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they exist
Here is an interesting story on how former United States President Ronald Reagan tried to convert his atheist son back to Christianity: He served his son a perfect gourmet dinner; and then asked him if he believed there was a cook.
Reagan should be commended for being creative and imaginative in affirming his spiritual belief. I read that he also used this reasoning to convert former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Maybe I have a simple mind but this anecdote does not directly prove the existence of God. Instead, it proves that cooks, waiters, and farmers exist in this world. It is not wrong for Reagan to argue God’s existence by highlighting the existence of a cook who is able to prepare a perfect gourmet. But he (and we) should also not overlook the obvious fact: the dinner was made possible because there were cooks, waiters, and farmers in the world.
Sometimes in our earnest desire to advance our metaphysical beliefs, we tend to ignore the in-your-face reality around us. Before we interpret too much the spiritual meaning of things, people, and events in our everyday lives, we should first recognize their concrete and symbolic significance in the human and material world. As Terry Eagleton reminds us, “There cannot be professional philosophers unless there are also cooks and stonemasons.”
Go on and believe in God. But are you also ready to believe that workers exist? Are you willing to believe that these humans who create useful commodities also inhabit the planet? That somewhere in a remote and protected enclave, there exists wage-laborers who produce the things we need to survive. That there is nothing mysterious on how the elegant clothes we see in oversized billboards can be bought in department stores. They were made by God’s disciplined army of workers in factories and sweatshops.
The significant contribution of workers in the global economy has been systematically undermined over the past decades. Workers were made invisible while advertisers and financiers were glorified by the corporate media. Consumers were not allowed to understand the labor exploitation which is inherent in the capitalist economy. This is the cover-up of the millennium.
Atheists are criticized for their belief that God does not exist. Let the atheists and the non-atheists debate this issue. My criticism is aimed against God believers who wouldn’t recognize the ungodly realities in the world. There are individuals who insist that a powerful and merciful God definitely exists but deny the existence of poverty and labor exploitation in human society. They could visualize the presence of a supreme being but they are unable to identify how workers are oppressed in the workplace. They feel Christ’s sufferings but they are indifferent to human sufferings in the community. How do you describe these persons: Inglorious bastards? Bourgeois hypocrites?
Labor Day is an opportunity to affirm some fundamental truths: workers exist, modern wage slavery still exists, and the proletarian revolution will be victorious in the future.
Reagan should be commended for being creative and imaginative in affirming his spiritual belief. I read that he also used this reasoning to convert former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Maybe I have a simple mind but this anecdote does not directly prove the existence of God. Instead, it proves that cooks, waiters, and farmers exist in this world. It is not wrong for Reagan to argue God’s existence by highlighting the existence of a cook who is able to prepare a perfect gourmet. But he (and we) should also not overlook the obvious fact: the dinner was made possible because there were cooks, waiters, and farmers in the world.
Sometimes in our earnest desire to advance our metaphysical beliefs, we tend to ignore the in-your-face reality around us. Before we interpret too much the spiritual meaning of things, people, and events in our everyday lives, we should first recognize their concrete and symbolic significance in the human and material world. As Terry Eagleton reminds us, “There cannot be professional philosophers unless there are also cooks and stonemasons.”
Go on and believe in God. But are you also ready to believe that workers exist? Are you willing to believe that these humans who create useful commodities also inhabit the planet? That somewhere in a remote and protected enclave, there exists wage-laborers who produce the things we need to survive. That there is nothing mysterious on how the elegant clothes we see in oversized billboards can be bought in department stores. They were made by God’s disciplined army of workers in factories and sweatshops.
The significant contribution of workers in the global economy has been systematically undermined over the past decades. Workers were made invisible while advertisers and financiers were glorified by the corporate media. Consumers were not allowed to understand the labor exploitation which is inherent in the capitalist economy. This is the cover-up of the millennium.
Atheists are criticized for their belief that God does not exist. Let the atheists and the non-atheists debate this issue. My criticism is aimed against God believers who wouldn’t recognize the ungodly realities in the world. There are individuals who insist that a powerful and merciful God definitely exists but deny the existence of poverty and labor exploitation in human society. They could visualize the presence of a supreme being but they are unable to identify how workers are oppressed in the workplace. They feel Christ’s sufferings but they are indifferent to human sufferings in the community. How do you describe these persons: Inglorious bastards? Bourgeois hypocrites?
Labor Day is an opportunity to affirm some fundamental truths: workers exist, modern wage slavery still exists, and the proletarian revolution will be victorious in the future.
posted by: mongpalatino at May 03, 2009 21:01 |
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workers
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