Monday, March 26, 2012

Mathus, Darwin and Moses

[journal extract]
13 March 2012     5:15 am      Moscow
it is interesting to learn that Malthus was an "annihilationist" (that hell was not eternal for those who failed in the growth-of-mind) and that he viewed human suffering via famine, poverty, etc (natural and moral evil?) as means by God to human development.
i must consider all of this more closely, and widely, again later, but it begins to seem to me as of a piece with the human exaggerated sense that he can understand the world and "God". many have rejected "God" because "He" "allows" evil, and disbelieved in "God" because Darwin "proved" we are 'apes' (vaguely stated). well, if Genesis is no longer convincing, neither, in my reading, is the human ability to explain himself materially. elementary school humans may be upset that Darwin proved Moses wrong ∴ we are apes and there is no "God" -- but it seems to me that the human history of ideas shows that humans imagine too much of their own capabilities -- which becomes even more convincingly popular in the institutions called universities.

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