I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
October 17, 2009 - 4:46 p.m.
So now I've boxed myself in a corner. I promise that I'd write about ideas today. I know this is going to feel awkward but like Horton; "I said what I meant and I meant what I said. An elephant's faithful 100 percent."
Hut-Sut Rawlson on the rillerah and the so on so on so forth �Sorry, I couldn't stop myself. Anyone under 40 get it? Stay tuned you will. If you get tired with the entry skip to the end. You'll see where.
I've done absolutely nothing of interest since my last entry. I've pretty much done nothing. I guess I can't avoid this any longer.
Yes I'm back to thinking about god, religion, science, and the answer to life the universe and everything. I planned this entry a week ago. I wonder if I'll remember any of what I wanted to write. Interestingly enough the last essay in Feynman's The Pleasure of Finding Things Out was on pretty much the same thing. That's a bit intimidating. So here are some of my thoughts. These aren't totally connected but they aren't totally disconnected either.
Imagine that there was a group of people that think that Star Trek is true. Not only that but that The Vulcans used their telepathic abilities to send the truth to Gene Roddenberry and the Star Trek writers. Some of these people think the later series were also inspired by the Vulcans but some think it was just the original series. These people look to Star Trek for moral guidance. Some say that the Vulcans touched them telepathically too and so weigh in on issues not dealt with in the series. The different groups disagree strongly with each other. They all agree that there was Vulcan inspiration, they just disagree on just what. Now imagine that most people believed in the truth of some aspect of Star Trek. How would you feel? That's pretty much the way I feel about religion. If I was forced to choose I'd say the Star Trek theory while having only an infinitesimal chance of being true is more likely than the Judeo-Christian-Islam � theory by several orders of magnitude. The most unlikely part is actually sending the message back in time. Why does this theory strike you as absurd but religion doesn't (yes I know some of you think religion is absurd, I didn't forget you)? I'm not going to answer that. You can figure out your reasons better than I can.
Don't tell me that I can't prove religion isn't true. You can't prove the Star Trek theory isn't true too especially when you realize the possibility that the truth on the screen might not have been the same as the ones the Vulcans conveyed. Maybe they couldn't afford the special effects or the network wouldn't let them say some things or someone along the line changed the script for dramatic purposes. People say pretty much the same things about the Bible all the time.
People will often talk about the meaning of life. It's a meme. Monty Python even made a movie about it. The thing is that it presupposes that life has a meaning. Why should we do that? Does a potato have meaning? How about belly button lint? The only things that have meaning are forms of communication. Art has meaning because the artist is trying to convey something. This entry has a meaning because I put it there. Life only has a meaning if someone created life, and not only that, but meant it to say something. Who is the audience? Us the creations? It presupposes a lot that is not in evidence. Yet people worry about it all the time. It drives Woody Allen to distraction. As Douglas Adams pointed out we don't even know the question. So Woody if you really need to know the meaning of life, here it is. 
People will often say, "But science doesn�t have the answers for everything." That's true. That doesn't mean that anything else does either. Knowledge can be divided into three parts. Those derived scientifically, those derived by direct observation without scientific protocols, and those derived by pure reasoning. Those derived by scientific methods we know are approximations of the truth. They may be totally wrong but they yield predictions that are close to reality. That's what makes them science. Direct observation can often yield good approximations of the truth. It is how we know most of what we know. People knew that if you drop an apple it falls long before Newton came up with his Theory of Gravity. It wasn't always right or even approximately right. People thought the sky was dome covering the flat earth. That's just plain wrong. Still it taught us plenty of useful things. Then there is pure reasoning. The Greeks were really big on that. Funny thing. When they applied it to things that later were studied by science they were pretty much always wrong. Yet people will still think it has value in the places where it can't be tested. Sure they got some things right. When enough people say different things some will have some resemblance to the truth. The problem is how do you know which ones? It's like a phone book where the numbers are random. Some of them might by chance be right but since you don't know which they are it is useless even if later some are proved right by calling and reaching the person listed. So yes we are left with the fact that like the meaning of the universe there are things we don't know. That makes people uncomfortable. I don't actually get that. There are countless things that I don't know. It seems like that it something we should have learned to accept like death and taxes. Oh yeah, people don't accept them either.
So those were my musings one day last week. I don't remember when but I think I was on the subway. When exactly is another thing you'll have to accept not knowing. Of course there is a chance I'll actually remember it.
Finally here is something of far more worth than everything else in this entry. If you've never seen it you'll thank me. It's brilliant; Doctor Seuss meets Bob Clampett and the other marvelous minds at Termite Terrace, the Warner Brothers cartoon studio.
Yes it even has the suicidal fish!
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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Horvendile October 17, 2009
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