Posts Tagged ‘beauty’

Daniel Dennett, the Future of Religion, and Disenchantment

Earlier this week, the Tufts university professor of philosophy and new atheist provocateur Daniel Dennett wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal explaining Why the Future of Religion is Bleak. The basic thrust of the article is that religion thrives whenever information and knowledge is repressed and/or personal or corporate calamity leads the ignorant masses to turn to deity for a crutch. In the age of the internet and mass media, religious dogmatist are no longer able to dupe their followers into thinking there is truth to their religious doctrines, and thus, the future of religion is bleak.

Graffiti, Fast Food, and the Defacement of Beauty

The world we inhabit is resplendent with beauty. A morning sunrise dances off the awakening dew. The blue and green of a country landscape speak peace into the soul. The awe-inspiring magnitude of half-dome silences our heavy hearts. Angels dance within the mist of a cascading river. Beauty calls out and demands to be contemplated.

A Theology of Beauty

No doubt, there is much beauty in this world. Arguably, one can find beauty in many things—smiles, people, a sunset, the night sky, an act of service. And we are drawn to beauty—it moves us, it woos us, it pulls us in…but it doesn’t always leave us satisfied. We want MORE. And in our desperation, we sometimes latch onto ugly things and call them beautiful. And these things satisfy us even less and less…we long for it, we labor for it.