Without Beauty There is only Lust
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
93.04878
Summary
Part two in my response to the documentary Why Beauty Matters by Roger Scruton. In this episode, I talk about the difference between lust and love, and why the love of God is not a selfish, selfish love.
Transcript
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So this is part two in my response, my reaction to the documentary Why Beauty Matters by Roger
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Scruton. And in this video, I'd like to talk about one form of beauty, one form of love,
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eros. That without eros, without true eros, all we have left is lust. And eros is very,
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You know, a long time ago, probably 20 years ago, I ran into this article saying that couples
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were going to Italy, they were going to the Louvre, to look at these Renaissance artworks,
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these religious artworks, to reignite the flame in their marriage. Now, these weren't erotic
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artworks that they were looking at. These were spiritual pieces. One of them, as I recall,
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was Mary being informed by the angel that she was going to be the mother of Christ.
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These were non-erotic images. And yet the expressions on those people's faces, on Mary's face in
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that sculpture, had a very erotic quality to it, an orgasmic quality to it.
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Now, I don't, and I don't think noting this is at all vulgar.
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In fact, I don't think the news report I saw on it remotely did it justice. It was, there's the truth,
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you know, shouting at you, and you can't hear it because somehow you got it into your head,
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that because something is religious, it must not be sexy.
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In my last video, my last video I noted, and by the way, I'm also stealing this from C.S. Lewis.
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He talks about this in his book on pain. I forget the specific title right now, but
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C.S. Lewis, the meaning of pain, something like that.
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At one point he starts discussing, are there pains in heaven?
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And he starts reflecting on the fact that beauty is often very painful for us to look at.
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And so surely that sort of pain is also present in heaven.
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And then he reflects deeper, that there are so, so many of these feelings.
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Now, if you've ever been in a dangerous situation, or you had an animal attack you,
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you know that visceral grip, that cold bolt of ice on your gut, that just strikes you.
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You are scared of the animal before you're even fully cognizant of the fact that there's an animal,
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before you can process that there's an animal attacking you.
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This instinctive, emotional response comes immediately.
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And all these religious emotions seem to mimic these physical emotions.
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There is something terrifying and comforting about being in the church.
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You know, many philosophers have talked about the awe of nature, of a hurricane.
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That it's not just that a hurricane is frightening.
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We apprehend it on this much, much greater level.
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And so, so many of these spiritual feelings that we have.
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How strange is it that people are terrified of death?
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Not terrified of dying, but terrified of the dead.
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These immaterial beings which can't, how can they hurt you?
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And it's a different form of fear that we feel for it.
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in the same way that apprehension of the magnitude
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Not that they were trying to depict anything tawdry.
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They're trying to point towards the true emotion
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Now what's the difference between lust and eros?