tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647562459433740241.post1322667514040470575..comments2023-08-23T08:27:08.039-04:00Comments on UU A Way Of Life: Don't worry, be happy - Bobby McFerrin or Hosea Ballou?David G. Markhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08336565533124142690noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647562459433740241.post-57844115428554093432010-05-10T10:03:22.111-04:002010-05-10T10:03:22.111-04:00Dear Dan:
Thanks very much for your illuminating ...Dear Dan:<br /><br />Thanks very much for your illuminating comments. I have not read Ballou myself and only know what the Tapestry Of Faith has written and taught about him. I suspected that the situation was just as you describe. Is Ballou worth the effort of reading?<br /><br />I appreciate your clarifications a great deal.<br /><br />All the best,<br /><br />David MarkhamDavid G. Markhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08336565533124142690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647562459433740241.post-21040586388314671012010-05-10T00:05:12.690-04:002010-05-10T00:05:12.690-04:00Well, as someone who has spent a good deal of time...Well, as someone who has spent a good deal of time reading and studying him, I'd have to say the Tapestry of Faith curriculum misinterprets Ballou. Ballou's major theme in the Treatise is not happiness per se, it is sin and salvation. In the Treatise, Ballou argues that original sin is a concept that was applied to the Bible by later thinkers; that there is no such thing as hell; that Jesus did not die to atone for humankind's sins; that all persons will go to heaven after death. Along the way, Ballou also argues for a non-Trinitarian understanding of God; he also comes to the conclusion that free will is significantly restricted. (The passage you quote actually has little or nothing to do with happiness; Ballou is making an argument about the nature of God.) Ballou's argument about happiness has to do with what happens after death, not what will happen in this life.<br /><br />I also have to say that the Tapestry of Faith curriculum is steering you wrong if they're calling Ballou a UU theologian -- he was very definitely a Universalist theologian; and he wrote the Treatise in 1805, 20 years before the American Unitarian Association was organized.Danhttp://www.danielharper.org/blognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647562459433740241.post-57073669171476410232010-05-09T10:08:54.010-04:002010-05-09T10:08:54.010-04:00I disagree. Every baby ever born is a secularist. ...I disagree. Every baby ever born is a secularist. I disagree also with the misguided notion that humans are born hard wired to be religious. Chomsky believed humans are hard-wired for language too, but this hard-wired theory is not proof, and contemporary thinkers believe Chompsky and Armstrong are mistaken. Secularism does not have an enlightenment origin, much earlier Greek and Roman philosophers thought and wrote about Secularism. Enlightenment figures simply expounded upon the concept. Animism, I would argue is not equivalent to religion although neither is it based on reason and truth. But, that humans are subject to delusion seems, alas, to be a fact.Jeremynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647562459433740241.post-51301391423386599192010-05-09T09:04:44.256-04:002010-05-09T09:04:44.256-04:00Dear Jeremy:
Thank you for your post and you make...Dear Jeremy:<br /><br />Thank you for your post and you make good points.<br /><br />I think human beings have always been religious though. They were a supersitious bunch who were animistic in their origin and prayed to the weather gods, animal gods, etc.<br /><br />Religion is built into us and comes along with consciousness I suspect.<br /><br />The idea that secularism is is the naturual state of living things is not correct. It came with the enlightenment as you point out. It is a very new phenomenon in the history of homo sapiens.<br /><br />All the best,<br /><br />David MarkhamDavid G. Markhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08336565533124142690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647562459433740241.post-21619048653885754172010-05-09T08:42:11.076-04:002010-05-09T08:42:11.076-04:00Secularism is not a faith. It is the natural stat...Secularism is not a faith. It is the natural state of living things before the thought (and behavior) controlling interference of humans bent on inculcating and manipulating others to believe in (faith) and act in a proscribed manner. <br /><br />The pursuit of happiness, both the phrase, by Jefferson (and Franklin) found in the United States constitution, and the concept with origins in the Enlightenment, is thought to have been first articulated and subsequently used as an alternative to property i.e. Life, Liberty and Property v. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. <br /><br />In William Wollaston's 1722 book The Religion of Nature Delineated he describes the "truest definition" of "natural religion" as being "The pursuit of happiness by the practice of reason and truth."<br />Reason and truthJeremynoreply@blogger.com