Mathew, Yes, belief in randomness is mysticism. Mysticism is belief grounded in fantasy. "Randomness", as Delbert points out, is lack of knowledge, not true randomness. Processes are not random, they trundle along their inevitable paths. This is why science is able to make increasingly accurate predictions. Mystics don't like this at all - it makes it obvious that all living things mathematically calculate their survival paths with no need for pleas to dogma, be they from the Church of the Pony or Shalom's Dog Strictures.
I think I even learned about the mathematical life forces right here from the ubiquitous Galt. For you to join the ranks of the superstitious is sadly ironical. Rationalism is based on determinism [and not some obscure deities] - a rational universe of regular processes from the smallest to the largest. The irrational is based on magic, wishful thinking, conjecture and egocentricity; not on real processes.
Rationalism aims to base thinking and choice on these real processes. Moronic fatalism will be fatal. "No mind moronic fatalism" will be fatal even quicker. Though "no mind moronic" is a tautology. It is in none of my philosophies that rationalism involves no choice. Choice is the process we use to discriminate among various options, which usually involves some conjecture as insufficient is known to decide the optimum choice in any given situation.
The mystics base their beliefs on a few things such as:
1 The idea of a magical mind with processes baed on some unknowables
2 "randomness" in the subatomic world, where processes can't be measured.
3 outright conjecture
Unfortunately, we all get tarred with the mystic brush because we can't know much at all and have to make choice based on some rules of thumb or other belief systems. |
