Debate : 26686


Off-Topic / Debate / 26686	26685 \| 26687

Subject:	Re: We're being attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of culture!
Newsgroups:	lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date:	Wed, 30 Mar 2005 18:39:52 GMT
Viewed:	1153 times

In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton wrote:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

I guess that’s right-- without that fear, there might be no impetus to understand reality.

Are you kidding?

Not at all!

The first human reaction to that which is out of our control is to control or predict it. Understand it. Particularly if it’s important to us. Understanding why the grass is green, for instance, is of far less importance to understanding than “why is there a massive flood?” or “why did the lightning strike my house?”

Fear of the unknown naturally seems to result in a belief in some sort of supernatural control over certain things. Lightning? Hey, it’s gods! Volcano? Gods. Disease? Gods! So because humans fear these things, they try their best to understand them. The initial attempt generally being some sort of sacrifice or prayer. But over time, we’ve come to figure stuff out. Would it have happened without fear? Depending on how you define “fear”, I think I’d say no. I don’t think I’d necessarily call it fear of the *Lord* per se, but I think the idea is probably accurate.

Well, that’s a big difference! I have no more fear of the Lord of the Bible than I have of the Lord of the Dance (and maybe less). I similarly don’t fear Bigfoot, the Easter Bunny, or Paul Bunyan.

Rather than equivocating on some overlap between “the unknown” and “the Lord,” it might be more precise to phrase your sentiment thus:

A desire to understand more fully that which currently is poorly understood is the impetus to understand reality.

Dave!

Message has 1 Reply:

		Re: We're being attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of culture!
(...) That's true, which is why I didn't say "that's exactly correct!". But in thinking about human evolution, a very early step (and not necessarily the first, depending on what you call steps versus qualifications, or transition states or (...) (20 years ago, 30-Mar-05, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:

		Re: We're being attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of culture!
(...) Not at all! The first human reaction to that which is out of our control is to control or predict it. Understand it. Particularly if it's important to us. Understanding why the grass is green, for instance, is of far less importance to (...) (20 years ago, 30-Mar-05, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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