[Platt] The statement which you are too cowardly to repeat any 6 year old can understand and requires no "defending" or "expanding" by anyone who has read Lila wherein teleology is acknowledged as credible.
[Arlo] Oh by all means then Platt, it shouldn't be too hard for you to answer any ONE of the questions below. Please try. I am glad to hear you liken your understanding of this to a 6 year old. It's a bit generous from where I sit, as I've seen many 6 year olds evidence a better grasp of this than you have. And they would balk at your obvious ignorance to do more than just squalk soundbites. But, show everyone I am wrong. Go ahead. Answer ANY ONE of the questions below. Any one. Go ahead. Or hide behind another decontextual quote and toss out some more distractions and evasions. I think we all know what its gonna be. Where did that "purpose" those subatomic particles had reside? What about the subatomic particles that made the moon? Did they reject their "purpose"? Or was their "purpose" to create the moon? What about particles that make up the shale rock in our ground? Was that their "purpose"? Tell me, what are some examples of inorganic patterns NOT fulfilling their purpose? Did that ever happen? Could it? Of course not. In the Absurdo Land of Platt, there is no free will, never has been any choice in the cosmos. A billion billion years ago those inorganic patterns would just mechanistically fulfilling the whims of some Creator, isn't that right? They never could respond to DQ, since that necessitates choice and the unknown. And right there, in the heart of DQ, the unknown, is what has driven evolution. Not according to some plan (if you say it is, then where does this plan reside? Hmmm?), but as the result of unintended consequences, unexpected AHA's! and unforeseeable creations. In the Absurdo Land of your Qualigod, everything existed according to some plan just to make you. Awww... how cuddly and warm that must make you feel. Platt the Supreme "Man", the planned result of a clockword cosmos, all snug in the security that Qualigod made you on purpose. Its a sad fairy tale, though. Purpose is simply the illusion we cast onto our shadows. Nothing more. And that is the "credibililty" teleology has, it makes the insecure feel important about themselves. Its a metaphor that has a strong affective component. But its one that doesn't hold water. Subatomic particles did not have the "purpose" of making chemistry professors. They only thing they did is what they could do, respond to DQ inorganically. And complex patterns emerged unexpectedly on top of this collective activity. Unless you can tell me where their "purpose" resided? Did Qualigod give them that purpose? Did Qualigod have "man" in His Plan a billion years ago? If so, why wait? Why toy around with millions of years of dinosaurs and algae and primates? If Qualigod wanted "man", why did it waste time on dinosaurs? (Oh, I know, to provide us all with oil eons later, right?) Oh, and by the way, just because Pirsig said something in some decontextual soundbite, if you can't expand upon it or defend it, then its ridiculous, even if GASP Pirsig said it. (You continue to be funny, you ignore the majority of what this man says, and then cling to a few soundbites as if its Heresy to speak against them. You are stealing the christians' M.O, you know. And of course you do.) --------- Subatomic particles had the "purpose" of making chemistry professors? That's about the most inane and indefensible statement one can make, and if that what you're trying to foist onto Pirsig, well the MoQ is doomed. If it was their "purpose" to do what they did, there is no free-will in the cosmos. And I got news for you, if that's the case then we have no free will either. And since responding to DQ presupposes free-will, and since all patterns from the inorganic to the intellectual respond to DQ, then the idea of a "planned" or predetermined purpose is (thankfully) something we can let go. And even if in Platt's Absurdo Land the ability to respond to DQ by inorganic patterns was "lost", back then even you admit they had it, and that necessitates "choice" on their part, and hence a "plan" is out the window. Thankfully. I assume your contention is meant to proclaim that those subatomic particles had the "intent" or "plan" to make a scientist? Where did that intent reside? In the subatomic particles? Since subatomic particles do not have "minds" or "brains", where exactly does this "intent" reside? Since "man" is so much more evolved than, say, algae, why would subatomic particles, given their ability to make such intentional plans and carry them out continue to create algae when they could turn themselves into a chemistry professor instead? Indeed, if a billion years ago these subatomic particles had the intent to make a chemistry professor, why did they wait a billion years? Why not just make one then? Why mess around with dinosaurs and primates and all that? Of course, its ridiculous to propose that subatomic particles had any "intent" or "plan" to make a chemistry professor. "Chemistry professors" are the unintentional consequences of a host-load of collective activity among a variety of patterns; beginning with inorganic patterns and stretching to intellectual patterns. But "intent" is no where in this mix. Its an absurd and indefensible claim to make. But try to answer (you won't). Where exactly did your proposed "intent" reside a billion years ago? In the mind of a subatomic particle? Or is free-will and choice completely out the window and "intent" is simply the universe unfolding according to some predetermined "plan" of God? (Which, let me guess, has always been to bring about the Wonderous and Glorious "Man"?) No intent. Unintended consequences. AHA! 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