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Second survey - from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rho
1. What is your earliest profoundly religious experience that you can remember?
That one's easy. It's the vision of the glory of God that I had when I was six. (Before that I'd pretty much believed in God in the kind of 'my parents do' way that kids often do, but hadn't really had anything that could be termed a 'religious experience', let alone a 'profound' one.) We were standing on the top step up to the stage in St Michael's Church, looking out over the congregation, except I was looking up to the roof, because the roof of the church had always fascinated me, being big and far away and full of 'shape'. We were singing 'I'm Special'. And I was looking up to the roof and saw how symmetrical it was, like the bottom of a boat, one of those big boats with lots of oarsmen. And I wondered what would happen if the two halves of the roof split open, and the roof opened out like a huge door. And then I saw the roof open out like a huge door, the sides tilting away from each other, and between the two halves of the roof was a great golden *presence*, which was the angels watching over the church and being happy because we were worshipping, the angels softly reflecting the glory of God so that human eyes were not destroyed by its awesome holiness. And then the song ended and the roof/doors closed, and I quietly went back to my seat and thought about what I had seen, and for a long time I told no-one, but that afternoon when I was helping to wash up I told my mother that I wanted to become a Christian, 'properly'. (And then I was showered with leaflets by a somewhat overzealous evangelist and so on and so forth, but that isn't the story.)
2. What interests do you have that you've hardly pursued at all, but that you oculd see yourself being heavily into in an alternate reality?
Most of the interests I have I've pursued. But whenever I do think of myself in an alternate reality, one of the major things that I do more is walking. In an alternate reality I went hiking and camping and got into survivalist things and forestry and learning how to live off the land; I went caving and potholing and I learnt which mushrooms were poisionous and I learnt how to tell one or two of time, direction and date from the sun if I knew the others, and I slept under the stars and woke up in the middle of fields after walking for days with no idea where I was. I was tired, and hungry, and cold, and wet, and then I would see a shy deer or a shiny beetle and become gloriously and wonderfully content.
In the *other* other-life, I would bepainispretty.
3. In what way is the world a better place for having you in it?
The little ways; I have made people happy, I have taken people out of depression, I have been a good friend, I have helped people with their jobs and their schoolwork and their lives, I have given good advice, I have made my parents proud of me. At times I have also done the reverse of all these things, but I like to think the amount of the former I have done outweighs the latter.
4. Do you consider the concepts of Christianity and humanism to be reconcilable? If so, how? If not, why not?
That entirely depends what you mean by humanism; also by 'reconcilable'. I think that if there was not a God, humanism would be the right way to go about things. For better or for worse, there *is* a God, and hence Christianity is right, although not necessarily the way that most people practise it. I think Christianity and humanism are quite *compatable*, in that people who believe in either should be working towards the same set of goals (world peace, individual happiness, the fulfillment of needs); Christianity simply acknowledges that it Isn't Going To Work with just humans alone, and hence adds a second, 'spiritual' layer to the problem, so that it can be solved.
However, Christianity is very clear that there is only one way to the Father, and into Heaven, and that is through Jesus; 'pick and mix religion', or 'living a good life and hoping', just won't cut it, because nobody can live a good *enough* life. Any other cut-off point between 'good' and 'bad' would be just as arbitary as the 100% point that has been set, so that cannot be a fair and equitable solution. Instead, Jesus offers us another way out; even if we aren't perfect and are going to cause suffering, if we're willing to *be* perfected, we can still come along to the place where everything is perfect and there is no more suffering. Humanism offers no such 'way out' and acknowledges no God, and hence the two *worldviews* are irreconcilable, even if many of the aims of people holding them are very much reconcilable and indeed should be reconciled wherever possible.
(Of course, if Hell *does* turn out to be oblivion, apart from a little bit at the end the Humanists have nothing more to worry about than they thought. I don't see any support for the idea of Hell as oblivion (even less than for the idea of Hell as being humanity left to its own devices), though.)
5. If you had an infinite budget, but could only spend it on one thing or well defined set of things ("a new wardrobe" is acceptable, "a dress, a computer and a car" isn't, for instance) and you weren't allowed to resell anything, what would you buy?
If I had an infinite budget that I could do only one thing with, I would give it to charities. I have absolutely no use for an infinite budget. If I have to buy a physical object, I would first try to get around it by buying a set of excessively small and insignificant objects (possibly badges or something) from as wide a range of charities as possible at vastly overinflated prices. Other options include 'the material necessary to build a self-sustaining, independant colony on Mars', which is the only other project where I would use insane quantities of money. I just don't have need for much.
And yes, I know charities are far from perfect, but I think that quite a lot of them could do quite a lot of good work with an infinite supply of money, and they're the only organisations I'd come even close to trusting with such money (who else? governments spend it on weapons, people are tempted to spend it on them...). Infinite sums of money require being spent on infinitely beneficial things, and things that will do the sum of money justice; there are only so many clothes you can have, so many businesses you can buy, but setting up sustainable infrastructure for the feeding and educating and sheltering and general support of the entire world population (not to mention its animals and ecosystems) is a challenge worthy of infinite money. (Of course, there are certain economic problems with the concept of an infinite budget, but merely Very Large Sums of money would be a good start.)
rho1. What is your earliest profoundly religious experience that you can remember?
That one's easy. It's the vision of the glory of God that I had when I was six. (Before that I'd pretty much believed in God in the kind of 'my parents do' way that kids often do, but hadn't really had anything that could be termed a 'religious experience', let alone a 'profound' one.) We were standing on the top step up to the stage in St Michael's Church, looking out over the congregation, except I was looking up to the roof, because the roof of the church had always fascinated me, being big and far away and full of 'shape'. We were singing 'I'm Special'. And I was looking up to the roof and saw how symmetrical it was, like the bottom of a boat, one of those big boats with lots of oarsmen. And I wondered what would happen if the two halves of the roof split open, and the roof opened out like a huge door. And then I saw the roof open out like a huge door, the sides tilting away from each other, and between the two halves of the roof was a great golden *presence*, which was the angels watching over the church and being happy because we were worshipping, the angels softly reflecting the glory of God so that human eyes were not destroyed by its awesome holiness. And then the song ended and the roof/doors closed, and I quietly went back to my seat and thought about what I had seen, and for a long time I told no-one, but that afternoon when I was helping to wash up I told my mother that I wanted to become a Christian, 'properly'. (And then I was showered with leaflets by a somewhat overzealous evangelist and so on and so forth, but that isn't the story.)
2. What interests do you have that you've hardly pursued at all, but that you oculd see yourself being heavily into in an alternate reality?
Most of the interests I have I've pursued. But whenever I do think of myself in an alternate reality, one of the major things that I do more is walking. In an alternate reality I went hiking and camping and got into survivalist things and forestry and learning how to live off the land; I went caving and potholing and I learnt which mushrooms were poisionous and I learnt how to tell one or two of time, direction and date from the sun if I knew the others, and I slept under the stars and woke up in the middle of fields after walking for days with no idea where I was. I was tired, and hungry, and cold, and wet, and then I would see a shy deer or a shiny beetle and become gloriously and wonderfully content.
In the *other* other-life, I would be
painispretty.3. In what way is the world a better place for having you in it?
The little ways; I have made people happy, I have taken people out of depression, I have been a good friend, I have helped people with their jobs and their schoolwork and their lives, I have given good advice, I have made my parents proud of me. At times I have also done the reverse of all these things, but I like to think the amount of the former I have done outweighs the latter.
4. Do you consider the concepts of Christianity and humanism to be reconcilable? If so, how? If not, why not?
That entirely depends what you mean by humanism; also by 'reconcilable'. I think that if there was not a God, humanism would be the right way to go about things. For better or for worse, there *is* a God, and hence Christianity is right, although not necessarily the way that most people practise it. I think Christianity and humanism are quite *compatable*, in that people who believe in either should be working towards the same set of goals (world peace, individual happiness, the fulfillment of needs); Christianity simply acknowledges that it Isn't Going To Work with just humans alone, and hence adds a second, 'spiritual' layer to the problem, so that it can be solved.
However, Christianity is very clear that there is only one way to the Father, and into Heaven, and that is through Jesus; 'pick and mix religion', or 'living a good life and hoping', just won't cut it, because nobody can live a good *enough* life. Any other cut-off point between 'good' and 'bad' would be just as arbitary as the 100% point that has been set, so that cannot be a fair and equitable solution. Instead, Jesus offers us another way out; even if we aren't perfect and are going to cause suffering, if we're willing to *be* perfected, we can still come along to the place where everything is perfect and there is no more suffering. Humanism offers no such 'way out' and acknowledges no God, and hence the two *worldviews* are irreconcilable, even if many of the aims of people holding them are very much reconcilable and indeed should be reconciled wherever possible.
(Of course, if Hell *does* turn out to be oblivion, apart from a little bit at the end the Humanists have nothing more to worry about than they thought. I don't see any support for the idea of Hell as oblivion (even less than for the idea of Hell as being humanity left to its own devices), though.)
5. If you had an infinite budget, but could only spend it on one thing or well defined set of things ("a new wardrobe" is acceptable, "a dress, a computer and a car" isn't, for instance) and you weren't allowed to resell anything, what would you buy?
If I had an infinite budget that I could do only one thing with, I would give it to charities. I have absolutely no use for an infinite budget. If I have to buy a physical object, I would first try to get around it by buying a set of excessively small and insignificant objects (possibly badges or something) from as wide a range of charities as possible at vastly overinflated prices. Other options include 'the material necessary to build a self-sustaining, independant colony on Mars', which is the only other project where I would use insane quantities of money. I just don't have need for much.
And yes, I know charities are far from perfect, but I think that quite a lot of them could do quite a lot of good work with an infinite supply of money, and they're the only organisations I'd come even close to trusting with such money (who else? governments spend it on weapons, people are tempted to spend it on them...). Infinite sums of money require being spent on infinitely beneficial things, and things that will do the sum of money justice; there are only so many clothes you can have, so many businesses you can buy, but setting up sustainable infrastructure for the feeding and educating and sheltering and general support of the entire world population (not to mention its animals and ecosystems) is a challenge worthy of infinite money. (Of course, there are certain economic problems with the concept of an infinite budget, but merely Very Large Sums of money would be a good start.)
