24 IRELAND - The Quiet, The Green, The Clean Empty Waves

Thursday, 6^th September, 2012

Brandon Bay, Kerry

The date and days are becoming elusive already. The only way I can keep track is through this diary.

Today the crowds have gone. The wind is up and the swell has gone too. Sunset last night was beautiful. The light reflected in the ocean and on the sand was exquisite. It’s tempting to photograph such sites as Caroline wanted to do but scenes like that are to be lived. 

Again on reflecting on God there seems to be no rational and logical basis for belief and, as Vernon posits reason alone cannot be used to find a way. Vernon relates the use of reason to visiting a country through guidebooks from within the confines of your own home; it cannot be done. A country such as Ireland needs to be experienced.

So how do I experience God if I do not feel or see?

Science can often be used to disprove beliefs. For instance Thomas Aquinas (c1225-1274) believed that for things to move and for everything that is caused there needs to be a mover or a causer. For Aquinas this is God. Yet if we take the waves we ride it is to science and meteorology that we find our answers. What causes me to ride, to paddle is a conscious decision to set myself up in the right spot, move my arms and (when I remember) to kick my feet thus causing movement which transfers to momentum, like riding a bike.

Also since Newton physics has proved we don’t need a prime mover, things will keep moving in a uniform direction unless acted upon by an external force.

Yet what of the energy that moves through the ocean transforming water into a ride-able wave? Maybe there is no energy in the wave. Maybe the energy only existed at its centre, at its creation?

The unmoved mover and the uncaused cause refers to the 1^st and 2^nd aspects of Aquinas’ 5 Ways.

              Image - Gunther

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Bibliography

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De Botton A, 2003 The Art of Travel Penguin: London

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Perlmutter D and Koppman D, 1999 Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art: Contemporary Cross-cultural Perspectives State University of New York Press: New York

Sontag S, 2002 On Photography Penguin Group: London

Tolstoy L, 1969 What Is Art? And Essays on Art London: University Press Oxford

Turner V, 1967 The Forest of Symbols Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press

Turner V, 1969 The Ritual Process Penguin 1969

Various, 1987 The Age of God-Kings 3000-1500 BC Time Life Books: USA

Vernon M, 2012 God The Big Questions Quercus: London

Copyright Mark King 2012