[MD] Intellect's Symposium

[markhsmit]

On Jan 24, 2010, at 5:25:56 PM, Mary <marysonthego at gmail.com> wrote:
[Mary replies] 
By the time you read this, you'll probably have already seen my post tonight
to Khoo. Can you guess where this is going? :)

It is a profoundly Western idea to say that Orientals (or Indians or
Eskimos) are evolutionarily inferior if they lack our Greek intellectual
inheritance. Where did Pirsig ever say that? He didn't. We, with our
Western blinders assumed it! Pretty typical for an Ego-based Society. You
could just as easily turn that around and say (which I think is the correct
way) that the West, with its Greek intellectual heritage is the inferior
one. If there's no Buddhist Static level above the Intellectual, that's
because it would be an oxymoron. 

I can't speak for Bo, but when he and others point out that Pirsig says the
Intellectual Level is the highest static level there is, that is not the
same as saying it is the best or only way to think about the world. Oh,
geez, now I've got Mark Smit on my ass! Guess I'll have to take that trip
to the Creation Museum after all. :)

Kidding aside, the Intellectual Level is a STATIC Level. It is not the
be-all end-all of reality. Pirsig says this. I think Bo's only problem may
be in getting a little loose with his words sometimes.

Mary
Hi Mary,
Thanks for the reference.  Just for the record, I am not a believer in
creationism.  I do not even believe in the big bang.  All cosmological
evidence I have seen supports a static universe better than one
created by a big bang.  But then again, I ain't no physicist.  What I
do believe is that there are many ways to believe, and all of them
are right for the individual at that specific time.  If they change their
minds, it doesn't mean that they were wrong, it just means they
changed their minds.  As I read your posts, it would seem you have
a similar attitude.

Cheers,
Mark