World-Swap
Once upon a time, a Technocrat and a Theocrat compared notes. The Technocrat
said, “My values are reason, order, efficiency, and control. My methods are
mechanistic, and my central concern is evolving humankind. I am a rationalist.”
The
Theocrat said, “My values are centered on God, the creator and designer of
Heaven and Earth, infinite in power, mystery, glory, and wisdom. I am a mystic.”
An Artist
said to the Theocrat, “You say the world is
intelligently designed, yet fundamentalism itself evolves along Darwinian
lines, with random variation and natural selection. Religions choose their
beliefs at random, and those with the fittest beliefs survive.”
The
Technocrat chimed in, “This can be seen in the capricious irrationality of
fundamentalist doctrine and practice, combined with the unexpected practicality
of those irrational doctrines and practices.”
The
Artist said to the Technocrat, “Whereas science posits that the world evolves
along Darwinian lines, with random variation and natural selection; yet science
is intelligently designed!”
The
Theocrat said, “Putatively.”
The
Artist said to the Technocrat, “Now consider your world. By your own account, you
live in a vast, mysterious, powerful, beautiful, terrible and wonderful cosmos
that dwarfs all human endeavor.”
The
Theocrat said, “Your cosmos is mystical!”
Then
the Artist said to the Theocrat, “And your cosmos is tight, little, well-mapped,
and human-centered.”
The
Technocrat said, “Your cosmos is rationalistic!”
The
Artist said, “It is as if you have created each other’s worlds!”
Moral: Minds mate whenever they meet.
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