Category: Consciousness
-
I’m 200 today!
Here is my 200th post. I don’t look on this as a credit-worthy achievement, but simply a statement of fact. I’ve always been a person of words, and seemingly destined to read and write. I recall my father taking his youngest son to the local library, and my being outraged that I could only be…
-
Jung, Archetypes, Arts, Religion
Arising from recent dialogue with a friend, I’m posting this one-off to try to clarify my thinking about Carl Jung, archetypes, the arts and religion. In Jung’s view, the human psyche has three different but interacting ‘levels’, which should not be thought of as separate ‘compartments’. There is consciousness, which enables us to perceive, and…
-
My Religious Paradigm (6) Summing Up
In this series of posts, I’ve been trying to gather together my current thoughts about ‘God’. I say ‘current’, because I believe in keeping an open mind. My views, of course, are no more likely to be ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ than anyone else’s. As the apostle Paul pointed out, (though when in full dogmatic flow…
-
My Religious Paradigm (5) The problem of suffering
In re-thinking my current religious paradigm, I’ve suggested that there’s some evidence of intelligence and design in the existence and form of the universe, and that this means that the notion of a god is not an entirely unreasonable proposition. Whereas Darwin’s Theory of Evolution facilitates the setting aside of such a notion, it doesn’t…
-
Common sense? V
After four posts suggesting that ‘common sense’ can be deceiving, I want to conclude this series by suggesting an area in which ‘common sense’ may be spot on. One of today’s most obstinate mysteries is the origin and nature of consciousness, especially in the form of self-awareness. We humans, at present, are the most advanced…
-
Common Sense? IV
Let’s now take a ‘common sense’ view of our world, with all its sights (drab or colourful) ; its sounds (soothing or raucous) ; its smells (inviting or unpleasant) ; its tastes (sweet or bitter) ; and its textures (soft or unyielding). If you’ve been reading these posts, you’ll know what’s coming next. These ‘appearances’…
-
Common Sense? III
Let’s say a little more about atoms. The ‘common sense’ view is that they contain protons, neutrons and electrons, all like tiny billiard balls. The protons and neutrons are squeezed into the nucleus, which is like the sun in our solar system, and the electrons that surround the nucleus are like orbiting planets. This is…
-
Common Sense? II
Sometimes, ‘common sense’ is deceiving. Unless we’re willing to look behind appearances, we risk failing to discover deeper realities, and our store of knowledge and understanding is thereby impoverished. Modern science provides some startling examples of this. It’s over a century since the existence of atoms was confirmed, and exploration began into what they might…
-
Common Sense? I
Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753) is famous, or infamous, for arguing that esse est percipi – “to be is to be perceived”. What we humans experience as material objects exist solely in our perceptions of them. In other words, there are no material objects as such, but only minds (human and divine) containing mental ‘representations’. Hence…
RAY'S VIEWS ONLINE 