I had an interesting converstaion with a very close friend of mine recently, infact it has been an on going conversation on the complex, deep and ever changing subject of the human person and its place in the universe. This topic involves much, from the human psyche to spirituality, to issues of objective truths vs subjective truths, to religion vs atheism, to science, matter, the planets, our past as people, our evolution as a planet and much more.
Today we spoke of something interesting, he was telling me how faith is basically false, and understood on false premises. I attempted to tell him that the interpretation of faith itself is subjective and not always cut a dry, to a religious extremist, faith could be considered blind following of the masses, so to speak, an outsider may interpret this, depending on their own personal history ofcourse. from there we spoke of how certain scietists, astrologists actually, people of object and matter, science and formulas actually believe in life outside our planet Earth. I am not here to agree or disagree with this argument, what I will comment on is the fact that scientists (certain scientists) believe in this premise. Based on what? I asked my dear friend? They have no evidence, no physical proof, no observatory proof, it is an assumption, a feeling perhaps? based on.... On what? A hunch? would one call this 'Faith' perhaps?? Aaahh. interesting, here my understanding of fsaith is trust, my interpretation of faith is trust, these scientists trust in their own convictions and in their own beliefs. Are they lead blindly to these assumptions? Well that is sunjective, how do you view it?
I was latter bombarded with information about religion and faith, in regards to extremism, but extremists are not all that hard to deal with, their position is one of a simplistic nature, but amongst all this my friend mentioned much of electrical impulses and that, that is real, not faith, to how he puts it. electrical impulses, the nervous system, etc, physical functions of the body.
My response (thought provoking to my understanding) which comes first, the electrical impusle through out the body, or is the electrical impulse simply a by product and a necesssary mechanism as being part of the complex systems that are involved with the body of, for instance a thought process, or a feeling of love, or fear or any emotion? and this physical reaction, the electrical impusle for example simply occurs as part of an integrated system of mind and body, one that requires all parties to come to the table in order for the game to be played. When we become frightened, do we get goosebumps before we get frightened or does our mind first initiate that feeeling of what we know to be fear through our own history and social conditioning, then the physical by product is the goosebump...
The mind exists, we all know this, but then again what is knowing?...
welcome...
This site is designed to give you insight on the nature of my very own being, it has been constructed to allow the expression of all who are in search of something greater than what is simply apparently in front of them... I would like all to be able to express freely their opinions, their feelings, their thoughts and their understandings of this theatre we call life and inturn I would hope to learn much from others as hopefully some may learn something from me. I will document my thoughts and experiences for all to view, in essence I anticipate this to spark up discussion to why life is what it is, and what is it that exactly is...
I do not believe one can reach enlightenment through philosophical discussion, but I do believe, that thought like anything else when exercised grows and flourishes, and thought is an integral part of existance and growth as is spirit...
I wish all that visit this web site inner tranquility, inner freedom and clarity amongst life and living...
ABOUT ME...
My birth name is Stefanos, it is the name given to me by my parents. My culture is a mixture of Greek & Italian & that of a multicultrul Australia. I wont go to deeply in to my past, because I have 26 years of it & it could get lengthy, rather I would like to focus on where I am now, in this moment, in retrospect to that I am well aware that our past affects, shapes & somewhat creates who we are, what we are, how we feel and think, our characters, our personalities, & what action we take today, knowing this, I do not reject my past, it is me, I embrace it, So I continue...
Am in intrigued by life, I am curious by all that is. I love new experiences, I love and feel deeply connected to the mountains, to the ocean, & to nature, I feel a connectedness that at times superseeds any human relationship, this may be difficult to comprehend, but is an extrordinarily beautiful feeling. I am currently heavily involved in physical training, and I take it very seriously, I enjoy all training, and am currently martial arts fight training, in the form of boxing and jujitsu, along this I exert myself physically with cycling, hiking (when I can, as I love altitude), running, and all cross training. i train intensly because it takes me to a place within myself, that is deep and that is singular, it is connected to something higher. Along the benefits of performance on a physical level, this intense and focused training does something else for me, it assists me to find me, who I really am, what i am of, and how I am connected to what surrounds me... Although all that is here is finite, I will embrace this journey i am on for as long as I am meant to, all that I do, and all who cross my path, and bless my being I will acknowledge as a true gift, that is here to enhance my being, for me to learn, and perhaps for me to pass on something from my own being. This is part of the journey I am on, a journey through the maze and labrynth of life...
Namaste for now...
I do not believe one can reach enlightenment through philosophical discussion, but I do believe, that thought like anything else when exercised grows and flourishes, and thought is an integral part of existance and growth as is spirit...
I wish all that visit this web site inner tranquility, inner freedom and clarity amongst life and living...
ABOUT ME...
My birth name is Stefanos, it is the name given to me by my parents. My culture is a mixture of Greek & Italian & that of a multicultrul Australia. I wont go to deeply in to my past, because I have 26 years of it & it could get lengthy, rather I would like to focus on where I am now, in this moment, in retrospect to that I am well aware that our past affects, shapes & somewhat creates who we are, what we are, how we feel and think, our characters, our personalities, & what action we take today, knowing this, I do not reject my past, it is me, I embrace it, So I continue...
Am in intrigued by life, I am curious by all that is. I love new experiences, I love and feel deeply connected to the mountains, to the ocean, & to nature, I feel a connectedness that at times superseeds any human relationship, this may be difficult to comprehend, but is an extrordinarily beautiful feeling. I am currently heavily involved in physical training, and I take it very seriously, I enjoy all training, and am currently martial arts fight training, in the form of boxing and jujitsu, along this I exert myself physically with cycling, hiking (when I can, as I love altitude), running, and all cross training. i train intensly because it takes me to a place within myself, that is deep and that is singular, it is connected to something higher. Along the benefits of performance on a physical level, this intense and focused training does something else for me, it assists me to find me, who I really am, what i am of, and how I am connected to what surrounds me... Although all that is here is finite, I will embrace this journey i am on for as long as I am meant to, all that I do, and all who cross my path, and bless my being I will acknowledge as a true gift, that is here to enhance my being, for me to learn, and perhaps for me to pass on something from my own being. This is part of the journey I am on, a journey through the maze and labrynth of life...
Namaste for now...
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3 comments:
when you break everything down to atoms, molecules, electrical impulses etc and think about these little building blocks in relation to your body, where does consciousness come from? what is the mind? at what point does a physical construct (eg brain) transcend into a theoretical one (eg mind, soul, spirit etc)?
theoretical is not the right word there but the examples are more meaningful.
in the past i have used the phrase, 'God is used to explain the unexplainable' to begin the train of thought or conversation about why our cultures have such constructs. some cultures (past, present) used mythical creations to explain natural phenomena that we now understand far better such as planetary cycles, the sun rising, tides, storms, plagues etc. Once an 'understanding' is gained of such things, does the existence of a being controlling the phenomenon lose relevance? perhaps. is there scope to travel further down the rabbit's burrow? absolutely.
has the 'threat' of deities been used by cunning persons to dominate, enslave, oppress, war, rule and worse for millennia? unquestionably! does it make sense to reasonable people in 02008AD*? no!
will science convert those with faith into 'scientists' or non-believers as more and more is learned? possibly, but i don't believe a wholesale shift is likely in our lifetimes or that of our children's children. very interesting and thought-provoking question though, especially in this age of such rapid technological and scientific advancement unbounded by communication limitations.
-pg
*interesting how we mark our calendar's reference point in the context of this discussion. in our western world there are few (none?) recognised non-secular alternatives.
interesting paul, and very valid points, what you refer to earlier in your comment is phenemonologically known as; "the God of the gaps". We use God or the concept of to justify what we don not know or cannot explain, I personally beleive it is a primative form of cognitive processes, which i do not agree with, but that is only to some extent, i do not agree with it, it is when individuals that follow this train of thought blindly that does not feel right to me. However there are deeply seede spiritual individuals who are wise as well as intelectual who explain the un explainable with the concept of God. the next question here is, well what do we classify as wise and intelectual, what warrents these qualities? difficult to scale, and to float between these two parralels of science and abstract knowledge is not easily done. My suggestion is that we do not attempt to objectify everything we know to be true, there is a great deal of subjectivity in everything that we know and do, and it is highly personal, including beliefs, ideologies, methodology of certain life's practices and so on.
i realize i have somewhat eluded the big questions, by bringing the concept of subjectvity in to the discussion, but it is something to strongly think about it...
you bring us back to a point made in another post, how much do we actually KNOW?
as an individual, i am implicitly placing faith in those that have come before me in order to believe the earth is not flat, we revolve around the sun etc... I haven't empirically proved these things for myself, nor do I actually know where to start with much of it.
perhaps that is what you were getting at with the subjectivity angle, perhaps you were implying we all have a different perspective based on our cultural/environmental upbringing which is also comopletely valid.
in short, i have not satisfied myself of much TRUE knowledge in my 26+ years. this is something that is beginning to eek out of my subconscious...
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