At 01:35 PM 13/07/2001 -0400, stencil wrote:
>Tangentially, I wonder if any others percieve the link -
>that seems to me to be strong and obvious - between
>religiosity and aesthetics?
There has always been this feeling that the two are closely associated,
however while I know a number of wild-eyed, superstitious, nutty artists, I
have also known a number of skeptical, clear-minded artists. By artists, I
mean painters, photographers, writers, poets, etc. (I consider myself one
too. See my website to decide if you agree.)
>I worry about throwing out
>the aesthetic baby with the religious bathwater, in our
>drive to scotch the despised meme.
I don't know what is the ratio between religious aesthetes and
non-religious aesthetes, but I don't think aestheticism and and religion
are necessarily directly linked. If we threw out one I am quite sure we
would retain plenty of the other.
Amara and Samantha show that you can be heavily involved in science and
grounded in reality yet still feel the swell of joy that religions profess
to own. I, myself periodically become suffused with deep, all-consuming
ecstasy when contemplating the vastness of time and space or the incredibly
beautiful detail in a little daisy or the paradoxical simple complexity of
fractals like the Mandelbrot set.
Best wishes,
- Miriam
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Q. What is the similarity between an elephant and a grape?
A. They are both purple... except for the elephant.
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http://werple.net.au/~miriam
http://members.optushome.com.au/miriame
Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
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