Old parable: a student comes to his teacher and asks what does the world sit on. The teacher says, it sits on a big turtle. The student asks, what does the turtle sit on? The teacher says another turtle. The student asks, what does that turtle sit on? The teacher says one more turtle. The student asks what does that turtle sit on then? The teacher yells, it's turtles all the way down!
I think this speaks for most religion and most science. You won't find the true nature of the universe by analysing the universe, all you will find are more turtles.
8 comments:
Well it's snowing outside as I sit here and read your "Old parable". I'm not sure what to say about it other than to ask, does this mean that it's fruitless to ask?
Or is this just a pile of turtles that are simply looking for a pond to lay in?
Or what the heck is the meaning of life as we know it?
Or to quote the political cartoon in the paper this morning; "How much wood, could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood"?
I think I should go back to bed!!
I dunno. Maybe some channeled books, having a viewpoint from Outside, have some answers.
I would not say that it's fruitless to ask. I even think it's fine to make up an answer when you just don't know, and see where that leads you.
I do object to those who make up an answer and then insist that it's the One Truth. Unfortunately, that seems to be the practice of most religions.
"I don't know" is sometimes a perfectly fine answer.
I hope so, because it seems to be the only one I have much of the time, these days.
"Uhm... Teacher?... All the way down to where?"
[SMASH!]
Owie! WHAT? What did I say now?!?
Michael,
It's not fruitless to ask: it's forbidden. Got that, heathen? Good!
It's strange. And at the same time amusing. I'm a deep-rooted skeptic (these roots go as deep as the 7th Turtle, at least!), but I find out that I have some intimate, unexplained beliefs that can only be described as religious in nature.
For instance, I have this near certainty, that all the close calls I've had in my life, every time with absolutely no consequence, are in fact a message telling me not to fear, because no unpredictable bad thing will ACTUALLY happen to me.
Totally unsupported, naturally. Just a spontaneous belief.
I still look before I cross the street. Sometimes you have to help Destiny. Or at the very least, deserve your luck. But really, I get the feeling as if God was hinting to me that I'm invulnerable to truly bad incidents. Death has briskly passed me by without gracing me with so much as a glance, I don't know how many times. The first, I think, when I was 4. On the very first day of the Lebanon war.
Just last night, I saw on the French TV news how a couple survived the recent storm by a sheer miracle, ending up with mere scratches when by all accounts they should've been crushed by their chimney falling on their roof, falling in the attic, crumbling on their bed, itself falling to the ground floor! By Jove, like a scene from some silly cartoon, no kidding!
Well, I looked at that man, listened to him, and got two simultaneous feelings: that he was an admirable fella, and that their incredible luck only APPEARED to be unexplained. I got the intense feeling that this was a sensible, wise, deserving man, whom "someone" would not have let any harm come to.
I should start a cult. My main mantra would be "I don't know. Nobody CAN know. But I believe." ("So follow my every humble word", of course. A cult's gotta do what a cult's gotta do, union rules.)
Then you also gotta have 99 Rolls-Royces.
@Pascal:
1. I still look before I cross the street. Sometimes you have to help Destiny. Or at the very least, deserve your luck.
Somewhere I have heard a story from Sufi tradition, concerning trust/fatalism, with the essence: Allah has no other hands than yours - so, first tether up your camel, and then trust in Allah ...
2. My main mantra would be "I don't know. Nobody CAN know. But I believe."
It reminds me on "Credo, quia absurdum est" ... as far as I know it was Tertullian who said it - so, it would be about 1800 years ago.
Hm ... a good basis for a cult, and maybe for getting some Rolls-Royces :-)
"Be realistic, plan a miracle!"
(Title of an Osho discourse)
Rolls-Royces? Yeah, they're nice and all, but I prefer the feminine rear curves of classic Jaguars.
Still British made... :-)
Maybe I could buy back Udai Hussein's luxury cars collection from the "Resistance" on e-Bay?... I do need minions as well, perhaps I can get the whole package at bargain price.
With Obama elected, plus the world crisis, I'm sure the minion prices have gone down notably. Time to invest, my mindless dron... my Brothers!
"first tether up your camel, and then trust in Allah"
Yep, that's the correct one.
Kawabunga, my children. Don't forget to relinquish all your earthly possessions in the dedicated baskets on your way to the purification-by-manual-work meditation fields, we need the poppy for exorcism rituals.
Except you, young April, I want to show you my mutant rat. Where did I put my ninja latex rat hoods? (Wouldn't want my little buddy to catch a splinter...)
What do you mean, my cult's not original? Heretic! OFF WITH HIS IPOD!
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