We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred? — Dawkins
So...am I over-thinking this? Is it just a metaphor that went over the edge? Or does it suggest that Dawkins in spite of himself believes in an invisible spirit-world? — mcdoodle
.Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomèd mine—
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
There are no such unborn ghosts. — mcdoodle
you and I, — Dawkins
The tender-person'd Lamia
But Dawkins is quite hot on misleading analogies that are not to be taken literally, but which he takes literally. The selfish gene for instance. — unenlightened
The paradox between sense & reason is the rub, which I think prevails in the poem. — Cavacava
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. — Dawkins
We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. — Dawkins
We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred? — Dawkins
The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains — Dawkins
I guess that depends on the depth of one's self-identity. If you identify only as a specific individual then I agree that it's absurd, but if your identity encompasses wider aspects of reality then your existence is incredibly profound. I try to understand myself ultimately in terms of subjective awareness within a biological-psychological-social construct and so I'm not just this specific person at this particular time, I'm all subjective awareness in existence everywhere at all times. And it's not like a new agey "we're all one" woo fest either, it's not that we're all psychically connected to each other or we're part of a cosmic mind or anything, it's just that once you strip off culture, gender, race, and biology the only thing that remains is first person awareness. Conscious awareness is analogous to the electron, all electrons are identical, every electron has the same exact size mass and charge, they are all effectively the same electron. From that perspective my individual personal existence is only meaningful or important insofar as serves to aid in the expansion and liberation of conscious awareness itself from all arbitrary constraints and limitations which are the essence of the absurd. We can work towards that liberation on many levels - personal enlightenment, community service, political activism, etc. and the more liberation we achieve the less absurd our lives become.That we only live such a short time is aburdity — Marchesk
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