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Arthur:
As for other powers, like the big guy upstairs
or quantum universe: Who knows.
For me the only intellectually comfortable position is to
be an agnostic. It is all interesting. It all means something--even
if it's man's search for meaning. But I don't know, I don't know that I
will ever know and am comfortable with uncertainty.
One of the best things I've ever encountered on this kind of thinking if
from a book, "The Whole Shebang" by the science writer Timothy
Ferris. It's worth quoting, so here it is:
... in a creative universe God would
betray no trace of his presence, since to do so would be to rob the creative
forces of their independence, to turn them from the active pursuit of answers
to mere supplication of God. And so it is: God’s language is silence. The Old
Testament suggests that God fell silent in response to the request of the
terrified believers who said to Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear:
but let not God speak with us, lest we die." Whatever the reason, God ceases
speaking with the book of Job, and soon stops intervening in human affairs
generally, leading Gideon to ask, "If the Lord be with us, why then . . .
where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of?" The author of the
Twenty-second Psalm cries ruefully, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?"
Whether he left or was ever here I do not
know, and don’t believe we ever shall know. But one can learn to live with
ambiguity — that much is requisite to the seeking spirit — and with the
silence of the stars. All who genuinely seek to learn, whether atheist or
believer, scientist or mystic, are united in having not a faith but faith
itself. Its token is reverence, its habit to respect the eloquence of silence.
For God’s hand may be a human hand, if you reach out in loving kindness, and
God’s voice your voice, if you but speak the truth. (Timothy Ferris, The
Whole Shebang, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p.312)
Ed Weick
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 6:22
PM
Subject: [Futurework] RE: But where's the
mind?
chacun a son
gout
Arthur,
At
08:26 28/05/2003 -0400, you wrote:
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a
thought
without accepting it." (Aristotle)
I entertain the thought
that there is a mind. Who knows maybe the mind is just the noise of
the brain. Maybe not.
Yes, I believe the mind
is the "noise" of the brain, but not just noise.
As for other powers, like the big guy upstairs or quantum universe:
Who knows.
For me the only intellectually comfortable position
is to be an agnostic. It is all interesting. It all means
something--even if it's man's search for meaning. But I don't know,
I don't know that I will ever know and am comfortable with
uncertainty.
I wouldn't be comfortable with pure
agnosticism because (for me) this would deprive life of meaning and I would
feel lonely. I'm a sort of believer-agnostic. I believe that there is more
significance in the universe than is implied by science alone. Without this
feeling of significance, then anything goes. I think that something
worthwhile believing in will shape up in due course and indeed will be
necessary if society is ever to hold itself together -- and, hopefully,
reformulate. We are living in a strange inter-regnum period for the
moment.
Keith
Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England
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