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[arsenicgraffiti]

1. One thing that has always troubled me is the exclusively post-Medieval mentality buried within the heart of the philosophy of religion. Granted, the tying up of morality and religion in Catholicism and the validity of the existence of G/god are the main concerns of the philosophers we cover in that area, but does it have to continue as such in

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Coming From a Philosophy Major

[anonymous]

The thing with Ateneo is that it is an institution. An institution is an established organization whose aim is to reproduce its ideas. There will always be a theistic bent seen in the way a teacher covertly/overtly takes recourse to the wisdom and/or established arguments found in the Catholic Tradition, one-sided readings, and a hell-bent critique of schools-of-thought that may go against institutional values of man-for-others, cura personalis, amdg, magis, bumaba ka sa bundok, and what not. Postmodernists are criticized for lacking the objectivity (of morals and meaning) found in Christianity, atheistic existentialism for its stress on individuality and his/her responsibility to create meaning for him/herself through the choices s/he makes and the actions s/he undertakes, and the legacy of the "Age of Enlightenment" for its stress on reason (e.g. Kant's "Sapere Aude"), empiricism, and the rigorous deductive reasoning used as an intellectual scalpel against the established order, dogma, sentiments, tradition, and whatnot.

Professors even skirt the idea of God. Some professors go so far as to say that God "may just be a term for what is good (Is that because God is good by definition? That sounds like the fallacy of begging the question)." In a poll conducted by Baylor University (not sure ha. basta search mo nalang sa net), thousands of respondents were confused with the idea of God. From the personal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent entity of the Abrahamic faiths, to the old school punitive Father, and the Deism espoused by Voltaire (Watch Maker) -- the respondents were stumped.

There is a world out there. Be imbued by passion in your quest for the "Truth". Maintain a child-like sense of wonder in all your endeavors and fend-off bigoted/hardlined thinking by using your critical faculty.

Saper Aude.

Happy Holidays!