Steven Colborne's Blog, page 72

A Brief Message…

Hello everyone!

In a recent post I asked for your feedback concerning my blogging schedule and it was tremendously helpful to get your thoughts. After much reflection I decided to stick with my regular schedule, posting 4 times a week: Monday Music, Thursday Theology, Friday Philosophy, Sunday Summary.

This has been going great but unfortunately I’m now going to have to make some changes. I’m nearing the end of my music project and want to dedicate more time to getting the album finished and polished, and also I have been feeling as though I’ve now written about most of the subjects I wanted to cover in terms of theology (I’ve written over 200 theology posts, gimme a break!).

I’m going to go ‘freestyle’ on you for a while and drop the schedule. I realise this isn’t exactly going to be calamitous for most of you, but on the other hand I know some of you like the schedule, so I’m sorry to those who do. I’ll be finishing this week as usual, with a theology post tomorrow, a philosophy post on Friday, and a roundup on Sunday. After that, the freestyling will begin.

Make sure you email me about anything you like any time you feel like a chat, I always love to hear from those who are kind enough to follow my blog!

And apologies for troubling you with such trivial matters.

Peace and blessings, onwards and upwards!

Steven x

Music | Lemon Jelly

For my music post this week I thought I’d share a song that I find really inspiring and uplifting. I think it would be fair to say that Lemon Jelly, the songwriting duo who wrote the song, have had a big impact on my appreciation of electronic music, and my own approach to songwriting.

The song below, entitled Space Walk, is from Lemon Jelly’s 2002 album Lost Horizons, which I had the pleasure of promoting when I was working for their record label. I have always felt like the band deserved more widespread recognition, although they had some significant achievements including being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and a BRIT award.

I hope you enjoy the song, and you can find out more about Lemon Jelly here.

Weekly Roundup | 17/06/18

Wow, Sunday already?! I hope you’re all keeping well. This is my weekly ‘summary’ post where I recap my week in blogging, share a few personal reflections from the crazy world of Steve, and ask you all a Question of the Week. Let’s begin!

The Week in Review

I shared this week’s Monday Music post a day early, because Sunday was release day for the latest single from my music project, and I didn’t want to bombard you all with too many music posts by posting on Monday as well. I hope you got a chance to listen to my song, entitled ‘Stranded’, but if you didn’t, you can indulge your ear buds by clicking here.

For this week’s Thursday Theology post I shared some reflections that were admittedly more philosophical than theological, but there is of course crossover between the two subjects. In the post I shared a quote from Brian Magee’s autobiography about his fascination with bending his index finger. Intrigued? You can read the post here.

My last post of the week was the latest in my Friday Philosophy series, and looked at the ancient Roman philosopher Sextus Empiricus and the philosophy of Stoicism which he embraced. I offered some reflections on how Stoicism relates to the question of whether or not objective truth exists. You can read the post here.

A Few Personal Reflections

As part of my mission to get fit and healthy I have been given nine exercises to do daily by my physio. I complained there were too many, and I got told off, haha. Some of them are really difficult and I feel like I need a coach that I see more often than for 30 minutes every couple of weeks. But the good news is I’m closer again this week to my target weight and my blood pressure is apparently ‘perfect’! Woot!
I took a leap of faith and made a complaint about my troublesome neighbour. I contacted the housing manager and had a good long sit-down meeting with him where I shared what was going on for the first time. He was very understanding. I really don’t know whether I’m doing the right thing, as my neighbour is likely to turn nasty if he finds out I’ve complained. He’s actually been playing less loud music since the World Cup started because he’s a big football fan so has been distracted by that I think.


Question of the Week

Are you interested in watching the World Cup?

Let me know in the comments!

 

What is Scepticism?

Welcome to another instalment of quick-fire philosophy! Every Friday we take a brief look at the life and thought of an important philosopher from history, and I offer a few reflections on their ideas. Today we’re looking at Sextus Empiricus, a Roman Sceptic philosopher who lived around 160-210 CE.

Who Was He?

We know almost nothing about the life and background of Sextus Empiricus. All of our knowledge of the man comes to us through the writings of his that have survived from the Roman era, in particular the eleven volume work entitled Arguments against the Dogmatists and Mathematicians and also Outlines of Scepticism, which is the main source we have for learning about what the Sceptics believed.

What’s the Big Idea?

The doctrine of the Sceptics centres around one key principle; that we cannot assert the truth of any proposition with any more confidence that we can assert the truth of a statement that directly contradicts it. Another related idea is that our knowledge of reality is always mediated by the bodily senses, so we are unable to prove things are one way rather than another.

The word ‘sceptic’ is of course still in common usage in the English-speaking world, and has retained much of the same meaning.

My Reflections

It seems to me that the key matter, when it comes to Scepticism, is understanding the difference between subjective and objective truth. If there really is a world that exists independent of experience, then we would have to say it exists objectively, and has certain characteristics that are real regardless of what we might speculate about them. Many modern scientists would argue this is the case.

Considering objectivity also brings up the question of the existence of God, because there is a strong argument that says moral judgments, such as what is good or evil, are only possible if God exists. While I understand this position, my argument would be that good and evil are ideas that always exist in the mind of a subject, whether that subject is a human being or a personal God. God can always change His mind about what is good and evil, so they do not have objective existence.

The position of Sceptics such as Sextus Empiricus has been criticised because we all seem to make value judgments as an inescapable part of life. So to argue that we can say nothing with certainty seems to contradict everyday human experience. Nevertheless, Scepticism brings into focus a matter at the heart of both philosophy and theology – the very existence of truth itself.

In next week’s philosophy post we’ll be looking at the thought of Plotinus, and his ideas about what constitutes the human person. If you don’t want to miss future posts, please consider subscribing. Thank you for reading!

Everyday Mysteries

True philosophy is about a fascination with all that is mysterious in life. That’s why I have studied, and continue to study, philosophy; because I find it ceaselessly intriguing thinking about why we are here, what reality is, why we suffer, the nature of God, and other such questions that tap into the heart of the mystery.

One philosopher who I feel a real affinity with (because he thinks in a similar way about philosophy) is Brian Magee. Magee is a British philosopher who was educated at Oxford and mingled with some of the leading philosophers of the 20th Century, including Karl Popper, Bertrand Russell, and many others.

I’m currently reading Magee’s autobiography, and reading the first few pages I felt I could personally relate to his fascination with the simple everyday things most people take for granted. I will quote a passage from the book to give you an example:

I retain a vivid memory of myself… when I was seven or eight, standing in a shaft of sunlight in the corner of the kitchen by our back door… focusing my eyes keenly on the index finger of my right hand, which I held pointed upwards in front of my face. I’m going to count to three, I was saying to myself, and when I say ‘three’ my finger’s going to bend. Then I counted: One, two, thr– And sure enough on three my finger bent. How did I do it? I did it again. Then I thought: This time I’ll count to four. And on four my finger bent. Next time I counted to five. My finger bent on five. I tried dragging out the counting so as to catch my finger out: one, two… three… four… {wait for it}… five! But on five my finger, not caught napping at all, bent. I could bend my finger whenever I liked. Or not, just as I decided. Yet no matter how hard I concentrated I couldn’t grasp anything at all about how I did it. How could something that was so completely within my command, solely and entirely a matter of my own conscious decision, be a nothing for me, just simply no experience whatever, and yet happen? From that day to this the problem has fascinated me.

(Magee, B., Confessions of a Philosopher, Random House, 1997, p1-2).

In a way similar to Magee’s fascination with his ability to make his finger bend, during the height of my spiritual explorations I became fascinated with thought. I was spending a lot of time in meditation, a process which encouraged me to watch thoughts arising in my mind. I remember one day being sat on my bed and deciding to really closely investigate what a thought is and where my thoughts were coming from.

It was investigations such as this that led me to an awareness that there is a power making my thoughts arise, and that was a real revelation to me. It couldn’t be me making my thoughts arise because I couldn’t predict them, nor could I understand how I was making them arise. By thinking the problem through I arrived at the understanding that God must be bringing my thoughts into existence, and in the same way as God is making my thoughts arise, I realised He must also be in control of all the other processes I experience as part of my aliveness.

I believe that understanding the omnipresence of God provides the solution to the problem that fascinated Magee, who, being an atheist, would never have accepted that God was the answer to the finger-bending mystery.

If you’re interested in reading a more detailed explanation of why I believe God is in control of our thoughts, I invite you to read this article which is also an extract from my book entitled Ultimate Truth: God Beyond Religion. I highly recommend Magee’s excellent and beautifully presented history of philosophy entitled ‘The Story of Philosophy’, which you can find here. Thank you for reading!

Listen to my New Single!

Hi folks! I’m delighted to bring you song nine of the T.E.N. Project. This song is an instrumental that employs atmospheric strings and a rolling drum line to evoke the feelings of loneliness and isolation that we might experience if lost at sea.

This song, entitled ‘Stranded’, is the penultimate release from my ten-song experimental music project, which sees me releasing a new song on the 10th of each month over a 10 month period. For all the details of the project, visit the Music page and scroll down.

A simple video for the song is embedded below. If you enjoy listening, please hit the ‘Like’ button on YouTube, and if you’d like to purchase the song it will be available to buy for one month from my BandCamp page. Enjoy!

Weekly Roundup | 09/06/18

Greetings, all! This week’s roundup is coming to you a day early, because tomorrow I’ll be posting with the release of my new single. More info about that below. Read on for a summary of my week in blogging, some brief personal reflections on my life at this time, and a Question of the Week…

The Week in Review

For my Monday Music post this week I shared the incredible bass vocals of J. D. Sumner in his rendition of the classic spiritual song Wayfaring Stranger. To read a little about Sumner and listen to the song, click here.

I returned with a Thursday Theology post that I knew would stimulate strong feelings, and it certainly did. The post was about the difference between conditional and unconditional love in relation to the Christian worldview. You can read the post here.

Finally, on Friday I shared this week’s Friday Philosophy post, which looked at the philosophical ideas of Marcus Aurelius, who was Roman Emperor for a time. Read about his views, and my reflections on them, by clicking here.

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New Song Out Sunday 10th June

Tomorrow I will be releasing ‘Stranded’, the 9th song of my ten-song experimental music project. This new song is a melancholy instrumental which evokes a feeling of being stranded at sea. I’ll be publishing a blog post with a link at 10am tomorrow so you can listen to the song.

 

A Few Personal Reflections

I’m excited to be nearing the end of my music project; it’s been a lot of fun! If you weren’t already aware, I’m running a competition to decide the album title and win a free copy of the album and a special prize – all you have to do is submit a suggestion for what the initials T.E.N. might stand for. To read all about the project and competition, click here and scroll down.
This week I’ve continued on my quest to get healthy. I’m halfway to my ideal weight goal, and have managed to keep up the diet and exercise, despite struggling for motivation at times. One of the hardest things has been craving sugar in the evenings after dinner over the last few days. So far I’ve managed to resist. Phew!
In my efforts to deal with my neighbour’s screaming, growling (!), and loud music, I’ve added some sound-proofing insulation strips to my doors. These have actually made a difference! The hardest thing to deal with is that he spends all day bullying his cat, which really frustrates me. If only the solution were as simple as talking to him! Sigh. Your prayers for a breakthrough are very much appreciated.


Question of the Week

Have you ever had a near-death experience?

Let me know in the comments!

 

Does Life Have Purpose?

In this week’s philosophy post we’ll be looking at the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius, whose Stoic philosophy demonstrated a belief in the ultimate meaninglessness of all things.

Who Was He?

Aurelius lived from 121-180 AD. He was the adopted son of the Emperor Pius, and himself became Roman Emperor for nearly 20 years in the period leading up to his death. We have only one work from Aurelius entitled Meditations or Writings to Himself, allegedly written in the midst of the Parthian war, a long conflict between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic / Roman Empire.

As a convert to Stoicism, he became interested in a variety of social problems including slavery, imprisonment, and poverty, although at the same time was responsible, as emperor, for the persecution of the Christian population, who posed a threat to Roman polytheism.

What’s the Big Idea?

The Meditations contain a series of philosophical exercises designed to put into practice philosophical theory and thereby to transform Aurelius’s own behaviour and his entire way of life. He didn’t believe in an afterlife, instead supposing that everything we strive after will be condemned to oblivion. This considered, he believed desire is really pointless, except the desire for death, which has some merit as it marks the end of all desires. The best we can hope to achieve in life is to master our thoughts and try to suffer as little as possible.

My Reflections

Researching the thought of Aurelius I couldn’t help but think of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, with its message that all of our toil is mere ‘vanity and grasping for the wind’. But at the same time that Aurelius was philosophising with his Stoic contemporaries, presenting a message which focused on the insignificance of our lives, Christianity was emerging with its message that human beings have the hope of eternal life if they will turn to Jesus, repent, and follow him.

I can understand how philosophers like Aurelius can find a certain peace of mind in embracing the view that our lives are ultimately meaningless. It can be comforting to think everything will simply end, and that nothing really matters. On the other hand, if in reality there is a single omnipotent God who lives eternally, and in whom we live and move and have our being, our worldly actions can be seen to have an eternal purpose, and even eternal consequences, if we are to face judgment one day as Christians believe.

In next Friday’s philosophy post we’ll be moving from Stoicism to Scepticism and the thought of another Roman philosopher named Sextus Empiricus. If you’d like to receive an email every time I post, please consider subscribing. Thank you for reading!

Unconditional Love

In this post I’d like to share a few thoughts about love, and specifically how love operates in the life of a Christian. I will argue that the Christian worldview presents a God who loves conditionally, and that this fails to satisfy our innate longing for unconditional love.

We have in the New Testament a wonderful definition of love given by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. He says the following:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

It’s interesting that Paul says love keeps no record of wrongs, as within the Christian worldview we all deserve punishment from God for our wrongs. It would seem that Paul’s definition of love doesn’t apply to God. In response to this point the Christian might say Jesus’ function is to erase the wrongs of those who turn from their sin and follow Him. That’s the condition that we need to meet to be deserving of God’s love.

In the above scripture Paul also says that love does not delight in evil, which makes me wonder whether God is delighting in evil when He casts unbelievers into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). Of course many Christians present the argument that God’s justice somehow demands that He must send unbelievers to hell, but this is a ridiculous argument because God is in control of all things and can do whatever He pleases. He is not compelled to do anything – that’s what makes Him God.

According to the Christian worldview, the only way to avoid God’s wrath and punishment is to obey the commands of Christ (see John 14:21). God’s love is not unconditional, but conditional. This puts the Christian in a rather difficult position, because during evangelistic activities he/she is compelled to convey the conditional love of God (with a warning about damnation), rather than unconditional love. I believe this creates an awkward tension, and is necessarily divisive. I believe people are often dismissive of Christians because the message of love is conditional, while we all have an innate desire to experience unconditional love. I believe this is the reason why a lot of the time people resist the call the follow Jesus.

Of course, Jesus knew that His message would be divisive (Luke 12:51-52).

I don’t think there’s any escaping the fact that the Christian worldview presents a God who is hostile towards some people. An alternative worldview would be one where every being is loved unconditionally by God, and in which Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Bahá’ís, and others, all have an important part to play in God’s grand scheme, which He is unfolding in accordance with His sovereign will. From this perspective, every human being has a purpose, and a unique calling, not only those who choose to follow Christ. While each individual journey may involve suffering as part of God’s intricately crafted plan, He eventually liberates everyone. That would be unconditional love.

If you’d like to explore the topics covered in this post in greater depth, you may be interested in my book entitled ‘Ultimate Truth: God Beyond Religion’. You can read all about it and watch the book trailer here. Thank you for reading!

Wayfaring Stranger

Welcome to this week’s music post! Today I’m delighted to share a song that has been a real blessing to me in times of trouble. Many of you will have heard this song before, as it’s a popular traditional spiritual song, but you won’t necessarily have heard this version.

The performance is by J. D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet. Sumner is perhaps best known for being one of Elvis’s backing singers, although he also enjoyed success with the various quartets in which he sang during the course of his 60 year career.  As you will hear, Sumner had an incredible bass voice, and I’ve heard it said that he sang the lowest note ever recorded of a human voice. Wow!

Please enjoy this song and let me know what you think in the comments below.