First, I would like to say that I’m very sorry President Trump and the First Lady, Melania, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It is a life-threatening illness, and it happened on the eve of the election of a president of the United States. Yes, President Trump denied the illness, but so did millions around the world. Who can imagine so tenacious a virus as the novel coronavirus? It is best to believe a genuine problem has arisen, just in case. Many feel that the compulsory use of a mask is an infringement on their liberty. It’s prudence.
Second, and rather humbling, I was unable to remember my password to Microsoft, except for four digits. I had just acquired a smartphone, which became an obstacle. I had never used a smartphone and it seems the number had been disabled. They would not use an ordinary phone and the one I have has a new number. I did enter the correct number several times, but I was suddenly required to purchase Office 365. So, I started to worry. Microsoft should ask for a person’s consent before using a credit card. What if a new purchase does not cancel a previous one?
I have used the art of Swiss French artist Félix Vallotton. He was one of the Nabis, but they parted ways. L’Affaire Dreyfus may have been a source of division. (See Félix Vallotton, Wikipedia.) I should list posts I wrote in 2013.
François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, by Nicolas de Largillière, 1724 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Comment
I read a post and the comments that followed it. I will not quote the post nor will I quote the entire comment. The post was about a scientist being denied tenure at a university, i. e. a permanent position, because he felt God had something to do with the creation of our universe. Basically, the comment was about “Jesus’ words about people thinking they are serving God by killing believers…”
We do not live in a perfect world. Terrorists wrap bomb(s) around themselves and wreak destruction in the name of God. In short, we have killed thinking that we were “serving God” (the Crusades, Jews, sorceresses, etc.).
Marble head representing Emperor Constantine the Great, at the Capitoline Museums(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus and the Christian Church as an Institution
Yes, we have killed in the name of God. Jesus, however, did not leave a sacred text and he talked in “parables” which is what a fabulist does, according to La Fontaine (see his Preface to his first volume of fables (1668), paragraph 6. Jesus, Isa ibn Maryam, did not write a sacred text nor did he found a Church. There were followers of Christ before 325 AD (CE), but the Christian Church was not founded until the First Council of Nicaea, which took place near the current Istanbul, Turkey. The Christian Church was founded under Roman Emperor Constantine I (27 February 272 CE – 22 May 337 CE), Saint Constantine or Saint Constantine the Great, Equal-to-the-Apostles, in the Eastern Church (Orthodox). (See Constantine the Great, Wikipedia.) Istanbul was first named Byzantium, It was the capital of the Byzantine Empire. On 11 May 330 AD, it became Constantinople, the holy see of the Christian Church. (See Constantinople, Wikipedia.) Constantinople was renamed Istanbul after the Turkish War of Independence, fought between 19 May 1919 and 24 July 1923.
Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have asked several theologians about the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. After studying the Gospels, reports not sacred texts, they have concluded that Jesus taught what is often summarized as “unconditional love,” (mercy, compassion, etc).
“In almost all cases the phrases used in the Beatitudes are familiar from an Old Testament context, but in the sermon Jesus gives them new meaning. Together, the Beatitudes present a new set of ideals that focus on love and humility rather than force and exaction[.]” (See Sermon on the Mount, Wikipedia)
—ooo—
French Enlightenment writer and philosopher Voltaire (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778) advocated two freedoms, “freedom of religion, freedom of speech,” and the “separation of church and state.” However, although he attacked “the established Catholic Church,” he could not deny God a role in Creation:
« Cemonde est une horloge et cette horloge a besoin d’un horloger. » in Poésies et « L’univers m’embarrasse, et je ne puis songer / Que cette horloge existe et n’ait point d’horloger » in Les Cabales de Voltaire (1694-1778).
“This world is a clock and this clock needs a clockmaker.” in Poésies and “I am intrigued by the universe, and cannot help thinking / That this clock should exist and there not be a clockmaker.”
There is “candour” in Voltaire’s statement. He is the author of Candide(1762). If God is good why did He allow such a calamity as the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon. It destroyed the city and its surroundings. (See 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Wikipedia.)
One can also say that, if there is a God, why did He allow Otto Warmbier to die. Not only is nature cruel, but so are certain human beings. Evil is a problem.
These are the “big” questions. The human condition is a “big” question. We are born and we give birth, but we die. One accident can shatter our dreams, take away a person’s dearest, perfectly legitimate and realistic expectations.
On the day my mother died, I sat next to her and spent hours telling her that she would see her dead children, her mother, her brothers and sisters, and angels everywhere. On that day, had there not been a God, I would have invented a God, a clockmaker, and an afterlife, which is perhaps the finest gift nature has bestowed upon us. We die, poor or rich, but we also live and can make our life and the life of those we know a happier passage. We can create and overcome what is otherwise absurd (see Albert Camus, Wikipedia). We compensate.
No, we should not kill in the name of God. We must protect our planet, be good and spread what happiness we can.
Sources and Resources
Fables de La Fontaine, I – VI, Gutenberg [EBook #17941] FR
In his writings about the human condition, Les Pensées or Thoughts, French scientist, inventor and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), positioned mankind between the infinitely large and the infinitely small (Pensées, 199-72*). He wrote that compared to the universe, humans are infinitely small. However, compared to a microscopic mite, he called un ciron, humans are infinitely large.
Infinity is a central concept in Pascal’s Weltanschauung or world view. One of his Pensées, perhaps the most poetical, expresses fear of the infinite. He writes that “[he] fears the eternal silence of space infinite” (my translation): “Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m’effraie” (201-206 B).
That Pascal should have been in awe of space infinite is not altogether surprising. The main discovery of the Renaissance, the sixteenth century mainly, may well have been planet Earth’s place in the Universe. Until Copernicus (1473-1543), possibly earlier, planet Earth was looked upon as the centre of the Universe.
But Copernicus placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, thereby introducing heliocentrism. Later, Galileo Galilei (1564-1652) also observed that the Earth revolved around the Sun. Such was not the thinking of the Church, so Galileo had to recant on his observation for fear of facing an untimely and painful death.
Although Pascal was a scientist, the Pensées have a spiritual dimension. In this regard, Pascal’s thoughts on the two infinites resemble his definition of man’s duality. Humans are mortals, misère, but they can think and know, therefore, but they are miserable. We are mere reeds, but we think: le roseau pensant (the thinking reed). Hence our grandeur or nobility.The fact that humans know they are mortals constitute a redeeming feature. We are neither beasts nor angels.
I have already spoken of Pascal’s symmetrical thinking: la misère/la grandeur and must note it again. Pascal discussed our duality, the humaine condition and also does it in his cosmology, thereby giving us, once again, a redeeming half. Without the infinitely small, the infinitely large would engulf humankind. So, as I used to tell my students, it was nice of Pascal to bring us back, and down, to Earth.
However, I regret the fact that we did not devote sufficient time to the infinities. We associate relativity with Einstein, but long before Einstein theory of relativity, relativity was also a humanistic concept.
Pascal’s two infinities are a most eloquent expression of relativity. For instance, not unlike Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Pascal states that what is an error on one side of the Pyrenees, is truth on the other side of same Pyrenees: “Vérité au-deça [this side] des Pyrénées, erreur au-delà.”
This is the case with justice and jurisprudence. An act may legal in one land and illegal in another land. So there is arbitrariness about justice, a thought which led to French Enlightenment’s Montesquieu’s (1689-1755) De l’Esprit des Lois (The Spirit of the Laws). Montesquieu will be discussed in a future post.
For the time being, all I wish to reflect on is that as Christopher Colombus sailed towards India, Galileo and Pascal were exploring space and Montaigne and Pascal were pondering relativity.
