re: #115 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

Okay.

Humans have an ability to make wild leaps of imagination, seeing patterns where there isn’t actually ‘enough’ evidence to discern a pattern. A hell of a lot of scientific advancement comes not because people have soberly analyzed all the evidence, but out of this capacity for pattern-seeking that humans have.

The scientific method didn’t increase the creativity of man; scientific theories richly abounded before it. What the scientific revolution did was give us a good way of sorting through these theories, and raising a bar of proof for them.

That same tendency, to see patterns based only on a small segment of the pattern is, I believe, the same thing that makes people see a living force in the universe, a personal pattern, a mind at work.

I don’t think that humans will ever stop their intuitive leaps, their theory-making, and I don’t think that most people will subject their thoughts to the scientific method— I don’t think people will stop believing in ‘love’, for example. The same forces in us that make us able to see patterns in the natural world that are true and scientific also lead us to conclude things that are, in fact, wrong.

Does this help?

No, not really.

For instance, I don’t believe in “love” as society likes to think of it, either. I believe in sexual attraction, caring, respect for The Other, not necessarily in that order, but elements that should support each other. But what most people think of as “romantic love”? Not a bit. That’s usually a function of infatuation.