Thursday, April 06, 2006

Maybe I should move to Sweden . . .
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5 comments:

Mac said...

Magnidude--

You're using the "B" word. Usually, that would result in suspension of commenting priviledges, but since this is your first time I'll let it slide. ;-)

1:57 PM
RJU said...

>>"why is it harder to believe in God than in ultraterrestial human-like beings?"<<

Since Mac did not answer the question, I will, since it is an easy one. In the case of UTH we are discussing entities similar in many ways to those we have observed, kind of like believing in the possibility of big, brown frogs after having observed little, green ones. In the case of God, we are discussing something that has not been observed and perhaps theoretically could never be observed, an entity beyond our experience, always requiring a leap of faith to even consider it as a possibility.

6:02 PM
Carol Maltby said...

It may be beyond your personal experience, but why are you folks always so quick to assume its equally beyond the experiences of anyone else?

Some people have had experiences that take them beyond the category of just abstractly "believing"
in that which we call God or gods.

Geez, you're about as open minded about other peoples' religious experiences as SETI is about peoples' UFO experiences.

10:25 PM
Mac said...

Carol et al --

I'd volunteer that part of the problem with discussing "God" is semantic. It depends on what the word means to different people -- and that difference can be wildly variant.

11:02 PM
Mac said...

Magnidude--

I *am* open-minded about religious experiences. In fact, they're an important component of the "ultraterrestrial" thesis I explore in my forthcoming book.

For whatever it's worth, I don't consider myself an atheist. I find the term exasperating and limiting -- and, a little ironically, just as reliant on faith as deism.

I keep unproven ideas in a state of "quantum superposition," refusing to buy into them for fear of trapping myself in a specific model of reality. Thus, while I'm genuinely enthusiastic about "ultraterrestrials" (or whatever you want to call them), I don't "believe" in them in any conventional sense; they're simply an idea that I think deserves to be seriously pursued.

Ditto with my Mars anomaly research: We simply *don't know* yet, unfortunately. So rather than commit myself to a specific interpretation, I'm perfectly content to juggle ideas and concepts -- it keeps my mind active and, I hope, honest.

I hope this makes sense. R.A. Wilson's been expounding the same concept for years.

2:44 PM

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