Subj : Rush to Judgement?
To   : FRANK MASINGILL
From : RALPH ZETTER
Date : Wed Nov 01 2000 10:57 pm

>  RZ> I do find the few truly philosphical bits here to be
>  RZ> interesting. Todd believes in the Biblical God and it's
>  RZ> accompanying philosophy, John believes the universe is alive,
>  RZ> and I'm still not sure what Frank believes, but I like the mix
>  RZ> of all these ideas. And how the topic goes back and forth
>  RZ> betwen science, religion, philosophy, and back around again.
>  RZ> Good mix. I suppose Joseph is an atheist. There are a few
>  RZ> others here, but these guys seem to talk the most and the
>  RZ> loudest. :-)
> 
>         You may put it down firmly that I'm not looking for
> anybody's set of answers to "believe" or for a "good mix" but for
> the truth of existence.  I will dialogue with anybody who is serious

Isn't that true for most of us? We just don't all agree on our findings.

> about the same thing.  Such philosophers aren't looking for
> anybody's shortcut "answers" but for more precise and thoughtful
> ways of asking the question of origin and destiny, personal and
> social.  You may also put it down that when I use the term "God" I'm
> not advancing either a "philosophical" or a "biblical" God OR a dead
> God.  One simply uses a convenient symbol that has been common to
> philosophers searching for the same truth of existence ever since
> the dissociation of the cosmos and the process called
> "dedivinization."  Note that I didn't say dedivinization of the
> cosmos OR the world because there or not now and never have been any
> gods in either the cosmos or the world after dissociation of the
> cosmos.  

Exactly what ARE you describing when you say "God"? And what are you
referring to when you 
said "dissociation of the cosmos"?

> 
>         There are plenty of ready-made belief systems if that is
> what one is looking for.  Somebody MAY be at your front door next
> week trying to plop their's upon you.  All you have to do is think
> that it's well dressed out and logical or terribly attractive with
> all kinds of knowledge of that which "only gods could know." 

Sometimes. Or perhaps one of these groups might actually speak the truth. I
don't know. :-)

> 
>         And then, on the other hand, there is science, openness to
> truth as it might unfold in experience and philosophy as love of
> wisdom unto its source in the Divine Ground of Existence which
> DRIVES science but is mediated to humans ONLY through the medium of
> the myth (not, I reiterate and reiterate a bad word but a necessary
> one).

Is the Divine Ground = God?

> 
>         One should not look only in philosophy books for philosophy.
> Remember the courtroom scene in the _Oh God_ fantasy movie when the
> attorney for the prating evangelist says he NOW wants to ask God
> some questions.  "Sit down, Sonny, I've answered enough questions."
> Did you notice how quickly the director of the movie has the
> attorney sit back down?  It reminded me of Plato's Thracian slave
> girls who laugh when Philosophers with eyes on the stars fall into
> wells.  But then, says Plato, if the Philosopher can EVER get one of
> these men who are standing so firmly in life, into existential
> quiet,  THEN instead of the philosopher "stumbling into wells" it is
> the "Man of Affairs" who becomes "small like a child."     

Wow, it's been awhile since I saw Oh God. I'll have to get it on tape and
rewatch it. I'll have to 
take some time to digest this paragraph. Much wisdom. :)

> 
>         Philosophy is being done WHEREVER man is questioning and
> wondering in true Aristotelian fashion.  When one has stumbled on a
> satisfactory ANSWER or a GOOD MIX philosophy has twinkled out of the
> door.

I'm not sure I get that. If philosophers are searching for wisdom and truth
in life, then why would 
you distrust someone when they discover an answer?

And when I was talking about a good mix, i  was just talking about the
different ideas here and 
how freely they go back and forth between religion, then to science, then
to philosophy, then 
back again. Is that bad?

> 
> Frank
> 
> Frank
> 
> --- PPoint 2.07
>  * Origin: Maybe in 5000 years (1:396/45.12)

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