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The inevitability of anthropomorphism
    #11187974 -

Religion is often accused of anthropomorphism -- of projecting man's ego into the sky and making God in his image.  God created man out of clay and breathed life into it.  This was a projection of a bronze-age culture in which artisans like potters were the creators -- lords over matter.  Later came the Enlightenment, and people like Descartes and Newton saw the universe as a machine, and God as the great watchmaker who wound up this device.  Later, some thinkers erased God from the equation:  The universe is a deterministic machine without a maker.  This view persists today for many materialists, despite being undermined by quantum mechanics and relativity.  Those who incorporate the insights of 20th century physics have sometimes framed the universe as a computer -- digital information programmed for complexity and emergence.

Notice how our metaphors change with our technology, as though the universe somehow anticipated their development, or man somehow managed to duplicate the process.  One might be tempted to laugh at this conceit, but the fact is that we really can't help it.  Our thoughts are abstractions, and the only thing we can abstract from is our experience.  Perception and projection mutually arise together.  The universe comes to us always already interpreted.  We cannot have a non-anthropomorphic thought, because that thought is always abstracted from human experience.  Our experience is the only lens through which we can ever hope to understand anything.  And that's okay, because we are embodied in the universe.  We are not mere Cartesian subjects observing the universe.  We are participants in it, and our interpretation of it is part of that participation.  It is in this sense that we really do co-create our own reality, by choosing the metaphors by which we participate in it.


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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Silversoul]
    #11187983 -

You might be right but then how to differentiate between this god, that god, and the flying spaghetti monster.


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"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

Edited by Icelander (10/05/09 04:07 PM)

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Icelander]
    #11188002 -

Icelander said:
You might be right but then how to differentiate between this god, that god, and the flying spaghetti monster.


That's outside the scope of this thread.  My point is that even if you jettison the idea of a deity, you're still stuck with anthropomorphism.


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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Silversoul]
    #11188009 -

That works for me.


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"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Silversoul]
    #11188060 -

It's why all the aliens are bipedal these days.


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The Mad Shroomer said:
People are always promising the apocalypse. They never deliver. :frown:

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Icelander]
    #11188072 -

Quote:
You might be right but then how to differentiate between this god, that god, and the flying spaghetti monster.


The FSM tastes good with garlic bread and a fine red table wine. :yesnod:


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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #11188094 -

OrgoneConclusion said:
Quote:
You might be right but then how to differentiate between this god, that god, and the flying spaghetti monster.


The FSM tastes good with garlic bread and a fine red table wine. :yesnod:


I would like to know my way around winery.

All I've ever had is the awful sewage water known as YellowTail (thanks, Australia, you suck at wine... I think) and communion wine I snagged from the church as a youngling.


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The Mad Shroomer said:
People are always promising the apocalypse. They never deliver. :frown:

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #11188099 -

Eating god is sacri-delicious.

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Silversoul]
    #11188244 -

Quote:
we are embodied in the universe. We are participants in it, and our interpretation of it is part of that participation.


This is the point, I think.

Any way we try to define the universe is redundant because we are using ourselves (which is part of the definition) to define it. And what are we but products of the Universe?

You can try to pin it all down in materialistic terms, but in doing so you forget that those terms themselves have relativistic meanings that change with our perceptions of reality, so no matter how hard you try to "define" it, it always remains something slippery.

But in my opinion, that is the beauty of it.


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Word to your mom.

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Wasteland]
    #11188280 -

Wasteland said:
It's why all the aliens are bipedal these days.


Right, it's why UFO abductions in flying saucers were not reported until the 1950s when alien movies were all the rage.  Coincidence?  Naw, movies put that seed in people's heads.


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Don't PM me with bullshit.  I don't sell or trade cactus and I don't know where you can get any, other than your mother's ass.

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: joemolloy]
    #11188462 -

joemolloy said:
Wasteland said:
It's why all the aliens are bipedal these days.


Right, it's why UFO abductions in flying saucers were not reported until the 1950s when alien movies were all the rage.  Coincidence?  Naw, movies put that seed in people's heads.


I think the films where more of perpetuating and multiplying an effect already present.

This PDF sums my sentiments on the matter nicely.

(wasn't the article I was looking for, but it'll do.)


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The Mad Shroomer said:
People are always promising the apocalypse. They never deliver. :frown:

Edited by Wasteland (10/05/09 05:28 PM)

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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: Band of Gypsys]
    #11188621 -

Band of Gypsys said:
Eating god is sacri-delicious.


:rimshot:


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Re: The inevitability of anthropomorphism [Re: joemolloy]
    #11188647 -

Quote:
Right, it's why UFO abductions in flying saucers were not reported until the 1950s when alien movies were all the rage. 


Also note that the term 'flying saucers', coined in the 40s was referring to winged-shaped craft that "skipped like saucers across the sky". Suddenly everyone was reporting saucer-shaped craft.

No suggestabilty there. :rolleyes:


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General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
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