My copy of Rebellion of Thought arrived in Saturday's mail and I've been watching it today. It seems to me there have been some changes since the version I saw screened a year ago here in Charlottesville. Great film! I am thrilled to have Story of Our Lies, the included in the soundtrack. The soundtrack rocks - I am in some fine company. I'm not sure when the Soundtrack CD's will be available - they sent us advance copies for now.
The Rebellion of Thought DVD has the entire Soundtrack and all of the Artist Bios as one of the Special Features.
I've watched the pre-release version about 4 times, and in viewing Rebellion of Thought again I was struck this time around by the attitude of most of the "experts" in the film toward the idea of Absolute Truth. The term is tossed around quite a bit in the film. Most of the religious experts view Absolute Truth as an idea which has the polar possibility of an "Absolute False". The idea that there may be a God is either Absolutely True or Absolutely False.
As though Absolute means a Duality with a great deal of space between the Extremes, but no Continuum of Ideas within that Space. Along the way from Hot to Cold we find an abundance of warmer, warm, cool and cooler. There is no such continuum of ideas with respect to the Truth or Falseness of God. There is no partial truth about God or Not God. So goes the argument.
That seems odd. Anything with the possibility of a polar other, or opposite, is a Relative Thing, not an Absolute Thing. Even the filmmakers cite the idea that "We will all die" as an Absolute Truth. It is not. The fact that all humans will ultimately stop being human is a Relative Truth. We will be dead humans compared to living humans. Even Christians acknowledge the continuation of the conscious life of the spirit, albeit in the continuing Relative Imagery of "heaven" as opposed to "hell".
The idea of an Absolute Truth having the possibility of a polar "other" is odd to me. It misses the point entirely I am certain.
The concept of Absolute is not "part of" the concept of Relativity. Nor is it "other than".
The concept of Absolute Anything is a concept that has no other side; no relative other.
It just IS, and is accepted as such in polightened** company.
One cannot say what The Absolute IS. One can however refer to The Absolute by saying what it is not, or what it is like.
And one can know The Absolute, up close and personal, for it's simply and gloriously the "Christ" within***, to use one reference point. The knowing within that manifests Relative Truths like The Golden Rule. It's what theologians should mean when they talk about "accepting Christ" personally, but mostly it is not.
An Absolute Truth would be more along the lines of "all humans and the planet and universe originated in the same creative moment that continues to unfold". No matter what your creation story, there is "no other side" to this simple obvious truth.
The Absolute Truth, sadly for the religious experts is indeed One's Own Truth. It is indeed that simple, that glorious, and that scary if one has no faith in the Creation Story they claim, and perhaps even their Awakening - or Evolution - Story.
***
The other odd manifestation of the experts' misunderstanding of Absolute and Relative showed up in their claim that "Relativism" is when each of us has our own truth. When we put Truth into God's Realm they claim, then we will know Absolute Truth.
Flat backwards.
Placing God in a position of "Other Than" man is the very (obvious) basis of Relativism, at least Spiritual Relativism, which is what we are on about here. This view states that God created us, we are separate, God has the truth and we do not. Yet.
When each of us possesses the Truth of God within ourselves, we are instantly United with God, Unified - the very basis of Absolutism. No Other Side. No Other Source.
I Am. It.
Of course this scares the crap out of theologians...
The brothers Williamson on the other hand seem to be getting it. They are asking some crazy good questions. The experts seemed to miss the point, which I think is the film's point. That's my analysis so far anyway... ;^)
More importantly, the brothers Williamson seem to be living their questions!! That is impressive, promising and radically threatening to the church structure. The idea of living the questions is one I highly recommend. (The idea is presented in the song Grasshopper on my upcoming CD It's Time That Time Was Overthrown.)
The Rebellion of Thought DVD has great special features, with over an hour of unedited interviews from many folks in the film - stuff that got cut from the final mix, but rounds out many of the perspectives very nicely.
Check It Out!
available at Amazon dot com and Barnes and Noble dot com and others...
website: Rebellion of Thought
Dance In the Moment,
Greg Allen
footnotes:
*The Absolute can indeed be seen as a Duality with No Continuum between the Extremes; however there is No Continuum because there is No Space between the Extremes; for they have merged into The Absolute...
**Polightened = Polite Enlightened (copyright me 2007)
***Hint: Not the Jesus within...
The Rebellion of Thought DVD has the entire Soundtrack and all of the Artist Bios as one of the Special Features.
I've watched the pre-release version about 4 times, and in viewing Rebellion of Thought again I was struck this time around by the attitude of most of the "experts" in the film toward the idea of Absolute Truth. The term is tossed around quite a bit in the film. Most of the religious experts view Absolute Truth as an idea which has the polar possibility of an "Absolute False". The idea that there may be a God is either Absolutely True or Absolutely False.
As though Absolute means a Duality with a great deal of space between the Extremes, but no Continuum of Ideas within that Space. Along the way from Hot to Cold we find an abundance of warmer, warm, cool and cooler. There is no such continuum of ideas with respect to the Truth or Falseness of God. There is no partial truth about God or Not God. So goes the argument.
That seems odd. Anything with the possibility of a polar other, or opposite, is a Relative Thing, not an Absolute Thing. Even the filmmakers cite the idea that "We will all die" as an Absolute Truth. It is not. The fact that all humans will ultimately stop being human is a Relative Truth. We will be dead humans compared to living humans. Even Christians acknowledge the continuation of the conscious life of the spirit, albeit in the continuing Relative Imagery of "heaven" as opposed to "hell".
The idea of an Absolute Truth having the possibility of a polar "other" is odd to me. It misses the point entirely I am certain.
The concept of Absolute is not "part of" the concept of Relativity. Nor is it "other than".
The concept of Absolute Anything is a concept that has no other side; no relative other.
It just IS, and is accepted as such in polightened** company.
One cannot say what The Absolute IS. One can however refer to The Absolute by saying what it is not, or what it is like.
And one can know The Absolute, up close and personal, for it's simply and gloriously the "Christ" within***, to use one reference point. The knowing within that manifests Relative Truths like The Golden Rule. It's what theologians should mean when they talk about "accepting Christ" personally, but mostly it is not.
An Absolute Truth would be more along the lines of "all humans and the planet and universe originated in the same creative moment that continues to unfold". No matter what your creation story, there is "no other side" to this simple obvious truth.
The Absolute Truth, sadly for the religious experts is indeed One's Own Truth. It is indeed that simple, that glorious, and that scary if one has no faith in the Creation Story they claim, and perhaps even their Awakening - or Evolution - Story.
***
The other odd manifestation of the experts' misunderstanding of Absolute and Relative showed up in their claim that "Relativism" is when each of us has our own truth. When we put Truth into God's Realm they claim, then we will know Absolute Truth.
Flat backwards.
Placing God in a position of "Other Than" man is the very (obvious) basis of Relativism, at least Spiritual Relativism, which is what we are on about here. This view states that God created us, we are separate, God has the truth and we do not. Yet.
When each of us possesses the Truth of God within ourselves, we are instantly United with God, Unified - the very basis of Absolutism. No Other Side. No Other Source.
I Am. It.
Of course this scares the crap out of theologians...
The brothers Williamson on the other hand seem to be getting it. They are asking some crazy good questions. The experts seemed to miss the point, which I think is the film's point. That's my analysis so far anyway... ;^)
More importantly, the brothers Williamson seem to be living their questions!! That is impressive, promising and radically threatening to the church structure. The idea of living the questions is one I highly recommend. (The idea is presented in the song Grasshopper on my upcoming CD It's Time That Time Was Overthrown.)
The Rebellion of Thought DVD has great special features, with over an hour of unedited interviews from many folks in the film - stuff that got cut from the final mix, but rounds out many of the perspectives very nicely.
Check It Out!
available at Amazon dot com and Barnes and Noble dot com and others...
website: Rebellion of Thought
Dance In the Moment,
Greg Allen
footnotes:
*The Absolute can indeed be seen as a Duality with No Continuum between the Extremes; however there is No Continuum because there is No Space between the Extremes; for they have merged into The Absolute...
**Polightened = Polite Enlightened (copyright me 2007)
***Hint: Not the Jesus within...
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