The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #73702 Message #1281869
Posted By: Little Hawk
26-Sep-04 - 09:24 PM
Thread Name: BS: Boring science stuff we all believe...
Subject: RE: BS: Boring science stuff we all believe...
Wolfgang is a very smart fellow, Mary, and I fully respect his abilities with logic and reasoning.
I often use words in an unconventional way in order to stimulate philosophical thoughts which might lead to a new way of looking at something.
For instance, I believe all people are "religious"...but when I say that I do not for a moment mean that they all believe in God...or that they all belong to some organized religion. What I mean is that they all believe in something abstract, and they form their viewpoints around those abstract concepts. They all have faith in something that exists inside their own heads...an idea of some kind...a philosophy...a sense of identity...a sense of purpose...one that may seem quite unreal to another person. I call that being "religious", because it involves great faith and great committment and it's not provable in concrete terms.
I realize it's an unconventional use of the term, but I am doing that in order to stimulate some actual thinking rather than the mere repetition of rote knowledge. Anyone can look up facts in a book and memorize them perfectly and repeat them to someone else, but who can grasp the meaning of his own existence? Who can understand why he thinks the way he does, and how he could change it. Only a wise person can do that.
Here's an old proverb:
Great mind discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events. (or facts)
Small minds discuss others. (gossip)
My unconventional use of the word "religion" when discussing people's core beliefs is done in order to get people to look at their habitual own thinking processes. If they do, they may be intrigued at what they find.
Look outside, and you merely count the beans. Look inside, and you can find out why you want to count the beans in the first place! The latter is a far more important matter than knowing how many beans there are.