Here is a snippet of a good article by Eric Rauch, worth reading entirely:
“Religion does not only deal with where you will spend eternity. Every person on the planet has a religion (in fact several of them), whether they realize it or not. When a woman makes a decision to have an abortion because she believes that it is only a “clump of cells,” she is making a religious decision. When a man chooses to euthanize his aging and decrepit father because of his low “quality of life,” he is making a religious decision. When two parents decide to work longer hours and make more money to put their child through college, they are making a religious decision. Any time we act on our beliefs—e.g., fetuses are not babies, quality over quantity of life, better education means a better job, etc.—we are acting out of religious (i.e.spiritual, not empirical) convictions, even if those beliefs have been shown to be 99 percent capable of predicting future events (which begs the question of cause and effect, but we’ll save that for another day!).
What do we mean by the word ‘religion’? It is “the binding tendency in every man to dedicate himself with his whole heart to the true God or an idol,” according to F. Nigel Lee. In this sense all men are religious because no man can escape being a man in the image of God created to worship and serve God, rebellious and unregenerate though he be. Romans 1:25 says, “For they [mankind] exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator…” Man is inescapably religious.”
Jerry,
I am not sure if you are familiar with the works of Dooyeweerd? You might like him. We only have his original dutch work at home, so I can’t give you any good quotes (assuming you still are unable to read Dutch), but there’s loads of him to be found on the internet:
wikipedia
A religious ground motive is a spiritual driving force that impels each thinker to interpret reality under its influence. Dooyeweerd wrote that, in the case of thinkers who presume that human thought is autonomous, who operate by the dictum that it does not matter whether God exists or not, such a thinker’s basic commitment to autonomous thought forces him to pick out some aspect of the creation as the origin of all meaning. In doing so, the supposed autonomous thinker is made captive to a kind of idol of his own making, which bends his understanding to conform to its dictates, according to Dooyeweerd.
Although he self-consciously exposes the religious nature of his philosophy, Dooyeweerd suggests that in fact, all thought is inescapably religious in character. This religious stamp is disguised when the supposed origin of meaning, toward which various thinkers direct their thought, is not called God, but is rather said to be some aspect of creation.
Thanks Rachel. I’ve only heard and read good things about Dooyeweerd. But his books are expensive in English, so as you imply, it’s high time to get my Dutch in gear!
Well I’m a bit biased – my father really admires his works so from my early childhood on I’ve been influenced by his works through him.
Still…if you do decide to read him. Books are usually cheaper in the anglo-saxon world, because the market is so much bigger.
Apart from that academic english is usually much easier to read then academic dutch. There is a huge gap between the normal ordinary dutch you’ll use in an very day conversation and the academic dutch a scholar or even a student will use in their articles and papers. Especially the academic dutch of the first part the 20th century! There are dutch people who prefer the english translation, because for this reason it is so much easier to read. Not that you shouldn’t learn Dutch that is. It’s a nice language!
Anyway…my room isn’t heated and because I have been working outside all day in the snow – at university they never warn you being an archaeologist means you also will have digs in winter – my feet are frozen so I’ll go downstairs to warm up.
You might like Jacques Ellul as well: a french calvinist. You can’t get it much better then that!
http://www.rerunproducties.nl/film%20ellul.htm
It’s worth to watch it!
Sounds like you need better socks! Hope you warmed.
Yes, I’ve heard of Ellul’s books but never seen him on film. Interesting, thanks.