TRIBUNAL RESEARCH PART 1
Here are some of the books I read in preparation for writing tribunal and some of my thoughts on them
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - This book clearly advocates a rationality/logical approach to creating our beliefs about the world. I was surprised how clear the author was in making the point that emotions and faith should not be apart of answering these type of questions. At one point in the book he makes the statement that he believes that every thing that there is to know, can and with enough time, will be knowable. Which makes sense as a prerequisite for a logic only built belief system. If not it means there would be things you would never have access to and would need a different kind of tool to get there. Reading this made me happy. I felt like a lawyer who had just found all the evidence I need.
Also reading this book with an emotional/logic/faith lens made for a very interesting experience. Every argument some one makes in a book can be put in one of these categories. I was shocked how much of what he was saying came from an emotional argument, not logical.
Making sense of God, The reason for God by Tim Keller - Tim Keller is a person of faith (he is a pastor) but most of his content comes from a logical perspective. You hear a lot of repackaged C. S. Lewis in his writings. One concept that really stood out to me was him talking about what the post modern belief system means. This idea rejects any meta narrative, any all encompassing story that explains everything (Albert Einstein was not a post modernist) The irony is the rejection of a meta narrative becomes the new meta narrative. This influenced part 2 “there is a new story there is a new mono explanation”
The Abolition of Man, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis - Lewis is another person of faith commitments, who mostly talks and writes in the realm of logic. In reading his books I sense Lewis perceives logic as a purer substance than I personally do. What ever is most logical is the truth kind of idea. I see logic as more fluid and even subjective. All that said, I love his books. The first half of Mere Christianity is this amazing point my point, if a is true, then b must also be then you get to c ect. In part two there is a section of axioms being built on one another in like manner. “number one I exist, number two I am myself, number three I know what I feel….
Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard - To be honest I did not finish this book. I don’t know if I had a wonky translation or it is just hard to follow. Probably some of both. The one bit I remember is it talked about Abrahams faith transcending ethical reasoning. Which to be honest, feels really uncomfortable.
