[FoRK] Re: Please Help

[Jef Allbright]

On 12/4/07, Lion Kimbro <lionkimbro at gmail.com> wrote:

>   Would the Magic Compass work without Souls and Daemons,
>   the imagination, and warm glowing glittery Dust?

Lion, you demonstrate blatant ignorance, manifested as disregard, of
the distinction between the epistemological and the ontological.  In
simple terms, you fail to distinguish between (1) subjective values,
and (2) (increasingly) objective methods for promoting them.

If you were to profess a deep interest, great enjoyment, benefits of
community etc., in such tokens and icons, spiritual practices, magical
and wishful thinking, while clearly distinguishing these *values* from
the increasingly objective realm of decisions and actions that support
them, then you would find little objection from this group.

But, when you demonstrate that you believe magic and wishful thinking
refer to ontological entities, therefore to be properly included in
our decision-making and our actions, then you pose a threat to the
broader community with whom you share the public consequences of your
private choices.

Please do not confuse this with beneficial side-effects and
narrow-scope benefits derived from interaction within a smaller
community of shared beliefs, however unfounded they may be.  These
tend to be out-weighed within the greater context of interaction.


>   Do you understand the part where I say,
>   "This is completely and totally dedicated to science?"

<snipped examples, not of science, but of artifacts of science>


>   These people read natural history as sacred scripture, and
>   make it their duty to understand the story of wherever they
>   live.

Lion, scholarship != science.  Again you demonstrate ignorance, and
possibly disregard, for epistemology.

I wish you growth.

- Jef