Mendelssohn's daughters
Moses Mendelssohn had three daughters. Two of which he arranged their marriages. Moses decided on a ration of secular and sacred and presented it to his children. He used philosophy to step away from much of the religious tradition . Romanticism remained an important voice of doubt and transformed most of the religious tradition of the present day.
With Mendelssohn's (as well as his daughters) educating themselves and stepping away from their religious views it lead us into this discussion.
Is important it that you drop religion to live a more free life?
It is important for individuals to step away from their traditional roles and duties to live a more outstanding life. Don't live in fear about what happens once your dead. Strive to be a morally outstanding person, you don't need religion for this. We read in the text that Mendelssohn called attention to this causing a new view in religious attitude.
We also drew attention to kids raised with a strict religious upbringing, and how hard it is to free away from that. It is an un just to the kid, and can affect a person's entire life. A style of brain-washing in a sense. A parent can raise their kid any way they please, but our group talked about how unfair it is.
Wednesday
Auguste Comte
What was the anti-religious doctrine that Comte founded?
-Positivism
*will post to the data base.
Derrick posted our factual on Luther's earlier post:
ReplyDeleteMoses Mendelssohn insisted on what for two of his three daughters?
-Arranged marriages
Now, for my response!
We all agreed that a life of fear of punishment or hope for reward is no real life. As Rachel pointed out, it is not a truly good deed if it is done out of fear (of hell in most cases). I think we can morally sound, if not more so than the average religious person, by acting out the goodness in our hearts and minds. Doing this without expectations of reward or avoidance of the consequences is a far nobler and impressive way of living. At least, it is in my opinion.
And yes -- it is ridiculously unfair to bring up children with a rigid guideline to behavior and belief. Where is the free will? The choices? The independence? When exactly would the child become their own human being? This would imply that they wouldn't become an individual until they rejected their parents' views, being that accepting them (unless done out of self-awareness) is not individualism.
It is sad for me to think of all of the children that have no voice in their family, culture, country, etc.
Next class: Comte
(I like Derrick's factual. Sweet and simple)
For a possible discussion:
Given that positivism speaks of three specific stages in human history that end (in Comte's view) with the "positive stage" and exact facts, do you agree that this is the end of human history? Is it perhaps more cyclical and/or intertwined than Comte suggests?
Drawing from my experience it seems to me that many religious people are not true to themselves. As we stated in our discussion if someone were to claim they were the son of God nowadays then we would shut them up and put them in the loony bin. But still as one of the biggest religions today, people adhere to these beliefs without question.
ReplyDeleteIn turn, these religious beliefs end up controlling a person's entire life. I hate to always bash on religion but I am just so dumbfounded as to why many people still go along with this type of thinking. If there is a "god" out there, I am sure he will not take too much offense in our doubt. After all its our mind, we can't help it.
It is amazing thing this life, and we dont need religion to validate it. So many people relate religion to moral excellence. Which is not the case at all. Can you be "good" without god? Well indeed. You will never hear me bashing homosexuals, pot smokers, or the non-religious.
I wish the other people in our class would actually listen and evaluate when we talk about these things.
Isaac and Paul example last week, case and point. Read your text if you are gonna stand true to your supposed beliefs. You are just cheating yourself.
Comte
Going off something we discussed last week Comte explained that he found the world " far more compatible with the hypothesis of an intelligent will than with that of blind mechanism"
- Thoughts? Agree, disagree?
Comte brings up some pretty stimulating thoughts. As non-believers should we focus more on the how the universe was created or why? Are we wasting our time trying to find out WHY we were created instead making advances in science that reveal the beauty of our universe?
ReplyDeletePure rationality and logical consistency should bring us to atheism; not science.
ReplyDelete