Walking on the Edge

of Reason and Awe

We discover our world through reasonWe are also emotional beings

The ineffable

To defy description, words are not enoughTranscend language concepts

The Human Paradox

Concealed within our reason, is something unknown.

Imagine living in the ‘awe-filled’ state all the time.

Who’s going to take out the garbage?

Pre-Socratic Philosopher

THALES“You don’t need God to understand the world.”

THE WORLD IS A RATIONAL PLACE ANDREASON IS YOURFIRST TOOL.

Christopher DeCarloHow to Become a Really Good Pain …

Be epistemically responsible

Episteme = Greek for knowledge

Any monkey can have an opinion – Be responsible for your beliefs and

question their truth.

Socrates: humble enough to admit he didn’t know; bold enough to challenge others that they didn’t either.

Plato’s unseen world of forms: the realm of absolutes is knowable by reason: the

senses can be deceiving

Math is not invented but discovered.

Aristotle’s syllogistic logic

Wants to standardizeLogic:Premise 1 = truePremise 2= trueConclusion= must betrue.

Begins the Age of Enlightenment

Humanism: We don’t need God or the church to know what is true and goodReason is the key that unlocks human potential.

What might be a ‘rational conclusion to that belief?

The Empire of Illusion: Is this society really better than those of the past?

The danger of utopian thinking:ethnocentric thinking (my tribe is better than yours)

Some use reason to support prejudice.

Religious fundamentalists

Allows no room for debate or dialogue

Fundamentalism is a mindset that refutes any other ‘truth’ but their own.

New Atheists (scientific fundamentalism)

Allows no room for debate or dialogue

Scientific fundamentalism does the same thing: example of Hawkins‘memes’…no empirical evidence they exist

The sublime nature of realitygenerates a sense of awe and wonder

We are a living miracle: the ineffable is a part of daily life. – Rabbi Michael Lerner

Susan JacobyWhy is an experience of beauty any different than other experiences?

Why put them in a ‘transcendent’ category?

Narrator’s POVAn inquiry into a question must begin with a presupposition.

We make statements that presuppose things to be true without actually having proven them.

Example: Will the party be any fun?

This presupposes that parties CAN be fun.

Narrator: We can ask questions about the world that presuppose reason to be the only way to the truth.

He maintains that experiences are possible that ‘feel’ to be more than that.

Rabbi Michael Lerner: The universe functions as a seamlessly integrated whole. This includes its

physical and ethical dimension.

Chris Hedges: observes many of the world’s cultures try to respond to a common human experience – something that is transcendent and ineffable.

Sometimes this awe is experienced as fear.

Art : articulate the unutterable

Ecclesiastes and its author: Kohelet(It’s an ancient question – what’s the point?

Value life and live the present

Who can understand everything?

Susan JacobyBelievers say, “I don’t

understand” but what they really mean is

“I don’t accept it.” Then they ascribe it to MYSTERY.

Dead is dead. Get over it.Reason helps us cope.

Christopher DeCarloA rationalist will refuse

mystery because they see it as ignorance.

Different ways of knowing: symbolic representation (like math) and other forms of reason will never get to the heart of the ‘mystery’ of life.

Why is there something when there could be nothing?

Martin Buber

Faith is not about holding beliefs and doctrines about what you think is true. It doesn’t fit into a formula.

Worms in one pocket; angels in the other.

What do we know for certain?

Reason can only take us so far.

Reason enlivens the mind.

The ineffable enlivens the heart.

The true battle is not between reason and faith but between hope and despair.