I got some back channel feedback suggesting:
>It may be a bad idea to write when you are in a bad mood.
Indeed this is prudent advice, and yes Jay I do owe you an apology. You
were unfortunately just the victim of convenience for what I see as an
urgent need to "shock people" into a deeper appreciation of the skeptism
that is least once was the bread and butter of this list.
What floored me about Jay's posting was a resigned acceptance of the
inevitability of science to eventually capture the essence of life. I
simply do not think there are any such guarantees, and worse, that is my
worst nightmare - not any reason for hope. Why? the world we live in is
founded largely on the successes of science (as human's have created it.)
While, while one might quibble about the human failure to implement the
grand premises of good science, the fact remains that there are a lot of
unhappy people on this planet. To me there is something very desperate
at stake: Are we going to pin our hopes for getting ourselves out of our
predicament on the same processes that got us into this mess - or are we
going to look elsewhere?
Just when I started at Berkeley, my family was visited by wonderful old
French Priest who was a friend of the family, and for whatever reason,
ended up in San Francisco. I did the best I could to speak French and we
discussed my newfound interest in Philosophy. The fellow must have liked
me, because a few months later, he sent me a copy of David Hume's _An
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding_.
Well, as a young lad, this came as a double insult. First, why on Earth
send me a copy of a French translation of an English Author?!?? Second,
why didn't he send me something French and something more supportive the
existence of God? - at the time I was very much into Descartes.
Well many years passed, I lost touch due to my lack of time and interest,
and the old man finally passed away. Only now, can I look back and see
the profound wisdom of this old priest. It is in Hume's skepticism that
we find the "room for maneuver," in which to have hope. Hope, like
faith, cannot be rationalized because fundementally - it cannot be known.
Hope and fear form a dialectic - one cannot live without the other.
Thus, if we try to rationalize our world to shutout our: fears,
limitations, powerlessness, and morality - we also shutout the hope that
comes with the power of mystery.
David Hume wasn't a popular figure when I took philosophy, and while the
French adored him, I don't think history has given him more than grudging
respect. The scientific enterprise is basically founded on the negation
of his central proofs. As a result, all the confidence we have about our
technological world is founded on a whitewash.
Yet Hume's thought cuts through all human over-confidence with an
equality rarely seen before or since. In one master stroke, he
underminded all scientific and religious dogma of his time and possibly
of all time. He put all human endeavors on an equal footing and
basically empowered all of us to seek our own place within the Universe.
Alas, to defend this sort of uncertainty demands a fair amount of
"negative campaigning:" of questioning our confidence in even the most
entrenched and cherished of our scientific dogma. But the point here
isn't to tear down a magnificant structure and leave nothing but chaos in
its wake. It is fundamentally about hope and whether or not we can find
the humility to leave room for hope in our lives - even if that requires
no small amount of uncertainty and associated fear.
If there is any time of year, this is the time we set aside too allow a
little mystery and hope to sneak into our otherwise regimented and
calculated lives. But for virtually all in the modern world, this time
was greeted insincerely. We create a Santa Claus for our children and
send wishes of "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all people." We are
uncomfortable with the true call of the season, and thus we mask it up
with rituals and distractions. Our rituals, like our science, are
attempts to retain control over events. Can we find the courage and the
humility to greet the season as a little child or as a ancient farmer
might have greeted the Winter Solstice? The challenge I think falls
equally hard on the person or faith or reason: to simply be and not
believe in miracles so much as to depend on them! :-)
Wishing you all the miracles of the season in whatever form they may take
. . . :-)
Peace, Edouard :-)
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Edouard Lagache, PhD
Webmaster - Lecturer
Information Technologies
U.C. San Diego, Division of Extended Studies
Voice: (619) 622-5758, FAX: (619) 622-5742
email: elagache who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
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"...And as human loves and passions do not
make us all the same, We are counted not
as numbers, but as names."
Cathy Fink, _Names_, (written in honor of
the international AIDS quilt.)
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