From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Mon Nov 24 2003 - 18:45:44 GMT
Wim,
I think there's a slight misunderstanding here on what I'm saying. I'm not saying your beliefs are trivial. What's trivial are the so-called metaphysical questions. Now, you say you organize your beliefs around them. I think the implication of what I'm saying is that if you say you organize around those questions, you aren't saying a lot because everybody organizes their beliefs around those questions in a very simplistic, common-sensical way, moreorless the way you described them in your answers to those questions. This means that I'm suggesting that the real interesting _work_ being done in your organization isn't done by those questions, but by something else.
And on my personal beliefs, I can beg out on youth, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to. My beliefs aren't all that explicitly spelled out except in a few areas. Youth has a lot to do with it because it takes an entire lifetime to spell out your web of beliefs and desires. Thinking about trying to say something that doesn't make me look stupid is a daunting task. I really can only point to markers in my past. I grew up Methodist, turned atheist, then lost all real interest in answering the question "Is there a God?" I read Pirsig, became interested in philosophy, and launched a long-standing interest in things theoretical. I watched Star Wars and Star Trek, fell in love with sci-fi, and now read Ender's Game and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy every summer. I had a girlfriend in high school, then a fiance in college, now I'm a free agent hopelessly crushing on the most wonderful and spiritually challenging person I've ever met. My dad slants conservative on e
conomic issues, but I got caught by the compassion taught in Sunday school, and now I'm a reform leftist (a progressive, if you will) who'll forever be called a Commie by the right and a neo-conservative by the left. I grew up hating chilli, fell in love with fajitas two years ago, now all I eat is pasta because I'm too poor to afford anything else at the moment (I'm told if you eat too much red sauce, you'll eventually become alergic to tomatoes, so I toss it up once in a while with alfredo). I loved Andre Dawson as a kid, Sammy Sosa as a high schooler, now I could care less about baseball.
Anything else?
This is all to the effect of saying, in a broad sense, I doubt we organize our beliefs all that differently, but in a specific sense, we almost certainly do because of the personal experiences we've had. In a broad sense, most of the differences are pretty trivial, but in a specific sense, they make the difference between marrying at 18 or 45, being a Quaker or being a Buddhist, loving comedy or thinking Chris Rock poor taste. The only things that really make a difference are the belief in democracy and the desire to minimize cruelty in the world.
Matt
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