Gospel & Universe 🏛 Skeptics & Stoics

A Rough Chronology

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Stoics & Skeptics focuses on two very early philosophies that contribute in fundamental ways to the later development of agnosticism. More broadly, one might say that skepticism, stoicism, and epicureanism (with its materialistic notion that atoms form the basis of everything) are central to European critical thinking and rational philosophy. This rational approach to the universe surfaces in Classical Greece and Rome, and then resurfaces in Renaissance humanism and the scientific method. It’s further developed in the Enlightenment, and in the liberalism, agnosticism, and existentialism of the 19th and 20th centuries.

This section begins with what might be called a genealogy of agnosticism — starting with Greek and Roman philosophers. I then explore the broader picture of this genealogy in various ways throughout Gospel & Universe. In Science, Philosophy, & Literature I look at how skeptical and empirical modes of critical thinking lead to a rational and scientific understanding of life, as well as to an open and emotionally-charged state of mind. These, in turn, are crucial ingredients for an open, liberal, democratic society. The flip-side to this optimism is that free thinking — and free feeling — can also lead to uncertainty, confusion, and chaos, as well as to the sort of alienation, absurdity, and anomy prevalent in 20th century existentialism. Yet from the agnostic point of view — which draws on the stoic’s calm in the face of change and disaster — freedom is more a challenge than a burden. Sartre writes that we’re condemned to freedom, whereas agnostics don’t feel that we’re condemned by anything, certainly not by our very existence, that is, by the gift (or chance occurrence) of a consciousness that, almost miraculously, can take in this world and decide on its own path. This is why this section starts with the notion of free thinking in Greece (Skeptics & Stoics) and ends with two chapters that highlight contemporary existential problems (Almost Existential & The Mermaid: Existential & Then Some).

Because I deal with a large number of ideas, and because I go off on poetic tangents at times, I’ll outline here the way the chapters of the first section relate to each other. After looking at how critical thinking in the Classical Age relates to agnosticism, I look at how this critical thinking takes a later scientific form, which itself is crucial in the development of agnosticism. In The Sum of All Space & Science & Mystery I look at the impact of 16th-20th century astronomy and science on religious thought. This is a crucial moment in intellectual history, for it not only questions the biblical vision that dominates Europe for over a thousand years, but it also offers, for the first time in human history, a more rational and solid explanation for who and what we are. Or, to use the title of this study, I look at the way our expanding understanding of the universe resists any definite theory or gospel we might have about it.

Following a rough chronological framework — and often using the metaphors of river, ocean, and outer space — I suggest that agnosticism present us with an unpredictable journey that has no fixed destination. River Journeys looks at Heraclitus’ river of constant change in relation to skeptical, stoic, Daoist, Hindu, and European writers who employ the interrelated water metaphors of mountain spring, river, and ocean. Three Little Words then explores variants of Montaigne’s 16th century skeptical phrase, Que sais-je? or What know I? 🇲🇽 Señor Locke uses travelogue and autobiography to explore the 17th-18th century empiricism of Hume and Locke — especially the question, How can one reconcile fluid identity with sense impressions and memories? 🦖 At the Wild & Fog examines how agnostic thought arises amid the 19th century England of Darwin’s Origin of Species, Mill’s On Liberty, and Dickens’ Hard Times. Almost Existential explores the interplay of anarchic and coherent forces in the conundrum of our daily lives. 🧜🏽‍♀️ The Mermaid: Existential & Then Some interprets “A Whiter Shade of Pale” as an epic, existential journey into Neptune’s oceanic domain.

Often returning to the water imagery I use in Science, Philosophy, & Literature, Currents of Religion explores the deep currents of religion, from Sumer to negative theology. 🌎 Many Tribes, ♒️ The Currents of Sumer, ✝️ The Cross, ⏯ Programs & Platforms, ✝️ Saint Francis, 🍎 The Apple-Merchant of Babylon and 🇫🇷 The Priest’s Dilemma focus on the challenge of comparative religion, philology, Assyriology, and the sanctity of rivers other than the Jordan. I argue that dogmatic Christians might, to borrow Byron’s phrase, change their lakes for ocean. The final two chapters illustrate how agnosticism differs from open philosophies which 1. maintain a degree of theism or belief (Believing in the Mystery) and 2. slide away from theism and belief (Salman Rushdie: The Fiction of Doubt). Finally, Coda: Ars Moriendi looks at how agnostics take a stoic view of death, despite being skeptical of Marcus Aurelius’ “universal source from which all things spring interrelated.”

🏛 Next: Agnosticism Among the Isms

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