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"We are living in a time when false mysticism is a much greater danger than rationalism.
It has now become much easier to play on men’s emotions with a political terminology that sounds religious than with one that sounds scientific.
This is all the more true in an age in which the religious instincts of millions of men have never received their proper fulfillment.
A nation that is starved with the need to worship something will turn to the first false god that is presented to it."
"False mysticism is often viciously anti-intellectual. It promises man a fierce joy in the immolation of his intelligence.
It calls him to throw his spirit into the hands of some blind life-force, considered sometimes as beyond man, sometimes as within himself.
Sometimes this mysticism is political, sometimes religious. It almost always exalts emotion above thought, and its reply to intellectual argument is sometimes a program of systematic violence— the suppression of schools, the destruction of books, and the imprisonment of learned men. Why all this? Because the intelligence itself is regarded with suspicion." p 59-60
https://stmaryscathedral.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/11288825.pdf
This resonated with me in different ways. On has to do with the literal biblical innerrentist who sometime snot only believe in 6 day creation a few thousand years ago but also flat Earth. regardless of what seem more rational, regardless of what our intelligence might indicate, they cling to a personal mysticism that rejects science. Perhaps we all do it to some degree.. believing that our personal insight is special and true no matter what.
Then again there is the political manifestation. We are seeing higher education undermined and science thrown into doubt if it does not support a larger agenda.
Merton wort this in 1951, not long after WWII. Unfortunately I think it is more relevant today than ever with the rise of interest in Christian Nationalism.
"When the truth is not what we want it to be, we twist its image out of shape in our own mind to fit the pattern of our desires. In so doing, we do not hurt the truth itself: we ruin our own spirit." p 56
It has now become much easier to play on men’s emotions with a political terminology that sounds religious than with one that sounds scientific.
This is all the more true in an age in which the religious instincts of millions of men have never received their proper fulfillment.
A nation that is starved with the need to worship something will turn to the first false god that is presented to it."
"False mysticism is often viciously anti-intellectual. It promises man a fierce joy in the immolation of his intelligence.
It calls him to throw his spirit into the hands of some blind life-force, considered sometimes as beyond man, sometimes as within himself.
Sometimes this mysticism is political, sometimes religious. It almost always exalts emotion above thought, and its reply to intellectual argument is sometimes a program of systematic violence— the suppression of schools, the destruction of books, and the imprisonment of learned men. Why all this? Because the intelligence itself is regarded with suspicion." p 59-60
https://stmaryscathedral.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/11288825.pdf
This resonated with me in different ways. On has to do with the literal biblical innerrentist who sometime snot only believe in 6 day creation a few thousand years ago but also flat Earth. regardless of what seem more rational, regardless of what our intelligence might indicate, they cling to a personal mysticism that rejects science. Perhaps we all do it to some degree.. believing that our personal insight is special and true no matter what.
Then again there is the political manifestation. We are seeing higher education undermined and science thrown into doubt if it does not support a larger agenda.
Merton wort this in 1951, not long after WWII. Unfortunately I think it is more relevant today than ever with the rise of interest in Christian Nationalism.
"When the truth is not what we want it to be, we twist its image out of shape in our own mind to fit the pattern of our desires. In so doing, we do not hurt the truth itself: we ruin our own spirit." p 56
