What Matters to Me

Our last session on 'What Matters to Me' ranged from keeping track of car keys to the possiblity of our self-annihilation (from nuclear war or, more slowly, from over-consumption of the earth).

More positively, there were our capacity to discover patterns in nature, and to bring together and clarify systems of ideas, including faith and belief. The full use of these capacities requires us to organise ourselves both personally and communally. Religion has tried to do this for us, but currently Christianity needs to reverse its false notions, especially those that lead to superstition and anti-feminism. Sea of Faith itself needs to make its ideas more accessible and appealing.

Although it is slow, social progress does happen. Our society is not as cruel and barbaric as it once was, but we do need the people in power to be trustworthy for this progress to continue. Exclusive reliance on logic and the demand for evidence, in both science and public policy, risk blocking straightforward intuitions about what is good. Yet, we must be wary of 'conviction politicians', and of thought systems claiming direct access to truth. Almost nothing is simple.