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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwarda who wrote (78552)	4/19/2000 11:59:00 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I KNOW I have a greater purpose- I made it up myself so I can be very sure it is there, and from whence it came. People keep misunderstanding me (I don't mean you). When I say I am an agnostic, it does NOT mean I am an atheist or a neo-agnostic. It doesn't mean I don't believe in purpose- I just don't believe it comes built in (because I've no proof for that) or from outside (again no proof)- for ME. I know this is true for ME. I am simply an agnostic. I am not hostile to the concept of God- I merely see no evidence of proof (along with a GREAT many other people I might add). I am hostile to some established CHURCHES- but they are of men, and have nothing to do with God and the conception of God (imo). Our brains, alas, are not as efficient as they might be- AND we clutter them with a lot of (apparently) useless stuff- whether it is advertising jingles or worry about things we can't possibly control. I think sometimes, when our brain is relaxed, it makes awesome connections- all by it's little electrochemical self. That's the answer I would give my children, if they asked me. I wouldn't rule out divine sources of inspiration- but I can't rule them in either. My brain works almost exactly like a computer. It has a filing system I have come to understand (it's alphabetical- I know this because of the way it associates terms). I have come to understand how I process information- not perfectly, but much more clearly than I used to. I know how to cram the memory- and I know about how long the memory lasts. So I have to tell you I don't find myself and my insights very mysterious. When I meditate I find myself making unusual connections- but that's all they seem to be- unusual connections, between ideas that were already present, and which my brain in meditation puts together.

To: Edwarda who wrote (78552)	4/20/2000 12:15:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I am attracted to Neocon's depictions of greater purposes than our own survival, much as I find myself aligned with Steven intellectually. I did not say that we have no greater purpose than our own survival. I said I believe that any purpose greater than survival is a product of our own desire to improve our lives and the lives of our offspring, and thus a refinement of that survival instinct. I believe this, again, because it simply explains the observed facts without demanding any assumption which cannot be demonstrated.

To: Edwarda who wrote (78552)	4/20/2000 8:37:00 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 108807

The argument yesterday was not that those purposes are written into the cosmic order, which is why I referred to it as Nietzschean. It is that, if we observe actual "moralities", there is a common aim to elevate humanity, although there may not be thorough agreement on the details. Thus, there are basic motives that do not reduce to "adaptation" (i.e., individual or group survival)that compel us to seek to create a "human world", which is most fulfilled in a civilized society. There are natural ends higher than survival, and our moral conceptions tend to improve as society becomes more civilized. Furthermore, the conceptions of the most successful civilization should be given more weight, as best fulfilling human nature. Thus, the ethical reflections of the West are privileged. If there is a natural goal, there is an objective touchstone for the formulation of moral conceptions, especially as that goal is fulfilled, and we "find what works", as Steve might say.......