An unfortunately fitting epitaph for noble humanity your post. So very modern.
Not so very modern, Faith. This battle between reason and superstition has been fought for millenia, wherever some men want to seek the truth and others want to snuff it out.
The nobility of humanity, if it lies anywhere, lies in this honest attempt to face the truth even when it's uncomfortable to do so. To avert your eyes, to persuade yourself to believe in something just to give yourself a sense of meaning is at best irresponsible, at worst selfish and ignoble.
This notion of mine seems very old-fashioned to me. The more modern position is quite different and has different forms, depending on which side of the political fence you lie:
1. On the right there is a tendency, one fashionable I believe in neo-conservative circles, to rubbish this noble quest, to argue that uncomfortable truths should be swept under the carpet and people fed with useful lies;
2. On the left, there is a tendency to argue that there is no truth to quest after at all, that all judgements, even in science, are relative or subjective.
I hope you don't mistake my old-fashioned argument for either of these modern ones!
This message has been edited by JavaMan, 02-06-2006 12:20 PM
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible