[p2p-research] Free flipper! argues scientist

[Ted Smith]

On Wed, 2010-01-06 at 16:45 +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> the kind of atheism that destroys our connection and participation
> with the natural world 

Who is qualified to say what is "natural" and what is not? Is there a
way for natural beings such as humans to take action in such a way that
is not participation in the natural world? What is the nature of this
"connection"; how is it formed or maintained, and what effect does it
have on the endpoints? Where are the endpoints?

> 
> it's simply part of human experience, and there is no obligation to go
> into it (like art and music, the life of the spirit is an option), but
> I do have the problem with those that are aggressively against it, and
> cannot make the finer distinctions between religious belief, religious
> power institutions, spiritual experiences, and bodymind technologies,

I don't see the distinction you're making between "religious belief" and
"spiritual experiences". Presumably, religious belief is a subset of
spiritual experiences, where spiritual experiences are any experiences
involving some sort of extra-natural majick-y phenomena. 

It seems to me that I am one of these atheists that you are
"critiquing". I certainly do not see irrational, evidence-agnostic "life
systems" like most New Age or imported Eastern beliefs as a part of
"human experience" that is to be desired. I certainly have my own
reasons for my opinions, as you do for yours, but I don't see how my
opinions are in any way misaligned with the desire for a peer-to-peer
society. It seems to me that you're implying this; is this indeed the
case? If so, why?
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