Having read a fair amount of philosophy over
the years, one of the primary points within philosophy
exemplified by Plato, is the division of existence…
there are two parts to existence, one is the temporary, experiences,
changing, brief aspect of existence… the part
of the universe that changes… and the other aspect
is the permanent, changeless, aspect of existence…
in India, the permanent aspect is called Atmen… which in
India means the ‘‘real self’’ of the individual, the ‘‘innermost
essence’’ of one’s self… which never changes…
thus mirroring existence itself… the two parts of
existence, the ever changing and the never changing,
lies at the heart of philosophy, since Plato anyway…
and in this debate, where do I stand?
I have spent decades trying to find the permanent,
the forever, god if you will and yet, I have not
found anything that can be thought of as permanent,
forever, god…there is no permanent beyond the
changes… reality lies within the changes, the impermeant,
In other words, there is but one reality… the one we see
and work in and play in and die in and change in…
there is nothing beyond that… and why do most
people have a real problem with that? because it
seems to remove some sort of reason or cause for
existence… we strive for the permanent, but
there is no permanent to strive for… Jesus said
that his Kingdom was of heaven, not of earth…
but that is a dualism that isn’t warranted by the
facts…Plato talks about the ‘‘permanent/eternal forms’’
like the circle… so, where are the permanent/eternal
forms residing? for there to be permanent/eternal forms,
they have to exists somewhere, so, where?
Occam’s razor suggests that the simplest explanation
is more likely to be true…so, what is a simpler explanation,
a dual universe with one side being permanent, eternal,
and the other side, a single universe that is what we see, changing
evolving every day…an belief in heaven requires one to also
believe in god, angels, demons, Satan, sin, eternal damnation…
otherwise, what one see’s, is what we see, that is reality…
nothing more, nothing less… and what causes changes in
said reality? for the most part, entropy causes the changes
we see, chance really… for we have no way of predicting
how entropy will work… I am growing old… that is entropy…
and entropy is the law of the universe… and entropy is
chaotic, random, full of chance… so, what is easier
to believe in… a dual universe that has the permanent,
forever or the random, chance universe that we can touch
and see…
which leads me to my next point, where
is this permanent, forever universe with eternal values??
I can’t see it, touch it, hear it, smell it or taste it… it can’t
be noticed by our senses and yet, it is supposed to exists..
ok, where? I can see, hear, touch, taste, smell the
universe that exists all around me… a universe that is
random and chaotic… I see that every single day…
a universe that changes every single day…
just as I can see the entropy working on my body
every single day… every day, I am a step slower
my body is falling apart and soon, at some point,
entropy will win and I will die… I don’t need some
permanent forever place, that I can’t discover,
to know entropy…
So, Kropotkin, let us, for the moment, grant
you are right, now what?
and that is the next post…
Kropotkin