From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Fri 22 Nov 2002 - 04:21:06 GMT
> >
> > > >
> > > >The TRUTH of today's world is a different meme than the TRUTH
> > > >that comes to us through religion. Only one of them prepares us
> > > >to face the world of the 21st century, and it's not religious
> > > >TRUTH.
> > > >
> > > >Grant
> > >
> > > Your notion of what "religious TRUTH" is, is itself a meme.
> > >
> >Truth is that statement which "faithfully" represents that personal,
> >social, historical or empirical state or process of affairs to which
> >it purports to refer. Thus statements that do not congruently
> >correspond to their objects are untrue. A good indicator of this
> >condition is when the statement in question is contradicted by
> >contiguous truths rather than seamlessly cohere with them. An
> >indicator that the statement is neither true nor false, but is
> >instead meaningless, is a logical flaw, such as internal
> >self-contradiction.
> > >
> > > I would argue, from my memetic constructs, that true religion is
> > > the ability to find the truth for yourself with the aid of
> > > religious texts, which contain the clues left behind by those who
> > > have travelled the path. But if you lack the fundamental question
> > > that illuminates the esoteric meaning in religious texts and
> > > renders them "alive," then you are interfacing with those texts on
> > > an exoteric level that sees them in terms of logic and analysis,
> > > comparison and evaluation. Fundamental human experience is the
> > > same now as before; that is not to venerate the past, but it is
> > > also not to discount the value of wisdom. Life is what you make
> > > it, and so are religious texts. When you approach something to
> > > discover the truth hidden in it, the contradictions that are
> > > revealed are in yourself, not in the text. Then you smile at your
> > > own imperfection.
> > >
> >And at blatant empirical errors inscribed in a less knowledgeable
> >time, yet still venerated as Holy Gospel Writ by the True Believer
> >who refuses to allow facts or logic to intervene.
> > >
> > > Language itself -- religious texts themselves -- do not contain
> > > memes. Memes are formed by your interpretation of the text, i.e.
> > > the integration of that text into your existing belief-space,
> > > related to your existing memetic constructs. Dreams can introduce
> > > memes to you; from where do they originate?
> > >
> >From prior experience. But memes are formed by the encounter of the
> >message with the apprehender; in the absence of either, they cannot
> >inhere.
> > >
> > > JS Gilbert
> > >
> > > "ekei eimi en meswi autwn"
> > >
> I see memes as concepts we contribute to the body of culture we share
> with other members of that culture. The meme is what we share, not
> what exists only within our minds. What we call truth is formed on
> the anvil of exchanging ideas and opinions. Each of us has a map of
> the world in our minds but the map we share is usually considered more
> true by society than our personal map. That's because our view of the
> world is restricted to a single pair of eyes. Our culture provides a
> view through many eyes. It gives us a chance to compare what we see
> with what others see and to come to a consensus about what the things
> we see should be called. IMHO.
>
In Existential Phenomenology, this is known as the fact that 'objectivity'
is actually intersubjectivity.
>
> Grant
>
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> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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