Week in Review (August 12-17)
True Friendship, False Theology, The End of Civilization, and 20 Things That Don't Make You Bad
James Howard Kunstler wrote in The Long Emergency:
“If it happens that the human race doesn’t make it, then the fact that we were here once will not be altered, that once upon a time we peopled this astonishing blue planet, and wondered intelligently at everything about it and the other things who lived here with us on it, and that we celebrated the beauty of it in music and art, architecture, literature, and dance, and that there were times when we approached something godlike in our abilities and aspirations. We emerged out of depthless mystery, and back into mystery we returned, and in the end the mystery is all there is.”
These words have always stirred deep feelings within me. I have of course at times contemplated my own personal death, but rarely ponder the expiration of the entire human race. I know that my current life’s journey will come to end, but I seem to have this intrinsic faith that human history and our species will roll on forever.
Perhaps the first time I seriously pondered the idea of human extinction was through the work of Michel Foucault, who I discussed in my series, Philosophers You Have Never Heard Of. Foucault questioned the idea of progress. Most people think of our human trajectory with great evolutionary optimism, while Foucault insisted that we have talked ourselves into a false narrative of advancement.
We already know from human history that empires collapse. Years ago I read Dmitry Orlov’s The Five Stages of Collapse, which posits a taxonomy for the breakdown of civilization. Americans feel a sense of invincibility to our nation, which I’m sure the Mayans and Roman Empire did as well.
I find the words of Kunstler to be beautiful as he ponders the end of the line for humankind and the time we have peopled this planet with a deep wonder about our existence and the universe in which we live, and how we expressed this in music and art, architecture, literature, and dance.
What particularly caught my attention in Kunstler’s words was his description of how Homo sapiens have, “approached something godlike in our abilities and aspirations.” For me, these words inspire inquiry. What exactly are these “abilities and aspirations”? Where did they come from? What are we meaning by referring to them as “godlike”? Can we plummet the depths of these questions and find profoundly compelling answers to guide our path forward? Carl Sagan wrote: “We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.”
These are the kinds of questions I have been compelled to explore through fields such as theology, philosophy, natural sciences, social sciences, physics, and psychology. I don’t particularly have a horse in the race. The answers don’t have to all add up to something religious like “Christianity” or something non-religious like “Atheism”. If you’ve been reading some of my most recent articles, you know I have been questioning the assumed contradiction between Christianity and Atheism, and instead finding a profound compatibility between the two. My criticism of Christianity and Atheism is that they have both failed to dig deep enough to consider the universal significance of their core ideas.
This past week I published two articles. The first was, The Either/Or Problem with God: The Don't-Get-Duped Plan. In the article I discuss:
Four false choices in the religious deconstruction process
A don’t-get-duped plan for toxic religious fallacies
Bob the bad spiritual director
Why Christianity and Atheism share the same problem
My second article of the week was Part Two of my new series, “Did we Miss the Apocalypse?” Part One is titled, Saving Christianity From Itself. This week’s Part Two is titled, How Atheism Fails Religion-Leavers. In this article I discuss:
The perils of leaving religion and unbelief
Why Atheism is not a soft landing for the modern exodus from religion
Why Georg Hegel and Slavoj Žižek might not be great spiritual directors
Does “death of God theology” have a resurrection problem?
How religion scares people from exploring off the grid of mainstream ideas
What Subscribers are Saying
I think a lot of religion-leavers share Lori’s challenge to undo toxic religious indoctrination, such as the belief in Hell. Have you ever noticed how much of religion is about fear?
Fear of judgment and punishment
Fear of going to hell
Fear of having wrong theology
Fear of death
Fear of not pleasing God
Fear of missing God's will
Fear of not measuring up
Fear of God's discipline
Fear of losing God's blessing
Fear of being found out
Fear of Satan and demons
Fear of trusting yourself
Fear of thinking for yourself
Fear of our humanity
Fear of mental health professionals
Fear of doubting and disbelief
Fear of having struggles and hardships
Fear of questioning authority
Fear of your innermost thoughts and feelings
Fear of sexuality
Fear of other fields of knowledge
Fear of people with different beliefs
Fear of the world
Fear of being you
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. Religion too often chooses fear. One way religion prevents personal growth, development and self-actualization is by trapping people in a fear mentality. By the way, I previously wrote an article, refuting the Christian doctrine of Hell.
Roundup of Notable Reads
The legendary is 93 years old, with a career in journalism that spans 70 years. I couldn’t even begin to summarize the magnitude of his life and career. In addition to , and , I read what Dan Rather writes about politics and other pressing issues of significance in our country. I wish I could convince everyone to read his Substack article, Why Am I Speaking Out? I don’t read Dan Rather because I agree with all his views, but because I trust him as a person of candor, conviction and integrity. Dan Rather’s article bares his journalistic soul. He begins it this way:
“Of all the messages I have shared over my career, as a field reporter, from the anchor chair, and most recently through my platforms on social media and this Steady newsletter, this is among the most important. At least to me personally.”
My only beef with in her article, When a Friend Breaks Your Heart, is that she didn’t include men in her discussion of broken and lost friendships. I’m kidding about Kirsten’s article, but the joys and sorrows of friendship obviously relate to us all. It especially relates to people who grieve the loss of significant friendships in their leaving-religion process.
In my unpublished book (one of several goodies for paid subscribers), How to Have a Great Day Without Religion, I devote an entire chapter to friendship. In that chapter I point out how friendship has declined into a weak and trivial notion in our modern era. It is romantic love that permeates every particle of our popular culture and occupies a place of supreme importance. About friendship I write:
“We need a person or two in our lives that we trust to invite into our innermost thoughts and feelings and the intricate details of our lives. When we truly know a person genuinely wants the best for us, we are willing to receive their love and acceptance as well as their honest feedback and constructive criticism in areas such as our limiting beliefs or defects in character. The mutual trust, vulnerability, and camaraderie of this association press each to realize their highest potentialities and possibilities. This kind of friendship yields immense gratification, for not only is there joy in seeking the highest good for oneself, but to encourage the same in another.”
wrote a poignant piece titled, Last Kid Off to College. His words especially landed with me as my adult daughter was in Idaho recently for a visit. They grow up so fast - grade school to grad school, diapers to driver’s license, Blues Clues to boyfriends, One Direction to one grown up woman. Every parent should read Jonathan’s article. A box of Kleenex might be handy.
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This past week I discovered on Substack, purchased and read his book, A Universal Learning Process (The Evolution of Meaning) and watched his YouTube video on Metamodern Spirituality/Christianity. When I came across Brendan’s Substack by way of , I read his newsletter description: “Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity.” I’m in! By the way, there are many brilliant thinkers and consequential public intellectuals who aren’t household names or social media superstars.
20 Things
20 things you may experience in life that do not mean you are out of favor with God, not spiritual enough, or something is wrong with you:
Sickness
Loss
Heartache
Fear
Anger
Loneliness
Grief
Adversity
Disappointment
Rejection
Financial struggle
Failure
Regret
Sorrow
Depression
Infertility
Special-needs child
Divorce
Unemployment
Disapproval
The above realities do not mean you're defective, they just mean you're human.
In Summary
If I make it to 93 I want to be as profound and prolific as Dan Rather.
Hopefully the extinction of human civilization will hold off until we finish all 9 seasons of The Office.
Neither Christianity nor Atheism has gone deep enough to uncover the universal significance of their core ideas.
I saw the One Direction and Justin Bieber film and all the High School Musical movies… several times… because that’s what you do as a preteen girl father... and I’d do it all over again.
Thank you for Subscribing to my Substack newsletter and making this possible. If you find what I write meaningful, consider becoming a paid subscriber and recommending my publication.
“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”
- Charles Bukowski
Thanks Jim, good stuff.
That quote made me cry. Thank you, Jim.