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Confucius’s Agnosticism 05.04.08

By Goenawan Lee posted in quote. Saturday, Apr 5th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

Confucius (551-479 B.C.) did not throw any light on the problem of origin. He did not speculate on the creation of things nor the end of them. He was not troubled to account for the origin of man, nor did he seek to know about his hereafter. He meddled neither with physics nor metaphysics. There might, he thought, be something on the other side of life, for he admitted the existence of spiritual beings. They had an influence on the living, because they caused them to clothe themselves in ceremonious dress and attend to the sacrificial ceremonies. But we should not trouble ourselves about them, any more than about supernatural things, or physical prowess, or monstrosities. How can we serve spiritual beings while we do not know how to serve men? We feel the existence of something invisible and mysterious, but its nature and meaning are too deep for the human understanding to grasp. The safest, indeed the only reasonable, course is that of the agnostic–to leave alone the unknowable, while acknowledging its existence and its mystery, and to try to understand knowable phenomena and guide our actions accordingly.

…from Myths and Legends of China.

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You are reading the article, Confucius’s Agnosticism. This article was written on Saturday, 5th April 2008 at 6:37 pm and last update on August 30, 2008 at 9:20 pm, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. You can find similar articles in the quote category and , , , , , tags, or more articles by Goenawan Lee, if you enjoyed this article. If you have any comments about this article, you can use contact page, or leave a comment below. You can also follow comments made on this article via my RSS 2.0 feed or subscribe to full feed. If you would like to continue reading more, the previous article on my weblog is called Kewajaran? and the next article is called Quote (1). Thank you for visiting my weblog.

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14comments

  1. Confucius can be categorized as a humanistic and rationalistic, also an agnostic who believed in the supernatural (he avoided spiritual things in his teachings) but wasn’t interested in them. And so am I. :)

  2. But it doesn’t mean that faith is unreasonable, does it?

  3. The safest, indeed the only reasonable, course is that of the agnostic–to leave alone the unknowable, while acknowledging its existence and its mystery, and to try to understand knowable phenomena and guide our actions accordingly.

    that sure is one safest way. whether one can live a life contentedly relying on such, IMO is a matter of preference. of course, no one will ever know the unknowable. living contentedly by claiming such will probably needs lots of effort… not something everyone could carry on easily, IMHO.

    after all, it’s only a matter of preference about living a one and only life, isn’t it? ;)

  4. Somewhat an application of Stuart’s Wager.

    If God is just, what do unbelievers have to fear?
    If God is unjust, what do believers have to trust?

  5. There is only one thing for sure. Blogger is Hacker.

    —–EOF—–

  6. There is only one thing for sure. Blogger is Hacker.

    =)) :-j :)) :D :)) :-j =))

  7. agnostic? are you?

    hmmm…me, too. in a way or anoher :D

  8. im a humanistic and rationalistic, and i believed in the supernatural. But i dont know (almost) anything about agnosticism

    :)

  9. dari kemaren mo ngoment tapi ngak tau artinya :D :((
    btw suka banget sama confisius yakz :?:

  10. BTW ente kok nulis religi lagi tho masbro? :D

  11. I’m realistic and logic..
    I believe to what I sense, not what I seen…

    *cis..cis.. susah juga ngomen boso linggis* :d

    :-]

  12. I do believe there are things beyond our logic, but still i use my logics..

  13. I do realize that I am an agnostic…

    Agnosticism in My Mind

    Religious Agnostic: An Understanding

  14. Well, saya setuju dengan salah satu ‘pikiran’ Confucius mengenai agnosticism. Yang lain … kurang begitu setuju.

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