Wednesday, June 27, 2007
IN MEMORY OF SADIE
Byron had a great fondness for animals, most famously for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain; when Boatswain contracted rabies, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected.[citation needed] Boatswain lies buried at Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master's. The inscription, Byron's "Epitaph to a dog", has become one of his best-known works, reading in part:
Near this Spot
are deposited the Remains of one
who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferosity,
and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
if inscribed over human Ashes,
is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOG,
who was born in Newfoundland May 1803,
and died at Newstead Nov.r 18th, 1808.
Byron had a great fondness for animals, most famously for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain; when Boatswain contracted rabies, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected.[citation needed] Boatswain lies buried at Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master's. The inscription, Byron's "Epitaph to a dog", has become one of his best-known works, reading in part:
Near this Spot
are deposited the Remains of one
who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferosity,
and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
if inscribed over human Ashes,
is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOG,
who was born in Newfoundland May 1803,
and died at Newstead Nov.r 18th, 1808.
Monday, June 25, 2007
diety... does this word control anything?
any control of nature or natural events?
for some diety is kind & helps them face
nature and natural events.
for others, for me I have no need of outside
control & will face nature and natural events
naturally-
if there is a natural way.
6/24/07 thoughts in a country church
any control of nature or natural events?
for some diety is kind & helps them face
nature and natural events.
for others, for me I have no need of outside
control & will face nature and natural events
naturally-
if there is a natural way.
6/24/07 thoughts in a country church
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
"If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them, and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests." -D'Holback
Monday, June 11, 2007
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunday, June 10, 2007
As Pinker and any "great" scientist recognizes: We have theories and those can be wrong. Science is a method, a cynicism or skepticism that demands we question even our own test results. Nothing is certain: not Newton, not Einstein, not even the Uncertainty Principle!
Why is religion a threat? Because most people of "faith" are too certain about things. I don't want certainty. I like science. I like thinking my research will be destroyed by better theories and then those will fall to even better ones. It's a process that never ends, while religion claims to be at the end of the questions: they "know" the answers and my questions are invalid if they challenge some silly poem or prose composed by a "prophet of God."
I like not knowing, never being sure. It means I can keep guessing.
- C. S. Wyatt
Why is religion a threat? Because most people of "faith" are too certain about things. I don't want certainty. I like science. I like thinking my research will be destroyed by better theories and then those will fall to even better ones. It's a process that never ends, while religion claims to be at the end of the questions: they "know" the answers and my questions are invalid if they challenge some silly poem or prose composed by a "prophet of God."
I like not knowing, never being sure. It means I can keep guessing.
- C. S. Wyatt
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
ADELARD of Bath said, "It is a little difficult for you and me to argue about animals. 1, with reason for my guide, have learned one thing from my Arab teachers, you, something different; dazzled by the outward show of authority you wear a head-stall. For what else should we call authority but a head-stall? Just as brute animals are led by the head-stall where one pleases, without seeing why or where they are being led, and only follow the halter by which they are held, so many of you, bound and fettered as you are by a low credulity, are led into danger by the authority of writers. Hence, certain people arrogating to themselves the title of authorities have employed an unbounded licence in writing, and this to such an extent that they have not hesitated to insinuate into men of low intellect the false instead of the true."
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Atheist Prayer:
Let us take responsibility for our own actions, inactions, strengths and frailties and not project them onto ghosts, spirits, stars, portents and gods unseen.Let us have the courage to accept that one person's faith is another person's bloody-minded pig-headed refusal to accept the obvious.Let us have the courage to accept that the person at the front of all crowds, including this one, doesn't know all the answers.Let us have the wisdom to accept that if our ancestors had fared differently in wars our communities would be holding different absurdities up as sacred truths, and the willingness to accept those absurdities would be seen as the badge of social trustworthiness or even the right to be allowed to draw breath.Let us accept that the difference between a prophet and a madman is not what they say but whether the crowd accepts the story and tells their children to believe it.Let us have the courage to accept that wanting to believe in something with every fibre of our being does not and cannot make it true.Truth needs no help, no believers, no bowed heads and no amens
.by Martin Willett
Let us take responsibility for our own actions, inactions, strengths and frailties and not project them onto ghosts, spirits, stars, portents and gods unseen.Let us have the courage to accept that one person's faith is another person's bloody-minded pig-headed refusal to accept the obvious.Let us have the courage to accept that the person at the front of all crowds, including this one, doesn't know all the answers.Let us have the wisdom to accept that if our ancestors had fared differently in wars our communities would be holding different absurdities up as sacred truths, and the willingness to accept those absurdities would be seen as the badge of social trustworthiness or even the right to be allowed to draw breath.Let us accept that the difference between a prophet and a madman is not what they say but whether the crowd accepts the story and tells their children to believe it.Let us have the courage to accept that wanting to believe in something with every fibre of our being does not and cannot make it true.Truth needs no help, no believers, no bowed heads and no amens
.by Martin Willett
Friday, June 01, 2007
No real scientists pretend that answers are certain or that math is perfect beyond the basics. Like physics, theoretical math reaches a point of contradiction making it really fascinating and beautiful.But like all the superstitions, science doesn't tell me the answers to what it means to live a good, meaningful life. I have to define what is good for myself. If I turn to the Bible, Koran, Book of the Dead, or whatever else humans have been inspired to write, I will still be left with contradictions and paradox. There are no clear "right" answers because one rule seems to always contradict another.Philosophy, as Jaspers said, is best lived.
I do my best to do the "right" thing by most of humanity, while admittedly adhering to Camus' acknowledgment that family is still special to me and has some greater value that
I can't defend with logic.I don't live according to superstition or science. I live according to what I think is right.
Problem is... I'll never know if I was right.
- C. S. Wyatt
I do my best to do the "right" thing by most of humanity, while admittedly adhering to Camus' acknowledgment that family is still special to me and has some greater value that
I can't defend with logic.I don't live according to superstition or science. I live according to what I think is right.
Problem is... I'll never know if I was right.
- C. S. Wyatt
