Afterthoughts on Recent God Post
The recent discussion around religion, God, spirituality and Rational Philosophy was extraordinarily thought-provoking for me. Thank you to all who participated.
I have given much thought over the last 25 years to reconciling the meaningful and practical spiritality I choose to make of central importance in my life with my deep grounding in Objectivism and related thought.
Inspired by the recent discussion I have made and attempt to streamline and essentialize the framework I have come to (as of today...ever-evolving).
I want to share it here, and humbly request response, feedback, support and challenge. I believe it contains some good quality thinking. You tell me:
GOD
At any rate, how to streamline and essentialize this...? Ok, I define God as capital R Reality, as a whole in it largest all-inclusive sense. All-that-is. Not each part, process and subset thereof, but EVERY part, process and subset thereof, taken as the single fundamental greatest Unity.
In my spiritual practices (everything I do to build, maintain and grow my relationship with God = my spirituality), I consider 2 aspects of God.
One is what I call Presence, which is the very quality of Beingness which pervades and is shared by Everything That Exists. Through meditation and prayer (not in the traditional sense of that word) and other spiritual practices, I can feel and connect to that infinite reservoir of power and energy to recharge and turbo charge myself to rise above and perform beyond my own finite store of power and energy.
The second aspect is Grace or Spirit or Flow, as you will. This is the intricate field of interlocking beginningless and endless causual connections - The Way of Things. This is where I seek guidance, data and direction beyond my finite store of knowledge and understanding and my limited capacity for wisdom, insight, forsight, intuition and creativity. It is the realm of everything that I don't know that I don't know. It is where what I need to know - when I need to know it, to live at my peak performance and direct
my actions and my life optimally - unfolds as I need to know it in every next Emerging Reality. (My job is to pay attention [LOVE that phrase!], let go of the best-guess snapshot in my head of how reality should be, and continually integrate that data into my ever evolving strategies and next steps.
I have given much thought over the last 25 years to reconciling the meaningful and practical spiritality I choose to make of central importance in my life with my deep grounding in Objectivism and related thought.
Inspired by the recent discussion I have made and attempt to streamline and essentialize the framework I have come to (as of today...ever-evolving).
I want to share it here, and humbly request response, feedback, support and challenge. I believe it contains some good quality thinking. You tell me:
GOD
At any rate, how to streamline and essentialize this...? Ok, I define God as capital R Reality, as a whole in it largest all-inclusive sense. All-that-is. Not each part, process and subset thereof, but EVERY part, process and subset thereof, taken as the single fundamental greatest Unity.
In my spiritual practices (everything I do to build, maintain and grow my relationship with God = my spirituality), I consider 2 aspects of God.
One is what I call Presence, which is the very quality of Beingness which pervades and is shared by Everything That Exists. Through meditation and prayer (not in the traditional sense of that word) and other spiritual practices, I can feel and connect to that infinite reservoir of power and energy to recharge and turbo charge myself to rise above and perform beyond my own finite store of power and energy.
The second aspect is Grace or Spirit or Flow, as you will. This is the intricate field of interlocking beginningless and endless causual connections - The Way of Things. This is where I seek guidance, data and direction beyond my finite store of knowledge and understanding and my limited capacity for wisdom, insight, forsight, intuition and creativity. It is the realm of everything that I don't know that I don't know. It is where what I need to know - when I need to know it, to live at my peak performance and direct
my actions and my life optimally - unfolds as I need to know it in every next Emerging Reality. (My job is to pay attention [LOVE that phrase!], let go of the best-guess snapshot in my head of how reality should be, and continually integrate that data into my ever evolving strategies and next steps.
Previous comments... You are currently on page 2.
Good points all and I agree. That is why I pay so much attention to definitions (I love the process - my favorite part of Objectivist Epistemology!) , and if for the purpose of theorizing, I am going to use a word differently than the most common meaning, I state my working definition clearly to those with whom I am speaking.
If they choose to ignore my words and respond based on a different definition than I am using, then they waste a lot of time (and frequently emotional energy 😕) saying things that are not really applicable.
Btw, I got the word "beingness" from Webster and cross-checked it with several other common dictionaries.
The purpose of philosophy, ANY philosophy, is happiness and fullfilment.
Human being's means of survival (and ultimately their happiness and fullfilment) are in the ACTION(S) they choose to take consistent with reality. A precondition of such action(s) is the understanding of same. A precondition to understanding reality is to identify whatever reality you are trying to grasp with clarity and precision. Clarity and precision, in turn, require that the definition of the concepts one MEANS when one identifies and subsequently claims to understand them, is essential in their use.
When you are alone and just "thinking," said clarity of understanding is consequential only to your potential efficacy in whatever action(s) you might subsequently wish to take in response.
When attempting to communicate with others however, then to the extent one's DEFINITION of the concept(s) that lie at the base of said communication is crucial. Clarity and precision are the MEANS by which communication is made useful and effective.
I am not "plowing new ground" here. In reading much of this thread there are others who have essentially indicated what I have stated above.
My "net" recommendation to you is that you develop far more precision in the definition you ascribe to the concept(s) you use, so as NOT to project broad, all-encompassing abstractions that can mean almost literally anything. You certainly understand that when you do so, then the concepts you use that you claim have great meaning, actually mean almost anything. Consequently, they mean what amounts to the subjective NOT the objective. Said succinctly, they mean nothing at all.
"Beingness" is but one glaring example.
Without malice, but with "clarity,"
Dave
"Perhaps a philosophical statement could be made defining God and man's relation to God in a way which would not be demeaning to man and his life on earth."
This is exactly what I have endeavored to do...me, the most spiritual atheist you will ever meet. Lol
Whitaker Bayou looked a lot different in 1957.
I was there about 10 years later.
http://www.pbase.com/pzo/image/146777...
See lower left corner. I recall that house as being about this close to the street~
http://www.pbase.com/pzo/image/146777...
If no god, and you die, who cares, what you leave behin. It is totally irelevant, and from a rational self-interest point of view who cares you recieve no value, your dead with nothing but worm bait and decomposition.
If there is a god then the concept of post death life or something after death becomes totally relevant.
Sorry about the war and demonizing.
Last few generations of my mother's family lived in Belgrade. They were all Serbs. My father's family are Serbs from Dubrovnik.
I will certainly always give you credit. Goes without saying.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Maritimus
So, what is your mother tongue? Mine is Hungarian.
However, my " 'Existence' is best just placed in Rand's 'Existence Exists' axiom as a general relation between matter and radiation." just means that the two are related by the property of existence, that existence is a common attribute of the two.
Whether my parents were theists or not was only important in that they did not force any beliefs on me and only taught ethics by how they acted and by little stories about honesty, independence, integrity, how to treat others well, etc.
My interest in Einstein is based on his theoretical science and not his personal life. I never have liked practical jokers which Einstein sometimes was, probably because my father scared me few times with such things as on an April 1st with a large crashing sound and " the floor fell through." Probably not a good thing to do to a little guy. I do applaud Einstein for thinking about and changing some of his boyhood beliefs, but mainly for his thinking about objective reality (a term he used in the EPR paper which tried to counter the spooky action at a distance of an interpretation of quantum mechanics).
Thank you so much for this. I find it simply awesome. You wrote the most articulate, succinct and clear summary on this subject that I have ever found. Perhaps I am not a good searcher. So be it. What you described so beautifully is what I have been convinced of being the truth for decades. If only I had the ability to articulate it so well. I do not envy you. I admire you. Thank you! THANK YOU!!
Most sincerely,
Maritimus (a.k.a. - to family - silly deda)
P.S. In my mother's tongue, deda means grandpa)
However trying to reduce complex human characteristics, causally, too much to phenomena of physical sciences can stretch thin pretty easily.
One of Jaynes students or associates; in the new book, discusses an event that triggers the achievement of self introspection and I know that some natural event, cosmic or solar that not just effected our atmosphere, our magnetic shields but our brains as well. Everything is electric. Also there was a spike in strength of our magnetic shielding about 2400 to 3000 years ago also. Our magnetic shielding has been weakening since. I can see that all these events play a role...but I'm having a tough time putting it all together with reliable resources.
I do notice that you are getting calmer and more respectful in your communication with every exchange. I appreciate that. Thanks
Perhaps you can learn more with more research.
I just checked and the CD is not available on either Audio-Forum's site or Branden's site.
Load more comments...