Cosmology of the Ants 2

“If the history of the human race teaches any plain lessons, this is one of them: Man cannot be trusted with absolutes.” - Philosopher Lewis Mumford

(CALGARY, Alberta) - My friend and faithful reader, Vic Pittman, began his comment to the first episode:

"Put another way, it is the assumptions that we hold, consciously and unconsciously, that are the filter through which we interpret the world we ‘see’. Truer words were never spoken. If there is a ‘Secret of the Universe’, I believe that is it.”

I can’t claim to have discovered the concept, but I have, over the years figured out that in human relations It’s all about perspective. It is, in a sense, a secret of the universe in that we all live in different psychological universes and that failure to acknowledge that is the source of virtually all human discord.

Look at the battles between right and left, Democrats and Republicans, capitalists and workers… As Jungian psychoanalyst M. Esther Harding put it:

“We do not fight a man to uphold a certainty, but only to force him to accept our belief, our conviction, of the truth .”

"No opinion should be held with fervor. No one holds with fervor that seven times eight is fifty-six, because it can be known that this is the case. Fervor is only necessary in commending an opinion which is doubtful or demonstrably false."

The perspective is that of absolutes. We all have rigid views of reality. We take in sensory data and interpret it according to our own idiosyncratic filter. We don’t doubt it and erroneously believe that others see the same things we do which is demonstrably false. Even two people standing side by side do not see the same rainbow. Even a shift a couple of feet, gives each a different vantage point.

Douglas Groothuis wrote a defense of religion against New Age ideas in a book titled Confronting the New Age. On the Biblehe wrote:

You either interpret it correctly or incorrectly. There is a difference between proper interpretation and misinterpretation.…The idea that there are right and wrong interpretations is astonishingly simple. Rational adults live by it in order to forge their way through everyday life. Yet when the Bible becomes the subject matter, New Agers often throw all common sense to the winds of relativism. But we can and must return people to reality by giving them examples of how they read other written documents.

Harry Blamires is an Anglican theologian, best known in religious circles as the author of The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? which has been used as a textbook at hundreds of bible colleges and seminaries around the world. He defines a Christian mind as

“a mind trained, informed, equipped to handle the data of secular controversy within a framework of reference which is constructed of Christian presuppositions.”

“Christian presuppositions” means perspective. A discussion between a Christian and a non-Christian on Biblical truth, for example, will naturally fail, and could even come to violence, because the Christian believes in absolutes and may be driven to kill the non-Christian in order to protect his own fragile psychological reality.

In the 1940s Canadian Charles Templeton was an evangelistic preacher and partner with Billy Graham. They team preached at one of the largest gatherings ever at Madison Square Gardens. But he grew away from his fundamentalism and eventually put his reminisces on paper in a 1996 book Farewell to God. He wrote:

“Many think of the church as a sacred institution and of priests and the clergy as men wholly dedicated to the service of God and humankind. This assumption has not always been valid; indeed, it has seldom been so. In the Middle Ages, in particular, the Christian church approximated a terrorist organization, being the instigator and the protagonist in the indescribable horrors of the infamous Inquisition.

“In France and, later, in other parts of Europe, beginning in the fourteenth century and peaking in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tens of thousands of innocent men and women—even children—were persecuted, arrested, imprisoned, tried in secret, tortured, flayed, hanged, or burned at the stake in a protracted obsession with heretics, witches, sorcerers, black magic and demon-possession.”

The Creation Museum opened near Cincinnati in the spring of 2007. Beyond showing dinosaurs sharing the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, there is also a display of villains. One of them is Charles Templeton shown in a painting as a gravedigger at a tombstone marked “God is Dead”.

Philosopher Lewis Mumford gives us the perfect antidote and perspective to take seriously:

“If the history of the human race teaches any plain lessons, this is one of them: Man cannot be trusted with absolutes.”

Daniel Johnson was born near the midpoint of the twentieth century in Calgary, Alberta. In his teens he knew he was going to be a writer, which is why he was one of only a handful of boys in his high school typing class — a skill he knew was going to be necessary. He defines himself as a social reformer, not a left winger, the latter being an ideological label which, he says, is why he is not an ideologue. From 1975 to 1981 he was reporter, photographer, then editor of the weekly Airdrie Echo. For more than ten years after that he worked with Peter C. Newman, Canada’s top business writer (notably on a series of books, The Canadian Establishment). Through this period Daniel also did some national radio and TV broadcasting. He gave up journalism in the early 1980s because he had no interest in being a hack writer for the mainstream media and became a software developer and programmer. He retired from computers last year and is now back to doing what he loves — writing and trying to make the world a better place

Salem-News.com Top Stories

2025: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

Two Wars with No Way Out

No One Owns the Future

The Ugly Origins of Trump's America First Policy

A One-State Solution Could Transform the World

Comments Leave a comment on this story.

All comments and messages are approved by people and self promotional links or unacceptable comments are denied.

Hank Ruark March 14, 2010 3:06 pm (Pacific time)

Friend DJ: Thanks for very pertinent and supportive quotes, with strong meaning, adding to the clarification and further real dissection/exploration so sorely needed. JFF (justforfun)copied them completely for transport to another Salem channel where the topic needs further sharp support and stimulation.

Hank Ruark March 14, 2010 11:44 am (Pacific time)

Carl et al:

At risk of seeming combative when intent is simply for more communication on complex and very consequential insights, will try to detail with full documentation why I do believe we already know far more than we use on how to remedy this universal problem.

Looking forward to DJ's full and superb analysis and still further detail, and "if the wheels don't fall off " here, will have moretocome a bit later, from that "experience" to which friend Carl so rightly refers.

Just to start: NO possible communication can ever fully overcome deadly-determined will to win at whatever cost and consequences --which is what we now must face fully, realistically, pragmatically in our American politics. (See my Seaside Series Op Eds.)

Much of what we now face is intentional and created for both corporate and politically malign purposes, and can very simply be defeated by fullly strong application of far more democracy than we now employ.
AMD without greatly grievous changes to current governance system, too...

Since we all know ours in place now was invented and nearly perfected in 1800s, why be surprised when 21st Century demands change to avoid those very malign consequences ????

We have the understandings and the tools, never before possible, effective and fully efficient, at lower cost than ever...so why do we wait and whine and cut each other to shreds rather than listen, learn, grow and then act ??

I'll just add a couple of apropos quotes here, Hank.

In Sicko Michael Moore said: “We're plagued with an every-man-for-himself attitude. That attitude may have been good in helping us build this country and helping us become the innovators that we are. But we won't make it through the 21st century intact as a great country if we don't adopt a different ethos that says we're all in the same boat. We sink or swim together. We have to help each other.”

Just to show that this is not a left-wing attitude, we have conservative columnist David Brooks saying: “The nation’s economy is not just the sum of its individuals. It is an interwoven context that we all share. To stabilize that communal landscape, sometimes you have to shower money upon those who have been foolish or self-indulgent. The greedy idiots may be greedy idiots, but they are our countrymen. And at some level, we’re all in this together. If their lives don’t stabilize, then our lives don’t stabilize.”

douglas benson March 14, 2010 9:02 am (Pacific time)

Just trying to figure out why my posts arent being posted . Am I doing something wrong? If you boot my comments at least politely tell me so and why . Thanks .

EDITOR: Comments are approved manually, sorry for the delay.

Carl March 13, 2010 2:23 pm (Pacific time)

These articles and comments reminds me of an intro. course in Philosophy. Is that the intent? I find myself thinking of Hobbes and the State of Nature. It is amazing the number of different interpretations one gets from just an excerpt like (an approximate) "Life in the state of nature...is short, nasty and brutish." This is where the below commenter Hank made an excellent analysis in terms of self-knowledge and how that applies to perceptions. Experience can be quite an eye-opener for those who have their eyes open. Most people in my opinion have blinders on and this appears to be symptomatic of an inculcation beginning at a very young age.

Stay tuned, Carl. A couple more eye openers pending.

Evana March 13, 2010 12:33 pm (Pacific time)

Kevin Myles is my caretaker. I had no idea he has posted here. Did he go over the top in some way? I have been thinking of putting an end to his computer use on my wifi. Please accept my deepest apologies if he has offended any of you there even in the smallest of ways.

Okay!

Evana March 13, 2010 11:29 am (Pacific time)

I've never posted on this site before.

Never? How about as Kevin Myles and others?

Hank Ruark March 13, 2010 10:03 am (Pacific time)

Friend DJ et al: ALL too true, as well-stated here in every cited statement. Which leaves a communicator hunting "the truth" seeking as many sources, for comparison and contrast and compilation of assorted "meanings" as may be managed meaningfully (!). I miss one emphasis herein: That of self-knowledge however gained, surely one essential if one is to handle truth and possibly prepare msg to move it on to others in need.

Evana March 13, 2010 8:24 am (Pacific time)

Considering that the earth is only approximately 6,000 years old,

Uh, oh. Multiple names again. Credibility = 0. Goodbye.

Jeff Kaye~ March 13, 2010 5:43 am (Pacific time)

Very thought provoking... All these quotes reminded me of my favorite Dr. Joyce Brothers quote: "Always remember, you're a completely unique individual--just like everybody else."

Well, Jeff, I know I'm unique. Just not sure about you. LOL

Natalie March 13, 2010 12:21 am (Pacific time)

All the quotes sound very nice except for one 'but'. If our life is meaningless we shouldn't care about it much. That would mean to get the food by any means, eat today and not to be surprised if tomorrow it is my turn to be eaten. The problem is that humans don't stop even when that 'food' starts coming back through their ears. That's why we impose the law on everybody. There would be no point in worring about the global climate, clean water, efforts to maintain peace in other regions. What's the difference whether we die today or in a year if life is meaningless?

We make our own meaning. That's the difference between the animal life and the human life. This is not a new question but has exercised the minds of philosophers going back to the ancient Greeks and certainly was a question for people for centuries before that. Religion has been the answer in most cases. I don't have any answers, but just do what I can to frame the questions.

Daniel Johnson March 12, 2010 5:30 pm (Pacific time)

Roger: To your quotes I would add one more by James Hillman from The Soul's Code. Being a bit longer, it doesn't qualify as an aphorism.

"Life is your project; there is nothing to tell you what it's all about, which of course leaves you feeling existential anxiety and dread. It's all up to you, each individual alone, since there is no cosmic guarantee that anything makes sense. There is neither God nor Godot to wait for. You make a life out of the deepest feelings of meaninglessness."

RvB March 12, 2010 4:08 pm (Pacific time)

"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world." Schopenhauer
"We don't see things as they are...We see things as WE are." Anais Nin
"Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think." Schopenhauer
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” Haruki Murakami
"The two biggest self- deceptions of all are that life has a 'meaning' and that each of us is unique." David Byrne (Talking Heads)
Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.” Carl Sagan
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who claim they've found it."— Andre Gide
“Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.”— Eugene Ionesco

Natalie March 12, 2010 3:50 pm (Pacific time)

Charles Templeton is absolutely right about the Middle Ages. But the coin has two sides. Stalin was a former seminary student, 'converted' to atheism and tortured many innocent people, including christians. Everybody who didn't think like him was branded as the enemy for the nation. Let's not forget those people's children. They had no better fate. But that's Middle Ages and last century... You probably heard what happened to 3 Christians in Turkey in 2007-tortured, body pars chopped off, cut from ear to ear. I have the link, but it's too graphic for the sensative readers. What the media chooses to report and how cannot be taken as the absolute truth either.

Jimminey March 12, 2010 3:35 pm (Pacific time)

The saying "...that part of the elephant the blind man touches becomes the elephant." This is of course an extreme simplification regarding perceptions. Experience is something very few people have in regards to understanding their environment, but that lack of experience never stops those who think they understand what they are talking/writing about...they are better known as fools. They are easy to manipulate by those of evil intent, ergo, the "useful idiot" handle.

[Return to Top]

Quick Links

DINING

MUST SEE SALEM

AUCTIONS - APPRAISALS

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

ONLINE SHOPPING

Advertise with Salem-News