I spent a lovely part of last week hanging out with two new friends. One is the girlfriend to the man who introduced me to Neuro. The other is their mutual friend. Much fun was had. Much debate was had. Now they are gone back to their beloved cranes and fundie church and Croatia respectively. I am left with nothing good to put on Zoomtard because the rest of my week was either spent painting or working furiously. Neither activities encourage Zoomtard gestation. Instead, let others do the work! Linkage ahoy!
Van Peebles Land plugged me into this great quote from Augustine’s Confessions. If you haven’t read Augustine you really should. It takes work but he is huge. This goes for the non-Christians. You need to read the Augustine. Here is a superb slice.
“Late have I loved you, O beauty so ancient and so new -- late have I loved you! For you were within, and I was abroad; and there I searched for you, and tried to fill my heart with those lovely forms that you had made…. You called, cried out, and shattered my deafness. You flashed, shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed your perfume, and I drew breath, and now I pant for you. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burn for your peace.”
Byron Smith is one of my favourite God-bothering-bloggers. Here is a post with more great Augustinian quotage, bounced against Moltmann who is a great modern German theologian.
Kurt Vonnegut died this week and Peebles has a great quote from him too. I heard a piece of interview he did once with RTE on the morning of his death. He talked about how his father and older brother believed in progress. He was born in 1923 and he firmly believed that science was leading us into a new age. He wrote an essay at school that confidently predicted that by the time he was 30, Popular Mechanics would have a front cover interview with God, who would be cornered by technological advancement and convinced to tell us the answers to any outstanding questions. He said that this was the world he grew up in, where science led to truth and truth would set us free. He finished the answer by pausing and then simply saying, “Then Truth exploded over Hiroshima”. Peebles is damn right when he calls him a Jeremiah and a Joker but that clearly expressed sentiment alone, that unfettered scientism led to the dawning of the Atomic Age, not the Aquarian Age, would be enough for me to think life was lived well.
Understanding what science is, what faith is, what truth is, these are all philosophical questions. Don’t let that suggest it is for the experts among us alone.They are however, within each person’s grasp with some careful thought and some eager debating partners. We all have faith, in the sense of unproven axioms as the basis for all our views on the world. Science is not against it and even strictly can’t be easily spoken of in terms of truth. It offers approximate descriptions and its glory is how useful they are. But Vonnegut, who was far from being a Christian, could sit easily with a Christian understanding on this issue.
In advance of the God and Science Conference on Saturday coming where we will be welcoming Alister McGrath to speak in our humble little Maynooth, here is the link to the recording of the debate that Richard Dawkins never really wanted to have: McGrath one-to-one with Dawkins.
If you have never met me but are coming to the conference, introduce yourself so I can buy you a coffee. Or tea. Or whatever drink it is you drink.
Your Correspondent, But I make no excuses
A coffee please, milk and no sugar.
Woah, I’m famous. I made it on Zoomtard!
I’ve met you Greymalkin. Damnit, I’ve seen you in your boxers. I’ve knuckled your head like you are some clumsy buffoon I can’t help but love. I’ve been frightened by big barking dogs with you.
There will be no coffee for you.
Taylor, savour it. Famous among the dozens!