The Giver
December 2, 2007 by leavingeden
Yes, that Lois Lowry book you probably read in fourth grade. It’s about a utopian society where there is no pain or suffering, but also no great joy or love– for everyone except the Receiver, the one member of society who knows the full breadth of human experience. Having Received the memories of failed societies from those before him, he uses that knowledge to advise the community on how to avoid them. When a new Receiver is chosen, the old Receiver becomes the Giver, transmits his memories and experiences to the new Receiver, allowing him to experience them firsthand. Only after having felt pain and sorrow can the Receiver fully know the consequences of failed society.
I wish I could Give my memories to someone. The good as well as the bad. I can talk about them, I can write about them, but words are only a symbolic approximation and fall far short of actual experience. Can you truly understand anything unless you’ve experienced it firsthand?
The things I most wish I could Give are the good memories I have from being a Christian– of landmarks in my spiritual development, “conversion experiences,” etc. Things that were my most precious memories when I was a Christian, but are no longer so meaningful to me now. In fact, I knew I had truly become an atheist when I realized those memories no longer meant much to me.
I’m not ashamed of having been a Christian. But I wish I could give those experiences to someone who would appreciate them. I think they deserve better than the back alley of my long-term memory.
I’ve been posting more prolifically this week than I ever have. That’s because it is absolutely killing me to write devotionals and papers on my spiritual development and Integrate Faith and Learning “For Christ and His Kingdom”. Not to mention reading things like Alister McGrath, who for God’s sake just needs to shut up about Dawkins and get his own material already.
I’m interested in LE’s new philosophy of spirituality.
I noticed that LE used the word “soul” - that seems out of sync to me with good old fashioned, crisp atheistic thinking. I resonate with much of what LE writes, but I don’t understand “spirituality” language and “soul” language - it doesn’t seem to fit for me. That’s the purview of religion. Maybe not.
Perhaps LE could frame that for us. Perhaps it’s simply left-over language from his bygone religion. Or, perhaps he is using it his new context?
On the definition of “soul”, I’ll defer to my Wheaton Psych 101 professor: “I don’t believe we have souls. I believe we are souls.” Soul = mind + body.
Colloquially, when I say that pretending to be a Christian, etc. is killing my soul, I mean that acting against my beliefs (or nonbelief) is so contradictory to some fundamental part of me that it feels like I am losing that part of me by shutting it away. Accompanied by an almost-physical sickening sensation, like a very small carnivore is eating me from the inside.
Right. That’s a patently Christian understanding of soul - from your Wheaton Pysch prof. He/she would define it as soul = mind, body, spirit - some sort of fully integrated being. You leave out the so-called Christian part - the “spirit” - but I guess I don’t see much difference. You use the same framework. Whatever. You need to do more reading in the atheistic tradition. You definitely know the Christian one.
Actually, he didn’t include spirit, because he didn’t believe that humans have an immaterial spirit (most Christians, or Wheaton students at least, use “soul” to be synonymous with “spirit” anyway). There are Christians who are materialists when it comes to human beings, and “soul” is used only in a material sense. As long as we agree on that point, I don’t see any reason why atheists shouldn’t be able to adopt a framework that also might be adopted by Christians. I am a materialist and I don’t believe in God. That makes me an atheist. I thought the point of atheism was that there is no tradition or doctrine to have to adhere to.
Makes sense. I think, though, that not only is all thinking socially derived - all thinking is evangelistic. Everyone wants to convert or subdue the other person into his/her understanding of truth.
That, of course, makes it difficult for everyone to be reasonable and just get along. But it’s a goal worth pursuing. Good luck finding a Christian who just wants to be your friend, without an agenda to covert your materialistic being into a soul for eternity.