In Reply to: Re: criticisms of aetheism posted by MG on January 23, 2007 at 01:20:03:
According to my little Latin-German dictionary examen can mean judgement even God's judgment...in any way it seems to indicate, that you test & judge something by some "rulebook"...some ideal etc.
Is it coincidance that you quoted Sokrates?I have no greater knowledge about him, but what is the inner voice or the daimonion all about-from what I read-, that should warn of errors in life?...further
Reasonable thinking should produce the right actions...virtue is knowledge...
I gather, that he questioned the common methods & ways or questioned so long to discern between false/pretended & right knowledge...
But is questioning always the right way/method?
If your destiny is very far away, some promised land/wonderland...but rather some real better place & you're old & without much strength, how would you know the right path, if the road splits into many directions...
If you asked someone in India for the trainstation, you got plenty contradicting answers.Since we're final in strength & methods, our ways to decide are also limited.This is something Heisenberg found out for physics...more so in Quantum mechanics...& the like is true for
Mathematics, since Gödel...I know that I don't know is not some lame quote, but expresses our
limitations(also in philosophy)...even if that should frustrate some or a lot.
I claim, that you can judge something finite-within your power- by your own capabilities...like counting to hundred, running a mile or marathon, but something beyond your power by something higher...even infinite in power, might, knowledge etc. & to know the difference is very valuable.To see ones limitations is real humility in my point of view.
Would we like to be judged by some judge who drinks & drives..being caught by the police driving, having recently drunk?...we'd call the guy a hyprocrite etc.
That Bergian "denigaration of self" is not really originally Bergian(some of Berg's stuff is really new other stuuf just reworded, as we should know)...you find it with Luther & Calvin & basically it's Pauline & since Jesus said to one, what calleth thou me good...only God alone is good...I bet you can relativate Berg's way of talking...
It's not that we cannot obtain "goodness", but not
by digging up/tapping some "lost" fountain within ourselves...somewhat dormant, waiting to be discovered through some dark mysterious way.
One word I always remembered from my old "Buddhistic" time..late teen-time..."maya", it was explained as illusion...deception...the false, tempting luxury of the present world could be maya...but even religious concepts, "dharma", as well...
and I conclude, Self-examination without some idealistic rulebook (I say: the Tora & the NT is the right one) is "maya"...