During the Seventh Crusade, led by St. Louis, Yves le Breton reported how he once encountered an old woman who wandered down the street with a dish full of fire in her right hand and a bowl full of water in her left hand. Asked why she carried the two bowls, she answered that with the fire she would burn up Paradise until nothing remained of it, and with the water she would put out the fires of Hell until nothing remained of them: "Because I want no one to do good in order to receive the reward of Paradise, or from fear of Hell; but solely out of love for God." Today, this properly Christian ethical stance survives mostly in atheism.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Zizek op in the NY Times
A snippet:
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2 comments:
Today, this properly Christian ethical stance survives mostly in atheism.
Ah, sweet, delicious irony.
It's something Christians, and a lot of Americans, don't get. Morality and religion overlap but aren't coextensive. The religious make the assumption that you can only be moral if you're religious (their particular religion, except for those fluffy unitarians). That assumption frames much of the US discourse on religion, ethics, morality, value, etc. But the assumption is wrong in the first place, so the discussion runs in circles of ever tightening stupidity.
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