[MF] What are people?

[Kevin Perez]

  Ted,

You asked what I meant by "I'm a theist, which is why I suppose relationships interest
  me so much (and vice versa)..."

I can tell you that I have a personal relationship with God.  And that the quality of all
  my other relationships stems from the quality of this one relationship.  I value
  relationships because of my relationship with God.
  
And you ask for my definition of God.  I sense two concerns here: 1) having a personal
  relationship with God appears to put limits on God; God becomes an object and 2) a
  personal relationship with God has a rational explanation that can be summed up in
  100 words or less.

  I feel it would be inappropriate to quote scripture or noted theologians or to share my
  life experiences.  So I'll quote Pirsig.  I trust the following words will be familiar.
    Quality couldn't be independently related with either the subject or the object
  but could be found only in the relationship of the two with each other. It is the
  point at which subject and object meet. That sounded warm. Quality is not a
  thing. It is an event. Warmer. It is the event at which the subject becomes
  aware of the object. And because without objects there can be no subject...
  because the objects create the subject's awareness of himself...Quality is the
  event at which awareness of both subjects and objects is made possible. Hot.
  Now he knew it was coming. This means Quality is not just the result of a
  collision between subject and object. The very existence of subject and object
  themselves is deduced from the Quality event. The Quality event is the cause
  of the subjects and objects, which are then mistakenly presumed to be the
  cause of the Quality!
  I would liken a personal relationship with God to a Quality event.
   
  Because the Quality event is the ultimate reality within the MOQ I can see how this
  perspection places God in a box.  So...is there a place within the MOQ for a reality
  greater than the Quality event?  That is, is there or has there ever been a reality
  separate from "awareness of both subjects and objects?"  What about awareness of
  non-objective/non-subjective Quality?  And what precisely does Pirsig mean by
  "awareness?"  Is this the basis for his "man is always the measure of all things?"
   
  I'm truly enjoying this discussion.  Thanks. 
   
   
  Kevin


		
---------------------------------
 Yahoo! DSL Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less