Education can solve many problems. Ignorance has nearly destroyed humanityand the environment. Which would be more effective in the race to save endangered species and the environment? Would chasing and punishing poachers help save endangered species? Or would educating and thereby eliminating the ignorant be more effective?
Oh, nice parry! The answer is because there’s too much light. Theological works must be read in damp, darkened, grim settings. Haven’t you ever seen The Name of the Rose?
Paradise on earth 🙂 add a short walk to the beach, a bench under a tree for optimal reading and count me there 😉
I always dreamed of a room with wall to wall shelves full of books, and one of those cool sliding ladders. My husband calls me a book hoarder…..
The pictures remind me of how hard learning actually is. Books give context and nuance and, more importantly, require time and effort to find just the facts or arguments you are looking for.
It’s a process that nurtures the mind unlike the omnipresent google-fu we have today.
Ain’t that the truth. I went through uni before the interwebs and would spend days, literally full-days, in the National Library following a line of inquiry and building a train of thought. There was something incredibly tactile about it. The strange irony is I was actually writing on how the emergent interwbs would/could change human communication. At the time ARPANET had just shut down (Jaron Lanier was a living guru) and the protocols for a larger system were being written. It was clear something was happening, but what exactly was the subject of complete speculation.
Calvin: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humour? When you think about it, it’s weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it’s funny. Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us?
Hobbes: I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.
Calvin: (after a long pause) I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.
Of course. Atheist is merely a person who doesn’t believe in the gods. A much better word to describe me is a humanist, a naturalist… and we should always strive to be nice.
It is just fine. It is your choice to not believe in the one true God. If you like I will call you a humanist; and I know that a humanist must be humanly arguing with reason.
I think you will agree with me. Of course one has a choice to disagree also.
The names are good if they describe some qualities or attributes. Different language could have different names expressing the same personage with the same qualities or attributes.
It has been very naturally with me. Like I believe in my father and mother; I never doubted about them. I believe in myself very naturally; I never doubted myself; and I don’t need any evidence for that; one could doubt if there is useful reason to it.
I think you also don’t doubt about yourself; and I accept your existence without any evidence whatsoever.
There is physical, genetically verifiable evidence for your mother and father. There is evidence i exists: these words should suffice for that. There is no evidence for your Middle Eastern god.
I don’t never needed any evidence for my father or mother; and I think 99.9% normal persons won’t need to check or verify it. Their love and support is an unequivocal evidence of their being my parent; additionally I could check it genetically I know; but there is no reasonable ground for me to check it.
Do you doubt your parents? I don’t think that you have to verify them genetically.
I was once told that when I die and go to Hell, I will be positioned to the library section and all they have is Readers Digest, short versions of the great classical books. An eternity of that would certainly be a hell for me… Altough, to me, an eternity of just about anything would propably turn out to be hell.
Well, it was someone very dear to me, who knows me very intimately indeed. Someone who knows my love of books and my disgust at the idea, that some unnamed editor could know better, than Leo Tolstoi what to put in the War and Peace.
Yes, anything continuing for ever would at some point turn to boredom and later to anguish. It is interresting though how many people find this idea of eternity as so appealing. It would be interresting to probe into what they think it is supposed to be like. Do they think it is going to resemble some sort of drug induced oblivion, or what? Strawberryfields for ever?
That reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode where the bookworm (who never had time to read) was the only person to survive a nuclear apocalypse. He excitedly arranges all the books he wants to read, stacking them up in order in huge towers surrounding him, then as he sits down (smiling gleefully) to open the first his glasses fall off and shatter.
It’s clear theists don’t put any thought into eternity. If they did they wouldn’t be so excited about it.
I’m finished with a earnest, yet dedicated forced birth advocate who has said malignant gems such as this:
Catholicism is about love, defined as “willing the good of the other” by St. Thomas Aquinas. It’s about striving to be holy.
I haven’t argued with a the dyed in the wool delusional theist (okay, maybe Prayson but he doesn’t count) in awhile and would appreciate if you could stop by and fine tune some the “arguments” being thrown around in the thread.
“A young man from Nanjing, China, has been arrested after stealing more than 800 social science textbooks, history compendiums and poetry books from a book shop in the town. When questioned by police, the young man maintained that he was searching for ‘the meaning of life’ within the books’ pages….”
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
(1 Corinthians 1:19)
I can see where the Nazis got their bright idea to burn books from!
From a naturalist point of view the forests were buggered long before it became fashionable to harp on about protecting them.
That kind of bedtime reading is not for the lighthearted, or the bushy of brow!
I’m sitting here in what remains of the once mighty Atlantic Forest, comparable 500 years ago to the Amazon, but decimated in just 16 generations since Portuguese settlement.
And the Portuguese were devout catholics? So we can blame the Christians for the decimation of the rain-forests? Man they’ve got a lot on their shoulders. So much bull-crap could fertilise a whole new forest, and then some!
When you start scribing lines all over the landscape in order to apportion blame you get something that looks awful messy, rather like a map of the world no less. Of course it’s easier to soften the blow by generalising, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that religion, and Christianity per se has been instrumental in much of how the modern world is in terms of political structure. Of course we mustn’t neglect personal agency, and the acts of the few individuals who have thrown the baby out with the bathwater so to speak in order to exact change whether for the good of one or none. But too many blind eyes turned don’t save lives or trees.
Yes, and it also looks like a pain in the ass waiting to happen. I just moved and the books were by far the worst part of it… and I only have a fraction of that.
thesuperstitiousnakedape.wordpress.com 
”Books, what books? Oh, Geezus, I’ve gone blind and its such a bleeding long way to Damacus.”
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Ok, you’ve stumped me good. What’s that from? (or is this referring to the charlatan himself, Saul?)
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Of course!
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Ah, crafty! Happy Sacrilegious Sunday 😉
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Who said that?
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Me.
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LOL!
Here’s a choice individulal for you.
Bloke called Walt. As Lewis Black said.
“You’re gonna LOVE Him.”
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Oh, he’s a live one, isn’t he. I was going to jump on his “best explanation of the facts” when i saw that was precisely what you responded to.
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There is beauty in simplicity. I Love this.
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I love that you love it, Emmy. How’s the glorious Med this morning…. behaving, I hope?
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Catching her breath. White hot sun teasing mercilessly, clouds forming but not a drop to cool her down.
She is evaporating. Cicadas dance.
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Cicadas are the natural enemy of sprites, no?
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You know something I should know…:-) I have to look into it ’cause I have a couple sprites in residence here.
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First Feeling 🙂
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Thank you.
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Never going to forget that gem
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Education can solve many problems. Ignorance has nearly destroyed humanityand the environment. Which would be more effective in the race to save endangered species and the environment? Would chasing and punishing poachers help save endangered species? Or would educating and thereby eliminating the ignorant be more effective?
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The long-game (education) is always, always, always the better option
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Why are you so sure this isn’t a collection of theological books?
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Oh, nice parry! The answer is because there’s too much light. Theological works must be read in damp, darkened, grim settings. Haven’t you ever seen The Name of the Rose?
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You coup
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You could easily lighten a picture in Photoshop…:)
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I’m struggling just to find the On/Off button on this electronic contraption! 🙂
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Oh lovely books!!! 🙂
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Nice, right? I’m working toward something approaching that.
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Paradise on earth 🙂 add a short walk to the beach, a bench under a tree for optimal reading and count me there 😉
I always dreamed of a room with wall to wall shelves full of books, and one of those cool sliding ladders. My husband calls me a book hoarder…..
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I think that’s the most charming, admirable compliment ever!
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User friendly and accessible …. violence not required
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Better smelling, too
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Nice post John,
The pictures remind me of how hard learning actually is. Books give context and nuance and, more importantly, require time and effort to find just the facts or arguments you are looking for.
It’s a process that nurtures the mind unlike the omnipresent google-fu we have today.
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Ain’t that the truth. I went through uni before the interwebs and would spend days, literally full-days, in the National Library following a line of inquiry and building a train of thought. There was something incredibly tactile about it. The strange irony is I was actually writing on how the emergent interwbs would/could change human communication. At the time ARPANET had just shut down (Jaron Lanier was a living guru) and the protocols for a larger system were being written. It was clear something was happening, but what exactly was the subject of complete speculation.
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Just show me to the section of the Calvin and Hobbes collection and I’ll learn all I need to know. 🙂
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Calvin: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humour? When you think about it, it’s weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it’s funny. Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us?
Hobbes: I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.
Calvin: (after a long pause) I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.
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Struth!! But how in hell did you get in my house to take this picture? 🙂
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Astral projection?
Actually, with the amount of research you’ve been doing this probably is exactly what your Fabry library must look like!
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Not too far off! The only downside is the occasional silverfish – they give me the creeps!
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Excellent.
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Cheers
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I don’t think it is a temple.
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I wouldn’t imagine for a second you would. After all, your Middle Eastern god is anti-knowledge:
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
(1 Corinthians 1:19)
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A temple is for worship. I think inwardly your conscience wants to worship some greater power; please correct me if I am wrong.
I like atheists for a merit; they point out mistakes of the people who have gone mythical in their creeds. And it is a good thing to do.
But it should be done nicely.
I think you will agree with me on this point.
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Of course. Atheist is merely a person who doesn’t believe in the gods. A much better word to describe me is a humanist, a naturalist… and we should always strive to be nice.
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It is just fine. It is your choice to not believe in the one true God. If you like I will call you a humanist; and I know that a humanist must be humanly arguing with reason.
I think you will agree with me. Of course one has a choice to disagree also.
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Which god are you talking about?
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What is in a name?
The names are good if they describe some qualities or attributes. Different language could have different names expressing the same personage with the same qualities or attributes.
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You are saying a god exists, so i want to know how you think you know this. Upon what have you based this belief…
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It has been very naturally with me. Like I believe in my father and mother; I never doubted about them. I believe in myself very naturally; I never doubted myself; and I don’t need any evidence for that; one could doubt if there is useful reason to it.
I think you also don’t doubt about yourself; and I accept your existence without any evidence whatsoever.
Don’t you?
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“without any evidence whatsoever…”
There is physical, genetically verifiable evidence for your mother and father. There is evidence i exists: these words should suffice for that. There is no evidence for your Middle Eastern god.
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I don’t never needed any evidence for my father or mother; and I think 99.9% normal persons won’t need to check or verify it. Their love and support is an unequivocal evidence of their being my parent; additionally I could check it genetically I know; but there is no reasonable ground for me to check it.
Do you doubt your parents? I don’t think that you have to verify them genetically.
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MEMO TO SPOUSE:
please double the locks on my study door. ASAP!
(Query to JZ— okay, I give up. How did you get in?)
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Would you believe i command a small fleet of robotic spy fly’s?
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There’s actually enough books in that room to keep both Fascist home-fires and the Vatican warm for a few weeks. Books have their uses …
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Oh, nice! A bazillion points for that 🙂
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I was once told that when I die and go to Hell, I will be positioned to the library section and all they have is Readers Digest, short versions of the great classical books. An eternity of that would certainly be a hell for me… Altough, to me, an eternity of just about anything would propably turn out to be hell.
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Who on earth told you that? 🙂
You’re right, though: eternity is a ghastly proposition. Bliss would would quickly become hell.
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Well, it was someone very dear to me, who knows me very intimately indeed. Someone who knows my love of books and my disgust at the idea, that some unnamed editor could know better, than Leo Tolstoi what to put in the War and Peace.
Yes, anything continuing for ever would at some point turn to boredom and later to anguish. It is interresting though how many people find this idea of eternity as so appealing. It would be interresting to probe into what they think it is supposed to be like. Do they think it is going to resemble some sort of drug induced oblivion, or what? Strawberryfields for ever?
LikeLike
That reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode where the bookworm (who never had time to read) was the only person to survive a nuclear apocalypse. He excitedly arranges all the books he wants to read, stacking them up in order in huge towers surrounding him, then as he sits down (smiling gleefully) to open the first his glasses fall off and shatter.
It’s clear theists don’t put any thought into eternity. If they did they wouldn’t be so excited about it.
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Reblogged this on paarsurrey and commented:
Paarsurrey wrote:
I don’t think it is a temple.
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Pingback: An atheist’s temple… | paarsurrey
Morning John,
I’m finished with a earnest, yet dedicated forced birth advocate who has said malignant gems such as this:
I haven’t argued with a the dyed in the wool delusional theist (okay, maybe Prayson but he doesn’t count) in awhile and would appreciate if you could stop by and fine tune some the “arguments” being thrown around in the thread.
I’ve got the abortion part nailed down, but the belief in the grand ooga-booga and how awesome it is tests my civility. Thus I have nothing past having her watch the Intelligence Squared debate with the question :”Is the Catholic Church a force for good?” a thousand times. 🙂
Thanks in advance.
Arb
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Sure thing! Give a while, though… got busy-things to herd.
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Ok, let’s play 🙂
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Oh the uncomfortable wriggling going on over there. Masterful work John. Thanks. 🙂
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My great pleasure, friend. I still owe you a few more for helping me out in other dances 🙂
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Pingback: I believe in one true God very naturally | paarsurrey
Pure poetry, amigo!
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To kind, my friend!
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I don’t know I thought Fundies likes reading books/Book?
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One book, sure.
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“A young man from Nanjing, China, has been arrested after stealing more than 800 social science textbooks, history compendiums and poetry books from a book shop in the town. When questioned by police, the young man maintained that he was searching for ‘the meaning of life’ within the books’ pages….”
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/07/16/man-searching-for-the-meaning-of-life-steals-upwards-of-800-books-from-a-single-store/
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Good for him! I hope he’s not punished for such a heinous crime.
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For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
(1 Corinthians 1:19)
I can see where the Nazis got their bright idea to burn books from!
From a naturalist point of view the forests were buggered long before it became fashionable to harp on about protecting them.
That kind of bedtime reading is not for the lighthearted, or the bushy of brow!
TSK
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I’m sitting here in what remains of the once mighty Atlantic Forest, comparable 500 years ago to the Amazon, but decimated in just 16 generations since Portuguese settlement.
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And the Portuguese were devout catholics? So we can blame the Christians for the decimation of the rain-forests? Man they’ve got a lot on their shoulders. So much bull-crap could fertilise a whole new forest, and then some!
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Not sure if you can blame Christians, per say… Safer to blame greed.
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When you start scribing lines all over the landscape in order to apportion blame you get something that looks awful messy, rather like a map of the world no less. Of course it’s easier to soften the blow by generalising, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that religion, and Christianity per se has been instrumental in much of how the modern world is in terms of political structure. Of course we mustn’t neglect personal agency, and the acts of the few individuals who have thrown the baby out with the bathwater so to speak in order to exact change whether for the good of one or none. But too many blind eyes turned don’t save lives or trees.
TSK
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That looks glorious!
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A beauty, right?
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Yes, and it also looks like a pain in the ass waiting to happen. I just moved and the books were by far the worst part of it… and I only have a fraction of that.
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Nothing quite a box (or ten) of books to remind you you’re not as fit or as strong as you once were 🙂
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John, Do you mind if I repost this on my blog? I love it.:)
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Of course not, go for it.
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