Greetings,
A few short(ish) points to throw in. Lack of time stops me from developing them as much as they
deserve, for which I apologise. I've got 3 months holiday coming up in a few weeks and so will hold
off a little until then, but I couldn't let these pass without comment.
Hi Fred, a comic eh?
I only had one outing onto the non-musical stage. Went on as Hamlet, the audience threw eggs at me,
I came off as omelette. :-) (Best I can do despite living only 4 miles from Shakespeare's
birthplace)
PLATT TO KEN:
"As Struan has correctly pointed out, "accepting any metaphysical
position is ultimately an act of faith." Further, when Struan says, "I do not
reject mysticism. I clearly affirm it as the fundamental ‘stuff’ upon which
reason goes to work," I see a parallel to your implied position that
mysticism is the "stuff" on which the Big Bang went to work."
Indeed, I saw this parallel with Ken's posting and would just add that Stephen Hawking and others
agree that at the big bang all scientific theories break down. Definite parallel there I think. A
while ago, Ken, I noted that superstring theory satisfied my criteria for mysticism and at that time
you seemed to agree. Is there not therefore room for mysticism in the present and future?
Glove ponders on whether metaphysics can be a religion. I would think that religion is much broader
than metaphysics as it encompasses a great deal besides, however there is no doubt that religion
often manifests a metaphysical aspect and it is equally true that most metaphysics manifests a
religious aspect. Prayer has too many connotations of a personal monotheism for my liking but your
point is well made.
David T restates Pirsig's view that religion is located in the social level. For me this reduces
religion to a shadow of its true status. Religion is located in every level including the
intellectual. I did seriously appreciate your understanding of the mind of Abraham, David, and it
has gone into my 'permanent' folder. That will come in very useful and I hope you won't mind me
using it elsewhere (properly referenced naturally).
Roger makes a good logical point about the use of the term mysticism on this forum and I can relate
back to him on it. I think Platt made the initial connection with relativism and that, to me, is the
crunch argument against the mystical thesis being applied to the MoQ.
Struan
------------------------------------------
Struan Hellier
< mailto:struan@shellier.freeserve.co.uk>
"All our best activities involve desires which are disciplined and
purified in the process."
(Iris Murdoch)
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