I offer an older post [August 2007] for review while on a self-imposed sabbatical until the Inauguration.Don Cuppit's interesting theory of ethical behavior can be found in his 1995 book, Solar Ethics. In the book he describes the 'moral life' as living as one wants to. Using an analogy with the sun, he says that people should live their life fully in the midst of others (and for others), unashamedly declaring who they are (and want to be). This is in stark contrast to the view which says that the best life for us is the one lived for God, and as God decrees it should be lived.
His website says this: "He rejects all ideas of gaining salvation by escaping from this world of ours. "All this is all there is", he says and he now sees true religion in terms of joy in life and an active attempt to add value to the human lifeworld."
Why the sun? Cupitt says, "We should live as the sun does. Its existence, the process by which it lives, and the process by which it dies, all exactly coincide. It believes nothing, it hasn't a care, it just pours itself out. Its heedless lifegiving generosity is its glory."
His newest book is titled, Above Us, Only Sky. Surely this title will wrinkle the panties of our fundamentalist folks even more than Solar Ethics.
They need a good wringing out anyway. How the modern American can cling to the 3-tired Heaven-Earth-Hell structure of life is beyond my ability to fathom.
My life-long friend and frequent poster on this blog, Upthe Flag, is now living in the Evangelical South and keeps me up-to-date with the latest happenings there in the Bible Belt. Both of us shared grade and high school together and each of us went off to a Jesuit University. This Jesuit education expanded our thinking and enriched our philosophical brains. We both have trouble with organized religion, although he has not yet declared the God of Abraham a myth. Perhaps he will comment about that here.
I am drawn to Cupitt's theological/philosophical statement, he sees true religion in terms of joy in life and an active attempt to add value to the human lifeworld. That is a wonderful thought and surely more attractive than that hell and brimstone fanatical pulp spewing out of the mouths of those self-righteous fundamentalists.
How simple it is: joy of life while adding value to life. Jesus would approve, I'm quite sure.
"We should live as the sun does. Its existence, the process by which it lives, and the process by which it dies, all exactly coincide. It believes nothing, it hasn't a care, it just pours itself out. Its heedless lifegiving generosity is its glory."
