Hi wolfgang. I agree with some of what you say here, especially about the problem of trying to conclude things.
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Originally Posted by wolfgang  don't agree w/ you about SR as religion. where's the church of SR? SR is some kind of idea that can be defined in such a way to be true by it's definition. I mean not the part about your own consciousness being the only one conscious here. But that subjectivity is all our senses give us anyway. why is that a religion? |
I suppose I'm using the word 'religion' fairly loosely. Sometimes I use it to mean absolutely any philosophy or world view, but here I guess there are various features that make SR/IM/LOA rather more like a religion than many other subjects. For instance, it is based on a metaphysics (variously interpreted) in which thought (usually directly or magically) influences physical nature, or in which physical nature is non-existent or secondary to thought, etc. To make a comparison, this is like Christianity saying that there is a heaven. Various ideas are axiomatic; they are first principles and not really testable, or not testable by the usual methods. There are persons who are widely considered as teachers, leaders, visionaries, etc., like priests. Where is the church of SR? Well, I don't see that as relevant. A great many Christians would also say that it was irrelevant to ask where the church of Christ is, and consider it non-physical or consisting of the community of all Christians.
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Not sure what you mean. Are you saying knowing is suspension of belief?
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No, I was explaining my phrase '
not knowing' by saying that I mean 'suspension of belief'. I think this is what you're saying above about not coming to conclusions (at least in terms of weird science relating to the macroscopic world).
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I would think you know that the earth will be there. It is faith in that which you know and that makes you believe it. Blind faith, I've thought, is something one doesn't quite know yet and accepts based on someone else saying it is that way.
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Do you mean that you trust SR in the way we both trust the earth will be there when we walk, because it is "that which you know and that makes you believe it"? I can say that about the earth being there, but not that reality is fundamentally subjective. That is something that people tell me, but I have no way of knowing if it's true, and I don't really trust it very much. I understand that everything I can say about it is a subjective and linguistic label...and all that postmodern stuff...I just can't say I experience having control over reality the way people here keep saying is possible - intention manifestation, psi, magick, etc.