[Vision2020] Papal Forgiveness

[Joseph Campbell]

I like this, Bob! It is all pretty complicated!

One thing that I forgot to mention in Chas¹s last post was the following.
Chas writes:

³Let's suppose that I had the choice to prevent genocide or to prevent
someone from failing to digest a cracker. Apparently, according to Catholic
dogma, I should choose the latter. I can't parse the absurdity of out that
view; it won't go away even when I squint.²

This all too quick. No one that I know, Catholic or otherwise, would choose
genocide over spitting out a cracker.

I¹m reminded of Kierkegaard¹s lesson about Abraham and Isaac, in Fear and
Trembling. Abraham is asked by God to kill his son, Isaac. Pious Abraham set
off to sacrifice his son but was saved from this choice in the end.

In his retelling of the story, Kierkegaard challenges the complacency of
most Christians, who claim to follow the word of God but who might think
otherwise if given the sort of command that Abraham was given. Kierkegaard¹s
question is whether or not we are willing to live with God¹s commandments
should they bump up against our other worldly values, which eventually they
must do. His answer seems to be that ³No, we are not willing.² I agree with
Chas that Abraham should be regarded as a lunatic, given his decision. But
that doesn¹t solve the problem.

Chas himself might embrace the label of ³lunatic² if given a similar choice,
for he doesn¹t care much if the rest of us find him nuts. (And good for him
on this score! Just one reason that we should love him!) What matters to him
is the ³truth² as revealed by science and reason. But how familiar is he
with the consequences of his own position? It doesn¹t take much imagination
to conjure up a scenario where ³science and reason² claims that it is better
to kill his own son than not. And what would Chas choose then?

I think this only goes to show how removed we are from a true understanding
of the world. All the more reason to be tolerant of other views. And I
respond to Chas by saying ³No one would choose genocide over spitting out a
cracker. But what does that prove?²

Best, Joe

On 1/17/09 4:38 PM, "Robert Dickow" <dickow at uidaho.edu> wrote:

>  
>> 
>> Doesn¹t Jesus say once or twice that ³I am the Word².
>> Doesn¹t this pre-empt the Bible being the Word? Or can there be two Words?
>> What is the Biblical meaning of the word ŒWord¹ anyway? Clearly, things are
>> getting a bit verbose.
>> 
>> Bob Dickow, troublemaker.
>> <snip>Š
>> Joe, I believe that for Christians who believe that the Bible is the Word of
>> God, that Word must then take its place as the basis for faith and practice.
>> The Catholic belief Š<snip>
> 
> 
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20090117/2fb0ac8a/attachment-0001.html