From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Date: Thu Dec 19 1996 - 13:53:31 MST
Hind" at Dec 19, 96 01:10:06 am
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> Ever since I became a devout atheist ridding myself of the meme of
> christianity I've funneled my creativity into logic while stifling it.
It is a very common, dangerous, and insidious meme that somehow logic,
science, and reason are incompatible with creativity, art, passion.
I think you are suffering from that meme, and not allowing yourself
to be creative because you mistaken believe art and science to be a
dichotomy. Religions might encourage that meme, because they can
then steer people away from reason by telling them that it is "dry"
or "unfulfilling" or some other slander, thus keeping them in their
seats, looking at the pretty windows and putting their money in the
collection plates.
True reason /increases/ one's appreciation of beauty. Are the stars
on a clear night less magnificent because I happen to understand fusion?
Is a rose less fragrant to a competent horticulturist, who knows that
it got that way by grafting a fragrant scion to good wild root stock,
then supplying it with a high-Phosphorus fertilizer? Is life any less
miraculous since Watson and Crick discovered DNA?
Great art and great scientific genius often go together: Leonardo Da
Vinci and Richard Feynmann may be remembered for different things, but
they were both great scientists and great artists. If you find that
you are less creative, perhaps it is just that your "logic is not
beautiful" meme is getting in the way. Fight it, allow yourself to be
as creative as you are, let nature--true, complete, understood nature;
not just the vague abstract nature of the luddites--inspire you. Don't
sacrifice your mind or your art to the prejudices that were instilled
in you by the enemies of reason.
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