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Replying to boatsnguitars in post #15]
Yes and No, I think it's a debate for philosophy to have, and each philosopher will take it to their grave with no answer:
That would depend upon what their individual philosophies were preceding and up to the time of death.
Perfect: "Indeed, for a given thing, being perfect is nothing but being all that it can be, and achieving the fullness of its essence, being in act all that it can be in potentiality. So it is an ontological determination, not an axiological one. In other words, something is perfect when its reality corresponds to its concept."
Yes. This applies to all conceptions, whether real, made real or conceptionally possible (in line with what is real/reality/the universe).
Jet engines are perfect, otherwise they would not be able to do what they are designed to do.
Sure, there may be a theoretical "perfect me" - but I've lived a few decades and missed out on a few things that would have been needed to fulfill this perfection. For example, I have a chipped tooth.
This is where philosophies part company. Materialist philosophy has it that they (and everyone) is only the body-form, so one simply cannot be perfect because one has a club foot, or chipped tooth or homosexual tendencies et al...although that last is more akin to some supernaturalist philosophies, I thought to include it to underline the similarities in said philosophies.
However, I see no reason as to why a broken tooth should prevent me from at least attempting to being a perfect consciousness, since what do such things have to do with that?
But, one could argue that despite my scars, emotional and physical, I could still be the best person I could be - but what is that? Does that mean I work out every day and maintain a perfect fat content so I can live to 130 - only to die in a car accident next week; never having read all the Classics, or have gone to Iceland?
Not re the philosophy I follow. It is different for supernaturalists and materialists, I grant you that.
Perfect me would sail around the world, but if I can't or don't do that, is perfection really obtainable?
Yes, I imagine so.
Do you think that if you cannot obtain perfect experience you cannot yourself be perfect?
What if your perfect self simply accepted the limitations of personal circumstance and did not allow that to dictate the terms and conditions?
So what? You cannot experience some perfect situation which would inch you that much closer to being the perfect you, therefore you are doomed to be imperfect - at least according to the rule you follow.
Not all things are possible. Perfection seems to be entirely elusive, since even if you became perfect one day, then what? Do you not do anything else - simply wasting any ability to grow?
Perhaps therein, is the key to the puzzle.
Does The Father stop growing before The Father is perfect? Perhaps Jesus was eluding to that principle?
And if The Father is as the supernaturalists claim, perhaps their philosophy is no more useful to that end than is your own?
In fact, doesn't that make God a rather pathetic character? He's perfect - with no room for growth. He can do all things, but created the Universe, Life, and then just sat on the sofa and wasted his talent.
Even given that situation, it appears to me that the God is at least being entertained with the stories developing within the main storyline.
A bit like watching T.V., or - following my own philosophy - like being immersed in a perfect virtual reality.
I think we need to acknowledge that perfection in the philosophical description is limited and really can't capture what perfection would actually be in the real world.
Save that for the meeting of materialists, since it mostly applies to that line of thinking (philosophy) and better suits that type of personality.
Compromise seems to be the true perfect state, which seems contradictory. Or maybe not. I'll let other use their finite time on wondering about these things. Navel gazing.
I can vouch for the practices "navel-gazing" denotes and will continue using said practices for my enlightenment, all the while assuming such will come in handy once I "take my answers to the grave with me" having a personality I can present thereafter, as at least making the effort to continuing in the developing of the "perfect" me.
aka
I have "finite time" - I will use it as I see fit to do so.
Meantime, this altogether hasn't proved to hurt my overall experience as a "human" or my overall relationship with others...
I'm going to have a glass of wine, whether it's something "Perfect Me" would do or not.
Jesus liked wine too...
...How Bizarre...
