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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Arthur Pewtey)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Evolving Religions
Message-ID: <1079@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Jun-85 10:45:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1079
Posted: Thu Jun 13 10:45:23 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Jun-85 05:37:30 EDT
References: <238@ihnet.UUCP> <446@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>, <99@umcp-cs.UUCP> <449@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Organization: The Chartered Accountants Who Want to Be Lion Tamers Association
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> I find Tim's evidence equally as problematic as he finds mine.  Moreover,
> his evidence (as it is presented) fails to disprove the reality of the
> beings he seeks to invoke, in the sense that the language of the deities may
> be symbolic of supernatural order.
> 
> In general, I find that the strongest conclusion I can draw from the
> mystical experience is that there is some supernatural order which shows
> some unification of the natural order.  The problem with trying to go beyond
> that is that the language appears to be stretched to the limit just to get
> that far, making it very hard to generalize across the mystics. [Charley]

Why does that sound like a conclusion you've already presumed in order to
reach that conclusion?  You speak of the limits of language.  "Supernatural"
is a word, a piece of language conceived and invoked by humans.  What does
it mean?  From the structure of the word parts, and from the nature of the
way the word is used, "beyond the natural" sounds like the intended meaning.
How do we define natural?  What are the limits of what is natural?  Where are
the boundaries between "natural" and "supernatural"?  Are they anything more
than arbitrary demarcations that facilitate the conclusions we want to draw
about the universe and about the nature of the supernatural?  Charley is not
alone is not having answered these questions.
-- 
"Wait a minute.  '*WE*' decided???   *MY* best interests????"
					Rich Rosen    ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr