On Apr 6, 2005, at 10:30 AM, I wrote:
Also, since I don't have to weigh a given set of beliefs against my own to see if they agree -- and are therefore "true" -- I'm free to see validity in many different religious ideas. Where faith speaks of gods I can ignore it; where faith speaks of human values, I can cherish it.
Here's my countertake: Bullshit, bullshit and, most especially, bullshit. Of the purest ray serene. We are talking bullshit prismed through a laser of remarkable fidelity. Bullshit so pure that it cannot harmonize even fractionally with other kinds of bullshit. Bullshit so astonishingly non-bullshit in its depth that if a universe were spawned of it tomorrow, there would be no quantum uncertainty; even on the quark level we'd be dealing with nothing but bullshit.
I can't believe I got away with that graf on this list!
What unutterable arrogance. Oh, I'm rational. Yes, what I think makes sense. Obviously it does. After all it's utterly lucid to me. What better measure of rationality is there? This is my Bull of Warrenal Infallibility.
Of course I filter everything. Everything. I read opinions not to strengthen my arguments from a "rational" perspective -- I read them to see if they agree with what I already believe. If they do, well hey, I credit the author with his/her insight and acuity. This is a good opinion! It's powerful, lucid and direct. What a wonderful clarity of understanding. Couldn't have expressed it better myself. And cetera.
And of course when I read something by someone who doesn't agree with me -- well. Spotty thinking, weak rationalizations, just-so solipsism, arrogance, intellectual elitism, pandering to The Masses, and cetera.
The graf I quoted above is a scintillating example of intellectual arrogance, of blinkered non-reasoning, so true that I'd hope it could be featured in a text on logic just to show how self-deluded the "rationalists" can be.
Foma, to borrow from Vonnegut. It's all a pack of foma. Trust me? Why? I can't even trust myself.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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