great_ape
Posts: 1
Joined: Mar. 2007
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It's been quite a while since I've glanced at this thread.
Just a quick note on my materialism/anti-materialism UD post referenced earlier.
I was having a sort of metaphysical moment. It happens. The point was that the materialism vs. nonmaterialism debate seems rather misguided to me since it is predicated on the idea of 'material' which, when you get right down to it, translates roughly to 'stuff', and we really don't have a firm grasp on the meaning of 'stuff'. Modern physics' conception of 'stuff' is based on models concerning particles, waves, information, processes, etc, all of which bear very little resemblance to what we classically think of as 'stuff'. So the traditional notion of material 'stuff' being different from spiritual 'stuff' in much the same way that bricks are different from swamp gas is ultimately incoherent, regardless of your position concerning the existence of spiritual 'stuff'. So one has to wonder just what all the fuss is about. My guess is it's a battle over epistemological issues (i.e. how we come to know/believe things about the world, are some ways of knowing superior to others, and are some ways utterly misguided)
Now normally I won't respond to or even read Ms. Oleary's posts because her writing generally leaves me in a sort of stupefied daze, but this whole materialist/anti-materialist war thing is, I think, a misnomer that makes it seem as if the scientific worldview is out to eliminate mom, puppy love, and apple pie. It's rocks vs. love, folks. Whose side will you be on?
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