[MD] Probability

[gav]

hey Case,
forgive my butting in but your post on faith intrigued
and impressed me.
i have to take issue with you on this point though:

>  I see no use
> in assigning purpose to
> the inanimate world nor any role for consciousness
> outside of organic
> beings. 

i think that the universe or cosmos or 'the whole
shebang' is evolving; evolution is implicitly
teleological (it doesn't make sense in any other way);
therefore if the universe is ultimately one then
everything is part of that evolution; ie it can make
sense to assign purpose to the inanimate world.
do you think evolution is a fallacy?, or perhaps takes
too much of a leap of faith?
i like Bohm a lot: the universe is energy, matter and
meaning. meaning connects with purpose.

also consciousness or awareness is the ground of
being; nothing exists independent of perception of it.
if a tree falls in the forest.....
consciousness/awareness has us; we don't have it (we
have helped facilitate a form of consciousness - 
self-consciousness - which seems peculiarly human, at
least on earth, and makes some of us believe that only
humans are conscious at all.)


>To the extent that Pirsig invokes purpose of
> this sort I have been
> highly critical. His chapter on evolution is
> particularly rank in this
> regard. 

that is unfair in my opinion. i think you are
misreading him.

cheers
gav

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