Re: virus: Convictions

Marie Foster (mfos@ieway.com)
Sat, 25 Oct 1997 07:51:44 -0700


David McFadzean wrote:
>
> At 09:19 AM 10/24/97 -0700, Marie Foster wrote:
>
> >OK... but it creates heros as well??? Mother Theresa comes to mind.
> >While I did not agree with some of her stances, I certainly admired her
> >conviction and her dedication to her ideals.
>
> Is it possible to be heroic while still being open to the possibility
> that you're wrong? Skepticism doesn't necessarily paralyze one in
> indecision. Some beliefs have so much evidence in favour and so
> little against that they are almost convictions for all intents
> and purposes. I don't see anything wrong with that, so long as you
> don't take that final step into infallibility.
>
> --
> David McFadzean david@lucifer.com
> Memetic Engineer http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
> Church of Virus http://www.lucifer.com/virus/

David. That is a very good point. I do not think it possible to ever
eliminate doubt for example despite one's *faith*. I have wondered how
Mother Theresa could manage to mentally balance her church's stance on
basic issues of family planning and the poverty she tried to help for
example. From my perspective (I am not Catholic) you may be right that
her belief in the infallibility of the pope was what allowed her to
continue. I wonder if memetics could have resolved the conflict? I
also wonder if her sex did not bring with it advantages and
disadvantages that allowed her to survive? I have only read a few
things she actually wrote. All of this post is a mental game after
all. I still admire her greatly and feel that on a life success
measure, she did that.

BTW... my measure of success as a human being. You can quote me on
this, but if I copped it from someone else, please correct.

When I die I hope I will have contributed more to this world than I have
taken from it and that is success.

Marie