The final answer: I don't know.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bishadi
  • Start date Start date
I think Tao has a point, and I agree many attempt to make the meaningless into something meaningful. It is another form of idolatry.

Examples: the fluff passed as news every night on the networks, who cares what the celebrity of the moment had for lunch or screwed last night, or the score of the ball game? These are meaningless things, but so many try to make them meaningful.
 
Alex P said:
123 strikes again with a very nice post.... Faith/knowledge... Two different things, I agree to a degree.
Click to expand...


The Scriptures tell us: "Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld." (Heb 11:1)





Essentially, knowledge means familiarity with facts acquired by personal experience, observation, or study.

The Bible strongly urges the seeking for and treasuring of right knowledge, recommending it rather than gold. (Pr 8:10; 20:15)
Jesus stressed the importance of truly knowing him and his Father, and knowledge is repeatedly emphasized in the books of the Christian Greek Scriptures.—Joh 17:3; Php 1:9; 2Pe 3:18.
 
Tao_Equus said:
Then that happiness and stillness is ones profit. Intended?
Click to expand...

intended? Yeah... Wise words, are ways of making things more, simple.... Meaning, they can be for teaching... Example that quote a FOOL can be counted as wise for holding his tongue (or what not...) See?

What bridge is that? And I shall tell you. I already have my own meaning for it, but I want to check to see if there is something I am missing.... Such as historical... Folklore or art or so on...
 
mee said:
The Scriptures tell us: "Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld." (Heb 11:1)





Essentially, knowledge means familiarity with facts acquired by personal experience, observation, or study.
Click to expand...


Point being? Does this refute or agree with my comment?

mee said:
The Bible strongly urges the seeking for and treasuring of right knowledge, recommending it rather than gold. (Pr 8:10; 20:15)
Click to expand...
Right knowledge, specifically as applied to Proverbs, is "wisdom." That is what we are to seek as (if for) hidden treasure. Proverbs 2 as I recall sums up nicely.
 
Bishadi said:
How many areas of teachings or lessons in 'faith' all have to lead to one answer, "I don't know'?
Click to expand...

Actually in the orthodox traditions, none.

Whether man accepts the answers, is a whole other question.

The prevalent philosophy of the West, shaped by the Enlightenment, was founded on an erroneous assumption — "the triumph of art over nature" (Novum Organum Francis Bacon) (that science could explain and tame all nature), and continues to run its course, in the pursuit of 'progress' and 'freedom', even though the growing weight of evidence suggests somewhere, someone went wrong.

"The entrance into the Kingdom of man, founded on the sciences, being not much other than the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, where into none may enter except as a little child." Novum Organum Francis Bacon.

Above is a typical formative psychology of the Enlightenment. Here we can see that science has replaced faith ... the belief that science will put man back in the Garden of Paradise, or rather, in the absence of Eden, science will create a new Paradise for man ... he no longer has any need of God.

Science, by occupying the space that faith traditionally occupied, marginalised religion and reduced it to something private and other-worldly, something irrelevant for the world.

The reliance of science as the source of man's happiness means an anthropology in which the idea of 'beatitude', 'peace', 'wellbeing' are solely dependent upon material means ...

For many westerners, the uptake of exotic Asiatic doctrines and practices with the implicit promise of a self-serving short-cut to bliss, nirvana, satori, etc., has been described as spiritual narcissism, in fact auto-eroticisme was the term deployed.

Man has been reduced to a material consumer ... and as a First World European in his 50s, I can still recall the political assertions that, by the new millenium, we will be freed from labour by our wonderful technologies ... that leisure time would be our major occupation ... now leisure is another 'industry' and here we are, working harder than ever, my kids working harder at school than I ever did to attain apparently less (their qualifications have become meaningless in the marketplace) ... and I'm not sure, the way things are going, that they will be alive at my age ...

No more energy is spent in any department of modern life than the pursuit of the chimera of the self ... "I" am the fetish object of every modern religion.

As long as man exercises his option to say "I don't know" without obligation to find out, as long as he insists his own ignorance is more valid than truth, because it's the authentic expression of his autonomous freedom ... he betrays himself, and his seed ...

Thomas
 
Alex P said:
Example that quote a FOOL can be counted as wise for holding his tongue (or what not...) See?
Click to expand...
lol, the tongue is firmly attached in the mouth. There really is no need to hold it, it will not fall out.

What bridge is that? And I shall tell you. I already have my own meaning for it, but I want to check to see if there is something I am missing.... Such as historical... Folklore or art or so on...
Click to expand...
It is a meaningless bridge, a bridge to nowhere.
 
So are you saying you don't know anything about the bridge? Just that it leads no where? If so then you haven't really looked for it's meaning.... I could grab a tool from a metal workers and look at it without knowing what it was I could say, no idea what this is... It is meaningless.... But I have failed to look......

I think meaningless is a blindness...
 
Thomas said:
As long as man exercises his option to say "I don't know" without obligation to find out, as long as he insists his own ignorance is more valid than truth, because it's the authentic expression of his autonomous freedom ... he betrays himself, and his seed ...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the Francis Bacon. I agree that "as long as" people remain deliberately ignorant it is to their detriment. Ignorance itself though is no crime nor sin. And the "seeker's mind" is far more productive practically, spiritually, pragmatically and diplomatically.

There are things worth knowing. There are things not worth expending effort towards. And there are situational and specific things that in one context may be required, and in another little more than trivia.

Do I have a need for the knowledge to pilot a fighter plane? No, and it would be foolish of me to pursue such knowledge beyond mere curiousity; I will never in this life pilot a fighter aircraft. But to someone somewhere that knowledge is crucial and indispensible. I am being deliberately ignorant, but I am using logic to determine the value of that knowledge in my life. That is practical wisdom in action.
 
Alex P said:
I think meaningless is a blindness...
Click to expand...
I disagree. I think it is a value judgement.

I place no value on some pretty little spoiled drug addict's escapades being paraded in the tabloids and on "entertainment" tv. Some people deem such drivel as meaningful. Enough so that the business keeps feeding them more brain rot.
 
juantoo3 said:
I disagree. I think it is a value judgement.

I place no value on some pretty little spoiled drug addict's escapades being paraded in the tabloids and on "entertainment" tv. Some people deem such drivel as meaningful. Enough so that the business keeps feeding them more brain rot.
Click to expand...

Sure there are those that love that kinda stuff, I do not.. But not meaningless..

But you do not see a lesson of how NOT to be from this?
 
Tao_Equus said:
Exactly!! Looking for meaning in the meaningless is deliberate blindness.
Click to expand...

How so?

With 123,

He said, something about some spoilt person who uses drugs or something in the media? And that to him is meaningless... Ok accepted. Because he isn't interested in media or the person or whatever...

But from this example you see meaning of how not to raise your child in such a spoilt way, or not to use drugs or whatever lol..... I have no idea of the story and it's detail, but there are lessons....
 
Alex P said:
Sure there are those that love that kinda stuff, I do not.. But not meaningless..

But you do not see a lesson of how NOT to be from this?
Click to expand...

How often do I need to repeat the lesson if I have already figured the answers out?

Yes, I said that "knowing" closes the mind to other possibilities, and when dealing with complex questions this is true.

But some lessons are pretty obvious, even if we struggle with the answers in our daily lives. I already know, from experience and other sources, about addictive behavior. And I know what a struggle it can be to overcome my addictions. I don't need some silicone bimbo glamorizing addictive behavior in my face to remind me of my own daily struggles. That is not news, it is not important, and it is not worthwhile knowledge. It serves no valid purpose, other than to fatten her/his bank account to continue the cycle of glamorizing self-destructive behavior, and fatten the bank accounts of the vultures that feed off of this impending tragedy.
 
juantoo3 said:
How often do I need to repeat the lesson if I have already figured the answers out?

Yes, I said that "knowing" closes the mind to other possibilities, and when dealing with complex questions this is true.

But some lessons are pretty obvious, even if we struggle with the answers in our daily lives. I already know, from experience and other sources, about addictive behavior. And I know what a struggle it can be to overcome my addictions. I don't need some silicone bimbo glamorizing addictive behavior in my face to remind me of my own daily struggles. That is not news, it is not important, and it is not worthwhile knowledge. It serves no valid purpose, other than to fatten her/his bank account to continue the cycle of glamorizing self-destructive behavior.
Click to expand...

What if you haven't figured out the answers? How do you know you have the answers? But I am not meaning to help reduce addictive behavior... But an example of what the outcome from drugs will be... But this is going to go no where right? lol. There are always lessons to be taught or learnt or given as an example or an expression, and you learn something new every day... And some girl has a bigger bank roll now... So I see meaning... Sorry but I do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top