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Post 5. Continued . . .
Alternative Theory of Reality & Deity
Metaphysics of Qualia
In my personal speculative world model, the theoretical deity of Enformationism is not a “god of the gaps”, but a god of the whole. It doesn't attempt to fill-in missing data for current scientific understanding. Instead, it tries to tie it all together into a single generic explanation for everything for all time. Just as modern democratic societies no longer worship all-powerful kings, it makes no sense for scientific societies to worship an impersonal cosmic energy field. Although that all-enforming deity is of course omnipotent, your petty beliefs & prayers are not likely to have much effect on eternal omniscience. Only your actions have direct consequences in the world. Instead of slavish sycophantic behavior, moral social conduct is more likely to affect the ways of the world positively. Rather than expecting personal grace from G*D, we can obtain our own gratification from cooperating with The Creator as citizens of the creation. As role-playing actors on the world stage, each of us contributes to the development of the divine plan --- The Cosmic Drama.
This is how I came to the conclusion that an Ideal Deity/entity of some kind is necessary to explain the existence of the Real World, as revealed to us by cutting-edge sciences, and as hinted-at by ancient religions. If however, we cannot rely on the low-tech reasoning of those pre-scientific conjectures, we have only two options. Either ignore the mysterious margins of reality, or use our limited knowledge of them to create meaningful myths for our own era. Like most people, I choose to supplement the practical findings of science with musings on the “Metaphysics of Quality”*. I add theoretical possibilities to empirical data. And I allow Skeptical Faith to go beyond the limits of current confirmed knowledge. Such an inclusive BothAnd worldview also seems to fit the ecumenical Science & Religion, Rational & Emotional approach of modern Deism, which rejects manmade scriptures, yet finds revelations of the Creator in the Creation.
End of Post 5
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Note : I refer to that mysterious “Source” by various terms, depending on the context.
G*D : a generic, non-doctrinal version of God.
Q : From “quelle”, German term for Source.
Deity : a super-human agency
Metaphysics of Quality : "Quality," or "value," as described by Pirsig, cannot be defined because it empirically precedes any intellectual construction of it, namely due to the fact that quality (as Pirsig explicitly defines it) exists always as a perceptual experience before it is ever thought of descriptively or academically. Quality is the "knife-edge" of experience, found only in the present, known or at least potentially accessible to all of "us". (Plato's Phaedrus, 258d). Equating it with the Tao, Pirsig postulates that Quality is the fundamental force in the universe stimulating everything from atoms to animals to evolve and incorporate ever greater levels of Quality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirsig%27s_metaphysics_of_Quality
Image :
Metaphysics of Quality quote
