Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mcnc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!bch From: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: To my good ole buddy Rich Rosen! Message-ID: <2523@mcnc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 25-Jan-85 11:30:01 EST Article-I.D.: mcnc.2523 Posted: Fri Jan 25 11:30:01 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 27-Jan-85 07:22:15 EST References: Reply-To: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) Organization: North Carolina Educational Computing Service Lines: 57 Summary: In article arndt@lymph.DEC writes: >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Purpose/Design implies Intelligence which implies Personality. There. >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >Of course you recognize the Telelogical Argument for the existence of God. >The counters have been: 1) not everything has a purpose - but this still >doesn't speak to things that do, 2) nothing has purpose - which I think runs >counter to what we observe and makes it pretty hard to get from work to home >and back again the next day. Let's give another counter, which is my re-interpretation of what I think Rich is saying: "purpose" is a quality which is often in the mind of the beholder and often *only* in the mind of the beholder. One must be careful to try to determine whether one is imputing purpose and organization to a pattern which may or may not exist. The human brain is a fairly powerful organizing device -- often imputing organization and causality to unconnected events. There is a simple experiment which I stumbled on inadvertantly in my formative years which demonstrates this very well. (1) Take a string of independently flashing Christmas-tree lights and install them using a screw-in socket in a light fixture with a translu- cent bowl around it. The objective is to get the flashing colors without seeing the individual lights. (2) Turn it on -- you get a nice display of apparently randomly flashing colors. (In truth, the flash rate for any given light is probably dependent on the color of the light and the impedence of the bulb, but this is not relevant at the moment.) (3) Put some music on the radio or on your stereo. (4) Note how the lights appear to flash in time with the music. (Extremely suggestible people will also see various colors reflecting the frequency of the sound.) Now, while there is no connection between the music and the light the brain takes the rhythmic organization of the music and uses it to interpret the apparently random light flashes -- imputing a pattern to the lights that just isn't there. Similarly, given a philosophical predisposition to an organizing principle (admittedly whether scientific or religious) one is habituated to interpretation of events or phenomenon within that organization. Simply, if you are human you can't help but do it. That's the way the machinery works. You can, however, be aware of it. In fact, the commitment to truth (if such exists) demands that you be aware of it and consider that your beliefs may in fact be unwitting artifacts of the mind's demand for organization. -- Byron C. Howes ...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch