No Jihad Jude

What I found interesting when I finished Jude the Obscure was Hardy's  intuitiveness about "modern" belief systems.  Though I can't really figure out his reasoning behind portraying these views during his lifetime, but I admire his candid yet subtle metaphorical portrayals and references to "dogma" throughout the text. These sorts of "abstract" ideas are the kind of ideas that compelled me to pursue an education after I had decided forgo college in my youth. As I've gotten older, my views about religion aren't the same as they once were.  I wouldn't compare my views to Jude's entirely, but I can relate with Jude in his thinking about life and its more-less collective beliefs and meanings.  Most interestingly, I have found myself experiencing a similar sort of cynicism, about certain beliefs in our society. I sometimes find myself thinking along the lines of Jude.

"His curious and sudden antipathy to ecclesiastical work, both episcopal and noconformist, which had risen in him when suffering under a smarting sense of misconception, remained with him in cold blood, less from any fear of renewed censure than from an ultra  conscientiousness which would not allow him to seek a living out of those who would disapprove of his ways; also, too, from a sense of inconsistency between his former dogmas and his present practice, hardly a shred of the beliefs with which he had first gone up to Christminster now remaining with him". (244)

If you ask my grandmother, all you need is a good old rusty Bible and the rest is, positively, in the Lord's hands. At times, I've listened to the advice that my grandmother gave me, but I remember it making me feel guilty for doing the wrong things. I know that faith works for my grandmother. And if there is a heaven, she is going. She truly is a wise woman. I've called her up on several occasions (writing is making me want to right now) to talk to her about things that she's seen in her life. One thing that she'll talk about is sex, and how it has changed over time.  I can see where the taboo aspect of Hardy's novel stems from--the era. Along with the era comes the belief systems associated with it. This quote reminds me of my reactions to some of the belief systems that are present today. 

"I can't bear that they, and everybody, should think people wicked because they may have chosen to live their own way! It is really these opinions that make the best intentioned people reckless, and actually become immoral"!

I'm not pointing out any certain religion per se. My "beef" with some of the belief systems of today have to do with how people use those belief systems. 

In response to the infamous words of George W. Bush, "you're either with me or against me". 

 

I've never been a fan of disjunctive syllogisms, particularly in the case of war. There were other options, and it was not either or.