Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains
Look before you make the leap of faith in ultimate nonentity. There may be no exit.
Top o' the Stack.
Girlfriend dumped you? Give it six months, and you may wonder what you ever saw in her.
The Stoic method of division may help you over the hump, the slump, the slough of despond.
I think Bonhoeffer wrote eloquently and correctly in his Ethics on the permissibility of suicide (see here https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/selections/dietrich-bonhoeffer/ ). Like so many things in life, as I believe you’re suggesting, the answer is contingent on God’s existence. If the divine is real, then self-murder is prohibited, with even the most lowly lives still being justified by the Almighty; conversely, it’s hard to see suicide as always wrong if we merely enjoy a material existence (as the Lutheran pastor points out, the ancients for instance often saw this final exit as at least at times legitimate).
On a side note to the topic, I was amazed to read in Wikipedia how James Pike died — in an Israeli desert on a trip for writing a book on historic Jesus with his young wife, a co-author of the book from which Bill quoted. The wife survived and wrote a book about the desert affair and Pike https://wipfandstock.com/9781556353253/search/
Dmitri,
I’ve known about that story since I first moved to the Sonoran desert in ’91. I read about it in the preface to a book about desert survival. Pike died the death of a fool. He went into the Desert of Judah at the wrong time, mid-afternoon, in the wrong season, September, with the wrong vehicle, a Ford Cortina, with no water (only two cans of Coca-Cola) and the temp at 130 F.
Thanks for the link. The book looks interesting. I’ll see if I can find it.
Jason,
Thanks for your helpful comment and the link. Sorry to take so long to respond.
Dmitri,
I found one Amazon review. Very interesting.
3.0 out of 5 stars A Search for “Truth” Found Error Instead
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2023
Verified Purchase
Even though this book is a very interesting and absorbing read, the philosophy entailed is sheer nonsense. For those not familiar with the story, the unorthodox, liberal Bishop who rejected the Jesus of the Bible, went off on a wild goose chase in the Judean desert to find the “real” one. He believed that God revealed himself to prophets and honest seekers in the desert wilderness (when in reality the desert is symbolic of the habitation of Satan and demons, which obviously he found instead as the genial Bishop was in regular contact with demonic beings masquerading as departed loved ones in his seances). As Merrill Unger notes in his book, “The Haunting of Bishop Pike,” the liberal bishop met his unorthodox heroes Paul Tillich, John Robinson, his son Jim Jr., and even Bobby Kennedy upon his transference to the other side, but there was no sign of Jesus!
What is most ironic is that the author claims that both she and her husband were diligently seeking the “truth,” but she does admit that many of her mediums were incorrect in their messages from the “other side,” and she accepted their messages anyway. Ironic?
For a pathetic end of the bishop’s tragic life, see Unger’s last chapter in his book. Their lives were total blasphemy against the truth of God’s Word. Play with spirits at your own peril!
I hope Vito pops in here. This is relevant to the excellent Gallagher discussion: https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2024/06/reading-now-demonic-forces.html
61 comments.
Be aware that you more likely to tangle with demons in the desert outside of Las Vegas (and at desert monasteries) than in Sin City itself.
Thanks Bill. I Googled a bit after leaving the above comment. Pike’s wife travelled a long way since her early days, nowadays she is deeply in New Age thinking. https://www.consciousnesswork.com/aboutad.htm
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