Why don't we just get on with our lives and forget all this constant thinking?

Further to the commentary yesterday, one of our respondents wrote:

You could call mine a 'simplistic' approach to this 'spiritual' quest, but how I see it, is that God made each of us in His own image and likeness, and for his own purposes, (even the most mundane life has a meaning to Him), He has no favourites, and loves us unconditionally DESPITE our failings, so why can't we just BE! Why are we always searching for 'something more'?

When I read all of this 'spiritual' writing, my mind goes to the poor, in particular those in third world countries who eke out a living from rubbish dumps, and I wonder how interested they would be if this 'spiritual' talk was presented to them! All they need is basics like food and shelter, and the furthest thing from their minds is this so-called 'cosmic realm'! If our bodies are 'temples of the Holy Spirit' then really what else do we need? For those searching, the search will continue to the grave. As Augustine wrote: "Our souls are restless until they rest in You"! Personally, I just get on with things.

I can appreciate what you write. I also appreciate that most people (85% of them in fact in the Western world) seem to have basically adopted a similar attitude and have given up thinking about all this stuff and just get on with life. The Church no longer seems capable of offering them anything of value in their eyes.

I actually suspect things are not much different to what they have ever been. Most people do want simple answers and do not want to have to think. Once upon a time and for a long time the Church seemed extraordinarily successful in giving them the simple answers that they didn't have to think about.

It's a legitimate question: should she go back to doing that? Cardinal Pell evidently thinks so and wants to take ideas like the Primacy of Conscience out of the lexicon of Catholic thinking.

I'm more like Grahame though as reflected in his post responding to you. I think words do have meaning. Unlike the other creatures of creation, we are borne to speculate, reflect and find the meaning of life not merely to endure it or even just live it as the other creatures do. If we give up reflecting the things we enjoy are more than likely liable to disappear as they are in danger of doing in East Timor at the moment and society just returns to "the law of the jungle" and social entropy.

At present I am reading Jared Diamond's book Collapse - how societies choose to fail or survive. The early chapters are on the collapse of communities and civilisations very close to our home in the South Pacific and in the Southern Hemisphere. The collapse of civilisations might take centuries but it probably all begins when the individuals in those societies give up reflecting on what they are doing right ......................... or wrong ......................... and believe they are just getting on with living, or enjoying life.

Blessings, Tom

Tom Scott is the pen name of the editor of Catholica, Brian Coyne.

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