Tony Atkinson
1 min readApr 5, 2024

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Again and again, it all depends on the assumptions - and they must be assumptions - you start from. allied with a fear of admitting that there are som things that humans will never be able to understand or explain.

All phenomena are natural.

We can perceive only a certain amount of phenomena.

We can conceptualise phenomena we do not perceive, but only in terms of variations on or extrapolations of what we already know. This is caled 'imagination' and is the root of both invention and so-called 'spirituality'.

The faculty of imagination is what distinguishes our intelligence from that of other life-forms on this planet. Our entire evolution as humans depends upon this faculty, along wth the mechanical dexterity which allows us to make what we imagine into a physical or mental artefact.

Science and philosophy are mental tools we use to examine phenomena and find ways to make them useful to us.

Unperceived phenomena will occasionally produce perceived effects, since both are part of nature, but because we perceive only the result, we tend to imagine the cause - this then becomes the supernatural.

Once we accept that there are many parts of the totality of nature that we can either perceive nor accurately conceptualise, we can redirect our energies into achieving things which are useful, beneficial and that make us happy!

That said, arguing about all this stuff makes some people happy! (mea culpa).

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Tony Atkinson
Tony Atkinson

Written by Tony Atkinson

Snapper-up of unconsidered trifles, walker of paths less travelled by. Writer of fanfiction. Player of games. argonaut57@gmail.com

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