Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles; site hpfclp.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!hpfcdc!hpfcla!mike From: mike@hpfcla.UUCP Newsgroups: net.books Subject: Objectivism, mysticism don't mix Message-ID: <4500024@hpfclp.UUCP> Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 13:02:00 EDT Article-I.D.: hpfclp.4500024 Posted: Mon Sep 23 13:02:00 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 08:27:15 EDT Organization: 23 Sep 85 11:02:00 MDT Lines: 66 This should probably go in net.philosophy, but I refuse to post anything into that epistemological black plague of a notesfile. As usual, send all flames to /dev/null. Warning: Those who are ardent followers and believers in God(s) please press the J key -- there is nothing here for you; only the horror of reality is awaiting you in the subsequent paragraphs, and I certainly do not wish to tamper with anyone's self-induced blindness. Darren Kall writes: > For a starting topic I would like to raise consideration > of her anti-theistic stance. Is it a necessary premise of > Objectivism? Is it a personal dislike she had? Is she in > violation of the tenets of her own philosophy by being so > anti-theistic? Objectivism starts with the primacy of existence. Existence exists -- which means that something exists that one can perceive, and that a consciousness exists capable of perception. Existence is identity. There is nothing antecedent to existence and nothing apart from it. To examine such notions is to formulate anti-concepts -- concepts having no basis in reality -- and promptly removes one from the real to the unreal -- from an entity to a zero. Existence includes everything that was, is, and will be. The unreal does not exist -- it is the negation of existence and is found only in the minds of those who have abandoned reason. The spirtual world does not exist -- it is the deniel of the law of identity, and thus the primacy of existence. Those who ask "Why does existence exist?", as if a zero can dominate an entity, have never grasped this axiom qua axiom. These are the mystics and their followers who spend the bulk of their lives trying to cheat and deny existence. In Rand's words: "They want to cheat the axiom of existence and consciousness, they want their consciousness to be an instrument not of perceiving but of creating existence, and existence to be not the object but the subject of their consciousness -- they want to be that God they created in their image and likeness, who creates a universe out of a void by means of an arbitrary whim. But reality is not to be cheated. What they achieve is the opposite of their desire. They want an omnipotent power over existence; instead, they lose the power of their consciousness. By refusing to know, they condemn themselves to the horror of a perpetual unknown." And further from Rand: "Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth, and nothing can take precedence over the act of perceiving it, which is thinking -- that the mind is one's only judge of values and one's only guide to action -- that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise -- that a concession to the irrational invalidates one's consciousness and turns it from the task of perceiving to the task of faking reality -- that any alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind -- that the acceptance of a mystical invention is a wish for the annihilation of existence and, properly, annhilates one's consciousness." Objectivism and mysticism are diametrically opposed by the very premises on which they are founded. The choice is simple. Are you going to let your mind be the judge of your values, and reason be the guide to your actions? Are will you blank out -- letting your feelings substitute for knowledge -- letting your fear of the unknown destroy your capacity to know -- letting any mystic who claims he "feels" the presence of God and spirits destroy your ability to distinguish the real from the unreal, truth from fantasy, entity from zero? Give the steering wheel of your mind to any mystic and this is where he will take you. Michael Bishop hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com