Comments on Deism For the Modern Mind: The Rise and Fall of Individualism

Gregory,I will consed that there does seem to be a...

2008-08-18T19:53:00.000-04:00

Gregory,

I will consed that there does seem to be an unconscious connection between humans. The movement, rise and fall, of trends, fads, and ideas seems to spread throughout humanity at rates quicker than information can flow.

However, experience and reason dictate that these occurrences are limited to material objects and obsessions. Individuality still seems to rule human emotion and the overall thought process.

Are you suggesting that by embracing this sense of individuality that we will eventually discover that we are part of a collective mind? Personally, I think that might be a dangerous idea to unleash onto the American population. Western culture is obsessed with free thought and individualism, and trying to convince most Americans that their thoughts are part of a greater thought process might be a bit too much to handle (although the tide is certainly starting to turn with the rise of religious philosophies, such as Deism, and the influx of Eastern thought into Western idealism). Collectivism is a taboo word in American culture today, which is why I try to equate it to the majority mind; For the same reason that I refer to God as the Creator. Right or wrong, certain words have negative connotations.

As to the idea of experience replacing reason, this idea is irrational and unreasonable in and of itself. You are suggesting that once enlightenment is achieved we will have no need for reason to guide us, because experience will show us the true form of the cosmos. This however supposes that we already now the true nature of the Creator or the cosmos, which is impossible at this point unless we believe the revelations of others. Buddha and Jesus were great men, but reason dictates that we do not take their teachings for granite. If we do, we forsake the ideas that they were trying to impress upon us.

ah, we use the word "experience" in different ways...

2008-08-18T17:32:00.000-04:00

ah, we use the word "experience" in different ways i think.

you seem to use it here as the set of events that happens, and call them experiences ... the horizontal stuff i am alluding to.

i am talking about direct experience of the nature of the self, not an event, but a state. it is transformative.

but i think you don't want to hear it, or cannot relate.

In reply to Gregory's comment:People have been mak...

2008-08-18T14:50:00.000-04:00

In reply to Gregory's comment:

People have been making the same mistakes for millennia. Experience seems to have taught us little. It's reasonable to expect that "experience" alone will have the same affect in the future.

you have the horizontal plane figured out ... but ...

2008-08-18T10:26:00.000-04:00

you have the horizontal plane figured out ... but there is a deeper dimension, which, if incorporated, expands your argument.

the road to the concept of individuality, and to the concept of individual fulfillment, has taken place within a larger context ... and i am going to have to call it collective consciousness, or group consciousness.

there is only one mind.

where we go from here is through the door of seeming individuality, into the cosmos.

(and incidentally, belief will be replaced by experience, and reason simply be no longer needed.)