<The meaning of life>

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Prewinter, mid doubt, and post organized religion

The weather got cold. We borrowed a dog to take care of for a while. Nice puppy. I cleaned up the garage to park one car. Then I needed somewhere to put the dog, so the car stays outside.

Slowly accomplishing some of the tasks around the house. I will try for others. The kids have finished the first marking session in school.

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I am coming to a more profound understanding of the universe and our place in it. Maybe just my place in it. It is big, and empty, and old. Very old. And there are no visible strings making it move. So if it was created in a 'beginning' we are limited in knowing how those strings are pulled, and limited in understanding how we were created. Yet there are those with absolute views. White haired men in the sky, or shimmering Goddesses. Hmmm. Why? Is this just a throwback to the dawn of conciousness, the dawn of the days when humanity finally had enough people in a community to harvest crops and declare a surplus, so that other people could sit and think. And think what are still profound thoughts. Is this a way to control the masses, by declaring rebellion out of bounds?

The dawn of conciousness: a recent genetics article discussed that two brain mutations appeared in the last 50000 years. Without them, people's intelligence would be lower. That tracks with the development of hunter gatherers into larger social groups and the start of agriculture, and the advent of representational art such as small carvings and cave paintings, and the beginning of burial of the dead, sometimes with artifacts. So does organized religion stem from this period of brain development? This, the dawn of reflection on man's mortality. And if so what is man's destiny? What of the soul, or our concept of the soul if we no longer fixate on religion as an explanation of the universe?

We have religious people who claim to be influenced by the Almighty. How do we rationally discuss this? How do we test this? It comes down to the dichotomy of belief versus testable theory. Theory used here in the scientific sense, of a tested idea, supported by experiment or observation, not relying on the spiritual or magical for explanation, not just an unsupported guess.

This still takes us to the need to be 'good' to work together to survive as a species and not blow ourselves up, or degenerate to squabling. For this delicate speck, with these many beings, needs to cooperate to survive. And rationality needs to lead in human events. For irrationality begets bad results. Some absolute declarations will grate on someone else's freedom and rights. "Your rights end at my nose..." seems to be an operating phrase.

posted by Nick 1:07:00 AM

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Free Space Field Random Thoughts

Sunday, November 27, 2005