I don't think I have any really fuzzy beliefs - I tend to be pretty skeptical about stuff. The problem comes, however, from the artistic side that expresses things symbolically and poetically, and thus I make it sound like I have some pretty woo facets to my personality.

I used to believe in Fate as a cosmic force driving us to a specific destination in life. It was, however, a faceless force with no entity behind it.

(February 15, 2012 at 1:37 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: I don't think I have any really fuzzy beliefs - I tend to be pretty skeptical about stuff. The problem comes, however, from the artistic side that expresses things symbolically and poetically, and thus I make it sound like I have some pretty woo facets to my personality.

That's exactly where I tend to get a little fuzzy. Where does inspiration come from? Doing something creative is very different than solving a problem or performing a task well. When I think about making my garden it sometimes feels right to say I am just following its (the garden's) suggestions. Does my gardening activity turn my yard into a garden or me into a gardener? Both seem true. Fuzzy enough?

I am of the view that inspiration is nothing more than a desire for something to be, THEN how you solve the problem of 'making it so' involves problem solving skills. and this is 'creativity'.

We seem to be a hedonistic species.

Something like that is true. The main thing is that creativity involves opening yourself to more than your your usual deliberative decision making. I admit to harboring some romance about how the totality of myself interacts with my usual decision making process. There is richness in learning to step out of the way. It all comes from the same person but there is more to every person's consciousness than that which is always at that person's beck and call. There is talent and then there is your access to your talent. Too much control can cut you off.

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Messed up again, Kicki. I meant to quote your last post in this response. Oops.

Agreed.

What I like best about 'creativity' is getting out of my own way. Still doing the mundane (if you like to call it that) problem solving but I am thinking that it is the end result that takes our breath away enough to say "Wow!... I did that, and I didn't think I could"

So one could view 'Creativity' as the ability to be led to and idea or physical situation/ solution that we had previously not considered before? (Without getting all woo-woo nutso about it)

(February 15, 2012 at 11:37 am)Phil Wrote:

(February 15, 2012 at 11:32 am)whateverist Wrote:

(February 15, 2012 at 10:42 am)Phil Wrote:

(February 15, 2012 at 12:37 am)whateverist Wrote: I'm agnostic

Poor guy

How so? I'm still 100% atheist, absolutely no belief in gods. It's just that I'm absolutely sure I have and have heard no killer argument against the existence of gods. So I'm also 100% agnostic.

Are you gnostic Phil? Do have absolute certainty about what is and is not in the universe? I don't. The one thing I am completely certain of is that I harbor no belief in gods.

No i am not gnostic. I am an agnostic atheist but a gnostic atheist as far as Yahweh and the rest. Just agnostic atheist on a generic deity.

You didn't say you were an agnostic atheist which is a position I and many others can understand. You said agnostic and left it alone as if it was a choice somewhere between atheism and theism. That isn't true and I was sad to see someone who apparently thought it was. Any other questions?

Sorry about that Phil. I hadn't meant to hide my atheism but I can see how it wasn't clear. Like you, I don't see agnosticism as being on a scale somewhere between theism to atheism.

(February 16, 2012 at 2:38 am)whateverist Wrote: Sorry about that Phil. I hadn't meant to hide my atheism but I can see how it wasn't clear. Like you, I don't see agnosticism as being on a scale somewhere between theism to atheism.

Not a problem. There is no way I could ever hold a grudge with the face in your avatar.

-ism = religion?
Is cynicism a religion then? Cause if so I am definitely a member.

[smiling faintly] or being a big fan of romanticism? Or Neo-Victorianism? Or optimism? (If the last, then I am the reluctant but helpless head priestess).