The Mythos of Blogging

Karen Armstrong is no educated theologian with Doctor of Divinity degrees. She's actually a former Catholic nun who ended up working in televising. She has unconventional religious views, believing that all major religions share an emphasis on the importance of compassion. Intrigued by a story on NPR, I decided to pick up her latest opus - The Case for God. Expecting a modern Summa Theologica, I was stunned to find instead an indictment of our religious beliefs, from fundamentalism to atheism. But on the bright side, I now know blogging has its roots in tenth century Brahmanism.

Armstrong's book is nothing less than a historical survey of our religious beliefs, from 32,000 year-old animal paintings in deep underground caverns, to our modern doubts and denials. Rather than showing how we've advanced, her chief argument is that we've regressed.

Pre-modern cultures, according to this ex-nun, had two ways of thinking - mythos and logos. Neither was considered superior to the other. Logos, of course, is the pragmatic world. Mythos was a way of understanding the intangibles, even though the myths themselves are patently absurd.

As we've become more empirical and technological, we've discarded the mythos associated with religion, no longer seeing the point in rituals. Armstrong argues this has led to fundamentalism and atheism. For example, rather than just accepting the mystery of religion, Christian fundamentalists will insist that everything in the Bible is scientifically accurate, presuming to know God's mind. Modern atheists, like fundamentalists, exalt logos as well, finding it in science.

Armstrong rebuts these two modern developments. We've forgotten the mystery. God "is not good, divine, powerful or intelligent in any way that we can understand. We could not even say that God 'exists', because our concept of existence is too limited."

It's certainly no beach book, but is perhaps the most compelling theological survey I've ever read.

Now let me tell you about the Brahmodya competition, which began in the tenth century. It's very much like the comment exchanges that sometimes occur here and on other blogs. First, we all go off and prepare ourselves by fasting or eating twinkies, whatever works. Then the battle begins with someone making an enigmatic statement. His opponent responds with an equally inscrutable comment. And so the battle rages until finally, there is silence. At that moment of silence, when we all realize the inadequacy of our written words, the Brahman is present.

See, blogging is deeply spiritual. No wonder Father Alex is a frequent contributor.