Materialsim vs. Idealism & Following Footsteps

It is hard to articulate exactly all that is going on in my interior dialogue right now. In a way writing is a good method to channel some of those thoughts arguments. It has become very aware to me how significant water is to my life. I refer often to my interior life as being that of an ocean. Constantly changing with the tide. Sometimes being very peaceful and quiet, other times being violent with dark storms. But today the oceans within my interior life are rapid and moving today, channeling much thoughts and emotions.
Just to start to look at the water a little more closely, you would find the following thoughts going around in my head.



Materialism vs. Idealism. I have just been introduced to these concepts and in ways they strike something deep within myself, almost a nostalgia. Materialism is the “reality” that material is the centre of all reality. Where as Idealism is the “idea” that there is an idea behind all of this reality. So much so that the idea becomes the reality. Now like everything else in my mind, the lines are not defined so clearly, these two ways of thinking automatically have to interweave somewhere. Karl Marx for example was a Materialist. He held true to the notion that the material world was all there is. The universe that we function in is a closed universe, and us as humans construct and form our own meaning. But we form it out of reality. He is not as extreme as some existentialists (which is merely a small catagory of materialsim). The ironic part about Karl Marx’s life was that he believed so strongly in the equality of all humans, and so much so that he would fight and form a new way of life to ensure this (this is a gross readers digest version, I am fully aware). On the contrary Marx in fact held so strong to his ideas about the way the government and economics should be run that he became an idealist. There is no way that a materialist can function in the world of reality with a longing to somehow change it? Is this even possible? Do the two co-inside?

Can we live in a world with no ideals? Is there such thing as concrete reality? Because in order to understand the material world, one must interept it through a subjective understanding. So therefore could one not state that the material world is in fact an “idea” in itself? There is no such thing, as a value neutral existence.

Then our class was asked if God is material or ideal?
Oh my: I looked at my computer when I was asked this question. My immediate response was “It is 9:00 in the morning, and you are asking us this?”. One this is problematic because at 9:00 in the morning my brain is not yet functioning. The other problem that I see with this is the idea of trying to define God. My class-mates and professor seemed to agree on the notion that God did not exist within this world until the Incarnation. I interrupted and asked, is God not apart of everything he creates? PANTHIEST! But what about reductionism? To say that God is not apart of this world seemed utterly impossible to me?!? God is the transcendent Reality. But if God were apart of the material world, and in creation, could one by using deductive logic arrive at the conclusion that God in fact then created himself?
Hhhmmm…..problematic. If God created himself, then is he just another self created reality? To much of this I am afraid is going no where. But I would like to state that, it is problematic in a way to exclude God from the material world altogether. Of course we don’t want to be pantheistic, but does not everything bare a fingerprint? And maybe God did create himself, he is God after all? But is that the same as saying that God is everything and nothing at the same time?

Too many questions I know: But again, this is a blog of my thoughts, not necessarily me having worked through the answers to all of these ;)

But what to do with the Incarnation. God in the material form. This is indescribably significant. The Transcendent reality, within the system of the material world. My class-mates also agreed that God is continuing on in the material because he entered it once. Christ as continuing in the material world. That is an interesting thought.

The next thought

Empirical reality. To look at this world and be utterly convinced that this is all there is. Or does the empirical reality point to something far beyond it? I am treading a little bit of Platonic thereory here. The idea of imaging or "forming". Plato did not quickly assume to believe in God, but he believed that everything on this earth imaged something that was once perfect. And all of us have a longing for those things. The perfect reality (if you will notice we are not getting away from the material vs the ideal). As I walked home tonight under the stars and the moon, a piercing filled me. What I was looking at was perfect, but I longed for something that much deeper. The something beyond the stars, and the moon. The air was cold, and as I walked along the path the trees looked haunted but yet so beautiful. Oak trees with their twisted and gnarled branches caught the moonlight to make a stunning silhouette of darkness and beauty. What was even more eerie was the distorted shadows they cast along the iridescent snow. I starred at it all, a deep whelm of Nostalgia overtaking me suddenly. I wished to be lost in the images, somehow back to where I once was, or to be somewhere in the future. How could someone merely stare at this empirical reality and be convinced that it was all there was. I have been there, and to some degree I tread on the boarders of this idea. But to utterly deny would be a large un-justice I am afraid.

Something metaphorical

As I was walking home tonight I realized something. In order to understand this it is necessary to first understand one of my self indulgences. I absolutely love to trek through ridiculously deep snow with my now pants, big boots, and attire. I love going for walks in the forest and walking through the deepest most difficult ways. I am a trail blazer, I will blaze until I completely ware myself out. My blazing’s have no rhyme or reason, and often times they are made on a whim, without logic or deduction. As I was walking home I realized a path that I had blazed (which had been one of the more difficult ones), was now made into a common trail. People from Seminary house were taking my original footsteps intended as a pleasure blaze to make it to the college. I starred in a way over-taken by this reality. At first I was utterly embarrassed at the none logicality of the path, and then it switched to a proud recognition of my heroic act. Then it dawed on me the severity of my actions. Peopled followed my foot-steps. The thought seemed utterly obscure to me. Why would people follow my foot-steps? But it would not leave me. People follow your foot-steps. In all reality the thought terrified me, and I frantically began to wonder how many poor citizens I had led astray on my random wanderings through the forest, deciving them to think that the path actually led somewhere coherent.
Be careful where you walk. And think, and perceive because people actually follow me. As obscure as a thought that this was to me, I began to feel responsible for my thoughts and wanderings. Realizing that maybe the effect is on a greater scheme, not just about me? I know this sounds simple, but it was a metaphor that I needed to see in tangible form.

Kim