Fun on Brainden.com
Put a couple of posts on this forum--it seems like a friendly place with bright, thoughtful people.
1.) IS THIS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL PARADOX?
Nothing exists
I'd love to read comments on this simple paradox.
My initial ones: It can be a simple, joyful exercise in word play or the very foundation of the universe. Like everything else, I suppose this is a matter of perception.
As the basis of a theology: Out of the veil of that which cannot be spoken/conceived, emerges that simple statement. From unity comes a primordial struggle between existence and non-existence. Physics tells us that the vacuum is a very complex place, containing non-zero Higgs field(s) and a constant froth of particle-anti-particle pairs popping into existence and then annihilating one another.
From this basic dichotomy, yin and yang and the boundary between the two, everything else follows. Or not.
I'd love to read comments on this simple paradox.
My initial ones: It can be a simple, joyful exercise in word play or the very foundation of the universe. Like everything else, I suppose this is a matter of perception.
As the basis of a theology: Out of the veil of that which cannot be spoken/conceived, emerges that simple statement. From unity comes a primordial struggle between existence and non-existence. Physics tells us that the vacuum is a very complex place, containing non-zero Higgs field(s) and a constant froth of particle-anti-particle pairs popping into existence and then annihilating one another.
From this basic dichotomy, yin and yang and the boundary between the two, everything else follows. Or not.
2.) IS THERE A 'SPIRIT WORLD'???
Is there a spiritual world?
Let me begin with T.H. Huxley's analogy:
"The known is finite, the unknown is infinite; intellectually we stand on an island in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land."
Now one characterization of that "ocean of inexplicability" is that it is (at least for now) the dominion of spirits, or the place where only mysticism can "float our boat". Science (Reason) seems limited to the dry land, positing falsifiable hypotheses about the surrounding ocean. Mystics gleefully plunge in and swim. Why not? What rational basis do we have to prevent them? Do the best swimmers come back bearing, for example, emotional content that sustains and nutures the island's rational inhabitants in demonstrable and measurable ways?
I am here to learn. I hope ADParker, among others who've posted here, will come back and provide me with some guidance based on reason. Intuitively I have a desire to explore the seas of inexplicability in every way available to my mortal being. I know that I did not begin my mortal journey as a rational being. I began as a bit of DNA that preceded the "big bang" of my conception.
Does DNA rely on reason? Or vice-versa?
At what point in a human's personal growth does (s)he stop relying on the "force" of ancestral electro-chemical drives and begin productively applying reason?
Was our pre-rational existence completely unbiased? How much of it must we un-learn before we can trust our rational capabilities to be truly objective?
Are we, as human beings at any sort of pinnacle of rational evolution? Is our rationality in any sense perfect? If not, how do we compensate for the as yet undetected biases in our reasoning?
Let me begin with T.H. Huxley's analogy:
"The known is finite, the unknown is infinite; intellectually we stand on an island in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land."
Now one characterization of that "ocean of inexplicability" is that it is (at least for now) the dominion of spirits, or the place where only mysticism can "float our boat". Science (Reason) seems limited to the dry land, positing falsifiable hypotheses about the surrounding ocean. Mystics gleefully plunge in and swim. Why not? What rational basis do we have to prevent them? Do the best swimmers come back bearing, for example, emotional content that sustains and nutures the island's rational inhabitants in demonstrable and measurable ways?
I am here to learn. I hope ADParker, among others who've posted here, will come back and provide me with some guidance based on reason. Intuitively I have a desire to explore the seas of inexplicability in every way available to my mortal being. I know that I did not begin my mortal journey as a rational being. I began as a bit of DNA that preceded the "big bang" of my conception.
Does DNA rely on reason? Or vice-versa?
At what point in a human's personal growth does (s)he stop relying on the "force" of ancestral electro-chemical drives and begin productively applying reason?
Was our pre-rational existence completely unbiased? How much of it must we un-learn before we can trust our rational capabilities to be truly objective?
Are we, as human beings at any sort of pinnacle of rational evolution? Is our rationality in any sense perfect? If not, how do we compensate for the as yet undetected biases in our reasoning?
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