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ace1928

Part Of My Own Personal "Philosophy"

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There is nothing which states that science and spirituality cannot agree as well as justify the explanation. I have no issues with spirituality and people having their own personal views and beliefs. I do have a problem with ungrounded spiritually or supernaturally based explanations or rationalisations for phenemona, subjects or questions which are already understood.

It is so damaging to younger minds and can lead people down incredibly dangerous, unstable and unproductive paths. And I do not mean unproductive in the sense of working a normal conforming lifestyle or job or whatever. I mean unproductive for the individuals character and foundation in reality.

There is so much wonder and beauty in all that is around us. And there is so much to learn and understand. Why can that not just be enough? There are more natural phenomena to learn about, experiment with and understand than anyone could ever possibly cover in their lifetime. Hell I would dare risk going so far as to say that it is unlikely that our species will reach a point of "getting" it all. There is just so much out there.

You don't need to add supernatural interdimensional unexplainable intangible phenomena to the list to make things any more astounding. You just need to look at things around you in a methodical and logical manner and you will see so much.

Open your mind. Be willing to admit that you may have been wrong about your personal beliefs. Be willing to risk testing ideas and theories out in a consistent manner. Be willing and embrace being wrong (how else do you learn?). If there is some other dimension to worry about in the "next life" then worry about it then. Don't waste this life fretting about things that, if you believe, are waiting in your future anyway.

Just where I'm coming from with things. My view is constantly changing and evolving and I am often wrong. I have been heavily involved in pseudo scientific investigation and conversation in my past and have since realised, and honestly laughed at, my own personal ignorance. Its a tough road but a very fulfilling one.

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Nicely put ace. :)

I don't understand the people who think that spirituality & science are incompatible. To me, science attempts to explain consensus reality, spirituality attempts to explain internal personal reality. No one else can understand your subjective reality, it's unique to you & your personal experiences - so it seems silly to me to be looking for answers to that stuff from other people. They might be able to help, just don't expect anyone else to translate it all into your internal world - they can't, because it's your reality, not theirs.

Also "science" is not a thing. It's not an alternative to religious faith, it's not a set institution (or shouldn't be, anyway). It's just a way of thinking about things, and then checking your thinking. Nothing more. But it's a good way of thinking about things. To quote Doctor Who “There's something here that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick.”

My own personal philosophy is some kind of scientific nihilism - and I know that people tend to think of nihilism as some kind of depressing emo "life is meaningless" philosophy, but I think they totally miss the point. To me, it just means that there is no absolute meaning, no gods or others who define right & wrong & the meaning of life for us - and I guess you could take that starting point and say "woe is me, nothing means anything". Or you could choose to take it as a moral & philosophical blank slate, and decide to create your own worldview. To me, if there's no pre-assigned meaning to things, then you have to go looking for it for yourself.

So, I ask questions - most of them are stupid questions. I experiment & poke things with sticks - most of them fail, some of them poke back. But sometimes I learn things, or at least learn how to ask the questions to learn things. Curiosity feeds more curiosity. Maybe I'm just spiritually deficient here, but I truly can't think of a more meaningful way to spend your life, than looking at the world & trying to learn more about it.

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how do you tell spirituality from "ungrounded spirituality"

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Realising you are wrong is a spiritual awakening in itself.

Learning not to speak in absolutes gives room for a graceful exit without loosing face.

Replacing terms like "is" with something like "seems to be" or the "data seems to indicate" etc can also give the author/speaker enough displacement from their opinions to allow a concept to evolve without the need for the ego to move in and make a stand to defend an absolute or fallacious statement.

Anyway I "is" not drunk enough for philosophy :wink:, so I will let it go.

:shroomer:

Edited by Sally
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how do you tell spirituality from "ungrounded spirituality"

I suppose when the spirituality becomes potentially damaging, misleading, segregating etc etc.

I don't thinkg "ungrounded spirituality" is properly defined though. Just my own little term :P

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Nicely put ace. :)

I don't understand the people who think that spirituality & science are incompatible. To me, science attempts to explain consensus reality, spirituality attempts to explain internal personal reality. No one else can understand your subjective reality, it's unique to you & your personal experiences - so it seems silly to me to be looking for answers to that stuff from other people. They might be able to help, just don't expect anyone else to translate it all into your internal world - they can't, because it's your reality, not theirs.

Also "science" is not a thing. It's not an alternative to religious faith, it's not a set institution (or shouldn't be, anyway). It's just a way of thinking about things, and then checking your thinking. Nothing more. But it's a good way of thinking about things. To quote Doctor Who “There's something here that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick.”

My own personal philosophy is some kind of scientific nihilism - and I know that people tend to think of nihilism as some kind of depressing emo "life is meaningless" philosophy, but I think they totally miss the point. To me, it just means that there is no absolute meaning, no gods or others who define right & wrong & the meaning of life for us - and I guess you could take that starting point and say "woe is me, nothing means anything". Or you could choose to take it as a moral & philosophical blank slate, and decide to create your own worldview. To me, if there's no pre-assigned meaning to things, then you have to go looking for it for yourself.

So, I ask questions - most of them are stupid questions. I experiment & poke things with sticks - most of them fail, some of them poke back. But sometimes I learn things, or at least learn how to ask the questions to learn things. Curiosity feeds more curiosity. Maybe I'm just spiritually deficient here, but I truly can't think of a more meaningful way to spend your life, than looking at the world & trying to learn more about it.

So many things you've said there I wish I had said in my original post lol.

You summed it up better than I did :P

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There is so much wonder and beauty in all that is around us. And there is so much to learn and understand. Why can that not just be enough? There are more natural phenomena to learn about, experiment with and understand than anyone could ever possibly cover in their lifetime. Hell I would dare risk going so far as to say that it is unlikely that our species will reach a point of "getting" it all. There is just so much out there.

You don't need to add supernatural interdimensional unexplainable intangible phenomena to the list to make things any more astounding. You just need to look at things around you in a methodical and logical manner and you will see so much.

Yeah sorry for just jumping into your personal philosophy thread, glad that turned out ok, lol. This bit I've quoted above especially struck a chord, I said almost exactly the same thing here a few months ago:

...The study of evolution, symbiosis, etc has so many awesome accidents and mysteries, and examples of incredible biological elegance too... I just get baffled when people try to make it even more complicated. I feel like saying "this critter over here has evolved the ability to create its own light! Isn't that amazing enough? Why bring concepts like purpose & meaning & cosmic plans into it? Can't it just be?"

Another thought on the idea of spiritual-scientific compatibility came from something Kim Stanley Robinson wrote, along the lines of "Religious people think that scientists are opposed to their religion - Scientists just don't believe in anything without evidence. If someone could scientifically prove the existence of God, then scientists would simply go "alright then, we believe in God now" ". (which I think was a bit of wishful thinking on his part, given the amount of blind faith people have in "Science", but nevermind that for the moment..) This is pretty much how I think about most supernatural stuff - if someone proves the existence of ghosts or aliens or Naglfar tomorrow well that's cool, it's not going to upset my worldview too much to believe in them. But until that happens, I'm going to spend my time on all the weird & amazing & beautiful things that we do have evidence for. There are species of bioluminescent fungi that only have glow-in-the-dark spores! There are orchids that synthesise oxycodone!

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Yeah sorry for just jumping into your personal philosophy thread, glad that turned out ok, lol. This bit I've quoted above especially struck a chord, I said almost exactly the same thing here a few months ago:

I'm glad you did :)

It always blows my mind when I just sit back and think about how some unfathomably tiny particles/waves are able to interact with each other, according to their own properties, for billions of years to generate a sense of order from initial chaos.

To think of how those fundamental particles are able to combine together in a myriad of ways and display new properties (ie atoms) that you would otherwise not expected if you were just looking at the initial fundamental particle.

And then those same atoms can go on to form ever more complex molecules with their own overall characteristics and properties. It's almost like blending paint. You put distinctly different colors together and end up with something that doesn't necessarily resemble the initial colors very much at all, although it may still contain some inkling of its constituent parts.

And then those molecules go on to form complex systems in equilibrium with one another and their ever changing external environement. Those equilibriums that are then favored "multiply" and over billions more years you end up again with incredibly complex and intricate systems.

Emergent properties are awesome, even when incredibly oversimplified :P

Edited by ace1928

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