Re: If Magick Exists (was RE: Ideological blinders)

From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Apr 01 2003 - 20:02:04 MST

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    Lee Corbin wrote:

    >>>...How long would it take God, playing fairly, to
    >>>actually persuade you that He exists, and that all the
    >>>traditional stories in the Bible are true...?
    >>>
    >>>Me, about fifteen minutes. Lee
    >>
    >>For me, less than that. All I *ever* asked of god
    >>was one really really convincing hallucination, vision,
    >>or even a good lucid dream...
    >
    > But then, how indeed do you know that it wasn't an
    > illusion?

    I wouldn't, and thats the point. It wouldn't even
    matter, since all I am asking for is a good illusion.

    Consider Joss Palmer in Contact (loooove that movie,
    one of the rare instances where the film was better than
    the book, better because it has such feeling, rare in
    the science fiction genre). Palmer more or less
    acknowledges that his belief is based on an overwhelming
    feeling that he once had, an emotional experience. When
    Dr. Arroway has her experience with the father-imitating
    alien, she too realizes that her entire adventure
    could have been an elaborate halucination, yet still
    she comes to believe that the others are out there.

    > Your pals let you down for your own good.

    Granted, however I was a good churchman, and will
    freely admit that I was in many ways a happier person
    during those years in which the god-illusion was still
    firm. I never had any problems with the strict rules
    of the church, didn't feel them overly restrictive, and
    I miss that religion feeling. Of course there is no
    going back. The extropian philosophy is a meager
    substitute in some ways, but it has the advantage
    of dealing with pysical reality, of having objective
    truth to it.

    Interesting note: perhaps you have heard me mention
    my favorite book, Goedel Escher Bach, the Eternal
    Golden Braid, by Hofstadter. In 1980 I read in that
    work about self referencing paradox. I realized that
    the objective truth value of my religious belief
    system was completely unverifiable since it was
    entirely based on self reference.

    One good objective, non-self-referencial piece of
    evidence was all I asked of religion, and none
    could be provided, even if I were willing to settle
    for a halucination.

    spike



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