(November 29, 2009 at 5:09 pm)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: Welcome to the forums Aifnord.
Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennett are two of my heros too. I hope I do not offend you when I say... I'm not sure I know who Robert Anton Wilson is!
Anyway, as I said - welcome.
EvF
I don't get easily offended, and Robert Anton Wilson isn't particularly well-known outside the small Discordian subculture
Discordianism is sort of a joke religion which is centered around the idea that chaos and disorder are just as valid aspects of reality as order. It borrows quite a lot from Zen Buddhism and greek mythology (Eris/Discordia, which was the greek goddess of chaos and disorder - her opposite being Harmonia/Concordia is the matron deity.) Although Discordianism is a joke, it's more than *just* a joke.
Anyways, RAW was, among other things, the co-author of the book "Illuminatus", which is kind of like "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy", but with sex, drugs and conspiracy theories instead of space. Since Illuminatus builds on and extends Discordianism quite a lot, it's sort become regarded as a sacred text and RAW himself as a Discordian saint.
There's quite a lot of Youtube videos of interviews with him on various subjects, and in most cases, his views are a bit out there but still strangely coherent and logical. One of my particular favourites is "Robert Anton Wilson explains Quantum Physics."
