the sociocultural history of ?s

need a social and cultural history of the "questions" humans asked of the world, including when and where and who recognized: they did not have "the" answers; which questions were asked at what times and places; how conscious and reflective were those with such questions of "questions" of other times having asked questions; when and where was it thought that such "questions" were universal; when where and why were such "questions" accursing (eg Heine, Dostoyevsky) and when eg blithe, "naturally" human;...

"they didn't die in vain"?

"God" being impolitic and dis-agreeable to discuss...
as well evidently as missing...

now, rather than finding a shared justification for death into eg "God's loving arms"...
deaths are giving meaning – so that "they did not die in vain" – by viewing deaths as meaningful
not hereafter above
but here and now
for others...

hermits and seekers left society...

to go into the deserts, mountains, caves...

seeking a God...

Which Wasn't there?

lattes for apes?

sitting in Starbucks Europeiski Moscow...

they all seem quite undisturbed...

and certainly distracted...

whether their ur-ancestors were apes or angels

disbelieving hell and God

it is enlightening to consider that historically "hell" was disbelieved before "God"
(was "heaven" last of all?)

the angels of ideas, emotions, customs...

traditions of ideas and emotions, social customs and mores are the governing "angels" (and demons)...the fateful "astrologies" of social, idea, and human history over and via which humans 'live, move and have their being'

...And all the ideas and emotions merely players?

All the world's a stage,

And all the ideas and emotions mainly players

cacology? cacosophy? pathosophy? demonosophy?

rather than a merely intellectual theodicy,
or even an anthropodicy...
a cacology (knowledge/study of evil) and better a cacosophy (wisdom of...)
a pathosophy (wisdom of suffering)
even a demonosophy
are needed.
(if only to play more seriously with as ideas)

exploring Jefferson's "country of spirits"

Steiner as cartographer of Jefferson's "country of spirits*"?

(*cf. Jefferson's letter to Reverend Isaac Story, Washington, December 5, 1801)

"Big Bang" -- inconceivable? unimaginable? unbelievable?

computer-generated imagery of the misnamed "Big Bang" and early development of the universe are accepted now as blithely as the oft rejected, disbelieved account in the first book of the Bible Genesis.

now people are sure they can imagine just how the universe began, and it is seen, accepted and taught with as little circumspection as once was the first book of the Bible

but, simple questions to show our human limits in conceiving it...
why name the Bang "Big" if it began infinitely small?
how could there be a "Bang", big or small, where there was as yet no space or matter in which it could be heard?
why believe the current popular CGI image of a black emptiness in which a sudden burst of light occurs where and when there was no dark empty space before?

to hell with Hell?

due to its inhumane immorality John Hick seems to have declared Hell inexistent

three theodicies: India, Israel, Italy

truly searching for Truth?

a search for Truth can only truly begin after realizing one doesn't have it

historically... socially... individually...

and that whether one had, lost or disbelieved it

a history of God's mind and motives

need a history of Western conceptions of the "psychology" and motives of "God"

the Christian theodicy

                     the ultimate theodicy?

Muir or Moses?

compare the peak experiences of Moses and Muir

well, naturally...

nature as home
nature as cage
nature as stage