Why is there something rather than nothing? (Humans)

by dhw, Tuesday, April 05, 2011, 11:30 (4778 days ago) @ xeno6696

MATT: The main thing I'm trying to do is encourage a radical uprooting for both you and dhw...It is very difficult to completely flip thinking like this, but it IS possible.-The discussions with you are never less than stimulating, and you continually push us along paths we would not otherwise explore. I'm therefore acutely conscious of how frustrating it must be if I keep refusing to go all the way with you, even though I do usually go SOME of the way. You acknowledged recently that your scientific materialism sits uneasily with your mysticism, and you've always been honest enough to admit it when there are contradictions in your arguments. The problem as I see it is that science and mysticism ... like philosophy and common sense ... are only compatible to a certain degree, but there is a point beyond which they cannot converge. My state of indecision makes it impossible for me to ignore opposing arguments, and so when you state a positive case, I generally look for flaws, which makes me a horribly negative interlocutor, for which I apologize. But ultimately we tend to finish on the same side, because neither of us can embrace the extremes of theism/atheism. -I think science and mysticism ... like philosophy and common sense ... are different approaches to an unknowable truth, and all of them can capture aspects of it in their different ways, but all of them have their limitations. Our discussions make us increasingly conscious of what can and can't be known, so even if we don't "completely flip" our thinking, that doesn't mean your efforts are wasted. Quite the reverse. I hope, though, that the very act of articulating and defending these ideas is of some use to you, because I would feel bad if I was the only one benefiting!