nemesis wrote:
Joseph H wrote:
tooly wrote:
"Joseph H" <joseph@humanisation.org> wrote in message
news:1119302525.756088.39200@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Sir Frederick wrote:
Our primate brain is structured to support that
folk theory function 'believe'.
But why?
Why invest so much energy in such a function?
And if we have so invested such energy does this mean that we need to
believe forever? So...does this mean that belief is not a passing
substitue for knowledge but a fundamental need we possess? And why do
we have such a need? For what purpose? To explain? To console? Or...to
confer value on what we do?
Is a human being without value like an egg withour salt?
Profound, baby!
I'm just curious, where do you think your argument leads?
Is knowledge and belief perhaps of the same thing, but to a differing
degree?
Belief can either be "belief that...something is true etc" or "belief
that...something is worthwhile" - or some combination of both. In the
absence of knowledge in the past we were often forced to believe in the
first sense - and since what we believed usually reflected well on
ourselves or was an integral part of our culture or claimed to offer
profound answers to fundamental questions we certainly valued it too.
Now, as our knowledge increases, one might imagine that the "hold" of
belief over us would lessen. Probably, indeed, that is the case -
though there are considerable areas of the globe where belief in both
senses is still a powerful force.
I don't think that belief and knowledge are in any way the same thing.
What I would wish is that we would apply the value aspect of belief to
the knowledge we possess. Many would arge that what we know doesn't
inspire a sense of value. I contest that. I think any considered
perusal of the complexity of energy and matter, the vastness of the
universe, the wonder of life, our own coming to awareness, our fraught
colonisation of the planet, our gathering of knowledge...that all of
this deserves a valued response.
My fear is that our achievements as a species are being lost in the -
very understandable - intoxication of individuality and wealth and
freedom. The result, I sense, is often dispiriting. We seem to wish for
a belief. I would wish us to believe in ourselves....
There, that's my answer. It ain't my best ever.
Joseph H
But...if we are intoxicated by individuality and wealth and
freedom...where is the dispiritness? We seem happy enough to me. The
kids seem happy. They have sex and music and cellphones. The
middle-aged have golf. The elderly have golf and ..whatever. Who's so
unhappy? Wake up and smell the latte, Joseph!
Yeah, hard to disagree with you. It's just that we seem unable to solve a range of problems - and the reason for this, I suggest, is that we don't have an overriding sense of society or of our achievements. We lack a social purpose, a vision, perhaps.
Maybe it's just me!
.
