Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 22:29:20 -0500
Subject: PKF: New Member Introduction
From: robasso2-AT-juno.com (Robert Basso)


Greetings all.  I just signed on to the Feyerabend list today.  

I'll likely be primarily listening in to your discussions about Mr.
Feyerabend and his maverick iconoclastic philosophical views, which I
share to a great extent.  I have very strong views about religion and
science and have written two novels (still unpublished) on the subject. 
I consider myself a writer and novelist (as well as philosopher), albeit
a struggling one.

As far as my political views go, I'm a social conservative and economic
liberal, but in a supra-nationalist sense.  I don't believe in big
government, nor in no government; I believe in creative government.  But
that's a long story.  

As far as my philosophy of science, I'm strongly anti-Darwin,
anti-rationalist, and anti-secular-humanist.   I don't see any real
epistemological and ideological difference between evolutionary fact
(sic) and creationism in that both are presumptive metaphysical articles
of faith.  The rhetoric and polemics of scientific rationalism has an
Orwellian odor and solely about social power and control with the concept
of democracy being inverted and perverted.

The Deweyian notion that democracy is the best means of assuring free
inquiry is a big romantic lie.  It can only work in a small Athenian-like
state where all the citizens were gentleman-slaveholders and property
owners with no excessive commercial interests beyond securing the means
of scholarly leisure, thereby all equals.  To idealistically extrapolate
such democracy into a Leviathan like the U.S. in its prime effectively
makes inquiry Platonically elitist.  As the Secular Humanists have
proven, there's only one way of reasoned inquiry and that's by the
scientific method, and there's only one scientific method grounded in
hardcore materialism; anything else being a threat to democracy, i.e. to
their polemical mind-control.  

To be honest, I have never read anything by Mr. Feyerabend, although I
have read some about him or stumbled on to his ideas in the midst of
bulletin board debates in the past, pleasantly surprised we shared some
of the same feelings and iconoclasms about modern rationalism and
Science, and their ominous ultimate historical direction and
implications.  Any recommendations on where to begin reading the great
man would be much appreciated.

As far as my religious beliefs go I'm a non-sectarian Christian who
doesn't believe in Catholic doctrine but nonetheless gets nostalgic about
Roman Catholicism at the height of its medieval glory before a run amuck
Inquisition during the Renaissance turned the glory into shame. 
Naturally my favorite (20th century) poet is T.S. Eliot.  I've written
some of my own poetry.

At 44 I'm thinking about going to undergraduate school for a PhD in
philosophy, specializing in philosophy of science and history.  In my
novel THE JESUS ZYGOTE (forgive the shameless self-plugging and please
don't consider this spam) I explore these issues thru the characters of a
polymathic Adventist pastor, his pioneering genetic engineer
father-in-law, and the protagonist, a high-school biology teacher who
decides to combine genetics and nuclear physics in the lab.  The only
college degree I have is a BBA in accounting from Temple University in
Philadelphia.  I turned to philosophy and history after a failed career.

My other novel is called GOD STRIKES BACK; 2-3 times longer than Zygote
which would probably be 250-300 book pages long.  Don't let the title
scare.  It's basically a satirical attack on Secular Humanism and other
modern forms of statist, inquisitional, or reason-control atheism.  It
was begun (tho it's still not completed) before Zygote.  It's written
trilogy-like in 3 separate installments of about 70-75,000 words each. 
Back at the end of 1994 now bankrupt subsidy publisher Northwest
Publishing tried to woo me into publishing part one for a fee after I
submitted it to them, but I wisely refrained from going that route--even
tho I didn't have the five grand to fork over to them.

Although the Bible is my book, I'm not a fundamentalist or bible-thumper.
 I believe the Bible has valuable lessons and streams of thought in it
that can actually aid a scientist in a process of discovery through a
falsification mode.  The trick lies in not trying to discredit the Bible
but taking a Galilean tack and assuming the Bible is not in error or at
odds with reason but needs a scientific explanation or method.  One way
this is done is the central issue and theme of THE JESUS ZYGOTE,
regarding the myth (sic) of Jesus' divine birth.

Robert Basso.

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