religion | David Fekete

I am one struggling to have faith in unbelief.

Contrary to many, I feel that religion is a positive force in the world. Where else will a person find teachings that oppose the excessive consumption, greed, and vanity of western capitalist culture? Where else will a person be valued not by the clothes they wear, but by who they are?

The May meeting of the Faith and Order Convening table of the National Council of Churches of Christ USA just concluded. There are 38 different Christian denominations that are members of the NCCC USA. I think that we do a pretty good job of working together considering the differences among our 38 denominations. Some may find it hard to believe that there are 38 different Christian denominations–and I don’t think that there should be.

As a Swedenborgian in the NCCC USA, I have an uphill battle. Despite the good will we have for one another, there are still religious prejudices. Although there is an impressive list of poets, philosophers, and literati who have been avid readers of Swedenborg, the Swedenborgian connection has been actively suppressed. Scholars and theologians don’t want a Swedenborg in their world.

For things like this, and other division-causing reasons, some have turned away from religion. Perhaps many. As a believer, this concerns me. Religion has taught me so much wisdom, and has guided me out of hellish behaviours that I can’t imagine life without it.

But spiritual people, who aren’t religious, do find guidance and a higher power. Where, I wonder, and how do such people find their way to God? I know that God flows into every heart and mind and guides. Even without God, people live good lives and have conscience.

I would have to have a trust in humanity to believe that without the nurture of religion, people will find their way to a life dedicated to others, and not themselves. To believe that unbelievers have it in them to save themselves and the world around them, and to care. Robert Frost puts it well, “Whether we have it in us to save ourselves unaided.” It’s that “unaided” that gives me pause. Without God, without religion, where does humanity find that power to save–save themselves, and the world?

I am one struggling to have faith in unbelief.

The Assassination of Aristotle

Philosophy and Religion used to provide guidance to us. Now, psychology has taken over the role of guide for human behaviour. It is a role that psychology is ill equipped to perform.

Plato taught us to examine the soul. Aristotle taught us how logically to present an argument. What is left of contemporary philosophy is only rhetoric, persuasion, and language analysis. In the 20th century, philosophy turned logic into arithmetic and called it symbolic logic. Then they said that logic is a closed system and does not relate to the world of experience. That means philosophy can’t argue for the truth anymore, because you can’t argue at all. Then philosophy said that there is no truth, only what I want. So we are left not with arguments in search of the truth, we are left with persuading people to do what we want, what we want them to do.

Richard Rorty, one of our past great post-modern philosophers wouldn’t take an endowed chair in the philosophy department of the University of Virginia because he thought that philosophy had reasoned itself out of existence. He had them design some sort of cultural analysis department that he taught in.

So we are left with expressing our feelings, accepting ourselves good or bad, and affirming ourselves, worthy or not. Those are principles of psychology. And as a consequence, we get “The Girl on the Train.” A very long, uninteresting movie about the feelings of a girl, and her life–a life I didn’t much care about.

But I do care about people, and religion taught me to love others. However, I have also been taught to love the good in people, to nurture it, and to bond with it. Aristotle said that only virtuous people have the kind of temperament that can sustain friendship. They are virtuous themselves and their psyche is not at odds with itself. But philosophy has reasoned itself out of existence. And religion’s influence is fading, has faded in society. And we are left with The Girl on the Train.

David Fekete

Faith in Unbelief

The Assassination of Aristotle