Inner Conflicts
I find writing publicly like this to be a tad strange. In a way, knowing this is public forces me to write, which allows for both an improvement in my ability to write, and the gaining of knowledge. I’m quite certain that if I were writing in a journal, I would be writing for very different reasons (and thus, neither improve my ability to write, or learn). And yet at the same time I seem to constantly remind myself, ‘what’s the point?’ The ‘point,’ which I agreed upon with myself, is simply to write and learn. I don’t know quite near enough to make any serious contributions to anything, and so I don’t attempt it. Why, when I know that this is more for me than anything else, do I feel so much opposition from within myself? When I started writing I didn’t know, but now that I’ve finished — … (Read more)
Moderation, in all things.
Moderation is a good thing, but in many ways it seems to me a strange thing. I often hear people defend (justify?) particular behaviors on the basis that as long as they do them in moderation — whatever it is — no one should take issue with them. I’ve heard more than a few people claim that scripture itself says something along the lines of “moderation in all things,” of course, it was probably Paul who said it (and in Corinthians, where according to a lot of people, Paul says everything). It turns out, though, that Scripture doesn’t contain this quaint little proverb, and the equivalent sayings context doesn’t all that much agree with most people’s application of the “proverb”. According to Blue Letter Bible:
The phrase, “Moderation in all things,” is common extrapolation of Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean (as presented in his Nicomachean Ethics). His ethic works … (Read more)
Aristotle on tolerance and apathy
Back in May Mykel Pickens wrote an article on theooze.com on tolerance and what exactly tolerance means:
I’ve been thinking a lot about tolerance these days. What is tolerance? Who is to be tolerated? Is tolerance needed in today’s society? Should we, as Christians, be tolerant? Aristotle said that tolerance is the last virtue of a dying society. When I first heard this quote, I thought he was arguing for tolerance, but in fact he is saying that when our last virtue is tolerance, then we have no virtues.
I believe we need to value each other, not just simply tolerate each other. I agree with Aristotle’s statement, that when tolerance is the last virtue in our society, we have lost all hope; our society is going to die. Instead, when we value each other; when we truly seek to love and respect each other, that’s when the Kingdom of God … (Read more)
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