New Year's Eve

The past was sad , and the future looks dark and gloomy.

Absinthe

“After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that’s the most horrible thing in the world.”

Oscar Wilde. [ Absinthe ]

It’s God or Darwin

Tuesday's ruling by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, disparaging intelligent design as a religion-based and therefore false science, raises an important question: If ID is bogus because many of its theorists have religious beliefs to which the controversial critique of Darwinism lends support, then what should we say about Darwinism itself? After all, many proponents of Darwinian evolution have philosophical beliefs to which Darwin lends support.

"We conclude that the religious nature of Intelligent Design would be readily apparent to an objective observer, adult or child," wrote Judge John E. Jones III in his decision, Kitzmiller v. Dover, which rules that disparaging Darwin's theory in biology class is unconstitutional. Is it really true that only Darwinism, in contrast to ID, represents a disinterested search for the truth, unmotivated by ideology?

Judge Jones was especially impressed by the testimony of philosophy professor Barbara Forrest of Southeastern Louisiana University, author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Professor Forrest has definite beliefs about religion, evident from the fact that she serves on the board of directors of the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association, which is "an affiliate of American Atheists, and [a] member of the Atheist Alliance International," according to the group's website. Of course, she's entitled to believe what she likes, but it's worth noting...more here

Do You Love Me?

A lover asked his beloved,
Do you love yourself more
than you love me?



The beloved replied,
I have died to myself
and I live for you.



I’ve disappeared from myself
and my attributes.
I am present only for you.



I have forgotten all my learning,
but from knowing you
I have become a scholar.



I have lost all my strength,
but from your power
I am able.



If I love myself
I love you.
If I love you
I love myself.

by Rumi

Looking In The Wrong Place.

He who quotes others lacks the ability to think for himself.
That is an apt and fair description of me and my blog. I have no original thoughts. This blog is a commonplace book in which I write down quotations that struck my fancy. Anyone who looks for more here is looking in the wrong place.I enjoy reading authors who quote a lot, such as Montaigne and Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy.

The devil may not be as bad as he’s been painted

Of course few of us accept the literal truth of hell and, according to the survey conducted by Dr Eric Stoddart of St Andrews University, the majority of ministers feel the same way, although a third take refuge in the belief that the netherworld has taken on a new and appropriately modern image in which the agony of separation from God manifests itself as permanent mental anguish as opposed to corporeal pain...more here

The Problem with God

Interview with Richard Dawkins

The renowned biologist talks about intelligent design, dishonest Christians, and why God is no better than an imaginary friend...more here

Questions of faith

What can anyone tell us about God?" asks Sir Ludovic Kennedy, perhaps Britain's most distinguished atheist. "Nothing. The Church says God is Love but that is pure speculation. Jesus is the son of God? To me that's absolutely meaningless. God is a projection of the human imagination, a fictitious character who does not exist."...more here

An interview with Don Wise, creator of "incompetent design"

Don Wise, professor emeritus of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is the nation's foremost proponent of ID. No, Wise isn't getting ready to testify on behalf of the school board in Dover, PA. Rather, he advocates for a different version of the acronym: "incompetent design."

Wise cites serious flaws in the systems of the human body as evidence that design in the universe exhibits not an obvious source of, but a sore lack of, intelligence. Seed asked him to chat about his theory, reactions he's received to it, and the anthem he penned to rally people to his cause...more here

Intelligent Design or Natural Design

I'm going to begin by taking you on a personal tour of my own thinking about intelligent design over the past 60 years.

It began in 1945 when I was a 14 year old at Mt Albert Grammar. Our Fourth Form English teacher decided we should learn the skills of debating. The topic chosen was "Creation versus Evolution". And I, as an ardent young Baptist, volunteered, along with a Seventh Day Adventist, to take up the cudgels on behalf of Creation.

But even before the debate began, I found myself cast in the role of devil's advocate.

While preparing, it dawned on me that the case against evolution foundered on an ambiguity between two meanings of the simple word "creation": the concept of general creation, and the concept of special creation.

To believe in the theological doctrine of general creation is merely to believe in a God who created the universe. Clearly, I could, without inconsistency, believe in general creation and also believe in the Theory of Evolution. I simply had to regard Darwinian natural selection as one of the laws of nature that God built into his creation...more here

My Refuge

Sadness and languor along the oak tables
Steady the minds of the sitters and readers;
Sleep and despair, and the stealth of hunters,
And (in the man at the end of the row) anger.

Books are the door of escape from the forest,
Books are the wilderness, too, for the scholar;
Walled in the past, drowning in fables,
Out of the weather we sit, steady in languor.

Which are the ones that belong, properly?
Which are the hunters, which the harried?
Break not the hush that surrounds this miracle --
Mind against mind, coupling in splendor --
Step on no twig, disturbing the forest.
Enter the aisles of despair. Sit down and be quiet.

E.B. White, Reading Room

[Robert Frost said, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in." I'd say that the reading room of the public library is that place. The reading room is my refuge.]

George Constanza's Words of Wisdom

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends.
I mean, life is tough.
It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it?
A death.
What's that, a bonus?!?
I Think the life cycle is backwards.
You should die first, get it out of the way.
Then you go live in an old age home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day.
You work 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become little baby, you go back, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm!!

Amen.