Hello 2015

[Stephen D. Williams]

Lucas Gonze wrote:

>...
>
>>I recently got a massage and during the massage I shared my recent
>>near-death experience with the therapist. She in turn shared that she felt
>>she was inhabited by personalities from the past. I am trying to keep a much
>>more open mind so I didn't even think to question her reality. Her comment
>>that really struck home to me was "There are many of us who have important
>>things to say but we don't know how to get our message out on the internet".
>>
>
>I had the exact same conversion, from a strict materialist to an agnostic
>
Is a strict materialist someone who believes: "Whoever dies with the 
most toys wins!"?

My materialism is basically justified by: "Whoever has the most tools is 
likely to have the right tool for the job, be more efficient, and will 
likely be able to be more constructive and efficient overall."  I have a 
negative interest in jewelry, but high interest in communication, 
computing devices, tools for hobbies (carbon fiber construction, home 
maint.), and books/pubs (knowledge).

>
>one.  I decided that whether people benefit from believing in magic
>matters a lot more than whether magic exists.  No regrets at all in the
>five years since making that change.
>
I think that 'whether people benefit from believing in magic' is a 
worthy topic for discussion (not that we haven't covered it more or less 
directly).

I think that (the royal) we are worse off with the majority believing in 
magic for many reasons.  One of my strongest peeves is the absence of 
knowledge of a coherent alternative by most people, especially anyone 
below college age.  This is why I advocate teaching "Practical 
Philosophy" in High School.

Just last night I heard "The Prayer" by Charlotte Church/Josh Groban. 
 Close to the end, the lyrics are: "Give us faith so we'll be safe."

The fact that in first world modern society the belief in magic is 
tolerably discrete doesn't remove it's potential for harm and general 
wrong-headed thinking.  It's still on the spectrum of irrational 
thinking that includes witch burning, witch doctors, faith healers 
(scams), polytheistic mythological interpretations and reasoning about 
everything.  

(Although Cryptonomicon has an interesting discussion about the role of 
mythology in Greek/Roman culture.  It wasn't that they (all or most) 
necessarily believed in them as a polytheistic religion, but rather the 
personalities and stories were iconographic idioms of types of people, 
situations, morality plays, etc. that people were familiar with.)

>
>
>- Lucas
>
sdw

-- 
sdw@lig.net http://sdw.st
Stephen D. Williams 43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622
703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax Dec2001