I've been reading Steve's site for about 18 months, and started attending a Unity church about a year ago, really trying to wrap my head around the consequences of accepting Love as the highest virtue. It seems that most people who accept this have a belief in the soul and the continuation of consciousness after death. I have a cousin who is hard-core atheist and very critical of these ideas and always wants to grill me so he can poke holes in every theory that does not line up with his concept of reality. Finally I asked him what is his theory on how life works.
He said that he basically thinks that human babies are born into this world with some basic hardware and BIOS and then as we live self-modifying code is written to our brains and consciousness results from this process. In his mind, the idea of consciousness apart from life is as implausible as a computer working after the battery is removed. As evidence, he points to computers and robots that simulate consciousness and to brain probes that "turn off" certain parts of consciousness by direct electrical stimulation.
To me, I like to give a certain weight to people who testify to direct experience of psychic phenomena, especially when I cannot see any reason for these people to lie (of course, he says I am too naive and trusting). I like the theory that we can access more than this physical dimension and that while paranormal experiences may be misinterpreted they are still valuable glimpses of a non-physical reality. However, I have not had personal access to any paranormal experiences and accounts of what that non-physical reality is like are quite contradictory. Also, it seems that none of these paranormal experiences can yet be replicated in a way where they can be scrutinized by science.
In his view the highest goal is Freedom, not Love, and Freedom is worth fighting and killing for. Not because of any real point to life, but just because life without Freedom sucks. Of course the prime example is the American Revolution, which we have been taught from childhood was Good.
Anyways, I would like to hear some thoughts about (1) whether you believe in non-corporeal consciousness and why and (2) whether you think this belief affects whether Love or Freedom is more important.
I have many more thoughts, but I will stop rambling for now and see if I can get any responses for a conversation.
