Emerson and Thoreau: Secular Chaplains of Nature

Preparing for my trip to Boston and Concord this summer, I’m again reading Robert Richardson’s Henry Thoreau:  A Life of the Mind, where he makes this excellent summary:

“Most interesting of all for Thoreau is Emerson’s insistence in Nature on a line of thought as old as classical Stoicism:  that the individual, in searching for a reliable ethical standpoint, for an answer to the question of how one should live one’s life, had to turn not to God, not to the polis or state, and not to society, but to nature for a usable answer.  Stoicism taught, and Emerson was teaching, that the laws of nature were the same as the laws of human nature and that [humanity] could base a good life, a just life, on nature.”

 

The Gospel of Socrates

I first read Plato in a Philosophy class in my Evangelical college years back.

Now I re-read Euthyphro and re-discover why I was born again. . .as an unbeliever!

When I left my ordination as a Christian Minister I said, “Jesus led me out the door of the Church.”

If that is true, it was probably Socrates (along with Martin Buber, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Thoreau, Emerson and others) who first showed me the door.

In Euthyphro, Socrates starts a discussion with a “Religion Expert”–a theologian named Euthyphro.  As they stand outside the courthouse in Athens, where Socrates has been summoned to answer charges of Atheism and corrupting the youth, Socrates asks the famous Religion teacher to explain what faith really is.  He wants Euthyphro to tell him what “piety” (holiness) is and what purpose it serves.  The exchange is perfectly relevant 2400 years later.

A brief summary of the discussion:  Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for manslaughter, claiming that “divine law” demands piety (holiness, religious duty, true faith) in these matters.  Socrates pursues a line of questioning by asking, What is Holiness (True Faith)?  The answer he hears is:  Pleasing the gods is true faith.   Displeasing them is impiety (unfaith).  True faith is what the gods love.  Not showing faith is what they hate.  The believer is loved by the gods because they believe.  And so, a fearfulness of believing and serving and pleasing the gods is the basis of reverence.  For Socrates, it seems,

Where there is reverence there is fear. . .Reverence is a kind of fear.

And, maybe, where there is faith. . .there is a sense of “right.”

But, what is “Right”?

Euthyphro says that faith is a kind of Right concerned with tending to the needs of the gods.  Faith is “service to the gods.”  The religious teacher thinks that, “If a person understands how to say and do , in prayer and sacrifice, what is pleasing to the gods, this is faith.”

So, says The Heretic, “True faith would be a science of asking (prayer) and giving (service).”  But, he asks, “What benefit do the gods really get from the gifts they receive?”

Euthyphro responds that it’s not about benefits.  The “gifts” are honor and esteem and gratitude.

So, Socrates wonders, True Faith is what is pleasing and dear to the gods.

Euthyphro agrees, but Socrates feels the discussion has come full circle with no real answer to What is Faith?

He feels that Euthyphro hasn’t really shown that he understands the conflicts with these issues.

I am sure that you think you know all about what is faith (holiness, religious duty) and what is not.

So, tell me more. . .

Euthyphro has to go.  He has an appointment.

Socrates is disappointed, but not surprised.  He is left wondering, as Euthyphro goes off to his “faith duties” and Socrates goes off to be executed for seeing things another way.  He’s always been the wondering, wandering teacher of questions.  Irritating to the “true believers.”  A threat to the experts and authorities and powers that be.  Forever awaiting for real, honest answers to these claims of what is the best faith, what is right, what is true and what is just.  Socrates is always waiting.  And so, we continue to wait for the “experts” to tell us.  Or, maybe there’s a better way. . .asking the questions together, working out the solutions together, doing what is true and right together, faith or no faith?

*

Anyone with serious “faith questions” or who thinks they “know God” ought to read The Gospel of Socrates.

The great man of wisdom, who is accused of being an Atheist because he chooses to listen to his “inner voice” instead of the Olympian gods, sends his voice echoing down the streets of the centuries.  His “good news” is very old news, but it’s just the relevant, reasonable news we need to hear in our faith-saturated world filled with “God Experts” selling their “wisdom” for the price of a soul (a mind).

Kumbh Mela

100 million humans doing what?  Bathing in (polluted) rivers. . .to cleanse sins. . .(BBC)

“I believe a bathe on the most auspicious day will get rid of all my sins and will help secure me and my family’s future.”

“The Kumbh Mela has its origins in Hindu mythology.

Many believe that when gods and demons fought over a pitcher of nectar, a few drops fell in the cities of Allahabad, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar – the four places where the Kumbh festival has been held for centuries.”

Nice story.

My question has always been:  What if. . .100 million people focused on something else. . .such as:

-cleaning up the river(s) and the rest of the land

-eliminating poverty, hunger, disease

-building affordable housing

-. . .anything. . .something. . .creative. . .constructive. . .healthy. . .

What if?

Seriously, I would shut up IF these “pilgrimages” did something beneficial for the community, the environment, the world.  IF people bathed in the river. . .and then joined forces to clean the water, the land, the air, the nation, the world.  THEN, believe what you will. . .play out the mythology. . .cleanse your sins.  Worship all the gods and goddessses you wish.  AFTER you have done something that’s truly good for the world.

Will this ever happen?  Probably not.  Faith doesn’t have much of a good record.

(hint:  this is the Great Distraction that is, and has always been, Religion)

Filling Our Minds

What are you filling your mind with?  Scripture verses?  Prayers?  Hopes for another world?

This may give us a hint for better use of brain space. . .

Gun Violence and God

This is a very good article/plea/call to action from Marian Wright Edelman

Dear God, When Will It Stop?

I would only suggest that the call to action be directed a different way, in our Gun and God saturated culture:

Dear America, Dear Mr. President, Dear Humanity. . .

The madness will only stop when We the People hear, and feel, and think, and act.

Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights

I like this approach to balancing the monument madness. . .(NYT)

“Instead of arguing over whether to leave up or take down these displays of the Ten Commandments,” read his ensuing comedy routine, “my suggestion is to put up displays of the Bill of Rights next to them and let people comparison shop.”

For our desperately, fearfully Christian Culture, I still have a few questions:

About these cherished Ten Commands from ancient history (see Deuteronomy 5). . .

1)  ”I brought you out of the house of slavery. . .You shall have no other gods before me” (Excuse me, Bible Believers, ARE there other gods?  If so, how did you choose YOUR GOD from among all the candidates?  And, by the way, were YOU brought out of slavery, or does this now refer to the African Slave Trade most of your Christian ancestors engaged in or supported?)

2)  ”You shall not make an idol (a form, an image) and bow down to worship it.”  (Pardon me, but have you ever considered that JESUS might be your IDOL. . .and a peculiarly American Idol?  I mean, he sure looks pretty White in your pictures/images/idols. Could JESUS actually be the Greatest Idol Ever?!  How would You vote?)

3)  ”You shall not make wrongful use of the name of YHVH.”  (If this is God’s Real Name, why don’t you use it, or maybe you MIS-use it by saying it, or mis-pronouncing it, or replacing it with “Lord” or  ”Jesus”?  Sorry, just asking).

4)  ”Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”  (So, are all you faithful followers keeping Saturday holy these days? Of course, you wouldn’t Work on the Sabbath now, would you?  We have no doubt you would never, ever spend The Lord’s Day playing or watching violent sports contests!)

5)   “Honor your father and your mother.”  (And, I guess you would never seek to lower their social security or, God forbid, send them to a nursing home instead of honoring them at home.  We know you would never discriminate against an elderly, honorable person)

6)  ”You shall not murder.”  (Obviously you wouldn’t support ANY form of killing, right?  Like war; like poverty, hunger, homelessness; like capital punishment.  Right?)

7)  ”You shall not commit adultery.”  (And your Christian Nation is a model of happy marriages, fidelity and a low divorce rate?  True?)

8)  ”You shall not steal.”  (We know this means you never engage in business practices that cheat anyone and you always pay your fair share of taxes.  Oh, and you make sure that your country doesn’t take any lands or resources from others. . .of course.   And you would Never have supported the stealing of This Land from the Native Peoples who first lived here.  Of course you wouldn’t)

9)  ”You shall not bear false witness.”  (As a Good Christian you would never lie at any time, for any reason.  You would definitely not support your leaders who make up stories to take us into war, or treat people badly anywhere in the world.  Oh, and you also wouldn’t have said an “Amen” to the broken treaties of the past)

10)  ”You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.  Neither desire your neighbor’s house or property or slave.”  (Well, we feel assured that you would never want what someone else has!  You especially wouldn’t look at someone else’s spouse and want Them for yourself.  You certainly speak out against any exploitation or demeaning images of women.  Don’t you?  Oh, almost forgot:  We are all very sure that you would Never Ever Desire Your Christian Neighbor’s SLAVES!  Thank You!)

And Thank You, Christian America, for doing your darnedest to set these Ten Commands into stone and fight to have them in every court, classroom, congress and public space.  We all sure appreciate the message that forces upon us and the next generation.  Which message?  The one that says:

You shall ignore all common sense, reason and talk of E Pluribus Unum, and abide by the commands handed down by our Jewish (we mean, Christian) ancestors thousands of years ago.  You shall put these commands above all votes and laws and leaders, and live by them as good Christians . . .like US.

OR. . .

Everyone gets a Stone. . .a Monument. . .to Establish their Beliefs

OR. . .

See the article. . .We The People learn our own Constitution and Bill of Rights

Political Disability

Good statement on the role of faith is politics (CNN).

“Some Democrats, too, suffer from political disabilities that are formed by faith.”

Professor Mark Osler

Ah, yes, some on the Righteous Right call themselves “Wallbuilders.”  Maybe gives us a clue?