WHY WOULD A MAN HANG HIMSELF? — PART 3A

Examples Of The Failure Of “Reason” Part A

Introduction To Part 3

When I first took up the task of writing this series of posts, I found it difficult to figure out how I should proceed. That is because I knew what was driving me to write it, irritation at those Atheists and Agnostics who condemn what I believe.

scatterwisdom expressed conundrum I felt with these words.

scatterwisdom says:
February 13, 2015 at 10:56 pm (Edit)

I surmise the difference between you and me is I subscribe to Proverb 26:4 and you subscribe to 26:5.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Proverbs-26-4-5.html

Regards and good will blogging.

What are Proverbs 26:4-5? Here is a translation in colloquial English.

Proverbs 26:4-5 The Message (MSG)

⁴ Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool;
you’ll only look foolish yourself.

Are all Atheists and Agnostics fools? Matthew 5:21-26 and Matthew 7:1-6 advise leaving that determination to God. Nevertheless, not believing in God is foolish. Hence, as Proverbs 26:5 explains, if we are going to reply to foolishness, without making the speaker the subject of our attention, we have to figure out how to reply to what is foolish, not to the fool.

Consider this stupid, but illustrative joke.

Question: Why would an ugly woman wear a bikini?

Answer: She wants the attention.

Because it makes us feel important, we love being the center of attention. Some of us will say or do anything just to be the center of attention. Hence, when replying to foolish conduct, we must make the conduct, not the person, the focus of our attention.

When we refuse to believe in God, does that mean we cease to worship? No. It just means we will misdirect our worship to idols of our own making. Look around. Don’t most Americans idolize sex, stuff, state, and self (see AN ABUSE OF THE IMAGINATION). How does that relate to this post? When we choose to elevate the importance of anything over God, that indicates a failure of reason.

Examples Of The Failure Of “Reason”:  SEX

The mass media constantly seeks our attention, and too many of the people in that industry will do anything to get it. The phrase that best describes what they do is “push the envelope.” Originally, that phrase had a technical application (see here). Now it primarily refers to seeing how far you can go without getting caught (see here).

What is the mass media’s latest effort to push the envelope?

‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ pushes kinky sex into mainstream, infuriates family groups

On the one day of the year celebrating romantic love and commitment, family values groups and religious leaders are stepping up their criticism of Hollywood’s decision to promote “kinky” sex and sexual exploitation through the relentless promotion of the upcoming movie “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

The ubiquitous marketing of the movie — the story of a wealthy man’s seduction of an innocent young woman into a bondage-domination and sadomasochism (BDSM) affair — is an attempt to push that lifestyle into the mainstream, said Melissa Henson, director of grass-roots education and advocacy for the Parents Television Council. (from here)

I suppose infuriating family groups is part of the fun, but pornography is destructive to families, the individuals who use pornography, and to the poor fools involved in its production.

I grew up as a military brat. Because my family moved often, I went to a multitude of schools. By the time I was a teenager, during the sixties, I had become a loner. Because of all the moves and the inevitable bullying of the “new kid,” I had difficulty forming friendships. I also had to hide an embarrassment.  Because nobody had ever told me, I did not know the “facts of life.” Since I enjoyed reading, I went looking for the answer in books. That included pornography.

I still remember reading a pornographic book about anal sex.  What I found most horrifying about it was the author’s effort to sell the idea.  Supposedly, the anal canal is usually clear of fecal matter.  So anal sex is just good, clean fun.  Not too many years after I read that book stories about people dying from AIDs began to appear in the news.

Eventually, I discovered The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. At the time, Morris’ book pushed the envelope. The book explains the physical act of sex, but the book treated its subject too lightly, inferring that sex is for our amusement. Something was missing.

What happened during the Sixties Sexual Revolution? The generations that had fought and won WWII lost a more important battle. Too many parents and too many churches failed to do what the Bible says to do. The Bible commands parents to instruct their children, but those parents — and too many other generations of American parents — left that responsibility to government. Instead of wresting back the responsibility to educate children from an incompetent public education system, we have left it to our children to figure things out for themselves. So now we have pornographic movies peddling the “pleasures” of bondage-domination and sadomasochism.

There are worst things than the embarrassment of discussing sex with a teenager, letting your child find out about sex from the wrong people, for example.

Other Posts In This Series

• Part 1 => Our Tiny Perceptions
• Part 2 => The Problem Of Pride
• Part 3B => Examples Of The Failure Of “Reason” Part B: STUFF and STAT
• Part 3C => Examples Of The Failure Of “Reason”:  SELF