So, your deity-like thing is distributed among human brains, and synchronizes by communication between humans?
Okay, this is a “deity-like thing.” It’s not a deity. It’s a thing. I gave examples showing the arising of something more than individual intelligence, and by that I mean immediate intelligence, not something built up (like the collection of experimental reports—which is another kind of intelligence).
Once when attending Mass a a child, I felt like I was connected to some unfathomable entity, and connected through it to the other people in the church. Is that anything like what you’re referring to? (The other people were actually bored out of their skulls and discreetly making fun of the prayers. Probably a bad example.)
I assume that your experience was real. What you were experiencing, and what you might make it mean, are distinct. I’m referring, though, to something more demonstrable, that might have been present for you in that moment as a beginning, a taste. Not as the full monte.
Someone else might have a similar experience with scientific insight. Suppose that the “unfathomable entity” was simply Reality, and everyone there was in some kind of relationship with Reality. Some might be bored, contemptuous, but some might be in awe as well. Frankly, I think Reality is awesome.
So, yeah, if groups of appropriately behaving people can and do act as morally better and smarter than individuals, that’s awesome and possibly worship-worthy. (Possibly because I worship anything that looks at me the right way, but still.)
You are still defining all this as if your personal judgment of “better” is real, but, yes. It’s not that your personal judgment is “wrong,” that would be just as much of a story.
And your comment about your response to what “looks at you the right way” is an accurate description of what most of us do, most of the time, even if we think we are “rational.”
But I was under the impression that Islam involved a deity that created the universe, and had more power over it than a group of well-coordinated humans.
The concept behind the impression is one that separates the “deity” from the “universe,” one object that controls another. Reality allows us to imagine that we have power over it, but that’s a product of how we think about it.
For survival, we have found that results are usually correlated with our actions, in certain ways. If our actions are not founded in an acceptance of reality-as-it-is, however, they are likely to be ineffective, so the more effective actions likely involve “acceptance.” Islam is the Arabic word for this.
(If we have developed an inaccurate model, that perhaps worked under some circumstance but not others, what happens when we encounter the “deviations” depends on whether we believe the model or not. I.e., believe that the model is real, that it is not merely a model.
If we believe the model, our strong human tendency is to reject observations of difference, violations, if we even notice them.
If we don’t believe the model, but simply use it—or, in the case of many models, weallow it to function without explicit consciousness that it is a model, but without formalizing it as a belief—we have the possibility of improving the model, or even of discarding it in favor of something else, or nothing at all.) We, in this case, place Reality as superior to any model.
The power of Reality, though, is without effort. (Qur’an.) There is no separation between the intention and the realization.
The asshole who decided on malaria had less intelligence than a mosquito. Apparently, intelligence is over-rated.
Okay, malaria exists. We are developing the power to choose otherwise, and that power already applies over much of the Earth. The same power is also bringing new risks. I propose that we are responsible. This is not merely happening to us, we are creating it.
Suppose that the “unfathomable entity” was simply Reality
Do you mean “Reality” as in “this stick of deodorant, and this penguin, and this meson, and this symphony, and this greengrocer, and so on”? Because it is pretty cool, and everything in it has ties of various natures and strengths to everything else which is pretty cool to, and totally has the number two spot on the list of things I worship. (Number one is the ability to feel worshippy-awed emotions. Bootstraps.)
But it seems to want things like “quantum evolution should be unitary”, not things like “no child should be driven to suicide”. I admire the set-of-things-that-exist, but I don’t approve of it. Yes, it contains moral agents, and those agents have to change it from the inside because there’s no outside, but it also contains shitty parts. Can’t see why I should be accepting the whole deal.
If our actions are not founded in an acceptance of reality-as-it-is, however, they are likely to be ineffective, so the more effective actions likely involve “acceptance.”
Dude. You need separate words for “believing it exists” and “not shrieking ‘Augh kill it with fire’”. Of course if I pretend the stove can’t burn people it won’t be harmless. That doesn’t mean I’m fine with the stove burning people.
If we don’t believe the model, but simply use it
Behaving as if a model works is most of what I mean by “belief” in the first place. Sure, don’t get overattached to a model, and keep checking it.
The power of Reality, though, is without effort. (Qur’an.) There is no separation between the intention and the realization.
I’m not sure I get it. If you mean “Whatever happens is what reality wants to happen”, then clearly reality only ever wants the force to be equal to the charge times the electric field or something. Yeah, fine, it also wants some people to have a desire to eradicate malaria and a good shot at succeeding after a few millennia. But since it can do anything, why didn’t it want malaria not to exist in the first place?
If your answer is along the lines of “It can’t decide to want stuff”, please explain why it’s something you like rather than an extremely shiny toy. If it’s along the lines of “It decided that way”, please explain why it’s something you like rather than an unspeakably evil cosmic monster. If it’s along the lines of “Foolish mortal, your talk of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is a mere human illusion”, please explain why I should care about philosophical judgements about human illusions more than about a pile of corpses.
I propose that we are responsible.
Uh, I propose that we are responsible for the risks of the things we do about malaria, but not for malaria existing? It doesn’t sound so hard to me.
Okay, this is a “deity-like thing.” It’s not a deity. It’s a thing. I gave examples showing the arising of something more than individual intelligence, and by that I mean immediate intelligence, not something built up (like the collection of experimental reports—which is another kind of intelligence).
I assume that your experience was real. What you were experiencing, and what you might make it mean, are distinct. I’m referring, though, to something more demonstrable, that might have been present for you in that moment as a beginning, a taste. Not as the full monte.
Someone else might have a similar experience with scientific insight. Suppose that the “unfathomable entity” was simply Reality, and everyone there was in some kind of relationship with Reality. Some might be bored, contemptuous, but some might be in awe as well. Frankly, I think Reality is awesome.
You are still defining all this as if your personal judgment of “better” is real, but, yes. It’s not that your personal judgment is “wrong,” that would be just as much of a story.
And your comment about your response to what “looks at you the right way” is an accurate description of what most of us do, most of the time, even if we think we are “rational.”
The concept behind the impression is one that separates the “deity” from the “universe,” one object that controls another. Reality allows us to imagine that we have power over it, but that’s a product of how we think about it.
For survival, we have found that results are usually correlated with our actions, in certain ways. If our actions are not founded in an acceptance of reality-as-it-is, however, they are likely to be ineffective, so the more effective actions likely involve “acceptance.” Islam is the Arabic word for this.
(If we have developed an inaccurate model, that perhaps worked under some circumstance but not others, what happens when we encounter the “deviations” depends on whether we believe the model or not. I.e., believe that the model is real, that it is not merely a model.
If we believe the model, our strong human tendency is to reject observations of difference, violations, if we even notice them.
If we don’t believe the model, but simply use it—or, in the case of many models, weallow it to function without explicit consciousness that it is a model, but without formalizing it as a belief—we have the possibility of improving the model, or even of discarding it in favor of something else, or nothing at all.) We, in this case, place Reality as superior to any model.
The power of Reality, though, is without effort. (Qur’an.) There is no separation between the intention and the realization.
The asshole who decided on malaria had less intelligence than a mosquito. Apparently, intelligence is over-rated.
Okay, malaria exists. We are developing the power to choose otherwise, and that power already applies over much of the Earth. The same power is also bringing new risks. I propose that we are responsible. This is not merely happening to us, we are creating it.
Do you mean “Reality” as in “this stick of deodorant, and this penguin, and this meson, and this symphony, and this greengrocer, and so on”? Because it is pretty cool, and everything in it has ties of various natures and strengths to everything else which is pretty cool to, and totally has the number two spot on the list of things I worship. (Number one is the ability to feel worshippy-awed emotions. Bootstraps.)
But it seems to want things like “quantum evolution should be unitary”, not things like “no child should be driven to suicide”. I admire the set-of-things-that-exist, but I don’t approve of it. Yes, it contains moral agents, and those agents have to change it from the inside because there’s no outside, but it also contains shitty parts. Can’t see why I should be accepting the whole deal.
Dude. You need separate words for “believing it exists” and “not shrieking ‘Augh kill it with fire’”. Of course if I pretend the stove can’t burn people it won’t be harmless. That doesn’t mean I’m fine with the stove burning people.
Behaving as if a model works is most of what I mean by “belief” in the first place. Sure, don’t get overattached to a model, and keep checking it.
I’m not sure I get it. If you mean “Whatever happens is what reality wants to happen”, then clearly reality only ever wants the force to be equal to the charge times the electric field or something. Yeah, fine, it also wants some people to have a desire to eradicate malaria and a good shot at succeeding after a few millennia. But since it can do anything, why didn’t it want malaria not to exist in the first place?
If your answer is along the lines of “It can’t decide to want stuff”, please explain why it’s something you like rather than an extremely shiny toy. If it’s along the lines of “It decided that way”, please explain why it’s something you like rather than an unspeakably evil cosmic monster. If it’s along the lines of “Foolish mortal, your talk of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is a mere human illusion”, please explain why I should care about philosophical judgements about human illusions more than about a pile of corpses.
Uh, I propose that we are responsible for the risks of the things we do about malaria, but not for malaria existing? It doesn’t sound so hard to me.