The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.
Wednesday March 11, 2015
Learning from those we disagree with, why women cheat
False and illuminating
In a recent article Dr. Richard J. Mouw, a professed traditional Christian, explained his respect and admiration for classic atheist thinkers. He names Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre, towering figures of 20th century philosophy, and the most infamous of them all, Nietzsche. To Mouw they understand the real conclusion that a world without God is ultimately chaotic and scary. It drove Nietzsche mad. Sartre bemoaned it. Russell saw it as losing something. This stands in stark contrast to new atheists like Richard Dawkins who, without any philosophical training, ignore what is lost in a world without God. I feel like they run in fear from even considering the idea.
The most important point in this article is that you can still read and appreciate sides you disagree with and get a lot out of them. This is something that is sorely lacking among many Christians. There is some weird notion that if a person, thinker, or even entertainer isn’t on board with how they view the world that they must be bad and not worth listening to or engaging with. Hence some radical Christians giving up all secular music when they’re “born again.” Recently this has given way to a hedonistic Christianity that absorbs and even celebrates anything that they enjoy or want to do, even if it starkly contrasts what they believe as Christians, and this is obviously no better. The line between sacrificing your beliefs and appreciating those who disagree with you is fine indeed.
Relationship advice because I’m, like, an expert
It seems obvious, but a marriage counseling website recently blogged about the reason most women leave or cheat on the men they’re with: because they don’t pay enough attention to them. One woman who went in for counseling noted that she could easily get “swept off her feet” by another guy and her husband wouldn’t notice at all.
The problem is that it’s far too easy to fall into complacency. This is something that both men and women deal with. The solution is to live life as G.K. Chesterton suggested: as though everything is always new, like the perspective of a child who sees everything for the first time. It’s difficult but not impossible to step back from where you’re at and view what you have as new. The best relationship advice is to always be courting and to never take your significant other for granted. Or at least as little as humanly possible.
Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He is also a contributor for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
RSS Feed
