Re: there is no point here, only zuel!
Good stuff in here.
A few points:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" I think is the quote that keeps popping up in my head.
And really, when it boils down to it, magic and technology are simply expressions of human will on the world and in nature. The difference is quite simply that one follows one truth, reality or mindset...the other has a different one. "Truth" for a magic user is finding symbolic connections. "Truth" for a scientist is "proving" a logical natural series of connections and interactions. The key, the link, and the genesis of both, however, is imagination. Human thought. Desire.
When you sit down and begin to think: "Why would one wish to form a hypothesis based on that observation" or "why do these things happen together/in sequence in nature?" you can start to see that it is the search for truth that is so fundamental and important to our lives, our souls and our survival, regardless of the method used to seek it.
Truth is important, even to those you might not believe seek it out. Truth means you know something. You understand the things that are scary and the things in the darkness that you think (truthfully or not) that can hurt you. Truth is power. Truth is salvation. Religions, Science, Societies, Teachers and anyone trying to sell you something will tell you that they know the truth, if only because it's such a powerful, atomic building block of human need, and it is relatively easy to pretend to have the truth to those who wish to have it, but not seek it out.
This is why I believe in God, and subsequently the connections God needs to make to Humanity. This is why I respect other faiths and science and religions that at first glance turn my beliefs topsy turvy: Because those who are actively searching for Truth are fulfilling a great need in themselves and others, even if I don't see it myself in their search. I believe that we are
made to have this hunger, this need and this ability to seek out the Truth, and we are given a double-edged sword with the free will and imagination to question even absolute truth and so-called "obvious answers."
Going into the idea of lies and the endless web of bullshit out there, you have to wonder just how many of the lies out there are simply people telling themselves they have the truth and can stop looking?
"Global Warming doesn't exist, I'm not doing anything wrong by driving my car."
"Voting doesn't matter, the polls are already decided by the time it gets to me"
"Smoking doesn't hurt me, that's just the health nuts freaking out."
"Of course the earth is flat, look at outside, you can see for miles!"
"Those priests were set up! Holy men would never think of sexual deviancy!"
"The Jews are to blame for the state of my homeland!"
"Man will never learn to fly! Otherwise God would have given us wings!"
Somewhere, each and every one of those phrases is, was, or will be said by someone believing it to be the 100% unchallengeable, unassailable Truth. Each can be proven easily by a narrow band of logical reasoning. Each can be argued against so-called modern thought and 'common sense'. And those who believe they have found the Truth...well...they'll fight tooth and nail to keep it.
Truth is easy to manipulate, universally accessible, and more potent than anything else we know. Nirvana? Enlightenment? All methods to the Truth. God's Word has been labelled The Truth, and thus Truth has also been associated with Light, Warmth, Understanding, Love...and the list goes on and on.
So why is it that when we all have this unquenchable need for it, the curiosity and imagination to hunt for it, and the universal desire to have, hold and protect it...do we all succumb to so many things that aren't Truth?
Well, if you ever needed a sure-fire metaphor why Sin distances you from God; why lies trap and ensnare you; why physical and worldly attachments drag you away from enlightenment, you have it. Lies and Truth can't mix. Simple as that. And worse...all the examples in the Bible, in the Scientific Method, and in colleges of thought across the world since time antiquity warn you:
Lies are not always easy to discover. They're just as tasty as the Truth if you believe them to be the Truth. I can't believe it's not Enlightenment! The same taste as regular Truth, with only 300mg of Transfat per ounce! You'll never even know the difference...
unless you keep looking, and you have to do it before the lies kill you.
No wonder we need divine providence just to get by.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. —John 8:32