The Despot
I just got done watching Dan Dennett give a TED talk about religion.
It reminded me so clearly of something in the The Book of Lies (Chapter 22: The Despot).
The waiters of the best eating-houses mock the whole world; they estimate every client at his proper value.
This I know certainly, because they always treat me with profound respect. Thus they have flattered me into praising them thus publicly.
Yet it is true; and they have this insight because they serve, and because they can have no personal interest in the affairs of those whom they serve.
An absolute monarch would be absolutely wise and good.
But no man is strong enough to have no interest. Therefore the best king would be Pure Chance.
It is Pure Chance that rules the Universe; therefore, and only therefore, life is good.
I have no idea what is “true”, much less this, but chance is as a good as explanation as anything else.
If chance is all there is, that does not mean life is purposeless.
In fact, I could argue quietly strongly that this “truth” can give you even greater purpose.
In the hugely influential “Moral Calculations”, Hungarian mathematician Laszlo Mero explains how chance is essential to optimum strategies in game theory, and how humans often end up with strategies that are less optimal than animals (IOW, animals end up with smarter strategies than humans), because we rely to heavily on contorted reason instead of chance.
He also explains why lying at times (bluffing) is ethical, moral, and essential in strategies where chance plays a role.
OTOH, I think Dennett is slightly too simplistic (absurdly reductivist, just like Dawkins). Chris Nunn’s “De La Mettrie’s Ghost” is the best treatment of the subject.
Joshua Allen
17 Nov 08 at 19:59
I read a book called “The Illusion of Technique” written by a guy named William Barrett. It was a survey of some philosophers; Wittgenstein, Heiddiger, and William James. Basically, even if you deny God completely, it’s still trippy that “anything is at all.” Wittgenstein: “That the world is, is the mysterious. Beyond which, we must remain silent.”
So, you can’t escape some kind of religion-mystery. I can just as easily imagine anything not existing as existing. It’s kind of like Object in Java or .NET or IUnknown in COM; “beyond here we do not go.” So no matter what name you hang on it, you have to be in awe that anything is rather than nothing. The thing that makes something be rather than nothing, that’s the definition of God and that’s what we have to worship.
Tom
17 Nov 08 at 23:38
Context is the realm of the Spirit.
Content the realm of Science.
Nothing is meaningful except in context.
I’ve been a fan of Robert Anton Wilson and have had many enlightening experiences that lead to the author Dr David Hawkins (www.davidhawkins.info).
Jason Schluter
18 Nov 08 at 06:49