Sunday, August 17, 2008

A Quote about Life

Here's a great quote from L. Ron Hubbard's book A New Slant on Life:


"Life is an interdependent, cooperative effort. Each and every living organism has a part to play in the survival of other organisms."


That quote effects me more than ever this week, because not only have I gone to two weddings this month (so far), but I adopted a puppy. Each living organism that these actions involved made me supremely happy. In fact, I've started to lose weight (yay!) and get more exercise because of one of these organisms (the puppy) and actually got to dance with my boyfriend because of the other organisms (the people at my friend's weddings). So, thank goodness for other people, for plants and animals! Without the variety we cultivate, this world would be very boring and (in my humble opinion) no one would survive well.

Anyone want to add anything to this? Does anyone else have a real life example of other organisms aiding their survival?

6 comments:

Aligote said...

I'm not sure the root of that idea can be traced to LRH (maybe more like Darwin?), but I'm glad you had a great week! What kind of puppy did you get?

Aligote said...

Whoops, sorry for double posting but I was just wondering what Scientology's stance on evolution was. I thought of it when thinking about Darwin. Thanks!

Julia said...

Well, L. Ron Hubbard was an engineer, and has studied the physical sciences and the humanities, so while the quote is from him, he may have formed the idea from studying other scientists (like Darwin) and/or other cultures. I'm pretty sure the idea probably goes farther back then even Darwin though - American Indians had this idea and I'm sure previous cultures did too.

My puppy is part Bichon Frise, part Terrier and part long haired Chihuahua. Very small and very cute. And - fortunately - very quiet. He's perfect for my apartment. :)

Thanks for your questions - I know you have more and I'll try to answer them over the weekend.

Aligote said...

Oooh sounds cute! Oh and so handy that he's quiet. That's the terrible thing about small dogs, so yappy!
Darwin popped into my head, but mostly I was thinking in general about biologists. The thing for me is, if LRH has just paraphrased this into his own words (like reading a synopsis of a book instead of reading the book), why not go to the source and read about it there? The "unadulterated version" if you will.
Were you raised a Scientologist or have you just gotten into it recently?

Julia said...

He is super cute.

Honestly, I recommend reading the chapter in the book and making up your own mind. It's the chapter called "On Our Efforts for Immortality". From what I gather in the chapter, L. Ron Hubbard discusses ideas from nuclear physics, situations that have occured in past societies and parts out of Dianetics.
I hope that helps.

I was raised a Scientologist.

Julia said...

Evolution is talked about a lot in the book Dianetics, the Original Thesis. You kinda have to read them in context, but the basic stance from what I can tell is that natural selection and evolution are considered accurate theories.