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Tara Raju's picture

The first question I

The first question I thought of was: what came first the chicken or egg? It's a simple question that no one really knows the answer too and that is exactly the type of thinking that we are following in Dennet's case. And of course, many others have thought about that simple question that seems to be plaguing our discussion on a very very fundamental level. We will never know where the first idea came from because there is no truly real and definitive answer to everything. As individuals, we can only believe in a story that sits best with our individual philosophies and critical rubric of evaluation.          

I like the quote by Nietzsche that "truths are illusions that forget that they are illusions". We choose to believe in these illusions because without it we wouldn't be held accountable against or to anything. We choose to believe this narrative of Darwin's because we, as humans, can rationalize it and have some visual evidence that can substantiate our claims. Believing in a higher power as the creator of everything and as a cause for everything, takes a great amount of will and security- attributes that most people possesses but simply, not enough to allow us to be complete secure in leaving it to something out of our hands. It has been engrained in our minds that "we can put anything that we set our mind to" or that "our destiny is in our hands"- phrases like this force us to push the boundaries that something else is in control of us. Is that not the reason why we sometimes find the extreme religious right so fascinating? Isn't that why shows like "Big Love" are so highly viewed? We are fascinated by those that believe so much in a higher power because maybe deep down we know that we can't handle believing that truths are illusions so we choose, subconsciously or consciously, to believe.

 

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