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.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/n09gq2hvsi9....
I appreciated very much johnpe1's post as you did. You have been amazingly benevolent and patient with some of the shallower and less intellectual if not rude and dismissive responses.
I see no evidence of mysticism or primacy of consciousness or anthropomorphism in your posts as some folks have said. As you plow new ground with your thinking, it is certainly permissible to use words that surface-level Objectivists would frown upon.
I myself find some of your formulations difficult to integrate perfectly but I certainly see and appreciate what you are striving for.
You come across as a very happy person for whom all this creative philosophizing has obviously been beneficial in real life terms.
You wrote, "Once an event is observed consciously...the outcome changes."
1. What event? Only a Quantum scale one? Certainly you don't mean that about observing someone crossing the street. Your knowledge has changed, but not the facts of existence as a result of your observing it, unless by that you mean the content of your mind.
2. your last long sentence is incomprehensible to me. It strikes me as pretentious psychobabble posturing as profound. Try saying it in English if there's an "it" there.
This post gets rather confused...
- The topic of "completely knowable" is addressed in the omniscience fallacy. While here may effectively infinite to know in extent and detail, it not necessary to know all of that to her certain gravity is working when you place your cup on the table. Certainty does not require omniscience. It sound like you agree, this is just the formal understanding of the topic.
- What Einstein understood on these issues changed as he became a theist in later years. That's his personal issue and has no bearing on physics.
- "These details, (physical laws), are so specific and mathematically precise that if it were one digit, one decimal place off...existence wouldn't exist." That's a very convoluted and confusing statement. I'd say that if there was a difference in some details and because existence exists, that would be a different example or context - period. Now there is a possibility that physics is VERY different at the smallest and largest scales. But that's a topic for science to evaluate as evidence becomes available. Something like that may be necessary to explain phenomena at the quantum scale.
- with fiction and fantasy, there is no "strangle hold upon the creativity of man..." But the value that creativity creates needs to be judged. All creativity is valuable nor equal. and that begs the question - of value to whom? - since value is a personal evaluation.
What we consider to be reality is Subjective reality, a construct of our minds, which we fool ourselves into thinking that it is the same as objective reality,
And no our mind does not ever perceive reality as it is because we are not equipped to do so. Our senses are limited in what they can detect and the amount of data that can be processed, we do not smell in the range a dog does. we do not see in the range of ultraviolet or infrared. We do not hear ultrasonic.
Ever see a magician? he moves objects right in front of your eyes and you don't see it because you are distracted. That's because our mind fills in the gaps in the limited data our senses send to the brain. So no we absolutely do not perceive objective reality as it is - we only make an image of what is. That is what Moses warned about. Don't make an image in front of objective reality and think it is truth. There is much more to objective reality than you think (pun intended)
Given the importance of this series, I am surprised the Atlas Society does not have it for sale.
Apparently Atlas Society does not offer it anymore, at least I could not find it. Which means, they might allow me to send you a mp3 copy of Lecture 4. Ask them.
Go to www.smartshill.com and read the essay on Being in the Universe. It will ground your views, properly link you to reality, and show you the proper source of awe and wonder is man. .
Good luck.
Hoping in AS, formerly IoS (as opposed to ARI), to find some open-minded dialogue vs argumentative debate (nothing wrong with that, but get that all day long from non-Objectivists. I hold us to a higher standard).
for my neighbor to say
there are twenty gods, or no God.
It neither picks my pocket
nor breaks my leg." It occurs to me that God is whatever you wish, or want him to be - its a basic personal choice, as long as hes not whispering to you to kill people.
blurb -- it's from the heart, so to speak. . will send
a test e-mail. -- j
.
If you can get AS to consent, then I will send you the lecture in MP3. Otherwise, buy it. The money would be well spent.
And exactly the right questions...
I would like to to speak with you more live. You open to planning a phone or Zoom call?
Let's go to email with this. Kimsawyer@thewealthsource.com
What say you?
love of reality is really quite similar. . the only question
which I Must Answer is "what do I do next?" . that
requires my complete attention as reality appears
to me, and my understanding -- as best I can -- of
cause-and-effect, the natural laws of reality and of
humankind within it, and an appreciation of the
harmonies which are possible consequences.
I stand in rapt attention as reality unfolds, pleasing
and amazing me with its complexity, beauty, its
enticing inviting character. . God is the known, the
unknown, the all. -- j
.
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