Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Jayhawker Soule · 04-14-2002, 05:40 AM

IMO, purpose is projection.

abe smith · 04-16-2002, 09:43 AM

Ummm. Some of us think that personifying human fictions e.g. "Nature", "Nature's God", "the Church", "humankind", et tutti cuanti, is a not-too-profitable way-to-go. There isn't any "Nature" "who's" trying to do anything. Attributing PURPOSE to any of that stuff out-there will only get us into big fat unsettleable fights. Even when a bright guy like Dawkins makes the error of attributing purpose to "genes" or etc he does carefully distinguish that he KNOWS that ain't so; Le'ss be a little more scrupulous about sticking names on to human fictions/artefacts/ideas. Plato did that & we all owe him a smack upside the haid for it. Abe

DRFseven · 04-16-2002, 05:30 PM

Quote:

What is nature trying to do?

Wyrdsmyth: It's trying to shake its groove thing.

Bumpersticker: "What if The Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?"

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04-14-2002, 05:40 AM	#11
Jayhawker Soule Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago Posts: 1,777	IMO, purpose is projection.

04-16-2002, 09:43 AM	#12
abe smith Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: springfield, MA. USA Posts: 2,482	Ummm. Some of us think that personifying human fictions e.g. "Nature", "Nature's God", "the Church", "humankind", et tutti cuanti, is a not-too-profitable way-to-go. There isn't any "Nature" "who's" trying to do anything. Attributing PURPOSE to any of that stuff out-there will only get us into big fat unsettleable fights. Even when a bright guy like Dawkins makes the error of attributing purpose to "genes" or etc he does carefully distinguish that he KNOWS that ain't so; Le'ss be a little more scrupulous about sticking names on to human fictions/artefacts/ideas. Plato did that & we all owe him a smack upside the haid for it. Abe

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