When I first moved to this city in the Deep South, I discovered that in my house, I had a hard time getting radio station signals on my little clock radio, which even has an antenna. One Sunday morning this summer as I was cleaning after moving in (yes, this might be even the day I found what I believe to be a sex toy of some sorts in the bathroom cabinet... nice cleaning job landlord!), I had the radio on to the one station I could get somewhat clear reception. Some might call it a classic rock channel, while I've never paid enough attention to note what the radio station labels itself. They play various artists such as Black Sabbath, the Who, Nirvana, to what has been labeled as "Southern Rock", a category I still do not understand. While I would listen to some of these artists on their own, some of the music is not my first choice or reminds me of people from my past I would like to forget. Yet, I am digressing from my point.... it's one of the only radio stations I can get in my house or car that is not strictly country (not anything wrong with county, I just don't like new country music). So, I played this station this one Sunday morning...
Sometime in the later morning hours as I was cleaning and my attention came back to the radio station, and I realized it was not music anymore, but a live broadcast of a church service. While I don't know what church it was, based on where I live and the proportion of churches here (Southern and Primitive Baptist ones dominate), I'm guessing from this and what was said, it was some sort of Baptist church sermon being broadcasted.
I thought this was ironic at the time... come on, Black Sabbath is not generally considered Christian music. But what do I know, or as a sociologists, I do know about value contradictions.
Eventually, I saved myself from the lack of radio stations when I received my Ipad and could play Pandora or using the Ipod in the car. But again this is a digression from my point.
This past Sunday the kids and I went to church and came home after before leaving for something else. It's about 3 minutes or less travel time between the Unitarian Univeraslist church and our house; alas not always worth the effort to plug in the Ipod. As we were driving back to our house, the heavy metal station was on in the car, but it was church time on the station.
While I only listened for a few minutes, I found myself debating/yelling at the radio and the pastor (is this the right word... I'm not a religious scholar) as he (and it is always a he in the Baptist church), discuss being human. As days have passed since Sunday, I forget all that was said, but the one point that just got me was him talking about being a chair vs. being a human (what an analogy!).
So, the pastor talked about how a chair knew what it is... a chair knows it is a chair. He then went on to talk about humans and something about morality, which is when I stopped listening. Okay, but how can you even make this comparison to humans to a chair? I'm not a philosopher, but a sociologist. A chair does not know it is a chair because well a chair doesn't have a brain, feelings, and the so forth. Sorry folks, a chair is an object. Instead, we as a society have decided it is a chair and what it should be used for. We have constructed the meaning of this object.... and this could differ depending on time, place, etc...
Yes, this may seem like a trivial topic to post about, but I still can't believe the comparison used. And as a sociologist, this comparison seems even worse, especially if his point was about how we as humans are supposed to be good people and look to "God" to know how to be good and what we should do. This brings on a whole new host of issues, such as my strong held belief if you need "God" to tell you how to be good, well, you might have some thinking to do. Or that with these conservative religions, the preachings of "God" don't always tell you to be good to others (i.e. LGBTQ folks, abortion providers, etc..).
So, to end, no sir, a chair does not know what it is. A chair does not think. A chair is wood. The wood may have came from a living tree, but it is now wood. A chair is not a living, breathing thing with a mind. Instead, we have constructed what it is as a society. It is a social construction. And to use this as an example of why or how we should believe in "God" seems a bit out of the woods.
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