"What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism." - G.K. Chesterton

Friday, June 29, 2007

Faust, Midas and Myself — Switchfoot



A haunting little tune by Switchfoot with an interesting stoy-like progression. When I filter this song through the grid of my life experience, the line that jumps out at me is where he points to what he sees as the "beginning of life"...

What direction?
What direction?
Life begins at the intersection


essentially, "what are you living for?"

Anything jump out at you?

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9 Comments:

Blogger Ruthie said...

This is really something! I'm going to go download this and listen to it again.

I like Switchfoot, especially "Redemption."

Do you think the song is about materialism?

1:10 PM

 
Blogger lady macleod said...

I'm asking this from NO religious viewpoint but rather exploration of dogma: If God created the universe, what was he/she doing before the creation and where?

This came to mind with the song's lyrics of beginning and destination.

4:39 PM

 
Blogger Alex said...

My apologies to the folks participating in the previous morality morality thread. I've been, out-of-my-mind busy these last few days and I want to be able to devote a an appropriate amount of time to that discussion. However, I do have a minute to spare, so I thought I'd address these few comments.

Ruthie,
Ya, I've had this album (Oh Gravity!) for about a month now and I have yet to tire of it! It's fantastic on so many levels!

Materialism? Certainly! What is it that "matters" in this life? Why?

Lady Macleod,
Thanks for asking. It's a good question. Hope I can shed some light on how we Christians work through it. The first thing we need to keep in mind is that God by His very nature is eternal. When we speak of the beginning of the universe we are told that the ENTIRE spatio-temporal reality came into being at that moment. Time itself began with the big bang. Therefore, even speaking of "before" the creation event runs into logical difficulties. Essentially there was no "before". Our language about sequence falls apart. The concept of eternity avoids these difficulties. I admit it certainly doesn't make it much easier to comprehend, but I guess we should expect such a situation in our finite state.

I almost hesitate to ask but... does that make any sense?

6:25 PM

 
Blogger Ruthie said...

I think it could be anything, now that I think of it.

It probably varies depending on who's listening to the song. Faust sold his soul for knowledge, didn't he? Or am I getting mixed up...

For some people, it's probably pure materialism. For me, I suspect it's ambition.

It's a good song. A very good song.

8:26 PM

 
Blogger Matt M said...

I realise that this threatens to drag these comments off-topic, but...

The first thing we need to keep in mind is that God by His very nature is eternal.

Obviously I can't speak for the majority of non-theists out there, but I suspect that you lose a lot of them with statements like this. Why is it that by His very nature He's eternal? I can't see how you can move from the one to the other, unless it's an intuitive understanding, one of those things that you either "know" or you don't.

12:51 PM

 
Blogger Alex said...

Who shot who in the what now?

1:03 PM

 
Blogger James Higham said...

Faust, Midas and Switchfoot is not a combination which immediately springs to mind, Alex.

9:22 AM

 
Blogger James Higham said...

Alex, Blogpower is trying to decide some vital issues at this moment but only 7 or 33 members have commented. Clearly, that's no basis for a decision. Could you see spare a little time making your point of view known on the issues currently being discussed at Blogpower? James

10:41 PM

 
Blogger James Higham said...

Alex,

It is Wednesday and I have only 14 votes from 49.

If you're thinking of waiting until the last minute, may I beg you to reconsider. Though we gave a date of Friday evening, the longer our members refrain from voting, the longer we are preserving the agony.

May I humbly and respectfully ask that you don't let it go that long but get your vote in soon so we know what is happening?

Yours, James

11:22 PM

 

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