From: Elizaphanian (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Mon May 05 2003 - 08:51:30 BST
Hi David,
: dmb says:
: I think its pretty obvious that the Yorkshire Ripper can rightly be excluded
: from our list of authentic mystics, but we don't need religious authority to
: tell us that. This is a case better handled by the criminal justice system
: and a team of psychiatrists than any church. Pirsig's thoughts about the
: difference between mysticism and insanity might shed some light on this, but
: I don't think anyone doubts that serial killers are not mystics.
My use of the Yorkshire Ripper was a 'reductio ad absurdum' of your argument - and I am glad that
you concede the absurdity. You accept that the quality of mystical experience is evaluated by SQ
patterns that already exist. That's all I'm arguing for. You reinforce that when you say, "We now
have conceptual categories that were not previously available. That's good. That's progress." I
think we can progress too - that's what I take the great religious traditions to be; it's what makes
them great.
Sam
"Even to have expressed a false thought boldly and clearly is already to have gained a great deal."
Wittgenstein, 1948
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