To all atheist

[Egoist]

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try visit this blog The Stranger: Ayn Rand ( Man as the Absolute Good over) I am not an atheist but i just want your comment about the article

[bluedes]

Therefore a mystic person in the end does not value self-preservation but values his own destruction.

Really now? I believe the author of that article is already biased against Ayn Rand, so why attempt to write an objective article in the first place? Or am I mistaken to assume that this is an objective article?

Anyway, that conclusion is most probably his, because I have not read or heard of Ayn Rand making such conclusions. Its not a valid conclusion. In Logic, its a false extension of the prior implication. Its like having this very simple statement:

All pigs can fly,
all birds can fly too,
therefore birds are pigs?

In details, he posits it like this:

Mysticism is a way to acquire "knowledge" about God beyond reason.
Mysticism is a denial of reason as a means of acquiring "knowledge", but not as a basic tool for survival. Did mysticism deny reason as a basic tool for survival?
And the author then proceeds with a conclusion that mysticism denies the basic tool for survival and mystics are just after their own destruction?? it's his own faulty logic at work..

what the author forgets is that before you can get to the level of mysticism, you have to understand reason first and why it is not used to acquire "knowledge" about God. A person who is foolish and denies reason without comprehending what reason is all about is not a mystic at all but just a plain foolish person.

Mysticism does not deny the basic necessities of this world, which is to survive. Even mystics still need to survive. But it does not acknowledge reason as a vehicle to acquiring "knowledge" about God. Reason is used for survival only.. and mystics seek "knowledge" about God, so therefore, they cannot use reason in this matter.

Personally, I think the author misunderstands the Virtue of Selfishness of Ayn Rand. He twists it rather very negatively..

[Sinyalan]

I think the author misunderstood the meaning of individualism.

Basically, it's an opinion against Ayn Rand. Some people will do just that thing in order to dismiss individualism.

[brownprose]

The blog is partly correct but also misses the point at the same time. While Rand detested the idea of mysticism as anti-thetical to reason she didn't want that right (the right to believe in mysticism) to be denied either -- the virtue of selfishness (a position she strongly adhered) must ought to serve what is in the person's best self-interest. Thus, the statement in the blog: "Therefore a mystic person in the end does not value self-preservation but values his own destruction" is not entirely correct.

On the account or observation of Rand's position as to the primacy of self-interest, the blog is correct. Rand believes that man's highest duty is to serve himself hence, "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

[Egoist]

Thank you for the comments but ironically there seems to be an opposite interpretation of the blog.

[regnauld]

I love Ayn Rand, the mentor of Dr. Nathaniel Branden, the father of The Psychology of Self Esteem!

[grovestreet]

you should watch ayn rand's interview with mike wallace... it's a very educational video. it would also clear some of the misconceptions of her philosophy.

YouTube - Ayn Rand Mike Wallace Interview 1959 part 1

[regnauld]

Sounds like to all the girls I loved before I mean to ALL THE ATHEISTS!

[The_Child]

actually sakto ang blog if the criteria is Rand's philosophical system. Rand detested mysticism, in all its forms. so before you guys, criticize the author's thought on rand, i think you should read Rand first, i mean read it, not just the excerpts.

[The_Child]

I love Ayn Rand, the mentor of Dr. Nathaniel Branden, the father of The Psychology of Self Esteem!

yes he was and rand considered him as his intellectual heir. not only that, they were two consenting lovers, until Branden left Rand and the latter excommunicated the former from their circle which they fondly call "the collective" Rand after dismissing nathaniel branden, named Leonard Peikoff, her intellectual heir.

Rand.