- #1
coberst
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I grew up in a Catholic family. The first thing that I remember reading was the Catechism.
Q: Who made me?
A: God made me.
Q: Why did God make me?
A: God made me to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next.
I was six years old and already knew the important questions and answers of life. Today, many years later, I find that these answers are not satisfying.
I read books that inform me that most American citizens are philosophical Idealists. An Idealist is one who is conscious of a dual reality. There is matter and there is spirit. Thought, especially theoretical thought, is a characteristic activity of spirit. Consciousness is a property of spirit. Consciousness can be detached from the concrete human subject. Matter is not and cannot be considered as the ultimate reality.
When I plead skepticism to the assumption that most American citizens are Idealist I am informed that the vast majority of US citizens, when polled, indicate that they are religious or, if not religious, are “spiritual”.
Why are most Americans (I restrict this to Americans because I am not informed as to how others believe but I am convinced that this is a human reality) philosophical Idealists? We are Idealist because we are afraid of the dark. We want a hand to hold and do not trust that hand to be our fellows because we know our fellows are mostly a bunch of fools. We are Idealists because we seek security and we find security embedded in some form of intellectual constancy.
Q: Who made me?
A: God made me.
Q: Why did God make me?
A: God made me to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next.
I was six years old and already knew the important questions and answers of life. Today, many years later, I find that these answers are not satisfying.
I read books that inform me that most American citizens are philosophical Idealists. An Idealist is one who is conscious of a dual reality. There is matter and there is spirit. Thought, especially theoretical thought, is a characteristic activity of spirit. Consciousness is a property of spirit. Consciousness can be detached from the concrete human subject. Matter is not and cannot be considered as the ultimate reality.
When I plead skepticism to the assumption that most American citizens are Idealist I am informed that the vast majority of US citizens, when polled, indicate that they are religious or, if not religious, are “spiritual”.
Why are most Americans (I restrict this to Americans because I am not informed as to how others believe but I am convinced that this is a human reality) philosophical Idealists? We are Idealist because we are afraid of the dark. We want a hand to hold and do not trust that hand to be our fellows because we know our fellows are mostly a bunch of fools. We are Idealists because we seek security and we find security embedded in some form of intellectual constancy.