I so enjoyed reading Rick's thinking about Science and Objective Reality.
I am of the mind that the issue will never be "resolved." In fact, the
question below which Rick asks is, for some, begging the answer. The
answer is built into the question, or, the question ultimately has no
reality for attempts at connecting fact and spirit. Fact and spirit
coexist. Pure parallel lines. Infinite.
>My grand question: Why isn't this the resolution for spiritualists,
>philosophers, scientists, and public thinkers troubled by the tension
>between (1) and (2)?
I am reminded of Misha in Brothers Karamazov. Listen. He has been accused
of patricide, captured by the local authorities, subjected to intense
interrogation. He's exhausted in the house where he has been interrogated.
All the evidence seems to point to his guilt. And in this state of
exhaustion, Dmitri (Misha) falls asleep on a hard bench. He dreams an
apocalyptic dream and awakens. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that
someone has placed a pillow beneath his head--HIS head, the head of a
purported patricide! Despite the heinous nature of the crime, someone
unrecognized has given him Jacob's pillow! He calls out his revelation to
his captors. It's an amazing transformation moment in this great novel. It
conjoins fact and spirit in a powerful way. It bespeaks the tension and
the individual resolution we bring to our existence.
What I like about this list is that we launch the private realm into the
public one. And each of us is affected in a unique way. Miraculous. I
wonder if there's a lesson in that?
About 800 years ago, Rumi wrote:
Listen to presences inside poems,
Let them take you where they will.
follow those private hints,
and never leave the premises.
--"Barry Mallis" <bmallis@markem.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>