From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Feb 27 2002 - 15:35:03 MST
[nng] Religion is a coping strategy - most people need something like it
[ben] Most people need something like it because as children they were
taught religion in lieu of coping skills and self-reliance. Manufactured
neccessity does not justify it's existence in the long run.
[Hermit] nods
[nng] Then please, impart to me, through this forum, the memes that this
forum considers most beneficial for coping skill and self-reliance.
[Hermit] The Church of Virus has no dogma. Indeed, we classify dogma as a
sin. Please visit [url]http://virus.lucifer.com[/url] for more. Instead, we
consider it not only beneficial but necessary that each person come to their
own (always tentative and falsifiable) conclusions in all matters.
Unfortunately, to many of us, modern life does not appear to be doing a very
good job of teaching people how to reach conclusions. To that end we engage
in a process of dialog which is intended to further each members ability to
reach such conclusions. While we recognize that logic and reason cannot open
all doors, they offer the only certain way of opening some doors. So we
respect these tools and seek deliberately to maximize our capability to use
them, while also recognizing the emergent nature of our Universe and the
fact that it is complex.
[Hermit] I find the following thought modii useful. Life is neither good nor
bad, it is a process of determining and refining our ability to enter
relationships with others, offering many opportunities to experience rewards
along the way. Evolution has provided us with a brain which has the ability
to enjoy abstract thought and the company of others. The social nature of
people also suggests that we maximize our pleasure by maximizing our
interactions and contact with others. How we realize these potentials is
quite probably the greatest single separator between men, and determinator
of our satisfaction with ourselves and our lives.
[Hermit] In other words, we create our own opportunities for joy, sorrow and
indifference in the way that we live, in the things that we do and in the
attitudes which we hold. Our nature is such that even if we stand to one
side, that we will in any case empathize with the hurt of others (that is a
genetic legacy and one I do not regret). Yet standing to one side, we cannot
experience their joys. Thus I find that indifference offers the fewest
rewards, and that while sorrow is hardly possible unless we interact with
other men, that this also precludes the full joy of living.
[Hermit] There are several prerequisites to interrelating successfully with
others. The ability to communicate effectively, the ability to think
rationally and act ethically, the characteristics of dependability and
predictability, an understanding of where we come from to determine a
context for words and actions, and above all, seeing that men tend to react
to one another depending on how they are treated, the anticipation that you
will find the company and pleasures of others to be pleasant and pleasing to
yourself. That way, you will sometimes be disappointed, but I would suggest,
not nearly so much as those that do not engage in hopeful dialog (who,
fortunately for themselves, seldom realize how much they are missing).
[Hermit] The emergent nature of the Universe described above implies that
multiple perspectives are greatly superior to one, and that self-enrichment
(and true joy) arises from grasping the fact that there is an entire,
colorful spectrum rather than a dreary landscape in black and white or even
shades of grey. So the CoV does not attempt to capture the world in a word,
rather we explore - and enjoy - the complexity of the world and our various
perspectives of it and experiencing the delight of teaching others how to
communicate these various perspectives effectively.
[Hermit] Sadly, life being good, we all die. It has been argued that our
purpose is to propagate our genes. I would argue that we can already see
that we will have to transcend that concept (unless we begin to direct our
own evolution in an attempt to remain equal to the neural networks that I
suspect may eventually replace us). I suggest that the logical approach is
to recognize that it is not our genes which are so dreadfully important to
propagate, but our memes. In other words, what have we contributed to the
idea space that we leave behind us.
[Hermit] This seems to be a natural progression for a Virian, and I think
that Kalkor put it rather nicely in
[url=http://forum.javien.com/XMLmessage.php?id=id::W1YUWjMz-IXR_-dRp0-X0N1-JhduLUwfUQUI]"virus:
Coping and self-reliance (was RE: faith not moribund)", Kalkor, Wed Feb 27,
2002 03:05 pm[/url]
Regards
Hermit
PS As a brief refresher which may be helpful, the scientific method cannot
prove anything. It can of course be used to disprove anything amenable to
the scientific process - and asserts (stipulating that Hawking radiation is
information free) that there is nothing which exists outside of a
singularity which is not amenable to this process. As we cannot experience a
singularity at this stage of our existence, we can simplify this to assert
that the scientific method can be applied to everything which exists. That
is not to suggest that the scientific method is perfect, error free or in
its final form. It too is emergent and provisional (which simply means
subject, at least in principle, to refutation cf Karl Popper and Popperian
falsifiability). This provides a glimpse of the three principle differences
between the scientific method and other ways of considering things. What it
addresses must be at least founded in observation (most scientists would
say, "must be founded in an observation"), or it is not possible, even in
theory to refute it. It is consensual and self-correcting. It progresses
most rapidly precisely when the most important things we assert through it
are overturned. These attributes are diametrically opposed to classical
religions, mysticism, belief and even politics. Personally, I would suggest
that I have found nothing worthwhile in life which cannot be addressed and
enjoyed more from this perspective - including literature, art, poetry,
music, good food, wine and love. All of these wonderful aspects of being
alive are experienced (observed), and the more familiar you are with them
and the more you practice enjoying them, the more you know of them, the more
intensely you can engage with them and the greater the enjoyment becomes.
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