Well nihilism is on my mind. This is a rampant disease of the spirit, predicted to be rampant by Nietzsche and I have written on this before, but the more I write and think about something, the more content I gather and the more I know something. As good Kantians our age excels in ignorance in a lot of things (the contagion of transcendentalism), this being willfully, drops into hyper-subjectivity and is obsessed with relationship rather than a knowledge of the thing-in-and-for-itself; but healthy mind wants content and content increases knowing, less content, less knowing, less healthy of mind. Man is qualified by spirit, that can be either dead, sick, or healthy and nature just does not make it happen, mind demands effort). So I was noticing that those worthless methodists, or a group of them are having bible issues, this seems to be related to the marriage of gays, it is not exactly the gay issue that makes them worthless, but has deeper roots than the gay issue. Most of these once gigantic christian sects are decreasing and will most likely be nothing in the future-spiritually many are nothing now despite their still mediocre size, and well, nihilism is one of their bigger problems, the gay issue is a symptom of this deep set mental illness which affects the individual and the social system (this illness is expressed in the systems communications as the social is communications, so one could say that it is a mental illness as well of the system, I would prefer that to some collective consciousness stuff myself). Nihilism affects a lot of other stuff, even our very foundation as a nation, the way we view individuality, our civility, media, politics, science, and on and on: we are sick in the mind as a people. The churchs nihilism is more observable because direct causes and effects can be made available for observation of that system. Why does a guy like Osteen bring in a million a week and doesnt ask for it, why does he lead the largest church in america, and is non-denominational? Why are the mainline losers? One reason is tradition and heritage. Americans are nihilists and becoming more so, so they no longer believe in tradition or heritage, but like a bad investment but held onto so long, they have grown fond of them and have a soft spot for these two in their heart. Osteen I dont think has much of this going on, he is future orientated, panders to finite wants and hopes, and doesnt need all that past baggage of heavy doctrine and dogmatics. Old mainlines though want to cut heritage and tradition lose as they suspect these to be false, but at the same time they want to keep them as they just do not have the where-with-all to say, we are done with that stuff, a new day has dawned and from here on out, we will speak for god. Mainline Churches have a direct connection to their heritage and tradition, but they want to behave as if they do not. This results in corrupting these two, and these two become like lead shoes on the denomination. A gradual process of decay sets in as the denomination wants to be with its fathers and like all normal children, if psychology is to be believed, want to also kill its fathers. But they just cant so they exist in some defective relation with their forefathers and gradually reduce them to being meaningless old men to be humored. So the bible needs to be wasted away, become meaningless but at the same time it has to remain at the alter. Antiquated robes with alpha and omega must still be used, but alpha and omega equals the Trinity, is Spirit, but no one even knows this or could care less as we are flesh and sweat and no longer spirit, but the robes are a nihilistic uniform of a nostalgia that cant be let lose. Candles, crosses, etc, all nostalgic hold-overs from a darker time where to know what God was was the end for the christian and brought light in that darkness-no one believes in this anymore. Americans are utilitarians at heart, and the old churches infected with nihilism do not realize this yet but suspect it, and in themselves as well. As good Kantians americans are concerned with individual finite self, they need a relation to a god that works for them as finite un-spiritual people, something that panders to their fleshly needs and justifies all this finite hunger, desire, and lust; something similar to the old Roman religion of utility, not this stuffy doctrinal and dogmatical stuff orientated to spirit from a past time. To know God is meaningless now and what is important is, are my finite ends going to be met or not, and like a fetish, if this one god does not work, I merely pick up the next that comes along (this does not mean a religion change, just fine tune the god in your particular church into a new one that works better for you, and keep the trappings), that is a hyper-nihilism but at least one stays ahead of it and one doesnt have time to know what the god is. This hyper-nihilism does not need that old doctrine and dogmatics of the past, doesnt need a bible either, except as a decoration to be able to say, we are still christians. This nihilism is not new or was thought up by Nietzsche. Kierkegaard was familiar with its growing in europe during the early 1800s and he said that what christianity should do is to take the bible to the highest mountain, and at the top hold the bible up and request that God come down and take it back as christians no longer needed it any longer, but then that is an honesty that nihilism does not have within it.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:03:43 +0000
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