Re: "Love"
Re: "Love" -- Lamplighter	Post Reply		Forum

Posted by: Remi 03/09/2008, 06:47:34  (About author) Edit

And don't forget truth! It might even be more important than love. I'll quote the Truth Tree's Mission Statement: The following is an attempt to re-write St. Paul's famous essay (First Corinthians, Chapter 13) on faith, hope, and love (or faith, hope, and charity, depending on which translation you prefer) as it would be written by a present day rationalist using faith, hope, love, and truth. This version recognizes the value of faith, hope, and charity, but proposes that truth is of greater value than any of the others. The original is in red. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. Though I have a charismatic personality and can sway millions with my skills at oratory and in writing, if I don't have truth I'm just a windbag. But if I have the gift of truth, I will know that none of the following claims is to be seriously believed: prophecy, understanding all mysteries, having all knowledge, and having the ability to move mountains by faith. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. And though I give everything I own to charity, and conform to all the superstitious religious observances commonly thought to be important in my society, if I have not enough truth to see that giving can sometimes do more harm than good and that superstition is at best a waste of time, I will make little or no positive contribution to the great adventure of life, and my own life will be of little value to myself or to anyone else. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Ignorance of truth can lead to negative outcomes, but truth itself can go unrecognized for millenia, and it never punishes us for neglecting it. (It is truly long suffering!) Although it is not necessarily kind, truth treats everyone and every situation even handedly. If you truly know about yourself and others there will be no need for envy because you will recognize it as a destructive emotion which can only interfere with achieving the rational values of promoting joy and fulfillment for everyone. Likewise, if you see yourself and others truthfully there will be no need to try to make yourself seem better or more important than you are. Truth will make you free from this mistaken goal, and you won't get all puffed up with self importance. The more truth you know the less likely it is that you will behave in "unseemly" ways. Show me someone who is behaving "unseemly" and I'll show you someone who is missing some important aspect of truth. If you see life clearly and truly you will know better than to attempt to capitalize on "connections" to gain unfair advantage against others. (Failure to recognize this truth has unfortunately led to a situation in which "truthful politician" is so often seen as an oxymoron.) Truth is not easily provoked. In fact, it is never "provoked". Truth thinks no evil. It only thinks truth, and although truth may not be what you wanted or expected or what you thought would be fair, it is never evil. "Iniquity" always involves deception. Deception is the purposeful hiding of truth. Truth, therefore, plays no part in iniquity. It values only truth. Truth stands up to all criticism, no matter how severe. After all, it's true anyway, no matter what anyone says! Truth tests all things. This is much better than "believing all things". But someone who has an unusually clear perception of truth will be very understanding of all human frailties. Such a person will display an unconditional positive regard for others in need. He will indeed "hope all things and endure all things" in the sense that he will be willing to start with another person wherever that person is on the path toward truth and not summarily dismiss him just because he is imperfect or because he doesn't believe some arbitrary dogma or other as religious people have been doing for thousands of years. He will have seemingly endless patience. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Truth never fails, because if it did it wouldn't be true. But prophecies will fail. And no one is immortal. And what we think is true today may be shown tomorrow to be only a partial truth, so knowledge is constantly in a state of development. Our knowledge is incomplete, and our predictions are only approximate. But when we improve our knowledge, we can discard our previous misconceptions. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. That is to say, I thought that the world was somehow subservient to my wishes. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. I stopped believing just what I wanted to believe and started believing only those things which I could test and find to be true. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Before we developed a clear understanding of how to search for truth, it was as if we were looking at the world through a dirty window. But although we will probably never know the whole truth of the world we can at least clean away some of the dirt. And we have good reason to hope that we can clean up even more of the window and see not only the outside world more clearly but ourselves as well. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. And now we still have faith, hope, love, and truth: these four. They are all wonderful to have under some circumstances, and love is indeed greater than faith or hope. But the greatest of them all is truth.

Post Reply | Email Friend | Alert

Previous | Next | Current page