From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Apr 01 2003 - 23:40:24 MST
Spike writes
> 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 hallucination, yet still
> she comes to believe that the others are out there.
I think that's why I couldn't stand that movie. It really
ended up, IIRC, that for the audience too her experience
was indistinguishable from hallucination. When I was a
kid, I just hated it when at the end of a movie (i.e.
The Wizard of Oz, or Invaders From Mars) it turns out
it was all a dream.
> 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.
That's because, underneath it all, Spike, you are a
good person.
As for me, the biggest emotion I felt upon becoming an
atheist at age 17 was relief. It seemed to be one less
thing to worry about. No big Eye in the Sky evaluating
me.
Not only the freedom, though, there was also the purity
of the complete materialist worldview, the single vision
of the universe as machine. I think the humor of it also
appealed to me: all the noble dreams, all the great
aspirations... just atoms after all. So for good or bad,
it's atoms we are.
> 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.
Well, when I read GEB about the same time, I was, being
older than you, already a stalwart atheist many times
over. Long before then, it was hardly that religion
was self-referencing (and it is: you must have "faith"
because you must have faith), it's just that there was
no room for it in the emerging picture of the universe.
> One good objective, non-self-referential piece of
> evidence was all I asked of religion, and none
> could be provided, even if I were willing to settle
> for a hallucination.
For all the fantasizing I do, I'm grateful that even as
a small child, as far back as I can remember, I always
understood the difference between fantasy and reality,
and between appearance and reality.
Lee
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