“Pizzaonia Emerging #5”- Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator (C)2010)
“We eventually discover God in order to escape the isolation of self.”
Reflections on the comments by Pizzaonia - the continued modern dilemma as seen from a Pizzaonian perspective - reconciling and justifying faith from a completely subjective perspective
Alienation is so common to the modern condition that we no longer notice it directly. What we do notice are its symptoms.
Are we smarter than previous generations or are we still struggling, to a greater degree, with the breakdown of community? Two buzzwords of our time are empathy and community.
Everyone is looking for both, and few completely find it. Our times have produced countless books, seminars, slogans and self-help gurus than ever before. All of them are attempting to help us find community and empathy. With all the attention they are getting, judging from the results, I am not sure they are accomplishing much.
With so much access to information today we have not solved the problem of alienation. One could argue that the virtual world we now live in has in fact made the problem of alienation worse. The one area that has benefited and seems to grow inversely proportional to the problem is the self-help industry.
How many fortunes have been made by self-help gurus who continually give advice on how to become the best you can be. This is the growth industry of our times.
The more we come to realize that we see ourselves as separate from the world that surrounds us, the more isolated we become. As we begin to understand that all of our ideas and thoughts are filtered through the lens of our limited and completely subjective experience the more terrifying our isolation becomes. Our technology allows us to be in touch with everyone which essentially leaves in touch with no one.
This brings us to the concept of faith in a Creator…. Or a first cause.
Many eventually discover God in order to escape the isolation of self. The question for the philosophers: Does this realization assume that God then was invented by us as a necessity? I am sure many atheists would want the world to jump to this conclusion. However, this assumption while a possibility, still begs the basic question which has not changed since humans became self-conscious.
Next: The question, but in a lighter vein – first causes necessary or imagined?
Brother Franco
For more on the subject:
http://infidels.org/library/modern/antony_flew/hawking.html
http://stattrek.com/statistics/data-collection-methods.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_alienation
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