The God i believe

[Unbeliever]

I thought I had a mystic experience once, but it turned out to be just a really nice sunset.

[SoldierofFortune]

In this way or that way, we are affected, can't be isolated...Actually we are a part of the whole...If you kick a stone when walking on a street, you affect the whole...as far as it's a little effect but there is that.

Being a living thing is a special behaivor style of the whole...

What does shape our mind? The experience by perceiving with our eyes which see, our nose which smell, etc...

Right...The nutrient of an apple from the grocery may have came from our faeces...So...?

[Mike Cl]

I thought I had a mystic experience once, but it turned out to be just a really nice sunset.

I can remember at the height of my Unity experience, that I suggested to all that nature was a place to experience that inner peace and connection to the universe--the 'all'.  Well, one day in the back yard, reality set in.  A spider was wrapping up a fly, which was still alive--and would stay that way until the spider wanted to suck it dry.  Not sure why it took me so long to see the realism of nature.

[Mike Cl]

In this way or that way, we are affected, can't be isolated...Actually we are a part of the whole...If you kick a stone when walking on a street, you affect the whole...as far as it's a little effect but there is that.

Being a living thing is a special behaivor style of the whole...

What does shape our mind? The experience by perceiving with our eyes which see, our nose which smell, etc...

Right...The nutrient of an apple from the grocery may have came from our faeces...So...?

Yep--we are star stuff--and so is everything on this earth.  In that way we are connected.

[Baruch]

In this way or that way, we are affected, can't be isolated...Actually we are a part of the whole...If you kick a stone when walking on a street, you affect the whole...as far as it's a little effect but there is that.

Being a living thing is a special behaivor style of the whole...

What does shape our mind? The experience by perceiving with our eyes which see, our nose which smell, etc...

Right...The nutrient of an apple from the grocery may have came from our faeces...So...?

Being a part of something larger, gives a kick in the pants to reductionism.  Reductionism can only be valid, if you ignore context.  But approximation is usually good enough.  Senses do stimulate the mind, but the mind also self-stimulates.  With materialism, it is all context and no focus.  With spiritualism it is all focus and no context.

"Being a living thing is a special behaivor style of the whole..." ... in theistic terms, being an image of G-d.  We don't want to reflect badly, do we? ;-)

[Baruch]

I can remember at the height of my Unity experience, that I suggested to all that nature was a place to experience that inner peace and connection to the universe--the 'all'.  Well, one day in the back yard, reality set in.  A spider was wrapping up a fly, which was still alive--and would stay that way until the spider wanted to suck it dry.  Not sure why it took me so long to see the realism of nature.

That is what first stimulated the compassion of the Buddha ... creatures eating creatures, man destroying creatures when plowing the field.  A Jain kind of idea.

[Mike Cl]

That is what first stimulated the compassion of the Buddha ... creatures eating creatures, man destroying creatures when plowing the field.  A Jain kind of idea.

I do feel the angst of Buddha.  But I also know that in the scheme of things I can make no difference.  Except that I can in the starfish sort of way.  You must remember the old story of two people walking along a shore covered with starfish.  One is stooping and grabbing starfish and flinging it back into the sea.  The other tells him that that task is so big that it matters not; the flinger suggests that it matter a whole lot to that particular starfish.  So, I render aid when I can, but try not to dwell on nature's lack of caring.

[Unbeliever]

Being a part of something larger, gives a kick in the pants to reductionism.  Reductionism can only be valid, if you ignore context.

Reductionism has its uses, but emergence is - well, emerging - as the new ball game in town. It seems that on different scales we have different organizing principles in effect, allowing - nay, demanding - that complexity arises.

[Baruch]

Reductionism has its uses, but emergence is - well, emerging - as the new ball game in town. It seems that on different scales we have different organizing principles in effect, allowing - nay, demanding - that complexity arises.

Complexity is just another name for chaos and turbulence ... not cosmos of the Greeks.  Differential entropy in space and time.  Nature might not abhor a vacuum, but it does abhor simplicity and uniformity.