Umm, why don't you say something about the content of the post, rather than something irrelevant about the author.....I think Watts makes a valid argument about paradigm here.

No, the comment is much larger than that-
"You cannot escape, in all matter of belief, from opinion. In other words, it must become clear to you that you yourself create all the authorities you accept."

This includes books and deities as well as churches.

"God is the Self of the world, but you can'st see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can'st see your own eyes, and you certainly can'st bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding"

"If you don’t know that there is a higher self and you believe that there is one, on who’s authority do you believe this? You say well such and such a teacher – Buddha, Jesus, or whomever said that we have a higher self. And I believe it. Catholics sometimes say they believe their religion because they are told to, and they have to be obedient. The Baltimore catechism starts out – we are bound to believe that there is but one god, father almighty – creator of the heaven and earth etc. And they make jokes about the Protestants and say they don’t have real authority in the protestant church because everybody interprets the bible according to his own opinion. But we have an authoritative interpretation of the bible.

However this always screens out the fact that, it is fundamentally a matter of your own opinion that you accept the authority of the church to interpret the bible. You cannot escape, in all matter of belief, from opinion. In other words, it must become clear to you that you yourself create all the authorities you accept. And if you create them, in order to dissimulate, in order to pretend that your motivations and your character are different, that you would like them to be different, this is the same old principle of the separate self trying to improve itself so that it will live longer or survive in the spiritual world, or attain the riches and progress of enlightenment,and the whole thing is phony."



Alan Watts

i find it understandable for anyone to be offended by mockery, especially if it's deeply important, to them or otherwise. People think breaking an addiction is hard for the better, but actual change for the better is easy as it should be. it's hard to change for the worse because you have to lie to yourself. Sure other people might be satisfied, but really, who says they deserve the choices you make more than you.

science and religion should be able to get a long. in one main aspect. isaac asimov coined the phrase: There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

religion, i think, should be able to be seen the same way. Mainly because it's mostly based on having a conscience.

we all have that same conscience. it's confusing because it's emotional, rather than mental like most people seem to believe. Mentality corrupts the conscience, albeit it can be beautiful and make us unique individuals to a certain extent. But it can also make the human race as a whole seem like an individual organism of benefit to no one or any thing but its own selfish destruction.

i find it understandable for anyone to be offended by mockery, especially if it's deeply important, to them or otherwise.

People think breaking an addiction is hard for the better, but actual change for the better is easy as it should be. it's hard to change for the worse because you have to lie to yourself. Sure other people might be satisfied, but really, who says they deserve the choices you make more than you.

science and religion should be able to get a long. in one main aspect. isaac asimov coined the phrase: There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

religion, i think, should be able to be seen the same way. Mainly because it's mostly based on having a conscience.

we all have that same conscience.

it's confusing because it's emotional, rather than mental like most people seem to believe. Mentality corrupts the conscience, albeit it can be beautiful and make us unique individuals to a certain extent. But it can also make the human race as a whole seem like an individual organism of benefit to no one or any thing but its own selfish destruction.

The confusion is really from having garbage fed into the mind by the common superstitious ignoramus religious fanatic. Young minds can't fend this off and this sort of brainwashing is a form of child abuse that lasts a lifetime.

Belief is more than just opinion and yes by the exercise of our freewill we choose to believe what we believe/accept. So, I fail to see the point above you are trying to make. Please elaborate.

Asanb, it is hard to love the very vague God that you believe in.