{"id":1512,"date":"2014-05-04T06:08:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T11:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2014-05-03T14:14:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T19:14:58","slug":"poem-arousing-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/04\/poem-arousing-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Arousing Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

She had a profoundly rousing spirit<\/strong>
\nUnfortunately, he did not believe in spirits<\/strong>
\nAnd lack of belief <\/strong>
\nWill only<\/strong>
\nCarry you so far<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like this short poem because it plays with the notions of spirit and disbelief.\u00a0 There are very few people who would welcome reducing their most intimate friends or significant others to a machine, even a fabulously complex, particularly useful, and\/or entertaining machine.\u00a0 At the same time, postmodern society is crippled in its thinking about spirit.\u00a0 Even those who are religious or intentionally spiritual often have a low level of literacy when it comes to the metaphysical.\u00a0 When push comes to shove, there are many, if not most, who feel uncomfortable in an apologetics of spiritual matters.\u00a0 Skepticism as a predominant mode of being makes trust more difficult than it has to be.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, materialists may experience a great deal of awkwardness in relating to ghosts in machines, formerly known as humans.<\/p>\n

I view postmodern society as addicted to certainty or “security.”\u00a0 Most children of postmodern society experience tremors when they can’t get their fix of certainty.\u00a0 The materialism of postmodern society, at first glance, seems to offer more reliable solutions to issues of uncertainty.\u00a0 Predictability is at a premium.\u00a0 Unfortunately, since humans aren’t machines, human problems will remain stubbornly unsolved if limited to materialist solutions.\u00a0Materialists cannot escape viewing messy freedom as a problem, not the solution.\u00a0 Most simply put, materialism is a negation of the better portion of being human.\u00a0 Stuff like faith, hope, courage, and love — let alone freedom — simply don’t make much sense from a materialist perspective.\u00a0 Reductionist approaches rip the heart out of higher ordered realities.<\/p>\n

This short poem succinctly portrays what is lost by disbelief.\u00a0 A full appreciation of a rousing spirit becomes impossible because a materialist perspective inevitably “understands” such unique manifestations as mere statistical anomalies, at best arising out of “randomness.”\u00a0 Lack of belief will only carry you so far.\u00a0 I have to shake my head in disbelief every time a scientist includes randomness in their equation, hypothesis\/theory, or worldview.\u00a0 These seems like a modern equivalent of “insert miracle here.”\u00a0 Though such a miracle is of the lowest possible order!\u00a0 I find it much harder to believe in randomness than that the free choice of the metaphysical world responds within a framework of reality that often, even predictably, elicits higher ordered functioning, a tip of the hat if you will to an experienced higher order.\u00a0 Randomness and determinism are strange bedfellows.\u00a0 What type of worldview relies on randomness to explain order?!\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be much more coherent to posit a form of order from which order arises?\u00a0 The logical conclusion of those addicted to this bizarre, false idol of certainty is actually that there is no order, that it only seems like there is order.\u00a0 When determinism is hybridized with randomness, should we be surprised that it produces an absurd bastard child?\u00a0 In any case, what follows from such a worldview is a self-fulfilling prophecy.\u00a0 Choice, human freedom, IS a self-fulfilling prophecy.\u00a0 And, if you don’t believe in choice, then…well, that’s your choice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She had a profoundly rousing spirit Unfortunately, he did not believe in spirits And lack of belief Will only Carry you so far I like this short poem because it plays with the notions of spirit and disbelief.\u00a0 There are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[519,198,428,432,115,431,388,586,475,273,89,645,548,354,658,94,622,601,31,659,504,53,321,290,30,529,464,550],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-children","tag-courage","tag-experience","tag-faith","tag-freedom","tag-heart","tag-hope","tag-literacy","tag-logic","tag-love","tag-materialism","tag-materialist","tag-modern","tag-perspective","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-randomness","tag-reality","tag-religious","tag-security","tag-self-fulfilling-prophecy","tag-short-poems","tag-skepticism","tag-society","tag-spiritual","tag-time","tag-trust","tag-worldview"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Arousing Spirit | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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