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December 25, 2007

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Brian,
I share your frustration with the santa claus letter to the little girl.
The main problem IMO is that the author is conflating two issues and trying to blindside the reader. The first issue point on the table is that there is more to the world than what meets senses, and that imagination (intuition) is necessary to try to bring the unknown into the known. Most artists I would argue use intuition to know an experience they can at first only feel or sense like an itch and then translate this experience into more known media.

I wholeheartedly agree with this point.

The second point is that therefore we should not believe what our reasoning and those who reason around us tell us. This is complete crap. While reason may not be the only or most important faculty we possess, any system which tells us to throw our reason out the window because life is more "comforting" that way has got it totally wrong.

And the thing which pisses me off is the conflation of these two points. Sort of like saying that you can't support the troops and be against the war.


This was wonderful. I was reading that awful little piece yesterday out loud, in a menacing, hyper-authoritative way, just as I suspect it should be.

As always, The Oregonian had printed it with a little note about what a beloved tradition it has become...By which I think they mean, "being forced to print this every year on December 25th".

Brilliant! Sanity and reason endure, even if they don't exactly prevail. I'd write more, but laughter makes concentration difficult. A Harry (late) Kwanukkahmas to you, and best wishes for 2008.

Brian,

I agree with your comment about the Christian "story".

The whole thing is really madness disguised as some love affair between god and the human race - sending some guy down from heaven to get butchered to death because Eve gave into the temptation and ate the forbidden fruit.

I just don't understand how anyone can buy into this bullshit, except out of fear and total mind conditioning. It's quite comical how a person can be rational when it comes to investing or managing money or other business affairs and then when it comes to religious dogma, believe stories that are complete nonsense.

An example are satsangis that believe that Kal stood on one leg for 27 yugas to get control of the lower regions - what nonsense, yet people believe it because it's written in RS books authored by god's incarnate.

Where will it end?

Bob

Bob said: "I just don't understand how anyone can buy into this bullshit, except out of fear and total mind conditioning. It's quite comical how a person can be rational when it comes to investing or managing money or other business affairs and then when it comes to religious dogma, believe stories that are complete nonsense."

--That is exactly what I was trying to express elsewhere on this blog in response to Brian's remarks about Christian or Mormon candidates. It is entirely possible for them to believe in unfounded religious dogma and still be perfectly sane in regard to policy, economics, etc. This doesn't mean I'm voting for Romney or Huckabee. I kind of wish Steve Forbes was running.

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