The Two Most Radical Propositions

7Dec/0912

The Two Most Radical Propositions

Although as a public figure he's become a monstrously crashing bore, Richard Dawkins' idea that we are, in effect, an epiphenomenon of the "drive" of our individual genes to find expression in a new generation was another of the great de-centerings, along with Copernicanism, the discovery of the New World, the implications of Galileo's Starry Messenger, Darwin's Origin of Species, Godel's theorem and Freud's corpus. The idea that even altruism could be explained by virtue of a matrix of statistical relations is powerful exactly because it is so alienating.

Still, though, the two most radically de-centering propositions ever written preceded these by more than a millenium, and they are these:

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. &
Love thine enemy.

Nothing could be more counter-intuitive. For all his fascinating insight---as a young thinker, anyway---Dawkins cuts a puny figure beside the authors of these.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Denny Lewis
December 7th, 2009 - 06:52

Richard Dawkins knocked the school books from the clasping hand of God and then famously gave Jesus a jubilant yet profound snuggie. Dawkins took his cotton blend BVDs up and over his head totally cloaking Jesus’s biblical face by tucking the elastic band under Jesus’s chin. Dawkins’ BVD helmeting of the Son of God was a wrenching sight.

Crucifixion junior high style done right.

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Dan Collins
December 7th, 2009 - 07:02

Where’ve you been, Denny?

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Denny Lewis
December 7th, 2009 - 07:08

Vacationing in the land of evil Godless Marxists, speaking of Nicaragua of course.

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Dan Collins
December 7th, 2009 - 07:12

Oh. How’s the godlessness down there?

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Denny Lewis
December 7th, 2009 - 07:26

Devilish.

Managua isn’t much of a capital for tourists. Therefore I loved it, but the wif, not so much. It’s as if them Nicos ain’t laid eyes on a skinny blond since… never.

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Bob Reed
December 7th, 2009 - 08:24

Well said Dan,
I’d love to see the proponents of genetic “drive” and atomic “intelligence” use their statistic matricies to arrive at such selfless and counter intuitive principles as contained in those two simple lines…

What always fascinated me was the notion that among some of the top astro-physicists that research the cosmos, it is widely understood the chain of events that occurred since around 15 milliseconds following the big bang-but none can tell you what first cause drove that event! And among the commumity many quietly have their own belief that it the foirst cause must have been the hand of the Almighty…

Oh, and when I say big bang, I’m referring to the cosmological event, and not any of Denny Studley’s legendary club scene conquests or poetry reading barista seductions; events of mythical stature that would make Caligula blush to be sure…

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- Denny Lewis
  December 7th, 2009 - 10:05
  
  Really now, who the crap cares what you believe when we all know what it is that you believe. And you wouldn’t recognize a statistical matrices if it gnawed off your sphincter.
  
  You’re bent kneed gazing skyward praying at to your Great Pumkin bullshitting yourself that he’s just over there behind the August moon awaiting your ~~howling~~ prayers. God bark for us, Scare Pee! Woof! Woof! ar-ar-arwoooooo!
  
  Myths, fables, our wittle God-story-boi needs him some timeless fairy tales so that he may never feel insecure.
  
  Most of us gave up the warmth of the child’s comfort blanket at age two, but not you Bob, and not the Taliban.
  
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  - Dan Collins
    December 7th, 2009 - 10:30
    
    My point, Denny, was that any thought system that could produce two such propositions is extraordinarily radical. Much more radical than, say, Marx.
    
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    - Denny Lewis
      December 7th, 2009 - 15:43
      
      De-centering? It wasn’t clear exactly what you were saying.
      
      The Bible was written when the world was flat in the days of lepers.
      
      I don’t think anyone today engaged in science or genetic theory need be compared to the dark days. Whether their impact is as great on humanity as something spouted by those who burned witches, I hope not. I hope there’s enough cynics amongst us.
      
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  - Bob Reed
    December 7th, 2009 - 11:28
    
    C’mon mang…
    
    I didn’t mean to open the day with insults, no matter how couched in snark; a thousand pardons. I do know what a statistical matrix is though, when will you accept the fact that simply because I can’t recite passages from Celine!, Foucalt!, and Derrida! doesn’t mean I’m uneducated or an idiot? And as far as mathematics and analysis? I assure my education is broad and deep indeed…
    
    You can ridicule me all you want for my faith, it’s not like folks have had worse done to them! And as much as you would like to use the Taliban as a measure of Christian zeal, it falls flat owing to the facts; I and no other mainstream Christians are killing, maiming, and terrorizing folks to bring about Christian hegemony here on Earth. For us, the kindom of God exists both here and on a transcendant level already…
    
    Look, I don’t wish to argue with you. It got pretty vitriolic before you took a few days off, especially over at SEK’s where you were especially energetic. I hope you had a wonderful time in Nicaragua, I’m sure it’s lovely there this time of year; but I can’t imagine that it was chilly in Florids. Do you know folks there?
    
    I’m happy that you got back safe and sound.
    
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    - Denny Lewis
      December 7th, 2009 - 16:03
      
      Well, yes, of course it does mean you’re uneducated. That you don’t have any knowledge, curiosity, perception of modernist philosophy and that you gulp-gulp the Christian KKKool Aide is a clear indication you’re a tool. A big, slobbering tell-me-what-to-do-boff and tell-me-what-to-think-boff mush-headed blob ruled by medieval group thought.
      
      What’s the point of education? To get you to think.
      
      What’s the point of religion? To get you not to think.
      
      Maybe you should question both, huh, soldier.
      
      Why don’t you go to a astro-physicists convention and tell ‘em how the world was created in seven days and then tell ‘em how your education is so deep and so broad.
      
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    - Bob Reed
      December 7th, 2009 - 18:07
      
      “Whatâ€™s the point of religion? To get you not to think.”
      
      St.Anselm and St. Augustine, among other classical thinkers, couldn’t be reached for comment…
      
      And I won’t address the allegories in Genesis right now, I have to run in a moment to meet the RCIA group I assist and go to mass for the Holy Day tomorrow…
      
      Christian KKKool aise…That’s mildly amusing! But maybe you should have used the more derisive construct “xtian”…
      
      Did you enjoy Nicaragua? Where did you go, Managua?
      
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