David B and all,
It was not the main intent of my first post in this thread to discredit
postmoderns, but since Erin reacted to my parenthetical swipe at them, I
elaborated. The elaboration included a postmodernist quote about an
Enlightenment figure and a link to an article that included another
postmodern quote about the Enlightenment. Postmodern reactions to the
Enlightenment are of no use to me but I doubt Pirsig would be critical
of them. But forgive me for not renaming the thread.
You seem to think Pirsig has made a new insight into the failure of
the enlightenment with his critique of "amoral scientific objectivity".
Perhaps the phrase is original, but to where it leads its sentiment is
not. No sooner do you have "amoral scientific objectivity" than you
have a worldview that "creates a sense of purposelessness and
hopelessness, which I think leads to things like pain, murder, and
suicide." (Looy, Answers in Genesis)
I can understand that people like Looy might be upset that the word of
God in Genesis, which in part says that God "[made] day and night on the
first day even though He didn’t make the sun and moon until the fourth
day"(Carrol), is trumped by the theory of evolution. I can understand that
people are still upset that the comfort they found believing the earth was
the center of the universe and was bathed in a sea of quintessence in an
unchanging heaven from which God reigned, vanished with the harsh reality
that we live on a small planet revolving around an average, middle-aged star
in a huge galaxy that may someday be wiped clean of life by a supernova or
some wayward asteroid.
Meanwhile, back on Earth people are indeed driving planes through buildings,
strapping bombs to their bodies, and aiming nuclear weapons at each other.
Certainly the first thing that comes to my mind to blame this all on is
NOT the scientific method (the tool that makes "amoral scientific
objectivity" possible), but that's no reason to think it's an outlandish
reason. It's quite possible that what we really needed was a genius like
Pirsig to explain the insanity of the 20th century to us in an innovative
way. It may seem a little far-fetched and a tad reactionary now, but the idea
that Objective Scientific Truth-Seeking Is The Root Of All Evil will grow
on you with time. Just keep repeating it to yourself hourly, preferably out
loud, and keep reading this list.
Here's your tongue and cheek back.
Glenn
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