Rationalism - Tumblr Posts

Once one accepts reason as the standard of truth, you have to follow it all the way. And that is why, as we are examining these religious thinkers, we see that one generation holds on to more of the past and thinks that is rational. The next generation subjects that to criticism and holds on to less, but thinks there's still something left. The next generation destroys all that, and thinks there's very little left. And that generation resembles [overturns?] the next one.

As long as you believe that reason is capable of giving you truth, you have no argument against it. And that's why there was no one; even the ones who were defending Christianity were arguing on the same rationalistic terms. It's the same thing that Dr. [Alexander] Kalimiros talks about: that between Orthodoxy and the West there is this gulf because in the West they are all talking in the same language, the Protestants, Catholics, sectarians, atheists; it's all the same language. They're all used to taking reason as the standard, even when they do not take it all the way, because they're scared to go too far, most people; still, they have this rationalistic atmosphere in common.

And in that atmosphere you cannot escape.

You have to admit that reason is capable of truth; and, therefore, when your enemy has a very good argument, you have to grant that that's true. If it's true, he explains away your faith. But in Orthodoxy, reason has an entirely different function which we'll talk about later.

And so we'll see also in one of the next lectures that the history of our world in the last 200 years is a continuation of a kind of dialectical process whereby reason overthrows everything in the past and finally destroys itself. That is, reason must destroy itself once it is given the license to be the standard of truth. That's why this Enlightenment Age seems now so naive.

Another reason which acted for the overthrowing of this world-view is that the loss of the whole spiritual tradition and spiritual experience which we can see by the very fact that reason is made the standard -- which means they lost the spiritual tradition -- this loss made men actually hopeless, helpless before the negative criticism of reason, which you see in Voltaire, being very pathetic in his defense of some small part of the old tradition.

And also made them unaware of non-rational influences which actually act upon the rationalists themselves. Later on people will become more aware of this, and that's when reason actually destroys itself, in our own time. And also they did not see when demonic powers intervened because they don't believe anymore in demons. There's no -- these people weren't even arguing for the existence of demons anymore.

Orthodox Survival Guide Seraphim Rose

A Different Worldview and a Different History; Catholicism and Orthodoxy

The Roman Catholic Scholastic thinker Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) wrote in his massive work, the Summa Theologiae, that theology is the "highest scientia" since a high degree of rationality is required to understand the most important and complex philosophical concepts about God. The universities that developed during the Scholastic period in the Christian West were intended to teach students how to deal in this "science" of theology through rigorous conceptual analysis. Theology was considered to be the preeminent Scholastic endeavor, a good thing in many ways. Yet, as a result of the high regard for logic and rationality in medieval Roman Catholicism, those who studied and taught (the "doctors") came to be more highly regarded than the monks and nuns (the "religious") whose main vocation was to pray.

Theology began to be expounded by scholars outside of the context of prayer, pastoral ministry, and liturgical worship. Pelikan traces this specific change in the West through the changing job description of the theologian. He notes that, between AD 100 and 600, most theologians were bishops; from 600 to 1500 in the West they were monks. But after 1500, Western theologians are university professors: "Gregory I, who died in 604, was a bishop who had been a monk; Martin Luther, who died in 1546, was a monk who became a university professor. Each of these lifestyles has left its mark on the job description of a theologian." After the sixteenth century in the West, the task of theology increasingly became separated from its earlier moorings to the worship of the community and the spiritual disciplines.

From an Eastern Orthodox point of view, knowledge of God comes only from an encounter with the God who has revealed Himself: "What may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them" (Rom. 1:19). Thus, theology can never be separated from prayer, worship, and contemplation of the Holy Trinity. Metropolitan Ware affirms that all true Orthodox theology is mystical: "Just as mysticism divorced from theology becomes subjective and heretical, so theology, when it is not mystical, degenerates into an arid scholasticism, 'academic' in the bad sense of the word." That is to say, Orthodox mystical theology guards against either unacceptable extreme: subjective and heretical, or arid and academic.

- A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology, Eve Tibbs

The Potential of Alice x P(American McGee’s Alice/Lies of P): Romanticism, Healing, and possibly Adventure(WARNING: HEAVY SUBJECTS)

I've been thinking a lot about these two and I'm being reminded of other things from my childhood including a cringe fan fiction concept but now remembering the basic idea along with the recent works I've been reading/listening works such as CS Lewis Ransom Trilogy(currently finishing Out of The Silent Planet) and watching others such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis and looking back to Logan's Run, I think I got an idea for Alice and P(or who I call 'Pietro' which to me sounds like a perfect fusion of Carlo and Pinocchio)

I remember the game Alice Madness Returns and have played it(I still have a physical copy) and remembering while the it is about overcoming one's madness, accepting the past, and moving on, there's another theme that while in my opinion runs secondary, is important. The evils of modernity, notably scientific progress for its own sake and basing morals purely on science.

"I provide a service. In the great and awful metropolis, appetites of all sorts must be gratified"-The Dollmaker

In the game, we see the hideous side of industrialized imperial Britain. Factories with unethical labor, prostitution and pedophilia, reductionist and materialistic thinking while various occult movements among high society. Britain was moving away from its humbler Arthurian and more spiritual roots and towards unrestrained capitalism, imperialism, rationalism and America and most of the west following suit, believing these things were substitutions for morality following with The Enlightenment.

Something the romanticism movements in the West were trying to fight against and CS Lewis and Tolkien were speaking ferverntly against in their works.

Which in turn, ravages Wonderland and only Alice looking back to her fond memories and her family, and yes even the horrendous memories of that terrible night and her days in the asylum, does she overcome her tragedy, heal wonderland, and bring an end to Bumby before anymore harm can be done to others.

Now what recent game has a slightly similar theme in regards to criticism of science and industry and neglect of wisdom and basic nature?

Lies of P

The miracle of Ergo was discovered Geppetto of The Alchemists and combined with robotics launched the city of Krat into a magitek robotic utopia.

But like all Utopias, the secret to its success is ugly, unethical to the uttermost horrendous degree, and not worth it.

But the upper class The Alchemists, began to see themselves as gods and saw themselves justified in what they did to the common folk for the sake of scientific and occult progress. Driven by a kind of thinking which its bitter and rotten fruits are on full display in London in Alice: Madness Returns

P as he learns slowly transforms into a human learns about the simpler things in life, emotion, feelings, art, music, and basic human decency. All without the help of some kind of occult or intellectual knowhow.

Now you ask

"What do Alice, P, and romance between them have to do with all of this?"

Alice and P are individuals who were victims of this cruel ideology, or at least its by-products, and are trying to get out of victimhood and move on.

Now the fan-fiction I am conceptualizing them in a story with a few other individuals. Something akin to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen minus the suck of the movie or the VERY controversial content of the original graphic novels(but what do you expect from Alan Moore.)

Basically, they're recruited by an organization to stop an evil secret society composed of wealthy aristocratic elites obsessed with the occult and unethical scientists from corrupting civilization in pursuit of some kind of transhumanist new age technocratic utopia or something.

But among the subplots of that story is the budding romance between Alice and P aka 'Pietro' helps to convey romanticism vs enlightenment theme.

Though I definitely think their romance should be more accidental, it should happen when they aren't looking for it.

But the main idea came to me when looking up clips of the 1976 movie Logan's Run

Long story short; in a hedonistic utopia which kills its people at age 30 under the guise of 'renewal', a security guard tasked with hunting and killing those who try to escape their fate who are called runners. He soon finds his own time is up and flees with a woman. During their journey, they fall in love and realize the natural order of growing old may not be so bad after all and soon free the rest of the citizens.

Now picture this, Pietro and Alice, a young man and woman after their lives being mired by the byproducts of modernity, come to understand each other, and find solace in each other. Now also healing though a natural bond between man and woman that has existed way longer before any of this hyper-rationalistic and reductionist jargon and gibberish.

Now I am well aware American McGee strictly said romance was not part of Alice's story in American McGee's Alice and Alice Madness was not romance. Same can be said about Pietro. But in this story they've past that point, they're ready to move on.

In fact, that's precisely why I think Alice and Pietro are a good match, because both really don't know much about romance, and discovering it in each other and figuring out how it works makes so much sense.

Now I hear they call Alice asexual, and I don't know I can confirm that with me being straight as an arrow. But I definitely agree her trauma makes it hard for her to fully embrace and that can be said for P as well. But I think the fact they discovering it and learning to appreciate it better than anyone else is a story worth telling.

I'm not trying to fetishize the aforementioned sexuality, but I feel like these two can really fit the bill of "appreciating parts of humanity that other people take for granted"

These two may be inspiration for an original work at least

But anyway, that's my long dumbass ramble why I like these two together so much

The problem with the modern age is we’re abolishing the non-rational such as God, Christ, and his Church and left with the rational and irrational.

If it’s not something that can be rationalized, then it needs to be straight-jacketed and muzzled or even outright destroyed, which leaves the soul to turn to the irrational.

The Rationalist and Romantic are left screaming at each other. When they’re aren’t doing that, they’re screaming at The Church blaming it for the other.

The rationalist blames the Church for not being “rational enough” and blames her for Romanticism

The romantic blames the church for being “too rational” and blames her for Rationalism

Abolish the Divine Trinity, your left with the Demonic Duality

Abolish the Hypostatic Union, the spirit and flesh tear each other apart