[MD] The isolated perceiver kills experience

[Ham Priday]

Marsha --


> Thank you Ham, but I have recently received your book.

Since I didn't send it, I assume that means you live in Connecticut and are 
the third purchaser of my book (thank you!), following my sister who 
purchased two copies and gave one to her daughter.

> Unfortunately I haven't read it yet, and maybe I should have
> waited to ask the question.  I hope to read it later this week.
> But meanwhile I have another question.  At what point in its
> long evolutionary history were human's granted the privileged
> position of having autonomous choice?  Was it planned for
> when they were much less than human?  Was it part of a plan
> in their earliest stages, when they were just amphibians?

I guess I see man as a "special creation", Marsha, since there is no other 
creature like him (on this planet, at least).  Your question may be 
important to an anthropologist wanting to date the appearance of "autonomous 
man" for the historical record.  My own feeling is that by categorizing 
every event in a time frame, we miss the significance of what we're trying 
to study.  Having studied vertebrate anatomy and heredity, I don't believe 
Homo-sapiens evolved from amphibians or descended from any earlier species 
than the Cro-Magnon man who lived approximately 30-40,000 years ago.

You probably know that I regard the world as anthropocentric.  So the 
"divine plan"  I see for existence is one designed to provide a habitable 
environment for the cognizant creature.  "Before" and "after" in this 
context is as meaningless as asking what came before creation or who created 
God.  It is man who perceives creation as a series of consecutive events. 
>From the standpoint of an uncreated source, there is no sequence; everything 
that has happened or will happen is a fait accompli.

What is important is that there exists a sensible agent of Value that is 
"extrinsic" to the source and by whose free choices "perfects" its intrinsic 
Oneness.  For me, the entire universe and all experience is centered on this 
cosmic principle.

Many here consider my ontology the height of egotistical arrogance.  They 
not only don't believe in God, they don't even acknowledge the reality of 
Man!  I find it ironic that followers of a cult movement whose belief system 
is based on quotations from an autobiographical novel accuse me of 
intellectual naivety.

Enjoy the book, Marsha.

Best regards,
Ham