Ending The Interview and Reading For Yourself
Michael Weaver
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Interviews with God
The idea for "Interviews with God" originally was spawned out of a conversation between the old editor of The Bottom Line and myself. We realized that the paper lacked anything explicitly religious or explicitly satirical. Combining religion with comedy has been done many times in the past and (hopefully) will continue to be done. Why this should be necessary is still uncertain. Perhaps it's because religion often takes itself very seriously and therefore is quite vulnerable to satire; perhaps because religion is so complex it offers many avenues of comedy, or maybe there's just something silly at the heart of religion-however we might choose to define the word.
IWG was very fun while it lasted, but the format has been milked thoroughly and exhausted itself. Despite getting a lot of positive feedback, IWG was also very distressful to a lot of people. Officially because of it's blasphemous nature, but I suspect that there may have been some level of jealousy because of God's willingness to sit down and chat with me every week when he hesitates to even whisper to all but the most crazy of his followers.
I wanted to do something different in my last (hopefully) semester here at Frostburg, something more akin to a straight column but still about religion and philosophy primarily. Beliefs can change, but one belief that has grown increasingly strong with me as I've written IWG is that philosophy is not something just for philosophy majors and specialists. Like politics, the arts, world and local news, and perhaps sports; religion and philosophy are subjects that are good to know, even if they don't affect your every day life, if for no more reason than they make you a richer person. But that oversimplifies it; unlike the previously mentioned subjects, philosophy is practically impossible to avoid in your everyday life because you're still stuck in your own head-even if you're hiding in a cave somewhere. Of course, I mean philosophy in the broad sense which includes personal ethics, religious metaphysical beliefs, outlook on the world, etc. I don't necessarily mean the sorts you learn about in class: Existentialism, nihilism, humanism, absolutism, etc. Although I think these are of great importance too. As to whether or not epistemology has any place in what we call "philosophy", I'm still unsure. Incidentally, anyone who has not taken a class or two on philosophy and/or religion should do so, or at least get your hands on a few books for some independent study.
IWG was very fun while it lasted, but the format has been milked thoroughly and exhausted itself. Despite getting a lot of positive feedback, IWG was also very distressful to a lot of people. Officially because of it's blasphemous nature, but I suspect that there may have been some level of jealousy because of God's willingness to sit down and chat with me every week when he hesitates to even whisper to all but the most crazy of his followers.
I wanted to do something different in my last (hopefully) semester here at Frostburg, something more akin to a straight column but still about religion and philosophy primarily. Beliefs can change, but one belief that has grown increasingly strong with me as I've written IWG is that philosophy is not something just for philosophy majors and specialists. Like politics, the arts, world and local news, and perhaps sports; religion and philosophy are subjects that are good to know, even if they don't affect your every day life, if for no more reason than they make you a richer person. But that oversimplifies it; unlike the previously mentioned subjects, philosophy is practically impossible to avoid in your everyday life because you're still stuck in your own head-even if you're hiding in a cave somewhere. Of course, I mean philosophy in the broad sense which includes personal ethics, religious metaphysical beliefs, outlook on the world, etc. I don't necessarily mean the sorts you learn about in class: Existentialism, nihilism, humanism, absolutism, etc. Although I think these are of great importance too. As to whether or not epistemology has any place in what we call "philosophy", I'm still unsure. Incidentally, anyone who has not taken a class or two on philosophy and/or religion should do so, or at least get your hands on a few books for some independent study.
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