tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post697041005864348094..comments2023-09-25T04:26:51.568-06:00Comments on The Barefoot Bum: Atheism, Religion and SpiritualityLarry Hamelinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-81559192938717420872007-03-16T16:03:00.000-06:002007-03-16T16:03:00.000-06:00SimonMy response is here<B>Simon</B><BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://barefootbum.blogspot.com/2007/03/theist-asshole.html" REL="nofollow">My response is here</A>Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-63682822407577099942007-03-16T13:59:00.000-06:002007-03-16T13:59:00.000-06:00Nicely poetic but when one steps back and remember...Nicely poetic but when one steps back and remembers that people have different definitions of the word "love", "god", "humanity" and "spirituality" itself...this post has no practical meaning.<BR/>And that makes it kind of amusing to me...that an atheist who talks of mystical mumbo jumbo would post something as equally airy and emotional, with no concrete rationality behind it.<BR/><BR/>Carl Jung, often accused of being too mystical, said in his autobiography that in all his experience, people who talk about love generally have no idea what they're talking about.<BR/><BR/>I've been reading several posts of yours and I notice you talk about suffering once in a while, but it always seems to reference something distant...a "could happen" but generally seems to happen to other people. So I ask you this: what use is this flowery writing about love-for-all to a woman who has been gangraped and must now get an abortion? What use is it to someone born into abject poverty in a socialist regime, who struggles daily with hunger and malnutrition. What good is your proclamation of universal love for all, from your comfortable home in the United States, -to these people? Why should they care about your love? You talk the talk but how much do you walk the walk?<BR/><BR/>I meet far too many people, both atheist and theist alike, who would rather pompously contemplate their navels and throw around philosophical names than actually get into the reality. While you brag about your love and compassion, other people are joining the Peace Corps or doing other things to actually SHOW their love. Ghandi and the Mother Teresa spent their lives DOING things for other people, not just pontificating.<BR/><BR/>And there is the fact that atheists have yet to show anything for themselves as amazing as Tibet...beautiful monasteries, entirely peaceful, and inhabited by monks with a serious commitment to their faith. I remember reading about a monk who immolated himself in the face of Chinese authority, to demonstrate where his loyalty stood and how absolute that was. He inflicted upon himself, a very painful death, and even sat quiet and still as his body burned, until it gave up it's life. That's the sort of thing that shows how useless and empty postmodernism is...a pretentious, ungrateful philosophy for bored, wealthy people. Bleh.<BR/><BR/>Talk is cheap. Without personal sacrifices and concrete works for the benefit of another, nothing anyone has to say about spirituality has any meaning or value. So I ask you: behind all this talk, where are your works?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00780823960896875237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-63089711394633032032007-02-11T16:22:00.000-07:002007-02-11T16:22:00.000-07:00*blush*. Don't tell my wife!*blush*. Don't tell my wife!Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-35245660810602767062007-02-11T16:13:00.000-07:002007-02-11T16:13:00.000-07:00I think I'm in love with the Barefoot Bum. :)Thank...I think I'm in love with the Barefoot Bum. :)<BR/><BR/>Thank you for this post.Tammyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00275218405720133582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-83998346494302181112007-02-10T11:51:00.000-07:002007-02-10T11:51:00.000-07:00This was a beautifully written post... and I think...This was a beautifully written post... and I think the love-for-all you mention is very much in the vein of what Andrew Sullivan advocates as the value of his faith. If only he could manage to beyond the contigent cultural inheritance he's so attached to and see that it's the love that is of value - not the age-old traditions, not the sympathetic characters, and not the omnipotent executive who makes all that self-less love safe by guaranteeing it's significance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-87418984044146632582007-02-09T21:12:00.000-07:002007-02-09T21:12:00.000-07:00I'm liking this...I think the reason a lot of peop...I'm liking this...<BR/><BR/>I think the reason a lot of people shy away from the word "spirituality" is because it has those two primary connotations that you've neatly identified: love and something "mystical" in the sense of perhaps an alternative belief system, or any number of them. Many people who are comfortable with spirituality in the first sense don't embrace it in the second.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14770384445526387065noreply@blogger.com