Non-literal atheism?

[The Grand Nudger]

Psh, no we didn't, horses are garbage. Can't stand em. Try to get a horse to take you 900m in 24 hours. Lazy bastards.

I think that our ability to record, collect, and build knowledge is entirely mundane. Nyah!
(seriously though...that's a positively awful use of dues ex..shits on the effort that went into that knowledge)

[stonedape]

Maybe deus-ex machina is the wrong word. Evolution is more precise. Knowledge and technology have evolved with mankind on our adventure. We all may be insignificant nobodies on an insignificant ball of water and dirt, but our journey to master our limitations in order to defy them is anything but insignificant.

How can you not see the motivational value of that?

[ignoramus]

Word salads are very indigestible to me

it's more palatable if taken with salt!

In the last couple of days, I've eaten a big bowl of
"what the fuck are you talking about".

The salad consisted mainly of bits of aliens, ghosts, consciousness with a drizzle of meaningless "meaning!"

[Confused Ape]

Spirituality is a human experience. I found a very interesting short video where Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are discussing it.





They all agree that people really do have experiences which come under the heading of 'spiritual' and these experiences have great value.

There's a related video where Richard Dawkins is talking about the word, spiritual, being hijacked by religion.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I have no problem with the spiritual side of life informing my music and writing, and I know that it has intrinsic meaning to me. My job as an artist is to capture that meaning with a clarity that transfers it to the listener or reader.

As for us being the only source of creativity, nah. There are videos of orangutans fooling their zookeeper about their ability to lock and unlock a section of their cage. Dolphins name each other. Macaques discovered a way to separate wheat from chaff, and passed it along to younger generations. Granted that our creative faculties are surely greater (due to our excessive encephalization), other species can and do exercise creativity -- as Rhythm points out -- in interesting and sometimes astonishing ways.

[stonedape]

I'm not just talking about tactical cleverness or artistic thought. When I say creative I'm talking about roads that tie the continent together and the power grid that lights up the night. Yes, there are some very intelligent species out there. Elephants have grave yards, ants build city-like structures, bee hives are pretty sophisticated, beavers are masters of irrigation and some birds sing, dance and build colorful nests. I think if anything that only serves my point.

But none of them possess the same dynamic ability to master rapidly expanding creativity. If anybody can provide evidence that other species dynamically update their technology every generation, then please share.

The stoned ape theory seems to make the most sense. At least until alien communication comes into the discussion. But picking through cow shit for grubs seems like it would develop our finger articulation. Psychedelics do get you thinking outside of the box.

[The Grand Nudger]

I'm not just talking about tactical cleverness or artistic thought. When I say creative I'm talking about roads that tie the continent together and the power grid that lights up the night.

All of these things are pathetic lined up against biology. Just one individuals vascular system contains 60k miles- and your nervous system buzzes in such as way that if it were the earth - it would humble our current efforts at electrification. We do aight, I think it's cool, but I would think that - being one of us. That doesn't mean I can't step back and appreciate our accomplishments for what they are. Baby steps, at a 3.6 billion year disadvantage. Our "creative efforts" have a hell of alot of catching up to do before they're even in the running for any wonder of the universe status - and that's just with what little we know about the cosmos today. The field might get wider tomorrow.

[stonedape]

All of these things are pathetic lined up against biology. Just one individuals vascular system contains 60k miles- and your nervous system buzzes in such as way that if it were the earth - it would humble our current efforts at electrification. We do aight, I think it's cool, but I would think that - being one of us. That doesn't mean I can't step back and appreciate our accomplishments for what they are. Baby steps, at a 3.6 billion year disadvantage. Our "creative efforts" have a hell of alot of catching up to do before they're even in the running for any wonder of the universe status - and that's just with what little we know about the cosmos today. The field might get wider tomorrow.

The only thing I disagree with in your statement is the pathetic part. I think you get the idea though. We might have allot of catching up to do. The good news is we are heading in the right direction. The bad news is there is absolutely no catching up to infinity. The journey is the destination.

[The Grand Nudger]

Roads are (marginally) straight lines made of crushed rocks. Lightbulbs are just slow burning fires(new ones are nice, you know, an arc under a lens.....). I just don't think that either is all that impressive in context.

[Whateverist]

But we clearly are the earth's source of radically expanding creativity.

I'm not as impressed with humanity as you are. Whatever favorable comparisons we might make between ourselves and other life forms are suspect given the source. Humanity makes the earth ugly by consuming too much of its capacity and scrawling our dirty, industrial signature all over the planet.

Creative? Well, they say say all creativity begins with destruction. I'm not sure we've gotten very far past the destruction phase.