chewing existential cud

rumination

april 22 was earth day
and that is good
but too much ignorance
whips about in the wind
like discarded plastic bags

it was also the birthday of
the woman i loved more than anyone
for all too short of a time
years ago
but the pain of loss still
like a pin to the heart
hurts my mind

it was also the occasion
of a brilliant musical performance
in a little chapel in SE arizona
tim wiedenkeller
and his amazing banjo

i am presently immersed in a philosophical dilemma
concerning the observation by emmanuel kant
which more or less destroyed the
practice of theoretical theology
in protestant circles
and gave rise to the scientific rational
dissection of scripture
his position was that because it is impossible
for man to have any sort of actual visible
or imagined concept of "the absolute" or
god
that therefore it is also impossible
then to have any discussion concerning
what man is incapable of conceiving

he is basically taking on the "proof"
of st anselm which states
god is " that which no greater can be conceived"
anselm held that even though we cannot see god
the fact that we have in our minds the notion of god
is sufficient to suggest to the mind that god therefore exists

karl rahner then utilizes the thomistic idea of
the epistemological problem for cognition
in his work SPIRIT IN THE WORLD
in an effort to address the negation of kant
and make the ideas and the proofs according
to thomas aquinas more accessible
to modern philosophical discourse
i am not sure if he succeeded just yet
i'll have to finish the book by rahner

i think whether or not rahner properly mitigates the difficulty
presented by classical rationalism and empiricism
not to mention the renewed platonic dualism of descartes
it is important to come to some sort of agreement as to
what we are doing when we philosophize

the objective is wisdom

enough said

sayeth

anon