1. 01 November 2008

    Anathem

    Neal Stephenson

    33 days ago

    Stephenson rocks once more. There’s such a great fantastical quality to his books, everything is stretched so close to absurdity but in such a way that you really just want to believe it. It’s great. This book makes me want a bolt, chord and sphere—how cool would it be if those were my three possessions?

    Started it monday, finished it up on the soccer bus ride last night. That gives me a good burn rate of about 200 pages a day.

    Stephenson’s bent here is almost spiritual. Where in his earlier books it was more techno–social (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Diamond age; at least as I remember them, rereads are now under consideration), and where the System of the World was historical and philosophic, here Stephenson takes his compelling and marvellous storytelling and wraps it around systems of existence and belief. There’s a very Emersonian transcendentalism (Emerson is even mentioned as an aside somewhere late in the book.)

    Which is great, I love it when a book comes along that meshes with my insufficiently explored innate feelings towards some subject, here that of ‘god/religion/whatever.’

    Nothing is more important that that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hum you in and come at you in so many ways. Fraa Orolo, 109

    Why is religion such a universal in societies throughout history?

    That’s right, people have a need to feel that they are part of some sustainable project. Something that will go on without them. It creates a feeling of stability. I believe that the need for that kind of stability is as basic and as desperate as some of the other, more obvious needs. But there’s more than one way to get it. We may not think much of the sline subculture, but you have to admit it’s stable! Then the burgers have a completely different kind of stability. Orolo in dialog with Erasmus, 205

    I also love the formalized system of dialog, where it’s an objective of the theors to regularly argue with each other. If only people would actually do that! I’m generally a fan of arguing, and tend to do it just as often as I don’t. If only everyone else did as well…

    I no longer respected that oath. Or at least, I no longer trusted those who were charged with enforcing the Discipline to which I had sworn. But I couldn’t very well say as much to these friends of mine who did still respect it. 231

    Why do I hate politics? Why does going to church make me feel catatonic? It’s not that I hate democracy or that I think that believing in god in some unforgivably–backward and primitive notion; it’s more that both systems have steadily devolved in their lifetimes, leaving them (and their devotees) at the point where they garner at least as much of my disdain as they do my respect.

    …the Convox was political, and made decisions by compromise. And it happened all the time that the compromise between two perfectly rational alternatives was something that made no sense at all. 573

    I like the notion of introspectionist. 697

    Stephenson posits the idea that google should ensconce itself as useful to the web by generating endless amounts of crap in different places on the internet, thereby requiring people to use it to actually find anything worthwhile:

    Some of those businesses came up with a clever plan to make more money: they poisoned the well. They began to put crap on the Reticulum deliberately, forcing people to use their products to filter that crap back out. They created syndevs whose sole purpose was to spew crap into The Reticulum. But it had to be good crap. Samman, 795

    (Maybe google already came up with this, and that’s why they bought out blogger.)

    Mystic vs. Poetic (Laterran):

    The mystic nails a symbol to one meaning that was true for a moment but soon becomes false. The poet, on the other hand, sees that truth while it’s true but understands that symbols are always in flux and that their meanings are fleeting.

    “Anyway, my point is that guys like Flec have a weakness, almost a kind of addiction, for the mystical, as opposed to poetic, way of using their minds. And there’s an optimistic side of me that says such a person could break that addiction, be retrained to think like a poet, and accept the fluxational nature of symbols and meaning.”
    “Okay, but what’s the pessimistic side telling you?”
    “That the poet’s way is a feature of the brain, a specific organ or faculty that you either have or you don’t. And that those who have it are doomed to be at war forever with those who don’t.” Erasmus and Quin, 883-4

    And in the second-to-last paragraph of the book, Stephenson nails exactly and precisely they way I’ve tried to see the world for a few years now:

    Orolo said that the more he knew of the complexity of the mind, and the cosmos with which it was inextricably and mysteriously bound up, the more inclined he was to see it as a kind of miracle—not in quite the same sense that our Deolaters use the term, for he considered it altogether natural. He meant rather that the evolution of our minds from bits of inanimate matter was more beautiful and extraordinary than any of the miracles cataloged down through the ages by the religions of our world. And so he had an instinctive skepticism of any system of thought, religious or theorical, that pretended to encompass that miracle, and in so doing sought to draw limits around it. Erasmus, 889-90

  2. 04 January 2008

    336 days ago

    Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; and consider, too, how carefully intertwined are the threads woven together to construct this fabric, how dense is this celestial weave!

    Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations

  3. 15 December 2006

    A Guide for the Perplexed

    E.F. Schumaker

    720 days ago

    EF Schumacher was a british economist, here he goes off into philosophy. He has a bone to pick with scientific dogma, calling for a more holistic view of the world than the materialstic Scientism that goes on in modern western society today

    In short, the whole base of our society is deteriorating under what our prevalent beliefs have become and we need a new way to look at things, which is of course, provided. Good stuff to think about – I’m not sure what I think of it yet – but it’s nice to have some controversy of idea.

    Materialistic Scientism

    Thus Cartesian evidence goes straight to mechanism. It mechanizes nature; it does violence to it; it annihilates everything which causes things to symbolize with the spirit, to partake of the genius of the Creator, to speak to us. The universe becomes dumb. 9, Jacques Maritain

    Levels of being, m being matter, x life, y consciousness, and z self-awareness. 18:

    • mineral (m)
    • plant (m + x)
    • animal (m + x + y)
    • man (m + x + y + z).

    A person, for instance, entirely fixed in the philosophy of materialistic Scientism, denying the reality of “invisibles” and confining his attention solely to what can be counted, measured, and weighed, lives in a very poor world, so poor that he will experience it as a meaningless wasteland unfit for human habitation. Equally, if he sees it as nothing but an accidental collocation of atoms, he must needs agree with Bertrand Russell that the only rational attitude is one of “unyielding despair.” 35

    I’m pretty sure I’m with his views on religion. I don’t know what god is, and can’t claim to be christian or of any other religion. To me religion is a way of explaining things and dealing with the world just the same as science.

    Knowledge comes about insofar as the object known is within the knower. 39, St. Thomas Aquinas

    As a materialistic scientist, he believes that life, consciousness, and self-awareness are nothing but manifestations of complex arrangements of inanimate particles – a “faith” which makes it perfectly rational for him to place exclusive reliance on the bodily senses, to “stay in the head,” and to reject any interference from the “powers” situated in the heart. For him in other words, higher levels of Reality simply do not exist, because his faith excludes the possibility of their existence. 45

    Faith chooses the grade of significance at which the search for knowledge and understanding is to aim. 45

    We must shut the eyes of sense, and open that brighter eye of our understandings, that other eye of the soul, as the philosopher calls our intellectual faculty, ‘which indeed all have, but few make use of.’ 47, John Smith

    These two quotes say the exact same thing, the first is from the book and the second is from my memory. Just a fun thing to notice.

    For the outer sense alone perceives visible things and the eye of the heart alone sees the invisible. 47, Richard of Saint-Victor (d. 1173)

    on ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. (One can only see well with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes.) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, d.1944

    Science for understanding/manipulation

    The change of Western man’s interest from “the slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things” (Thomas Aquinas) to mathematically precise knowledge of lesser things – “there being nothing in the world the knowledge of which would be more desirable or more useful” (Christian Huygens) – marks a shift from what we might call “science for understanding” to “science for manipulation.” The purpose of the former was the enlightenment of the person and his “liberation”; the purpose of the latter is power. “Knowledge itself is power,” said Francis Bacon, and Descartes promised men they would become “masters and possessors of nature.” In it’s more sophisticated development, “science for manipulation” tends almost inevitable to advance from the manipulation of nature to that of people. 53

    The old science looked upon nature as God’s handiwork and man’s mother; the new science tends to look upon nature as an adversary to be conquered or a resource to be quarried and exploited. 54

    Ishmael anyone?

    The progressive elimination of “science for understanding” – or “wisdom” – from Western civilization turns the rapid and ever-accelerating accumulation of “knowledge for manipulation” into a most serious threat. As I have said in another context, “We are now far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom,” and further expansion of our cleverness can be of no benefit whatever. 55

    It is however important for us to realize that mankind is doomed to live more and more under the spell of a new scientific, social, and political mythology, unless we resolutely exorcise these befuddled notions whose influence on modern life is becoming appalling… For when gods fight amongst themselves, men have to die. 59, Etienne Gilson

    Religion is the reconnection (re-legio) of man with reality, whether this Reality be called God, Truth, Allah, Sat-Chit-Ananda, or Nirvana.

    I’d even add science into the above mix. But:

    Reality, Truth, God, Nirvana cannot be found by thought, because thought belongs to the level of being established by consciousness and not to that higher level which is established by self-awareness. 71

    Heart, life, science

    The term “heart” is of particular significance in the Orthodox doctrine of man. When people in the west today speak of the heart, they usually mean the emotions and affections. But in the Bible, as in most ascetic texts of the Orthodox Church, the heart has a far wider connotation. It is the primary organ of man’s being, whether physical or spiritual; it is the center of life, the determining principle of all our activities and aspirations. As such, the heart obviously includes the addictions and emotions, but it also includes much else besides: it embraces in effect everything that goes to compromise what we call a “person.” 73

    This one of my ideas about God, something within everything roughly analogous to spirit. Also evocative of Chris Alexander’s Wholeness.

    Mathematics, after all, is far removed from life: At its heights it certainly manifests a severe kind of beauty and also a captivating elegance, which may even be taken as a sign of Truth; but equally certainly, it has no warmth, none of life’s messiness of growth and decay, hope and despair, joy and suffering. This must never be overlooked or forgotten: Physics and the other instructional sciences limit themselves to the lifeless aspect of reality, and this is necessarily so if the aim and purpose of science is to produce predictable results. Life, and even more so, consciousness and self-awareness, cannot be ordered about; they have, we might say, a will of their own. 105

    Anti-evolutionism

    I can’t say that I agree with this, but it’s nice to think about.

    And lo! there is the cell, and once the cell has been born there is nothing to stop the emergence of Shakespeare, although it will obviously take a bit of time. There is therefore nor need to speak of miracles or to admit any lack of knowledge. It is one of the great paradoxes of our age that people claiming the proud title of “scientist” dare to offer such undisciplined and reckless speculations as contributions to scientific knowledge, and that they get away with it. 113

    Evolutionism is not science; it is science fiction even a kind of hoax. It is a hoax that has succeeded too well and has imprisoned modern man in what looks like an irreconcilable conflict between “science” and “religion.” It has destroyed all faiths that pull mankind up and has substituted a faith that pulls mankind down. [...] Evolutionism… is the most extreme product of the materialistic utilitarianism of the nineteenth century. The inability of twentieth-century though to rid itself of this imposture is a failure which may well cause the collapse of Western civilization. For it is impossible for any civilization to survive without a faith in meanings and values transcending the utilitarianism of comfort and survival. 115

    ...descriptive science becomes unscientific and illegitimate when it indulges in comprehensive explanatory theories which can be neither verified nor disproved by experiment. Such theories are not “science” but “faith.” 115

  4. 14 September 2006

    812 days ago

    Is God an Accident?

    Whatever he is, he’s sure wedged deep into the human psyche/soul/being/etc.

    Understanding of the physical world and understanding of the social world can be seen as akin to two distinct computers in a baby’s brain, running separate programs and performing separate tasks. The understandings develop at different rates: the social one emerges somewhat later than the physical one. They evolved at different points in our prehistory; our physical understanding is shared by many species, whereas our social understanding is a relatively recent adaptation, and in some regards might be uniquely human.

    We have what the anthropologist Pascal Boyer has called a hypertrophy of social cognition. We see purpose, intention, design, even when it is not there.

    the universal themes of religion are not learned. They emerge as accidental by-products of our mental systems. They are part of human nature.

    via Kjell Olsen812 days ago

  5. 27 August 2006

    830 days ago

    The Founding Fathers weren't Christians

    The words “In God We Trust” were not consistently on all U.S. currency until 1956, during the McCarthy witch hunts.

    via Kjell Olsen830 days ago

  6. 06 April 2006

    973 days ago

    So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

    Matthew 7:12

  7. 01 April 2006

    979 days ago

    Walk Away

    The moment that Adam and Eve ate that fruit, wheels were set in motion that would ultimately result in the doom of mankind. Without some kind of intervention from God we would all be damned. God does promise to intervene, but it’s like building a nuclear bomb and setting it to go off in a large city at 12:00. Then, when all of the people of the city come to you for mercy, you disarm it for them. Does that make you a hero for disarming it or a lunatic for building it in the first place? The whole thing was orchestrated to make us feel dependent upon God. That says a lot about God’s character.

    I really do need to read this bible thing everyone seems to know something about.

    via Kjell Olsen979 days ago

  8. 09 February 2006

    1030 days ago

    Mohammed Dance

    Sacrilege.

    via Kjell Olsen1030 days ago

  9. 18 December 2005

    1082 days ago

    Fuck Christmas

    I love rants.

    At what point did a basic understanding of the separation of church and state become a fucking war on religion?

    via Kjell Olsen1082 days ago

  10. 17 December 2005

    God's Debris

    Scott Adams

    1083 days ago

    Philosophical fiction from Scott Adams, the guy behind Dilbert. Real good stuff, and available for free.

    I can’t really pull together any coherent thoughts right now, so here’s a dump of quotes.

    A belief in god would demand one hundred obsessive devotion, influencing every waking moment of this brief life on earth. But your four billion so-called believers do not live their lives in this fashion, except for a few. The majority believe in the usefulness of their beliefs – an earthly and practical utility – but they do not believe in the underlying reality. 28

    The best any human can do is to pick a delusion that helps to get him through the day. This is why people of different religions can generally live in peace. At some level, we all suspect that other people don’t believe their own religion any more then we believe ours. 29

    The human brain is a delusion generator. The delusions are fueled by arrogance – the arrogance that humans are the center of the world, that we alone are endowed with the magical properties of souls and morality and free will and love. We assume that an omnipotent God has a unique interest in our progress and activities while providing all the rest of creation for our playground. We believe that god – because he thinks the same way we do – must be more interested in our lives then in the rocks and trees and plants and animals. 34

    Eventually everything that is known by one person will be available to all. A decision can be made by the collective mind of humanity and instantly communicated to the body of society. 65

    You can change only what people know, not what they do. 107

    Conversation is more than the sum of the words. It is also a way of signaling the importance of another person by showing your willingness to give that person your rarest resource: time. It is a way of conveying respect. Conversation reminds us we are part of a greater whole, connected in some way that transcends duty or bloodline or commerce. Conversation can be many things, but it can never be useless. 114

    Awareness is about unlearning. It is the recognition that you don’t know as much as you thought you knew. 124

    The fifth level of awareness is the Avatar. The Avatar understands the mind is an illusion generator, not a window to reality. The avatar recognizes science as a belief system, albeit a useful one. An Avatar recognizes gods power as expressed in probability and the inevitable recombination of God’s consciousness. 137

    Your shadow is not a physical thing; it is an impression, a perception, left by a physical things. It is a boundary, not an object. 88

  11. 06 December 2005

    1095 days ago

    Professor beaten; attackers cite KU creationism class

    Fundies beat University of Kansas professor for trying to offer class debunking the myths of intelligent design and creationism.

    via Kjell Olsen1095 days ago

  12. 09 November 2005

    1121 days ago

    Betraying Jesus - Jim Wallis

    Modern conversion brings Jesus into our lives rather than bringing us into his. We are told Jesus is here to help us to do better that which we are already doing. Jesus doesn

    via Kjell Olsen1121 days ago

  13. 07 November 2005

    1123 days ago

    Man Happier About Switch to Mac than Conversion to Christianity

    Mac is religion, I’m not surprised.

    via Kjell Olsen1123 days ago

  14. 06 November 2005

    1124 days ago

    Which religion are you?

    Pithy quizzes. But I'm working on a quiz app sort of like this for school, and religion is very much one of the things that floats to the top of my mind when I have a chance to think.

    You scored as Satanism. Before you scream, do a bit of research on it. To be a Satanist, you don't actually have to believe in Satan. Satanism generally focuses upon the spiritual advancement of the self, rather than upon submission to a deity or a set of moral codes. Do some research if you immediately think of the satanic cult stereotype. Your beliefs may also resemble those of earth-based religions such as paganism.

    Satanism

    		88%

    Buddhism

    		71%

    Judaism

    		67%

    Paganism

    		67%

    Islam

    		63%

    Hinduism

    		50%

    atheism

    		46%

    agnosticism

    		42%

    Christianity

    		33%
    via Kjell Olsen1124 days ago

  15. 29 October 2005

    1132 days ago

    Why Does God Hate Amputees?

    Does God exist?

    via Kjell Olsen1132 days ago

  16. 23 October 2005

    1138 days ago

    If You're a Christian, Muslim or Jew - You are Wrong

    Their actions [religious icons, circa their rise to power] were rational—they wanted to deceive their brethren so that they could amass power. I get their motivations. But I cannot, for the life of me, understand our motivations, thousands of years later, still following the conmen of yesteryear into our gory, bloody, violent end.

    God is not coming to your rescue. He hasn’t come to anyone’s rescue in thousands of years, including Jesus. Mohammed was a power hungry, scam artist and ruthless conqueror. Moses and Abraham were figments of the imagination some long dead rabbi. He would probably laugh his ass off at all of you who still believe the fairytales he made up thousands of years ago.

    via Kjell Olsen1138 days ago

  17. 11 October 2005

    1151 days ago

    Better off without Him

    In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion

    via Kjell Olsen1151 days ago

  18. 06 October 2005

    1155 days ago

    BBC - Press Office - George Bush on Elusive Peace

    I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.” And I did, and then God would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq

    via Kjell Olsen1155 days ago

  19. 20 June 2005

    1263 days ago

    'Possessed' nun crucified after row with priest

    He claimed that from the religious point of view, the crucifixion of Maricica Irina Cornici, 23, was “entirely justified”, but admitted that he faced excommunication as well as prosecution, and was seeking a “good lawyer.”

    via Kjell Olsen1263 days ago

  20. 24 May 2005

    1290 days ago

    Genjo Koan

    The Genjokoan was written in the autumn of 1233 by Eihei Dogen, founder of the Soto Zen tradition.

    To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

    Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring.

    When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing.

    Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others’. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely arising now.

    Kjell Olsen1290 days ago

  21. Also somewhat recently

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