Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Blessed are the cheesemakers

The assigned selections in Who Are We and The Study of Human Nature left me with a rather great AHA moment. Despite the diversity of worldviews surveyed so far, every one of them shared a common belief that humankind is somehow lacking.

Judeo-Christians view it as sin. The philosophers would say we do not understand truth enough. A Hindu or Buddhist sees suffering as the problem. (That’s three different diagnoses of the problem and we haven’t yet surveyed the psychologists and social revolutionaries!)

While we are not in agreement regarding the specific problem, much less the solution, I find it interesting that at the very least we’re all are in agreement that something is not right with humankind. There is some other action or awareness required to bring an individual to wholeness or full potential.

(People obviously do live unexamined lives in which they are not aware of any lacking on their part, but does any one know of a religion/philosophy of life that sees humankind “just fine as it is”?)

1 comment:

Your Friend Aaron said...

I had an AHA moment when I realized that people of all faiths, philosophies and cultures can all agree that "Take On Me" by AHA was one of the 10 best music videos of the '80's. I think CS Lewis said something about that, but I can't remember it right now.