Chris Gartner: To me, identifying as a primate is absolutely no different than identifying as an eternal soul. Both are still identities, and “cherished opinions”. Freedom is surely freedom from identity (as anything at all) I’d add that if one embraces the “not knowing” of Zen, then clinging to an identity isn’t not-knowing. Not knowing means not knowing. There are certainly many in the spiritual scene who deny our ordinary humanity. (I’m not one of them) We simply don’t know if we are eternal souls. Poo-pooing souls can only be an opinion. Regardless of people clinging to the notion of souls for comfort, we really don’t know they don’t exist. It’s not “fact” that there is no soul. We also simply don’t know we are merely soul-less primates. That’s not a “fact” either. All the so-called scientific, and biological “proof” we point to could all be in a dream for all we know.
>>>Chris Gartner: To me, identifying as a primate is absolutely no different than identifying as an eternal soul<<< Not just false equivalent, but patently absurd. Although identification with anything whatsoever is unwise, accepting being a human primate with a limited lifespan (I prefer the more elegant and scientific description of "me* as "A sack of occasionally quasi-conscious bacteria with a limited lifespan") is provable beyond a quasi-reasonable doubt, identifying as an eternal soul without providing some objective evidence is UFN (Utter Fucking Nonsense)
The Nuclear Option
>>>Chris Gartner: To me, identifying as a primate is absolutely no different than identifying as an eternal soul<<< Not just false equivalent, but patently absurd. Although identification with anything whatsoever is unwise, accepting being a human primate with a limited lifespan (I prefer the more elegant and scientific description of "me* as "A sack of occasionally quasi-conscious bacteria with a limited lifespan") is provable beyond a quasi-reasonable doubt, identifying as an eternal soul without providing some objective evidence is UFN (Utter Fucking Nonsense)