Jonathan and Group
Damn it Jonathan (sorry), this was great. How did you and I ever
become such antagonists? I can't find one single objection to raise.
You ended the next last paragraph thus
> The monothesistic god thus
> comes to represent the spirit of ALL THINGS. Either as monotheism of
> polytheism, the abstraction of god(s) makes the spiritual world
> something essentially subjective, to be largely ignored by scientists
> who explore the spiritless physical world. That is pretty much where
> Eurasian man has been for the last few thousand years (I don't know
> much about the others).
Eurasian man. Exactly, not merely European or Western, but
Eurasian, just what I try to convince Sam of.
> This division between the physical/secular and spiritual/religious is
> an ongoing battle with many casualties. Someone brought up the case of
> Baruch Spinoza
I did once.
> who was an outcast from the orthodox Jewish community
> of Amsterdam for his philosophy. Yet, from what I understand, he was
> really looking to heal the ancient rift. He regarded all to be God,
> and God to be all. Thus, the spiritual and physical worlds should be
> regarded as one and the same. I wonder why they came to be split apart
> in the first place, and suspect that this ancient divsion has a great
> deal to do with what Pirsig wrote about.
Yes, I believe Spinoza did want to heal the ancient rift, but did he
succeed?. My philosophy book says:
"It goes against the grain of God's infinity that he creates a world
which is outside himself (is Spinoza's idea), this would imply a
limitation that is incongruous with this his non-limited quality. God
is the cause of everything, but He is an inner not an outer cause.
The effects are not outside of Him. If we postulate reality as that
which is in itself and can be understood by itself is God another
word for Reality....."
...and thus the book goes on interpreting Spinoza. In the margin -
beside it - I find that I have written in red ink: "Quality is Reality"
long before this discussion so I too think that it ....has a great deal
to do what Pirsig wrote about.
Thanks Jonathan.
Bo
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