Sunday, May 08, 2005

It may be that this particular argument (see below: 1/15/2005) was just poorly presented, that another description would offer another conclusion, but this one presents the crucial dilemma: Why is it necessary to describe the indescribable? Well that's the question. The old 60s' Twilight Zone TV series (in B/W eh?) did a story about a neighborhood that went bonkers & started shooting each other when they decided unexplainable stuff was caused by Aliens or Russians trying to take over. It turns out it was Aliens in flying saucers trying to find out how people react to impossible events. Their conclusion was that we were all unstable but ripe for invasion (if they could think up any reason to do it (this was when GW was like 16)), because our psyche requires that we deny half of our awareness. Carlos Castaneda's friend Don Juan describes everything we know as being a thing called the Tonal & everything we don't know (everything else) as a thing called the Nagual. The Tonal is made of conventions and knowledge. The Nagual is indescribable and is the media of sorcerers (also of charlatans and demagogues)

The intelligent design movement essentially says that the unknown is a "force" which is attributable to God.
The Non believer says if it's real, show me?
The Believer says what you don't know is god, so you can't argue.

So: is a vacuum actually a force? sure, metaphorically speaking, just like darkness is light.

My opinion is that animals, and humans especially (because we depend on thinking so much) are stuck with an intellectual blind spot: if it doesn't have a name, it doesn't exist, and if it does have a name, then it has to exist: GOD. So for all practical purposes, God is a catchall to explain a certain vacuum in the human brain. Dogs run away when they don't understand & that's a very realistic and pragmatic reaction. Fundamentalists however fall down & beg forgiveness from earthquakes & volcanos, or blame what they don't understand on unexplainable designs of a projected social superior. (see below: November 28, 2002) Then if they survive, it's proof that god accepts their homage, & if they get covered up with lava, no one ever hears about it. Because life's complexity can’t be explained without a supernatural creator, eh? Sez professional evangelical business persons.