Welcome

The intent of Pilgrim Processing is to provide commentary on the Daily Lectionary from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The format for the comment is Old Testament Lesson first, Gospel, and Epistle with a portion of one of the Psalms for the day as a prayer at the end.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Apprehending and Comprehending

I preached on materialism yesterday, both philosophical and economic materialism. I believe economic materialism, desiring more stuff in the belief that there is something in me that will be fulfilled by the possession of more stuff and directing all my effort to getting that stuff, is based on the philosophical belief that there is only matter (stuff) and there are no realities other than matter. If matter is all there is and there ain't no more, then it makes sense to desire to get as much of it as you can, only matter matters.

It isn't an unavoidable conclusion, but it logically follows, at least economic materialism is a sensible response to philosophical materialism. You could also decide that we should all share all matter in common or some other variation of that decision. What you have to consider though is that if matter is the ultimate reality, what brings about my ability to apprehend and comprehend that truth and why should I have confidence in my comprehension. If everything is geared for survival and propagation, why should I believe my comprehension is true?

No comments: