Watts: “It has been possible to make the insecurity of human life supportable by belief in unchanging things beyond the reach of calamity – in God, in [the] immortal soul, and in the government of the universe by eternal laws of right. Today such convictions are rare, even in religious circles.” If we lived foreverContinue reading “Why We Do It”
Category Archives: Nietzsche, Watts, Heschel
Is the Game Over?
Watts: “Once there is the suspicion that a religion is a myth, its power is gone.” In reflecting on the first part of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, I have already considered the idea that religion is based in or at least largely conditioned by myth – the language, stories, beliefs and judgments we useContinue reading “Is the Game Over?”
The Usefulness of Untruth
Nietzsche: “To recognize untruth as a condition of life: that, to be sure, means to resist customary value-sentiments in a dangerous fashion; and a philosophy which ventures to do so places itself, by that act alone, beyond good and evil.” Nietzsche’s suspicion that all we have is the finite life we are living now andContinue reading “The Usefulness of Untruth”
A Matter of Perspective
Nietzsche: “Perspective [is] the basic condition of all life.” To see anything involves observing from a specific vantage point. The philosophical worldview called postmodernism got a big push in motion by Nietzsche’s challenge to the long-standing (mythological) idea that humans – especially those who believe in God – have a view on reality that isContinue reading “A Matter of Perspective”
A Conversation Across Time
Recently I was browsing the bookstore (an actual one, with books!), when my eyes fell on three of my favorite authors. Like a spark across the gap, my mind was inspired. Months ago I had chosen a blog domain name “Tracts of Revolution,” with a vague intention of what I would do with it. RevolutionContinue reading “A Conversation Across Time”
Tracts of Revolution 