[extropy-chat] Re: John Wright Finds God

Nicholas Anthony MacDonald namacdon at ole.augie.edu
Fri Dec 10 15:26:06 UTC 2004


"Nicholas Anthony MacDonald says, in reply to Mr. Albright: 
> Except Robert Wright's search for "ultimate meaning" is of a very different 
character than John Wright.  Robert Wright is engaged in a philosophical 
"search", while John just happened to have a near death experience and decide 
that Jesus was to blame.

 Well, this sentiment is accurate (my conversion was not the product of 
philosophical rumination) but the characterization is slightly inaccurate. Mr. 
McDonald is not to blame for assuming I had a near death experience and 
"decided Jesus was to blame", since my description to Greg West about the event
 was rather coy."


Pardon my assumption.  I'd more or less been trying to defend Robert Wright from what I thought was an unjustified attack, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions (though I certainly did), it just seemed like the most natural explanation (given the circumstances).

"You must forgive me for being close-mouthed about the details when speaking to
 strangers. It is my own inadequacy that stills my pen. An event beyond human 
understanding cannot be described in human words to those who have no referent 
experiences, no frame, in which to understand it. If you wonder how I, as a 
human, could have witnessed an event beyond human understanding, I can only hint
 that we humans are not what we think we are. The truth of the matter is far
more  glorious than we suspect."

Something I frequently ponder as well, I just wonder about, to borrow a term from Ken Wilber, the "unpacking" of such events in a religious context.  I had a similiar experience (though probably not as shocking to my system) five years ago that caused a similiar realignment of my perceptions, which I've been unable to integrate into any orthodox religious context... but if such an understanding works in your case, good for you.

-Nicholas MacDonald




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