# What's being said in this video?



## Anglicanorthodoxy (Aug 28, 2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57RrQgURHJk
This video features Roger Scruton ( a man who's done great work in certain areas) talking about time, eternity, and the afterlife. I watched the video, and I was a bit confused . Obviously he's not a Christian, but he seems to contradict himself a bit. He seems to be saying that there might be a God, but that there is no afterlife. This guy seems very similar to Kant in some ways I'm young, and haven't yet studied philosophy at a college level, so maybe I'm getting confused by his terminology. Could someone give me an idea of what he's saying, and give a Christian response to it?( if there's one to be given)
Thanks


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## Afterthought (Aug 29, 2016)

I only had time to watch the video once. Here is what I got.

He is saying that there is no God, and people need to learn how to deal with it. For himself, personally, he thinks he should use his time for the betterment of self and others, and he has arrived at an idea of God that helps him deal with it. His "idea of God" could be interpreted in the Kantian sense of God being a necessary for the practical reason, but it is not clear to me from the video whether that is what he is saying.

He also at various points has said that the afterlife is a mystery, like time. Yet, he also clearly talks in a way that seems to deny it. It is possible that he personally holds the afterlife a mystery but is explaining how he would view things if there were none. The afterlife is a necessary belief for some people in order to live "properly." And also to die "properly" (he believes it better to die calmly than screaming).

He then tries to talk about eternity by saying our 70 years of life, each moment of them, should be treated as eternal. Because once we die, we are done, and so we will not miss our loss of time.

Brief response: He equivocates on "eternity." Eternity is not about perception, but freedom from the constraint of time. Eternal life is a continuance of our life in a conscious fashion.

The biggest issue (which is in part due to the constraints of a Youtube video) is that he doesn't really prove any of his statements. It seems to be more of a conversation one might have with a friend over coffee or something, filled with one's philosophical speculations and opinions, rather than a serious philosophical argument that one writes down in a treatise. It seems though that one flaw may remain if he did write a treatise: Whence the notion of what constitutes "proper living?" Why should he personally live for the betterment of things? What's so great about going calmly into death? These questions require an absolute, which he is unable to give in his worldview.


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## johnny (Aug 30, 2016)

Didn't watch the clip but read the wiki page on him. Another conservative atheist philosopher looking for a moral compass that doesn't exist within the confines of his own worldview.
Why does he bother to ask that question in the first place? Perhaps because it makes him money. 

I do like some of his insights though.


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