[lbo-talk] The God Delusion

Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 24 02:58:55 PDT 2006


Joanna wrote:

I fail to understand how a story about human small-mindedness becomes a story about how there is nothing other than a material universe.

[and a little later...]

I just don't see how this reflects on the larger issue of how man can comprehend/relate to the infinite--that realm of reality to lies outside of his finite perception and experience.

....................

The stories of "small-mindedness" a few of us told weren't offered up to address the bigger questions.

They're merely anecdotes of moments when our relationship with a particular church or, more generally, American-style Christianity began to sour.

This souring led, at least in my case (and it would appear in quite a few others), to a chain reaction of questions that produced a non-believing outlook.

So the posts' metaphysical claims and concerns were actually quite modest. Only memories of key events, nothing more.

So, they don't reflect at all on "how man can comprehend/relate to the infinite". Indeed, it's that very finite perception you mention which should give us pause, leading us away from over-arching stories that give easy aid and comfort (unless that sort of thing is someone's bag, in which case, what's the harm?) and towards an acceptance of the fact that our cognitive machinery just may not be up to the job of taking it all in.

In other words, once you've acknowledged these two, perhaps irreconcilable facts: the universe's infinitude and our all too finite selves, you come to realize that one person's pantheon is as good as another's (Osiris is as plausible as Vishnu who's as plausible as the divine Christ - "plausible" as in, impossible to definitively prove or disprove).

To me, the best response to this realization is an abandonment of all such cosmic dramas in favor of simple observation and reflection on how things, as best as we can determine from our tiny perch and our limited understanding, actually work.

Obviously, science is a huge part of this but so's the most insightful art and music and so on.

.d.



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