Mr e > I find particularly amusing anytime I catch political/economic conspiracy theorists trashing religions as specious (in an evidentiary sense) in the same proverbial breath.
I stand guilty as charged for I am one of these.
But I would take issue with you on the apparent inconsistency. In my opinion, the consistency is, in fact, the inconsistency -- in other words, the human being is consistently inconsistent. Put differently, any objectivity there is is in the "eyes of the beholder". Thus I am suggesting that we choose our objectivity to suit our argument or our subjective position. But, what determines this position, that I cannot say? It may be circumstantial? It may be due to conditioning? It may be genetic? Whatever.
This little poem illustrates the subjectivity of an apparently objective position. I have mentioned it before and I think about it often.
anointedlinks.com
>>The Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant
by John Godfrey Saxe
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
Though all of them were blind,
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant
And, happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me, but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
The Second, feeling the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis very clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal
And, happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up he spake:
"I see," quoth he, "The Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee:
"What most the wondrous beast is like
Is very plain," quoth he;
"Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said, "Even the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can:
This marvel of an elephant
Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong.
Though each was partly in the right,
They all were in the wrong!
by John Godfrey Saxe (1816 – 1887)
from the collection of "Best Loved Poems of The American People" <<
There is also a moral:
So oft in theologic*** wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen! <<
*** or scientific |
