Musings on Random Musings

[Lord Liaden]

My experience has been that science and philosophy/spirituality are not incompatible. I've known a few professional scientists who are quite spiritual, who consider their research to be granting them insights into the mind of God.

 

Issues of spirituality have in the past been much more a matter for consideration and debate among the common man than they've become today, when if they come up at all they're most often couched within the rigid constraints of religious dogma, or worse, what many people assume is religious dogma. OTOH the emphasis on that which is quantifiable, that which is provable, tends to limit our conception of what "is" to things our senses can apprehend, or which our instruments can translate to our senses. Man's intuitive knowledge becomes undervalued, and IMHO that has been a loss, because that's the ultimate source of our concepts of right and wrong, of justice, of community. Ethics and morality have no place in the natural order, but without them our civilization would crumble.

 

Please understand, I'm not advocating abandoning the scientific approach. It has tremendous value in enhancing our understanding of the universe. I don't want pure dogma and superstition, devoid of critical thinking, to dominate our interactions. I'm saying that infusing that understanding with inquiry into the possible purpose of the universe, and our role in it, benefits us in ways pure knowledge can't.

[Pariah]

I've always liked this quote from the Babylon 5 episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars":

 

"Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet. You can travel further with both than you can with just one."

[Bazza]

31 minutes ago, Pariah said:

I've always liked this quote from the Babylon 5 episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars":

 

"Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet. You can travel further with both than you can with just one."

Agree. 
 

Although I prefer one from Bacon, which I’ll send to you tomorrow providing I remember.  
 

and if anyone is curious to an impartial & rational approach to religion, I’d suggest (based on others recommendation, and it’s respect by them) René Guénon’s “The Reign of Quantity”. It is a monograph critique of modernism from the position of the perennial philosophy. In order to be an effective critique the author presents the perennial philosophy (or Sophia perennis, perennial wisdom) as counter-point thus demonstrating the difference between the two worldviews. The perennial philosophy is a comparative religion approach that investigates the shared unity & commonality between world religions and mystical traditions (inclusion) and also taking each on its merits (diversity). 

 

[death tribble]

I caused Log to win the day on December 15th

 

And yes I did notice that Pariah had changed avatar to one with Snoopy and Charlie Brown

[Pariah]

There are an inordinate number of relationships in my college years that are best described by the phrases "It seemed like a good idea at the time" and/or "It's not like I had anything better to do". 

[Old Man]

15 hours ago, Pariah said:

There are an inordinate number of relationships in my college years that are best described by the phrases "It seemed like a good idea at the time" and/or "It's not like I had anything better to do". 

 

I had some of those as well as a couple of "I know this is a bad idea but I'll let future me deal with the repercussions, he won't mind".

 

Narrator:  He minded.

[Pariah]

Yeah, in my case, future me would frequently scratch his head and say, "What in the pluperfect hell were you thinking?"

[Old Man]

“I’ve followed my (penis) into places I wouldn’t have gone with a gun”

[Cancer]

I avoided a lot of situations by being that perfect combination of clueless, overweight and of poor personal hygiene habits, a physics major, and poor (I recall vividly once having $4.34 to last me the rest of the month, which was about ten days; I had already paid the quarter's room & board so I had all the literal necessities, but the entertainment budget not only was below critical mass, it would only have registered on the most sensitive radiation counters.)

 

I will say that from a distance of 45 years it's clear I avoided a lot of regrettable situations, but it was boring.

[L. Marcus]

  

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

What is the flavor of rage?

Spearmint and sweet licorice. 

[Cancer]

 

You could ask him the next time he drops in.

[death tribble]

If you had not said it, I might have

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, Cancer said:

 

You could ask him the next time he drops in.

 

Better yet, I could lick him.

[Cancer]

Far be it from me to advocate personal fisticuff damage.

[Pariah]

Todd in the Shadows is quite clearly a tool.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I just watched that video. His unbridled hatred for Peter Cetera is quite something to behold. 

[death tribble]

Which is why I brought it up. The algorithm on Youtube throws up these things at me. I had recently watched A Dose of Buckley and his 10 Worst Songs of 2021 which is an annual thing and the Rocked channel's Ten Best and 5 Worst albums of 2021.

[death tribble]

It's the end of the holiday season so Pariah has changed his avatar. It's a dog for reasons that Pariah only knows.

[Pariah]

47 minutes ago, death tribble said:

It's the end of the holiday season so Pariah has changed his avatar. It's a dog for reasons that Pariah only knows.

 

Here's a hint:

 

[death tribble]

So Logan has changed his avatar back to Batman

[death tribble]

And now he has changed it to that guy who died recently.

 

In other news I killed a mouse by kicking it.

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, death tribble said:

And now he has changed it to that guy who died recently.

 

In other news I killed a mouse by kicking it.

 

Your OCV is higher than I thought.

 

I stepped on a rat once, but I suspect it was sick--it was moving slowly (for a rat) and continued to move slowly even as my steel toed boot came down on it.  I sort of wasn't expecting to kill it.  It may be the largest mammal I've ever killed.

[death tribble]

It made the mistake of moving slowly into a triangle space between the wall and a CD shelf. No hole to run to. This is where overconfidence did for it.

[Cancer]

Not sure we've had mice in this house, except for a couple of times the cats have caught one outside and brought it in.  We've been able to get these back outside without further damage (it's about even odds whether the mice were already dead on entry into the house).  The cats have also brought in birds, invariably dead for those.  And there have been a few times when birds flew in through an open door.  We've been able to chase them back out, usually intact.  A hummingbird once stunned itself trying to fly out through the window glass after it came in through the door.  I gathered the stunned bird up, put it in a brown paper sack for a few minutes, and was able to release it successfully outdoors about a quarter hour later.

 

We had a rat spending time in the crawlspace for a time, but that was disposed of by other means.  I never asked my son if the traps got him or if the poison did.

[Old Man]

29 minutes ago, Cancer said:

 I never asked my son if the traps got him or if the poison did.

 

Man, what did your son do to deserve that?

 

Only ever had mice in the house once or twice.  Nonlethal traps and peanut butter solved the problem pretty neatly.