My friend Jenni and I have been having some on-line discussions about things. I brought up the Lutheran idea that humanity is, by nature, sinful- and by grace alone we can be saved. Luther himself tied his fate to Ephesians 2:8-10, by grace you have been saved, and not by works, so that no one could boast. My stance on this is that the more I have tried to better myself in this life, the more I realize how deep my sins run, and, in turn, how I cannot make progress on being less sinful. While this sounds depressing at first, once I realized that I cannot indeed 'make myself a better person,' a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. Jenni's question was simple, but a great one, "Why would you still do good deeds if you weren't getting anywhere. Why still try to 'make yourself a good person,' if doing so is futile? I think you'll like where this conversation led us.
Jenni:
How are you since last week?? Great, I hope. I wanted to take a moment to thank you for everything last week. Even if I seemed a little agitated with you at times, I hope you know that I always highly value your opinion, and really love deep conversation with you. I'm just not usually at my prime at 3 in the morning :)But anyways, speaking of deep, philosophical conversation, I want you to know that I have been doing some thinking lately. Mainly about our last conversation on the state of man; how you believe that man was created as sinful, that man cannot essentially become any worse or better through the things he does, because "better/worse" is merely a perception created by society. And that therefore, striving to be the best YOU you can possibly be IS the purpose of life. And all of this I can agree with, in a sense. I agree that there is no way for us to become "better/worse" people.
Jenni-I love your spiritual fervor and intellectual pursuit. There are not many who I can converse with about things of this nature Now, I want you to know that everything that I told you (minus one statement that I'll discuss in a moment) was a part of the Lutheran tradition. Luther was the king of denying one's self and talking about humanity as being sinful by nature. You can never be a better person than you are today. You will not be rewarded for being a "good person" after life, like there is some sort of moral spelling bee. So why strive to do good in this world? Simple. You still strive to be a good person, but not because God told you that you would be the greatest (Look at what Jesus says when the disciples ask him who is the greatest). You do so because it is the right thing to do. No matter what you get out of it, you try to live a good life because it's the loving thing to do. You'll find out that the nicer you are to people, the nicer they will be back to you, and that the world does have a bit if Karma in it- albeit rather ironic- but you do the right thing because it's the right thing. You believe in truth because it is truth, not because it fits your set of circumstances.
We are defined as sinners and tainted people, and there's no scale that we can look to for improvement. But one thing that you said is still kind of unsettling to me: that because of free-will, God has no real significance in our day-to-day lives. Yes, we are ultimately saved by the cross, but do you believe that God has no almighty plan for us to follow daily besides us just being ourselves?
To answer your question, I don't really want to discourage you in thinking that God doesn't play a big part in your day-to-day life. At the same time, I want to warn you against the idea that you should just sit around a wait for God to show you a sign, tell you who you should marry, and that a call to ministry involves a miraculous sense of call. God is everywhere, he/she is very subtle. God has your back, to be sure. With free will, however, God takes a step back, to let you own your life. When you were a child, your parents took care of you. They fed you, bathed you, etc. Now that you're an adult, you put childish ways behind you- and you have free will. Do you shower because you'll be blessed if you do? No! You do it because it makes sense. No doubt you'll live an easier life if you wash yourself, but its frequency is not a necessity. The point is, your parents don't tell you how to shower, when to shower, etc. You have free will. The same is true with your spiritual cleansing. Your life is up to you!
I still don't know if I agree with this thinking. It seems to me that if God is so big and loves us so dearly, wouldn't he want us to follow HIS guidelines for daily life in order for us to make the most of this time on earth? Because (correct me if I'm wrong), isn't free-will understood to be the result of God's wrath? Because when Eve ate the apple in the garden, God told her and Adam to get out and do whatever they please. He no longer wanted anything to do with them, because they chose their destiny, and it was free-will (which in this circumstance, was synonymous with "sin"). How can free-will and the development of the self be the "end-all" for human beings? Doesn't Christ in all actuality condemn the development of the self? (Matthew 10:38-39)
God doesn't tell you how to play the game, he just tells you the rules. The rules lead you to strategy, and strategy leads to self-actualization. My point is, God wants you to have freewill and joy. Since you can't make yourself a better person, you have it easier! Life isn't school, there are no grades. So, to answer your question, the end all for your life is, ultimately, playing the game right and having joy. You will not find joy by trying to cheat, or even trying to win. Joy is how you play. Not the ends, but the means. BTW, I have a book on Kant you might like.
I also wanted to inquire you on your opinion of the state of truth. Do you believe that truth is relative? Possibly to a certain degree? This is also something I've been wrestling with.
No, I do not believe that truth is relative. TRUTH IS TRUTH regardless of if I believe it or not. Truth is , by apriori definition, objective. The definition of truth, is that it is true, in all circumstances, in all places, and all objective situations. 2+2=4 is not subjective. It is, by definition of what 2 and 4 are, true. I can believe 2+2=5, or I can focus on the fact that 6-2=4 instead, but it doesn't impede on the truth of my first statement. The only sentence I can see truth and relative co-existing is in regards to what I know is relative to what you know. Knowledge can be relative, but not truth.
The Great One
Here's a conclusion I think we can draw from our conversation. The part that should be added to Luther's line of thinking is that you should try and find happiness within yourself, in order to enjoy life. While I do think that Luther gave us some wonderful ideas on how to look at God and humanity, and the differences that being broken humans have in comparision to our lord, I think Luther misses the point. God did not create us so that we could feel bad about ourselves all the time. Just like you said, we were created to experience the joy that is living with God. God is love, and living with God is Joy. It's like this: (everything can be brought back to sports)Let's say that I won a chance to play hockey with Wayne Gretzky. So, I go out on the ice, and I'm terrible. He, of course, is the great one. I have two options. I can bow down and hate myself for not being as good as he is-which I'll call the Luther way- or I can love the time I spend with him and enjoy how good he is- which I'll call the Dan way. Now let's say that I have some crippling disease where I can't ever play hockey. I'll never get better at hockey. But does that deter my time watching Gretzky play? It shouldn't. True joy is when you realize that there is happiness outside of your physical senses. We can agree that while we will never be a "better" person, that there are ways finding Joy in doing the right thing. No one should ever do anything just for a reward.
I love you, Jenni. I ain't got no answers, but I have some good ideas. We can talk about truth and knowledge a bit more later
-Dan
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I read about this philospher in my Human Event class who was thinking along the same lines. He told a story about how when he was a kid, he stole rotten peaches from a neighbors tree. He didn't eat the peaches, or even want them, but he stole them anyways, just because it made him feel better to do something wrong. He believed that humans were born sinful, and that a good person would devote their life to trying to repress the sinful urges inside them, while a bad person would not fight with their natural instincts. I can't remember his name, but when I think of it I'll let you know. I think you would find it interesting.
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