The World

[hobbes]

No...

Just that man is capable of both, and everything thats ugly is man made...

Man is capable of great beauty too..

Hobbes

Thanks, that was a very nice thing to say.

In more keeping with the drawing room, sometimes I wonder WHY I find something beautiful.

I am listening to Golden Heart by Mark Knopler and a certain guitar chord just sounded so pleasing and I don't know why my brain likes that one to the favor of so many others.

[hobbes]

I get the same with Mozart sometimes. To each their own.

I believe that music is the first language and is truly universal. It is the language of emotion. If a picture can paint a thousand words, then music can expose your soul.

Poor hobbes, always with the "why does my brain make me feel this way". There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. You are more than your brain hobbes, more than instinct and conditioned response. You are hobbes and we thank the Lord that it is so.

I think everyone would like to think so. Unfortunately, the more wisened I become, the more I realize that we are giving un-necessary import to our responses to stimuli simply because we have lost contact with our animal side.

A howling wolf causes others to howl, a chirping bird gets the tree in a frenzy, a singing voice causes us to join in.

I think music is the very language of emotions. Bird don't have a structured language for communication, but they can inflect their voices to convey emotion.

Certain sounds attract mates, while another causes all bird in the area to join in, in an attempt to locate everyone for migration or protection. When danger is around one chirp will scatter a flock.

So birds use song to convey emotion, not literal meaning. Humans do this as well when we talk to our babies. Mother sings to calm the child, she conveys safety in those soft sounds.

I think our creation of language has made use lose contact with our primitive use of song to convey emotion and we no longer recognize what it is there for. When then decide that it is something unique and special, a spiritual sense of appreciation.

We are just animals in clothes, I am afraid.

edit: animals use both song and sounds. I think sound is more functional, like a growl and song is more social, like howling or baying.

edit2: When I enjoy a song or sound, that is pleasing to my brain, I find this no more mystical than when my brain tells me that a certain food tastes or smells "yummy". Bacon smells fantatic because when you cook it, fat is released into the air and you can smell it. Our brains tell us we "like" the smell because fat is the most effiecient source of energy out there.

As you know there is no such absolute as a "good" smell or a "bad" smell, it is simply the hardwiring of the animal which receives the scent that tells us how to interpret it.

I think a good smell and a good sound are decided by our hardwiring. A primitive biochemical reaction.

[hobbes]

Our common sense limits us to explaining our experience based on that which we can measure, or dissect.

So what are we left with. Are we just supposed to make up some magic that we cannot prove nor disprove. Why throw ones self from the train of thought and reason.

Accepting magic causes the mind to atrophy, because it stops considering other possibilities.

The thing you must appreciate about us scientific chaps is that what we are saying is the opposite of what we want to believe.

Why can I not just accept the magic or choose a God, because my brain doesn't believe it. I can mouth the words, walk the walk, but when I try to sleep at night, my mind says, "You don't believe a word of it, and you know it". I cannot stop that voice any more than you can chose to lose your faith.


edit: edit2 was added to last post.

[hobbes]

Jp,

Understanding is a process.

Had Newton simply decided that God made apples fall, where would we be?

Newton said, "Hey, maybe there are principles that govern how objects behave"

Einstein said, "Great idea, but what would happen if we were to test the limits of your equations- you know, infinitely small mass and infinitely large velocities"- Out pops quantum mechanics.

Understanding is a road paved with epiphanies. We cannot warp to the end, but we must take it an idea at a time. But you will never get to the end if you don't start the journey.

[hobbes]

Ironically I say this at the behest of the apple.

Did Einstein not baulk at what quantum mechanics suggested.

Well, I think we all knew that "blondes have more fun", but even he was a bit taken aback when he was able to prove this mathematically.

[Strangelove]

Hobbes, nature is magic.

Tell me one thing more magical than life itself..

Then please try and describe it mathematically for me

[Biggles]

There is an old Celtic tale of a youth who having fallen asleep in an fairy glade has his eyes touched by one of the fairy people. From that moment he was unable to look at anything but that he saw the beauty in it.

Although this brought him joy it also set him apart from others and he was eventually spurned from the company of man. As time passed he could hardly tell if he had been given a gift or a curse.

The moral of the tale being that it is the condition of man to see his share of beauty and ugliness in life.

[Strangelove]

It was made into the movie Shallow Hall

[Biggles]

It was made into the movie Shallow Hall

Not one I have seen but perhaps proves the point that there are few new stories out there.

[hobbes]

Hobbes, nature is magic.

Tell me one thing more magical than life itself..

Then please try and describe it mathematically for me

How is nature magic? It seems rather harsh and predictable to me.

How is life magic? We are here, no one is sure how, but that does not mean by magic or God, we just don't understand. Life is also rather hard, many more downs than ups, even for the fortunate and we value it because there is no alternative.

Life is so hard for most that they create an ever loving God that will rescue them in the end, if they just believe.

Describe it mathematically? Huh?

I don't walk around moping, I'm a fairly happy person, I just attempt to look at things as honestly as possible.

I'm glad you think that everything is magic, but to me these statements sound jejune and I don't mean this in a rude way.