A very personal meditation on nature and the elevation of the spirit. It's a rediscovered essay that takes me away from dreaded thoughts of politics and war.
I can understand your feeling that secular humanism isn't quite enough for you, but nothing that you have written here is inconsistent with secular humanism, is it? Maybe you might consider revising the title of your essay?
Thanks, Tony. Metaphysically, mine is the position of the secular humanist. My differences are more a matter of temperament and life's orientation. I have spent my career with identified secular humanists who see unqualified religion as the foil and bogeyman. The preoccupations of such secular humanists have,to my mind, been too exclusively committed to the eminently practical in the service of meeting practical human ends. There is something arid in this focus. In its inward turn toward what is good for human beings, I have found too little appreciation for awe, wonder, and even the contemplation of beauty. It is acknowledged as an expression of the secular worldview, but too often it has struck me as a concession and an afterthought.
I can understand your feeling that secular humanism isn't quite enough for you, but nothing that you have written here is inconsistent with secular humanism, is it? Maybe you might consider revising the title of your essay?
Thanks, Tony. Metaphysically, mine is the position of the secular humanist. My differences are more a matter of temperament and life's orientation. I have spent my career with identified secular humanists who see unqualified religion as the foil and bogeyman. The preoccupations of such secular humanists have,to my mind, been too exclusively committed to the eminently practical in the service of meeting practical human ends. There is something arid in this focus. In its inward turn toward what is good for human beings, I have found too little appreciation for awe, wonder, and even the contemplation of beauty. It is acknowledged as an expression of the secular worldview, but too often it has struck me as a concession and an afterthought.