RE: First things first
June 25, 2013 at 2:28 pm
(This post was last modified: June 25, 2013 at 2:35 pm by Whateverist.)
(June 25, 2013 at 2:12 pm)Brian37 Wrote: ..leave it at "sense of wonder" or "sense of awe", I get that. Reality does not need woo to be appreciated.
With you so far.
(June 25, 2013 at 2:12 pm)Brian37 Wrote: The universe is a thing, not an entity.
Starting to lose me. Even if I concede that the universe is not "an entity" (which is actually more than I know), I don't see how that constrains it to the inert alternate mode of being as we humans understand it. "Man is the measure of the universe" is fine if you're only interested in understanding the universe as it relates to men. We may have no other choice in some sense, but as with the effort in science to leave aside personal bias, we should at least try to remain open to a non-speciesist understanding of it all.
(June 25, 2013 at 2:12 pm)Brian37 Wrote: I feel lucky to be part of this cosmic ride, but in no way feel it is mysterious or magic.
Found it! Here is where we part company. There is definitely mystery. Lots of it. It is fundamental in fact. Everything we know is based on at least one premise of which we are not aware. Our conscious minds serve an advisory role to a being that could function without it, at least in simpler times. There is so much we do not know! That doesn't mean you need to be wary of ghosts, worry about unicorns or be careful not to offend gods. Fuck em if they can't take a joke. (They can. At least they could if there were any, which I doubt.)
Magic? What's that? I define it as any action whose mechanism has not been discovered. So what is magical in one setting becomes mundane in another. We don't know the extent of what we don't know so we can rarely predict what may yet bear an explanation and what may be forever out of our grasps. Just don't expect every question to have a trivial answer or to conform to your preset categories. You've got just one important choice regarding the mystery. Leave it wide open or seal yourself off into a limited chamber of your own design.
