Flabbergasted wrote:...but the crux of the matter, as I see it, is that a mind limited (sometimes even presumptuously) by rationalism and agnosticism is by nature barred from any true understanding of religion and metaphysics.
You make a great point, Flabbergasted! IMO, the mind is limited period! There’s no rational/emotional (physical/spiritual) way of truly understanding all there is to know (Theory of Everything).
Golden Rule vs. Theory of Everything
Since time immemorial religion has played a fundamental role in human civilization. This is an inescapable fact. The common denominator amongst practically all organized religions is the Golden Rule. For example, here are a variations:
Hindu:
This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which if done to thee would cause thee pain.
Zoroastrian:
That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.
Taoist:
Regard your neighbour’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbour’s loss as your own loss.
Buddhist:
Hurt not others in ways that you would find hurtful.
Confucian:
Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.
Jain:
In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.
Jewish:
Whatever thou hatest thyself, that do not to another.
Christian:
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.
Islamic:
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
Sikh:
As thou deemest thyself, so deem others.
African:
One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.
Native American:
All things are our relatives: what we do to everything, we do to ourselves.
IMO, the Golden Rule is the time tested Universal Law. If you’re not doing your absolute best to adhere to it, then you’re not a true (fill in the blank). Sadly, religious charlatans have (and still do) violated this rule by using religion as a pretext for justifying war (esoteric agendas accomplished via exoteric tautologies). In the words of the last surviving soldier of WWI (Harry Patch),
"War is organized murder and nothing else."
The Theory of Everything is the antithesis of the Golden Rule. For all intents and purposes, every ToE is, by definition, a religious ideology. Moral Relativism overtly mimics GR and covertly endorses our current ToE (Big Bang origins/Big Crunch end times). BTW, as lux and other have noted, Sir Fred Hoyle coined the term ‘Big Bang’ as a mockery of the theory.
I repeat, moral relativism is a euphemism for mental retardation. IMO, hoi is a Golden Ruler through and through. He’s one of the few people whose exceptional rational intelligence is matched only by his emotional intelligence. Speaking of hoi:
hoi.polloi wrote:Simon and other researchers who have gotten to know me have expressed a kind of fascination with my life, which I don't understand, but which I have been trying to respond to by writing my memoirs little by little. One day, I could try to figure out a way to get those into the world without hurting people connected to my life, but it may be a long time, maybe after all of us are dead in a hundred years.
Hoi,
What’s with this trying bullshit? You, of all people, are obliged to pen your memoirs and you know it. Not doing so would be a crime against humanity. You’re a true philosopher in every sense of the word (seriously!). In addition, your writing skills are second to none. Can you live with the guilt of bringing shame to the doorstep of every CluesForum contributor by not penning your memoirs? I don’t think so mon frère. If only I were a tenth of the wordsmith that you are…
Anyhow, many moons ago, the psi-gods came up with a bunch of supernatural fairytales. They essentially superimposed their supernatural ideologies onto nature itself. They used their shrewd dialectic skills to convince others of the validity of their glorified guesses. Hence; nuclear weapons/energy, global warming, genetic determinism, vaccines, etc…
At the risk of sounding repetitive, I highly recommend reading the following:
The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship
The new secular church and clergy of the elite originated within the walls of the British Royal Society. The creators of the Royal Society were also members of the Masonic Lodge.
'The British Royal Society of the late seventeenth century was the forerunner of much of the media manipulation that was to follow' With the
effective enshrinement of metaphysical naturalism, the British Royal Society prepared to unleash their next golem.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienc ... orship.htm
http://cluesforum.info/viewtopic.php?f= ... 5#p2394731
What did Mathematics do to Physics? – Yves Gingras
…the publication of Newton’s Principia [1687] which marks, conceptually, a radical departure from the then dominant tradition of mechanical philosophy. We defend the thesis that by taking the mathematical route to natural philosophy Newton initiated, or at least accelerated, a series of social, epistemological and even ontological consequences which over the course of a century, redefined the legitimate practice of physics.
…[Christiaan] Huygens…was still complaining to the Marquis de l’Hopital in December1692 that:
“We find so few occasions to apply geometry to physics that I often find that surprising. For this, with mechanical inventions, is what merits most of our attention; otherwise, as Seneca said somewhere, we lose our intelligence in playing with futile calculations.”
For a detailed analysis of [Gottfried Wilhelm] Leibniz reaction to Newton’s mathematization of natural philosophy, see Domenico Bertoloni Meli, Equivalence and Priority. Newton versus Leibniz (Oxford 1993). As he explains, Leibniz stressed “the insufficiency of purely mathematical laws [and] the need for physical explanations…”
Obfuscated by the general use of higher mathematics in physics, [Louis Bertrand] Castel remarked in his Vraisystème de physique [in 1743] that:
“everything is now accepted in physics, attraction, vacuum and the most absurd hypotheses since geometry has taken hold of this science without restraint; under the envelope of geometry one is not shy of any paradox, any bizarre idea (folie d’esprit) or bad reasoning.”
And he [Castel] adds, like a cri du coeur:
“In truth, one will permit me to say, with the extreme respect one must have for Newton, that there is only geometry in his system and good physics will disappear if we continue to let him do that.
I admire his profound geometrical reasoning, but there is not (one must see it) a single word of physical reasoning in all that.”
Echoing Castel’s analysis, the editor wrote in his Preface:
“
There is, so to say, two very different worlds; one mathematical, the other physical. The mathematical, which we can also call the metaphysical, only exists in the ideas of the geometer: he supposes the infinitely small, dots without dimensions, lines without width […]; as well as vacuum and gravitation. All these suppositions are the basis of a calculation which without them could not be exact and which without this exactitude could not be demonstrative. But nothing of this can be found exactly in nature […] and this is a strange illusion to abuse of the abstractions in transposing them in the physical world as if they were real beings.”
http://www.archipel.uqam.ca/443/1/gingr ... matics.pdf
http://cluesforum.info/viewtopic.php?f= ... 5#p2394770
As a result most people are completely desensitized. They’re not aware of their own powers. If you believe in God, then you should make the most of your God-given gifts. If you don’t believe in God, then you still should make the most of your natural abilities. There is no conflict in my mind. Organized religions & mainstream science are working in tandem to keep us distracted & desensitized. My objective is to point this out to people & let the chips fall where they may. I don’t have any particular religion or replacement ToE’s to offer.
I hope that makes sense. If not, I’m prepared to elaborate/clarify my stance. Just one caveat – I’d prefer to discuss it rather than debate it.