Rorschach - Take 3

Version 2 of the Rorschach after considered feedback from many commenters over at Facebook.

The feedback came from a wide variety of people, both religious and non. I quite like the idea of this metaphor, and if it isn't yet, I'm sure it will become something useful. One day.




Rorschach Version 2

Imagine the Rorschach Test represents the collective sum of human knowledge. In this ink blot is everything we know about the universe we live in. It is up to the individual who looks into it to find patterns and meaning.

A Christian looks into and sees god, and his son, and a holy spirit.

A Muslim sees Allah, which is the same thing as god.

Pantheists and Environmentalists see Everything That Is, and Gaia, and undeniable order.

Scientologists see the disembodied spirit of L. Ron Hubbard, and the everlasting galactic signature of Evil Lord Xenu.

On it goes - any given religion will find a different pattern, a different meaning, a different something from the blot.


It seems to be left to the skeptics - the atheists, the anti-theists, the non-believers - to recognise this pattern seeking behaviour, to call a Rorschach a Rorschach, and to wonder whether finding patterns in the ink blot is worthwhile. Objectively, the blot is indifferent to the patterns we find and it is important to us that we understand this. Not so that we may stare hopelessly into it and despair at the meaninglessness, but so that we might stop staring altogether, stop trying to find more and more reasons to justify the patterns we have already created, and ask ourselves why we are even looking at the Rorschach in the first place.

The Rorschach Test - Continued

Back to the Rorschach...

'The Rorschach Test' went live on facebook and recieved a fair amount of feedback. See the previous post to this one to get an idea of what I'm talking about. It's a metaphor, yeah. But nobody bothers coming up with a decent extended metaphor these days, and so damned if I'm going to let go of this one until it's been proven to me that it's ineffective or wrong!


This was a little analogy I came up with in my spare time, I must admit - but so far it's holding up. Of the facebook comments, the most prominent one was along these lines:

Isn't the point of a Rorschach test to use your personal experience to find meaning, and therefore know yourself better? Detaching from the experience and calling it nothing but an inkblot is not fulfilling.

Knowing yourself better is indeed more or less the point of a Rorschach, but what one finds in it is a reflection of one's own psychology. It speaks nothing to the objective truth of the matter. We may see a butterfly, or two people having tea -but there really is only an inkblot.

This is not to say it's meaningless. Someone like myself sees the same thing as everyone else - we can see god, we can see lamas and the memory of water or what have you - but we don't stop at any one of those as the truth. It's important to us to realise that it is, essentially, a blot of ink. Not so that we can stare glumly into it and despair at the nothingness, but so that we may STOP staring altogether and look elsewhere, concentrate on more important things, and find meaning in reality.



Elusive Pantheism...

I have been meaning to get back to the topic of Pantheism for days now, and I owe a big apology to Mastermystery for delaying. It is coming, I promise, but the comments left by my guest deserve nothing if not my complete attention and effort after the detail he put into his response. My work is already cut out for me. So watch this space...

The Rorschach Test.

Very quickly because it's 12:50am on Sunday.

I've been thinking of it like this.

The universe is basically one big Rorschach Test - a giant inkblot that people may read into any meaning they wish. Christians find god and a holy spirit, Muslims find allah (the same thing), Deists find an incredible and uncoincidental order and beauty to everything. Pick any faith and you'll find a brand new* interpretation of this giant inkblot.

 

Pictured: The Universe

It seems to me that an Atheist is the only one who sits back and says, "You know we're looking at a Rorschach Test, right?"



*By 'band new', I actually mean 'contrived from those that came nearly immediately before it'.