tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202092988208583550.post2302789577649624994..comments2024-03-04T15:09:00.479-08:00Comments on The Scientific Worldview: The Meaning of LifeGlenn Borchardthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09394474754821945146noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202092988208583550.post-39343139697378496972023-09-23T05:20:27.486-07:002023-09-23T05:20:27.486-07:00Thank you for your historic contribution to the fi...Thank you for your historic contribution to the fight against idealism. I'd like to share with you a thought that might bring a little optimism and enthusiasm to a scientific conception of the world. It's inspired by Mao Zedong's contribution to dialectics. He established that the first principle is the relative identity of opposites (= the "motor" of matter in motion). <br /> <br />Let's now consider "life" in all its generality, i.e. as a relative differentiation of a portion of eternal matter in motion. The relative identity of opposites as a universal law implies that movement is not anarchic, but rather a spiral of development, with resolutions of contradictions leading to new contradictions, again and again. <br /><br />Consequently, if we want to establish a "meaning of life" in a universal sense (which would integrate the diversity of meanings that each person gives to his or her own life), the only way is to see life as a particular stage in the eternal development of the Infinite Universe. Isn't that a more beautiful perspective than all the bigotry in the world? Gozohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11706000148043506547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202092988208583550.post-13053788190847094192017-04-21T06:47:18.782-07:002017-04-21T06:47:18.782-07:00And I completely deny free will. But the determin...And I completely deny free will. But the determinants are on the level of meaning, not physical motion. Language gives us the ability to self program, instead of relying on static instinctual responses, and it is this uniquely human ability that I believe people confuse as "free will". Even tho everything is determined, it is also true that humans are self-programmable to an extraordinary degree. Instead of punishing people for bad behavior (unless that is the only possible check at a particular level of social development) it would be far more productive to discover and control the social and linguistic determinants that lead to undesirable behavior.joogabahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12379849296384719875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202092988208583550.post-66093078326583794352017-04-21T06:39:06.489-07:002017-04-21T06:39:06.489-07:00Yes, I did read it. I'm trying to express rel...Yes, I did read it. I'm trying to express religious ideas from a materialist paradigm without contradiction. The reason is that I think religion is doing something essential in human societies that is not considered when one simply views it as "false". Religion is a commentary on the human condition and it addresses our linguistically determined subjectivity, which is the only reality we actually experience. To reduce reality to matter in motion is to ignore that part of it that exists as us. We are a jumble of myriad linguistic constructs. That is what animates us. That is our "soul". It is thousands of years old, and it has become the primary information system in our species, eclipsing DNA, because of its ability to bring about change orders of magnitude faster than biological evolution. It is that creative process and its seemingly limitless potential that we worship as our creator, because language precedes us even tho the species developed it - new individuals are literally created by it. There needs to be a part of materialism that addresses this, and until there is, religion will have something that more closely resembles lived experience, because it addresses human subjectivity and rational, linguistic meaning. We are not our bodies. Our bodies enable our existence. When I say “Glenn”, I am addressing years of linguistic, rational development, not human tissue. Not matter, or the blind motion of matter, but consciously perceived meaning, whose determinants are not the collision of particles but conscious, rational deliberation.joogabahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12379849296384719875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202092988208583550.post-89230361507880340682017-04-20T15:32:48.422-07:002017-04-20T15:32:48.422-07:00Wow! That's quite a story! You really should r...Wow! That's quite a story! You really should reread "The Scientific Worldview."Glenn Borchardthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09394474754821945146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202092988208583550.post-71716057945488762382017-04-20T14:46:28.581-07:002017-04-20T14:46:28.581-07:00What if it is actually 1,000,000 years further in ...What if it is actually 1,000,000 years further in the future than we think, and we are in a virtual reality simulation; something like the Star Trek holodeck, and the purpose is to experience a pivotal transformative epoch in human history, as a very advanced form of schooling. It could be necessary to guard against rogue characters gaining access to technology that could destroy everyone... a kind of intense psychological training and weeding out. So that all new people can fully comprehend what it means to transcend capitalism. Wouldn't the creators of the simulation be equivalent to our gods? Isn't this actually possible if humanity ever attains holodeck-like technological prowess? Wouldn't this be a complete synthesis of religion and materialism? We do have gods, but they are just the creators of the simulated environment. They are subject to their own universe, but they control ours.joogabahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12379849296384719875noreply@blogger.com