"And when such claims are extraordinary, that is, revolutionary in their implications for established scientific generalizations already accumulated and verified, we must demand extraordinary proof." - Marcello Truzzi.
To be blunt, I did not agree with what Amy Frykholm had to say about apocalypticism at all. The driving force behind acopalypticism, the idea that a person can never be wrong because there is no way to prove it won't happen is madness. If we were to apply the same logic to any other situation, it wouldn't be acceptable. For example, if I claim to be holding a million dollars behind my back, someone would ask me to prove it, and I would have to produce the evidence of my claim, the one million dollars. Now, stay with me. Because I claim to have a million dollars, I bear the burden of proof.
Returning to apocalypticism, if I make a prediction about the end of the world I bear the burden of proof. Since I am making such a huge claim, I should produce sufficient evidence if I expect people to believe me. I cannot ask people to prove me wrong, to prove a negative because doing so would be a logical fallacy. There is nothing wrong with not believing something if there is no evidence to support a claim.
The persistent nature of acpocalypticism in our country is a frightening idea to me, especially the growing number of people who give up on the world and make no effort to better society. As a secular individual, I do not believe that the answer is to work to better ourselves and our world for the coming of Christ. Yet, I strive to do the right thing every single day. I do this not because I believe that I'll be rewarded for it in the end, or I'll be punished if I don't. I do so because I believe in the inherent worth of every human being, and that we have to make the best of this life we are so lucky to have.
I would like to know if the second great awakening is going to be our primary focus, and if there were any secular movements happening during the time period. I do know the Universalist movement began during this time period (a group that believed no one was damned and would be sent to hell) but I've only seen them mentioned in footnotes or named briefly so far.
Paige,
ReplyDeleteLots of passion here and much that we can discuss at length.
One small response to your response to Frykholm: most adherents to a narrowly Christian sort of apocalypticism would assert that their views are grounded in a proper reading of the Bible. While you, and many others including the majority of Christians, might disagree with that reading, to those who are convinced, the evidence is sound.
If you do not accept Frykhom's explanation, then there must be another to account for this movements.
I'll be interested in your response to the reading for Friday in which the author traces certain impulses that have their roots in Christianity into other movements, including some such as those Johnson describes and Transcendentalism which we'll return to later.
When you select the group to include in your first writing assignment, you might look at the Universalists, though we had not necessarily thought that these examples would be explicitly religious groups.
LDL