#false virtue

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Consider that sin is never a whit the less filthy, vile and abominable - by its being coloured and painted with virtue's colours.

Thomas Brooks

[liberty1776]

False Virtue: The Phony Rationale for American Military Imperialism | To...

[a-ginlynn]

[zencurious]

a kind of religion —

Mystified by our perpetual darkness,

and the arrogance of our lower ignorant self,

we worship in search of communion with a divine.

Many false gods, egomaniacs, slippery-tongued gurus we praise

Turning any hint of charm and wit into religion.

Their art becomes a type of religion,

A transcendence we sorely need like an agonizing thirst we need quenching.

Rightly so we are moved by their magic,

Access to another’s magnificence

We become thus the privileged.

Knowledge is a type of religion

Through mathematics and poetry,

Empiricism and favoritism, educational constructs, we pray.

Commercialism, Democracy, Truth-seeking become a kind of religion.

Here on earth, in this life,

Meaningful things accessible to us down here, in this heaven below

We fancy ourselves gods,

Diluting the beauty of the mysteries unknown, unknowable?

Confusing independent thought with freedom

Lulled by the freedom from the constraints of life’s base hardships

Free to express excesses echoing, mostly unchallenged intelligently

we pray…

—🪶

Day 14. May Series

[patcegan]

False Virtue False virtue, beware self-deception is a trap be true to yourself

[roohafsa]

Pride/Modesty

My parents raised my siblings and me with few absolutes: the world is a complicated place, full of nuance and uncertainties. It is always better to answer a question with “it depends”. I’ve realized that I often still begin an answer with that phrase. However, they did raise us with the one truth: the notion that pride is the fault of the universe. 

This, of course, came directly from the Qur’an. Pride is noted in passage after passage as the destroyer of humankind. The coward is prideful, the robber is prideful, and the kings are prideful. Stephen Prothero goes even so far to say that pride is the ultimate question of the religion of Islam. And though I am not sure I agree with him, I cannot say I know enough about Islam to counter the argument.

It is for this reason, I think, that all three of us have a quiet demeanor among strangers and a willingness to undervalue our own worth. In a man, this might have resulted in a certain amount of stoicism – the way that it has manifested itself in my younger brother, in whatever stoicism one can have at nineteen. In my sister and myself, however, it has become nothing short of an extreme modesty. Indeed, it is only with one another that we are able to exclaim our own accomplishments, whether they are in relation to good wit or intelligence.

I cannot complain that my modesty has not gotten me places. In my travels, my friendships, and in the classroom it makes me inquisitive and honest. I realize now that what I have learned of others is through questions that I have asked them, questions that I would not have had time to ask if I had spent it talking about myself. I realize, too, that I search for modesty in others. Since it is what I was taught to value, it is how I assess another person’s kindness and good nature. My friends exhibit their own reserve in multiple ways, though I gravitate towards those who use humor to cover their own faults.

Modesty is also why applying to graduate school has been an extremely taxing experience. Every time I sit down at the laptop, I do not feel like writing about my intelligence, my commitment to social justice, or my accomplishments in community service – what is to be the sole topic of my personal statements. There are many moments, especially with my parents who would not allow even the slightest celebration at good test scores, where I feel as if none of those accomplishments could ever measure up to standards of the prestigious universities to which I am applying.