badass touches

philosophy of religion is really rocking my socks right now. it was retarded for awhile, but then the proffesor got sick, and we had a week long hiatus from it. we come back refreshed and ready to delve into the depths of the truth.this paragraph will be scholarly of nature, so skip it if you don't feel like reading it.

we read the plato dialogue between socrates and euthyphro. the meat of this tome consists of an outlasting philosophical argument over religion; is god holy because he is loved, or is he loved because he is holy? similarly is something holy because god says it is or does god say it is holy because it is holy? this is a prime example of a dilemma. (di meaning two and lemma meaning subordinate postulate or hypothisis), where to an issue there are two options and neither are satisfactory or wanted. if something is holy because god says it is, this is to imply that holiness is arbitrary, or determined by chance, whim or impulse. but if god says it is holy because it is holy, then this is to deduce that holiness is ABOVE god. so then what do we need god for? either holiness is at fault and subordinate, or god is. but god cannot be god without being holy, so who is god if he is below holiness? a religious soul would conclude that god is holy, and holy is god, no ifs, ands or buts. but why? this contradicts the soul of intellect. after this we read an essay in response to this religious quandry, titled GOD AND MORAL AUTONOMY (auto meaning one or self and nomy from the root nomos meaning law, or rule). The standard view of religion states that god is all knowing and all powerful (omniscient and omnipotent). the dilemma is that that how can God be omniscient and omnipotent if we are an autonomous being. in order to worship (by definition to humble oneself as inferior and pay homage to the mightiness and awesomeness of a greater being) a religious man would have to be subserviant to god's will and forsake his own nature as an autonomous being. this is being that God knows your actions and reactions to everything, so how can you truely make a desicion if it is already known and monitored by a greater being? to paraphrase, to worship god, we must surrender our autonomy, but if he IS god, such a loving god would not make us give up our autonomy, our very right and instinct as humans.

this was an attempt at a summary from my messy, jarbled notes. i'm extremely supprised i even got anything from it.on the downside, i only practiced an hour and a half today. gotta make up for that one tomorow.

i'm exhausted after that schpiel. but MAN is it fun to toss those subjects around a room for an hour and 15 mintues. i thought the class trite and redundant at first, but now, we are really getting into the meat of this machine.