[MD] Dawkins a Materialist (is watching?)

[Case]

> [Case]
> The survivors see it that way because they are the ones still surviving.

[Platt]
Circular?

[Case]
Possibly. 
It is called the Circle of Life.

[Platt]
Does a fire have a choice like humans do? That's the difference.

[Case]
A fire behaves as it does given the range of options open to it. It moves
according to the availability of oxygen and fuel. The only difference is
that we have a greater range of options.

[Platt]
Sounds like the point is to just run around in circles, going nowhere for no
reason. What did Pirsig say about such a worldview? 

"From the perspective of a subject-object science, the world is a completely
purposeless, valueless place. There is no point in anything. Nothing is
right and nothing is wrong. Everything just functions, like machinery. There
is nothing morally wrong with being lazy, nothing morally wrong with lying,
with theft, with suicide, with murder, with genocide. There is nothing
morally wrong because there are no morals, just functions." (Lila, 22) 

"To keep the process going" means keep functioning. Seems there's little
doubt that your perspective is that of subject-object science, not that
you've ever denied it. But I agree with Pirsig that such a perspective has
had a debilitating effect on the human psyche. 

[Case]
Oh my God, you did NOT just Label me!!!

...I am starting a label collection, thanks. 

Pirsig is describing a mechanistic view; wheels and cogs spinning. I believe
I have been talking about a more organic system which produces more than the
heat of friction. It responds to the inflow of energy from sum beams and
grows. It twists and turns through rivulets of probability thumbing its nose
at entropy for as long as it can. It flows forming collections of
relationships that form new relationships; patterns of beauty, patterns in
flux. You can't look twice and see the same thing. Pointless? Maybe, so
maybe not but I am enjoying the ride.