[ExI] Rick Warren on religion

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Dec 14, 2018, at 10:44 AM, SR Ballard <sen.otaku at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Dec 14, 2018, at 12:04 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Not sure who wrote this - Keith or Stuart
>> 
>> There cannot be a "self" without an "other".
>> 
>> I don't know what this means.  Our identity is totally tied up in our relationships?  If I am alone on the planet I lose my identity?
>> 
>> ??   bill w
> 
> In short: yes.
> 
> If you are the only man on the planet, are you still in America? Do you still have your American citizenship? Are you still employed (and thus able to identify with your job)? If you are religious, can you really say that your church still exists? Do your social bonds exist still (like son, father, brother, teacher)? Can you still be considered a misanthrope if there are no people? Do you still have social anxiety or confidence if there are no people? Are you still smart if there is no one left who is dumber than you? 
> 
> So yes, your personal identity is deeply tied to other people.
> 
> Read a bit about the effects of solitary confinement if you don’t believe that. 

It seems like you’re conflating social identity with identity and identity change with having no identity. If I were to move from Seattle to Tokyo much of my social relations would radically change. You might say I would become a different person, but it’s not like I literarily have no identity under such a change. And if I woke up tomorrow to find myself the only person on Earth, sure, that’d be a radical change in my life. My social context would simply cease — existing only as a memory. Presuming I don’t go completely mad, I bet I’d still maintain some aspects of my former self. I might continue to read books, prefer to take a shower in the morning rather than in the evening, hanker after a good latte, enjoy partly sunny days, etc. I bet I’d be depressed too for the loss of companionship, but that wouldn’t mean do much not having an identity as losing a very important part of my life. This is akin to if I were, say, to suffer a serious accident now and no longer be able to walk. My identity would change, but I’d still have an identity. (I love hiking and moving around. So not being able to walk would also likely depress me, but on some level I’d still be me.)

Regards,

Dan
   Sample my Kindle books at:
http://author.to/DanUst
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