q/a
Posted: 07 Aug 2007, 20:44Thursday, December 16, 2010
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PHILOSOPHY
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Our problem is not that we don't have the right answers,
but that, according Martin Heidegger, we don't even have the right questions.
What about Greek philosophy beginning with Socrates?
According to Plato, Socrates was better at asking questions
than at answering them;
and the most important questions he asked
remain unanswered to this day.
*
The real scandal is not that we don't yet have the right questions
but that so far we (including Heidegger himself who was a Nazi)
have been dependent on the answers of idiots.
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Some of the best brains of the 20th century --
among them Russell, Whitehead, and Wittgenstein --
attempted to establish the rules of logic
but they failed to reach a consensus.
Assuming they will reach a consensus in fifty or a hundred years:
what are the chances that the world will abide by them?
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If there can be one god,
why not a thousand gods? --
unless of course god is a fascist
whose most important number is One?
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A fascist god is the only logical explanation
as to why so far mankind has been ruled
by so many bloodthirsty tyrants.
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If god is a fascist, an atheist may be said to be
a member of the democratic opposition.
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Nothing can be as dangerous as sanity in an insane world,
or honesty in a world run by swine.
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Friday, December 17, 2010
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TRANSLATION
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THE MAN WHO RAN AWAY FROM THE KING
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BY AVEDIK ISSAHAKIAN
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Once upon a time
A mighty king
Decided to see his realm
To visit and inspect
Every town and village.
Orders then he issued
And with him arose
A retinue of servants,
Soldiers, carriages, and horses.
*
Days later
As the crowds roared
And as His Royal Majesty
Made a triumphal entry
Through the gate
Of a distant town
A humble townsman
Made a sudden exit
From another gate
And he ran and he ran
Like a hunted beast he ran
Through forests and valleys
Through dark and uncharted regions.
*
“Hold it right there!”
Cried out a stranger
Standing in his path.
“What's the rush, tell me.
Is it the law you are trying to evade?
Are you a bandit perchance
Or maybe a cold-blooded killer?"
“I am innocent, I swear,”
Said the townsman,
“What bread I have eaten
I have earned with my own sweat.
I beg you, let me explain
Why I am running so.
His Majesty the King, you see,
Is visiting my town.
Now then, please understand,
What I am about to say.
His Royal Highness,
As everyone knows,
Is a man of great might
But his brains, alas
Is that of a child.
I have heard it said
That the further away
From such a king you are
The better off you are.”
*
After hearing this
The stranger let him pass.
And the townsman
Took to his heels once more
And he ran and he ran
Like a hunted beast he ran
Through forests and valleys
Through dark and uncharted regions.
(1935)
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Friday, December 17, 2010
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SCENARIO
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Before we were born, we were only inanimate scattered atoms. After we die, we will revert to our previous state, before we are born again and so on until the solar system burns itself out, the cosmos collapses, and is followed by another Big Bang.
*
In an infinite number of cycles there is always a remote possibility that there will be another Socrates, another Napoleon, another American Revolution, and another you. To ask whether this is good or bad is like asking is reality good or bad?
*
Life is a process in which the living organism sheds atoms with every breath it takes. So that the cycle or process I described above, also sometimes referred to as reincarnation, happens even when we are alive. The atoms we shed do not vanish but are constantly reassembled into other living organisms. The world as we know it is itself a living organism that constantly dies and is resurrected. The atoms we have shed are already in the living creatures around us, including the birds that migrate to distant continents. Parts of you now live in a South-American rain forest, an African jungle, and a Siberian river or lake.
*
What is the role of God in all his?
So far I have been dealing with scientifically verifiable facts. All questions dealing with God must be referred to metaphysicians or theologians which is a discipline I am not qualified to speak about, except to say that when two theologians disagree or contradict one another – and they almost always do – it is safer to dismiss both as charlatans.
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