Non-Belief and the Inner Self

[Rolling_Stone]

When a tower enters into a refinery, it will automatically be attached to new feeds. Upon saying something like, “I see no reason why an atheist can’t be just as fulfilled in life as a theist,” a response should be expected, but it might come in at a tray above where its mind resides. The new feed might ask, “If we all die in the end anyway, to what end is your fulfillment?” The mind may be dumbfounded and the new feed immediately flashes into vapor until it reaches the the appropriate tray somewhere above. The mind might say belief doesn’t matter, but lab results will show either that the question is still somewhere in the back of the mind or it isn’t. If it isn’t, the tower is indeed emotionally stunted--perhaps missing its bottom trays. Trusting that the tower is operating normally, though, an operator may want to raise the tower’s mind to a higher level. There are basically two ways of this: raise the temperature or raise the reflux--which if on automatic also raises the bottom temperature.


A tower with internal damage may still function, but in a refinery as in life, everything is connected to everything else.

 

[gnomon]

I wonder if I'm the only nonreligious person who has a problem with the way religion has attempted to monopolize the individual's search for meaning. It seems that society sees people who don't believe in gods, mysticism, or life after death as emotionally stunted and amoral.

Believers would have us think of the world as divided between outer and inner reality. The outside is the domain of scientific models and empirical testing. According to religious people, the inside is the soul, the domain of religious mysteries and spiritual truth. Is this realistic? If people want to occupy their time seeking the 'divine truth within,' that's their business. But for believers to suggest that that's the only responsible way to become a fulfilled person is like a hammer-maker denying the existence of other tools.

In my opinion, religion or belief in the supernatural is unnecessary for human fulfillment and meaning. A loving family, engagement with art and science, and an open imagination are also important facets of the development of the individual's inner self.

I search for knowledge. I do not search for meaning.

 

[Ben Dhyan]

A tower with internal damage may still function, but in a refinery as in life, everything is connected to everything else.

Analogies can be helpful to convey meaning but at the end of the day, they have their limitations.
Both the school and refinery analogies provide certain aspects of underlying cosmic principles in play, but there is always 'much more to it'.
A refinery is basically a 'closed loop' system, and so the idea that 'everything is connected to everything else' is limited to this context.
However in reality, a refinery, like a school exists in a larger environment, which in turn exists in an even larger one, and so on, and so there are other factors involved at all levels that transcend the understanding of a closed loop scenario.

 

[Rolling_Stone]

Analogies can be helpful to convey meaning but at the end of the day, they have their limitations.
Both the school and refinery analogies provide certain aspects of underlying cosmic principles in play, but there is always 'much more to it'.
A refinery is basically a 'closed loop' system, and so the idea that 'everything is connected to everything else' is limited to this context.
However in reality, a refinery, like a school exists in a larger environment, which in turn exists in an even larger one, and so on, and so there are other factors involved at all levels that transcend the understanding of a closed loop scenario.

Indeed. And carried too far become absurd.