As the big bang or whatever you want to call it manifested a universe through ever-widening time and space, Logos asserted, in the midst of diverging matter and energy, a creative force to countermand the default entropy. It was good.
So good, in fact, that Logos got excited and wanted to share the exuberance with someone. So Logos arranged a certain solar system so that it would fling out a planet upon which optimum conditions could evolve to produce sentient beings.
After those living entities had developed to an optimum condition, Logos breathed into one chosen specimen a new dimension called Spirit, which enabled the new species to communicate with Logos, which is why Logos referred to homo sapiens as being "in our image."
What that in our image attribute meant was: able to communicate with its creator. This was no small step for mankind.
One day many generations later an important turning point in the history of homo sapiens was reached. On a clear starry night, a certain very sensitive, intelligent man stepped out of his tent, looked up at the heavens and thought: This world, with its accompanying heavens and creatures, is quite impressive. I'd like to write a book about how it all happened, because my people have been wondering about its origins.
And Logos, reading his mind, replied: Good idea. I've been waiting for someone like you to come along. Sit down and start writing; I'll instruct you. I'll give you some material that will help the people understand what's going on in the universe, and will also help them to make a better life for themselves.
From our perspective several thousand years later, the man's opus was quite limited by his place and time. But he did a nice job of it, and managed to produce, with a little divine help, a best seller. You can still get a copy today.
His name was Moses.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Between a rock and a hard (to understand) relativity
The men and women who conduct research in science have a system of procedures for establishing what is a fact and what is not; it's what we call the scientific method, and this is how it happens:
1.) The scientist observes phenomena in the physical world and poses a question. Example: Galileo sees an apple fall from an open window and hit the ground. He wonders: If that apple were a heavier object--say, a pumpkin-- would it fall faster and thus hit the ground sooner?
2.) The scientist forms a hypothesis. Example: Galileo hypothesizes that two objects of different weighty will fall at different speeds when dropped from the same height, and strike the ground at different times.
3.) The scientist tests the hypothesis by constructing a controlled experiment. Example: Galileo drops two balls of different weights, at the same time, from atop the leaning Tower of Pisa.
4.) The scientist observes and notes the effects (data) of his/her experiment. Example: Galileo notices that both balls hit the ground at the same time instead of at different times.
5.) The scientist forms a conclusion. Example: Galileo reasons that the speed of a falling object is not determined by the weight of the object.
6.) The scientist publishes an account of the experiment and its conclusion.
7.) Other scientists subsequently reconstruct or refine the experiment to prove or disprove the first scientist's conclusion.
8.) Other scientists develop new observations and new hypotheses for further inquiry. Example: Isaac Newton sees an apple fall from its tree and wonders: Why does the apple fall?
This method has evolved in the scientific community over the last 700 years or so. And before science was a recognized as a productive discipline, artisans used trial and error along with observation to ascertain useful practice in all human endeavors.
But what about the accumulation of human knowledge prior to the scientific method? Is all human tradition and wisdom from antiquity nullified or brought into question by an absence of scientific method that would have verified it?
No. There is, by cultural consensus, common experience and common sense, established truth in human experience and history that preceded science. I will be offering more on this topic later, especially as it relates to morality and ethics.
Have a nice day, and thanks for stopping by.
1.) The scientist observes phenomena in the physical world and poses a question. Example: Galileo sees an apple fall from an open window and hit the ground. He wonders: If that apple were a heavier object--say, a pumpkin-- would it fall faster and thus hit the ground sooner?
2.) The scientist forms a hypothesis. Example: Galileo hypothesizes that two objects of different weighty will fall at different speeds when dropped from the same height, and strike the ground at different times.
3.) The scientist tests the hypothesis by constructing a controlled experiment. Example: Galileo drops two balls of different weights, at the same time, from atop the leaning Tower of Pisa.
4.) The scientist observes and notes the effects (data) of his/her experiment. Example: Galileo notices that both balls hit the ground at the same time instead of at different times.
5.) The scientist forms a conclusion. Example: Galileo reasons that the speed of a falling object is not determined by the weight of the object.
6.) The scientist publishes an account of the experiment and its conclusion.
7.) Other scientists subsequently reconstruct or refine the experiment to prove or disprove the first scientist's conclusion.
8.) Other scientists develop new observations and new hypotheses for further inquiry. Example: Isaac Newton sees an apple fall from its tree and wonders: Why does the apple fall?
This method has evolved in the scientific community over the last 700 years or so. And before science was a recognized as a productive discipline, artisans used trial and error along with observation to ascertain useful practice in all human endeavors.
But what about the accumulation of human knowledge prior to the scientific method? Is all human tradition and wisdom from antiquity nullified or brought into question by an absence of scientific method that would have verified it?
No. There is, by cultural consensus, common experience and common sense, established truth in human experience and history that preceded science. I will be offering more on this topic later, especially as it relates to morality and ethics.
Have a nice day, and thanks for stopping by.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
East Jerusalem, a poem
You see
the man in the corner with the resolute eyes?
with the star for his emblem and a scar as his prize--
I hear
he drew a line in the sand between his ancient kin
and those other peoples up there in yerushalayim.
He's there
with his settlement on the land, his eretz in the sand
and razored fence with guard-gate checkpoint plan.
It seems
he lives in a cage now,
like his grandfather in Dachau.
I hear
his mother called him Jacob and she thinks he hung the moon
but on the street they call him Ishmael, call him crazy as a loon.
I know
in the former times he had a dream, and that he wrestled with our God,
though nowadays it's just surveillance schemes o'er sand and streets and sod.
Could be
requiring him to move's like waiting for the hot sun to stand still,
so heated have the talks become, the rhetoric so shrill.
But if
ethnic crony segregation bows to democratic equality,
can the leopard lose his dogma spots, or the lion his mane identity?
Then when
hell freezes over and the leopard trades his spots,
its then the lion becomes a lamb, and Israel a melting pot.
Carey Rowland, author Glass half-Full
the man in the corner with the resolute eyes?
with the star for his emblem and a scar as his prize--
I hear
he drew a line in the sand between his ancient kin
and those other peoples up there in yerushalayim.
He's there
with his settlement on the land, his eretz in the sand
and razored fence with guard-gate checkpoint plan.
It seems
he lives in a cage now,
like his grandfather in Dachau.
I hear
his mother called him Jacob and she thinks he hung the moon
but on the street they call him Ishmael, call him crazy as a loon.
I know
in the former times he had a dream, and that he wrestled with our God,
though nowadays it's just surveillance schemes o'er sand and streets and sod.
Could be
requiring him to move's like waiting for the hot sun to stand still,
so heated have the talks become, the rhetoric so shrill.
But if
ethnic crony segregation bows to democratic equality,
can the leopard lose his dogma spots, or the lion his mane identity?
Then when
hell freezes over and the leopard trades his spots,
its then the lion becomes a lamb, and Israel a melting pot.
Carey Rowland, author Glass half-Full
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
So make a deal! Trade abortion funding for a new health care system.
So Democrats, make a deal: trade abortion funding for a new health care system.
It's a win/win situation for most citizens of the USA, including:
~uninsured Americans who will obtain coverage;
~insured Americans who will no longer have to accept their coverage being dropped when they get sick and "need it most."
~Americans with pre-existing medical conditions who will be able to obtain insurance coverage when they "need it most."
~American children yet unborn with pre-existing conditions that would preclude their entrance into life. They "need it most."
It's a win/win situation for most citizens of the USA, including:
~uninsured Americans who will obtain coverage;
~insured Americans who will no longer have to accept their coverage being dropped when they get sick and "need it most."
~Americans with pre-existing medical conditions who will be able to obtain insurance coverage when they "need it most."
~American children yet unborn with pre-existing conditions that would preclude their entrance into life. They "need it most."
Monday, March 8, 2010
Ev'body need a mama, justice, and a little encouragement now and then
“Good for you,” said Diane Rehm to her guest.
This encouragement she interjected as author Helen Simonson was recalling a decision that she and her husband had made years ago. Helen, the busy advertising executive, would interrupt her career and stay home to nurture their newborn child.
Helen, author of the novel Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, had understood that it was time to make a change—that the demands of helpless baby upon her new motherhood would create a full-time job for her, and a new role in life.
“What were we thinking?” she remembered, as if they suddenly realized the importance of motherhood. Her husband, busy bank executive who never got home ‘til after 8 pm, and she, busy advertising executive who never got home ‘til after 8, had planned for her to take a brief absence to have the baby. But then they decided that Helen would just be a mother for a long while.
And Diane said, “Good for you.”
These words encouraged me. My wife had chosen full-time motherhood years ago before launching her career as a nurse. We have never regretted that decision.
I heard this exchange as part of an interview on Diane Rehm’s show on NPR today, March 8.
A few hours later, I heard another gem of encouragement:
“…we’re go’nna make it…” Dr. Martin Luther King had said.
He had been speaking to (now Congressman) John Lewis as they sat in a home near Selma in 1965 during the events that surrounded Bloody Sunday and the civil rights march from Selma to Birmingham, Alabama. As they listened expectantly to a televised announcement from Washington, President Lyndon Johnson had said:
“…and we shall, we shall overcome.”
And Dr. King had spoken his thoughts, “we’re gonna make it.” “John, we’re go’nna make it to Montgomery, and the voting acts will be passed.”
I heard this recollection on the radio from John Lewis as he recalled the events in an interview with Neil Conan on Talk of the Nation, NPR, today, March 8th.
Such a day was this for profound utterances! An hour later I heard this:
“Andrew, keep your pants rolled up,” which was an exhortation shouted by a mother to her son from an open window. The 10-year-old son was playing an impromptu baseball game in an open area on this, the first warm day of 2010.
“Don’t sit on the ground,” shouted mama a few minutes later from her vigilant window parch. Because there was, you know, still snow on the ground. These kids were playing baseball in patchy snow. Such is the power of imminent springtime to provoke pickup baseball.
“Go, go, go!” said his teammate to Andrew, as he knocked a grounder that stopped cold in the infield snow.
Like I said before, ev’body need a mama, justice, and a little encouragement now and then.
This encouragement she interjected as author Helen Simonson was recalling a decision that she and her husband had made years ago. Helen, the busy advertising executive, would interrupt her career and stay home to nurture their newborn child.
Helen, author of the novel Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, had understood that it was time to make a change—that the demands of helpless baby upon her new motherhood would create a full-time job for her, and a new role in life.
“What were we thinking?” she remembered, as if they suddenly realized the importance of motherhood. Her husband, busy bank executive who never got home ‘til after 8 pm, and she, busy advertising executive who never got home ‘til after 8, had planned for her to take a brief absence to have the baby. But then they decided that Helen would just be a mother for a long while.
And Diane said, “Good for you.”
These words encouraged me. My wife had chosen full-time motherhood years ago before launching her career as a nurse. We have never regretted that decision.
I heard this exchange as part of an interview on Diane Rehm’s show on NPR today, March 8.
A few hours later, I heard another gem of encouragement:
“…we’re go’nna make it…” Dr. Martin Luther King had said.
He had been speaking to (now Congressman) John Lewis as they sat in a home near Selma in 1965 during the events that surrounded Bloody Sunday and the civil rights march from Selma to Birmingham, Alabama. As they listened expectantly to a televised announcement from Washington, President Lyndon Johnson had said:
“…and we shall, we shall overcome.”
And Dr. King had spoken his thoughts, “we’re gonna make it.” “John, we’re go’nna make it to Montgomery, and the voting acts will be passed.”
I heard this recollection on the radio from John Lewis as he recalled the events in an interview with Neil Conan on Talk of the Nation, NPR, today, March 8th.
Such a day was this for profound utterances! An hour later I heard this:
“Andrew, keep your pants rolled up,” which was an exhortation shouted by a mother to her son from an open window. The 10-year-old son was playing an impromptu baseball game in an open area on this, the first warm day of 2010.
“Don’t sit on the ground,” shouted mama a few minutes later from her vigilant window parch. Because there was, you know, still snow on the ground. These kids were playing baseball in patchy snow. Such is the power of imminent springtime to provoke pickup baseball.
“Go, go, go!” said his teammate to Andrew, as he knocked a grounder that stopped cold in the infield snow.
Like I said before, ev’body need a mama, justice, and a little encouragement now and then.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
the continuing saga of Jacob and Esau
A few millenia ago, Social Services was called in to mediate a domestic incident, but it didn't work out. Here's how it went down:
Jacob, the brainy one, lived by his wits and cerebral efforts. He was a mama's boy. Esau, the visceral one, lived by his strength and prowess. Daddy was so proud of him. When the younger Jacob obtained, by deceit, Father Isaac's blessing--a heritage customarily given to the older son, discord ripped the family apart.
These are the words that Isaac had spoken over Jacob, believing that he addressed his older son Esau:
"Now may God give you of the dew of heaven,
and the fatness of the earth,
and an abundance of new wine;
May peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
and blessed be those who bless you."
When Esau discovered his brother's trickery, he got mad. He beseeched his father to undo the blessing that had been inappropriately bestowed, but Isaac would not, and believed he could not.
Don't ask me why. It was apparently some archaic principle relating to the power of patriarchal pronouncements. After this incident, as if things were not bad enough on the home front already, Isaac turned to Esau and said:
"Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling,
and away from the dew of heaven from above.
By your sword you shall live,
and your brother you shall serve;
But it shall come about when you become restless--that you will break his yoke from your neck."
I don't know how or why. But such is the history of the world, and I suppose, why George wrote while my guitar gently weeps.
Read 'em and weep. You too, Rachel, even as you weep for the children.
Jacob, the brainy one, lived by his wits and cerebral efforts. He was a mama's boy. Esau, the visceral one, lived by his strength and prowess. Daddy was so proud of him. When the younger Jacob obtained, by deceit, Father Isaac's blessing--a heritage customarily given to the older son, discord ripped the family apart.
These are the words that Isaac had spoken over Jacob, believing that he addressed his older son Esau:
"Now may God give you of the dew of heaven,
and the fatness of the earth,
and an abundance of new wine;
May peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you,
and blessed be those who bless you."
When Esau discovered his brother's trickery, he got mad. He beseeched his father to undo the blessing that had been inappropriately bestowed, but Isaac would not, and believed he could not.
Don't ask me why. It was apparently some archaic principle relating to the power of patriarchal pronouncements. After this incident, as if things were not bad enough on the home front already, Isaac turned to Esau and said:
"Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling,
and away from the dew of heaven from above.
By your sword you shall live,
and your brother you shall serve;
But it shall come about when you become restless--that you will break his yoke from your neck."
I don't know how or why. But such is the history of the world, and I suppose, why George wrote while my guitar gently weeps.
Read 'em and weep. You too, Rachel, even as you weep for the children.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Torture
Torture is evil.
What, you don't believe there is such a thing as evil? You think that everything that happens is just random, in the midst of a universe where evil and good do not exist except in the souls of naive humans who dream this stuff up?
Well, you're wrong there. Believe me, torture is evil--wherever and whenever it is practiced, whether by KGB, CIA, or SLA.. It is never justified.
We in the civilized world have due process of law and trial by jury. You believe in evolution? This is it. Due process supplants torture as the genomically improved means for highly evolved humans to establish truth in a world plagued by evil.
Is waterboarding evil? Yes.
Is torture evil when Jack Bauer does it? No, because Jack Bauer doesn't really exist. He's just a character that some tv writers dreamed up.
But the implicit advocacy of torture in Jack's character is evil. And I say that being a fan of 24. But life ain't simple and shit happens, and I'm confused by my own predilictions to be entertained by action shows with twisty plots and timely themes that take on our 21st century grappling with evil.
Torture is evil, spite of the fact that Jack Bauer seems to make good use of it. Don't believe everything you see on tv.
Hamas men torturing their own comrades in a prison--that's evil. And that's the depravityl that Mosab Hassan Yousef discovered when he was in an Israeli jail. That revelation of evil to young Mosab drove him to the awareness that something is rotten in Hamas. Something is rotten in the world.
Yes, Virginia, there is evil in the world.
And torture is it, among other things, like for instance concentration camps.
What, you don't believe there is such a thing as evil? You think that everything that happens is just random, in the midst of a universe where evil and good do not exist except in the souls of naive humans who dream this stuff up?
Well, you're wrong there. Believe me, torture is evil--wherever and whenever it is practiced, whether by KGB, CIA, or SLA.. It is never justified.
We in the civilized world have due process of law and trial by jury. You believe in evolution? This is it. Due process supplants torture as the genomically improved means for highly evolved humans to establish truth in a world plagued by evil.
Is waterboarding evil? Yes.
Is torture evil when Jack Bauer does it? No, because Jack Bauer doesn't really exist. He's just a character that some tv writers dreamed up.
But the implicit advocacy of torture in Jack's character is evil. And I say that being a fan of 24. But life ain't simple and shit happens, and I'm confused by my own predilictions to be entertained by action shows with twisty plots and timely themes that take on our 21st century grappling with evil.
Torture is evil, spite of the fact that Jack Bauer seems to make good use of it. Don't believe everything you see on tv.
Hamas men torturing their own comrades in a prison--that's evil. And that's the depravityl that Mosab Hassan Yousef discovered when he was in an Israeli jail. That revelation of evil to young Mosab drove him to the awareness that something is rotten in Hamas. Something is rotten in the world.
Yes, Virginia, there is evil in the world.
And torture is it, among other things, like for instance concentration camps.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
