[Vision2020] Gary Larson on one of today's headlines

[Art Deco]

RE: [Vision2020] Gary Larson on one of today's headlinesRon,

As expected, you only reassert your position, without giving any verifiable evidence to support it.  C. S. Pierce in his essay "The Fixation of Belief" called such ways of fixing belief the Method of Tenacity.  The users of such methods have contributed little or nothing, save acting as a bad example, to the advancement of knowledge or to the alleviation of the causes of suffering of humankind.

Rather than argue about first principles, Occam's Razor, etc.  I recycle the post below, slightly altered.  Consider the last paragraphs in the light of the discussion of the quotes from Mark (also appended) in a recent thread on V 2020.


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When searching for "the truth" it may be useful to understand that some statements are neither true nor false.  For example:

"The square root of blue recrystalizes sodomy."

Just because words can be strung together in an apparently syntactically correct sentence doesn't mean the sentence has a comprehensible, literal, testable meaning.

In your quest for "the truth" you might watch out for these kind of assertions.  Religion, philosophy, politics, etc. are rife with such statements.  These assertions are generally recognizable by the practical impossibility of being neither unequivocally confirmable nor falsifiable or for the establishment of any significant probability of thier truth.  The latter two cases is often especially the case.

A parable derived from an example written by an apostate Catholic disciple of Wittgenstein intended to illustrate the point of Occam's Razor may be helpful as an illustration to you.  


Neighbors A & B were having an over-the-back-fence discussion:

A:    I heard you have a new kind of powerful watchdog or something.

B:    Yes, it is called the Odg.

A:    What does it do?

B:    It watches over us continually and protects us and our property from harm.

A:    I haven't seen anything.  Where is it?

B:    The Odg is invisible.

A:    I have heard any barking or anything.

B:    The Odg makes no sound.

A:    You don't have a fence.  How do you keep the Odg in?

B:    The Odg stays with us always.  It is the loving nature of the Odg to do so.

A:    Your lawn is immaculate.  I don't see any Odg droppings at all.

B:    The Odg never eats.  Consequently, it makes no droppings.  It doesn't slobber or have bad breath either.

A:    Tell me again what it does.

B:    It watches over us and protects us from all harms.  It requires only unquestioning belief on our part in return.

A:    But wasn't your home robbed of everything of value, weren't you badly beaten up, and wasn't your wife taken for and enjoyed a month-long sexual romp by a motorcycle gang a few months ago?

B:    Yes, but it must of been good for us, else the Odg would not have let it happen. [

Also, consider the Tsunami in this context.]


Ron, I hope you are a sincere person who wishes to better the world.  

After understanding the above parable and its ramifications, perhaps you might consider shifting the focus of your faith and the use of your talents from proselytization to working directly, non-judgmentally, and non-theologically to alleviate some of the obvious sufferings in the world -- hunger, disease, illiteracy, war, religious strife, crime, social disorganization, etc.

When I lived in Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I meet a number of missionaries and other once very religious people of various faiths who came to Africa originally to spread their religious beliefs.  [Though a nonbeliever, I was a volunteer distribution point for Catholic Relief Services.]

The pursuit of the alleviation of suffering and the physical improvement of the general conditions of life for many of these one-time fervently religious people soon became the meaning of and center for their existence.  Religious beliefs, if not abandoned completely for many of these people, became a very less important part of their lives.  Their faiths, like that of Albert Schweitzer's were greatly altered.  I know because I worked with and enjoyed several of these people.  They openly and unabashedly talked about their spiritual transformation from an impotent pseudo-oracle to a foe of suffering and unattained aspirations.  They talked about their determination to help those less fortunate than themselves in a multitude of non-spiritual, but very welcome ways.

Many formerly very religious persons believed that in the overall scheme of the universe as they came to see it, preventing glaucoma or teaching Africans to farm productively enriched humankind a great deal more than such self-serving activities like building churches, making doubtful converts, or singing hymns.  Again, in this context, I refer you to the passage from Mark below.

Wayne

Art Deco  (Wayne Fox)
deco at moscow.com

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Matthew 25:31 - 46 (YLT) 31'And whenever the Son of Man may come in his glory, and all the holy messengers with him, then he shall sit upon a throne of his glory;  
32and gathered together before him shall be all the nations, and he shall separate them from one another, as the shepherd doth separate the sheep from the goats,  
33and he shall set the sheep indeed on his right hand, and the goats on the left. 
34'Then shall the king say to those on his right hand, Come ye, the blessed of my Father, inherit the reign that hath been prepared for you from the foundation of the world;  
35for I did hunger, and ye gave me to eat; I did thirst, and ye gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and ye received me;  
36naked, and ye put around me; I was infirm, and ye looked after me; in prison I was, and ye came unto me.
37'Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see thee hungering, and we nourished? or thirsting, and we gave to drink?  
38and when did we see thee a stranger, and we received? or naked, and we put around?  
39and when did we see thee infirm, or in prison, and we came unto thee? 
40'And the king answering, shall say to them, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye did it to one of these my brethren-the least-to me ye did it. 
41Then shall he say also to those on the left hand, Go ye from me, the cursed, to the fire, the age-during, that hath been prepared for the Devil and his messengers;  
42for I did hunger, and ye gave me not to eat; I did thirst, and ye gave me not to drink;  
43a stranger I was, and ye did not receive me; naked, and ye put not around me; infirm, and in prison, and ye did not look after me. 
44'Then shall they answer, they also, saying, Lord, when did we see thee hungering, or thirsting, or a stranger, or naked, or infirm, or in prison, and we did not minister to thee? 
45'Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these, the least, ye did it not to me.  
46And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during.' 
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