From: rhinoceros (rhinoceros@freemail.gr)
Date: Thu Mar 21 2002 - 18:57:07 MST
Ok, my turn for some ranting.
Going back to the problem of what the universe really is, all the knowledge we can have is based on what we can perceive, either directly or indirectly through concepts of our own devise. As I see it, all concepts like Space-Time metrics, Mass-Energy metrics, Number Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Religion(s) and God(s), Language(s), or the Virus have been devised by man for some reason, either to explain something (physical or conceptual), or to be used for some purpose, or to cover some need (e.g. for the fun of it).
These man-made concepts are real -- they have a pattern which can be communicated and they also have physical existence in any particular person\'s brain activity -- but what is more important is their origin: they are attempts to project partial aspects of reality into a model that people can work with. These concepts can also produce results in reality -- we might even bio-engineer unicorns. The most interesting of them all is Language (natural or artificial), which is a meta-concept and a model creation tool.
Of course, god(s) is also a man-made concept. But what is a god? Of couse, we are not talking about an image of a white-bearded old man who is in charge of everything. Usually a god is perceived as an entity which (a) has a will, (b) possesses power over something (or everything), and (c) these properties, will and power, have some significance for us. The concept of god(s) has often been used to account for the unknown, or to cover up known things which should remain unknown to the people for some (un)holy purpose, or just to impose some moral code without having to explain a lot.
Do gods exist in physical reality? This question can be rephrased as \"Is the concept of god(s) as defined above a successful model for some entities or aspects of physical reality.\" It is a fact that the idea of god(s) is present at all times and all places, and this might be considered as evidence for the existence of god(s). However, it is also a fact that igorance is also present at the same times and places. Moreover, the idea of god(s) seems to lose ground, or its content to be shifted from the physical world to a spiritual world when ignorance subsides. So, we have strong historical evidence that in fact god(s) is a model to encompass and organize bits of ignorance.
If the concept of god(s) has been pushed far enough into the realm of the spiritual, we cannot disprove it. However, we can cut it out using Ockham\'s razor.
The next question is whether there is some kind of reality which could be perceived, but not with our current means of perception. However, I am not ready to discuss this one yet.
---- This message was posted by rhinoceros to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=16;action=display;threadid=11635>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Sep 25 2002 - 13:28:45 MDT