----Original Message Follows----
Greetings,
Cory. I think you contradict yourself in that you claim fossils (let us drop
the word record) exist
only as a figment of human imagination. If you disagree with that and want
to keep it as 'fossil
record' then I agree with your central point and we have no argument.
Records are, after all and in
a real sense, human constructs. Let me assume for the sake of argument that
you do mean, fossils are
a figment of the human imagination, then you can correct me if I am wrong
and I will retract.
----Hi Struan
Allow me to elaborate. Fossils, like gravity, exist (let me introduce you to my mother-in-law sometime if you don't believe me :)) and the ordering of the fossils into an intellectual record also exists, but this is strictly a human interpretation of said fossils and what we think they tell us. So when you ask:
Struan:
Let me now make the assumption that fossils are the remains of, 'great beasts,' that, 'certainly,' 'wandered the earth way before humans made an appearance.'
Perhaps you could explain to me how creatures and the remains of creatures who wandered the earth before human beings existed, could exist only in the minds of human imaginations when it has just been clearly stated that they existed before human imaginations did. ----
Look to the beginning and the end of human imagination. Where is it we all come from, and where do we go? I cannot say, nor, I dare say, can anyone. Without human imagination, what would be happening now? Certainly we might say that "something" would be happening, but what? Scientists tell us that we are the result of 4+ billion years of evolution on earth and even longer on a universal scale. Trully mind-boggling. No wonder creationist thinking maintains a firm foothold in the minds of many.
Struan:
Fossils and dinosaurs cannot therefore be (just) psychological phenomena unless you can show me that the human mind predates the earliest fossil - or even the earth itself if that makes it easier - or even the universe for that matter. ----
It would seem a matter of interpretation. Was there ever a time when human mind did not exist, and if so, how would anyone know it? Take our own paths to this point in time. We are all the result of a union between sperm and egg and so there was a "time" for all of us when we had no mind in the manner which we now do. Yet certainly there must have been a seed crystal there... something to grow. And time certainly passed even though we ourselves were unaware of such a passage. Or were we? Maybe we just don't remember? Did that seed crystal always exist? or is such a question meaningless? Time is experiential in nature. When I die, will the world still go on for all of you here? I certainly presume so, but will I have any way of knowing that?
Struan:
It seems to me that metaphysics is concerned with just that type of problem and not with the way in which the human mind understands and divides reality. That is why SOM is not a metaphysics but a state of mind. The MoQ may well be the same. ----
Of course it could also be said that metaphysics is concerned not so much with beginnings and endings but rather with what happens in the middle, which is where we find ourselves at this particular moment in time. Personally, I have no problem with SOM and MOQ being metaphysics but that too is a matter of interpretation and ultimately a state of mind, as you say.
Thanks for your well-honed questioning.
Cory ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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