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Nah... He took off to California in the pile of junk car his friends bought him for his 21st birthday and went looking for Minnie Driver at UC Berkeley. No one knows what happened thereafter...
I knew egghead....er.. I mean troop would know the answer.
I knew egghead....er.. I mean troop would know the answer.
So tell us...what happened thereafter.
In an ideal world, he found Minnie Driver at UC Berkeley and courted her until they ended up getting married. He found a good job that suited him well but tried to stay out of the limelight because people always insisted he could do so much better with his life every time they found out he was a genius.
He only used his genius when it was necessary (like how he initially interacted with Minnie Driver) but kept most of his talents a secret. Kind of like Clark Kent only being Superman when he needed to be Superman.
He lived the rest of his life always wondering just how far his capabilities could have taken him but content with what he was doing and how he lived his life. Minnie Driver and he grew old together and died together.
Of course, that's an ideal world...
What probably happened is he was halfway to California and the car coughed and sputtered on the highway until it died. As he was examining the car on the side of the road, a highway patrolman stopped to see what was going on. After questioning him about his clunker car not meeting certain state inspection criteria, he called the search dogs out to check the car. Hidden behind the bumper from the previous owner was a stash of marijuana. Upon this finding, they arrested Will Hunting and due to his numerous priors they gave him a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years. In prison, he was gangraped, beaten, and almost killed several times. After he's released from prison, he's addicted to drugs and has AIDS from the prison gangrapes. The system that was supposed to reform him ended up destroying him and he has no other place to turn to except to wait out his untimely and early death. He dies homeless, on the streets, with nowhere to turn to and no one willing to take in a prior convicted criminal. Minnie Driver thinks he had forever forsaken her and marries an abusive drunken Irishman who belittles her every chance he gets.
Why do you think Jesus spoke in parables if not all are fully able to really appreciate the beauty of parables? Why not just say it so all can understand? Do you think it is so we are to see what we are intended to see? If there is no eternal hell, are humans capable of being decent people overall without that fear? If people made up hell, do you think that they might have in some sense created it and not God, since hell is eternal separation from God, God can't go to hell, so how could he create a place where he cannot go, and if it is his 'mind' so to say that created it, part of him would indeed be there right? If he does go, it is no longer hell because God is there at the time. If God went to hell, but it was still a horrible pace, would you go just to be with God? What is your position on women in the Church? You can elliminate some questions if you wish, or all, but I would really appreciate 'June insight' on the last, I'm only asking June, that is the name of the thread so I think I can say that.
Dear mb64282,
For a moment there, June almost panicked in thinking that perhaps you were asking her as many questions as the number in your screen name! --In all seriousness, though, yours is one of the more compelling as well as intriguing posts of 'Ask June" questions that June has been asked thus far. That is because it calls upon what Mystic referred to as June's right and left brain functioning, and despite her obvious deficiencies in both those areas, she's going to give it her best shot. She may, however, have to answer your questions in more than one post, as she may have to 'ponder' one or two. "Just June" is nothing if not just so justly thorough in her thought processes...
1- June thinks that Jesus spoke in parable for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that Jesus was clearly a real smart guy in ways that would seem to deceive right and left brain intelligence, or even what Bunjee was talking about in an earlier post. While June doesn't question the fact that to some degree Jesus spoke in parables due to cultural and societal reasons based upon when he lived, June thinks that there is much wisdom, independent of that, as evidenced by his having done so. The beauty of a parable is that it is open ended. It calls for interpretation. It might have been far easier for Jesus to have simply said "Do this, do that, that's it." --But he didn't. Parables call upon the listener to become more engaged. Parables are far more compelling and as such, they tend to endure over time...They are more readily retold, and they call upon far more than just a "right/wrong" reductionist type brain. June would hope, (in response to your question) that parables were utilized so that one could "see what one was intended to see" however, that is the very beauty of parables, is it not? They're fluid; interpretive. And hopefully, one 'sees' in them something that is somehow of meaning. If so, they will have served a purpose. -And in the event they are transformative to the listener, then they might well have served their overall purpose...
June is going to promise to get back to you regarding the rest of your queries in "Ask June." She wants to both think about them, as well as be honest in her response. So June is asking you for patience and forgiveness in her saying: Stay tuned.
Nah... He took off to California in the pile of junk car his friends bought him for his 21st birthday and went looking for Minnie Driver at UC Berkeley.
No one knows what happened thereafter...
Dear Will,
June does: They lived happily ever after, of course.
Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?
Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
If a black box on a plane is indestructible, why don`t they make the whole plane out of it?
Why is it that when you transport something by car,it`s called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship,it`s called cargo?
Why does your nose run,but your feet smell?
Why is it,whether you sit up or sit down,the result is the same?
Why call it a building if it`s already built?
Why does an alarm clock "go off" when it begins ringing?
How can there be self help "Groups"?
Isn`t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?
Why is it called a near miss when you don`t hit something?
Why did God give men nipples?
Dear spm62,
Ah, but June has always dreamed of driving down one of those interstate parkways in Hawaii!!! --She has not only heard that they are beautiful, but she has heard that she could rent an indestructible car that is completely made out of black boxes in order to safeguard her ultimate destination while driving: The beach! Yes, the beach, where June would await a cargo full of suitable suitors in the anticipated shipment. As such, she would make damn sure that her 'just June' adorable feet did not smell! And at the sight of the incoming cargo of suitable suitors, June would most assuredly take notice and sit up! From there, it would just be a matter of finding the right kind of building where no heed needed to be paid to alarm clocks. June would of course have made sure that she had informed her practice that she would be away for a few days, having referred her patients to self-help groups in her absence. And June would ensure that she did not encounter a 'near miss' of any sort in the aftermath of having pondered those larger, ultimate realities of life while she was away in Hawaii: Namely, why God gave men nipples...
I'm gonna weary you so this will be my last question, at least along these lines. To paraphrase Kierkegaard again, belief carries the sense that doubt and faith exist hand in hand, are coexisting forces that sweep like sciroccos through our minds. (In truth, I'm offended by the notion commonly expressed that faith is unthinking.) So I don't think there are absolutes for posters or mods!
I suppose I was taking a mechanical, practical view when I spoke of "cognitive strategies", rather than asking of the ultimate, existential perspective. BTW, that's one I understand so this isn't a post of contention or even disagreement. But, for example, there was the anecdote of Helen Keller who was deaf and blind yet still had a sense of God. Of course, we could argue she'd already been indoctrinated when she testified to it. There are threads that claim babies are born atheist, but I wonder, Is there proof? We have anthropology to account for the opposite. History. I have anecdotes from having attended funerals where hard atheists themselves begin to ponder The Other. An acquaintance of mine is a researcher in cognitive psychology and is still mystified by the God impulse. I guess the only way to scientific testability is, well, I don't suppose it would be within the scope of the thread to ask if you'd sacrifice a generation of babies to be raised isolated, to test the psychological inclination for belief... OT, though...might be "fun"... But if they're told they're wrong, that it's only animistic thinking, isn't that indoctrination too? Who isn't indoctrinated? I can only speak for myself that the thorough deconstruction through existential reasoning did not feel natural. For me, personally, it felt very contrived. So from that preamble and amble and amble, my real question is, Whereas I may struggle in that Kierkegaard sense of faith and doubt, though I unwaveringly believe in God, does your existential atheism ever become likewise a mental chore, though you remain unwaveringly an atheist?
Oh, dear Bunjee,
WOW!
June is going to try and be as coy (and as honest) as she can be!
June was raised among wolves. As such, June can attest to the fact that our friend Kierkegaard might just have been on to something...In her isolated, raised-by-wolves state, June would be totally dishonest if she said that she didn't question whether or not anything apart from, and outside of herself didn't exist...Perhaps that is precisely what eventually led June to become a psychotherapist who leans more towards an object relational orientation of human beings...
What is compelling about someone like Helen Keller is the fact that while she was initially able to see and hear, she lost both faculties at a very young age. (While still in infancy, or at least prior to the ability to verbally form constructs that she could attribute to objects.) So your question is more than a valid one, for the likes of June, in having been raised among wolves. It seems to go to the heart of the matter, whereby one cannot help but ask whether human beings are somehow driven to seek and find something outside of themselves? Are we "all there is, all that is?" --Are we, (in doing so) nothing more than what Freud would attribute to seekers of primary narcissistic states, wherein all we may ultimately find is ourselves?
But alas! Both Helen Keller along with the newborn infant have the capacity to seek, and find something outside of themselves. In finding the 'other' (primary narcissistic 'love') they in turn find themselves. Thus, we have the most primitive aspect, most early beginnings of ego formation...And, (if all goes according to developmental plan) the infant in becoming a child in becoming an adult will traverse the developmental course to ever strive to seek his/her own self outside of his/herself in order to more fully engage in and become one self. (Throw in a bit of Freud and its almost mystical, wouldn't you say?)
In short: Unless there was truly some way to raise many, many human beings from birth on in complete, total isolation, it's difficult to truly know the answer to your question...Except when one looks into the research that has been done with children raised in orphanages, void of human contact. If June's not mistaken, the research results yielded that they were depressed, void of emotion, and in essence, had no will to live.
So what can June conclude from all this? Either Freud was right, and we are merely ego driven, self compensating beings who look to reinforce our own narcissism, or we are something else. (Introduce Maslow here, among others...)
June thinks this: There is no question in her mind that human beings such as herself, whether raised by wolves or otherwise, at some point (given the sufficient cognitive capacity) will ask 'existentially oriented' questions. As such, it is a matter of their cultural upbringing, their childhood and other past experiences, along with a smattering of temperment that will yield the final results as regards those 'questions.' (Introduce Maslow that much more fiercly here, along with a bit of Frankl.)
June needs to apologize for her answer here, given the fact that it is Friday, and by the end of the week both her right and left brain functioning* (*see Mystic post) is all that much more diminished. However, June has to end with two compelling observations:
1- For someone who professes to "unwaveringly believe in God," how do YOU reconcile Kierkegaard's notion of faith vs. doubt existing hand in hand? June of course realizes the ultimate 'cruelty' entailed in the concept, if for no other reason, we all needed a reason to understand 'existential angst.' June hates existential angst. And lastly:
2- Your question: "Does your existential atheism ever become likewise a mental chore, though you remain unwaveringly an atheist?" A "mental chore," no. Some other type of chore: yes.
In an ideal world, he found Minnie Driver at UC Berkeley and courted her until they ended up getting married. He found a good job that suited him well but tried to stay out of the limelight because people always insisted he could do so much better with his life every time they found out he was a genius.
He only used his genius when it was necessary (like how he initially interacted with Minnie Driver) but kept most of his talents a secret. Kind of like Clark Kent only being Superman when he needed to be Superman.
He lived the rest of his life always wondering just how far his capabilities could have taken him but content with what he was doing and how he lived his life. Minnie Driver and he grew old together and died together.
Of course, that's an ideal world...
Dear Will,
Dear God, you just disclosed your world!
-June loves when she is right.
Now be a good boy, cling to your atheist prayer beads, and don't give June a hard time! Remember: She has scores of big, brawny moose hunters up in Maine who would jump to her defense in a heartbeat!
Why does June speak of herself in the third person? (sorry if that has already been asked)
Dear Sundance,
Kindly refer to:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sophialee
Why does June speak in the third person?
Thanks,
Sophia
Quote:
Originally Posted by June 7th
Because she can.
Take gentle already answered care,
-June
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