Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
The Wall is with Robert Frost on this. bit.ly/bc-eschatology
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
–Robert Frost
According to Robert Frost, yes, at least for New Englanders. The thing is, he was actually from San Francisco… No, but seriously, he got it turned around. Good neighbors make good fences.
In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the philosopher Roy Sorensen says, sensibly, “No experiment could support the hypothesis ‘There is nothing’ because any observation obviously implies the existence of an observer.” (For less empirical arguments,
Humans aren’t really designed to do that. There is research going on, some of it quite dark and scary. (bit.ly/bc-thanatos). And if you meet a genie and make a wish, remember to wish for immortality AND eternal youth. bit.ly/bc-youth.
As both a source of pain (when it’s rebuffed or withheld) and pleasure (when it’s reciprocated) it certainly contains multitudes & conflicts. If it weren’t a paradox, then Pascal Bruckner’s bestseller in France, Paradoxe Amoureux, or Paradox of Love (bit.ly/BC-paradox – click Books at JSTOR for English version), might not have been a bestseller. It’s also paradoxical in that the more you give,
Affirmations are good wherever they come from. It’s powerful to create your own affirmations, but sometimes folks are so down that affirmations from outside help to jump-start the supply from within. And sometimes it’s just nice to know and hear that others think well of you.
You ask a question with many, many answers. C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Four Loves (O’Neill Library BV4639 .L45 1988), drawing on the Greek notions of love in the Bible: Storge (empathy) Philia (friend) Eros (erotic) and Agape (unconditional “God” love). Here’s Shakespeare’s take on it in sonnet 116: bit.ly/shake-love. (Maybe that’s Eros.) One might also note familial love, unrequited love, the love of knowledge (philosophy)… it’s a long list. Which is “real”? I think all of them are. What do they share? The object of love is the focus of total trust & devotion.
Adulting involves some seriously hard stuff. But shying away from the adult role doesn’t lead to as fulfilling a life as tackling it and learning that you are strong enough to succeed (with failure/learning along the way.) It’s normal to be apprehensive, but I have faith that you can meet the challenge. Help from YouTube: bit.ly/AdultingHelp
Maybe. There are many health benefits to owning a dog, including improved mental and physical health. Therapy dogs can provide similar de-stressing opportunities and the chance to focus on something other than yourself, however briefly. If you’re asking if they can absolve you of sin and cleanse your soul of that weight….it might better to talk to a member of the clergy.
The Catholic Church is committed to traditions. This is both a strength and a weakness. However, any institution as old as the Church that places such a high importance on tradition is going to have some vestiges of old (and unfair) power structures in place. It was (and to a large extent remains) the case that men held most positions of power in all areas of life throughout history – whether that was the church, politics (ignoring the inseparability of the two for a second), on down to the individual household.
Walls have many choices when it comes to careers. We can separate areas; protect people and things from the elements (in a team with roofs and floors); we can go into marketing and provide space for posters and fliers to promote events; and some walls have a sacred duty to stand as memorials. When I started answering questions here, I could tell I had found my passion; it just felt right.
I mean, great character and all, but there’s a listicle you should look at: bit.ly/bc-ten
Ultimately, you get to decide that, but there are lots of people you can talk to for advice – your academic advisor, University Counseling Services (bit.ly/BC-counseling) or the Career Center (bit.ly/BC-career). It’s great you’re thinking about it, and I trust you can find a balance between experiencing the now and working towards the future.
A lot of people, they don’t think it be like it is, but it do. It could be worthwhile studying either the problem of evil (AKA theodicy: bit.ly/bc-theodicy1) or perhaps the liberation from suffering that is the goal of Buddhism (bit.ly/stanford-buddhism). Or any major religion, really – all of whom in some way attempt to come to terms with the question: why does suffering exist?
All kinds of things happen, some for the better, some for the worse, for you or for others. Our individual points of view are quite limited, and nobody can ever know all the direct or indirect effects of any joyful or sad event. We can all work to alleviate pain & suffering & celebrate and mourn in fellowship with others. If things bring people together, maybe that’s a sufficient kind of working out.
That is a big question that lots of people have wrestled with. Leibniz called it a theodicy, and I can offer a variety of suggested reading. TLDR: The Christian view tends to be that human freedom to choose has to include the possibility of evil. Here’s a general take from a favorite source, the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas: bit.ly/bc-theodicy1. For a more Catholic view: bit.ly/bc-theodicy2. and for a classic more popular treatment, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”: bit.ly/bc-theodicy3.
Ah, a classic logic problem which lots of thinkers have addressed. It’s called the omnipotence paradox, and there are a variety of responses to it. Actually entertaining Wikipedia article: bit.ly/bc-omni. More technical discussion: bit.ly/bc-omni2. Aquinas argues that logic still applies: Even an omnipotent being can’t do something impossible. Augustine argues that God must act according to his nature, which means he can’t create anything omnipotent. The Wall’s favorite modern response is that the question is just a pile of words: if God is omnipotent, “could not lift” doesn’t make sense.
Plato, that big name philosopher born 427-ish BCE? (bit.ly/SEP-plato) No. Some guy named Plato, maybe? Ask him if he’s interested. Fingers crossed.
To our joy and sorrow, probably not. The reasons for joy are real, as are the reasons for sorrow. You’d probably enjoy the idealist philosopher George Berkeley (bit.ly/bishop-berkeley), though you may find his pure idealism jarringly more radical than the possibility that we’re living in a simulation, which presupposes a material reality that’s creating the illusion in which we live. Berkeley would dispense with that materialist nonsense rather quickly.
It depends on how you define “thought”. Bees have demonstrated behavior that goes beyond instinct. They can solve experimental problems never encountered in nature. They make decisions based on an effort/reward calculation. They communicate what they learn to each other. But has a bee ever wondered whether to be or not to be? That is a very good question.
