Dad and 8 year old talking about the Walrus (as it was told to me).
Dad: "The Walrus was Paul"
Son: "No the Walrus was John"
Dad: "No, the Walrus was Paul, John said so."
Son: "Yes, but John also said I am the Walrus"
Dad: "The Walrus was Paul"
Son: "No the Walrus was John"
Dad: "No, the Walrus was Paul, John said so."
Son: "Yes, but John also said I am the Walrus"
The Walrus was Paul all along... and he would have gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for you darn kids!
ReplyDeleteHa ha. Love this conversation. :)
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about your new direction for some time now Alice. I think it will be very hard for you to find a spiritual outlet that has any supernatural element. Look at how many have gone on this search and how different their findings are and (as you've discovered) how biased their conclusions typically are. 2 billion christians gain their spirituality on self deception, compartmentalization, etc. Muslims are probably no different if we took the time to thoroughly research the Koran. Aren't you afraid that you will be following leads to blind alleys and eventually accept something "on faith" to fill the emotional void you are experiencing? If a real spiritual power existed wouldn't it necessarily attract attention because of its uniqueness and therefore be much easier to find. I saw you converse on the possibility of karma or something similar. What about the indiscriminate nature of wars, natural disasters, the holocaust, rapes, murders, auto, plane, and train accidents? Why should our place of birth so heavily influence the likelihood of encountering disease and starvation? I think it's reasonable to give up searching for more reasons not to believe in christianity but how realistic is it to search for something with similar qualities but actually true? Similarly I think a search for confirmation of a life after death will go nowhere because nothing we see supports this idea and too much unnecessary baggage comes along with it. We accept that everything we know of in our universe is finite. I believe that if you take a hard look at your (our) fear of dying you will find that no period of life would be satisfactory if eventually you must face your own complete eradication. Yet eternity is nothing more that a concept so foreign to us time bound humans that very few if any of us have the ability to comprehend it. The next problem is that earth necessarily becomes unlike anything it appears to be. It becomes an incredibly brief, totally irrelevant incubating space for immortals who are needlessly put to death before starting their real totally unrecognizable life as timeless entities. Most of us accept that some of our fellow life forms actually die and disappear as they seem to but stop accepting this idea as those lifeforms becomes too similar to out own selves. This just seem too conveniently comforting and aggrandizing. Is it reasonable to believe that timelessness and immortality are created through death on this tiny planet earth while everything we observe in our universe has a lifespan? If it were possible to implant your every thought and feeling into an immortal being do you think you would then become that immortal being? What use would that being have for you experiences that are so completely tied to time? Can you even imagine just a trillion years of living? It's impossible for me to see how the Alice of our little blue spinning planet could be recognizable in an immortal Alice. Why would anything need to be born if it is immortal?
ReplyDeleteHi Dan, nice to see you.
DeleteInstead of answering every point, I would just say that we all have to find out whatever makes us comfortable in our own psyche. At this point, I no longer feel like it is necessarily bad for anyone to believe in their own god or religion as long as it is not imposed onto anyone else, or of course is not hurting anyone.
The you're born, you die, the end worldview can be a bit hard to deal with and I can understand why many (most) people turn to something in the way of faith or religion. My fundamentalistic mindset ruined Christianity for me, but I can in hindsight see how others can find great solace in it.
I like the idea of karma and reincarnation and even if it is not true, I don't think entertaining or wondering about such things means that I don't understand the down/ dark side problems with such things. I am just wondering, that's all :)
Hi. I was wondering how or if your were looking at those problems. I think I agree with everything you've said here. I very much agree that there is no problem specific to being a believer. I was impressed with how your outing yourself to your co worker came to a good end. I think most people just don't think non believers and certainly not atheists are actually out there. I think I just wanted to say these things out plainly to better understand your current thinking. I won't have any need to bring them up in the future now that I see you are intentionally working in other areas. I'll be following as always Alice as I'm truly interested in what you're up to and where this new adventure leads.
DeleteI'm always looking at these problems in one way or another. I can't say I've come to any good conclusions.
DeleteThanks for your interest and support Dan:)
"Is it reasonable to believe that timelessness and immortality are created through death on this tiny planet earth while everything we observe in our universe has a lifespan?"
ReplyDeleteNo. But that's where "faith" comes in, I guess.