Another great article, Blaise. I'm your age and can relate to your experience at the music festival. My teenage daughter keeps me up to date with the artists of the day. You talk about a question I also often think about. One problem I have with modern secularism is that people throw out the traditions of religions without anything to replace it. It leaves them unmoored when it comes to the big questions in life and ill-equipped to handle setbacks, hardships and loss. If you cancel God out of the equation, you're left with only yourself and it's all on you. Your life has no meaning or destination, you have no innate worth and there is no objective truth. That's a very hard burden to carry and I am not surprised that people struggle to do it.
It's a concern well-voiced. But just as faith systems have different denominations, secular liberalism does too. There's a way to practice it selfishly and cynically, yes. But you can also live with purpose and passion and moral clarity through community and communities of shared interest - not just theological ones. As long as we all try to keep some version of the Golden Rule top of mind, why bother about the particulars?
I think the value of this piece is to demonstrate that religiosity exists independent of Religion, and that there are more pilings we can moor ourselves to in times of crisis than we might realize.
Lord James Bryce really got our number 😆 Too bad he and de Touqueville didn't write in the same era: it's fun imagining them shaking their heads bemusedly at our Yankee foibles while putting down whiskies at a public house.
Another quality entry, synthesizing a lot of the Litverse Canon's big ideas with clean imagery and on-point pull-quotes 🫡
Another great article, Blaise. I'm your age and can relate to your experience at the music festival. My teenage daughter keeps me up to date with the artists of the day. You talk about a question I also often think about. One problem I have with modern secularism is that people throw out the traditions of religions without anything to replace it. It leaves them unmoored when it comes to the big questions in life and ill-equipped to handle setbacks, hardships and loss. If you cancel God out of the equation, you're left with only yourself and it's all on you. Your life has no meaning or destination, you have no innate worth and there is no objective truth. That's a very hard burden to carry and I am not surprised that people struggle to do it.
It's a concern well-voiced. But just as faith systems have different denominations, secular liberalism does too. There's a way to practice it selfishly and cynically, yes. But you can also live with purpose and passion and moral clarity through community and communities of shared interest - not just theological ones. As long as we all try to keep some version of the Golden Rule top of mind, why bother about the particulars?
I think the value of this piece is to demonstrate that religiosity exists independent of Religion, and that there are more pilings we can moor ourselves to in times of crisis than we might realize.
Absolutely love this. Question, is Blaise Pascal your namesake or did it come from a different Blaise?
Haha. Depends on who you ask. Dad says Saint Blaise. Mom says Blaise Pascal.
Inquiring minds want to know
Time to give the people what they want.
This was just wonderful!!
There is a song "here to forever" (Death Cab for Cutie) your post brings their words to mind
"I wanna know the measure from here to forever
and I wanna feel the pressure of god or whatever
and now it seems more than ever there's no hands
on the lever"
"holy rollers keep rolling
while the searchers keep scrolling'
My husband and I also wonder if Pascal is your namesake?
We love the great depth and insight in your writing.
Thank You
Blaise Pascal was one namesake! Another was Saint Blaise.
Absolutely brilliant analysis. Thanks for all the work! Would have been exhausting had you not been in “flow!”
So true! The artistic flow compresses time or so it seems.
Lord James Bryce really got our number 😆 Too bad he and de Touqueville didn't write in the same era: it's fun imagining them shaking their heads bemusedly at our Yankee foibles while putting down whiskies at a public house.
Another quality entry, synthesizing a lot of the Litverse Canon's big ideas with clean imagery and on-point pull-quotes 🫡
Thanks as always for reading!