Franktalk wrote:DrW,
If you love the physical universe and believe there is nothing more than what science detects that is your choice. I happen to choose another world view. One that is rich in purpose and eternal in growth. But your view in which all things are ruled by chance and an unfolding of natural laws is pretty meaningless. I guess that is why you make the best of your short life, which in your eyes ceases to exist soon, by coming to a website to post about your love of all things of man. I mean is this the best you can do? Maybe you enjoy this more than traveling, or fishing, or writing all of your wisdom down for future generations to admire your wisdom and intellect. So if you get off by walking on others I have to wonder just makes you tick?
Franktalk,
Here is the problem with your magical worldview: it is indistinguishable in its form and main features from that of other theisms, including mainstream Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. It is a worldview that is manufactured by humans based on what they do not know rather than what they do know. Since it is highly arbitrary and variable (as reflected in the thousands of religions that humankind has invented through time) it represents a major stumbling block to the progress of society.
This kind of worldview promotes magic-based thought processes that prompt (or at least allow) humans to engage in such God-sanctioned activities as the inquisition, burning of witches at the stake, killing of innocents through suicide bombings, honor killings of females, etc. According to the Mormon version of these thousands of disparate religions, pretty much anything that causes one's bosoms to burn can be acted upon with a clear conscience.
The moral compass represented by a "burning in the bosom" is notoriously unreliable. In Joseph Smith's case, for example, his moral compass led him to justify adultery, polyandry, polygamy, bank fraud, falsely claiming the ability to translate ancient writings, lying to the public and to his congregation, and ultimately to his untimely death in a sordid jailhouse gun battle.
Given the choice between experiencing the world in a well-lived life in which one contributes to society in meaningful ways, and living a life of superstition and fear of some imaginary God in exchange for the conditional promise of some ill-defined (and physically impossible) afterlife, as imagined by men who claim to talk with this imaginary God, I know what my choice would be (and is).
As to your suggestion that I write and publish some of what I have learned from life on this Earth; I have done just that in the form of technical books, papers and patents (and continue to do so).
