[MD] The End of Faith - Spirituality

[Platt Holden]

Hi Steve, 

> Steve:
> I'm not sure that Marsha's "screw reason" is to be taken really
> seriously. 
> 
> As I've said before, reason is just a word for itellectual quality. It
> doesn't presuppose specific rules for deciding what ideas have quality
> i.e are reasonable. "Screw intellectual quality" sounds like a very bad
> policy to me. If she was serious it is the equal of religious people's
> rejection of reason in the name of faith.

I'm not sure what Martha means by "screw reason," but to me her words
strike a responsive chord. Reason has conned us into believing that the
particles that make up a sunset are more real that its beauty. In fact, I
judge intellectual quality by its aesthetic truth more than its 
reasonableness. So do many scientists. Einstein: "In science, the beautiful 
is the good because it has proved to be the fertile." David Gelernter:
"Beauty is a truth-and- rightness meter, and science and technology could 
not exist without it."

Beauty is trans-rational. It needs no explanation. It explains itself. The 
key to its usefulness and appeal is it's trans-rational communication of 
Quality.

For me, when it comes to intellectual quality, beauty beats reason every 
time.

Regards,
Platt
 
P.S. The response to your idea that the MOQ can be called a "Science of 
Morals" has been less than deafening.