Conversation of Our Generation

240. What happened to yesterday's episode?

So sorry to miss the episode yesterday! Here's an update on what's going on with me, and an apology for not keeping my schedule. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support [https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support]

239. Neo-paganism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

I've noticed a revival of pagan ideas and rituals that have caught on in numerous movements. The climate movement, racial movements (on both the right and the left), and other ostensibly secular movements have neo-pagan elements. In order to discuss this, I want to offer a definition for neo-paganism. I'd define neo-paganism is an explicit or implicit belief that misattributes spiritual significance. These beliefs, coupled with a set of rituals, are what I call neo-pagan movements, even if the practitioners may think they're merely secular. Merits of Neo-paganism While I do not find these new pagan ideas convincing, I do understand where they're coming from. So, I want to be fair and offer my thoughts about what they get right. * Neo-pagans recognize the spiritual and moral * Often, they speak and frame the world in moral terms * They incorporate metaphysical realism into their worldview, even if implicitly * And, they often include rituals ERRORS OF NEO-PAGANISM Although I understand the motivations and think they're a step in the right direction, I think many have missed the truth that they seek. With that in mind, here are some of the errors I find the neo-pagans of today falling into. * Neo-pagans misattribute spiritual significance * Often, they reject theism, or at least have mistaken understandings of God * Like pagans of the past, they have different moralities [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2020/07/23/can-we-find-an-objective-moral-truth/] for their group and outsiders CORRECTING NEO-PAGANISM Now that I've discussed where neo-pagans go wrong, and where they get things right, I want to discuss how to fix their ideas to comport with reality. If we want to channel this neo-paganism and move it toward the truth, here are a few things we could do. * First, we should acknowledge the religious impulse in those who partake in these things * Theism should be the end goal, but we have to approach that differently with different groups. In order to reach those who think they're secular, we should point out their religiosity For those who acknowledge the spiritual, we should understand what they believe and direct them toward truth * We should channel their passion for a cause by opening up the beauty and incredible truth of theism Previous Episodes: * What is Objective Reality? [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/15/what-is-objective-reality/] * What is Subjective Reality? [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/22/what-is-subjective-reality-and-how-does-subejective-experience-work/] * Unity of Subject and Object [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/29/unity-of-subject-and-object/] * The Golden Mean for Understanding Objective and Subjective Reality [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/13/the-golden-mean-for-understanding-objective-and-subjective-reality/] * Naturalism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/27/naturalism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] * Materialism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/08/03/materialism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] * Scientism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/08/10/scientism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] * Postmodernism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/08/17/postmodernism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support [https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support]

238. Postmodernism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

The postmodernist movement is a reaction to the ideas of the enlightenment, often referred to as modernity. Basically, it developed in the mid 20th century, largely due to the developments of the 19th and early 20th century. Here's what Wikipedia has to say [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism] about Postmodernism. MERITS OF POSTMODERNISM While postmodernist thought is far from perfect, it does raise good points. Here are a few valid claims postmodernists make: * There is social conditioning * And, there are cultural customs that different societies hold to * Art leads to different interpretations ERRORS OF POSTMODERNISM Even though they raise valid concerns, postmodernist thinkers make mistakes. These are a few places postmodernism goes wrong: * It confuses tastes and preferences with claims and opinions on facts * Social conditions aren't the only influence on our lives or means of improving them * It over-emphasizes power CORRECTIONS In order to correct Postmodernism, we have to look at the core of it. The main issue I find is that it is concerned with things that exist, but they over-emphasize them or lend too much credence to those facets of their philosophy. For instance, there are power structures that influence our world. However, the way postmodernists look for these structures in every nook and cranny of human culture is disordered. It also holds contradicting ideas like the universal truths of power structures and hierarchies alongside ideas of radical self-referentiality. Lastly, I judge a philosophy by it's fruits, and the fields that have been influenced by postmodernism have been corrupted. Many are hardly intelligible at this point. RELATED EPISODES IN THIS SERIES * What is Objective Reality? [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/15/what-is-objective-reality/] * What is Subjective Reality? [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/22/what-is-subjective-reality-and-how-does-subejective-experience-work/] * Unity of Subject and Object [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/29/unity-of-subject-and-object/] * The Golden Mean for Understanding Objective and Subjective Reality [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/13/the-golden-mean-for-understanding-objective-and-subjective-reality/] * Naturalism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/27/naturalism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] * Materialism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/08/03/materialism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] * Scientism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/08/10/scientism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support [https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support]

237. Scientism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

WHY SCIENCE IS GOOD Science is a tremendous gift, and has led to incredible human flourishing. The advancements we've seen due to science allow us to live radically more comfortable lives than our ancestors. Because of scientific inquiry, very few people experience the tremendous hardships our ancestors did. Furthermore, that number is decreasing more and more each year. Additionally, science is a reliable method for learning the truth about the natural world. Through the scientific method, we can come to know more about the world around us, and we can do that with a common framework. One thing to remember, however, is that science is always tentative and prone to change due to new evidence. ERRORS OF SCIENTISM The problem with scientism is that it lifts science up, and in the process, ignores other fields of inquiry. The word "science" originates in the word for knowledge, but now only applies to a narrow field of knowledge. I would argue that a philosopher who completely disregards science, and only accepts ontological proofs, is misguided. But in our culture, ontological proofs are discounted, and we act as though anything that can't be proven by the natural sciences is unfounded. Scientism is wrong because it tries to use a tool for the wrong purposes. Instead of using science to inquire about the natural world, we try to apply it to other fields of study. Additionally, scientism poses a criteria for knowledge that is impossible to meet. We can never learn new things if we need hard, repeatable evidence for every claim we accept as true. Lastly, scientism forces us to have an ever-shifting understanding of truths. In logic and mathematics, we know the truths are true in all times and places. But, in science, truth is gradually uncovered, and theories are regularly revised. In science, that is ok, but we should not apply that to all fields of study. Scientism applies that understanding of truth to all forms of inquiry, which is wrong. CORRECTIONS What we can do to fix this is to keep in mind that science is a tool. Science is a method for learning about the world, and it isn't the supreme arbiter of truth [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2018/07/30/__trashed/]. People who fall into this way of thinking over-emphasize the objective world. Often, they are materialists [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/08/03/materialism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] or naturalists [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/27/naturalism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/], and they fail to take into account the spiritual part of the human condition. Instead, they act like we are merely chemistry sets or lab rats. Next, we must not think that an epistemology that works for science will work elsewhere. Philosophy and math come to find truth in very different ways than science. So, we shouldn't make the mistake of needing experiments to come to mathematical truths. In other words, you cannot find all truth in a lab. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support [https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support]

236. Materialism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

According to Wikepedia, "Materialismis a form ofphilosophical monism [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monism]that holds thatmatter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter]is the fundamentalsubstance [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_theory]innature [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature], and that all things, includingmental states [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind]andconsciousness [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness], are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialism, mind and consciousness areby-products [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By-product]orepiphenomena [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphenominalism]of material processes (such as thebiochemistry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry]of thehuman brain [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain]and nervous system), without which they cannot exist. This concept directly contrasts withidealism [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism], wheremind [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind]andconsciousness [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness]are first-order realities to which matter is subject and material interactions are secondary." VALID CONCERNS AND GOOD POINTS At first, it seems to make sense. Much of what we encounter is material. Our food, light, furniture, etc. is all material. It would be easy at first glance to think everything boils down to what is material. But, does that really comport with what we experience and know? ERRORS OF MATERIALISM Materialism leaves out a large chunk of the human experience. First, it fails, like naturalism [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/27/naturalism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/], to fully account for the supernatural and the spiritual. And, in doing so, it denies free will and many other parts of our experience that are products of the spirit. Also, materialism doesn't allow for the abstract truths we know to be. Moral truths, natural laws, beauty, and even some mathematical truths can't exist if everything is material. So, materialism fails to explain all that we know about the world. CORRECTIONS There is more to the world than just the material. It doesn't fit with our understanding of the world. We experience more than just the material in art and music, as well as abstract concepts. We also experience the phenomenon of free will, which is impossible in a materialist world. In order to fully comport with reality, we need to take into account more than material things. In order to fully experience the world, we have to take account for the non-material parts of our lives. RELATED EPISODES IN THIS SERIES * What is Objective Reality? [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/15/what-is-objective-reality/] * What is Subjective Reality? [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/22/what-is-subjective-reality-and-how-does-subejective-experience-work/] * Unity of Subject and Object [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/06/29/unity-of-subject-and-object/] * The Golden Mean for Understanding Objective and Subjective Reality [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/13/the-golden-mean-for-understanding-objective-and-subjective-reality/] * Naturalism & The Human Person | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly [https://conversationofourgeneration.com/2021/07/27/naturalism-the-human-person-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support [https://anchor.fm/conofourgen/support]