April 24, 2005
Obligatory Checkin
I've been vamping lately. Getting the things that need to be done, done. My bike and car are both fixed. My dishes are (mostly) clean. I finally made that Banana Bread.
I'm a bit annoyed by where the Catholic Church has gone. To quote a co-worker, "Why does everything have to be so fucking conservative?" I read (among other articles) two at the New York Times, on Pope Benedict XVI. One right after his papacy was announced, and another looking at his history.
I can tell you right off he's not a fan of Nietzsche. This has kept me pondering why its such a necessary condition that people believe in something, or anything? I see metaphysics/epistemology as a way to agree on givens to structure a view of the world upon. They in and of themselves don't matter, they're just a methodology to ensure that Philosophy is somehow logically sound. I need to read more Buddhism, but I'm going to start with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintence. Not quite Buddism, but I'm told its a good read, perhaps it will allow me to reinforce that moral relativism that every damn conservative is so worried about.
Re the "necessary condition that people believe in something, or anything" - this is just the only proof you need for asserting that Herr Ratzinger is not in any sense a philosopher. He is an ideologue, albeit a "soft-spoken and loving" one.
By the way, what do you suppose Jesus would say to the idea a conclave of high priests should "elect" "God's representative on earth?" I think he would still call them "a generation of vipers," "of [their] father the devil," "as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them." [Matthew 12:34, Luke 11:44, John 8:44] He was singularly unappreciative of the priestly hierarchy in his own day, but one would be hard pressed to hear about that from a televangelical pulpit.