As the "resident SYG theologian" I feel somewhat obligated to take the troll bait here..
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Originally Posted by dead_battery
the zombie is obviously a christian fantasy. it's a corpse without a soul. it's the excess of animality - raw drive and craving. to heaven.
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I believe you have this backwards, a zombie is a soul trapped within a corpse..
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Originally Posted by dead_battery
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as for the post christianity thing-
so christianity dies in the mind of anyone who isn't brain damaged but it lives on in the unconscious. so you get this post christianity which totally dominates us now.
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Christianity thrives and continually mutates precisely because it is a composite of the previous philosphies. The moral truths of Christianity aren't unique innovations by Christians, they are self-evident even in the altruism we observe in animals and nature. Also, following the reasonings of Joseph Campbell, Christianity is a product of the universal themes of the human subconscious, not a cause. We aren't carrying around Christian baggage in our heads, rather, Christianity is prevailing philosophy which is constructed existentially to explain and value these subconscious "Archtypes" in the language of Carl Jung. Our brain is filled with imagery, structure, meaning, which our art and culture build on. So Christianity didn't invent what is in the brain, it is just a way of trying to make sense of what the brain is naturally doing.
if you start to look for it you'll find evidence for it everywhere
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the idea that a kind of belief in denying bad things is a substitute for morality. we don't want to face the truth so we use post modern relativism to make belief itself apparently meaningful.
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TO THIS I CAN AGREE COMPLETELY. The quasi-Christianity which dominates the mega-church culture definitely is a kind of substitute morality, meanwhile the tradition of Christianity as perpetuated by the Patristic writers and commentators are about the deeply introspective, contemplative, philosophical, in other words "the examined life."
Christianity at its root is more akin to the deep self-examination of Buddhism than the stone-age Christianity passing itself today.
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.. cos if we don't then we're all just appetite driven monsters seeking the fulfilment of our drives, shuffling around until we die.
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Well, I can't argue with that!
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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
e.g., to me, christianity is a nihilism in that it devalues this world in opposition to an inexistent one. there's also the post-christian nihilism that says that withouth a god the world has no meaning and without a meaning life is not worth living.
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That is the heretical and flawed quasi-Christianity perpetuated by Calvinism. Non-Calvinist Christian thought is perhaps the opposite, its the belief that THIS LIFE is important, has value, has purpose and meaning. Remember the underlying premise of Christianity is the "Second Coming" and the manifestation of "the Kingdom" all on earth. In fact, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, bodily, is in fact the very definition of Christian materialism. The material world which we currently exist is so important to the human experience, that after death the body comes with us. Further, the idea of "the Last Judgment" if anything OVERVALUES the experiences of this material life, because by the logic of this teaching "God(s)" will judge mankind for what they did, hence nihilism to the material is incompatible with most Christian teaching across the past 1900 years of the institutional Church.
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existentialism however rescues value from the face of absurdity and godlessness without a return of belief. i like the holy ghost metaphor but i don't see how it operates it in real life (but i'm odd, so, maybe it happens to others.).
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How is the self exploration of the contemplative life of the Christian NOT a variety of existentialism? If anything, the Patristic commentaries are ALL dealing with existential matters of philosophy.