[MD] Value and the Individual

[Krimel]

[Arlo]
Synthesize these two positions for me, Ham. Do we not experience our 
"cosmic purpose"? If we do experience it, how can "intellect get in 
the way" if experience is "always an intellectual distinction"? If 
our "seeing" our cosmic purpose precedes intellect, and hence 
precedes experience, how do we see it? Is it something we "feel"?

[Krimel]
I don't know about my cosmic purpose but like Steve Martin's character in
"The Jerk" I found my "special purpose" at an early age. About all I have to
say about that I said earlier to Ron, "Thank God for the internet!"

> [Krimel]
> What in the world does this have to do with a collectivist view?

[Arlo]
Nothing. Its a meaningless word of derision affixed to any and all 
who oppose Ham's interpretations. If you don't agree with him, why 
you MUST be a GASP collectivist! He uses it as a synonym for the Big 
Bugaboo "nihilism".

[Krimel]
I get confused a lot. If collectivists and nihilists are the same, were
Jesus and his disciples nihilists?

[Ham's Question du Jour]
Do you agree with Krimel that "cosmic purpose is an absurd notion"?

[Arlo]
I'd say "cosmic purpose" is an intriguing speculation, perhaps. For 
some it is a comforting nightcap. But for me the question of 
absurdity revolves around this, if "man" has "a cosmic purpose", does 
anything else? Do whales have a cosmic purpose? Does my dog have a 
cosmic purpose? Or in all the cosmos, it is only "man" that has a 
"purpose"? (This isn't a question to you, Ham, I know what your answer is.)

[Krimel]
Or couldn't the cosmos have a purpose but we have none? I want to know what
good is a purpose if you have to have the special decoder ring to figure it
out?

I am pretty sure my dog had a "special purpose." He used to try to hump my
leg a lot.

And Arlo, don't you think Ham ought to tell us his denomination? I find it
odd that he keeps ducking that one. I used to be a Presbyterian. I could
still be one if I could get up that early on weekends.