>This appears "similar" to what I said... I said that meme's provide
>"meaning" for our lives. If you wish to view that as an artificial
>limiting of the scope of our lives (that is, concentrating on some
>specific aspect of life, rather than trying to take it all in) be my
>guest. I just prefer positive outlooks, rather than negative ones.
Well...you are right of course. In my enthusiasm to be absurd I sometimes
succeed.
We do need the ol' mind, no doubt, but we should always be wary as to how it
tends
to go off center, that is when it doesn't give as an accurate picture of its
surroundings as
it might. After all, all it can do is filter, organize and interpret
sensory input. Therefore there
is no way we can have objectivity or direct knowledge of the world.
>
>Indeed! How do we study choas?
>
There are endless pages on the web, but if you prefer
to nuzzle up to a good book try the original, still current, "Chaos" by
James Gleick.
>
>more complex systems require simpler foundations. hmmm.
>
>add meme to "religion" memes
>
>wow!
>
>simplicity. Like the basic ideas behind "axioms" and "archtypes", more
>religions can themselves be reduced to just a few basic memes. Sure,
>like in logic, enormous systems can be built on top of the axioms, but
>understand the axioms and you can *rederive* the results again.
By God he's got it! (A few verses of "The rain in Spain...," please.)
>And so, when I say that "my" Church of Freethought will be based on only
>one meme, "FREEDOM!", I'm not limiting it in anyway, but rather making
>it *more* complicated!
>
Exactly! The only proviso is that your meme(s), in order to create the
necessary turbulence, have to
be non-linear. Is your "Freedom!" non linear? The test is whether the
outcome of believing in "FREEDOM" is
predictable. Off hand it sounds like your looking for a "positive" outcome.
This is linear. True freedom
requires the potential for any outcome. This is what evolution did when it
created the human mind. It, in
effect, created the first non-linear system, animals being variations on
linearity within life-chaos. So, in effect, we all ready have your religion
built in. Unfortunately, many choose to be linear, such as decaying
religions and old thinkers, etc.
non-linearly,
Peter
--Peter Charlot <bevens@hgea.org> Volcano Village, Hawaii