Every separate aspect of the universe goes on to demand something higher than itself....[A]nd like every other appearance, goodness implies that which, when carried out, must absorb it. --F.H. Bradley, Appearance and Reality ...Religion is higher than morality, being more unified, more expressive of a perfect wholeness. But both morality and religion face the same insuperable difficulty. Morality-religion believes in the reality of perfect good, and in the demand that good be victorious and evil destroyed. The postulated whole (good) is at once actually to BE GOOD, and at the same time to MAKE ITSELF GOOD. Neither its perfect goodness nor its struggle may be degraded to an appearance (something incomplete and imperfect). But to unite these two aspects consistently is impossible. If the desired end WERE reached, the STRUGGLE, the NEED FOR DEVOTION, would have CEASED TO BE REAL. If there is to BE morality, there cannot altogether BE AN END TO EVIL. DISCORD IS ESSENTIAL TO GOODNESS. Moral evil exists ONLY in moral experience and that experience is ESSENTIALLY INCONSISTENT. Morality desires unconsciously, with the suppression of evil, TO BECOME NON-MORAL. It shrinks from this, yet it UNKNOWINGLY DESIRES THE EXISTENCE AND PERPETUITY OF EVIL. Morality, WHICH MAKES EVIL, DESIRES IN EVIL TO REMOVE A CONDITION OF ITS OWN BEING; it labours to pass into a super-moral and therefor non-moral sphere. MORAL-RELIGIOUS FAITH IS MAKE-BELIEVE: BE SURE THAT OPPOSITION TO THE GOOD IS OVERCOME, BUT ACT AS IF IT (the opposition) PERSISTS. --Iris Murdoch, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (emphases mine) The religious consciousness rests on the felt unity of unreduced opposites. --F.H. Bradley, Appearance and Reality
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 03:12:28 +0000
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