Subject: Satori
From: Sundeep Dougal (holden@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in)
Date: Fri Jan 21 2000 - 14:46:34 EST
> I agree the complexity argument is going nowhere. I part of our
differences
> here has to do with the different paradigms we're working in. In a
strictly
> Aristotelian/logical/non-empirical argument (the way things used to be
done),
> I don't think, "as an argument," belief in a self-existent Creator outside
> nature is more complex than other beliefs.
Ah, finally the scales have fallen off my eyes! I am bowled over by the
sheer simplicity and elegance of this explanation and, well, paradigm, no
matter whether we were trying to establish:
1. That a "self-existent Creator outside nature" exists? Or
2. How did, to borrow a term used by Jim sometime back, "this whole shebang"
come into being? i.e. Who created the Life, the Universe
and Everything (No, no, it is not a trick question and the answer is
not Douglas Adams who merely wrote a book by that name).
If it is the former (i.e #1), the answer has been readily postulated.[So
next time in geometry class, you are asked to prove that a given triangle
is, say, equilateral, your proof need only be the following: "Assumption:
The given triangle is equilateral. Q.E.D." Neat, eh?]
If on the other hand, it is the latter (#2), why we can just use the
"Aristotelian/logical/non-empirical argument (the way things used to be
done)", and hypothesise that it must be a "self-existent Creator outside
nature".
Needless to say, belief in the existence of the person asking the question
is
a pre-requisite.
ObSal: It is only afterwards that a procession of the saints and
bodhisattvas march in, carrying bowls of chicken broth. The Hall Johnson
Choir starts up in the background, and the cameras move in on a nice old
gentleman in a loincloth standing against a background of mountains and blue
skies and white clouds, and a look of peace comes over everybody's ....
Sonny
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