God, etc.
I agree completely with one thing Cory said: "Personally, I never feel I can gain much by starting along this path of thought as I know I will never be able to answer the question." There is, of course, absolutely no way to really ever know, so we have to be content with proposing many ideas without choosing one. I like that Descartes's piece spelled out for us all those ideas and the questions that naturally arise.
Philosophy and religion are inextricably related. I think everyone can agree with that--philosophy involves answering the greater questions, which all somehow lead back to our creation, purpose, etc. Whenever I begin to seriously think about those greater questions, I always find myself arriving at the same conclusion: God exists. I don't arrive at this conclusion through logical deduction, fact, whatever; it's just a necessary decision in order to keep myself sane. The only reason those questions don't take over my entire life, the only reason I'm not consumed by pursuing their answers, is that I have decided to believe that someday I'll find out. I have this image of myself dying, going wherever it is that we go, and basically being handed a list of the answers. Yes, it's ridiculous, but to think that I'll really never be able to know is too maddening to accept.
On a somewhat-though-not-entirely-related note, one idea I found particularly interesting was presented on page 60 of I, Robot:
"The other dragged at his mustache bitterly. 'He's a skeptic,' was the bitter response. 'He doesn't believe we made him or that Earth exists or space or stars.'"
Out of context, you could easily assume that the creator and skeptic of these three sentences are mean to be God and a human rather than an engineer and a robot. That idea puts a particularly interesting spin on the whole story: as observers, we know that Cutie was indeed created by these two engineers and we realize that his interpretation of his existence is both naive and self-important. Asimov is suggesting that humans who doubt that God created them are just as deceived.
I agree completely with one thing Cory said: "Personally, I never feel I can gain much by starting along this path of thought as I know I will never be able to answer the question." There is, of course, absolutely no way to really ever know, so we have to be content with proposing many ideas without choosing one. I like that Descartes's piece spelled out for us all those ideas and the questions that naturally arise.
Philosophy and religion are inextricably related. I think everyone can agree with that--philosophy involves answering the greater questions, which all somehow lead back to our creation, purpose, etc. Whenever I begin to seriously think about those greater questions, I always find myself arriving at the same conclusion: God exists. I don't arrive at this conclusion through logical deduction, fact, whatever; it's just a necessary decision in order to keep myself sane. The only reason those questions don't take over my entire life, the only reason I'm not consumed by pursuing their answers, is that I have decided to believe that someday I'll find out. I have this image of myself dying, going wherever it is that we go, and basically being handed a list of the answers. Yes, it's ridiculous, but to think that I'll really never be able to know is too maddening to accept.
On a somewhat-though-not-entirely-related note, one idea I found particularly interesting was presented on page 60 of I, Robot:
"The other dragged at his mustache bitterly. 'He's a skeptic,' was the bitter response. 'He doesn't believe we made him or that Earth exists or space or stars.'"
Out of context, you could easily assume that the creator and skeptic of these three sentences are mean to be God and a human rather than an engineer and a robot. That idea puts a particularly interesting spin on the whole story: as observers, we know that Cutie was indeed created by these two engineers and we realize that his interpretation of his existence is both naive and self-important. Asimov is suggesting that humans who doubt that God created them are just as deceived.
posted by Rose at 9:07 PM
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