Well I've heard people argue that if we think we individually have intentionality who is to say that larger order things such as the earth ('Gaia'), the galaxy or the universe doesn't also? What really is the boundary between me and not-me? The air I breath and my lungs are in a relationship. Same with the water my body needs. Life feeds on life and so is connected in that way. Inorganic matter is taken up into living beings and returns to inorganic states when the organism dies. So the organic and inorganic worlds are tangibly interconnected. So perhaps in describing the networks of which any particular organism is a part we wind up describing parts of the world that go beyond the organism. In that sense the boundary between me and not-me is indeterminate. In some sense we could say instead that we are an aspect of a larger organism.
Ordinarily we wouldn't infer intentionality to anything which is not alive and conscious. But when you look at the way the counterbalancing forces on our planet result in stable states that promote life it can look intentional. Where does the web of life begins and end? Does the sun which fuels it all belong? Would there be any life in the web without the sun?
There is no necessity -so far as we can tell- for inferring deities but neither is there any way of ruling them out. Personally I think Occam's razor describes a good rule of thumb rather than a compulsory conclusion. So I'm not convinced it ever adequately justifies any conclusion. If it gives you the meaning you seek, why not infer a deity?
Perhaps it isn't a question of whether or not a deity exists apart from me so much as it is a question of whether I exist apart from everything else. If I am a part of a larger thing then that thing encompasses my intentionality and so includes it and that of every other creature. Feeling thankful to the greater organism of which we are a part and without which we could not exist is not such a screwy idea.
Ordinarily we wouldn't infer intentionality to anything which is not alive and conscious. But when you look at the way the counterbalancing forces on our planet result in stable states that promote life it can look intentional. Where does the web of life begins and end? Does the sun which fuels it all belong? Would there be any life in the web without the sun?
There is no necessity -so far as we can tell- for inferring deities but neither is there any way of ruling them out. Personally I think Occam's razor describes a good rule of thumb rather than a compulsory conclusion. So I'm not convinced it ever adequately justifies any conclusion. If it gives you the meaning you seek, why not infer a deity?
Perhaps it isn't a question of whether or not a deity exists apart from me so much as it is a question of whether I exist apart from everything else. If I am a part of a larger thing then that thing encompasses my intentionality and so includes it and that of every other creature. Feeling thankful to the greater organism of which we are a part and without which we could not exist is not such a screwy idea.
