by Horatius Piscinus on Tue Jun 10, 2003 2:14 am
Salva sis Aenima
An interesting sentiment. And could you expand on this comment that the existence of the gods would be of no importance were you to realize why you seek them?
Once before, long ago, in a far distant Other Place, I wrote:
"I feel that if one truly believes in a deity, a deity of any kind, then it must truly be a humbling experience. How then could someone who truly approaches their deity with humility do anything other than question everything they have come to believe. Who moreso than Plato in the Parmenides critically examined Plato's system of thought? And what are the wonderful poems of the mystic Jelaluddin Rumi but an approach to his god Allah through questioning himself? Reflected in the piety of such men I must always examine myself. Did not Jesus have a moment of doubt, and confronted himself in a garden before he resolved to meet his destiny? And to whom did Arjuna speak in his moment of hesitation on the battlefield? Or to whom did Socrates speak? Who is the Poimandres with whom Trismegistis speaks? Having such examples presented to us, can we do any less? And when it comes our turn to lie upon our deathbed will we have the same confidence of Plotinus that that which is the better part of ourselves shall return to whence it came?
"Like you (Marcus Audens) I examine my own beliefs by holding them up to the light I find in the beliefs of others. The words of others and the sacred texts of many different belief systems give me pause to think of my own beliefs. I would therefore welcome anyone to discuss such topics with me. But also, as I was discussing with another citizen, dear Pompeia, such discussions only move the intellect. As a pagan I know that my intellect might approach my soul, but only through experiencing the divine may the soul reunite in ek stasis with my goddess and together shall we pass on to whence we came. That is perhaps the distinction I make between philosophy and religion, the difference between the experience of the animus from the anima."
I hold that one cannot truly have knowledge of the gods or therefore of their existence. I also hold that there is no logical argument to be made in support of the existence of the gods. Yet in spite of our own intellectual limitations we still possess a belief in the gods, however irrational it may be, almost with an innate sense of their existence. Now I may not understand quite what you have in mind, which is why I would like to see you explain more on your thoughts, but the assigning of importance to something would appear to me to be an intellectualizing process. One assigns relative importance between this and that with some form of rationale, logical or illogical as it may be, as a mental activity. OTOH one can have knowledge of himself or herself, including some understanding of why they would personally approach the gods or seek Them out to meet some personal needs. Such an act on our part might not be consciously indertaken, so we would not necessarily realize at first why we would take such an irrational action. It is our soul after all, rather than the rational mind, that decides to seek out the gods. Therefore I would tend to agree in your statement, seeing it as I do as a matter that a subjective realization of the irrational actions of the soul puts aside any questions that attempt to rationalize the existence of the gods. Approaching the void, trusting in the irrational certainty, then becomes the humbling experience.
Di deaeque te ament
Moravius Piscinus
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!