Post by The Lost One on Aug 21, 2017 12:49:16 GMT
There is no objective truth available to humans. Any human who interacts with the world has a subjective view of it.
And any human view is not only subjective, but incomplete. Therefore, in order for humans to make sense of the world, they make models.
Maybe for some humans, models including deities or other supernatural intelligences make sense. Like gadreel said, to him a universe with an intelligence behind him is a model that he is comfortable with (gadreel, feel free to correct me if this presentation is inaccurate). To me, it doesn't. I tend to be materialist and not believe in supernatural entities. The naturalistic explanations are enough for me. But I don't claim that I know everything about the universe, or that I have found an objective answer.
In fact, I believe the religious-philosophical-spiritual outlook of each human on the universe is a bit like choosing a map projection for a world map.
There are plenty of them, all of them with advantages or disadvantages. If you want a map that facilitates navigation, choose Mercator. If you want a map that keeps the size and shapes of the landmasses, choose Dymaxion or Authagraph. If you want to just check longitudes and latitudes, choose a cylindrical projection. And so on.
And all the map projections have one thing in common: They are incomplete. It is not possible to make an accurate 2D model of a 3D object.
Maybe for questions in life, philosophies and religions are like map projections. If you want an outlook where you want to believe that there is higher meaning, or some sort of higher purpose independent of humans, choose a theistic religion. If you believe that life is simply an opportunity to have fun and enjoy it, but has no external purpose, choose an atheistic religion. And no philosophy and religion can claim to be accurate; unless objective truths would be available to humans.
The problem arises when some people try to convince others that their model is the best, or even the only possible one.
As long as it happens only on message boards, there's no serious problem. Unfortunately, the people in New York, London, Madrid, Berlin, Brussels, Nice, and now Barcelona, know that this is not the case.
Speaking of map projections: I don't know if I agree with everything in this comic. But I like it.
