TITHONUS' DIARY!!
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the convoluted answer Ok, Liadlaith asked me about my religious beliefs, and I gave her a short answer. But she said she wanted a long answer. Um. So, here is a long answer. - I don't really know where to start, though. I guess what I would have to start by saying is that I believe metaphoric truth is deeper than literal truth. The literal truth is really just an impoverished metaphor... or rather, a kind of connection that is strong enough to survive a harsh climate... - Ok, here we go. I'll say what I think about literal truth and metaphors with a parable. - One day, a little boy woke up and looked out the window, into the garden, and saw that it was filled with beautiful bright yellow flowers. He was so happy that he ran to tell his mother. She smiled and agreed, yes, the flowers are beautiful. He was still too young to go to school, so he spent a lot of time playing with the flowers in the garden. Then, some time later, he woke up to find that all the flowers were gone. The season of the yellow flowers had passed. He went to his mother, angry, and said that he was disappointed because the yellow flowers weren't real. They had appeared, and disappeared again, and only the ground was left. He concluded that only the cold, hard ground was real, and the flowers were just an illusion. His mother answered, the ground is real, but so are the flowers. The flowers come and go, and when they aren't there, it's tempting to tell yourself that they were just an illusion. But don't get too clever, or when the flowers come back, you won't appreciate them, and you won't enjoy yourself with them the way you did this time. - ... - I'm not sure that the parable was a good idea. Oh well, leave it, its' not like I'm angling for a literary prize. Ok, point is, literal truth is always true. Metaphoric truth is sometimes true; but that doesn't mean it's less true. It just means that you need a particular feeling, a particular angle, a particular sort of relation in order to get it, and if you don't get it then it won't be true. But just because something is contingent doesn't mean it's not real. - Ok. So, having said that, I believe that the existence of God is true in a metaphoric sense. Perhaps a better way to put it is that God exists in a poetic sense, or God exists in poetry. See how that works? What I mean is, there's a genuine divine presence in moments of experience which feel "miraculous". Like falling in love; "God is love, and all those who love live in God". If we take that seriously... did God create the world? Well, literally, no, the world was created by various astronomical events... but the world of static things feels dead, empty, hollow, pointless. When the world comes to life, and feels like a place of beauty and wonder... it's usually because of love, in one shape or another. God creates the world! It's a creation which isn't literally at the beginning of time, but it is "the beginning" in a sense, because love also makes it seem as though everything is happening for the first time. - Uh, and so on. I could expound on this at great length, but I need to go and buy mangoes (is that "e" meant to be there? Pluralising "o" words is tricky. Um.) so I'll leave it at that. Oh, except to say, express an interest and I'll write more. Or you could just read the following books: "Belonging to the Universe" by Fritjof Capra, David Steindl-Rast and Thomas Matus, "On Religion" by John Caputo, "Angels: A Modern Myth" by Michel Serres, and, uh, yeah, that would probably do for a start. Probably the first one is the easiest to get into; Steindl-Rast is a very impressive person. Angels is the best, though; I think it may be the most amazing book I've ever read. It's one of those things that's inexhaustible; I can always come back and find more in it that I didn't realise was there. - "And he cried like a baby And he screamed like a panther in the middle of the night" - Willie Nelson |
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