von braun on immortality

[Otto]

But it's not puritan belief where already is decided if you're elect or
preterite, no matter what you do:

"Where does the desire for ethical action come from? What makes us want to
be ethical? I believe there are two forces which move us. One is belief in a
Last Judgment, when every one of us has to account for what we did with
God's great gift of life on earth. The other is belief in an immortal soul,
a soul which will cherish the award or suffer the penalty decreed in a final
Judgment."

1. While I can imagine an immortal soul without that last judgment it's
impossible vice versa.

2. Logically all the others who haven't heard about the "judgement from
which there is no appeal." (GR 4) or agnostics cannot act ethically,
according to Herr von Braun.

3. I wonder how he has justified his actions before that court (& Camp Dora
and what has been done there "with God's great gift of life on earth").

4. That guy really sucked, as a nazi and later.

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: <alfredjprufrock at club-internet.fr>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 10:02 AM
Subject: von braun on immortality


> Hello Paul,
>
> Monday, July 29, 2002, 5:39:09 AM, you wrote:
>
> PM> Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:
>
> >> In a message dated 7/28/02 8:20:24 PM, paul.mackin at verizon.net writes:
> >>
> >> << Yeah, back. The dinners here are interminable.
> >>
> >> The point I  wanted to make it that, yes Pynchon is full of what I
consider
> >> rather
> >> unremarkable Hindo, Budhist and other nonChristian stuff but that's
purely dog
> >> bites man. The man bites dog possibility that Pynchon could be some
kind of
> >> crazy
> >> Chirstian is however interesting to me. It's not that I am a Christian
nor do
> >> I
> >> suppose that many of you are.  But the possibility  of such a thing is
what I
> >> live
> >> for. Don't think there is much chance of course.
> >>
> >> P. (abiding and enduring) >>
> >>
> >> If he is I have not seen any indication of it so far.
>
> PM> For Quasi Eastern thought  check the epigraph to GR part 1.  Or are
you talking
> PM> about something else?
>
> it's not that eastern really. it is von braun's take on immortality,
> but it's very christian, even catholic:
>
> Lateran Council of 1513
>
> "Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable
soul
>  that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the sacred council do
condemn
>  and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal,
>  seeing, according to the canon of Pope Clement V, that the soul is [...]
> immortal [...] and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous
assertions
>  shall be shunned and punished as heretics."
>
>  for a longer excerpt of von braun's text:
>  http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/von-braun.html
>
>  in this case i think he just takes lavoisier's principle to its limit
>  anyway: nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is
>  transformed.
>
>  so here we go again, science/mysticism, mixing together. the rocket?
>  i don't know what pynchon's view on it is and do we really care?
>  isn't it more what his characters' views are anyway?
>
>
>  greg
>


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