Reflection on Pessimistic book of Ecclesiastes, (so contrary to witnesses of early Quakers)

Ecclesiastes 1
New International Version

"Everything Is Meaningless
1 The words of the Teacher,[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

Other skeptical thinkers for 2,500 human years have claimed similar hopelessness.
OR
have suggested illusionary images of Death...

Such as that each of us billions of humans when we die are like
billions of waves that roll in on the Pacific Ocean tide...

BUT a series of waves of the tide of the ocean are TOTALY Non-sentient, NOT Aware,
Don't have deep life experiences and stories, Don't have a keen sense of MORAL REALISM, OUGHT, the IDEAL.

A wave or dead leaf are only physical objects.
Lifeless.

Billions of the waves and leaves can come and go--and except brief impersonal life in the case of a leaf, NOTHING LIVES NOW

ALL is LOST!!!!!!!

HOWEVER in the case of all humans
(and maybe a few other cases of higher animals?
ALL MEANINGFULLNESS
of humans is
LOST:-(

Our bodies mean zilch!

BUT to LOSE OUGHT, AWARENESS,
Our Stories and all that we have learned in 78+ years,
HOW Despairing, How Absurd.
......

So, that's why billions of humans, including Quakers hope for AFTER LIFE.

Otherwise, we as a species are in reality, a ZERO, Nilhism. :-((

All the facts of Life say, No existence after Our Brain ceases.

Just reflecting on all of this, seems so impossible to imagine or understand!
How can
Each of us PERSONS
be ONLY " mere breath, mere vapor" as the Teacher claims.

Most of my consciousness, every moment, thinks I won't become ZERO!

But I was with my dad when he died. A ccouple of hours later, the attendents came into our living room, rolled
his stark lifeless body onto a sheet, picked up the roll of bones and skin and hauled it out.

BUT Billions going back at least a million years experienced this same anguish, same absurd irrational
and No longer EXIST--),
were only transient vapor
like the Teacher of the Old Testamen/Jewwish Bible claimS.

My last gasp for MEANING and HOPE is that G_D--U.R. is far more AWARE
than any intelligent physical species in the vast Cosmos.
!
And that G_D
Is EVERLASTING INTELLIGENT PROCESS who will carry billions
of brief intelligent moral individual lives in its memory!

I know this is a 'hail, mary'-Hope (very unlikely based on all known science :-(


IF the TEACHER
is correct, then I agree with the philosopher Albert Camus that REALITY IS
ABSURD!!

IF Reality and Life came about by CHANCE or DETERMINISM

Camus stated that he Rebels against this Reality
and
EMBRACE OUGHT (that which is NOT subjective, NOT relative like most atheists and anti-human nihilists Claim.


In the HOPE of the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox

seaquaker@gmail.com
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/
Writing Websites: http://psalmsyawpshowls.com
http://seaquaker.com

REALISTIC HOPE

REALISTIC HOPE
Once one has discovered the fallacious nature of organized religion, its superstitions, denials of verified scientific study, and illusions, where does one turn for new hope?

Definitely not to the nihilism and illusions of many non-religous humans who claim that moral realism is false, that the good, the true, the just, human rights, equality, meticulous honesty, inherent worth, meaning, and purpose are all “myths."

They claim all those values are delusions, not true, and that all humans are incapable of moral choice, are only “biochemical puppets,” and morality is subjective, a mere preference of a human or a society.

INSTEAD, we humans ought to start searching for what is true, good, and just. Study the thinking of the Enlightenment
(though obviously not the darkness of the French Reign of Terror or the hypocrisy of leaders such as Thomas Jefferson).

1. Reason is central to start one’s trek up toward that impossibly difficult climb toward God, Ultimate Reality (using Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary first definition of “God”).

A beginning caution, however, is immediately in order because all of us humans have a way of rationalizing/misguiding our reasoning. Or we start with fallacious presuppositions and thus our brilliantly reasoned conclusions are based upon a foundation of quicksand.

One example of how this happens is Benjamin Franklin’s famous example from his autobiography of how he managed to reason himself into anything that he already wanted to do;-)*

2. A realistic humility is very important through out one’s life. The older I get, the more I realize how little I (and all humans) ‘know’. We live, experience, think, test, hypothesize, revise, repeat… NO ONE KNOWS in the sense of certainty. How could a finite human primate, a brief blip /conscious spark in a cosmos of billions of galaxies, possibly KNOW?

I still am baffled and shocked how many creedal Christians, Muslims, orthodox Jews, and Atheists, etc. are sure--certain--that they ‘KNOW’ the ultimate nature of reality.

Famous scientists including Einstein strongly emphasize humility is the beginning of real learning and wisdom.
For, instance, Einstein wrote, “I am not an atheist...The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different languages.

“The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God.

“We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations.”
Albert Einstein
--
BUT billions of humans in the past and the present claim to be certain. Not, that such a certainty wasn’t an essential part of my own childhood faith in non-creedal Baptist religion. We were constantly told and preached at, that everyone can KNOW.

However, I never had such assurance. Though I sought that "assurance, "to KNOW," instead, I always had questions, doubts, could step outside of my genuine hope, and observe Existence and the Cosmos from other contrary worldviews and life-stances.

As I used to joke, I was born with a “why” in my throat, instead of the infamous spoon.

To be continued--


In the Light of the Good, the True, and the Just,

Dan Wilcox

What is HUMAN?

HUMANNESS:

1. Ethics--Morality, OUGHT, Good versus Evil, Justice, Human Rights

2. Reasoning

3. Creative Choice--limited 'free will,' ability and moral responsibility

4. Sense of Awe, Ultimate

5. 4th Dimensional Being--
Self Awareness
Historical Awareness
Futuristic Awareness
Transcendent Awareness

6. Sense of Beauty--Aesthetics

7. Mathematics

8. Scientific Method

9. Invention

10. Exchange of Things by Symbolic Means--Economics

11. Story-Making--Literature, Media

11. Pattern-Seeking

12. Becoming--Evolving


REFLECT:

"Those who forget the past are condemned to fulfill it" (repeat, repeat...).
--Philosopher George Santayana

"Those who remember the past are condemned to fulfill it" (repeat, repeat...).
Also,shown in history and current events to be true.

"The past is never dead; it isn't even past."
--Nobel-Winning novelist William Faulkner

"Stories are at the center of the human condition. Everybody dreams. Try and dream in nonfiction."
Journalist Jim Trelease

"I've always tried to be aware of what I say in my films because all of us who make movies are teachers--teachers with loud voices."
--Film director and writer George Lucas, Star Wars Trilogy

"Films are the parables of our time. Ideas underline every film produced and ideas have consequences."
--Terry Lindwall, movie producer

"To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."
--Edmund Blake




CONTRADICTORY PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS OF EXISTENCE:


The novelist John Steinbeck wrote that all of his life he wished he had never been born!
--

Even if one had to stand on a narrow ledge with his face against a cliff for 70 years, it would be better than not to have been born.
--statement by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Russian writer
--

"People are froth on the molten mass."
the main character in The Sea Wolf
by Jack London, highest paid writer in the world at the start of the 20th century

All humans have no more worth than a speck of gravel on the bottom of a shoe...
from Online discussion
--

"We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of freedom consonant with responsibility."
Humanist Manifesto III
--

Every human is a "biochemical puppet."
"The Marionette's Lament" and Free Will by Sam Harris

"Murderers and rapists aren't morally responsible."
Biologist Jerry Coyne
--

In contrast, according to South African astrophysicist George Ellis, when asked if all humans have free will:

George Ellis: "Yes.
Einstein is perpetuating the belief that all causation is bottom up. This simply is not the case, as I can demonstrate with many examples from sociology, neuroscience, physiology, epigenetics, engineering, and physics. Furthermore if Einstein did not have free will in some meaningful sense, then he could not have been responsible for the theory of relativity – it would have been a product of lower level processes but not of an intelligent mind choosing between possible options.
--Retired astrophysicist professor George Ellis is a Quaker. He also co-wrote The Large-Scale Structure of Space-Time with Stephen Hawking
--

BUT one leading current non-religious historian claims that Liberty, equality, human rights, free will etc. are all "myths."
Historian Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens

--
In positive contrast to such stark negativity:
Many other thinkers emphasize All humans do have real inherent worth. Liberty, equality, human rights, free will are real. For instance consider the following statements:
"...recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts...
UN Declaration of Human Rights

"One of the deeply held beliefs of Friends (Quakers) is that there is inherent worth in every human being. Peace, therefore, is not just the absence of war, but requires a just society that recognizes this inherent worth. Friends actively engage in the politics of their society to bring a voice of conscience – there is no separation between beliefs and deeds."

"Friends were among the founders of many prominent social justice organizations, including Greenpeace, American Friends Service Committee, and Amnesty International, and served as leaders in the abolitionist, women’s rights and civil rights movements."
http://www.fclca.org/about-us/quakers-and-fclca.html

And the 7 Principles of Unitarian-Universalists:

"The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."
https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles


TO BE CONTINUED...


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Jordan Peterson - The Existence of Free Will--meaning conscious moral responsibility

A very thoughtful reflection from Jordan Peterson, Canadian clinical psychologist, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, Ph.D. in clinical psychology, McGill University.

Don't be confused by the contrary claims of various thinkers who state that all humans are only helpless "puppets," incapable of moral responsibility and creative choice, etc.


Seek the Good, the True, the Just, the Altruistic, the Kind, the Equal,

Daniel Wilcox

How Do We Discern the True Nature of Reality--the LIGHT, from what's false: myth, illusion, and superstition?

As I still seek to advance more toward the Light,
despite my own aged physical receding,
(soon to be deader than a doorstopper), how do I and billions of other human
primates deal with the mysterious, conundrumed central questions of our existence?

1. What new ethical insights ought we to be seeking, and hopefully, finding, like our forebears
before us who discovered the truths of equality, human rights, peacemaking, and transcendence?

2. How do we counter the current false human narratives, life-stances, and worldviews which cause so much havoc, intolerance, anguish, suffering,
and destruction?

3. How do we discern what is true versus what is illusion and superstition in ultimate matters, when we can't prove "OUGHTs"?

For instance, how can we witness to human worth?

Hard secularists claim there is so much evidence from biology, neuroscience, and physics that
human choice,
moral responsibility,
creativity,
even human consciousness are ALL illusions/delusions.

According to them only atoms locked-into-a-hard-fated cosmos exist. NOTHING else.


4. If every human truly has inherent value, why is it that so many billions of humans deny this in their reasoning, or their daily behavior?

5. How are Friends (and other transcendentalists and moral realists) different from humanists who appear to claim that all humans do have "inherent worth" YET at the same time claim that only matter and energy exist?

Human Manifesto III: "We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of freedom consonant with responsibility."

Is this a semantic problem or are they being contradictory?

6. Do we ourselves have contradictions within our own life-stance?

7. This day are we moment by moment working in each relationship to truly relate as that the other person has "inherent value' within her/himself?



In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

WHY GRIEVE NOW!

Despair, hatred, wrath, negativity, even "depravity" juggernaut down
on all of us at present.

The Ocean of Darkness overwhelms.

Destruction and despairing theologies and philosophies ramp down.

Not only in the shocking debacle of contemporary politics
in the U.S., Turkey, Russia, etc.,
but
even worse a nigh-endless despair or theological negativity has shown up among so many Friends leaders:

Friend Micah Bales: "I believe that the concept of depravity is vital to the experience of the church in the West today.If we are to live in the truth, we must begin with the devastating realization: You and I are ourselves depraved. We are liars, self-seeking, potential murderers. We are dishonest with ourselves and others."
http://www.micahbales.com/good-humans/

Friend George Amoss Jr.: "At last I learned that there is no salvation. I had retreated from belief in God and Jesus to the seemingly finer ideas...But life proved the emptiness, as it were, of such enlightenment. Eventually, I saw that those concepts, too, had functioned as superstitions, attempts to make something of nothing. I had to acknowledge that there is nothing to believe or hope in."

"There is no salvation. There is nothing I can do, or anyone do for me, that can rescue me from being what I am: a human animal conditioned in every sense. No deliverance from guilt, pain, death. No act, belief, or experience that would make acceptable the unacceptable. No person, institution, concept, or intuition to hope in."

"Nothing to hold, seek, or look forward to. Nothing anywhere any better than this... ultimately, not even love remains."
https://postmodernquaker.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/no-salvation/

:-((((((((((((
Even the hard atheist Ernest Hemingway's infamous short story of utter despair and negativity, "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" doesn't get as negative as these Friends are writing and sinking into.

And there are so many other humans turning to, getting drowned in, giving way to such negativity, letting in the Ocean of Darkness:-(

Why?

I don't have any quick answers for them, but only deeply grieve.

And ask them, to turn from this dwelling on "depravity" and "emptiness."

Let us live in the Light,

Daniel Wilcox