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From: mike@hpfcla.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Objectivism, mysticism don't mix
Message-ID: <4500024@hpfclp.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 13:02:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpfclp.4500024
Posted: Mon Sep 23 13:02:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 08:27:15 EDT
Organization: 23 Sep 85 11:02:00 MDT
Lines: 66

This should probably go in net.philosophy,  but I refuse to post  anything
into that epistemological black plague of a notesfile.  As usual, send all
flames to  /dev/null.   Warning:  Those who  are  ardent   followers   and
believers in God(s)  please  press the J key -- there is nothing  here for
you; only the horror of  reality  is  awaiting   you  in  the   subsequent
paragraphs,  and I  certainly   do  not  wish  to  tamper  with   anyone's
self-induced blindness.

Darren Kall writes:

>  For a starting topic I would like to raise consideration
>  of her anti-theistic stance. Is it a necessary premise of
>  Objectivism? Is it a personal dislike she had? Is she in
>  violation of the tenets of her own philosophy by being so
>  anti-theistic?

Objectivism  starts with the primacy of  existence.   Existence  exists --
which means that  something  exists that one can  perceive,   and  that  a
consciousness exists capable of perception.  Existence is identity.  There
is nothing antecedent to existence and nothing apart from it.   To examine
such notions is to formulate anti-concepts -- concepts  having no basis in
reality -- and promptly removes one from the real to the unreal -- from an
entity to a zero.   Existence includes  everything  that was, is, and will
be.   The unreal does not exist -- it is the negation of existence  and is
found only in the minds of those who have abandoned reason.   The spirtual
world does not exist -- it is the deniel of the law of identity,  and thus
the primacy of existence.   Those who ask "Why does existence  exist?", as
if a zero can dominate an entity, have never grasped this axiom qua axiom.
These are the mystics and their  followers  who spend the  bulk  of  their
lives trying to cheat and deny existence.  In Rand's words:

"They want to cheat the axiom of existence  and  consciousness,  they want
 their consciousness to be an instrument not of perceiving but of creating
 existence,  and  existence  to be not the object but the subject of their
 consciousness -- they want to be that God they created in their image and
 likeness, who creates a universe  out of a void by means of an  arbitrary
 whim.   But reality is not to be cheated.   What  they   achieve  is  the
 opposite of their desire.   They want an omnipotent power over existence;
 instead,  they lose the power of their  consciousness.   By  refusing  to
 know, they condemn themselves to the horror of a perpetual unknown."

And further from Rand:

"Rationality is the recognition of the fact that  existence  exists,  that
 nothing can alter the truth, and nothing can take precedence over the act
 of perceiving  it, which is thinking -- that the mind is one's only judge
 of values and one's only guide to action -- that reason  is  an  absolute
 that  permits no  compromise  -- that a  concession  to  the   irrational
 invalidates one's consciousness and turns it from the task of  perceiving
 to the task of faking reality -- that any alleged short-cut to knowledge,
 which is faith, is only a short-circuit  destroying  the mind -- that the
 acceptance  of a mystical  invention  is a wish for the  annihilation  of
 existence and, properly, annhilates one's consciousness."

Objectivism and mysticism are diametrically  opposed by the very  premises
on which they are  founded.   The choice is simple.   Are you going to let
your mind be the judge of your  values, and reason be the  guide  to  your
actions?   Are will you blank out -- letting your feelings substitute  for
knowledge -- letting  your fear of the unknown  destroy  your  capacity to
know -- letting any mystic who claims he "feels" the  presence of God  and
spirits  destroy  your  ability to  distinguish  the real from the unreal,
truth from fantasy,  entity from zero?   Give the  steering  wheel of your
mind to any mystic and this is where he will take you.

Michael Bishop
hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b