others recalls to me the days of discovering Friedrich Nietzsche.
In 1947 I graduated from High School in Redwood Falls, a community in southwestern Minnesota. Then, in a strange turn of events for our family, off I went to Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Strange because college going was not in the family tradition.
In the Freshman year one of the courses introduced us to Frederich Nietzche through one of his writing, "Thus Spake Zarathustra". It was apparently a shock treatment for we who came into the city from the hinterlands and the primitive lives of farm people. Now, Hamline is a school based in the Methodist Tradition and is the earliest founded college in Minnesota. Why then would Nietzsche be on the first list of assignments?
Because Hamline was and is a liberal arts school in a religious tradition that holds in high regard the reasoning powers of people and the value of exposure to world traditions that do not fit with much American tradition. The value of such exposure cannot be underestimated.
Ayn Rand simply presents many of the Nietzsche ideas in a more contemporary format. Of course, God has died, say these prophets of a more highminded future for humanity. A humanity not encumbered by the primitive and supernaturalist notions of religions, especially Christianity, is the only reasonable future. It is every person for themselves. Regard for the unrich and the unfortunate is a sign of weakness and depravity. Rise above it all and be the Supermen said Nietzsche ( and so did Adolph Hitler).
The role of religion today is up for bid by all kinds of philosophies and power groups. I trust that Paul Rand and others who are fascinated by Rand will look beyond the here and now struggle for power and domination. At least recognize that Christianity does have some redeeming values that could benefit the human race.
In 1947 I graduated from High School in Redwood Falls, a community in southwestern Minnesota. Then, in a strange turn of events for our family, off I went to Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Strange because college going was not in the family tradition.
In the Freshman year one of the courses introduced us to Frederich Nietzche through one of his writing, "Thus Spake Zarathustra". It was apparently a shock treatment for we who came into the city from the hinterlands and the primitive lives of farm people. Now, Hamline is a school based in the Methodist Tradition and is the earliest founded college in Minnesota. Why then would Nietzsche be on the first list of assignments?
Because Hamline was and is a liberal arts school in a religious tradition that holds in high regard the reasoning powers of people and the value of exposure to world traditions that do not fit with much American tradition. The value of such exposure cannot be underestimated.
Ayn Rand simply presents many of the Nietzsche ideas in a more contemporary format. Of course, God has died, say these prophets of a more highminded future for humanity. A humanity not encumbered by the primitive and supernaturalist notions of religions, especially Christianity, is the only reasonable future. It is every person for themselves. Regard for the unrich and the unfortunate is a sign of weakness and depravity. Rise above it all and be the Supermen said Nietzsche ( and so did Adolph Hitler).
The role of religion today is up for bid by all kinds of philosophies and power groups. I trust that Paul Rand and others who are fascinated by Rand will look beyond the here and now struggle for power and domination. At least recognize that Christianity does have some redeeming values that could benefit the human race.
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