It’s Sunday, I had two pieces of pie (raspberry and triple cherry) last night, and will consume two more today (chocolate peanut butter and lemon chess). But I’m getting ahead of myself; photos and report later. There are only 36 more shopping days until Christmas and 41 shopping days until Professor Ceiling Cat Emeritus’s birthday; on this day in 1960, John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon for the Presidency; and in 1917 the People’s Commissar gave authority to Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. On Nov. 8, 1308, the theologian Duns Scotus died, and if you haven’t read him then, according to Terry Eagleton, you haven’t read The Best Arguments for God. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has found a car seat that fits her perfectly, just as Douglas Adams’s puddle fits its hole:
Hili: Look what I’ve found.
A: What’s that?
Hili: An Intelligent Design.
Hili: Popatrz co znalazłam.
Ja: Co?
Hili: Inteligentny Projekt.
Actually, cats do occupy spaces rather like puddles do.
Looking forward to the pie pron.
I wonder if Hili, when settled thus so comfortably, contemplates some of the things that preoccupied Scotus:
Univocity of being, haecceity as a principle of individuation, Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
Well, that’s the heart of the matter right there, isn’t it?
Gravity needs no “arguments.” Atomic theory needs no “arguments.” Evolution needs no “arguments.”
You want to know if anything in science is true, all you have to do is reproduce the relevant experiments or observations for yourself. In the case of gravity, it’s trivial, and junior high school students have all the math necessary to confirm, using stuff laying around the house, that stuff in freefall really does accelerate down at about ten meters per second per second. No argument necessary.
That the gods are still stuck in the quagmire of argumentation for their mere existence, and that nobody’s advanced the discourse past the argumentation state in over seven centuries…well, that right there is evidence as convincing as a schoolchild’s reconstruction of about -270°C for absolute zero that the gods are made of 100% pure, unadulterated, weapons-grade bullshit.
Cheers,
b&
I had just nicely gotten into writing your post when, fortunately, I noticed you had already written it. The phrase “Best Arguments for God” just jumps out and bitch-slaps you across the face with the reality that real things don’t need arguments for their existence. *Particularly* if they are sentient, and wish to be known.
…sentient, wish to be known, and are unimaginably powerful.
It’s so important to the gods that we do as they say and refrain from following false paths that they’ll infinitely torture us after death if we falter…but, at the same time, the best means they have at their disposal for convincing us that we should take them seriously are bullshit “arguments” from primitive and superstitious fools?
The real miracle is that anybody takes religion seriously in the first place.
b&
If anything has the ability to confirm its existence irrefutably, it’s surely God. The fact He doesn’t is a bit of a pointer.
Yup. “So, if your god cares so much that I believe his story, why is he relying on some random schmuck like you to tell it so badly?” should pretty much be the alpha and omega of all door-to-door Jesus sales pitches.
b&
“It’s all about faith, sweetie, for proof denies faith.” Now I just need the blue hair and flowery dress. 🙂
Yeah, but you’ll still have to be careful at the zebra crossings….
b&
The best argument I’ve heard for when you don’t need an argument.
Interesting how a cat can make a long term nap out of anything.
Recalling the 1960 election, probably the first for me at only 10 years old. One of these two were to replace one of the main players of WWII and it was very close. Seems such a simpler time back then but it was only an illusion.
I feel I must read some more Douglas Adams. It is the cure when you have Weltschmerz because the Welt is full of stupid people.
I pi$$ed my family off big time when I first read Douglas Adams. It was raining heavily, we were on holiday, and six of us were stuck in a cabin. I kept laughing out loud, and they kept telling me to shut up. They weren’t being quiet themselves, and they weren’t doing anything that needed silence, so naturally my need to laugh out loud increased.
A pair of Jehovah’s Witlesses just came to the door. Poor fools tried to claim that the talking snake was a ventriloquist act by Satan, that Job accurately describes the geometry of the Earth…they beat an hasty retreat when I dropped a couple pebbles to show how easy it is to independently demonstrate gravity.
They were the first in some time…be interesting to see how long it is before they come back….
b&
I feel a bit sorry for people trying to argue the Truth of the Bible with you. Well, I would if they hadn’t knocked on your door first; in that situation they deserve everything they get!
I’m not the type to broach the subject and am nearly always very reluctant to engage with somebody I know…but strangers knocking at my door? What’s good for the goose….
b&
No design is complete without a cat hair or three!