Murdock, Mark (Mark.Murdock@Unisys.Com)
Tue, 9 Dec 1997 06:46:29 +0100
Magnus wrote>>>
> I'll be frank here (I usually am :-), the name "spiritual value" rings
> a
> bell
> for me, connecting it with religious holier-than-thou mentality.
> Jehovah
> and people from other churches came home to me and tried to convince
> me to join them. When they noticed that I was into science, they tried
> to convince me using scientific arguments. But they always got the
> bottom
> line of those arguments from the Bible. To me, that says two things.
> 1) They close their eyes to observations whenever they conflict with
> the Bible. 2) They don't use their intellect when they don't have to.
> They
> think it's already in the Bible so why bother. Giving up like that is
> something that really appalled me.
>
Fine. Call it pre-intellectual values then. I agree that dogma in
religion is as dangerous as dogma in any discipline.
Just remember, if you believe the Quality is the source and substance of
all things, then there exists no intellectual argument for your belief
either. It's faith, same as theirs. In fact, you share the same faith,
that ultimate reality is Good, God, and unknowable intellectually. We
feel God, we don't deduce Him. Quality is experienced
pre-intellectually. Intellectual analysis of quality is always in the
past, like chasing ghosts.
Now you're just arguing what the bible means. They cling to it for
answers on morality and you prefer to use an intellectual construction
for morality (Lila). When it comes to the struggle between the social
and the biological, Lila says nothing that's not in the bible.
Morality-wise, you are in agreement for the most part.
So it all boils down to their static social values versus yours. If
they failed to make a convincing "rhetoric" then fine, you choose your
good over theirs. I would only urge care in not dismissing that which
evokes much passion in others. There's good behind it. This doesn't
mean join every religion that knocks on your door either.
If, however, you believe that Truth is our ultimate reality, that God is
Truth, then yes, you can use your intellect to sort all experience into
that which is true, not true or not yet determinable. For you, faith is
simply belief in something not yet scientifically verified (for what
better way to know truth than by scientific method?).
M.
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