The Silesian Horseherd - Questions of the HourMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
The Silesian Horseherd - Questions of the Hour
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Christianity; Church history; Logos (Christian theology); Logos (Philosophy); Religion
Now I have explained clearly and concisely in what sense I cling to the
God-fable, and I should like to know if I have convinced my Horseherd. I
belong, above all, to those who do not consider the world an irrational
chaos, and also to those who cannot concede that there can be reason
without a reasoner. Reason is an activity, or, as others have it, an
attribute, and there can neither be an activity without an agent, nor an
attribute without a subject; at least, not in the world in which we live.
When ordinary persons and even professional philosophers speak of reason
as if it were a jewel that can be placed in a drawer or in a human skull,
they are simply myth-makers. It is precisely in this ever recurring
elevation of an adjective or a verb to a noun, of a predicate to a
subject, that this disease of language, as I have called mythology, has
its deepest roots. Here lies the genesis of the majority of gods, not by
any means, as it is generally believed I have taught, merely in later
quibbles and misunderstandings, which are interesting and popular, but
have little reference to the deepest nature of the myth. We must not take
these matters too lightly.
I recognise therefore a reasoner, and consequent reason in the world, or
in other words, I believe in a thinker and ruler of the world, but gladly
concede that this Being so infinitely transcends our faculties of
comprehension, that even to wish only to give him a name borders on
madness. If, in spite of all of this, we use such names as Jehovah, Allah,
Deva, God, Father, Creator, this is only a result of human weakness. I
cling therefore to the God-fable in the sense which is more fully set
forth in my letter, and it pleased me very much to see that at least a few
of those, who as they said were formerly on the side of the Horseherd, now
fully agree with me, that the world is not irrational. Here is the
dividing line between two systems of philosophy. Whoever thinks that an
irrational world becomes rational by the survival of the fittest, etc.,
stands on one side; I stand on the other, and hold with the Greek
thinkers, who accept the world as the expression of the Logos, or of a
reasonable thought or thinker.
But here the matter became serious. To my Horseherd I thought that I could
make myself intelligible in a humorous strain, for his letter was
permeated with a quiet humour. But my known and unknown opponents take the
matter much more seriously and thoroughly, and I am consequently obliged
at least to try to answer them seriously and thoroughly. What my readers
will say to this I do not know. I believe that even in short words we can
be serious and profound. When Schiller says that he belongs to no
religion, and why? because of religion, the statement is short and
concise, and yet easily understood. I shall, however, at least attempt to
follow my opponents step by step, even at the risk of becoming tedious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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