[Bill,
May 28, 2012]
Random late night thoughts
1. There's a certain sort of blogger who's a believer and who argues with atheists. There are a lot of atheist commenters who argue with believers. I haven't done that. A couple two three times went through that, both in real life and online, and I don't do that anymore.
I just don't see the point. I don't believe anyone is an atheist all the time, nor do I believe that anyone has faith all the time. When I was sitting next to my father's corpse in the nursing home, even after I'd received enormous consolations from prayer a moment before, I had a piercing moment of doubt. He was dead. And that's it. I still recall it, just as I still recall the consolations -- they are not feelings, really, it's like making contact with God.
Anyway, I don't argue with people about God's existence because it is a factual question. Either God exists or He doesn't. (I suppose there could be a god-like creator who is nonetheless not omniscient, not omnipresent, etc. Imagine Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen, just doing the best that he can.) My opinion on the matter doesn't change the underlying fact (one way or the other) one bit.
But I believe, and I doubt, and I assume everyone has similar types of experiences in various periods of their life. Now, if someone wants to know how to get into contact with God, I do know how they can do that.
2. Read a guy named Paul B. Farrell. Marine sgt., psychology Ph.D., MarketWatch columnist ... He sounds absolutely batshit crazy. He spends a lot of time predicting disasters -- I mean total, systemic economic and climate-related disasters. Guess what? If you predict disaster long enough, you will eventually be right.
3. Global warming. Why not hit all the big topics? Heh. I am a skeptic, as you know. I have a backup position that basically states knowing human nature as I think I do, if AGW is happening, we're totally, utterly screwed. People will not react quickly enough. But again, this is a fact or not -- if AGW is a fact, it's a fact, and my opinion of it or interpretive abilities don't matter. And if it's a fact, kiss your ass good-bye. If it's not a fact, you didn't act like chicken little.
4. Been thinking a lot about World War I. This is a war that destroyed the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Austria-Hungary Empire and the Ottoman Empire. In a few short years, three centuries-old empires bit the dust. And for what? Because countries didn't see an algorithm hidden in their various treaties. Basically, it's Serbia pisses off A-H, who declare war; treaty triggers Russia, which triggers Germany, which triggers France, which triggers Britain. Only Italy figured it out -- it signed mutual defense treaties, but never signed on for an offensive campaign. So they told A-H and Germany that their war was an offensive war, and stayed out of it for a couple of years.
But what I've been thinking about is the mass stupidity of it. And the results were not just the war -- from the Armenian Genocide to Verdun. It was the result. All those empires' falling led to everything that bedeviled the rest of the century. Perhaps. Perhaps I'm wrong about that. But would a 20th century without a World War I still have had to fight communism, fascism and Islamism for the rest of the century?
I just don't see the point. I don't believe anyone is an atheist all the time, nor do I believe that anyone has faith all the time. When I was sitting next to my father's corpse in the nursing home, even after I'd received enormous consolations from prayer a moment before, I had a piercing moment of doubt. He was dead. And that's it. I still recall it, just as I still recall the consolations -- they are not feelings, really, it's like making contact with God.
Anyway, I don't argue with people about God's existence because it is a factual question. Either God exists or He doesn't. (I suppose there could be a god-like creator who is nonetheless not omniscient, not omnipresent, etc. Imagine Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen, just doing the best that he can.) My opinion on the matter doesn't change the underlying fact (one way or the other) one bit.
But I believe, and I doubt, and I assume everyone has similar types of experiences in various periods of their life. Now, if someone wants to know how to get into contact with God, I do know how they can do that.
2. Read a guy named Paul B. Farrell. Marine sgt., psychology Ph.D., MarketWatch columnist ... He sounds absolutely batshit crazy. He spends a lot of time predicting disasters -- I mean total, systemic economic and climate-related disasters. Guess what? If you predict disaster long enough, you will eventually be right.
3. Global warming. Why not hit all the big topics? Heh. I am a skeptic, as you know. I have a backup position that basically states knowing human nature as I think I do, if AGW is happening, we're totally, utterly screwed. People will not react quickly enough. But again, this is a fact or not -- if AGW is a fact, it's a fact, and my opinion of it or interpretive abilities don't matter. And if it's a fact, kiss your ass good-bye. If it's not a fact, you didn't act like chicken little.
4. Been thinking a lot about World War I. This is a war that destroyed the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Austria-Hungary Empire and the Ottoman Empire. In a few short years, three centuries-old empires bit the dust. And for what? Because countries didn't see an algorithm hidden in their various treaties. Basically, it's Serbia pisses off A-H, who declare war; treaty triggers Russia, which triggers Germany, which triggers France, which triggers Britain. Only Italy figured it out -- it signed mutual defense treaties, but never signed on for an offensive campaign. So they told A-H and Germany that their war was an offensive war, and stayed out of it for a couple of years.
But what I've been thinking about is the mass stupidity of it. And the results were not just the war -- from the Armenian Genocide to Verdun. It was the result. All those empires' falling led to everything that bedeviled the rest of the century. Perhaps. Perhaps I'm wrong about that. But would a 20th century without a World War I still have had to fight communism, fascism and Islamism for the rest of the century?