Blog Storm

“Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many weeds. One explorer says, “Some gardener must tend this plot.” The other disagrees, “There is no gardener.” So, they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener…. So they set up a barbed wire fence. They electrify it. They patrol it with bloodhounds…. But no shrieks even suggest that some intruder has received a shock. No movements of the wire ever betray an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never give cry. Yet still the Believer is not convinced. “But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves.” At last the Skeptic despairs, “But what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even no gardener at all?”" - Anthony Flew

Sorry, couldn’t resist. I left a comment on Cody’s site regarding an entry on “faith”, which led to a few back-and-forths, culminating in the need for me to highlight a few things regarding what I believe (or don’t believe, as the case may be), and clarify a few misconceptions regarding science, atheism and agnosticism. I did so with no bigotry or spite; I love analysing my own outlook on the universe with skepticism, it helps keep me honest. Don’t ever let it be said that I arrived at my conclusions half-cocked. Whatever. No-one will read this, and even fewer will reply, so it seems to mainly be self-indulgence.

Another long-winded reply which is probably wrong…

I didn’t want to risk the chance of another verbose reply causing my comment box to crash and burn or anything, so here it is.

Well, for my part, I’ll admit to getting defensive. I react better to discussions couched in terms of personal experience than absolute statements of truth. Ultimately, none of us knows very much in absolute terms. If you wish to talk about personal experience, I’m happy to do so. I don’t do conceptual clashes over “truth” and whether God “exists” (At least I’m trying to cut back.) I’m more interested in what people *do* than what they *think*.

fDing Dong, the witch is dead

Morals are constantly stressed by religious people to be some sort of God-given quality, which leads to the conclusion who choose to reject the existence of such an omnipotent, omniscient entity must lack this inherent moral compass. Incorrect. Morality, to me, can be defined as an artificial term for the instinctive practises which are of the most Edoefit to a species as a whole (besides, is the perceived “Wrath Of God” the only reason you choose not to practise immoral acts?). When an animal jeopardises or sacrifices its own life in order to protect its offspring from a predator, can this be defined as “moral” behavior? It can, but only if you’re being anthropomorphous. A moral act implies that you have behaved according to your “conscience” (I’ve always loved Mencken’s definition of the word; “the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking”). Inferences drawn from scientific evidence testify to the fact that the overwhelming majority of discovered organisms in the world lack introspective consciousness (even homo Sapien infants have been shown to exhibit this lack of self-awareness up until a certain age) and as such are governed not by pre-ordained morality, but purely by instinct, ie. survival and reproduction. Any species which openly and orgiastically practises human-defined “immoral” behavoir as its norm is greatly threatening the success of its continued existence. There are three fundamental principles which moral behavior protects: life, freedom and truth. When these three values are optimised, conditions are prime for a self-aware species to flourish intellectually via the evolution of ideas.

I was at a medical ethics lecture at University this morning, ethics being a philosophical subject which I’m quite passionate about, and afterwards while I was driving home, I developed this long, introspective, psuedo-stream of consciousness, pseudo-Kantian line of reasoning regarding my own views on the matter. I told myself to scribble it all down as soon as I got home, and now I can’t remember any of it. I hate when that happens. Although I can quite easily put it down to the fact that I’ve been up since 5am, ie *checks clock* for 20 1/2 hours. No wonder I’m rabbiting on about bullshit. *falls off chair*

You can add Terminator 3 to that list I started below. I thought it was pretty good, better than Minority Report, even though the writing was pretty dumb, it was so briskly paced that it never let you dwell on the bad one-liner they just dropped. I may seem really deep, introspective and philosophical, but a really cool action scene can have me grinning like an idiot, and the car-chase fell into that category. I mean seriously, how much shit did they smash up? And when the front of the crane gets crushed into the road and flips over? Too cool! I liked the bleak Strangelove-esque ending as well. Hey, it wasn’t The Conversation, or even Terminator 2 for that matter, but I can honestly say that I wasn’t disappointed by an overhyped movie this year, a rare plus in this day and age. Mind you, I’ve had a massive crush on Claire Danes ever since I first saw her in Romeo + Juliet, so maybe I’m just biased.

You explain to them that your car doesn’t have power steering like she’s used to in mum’s car, but does that make a difference? You inform them that your brake is far more responsive than the bass pedal in mum’s car, but does that change a thing? Hey, I’m not being unfair, I remember what it was like to have this massive monstrosity which seemed milliseconds from being completely out of your control, and I mounted the gutter once or twice, but fuck, I never ACCELERATED WHEN I WAS SUPPOSED TO BRAKE. “OK, now turn right here. Remember, you have to put some effort into it, you can’t just zip around like in the station-wagon. Turn turn turn brake brake BRAKE!!” KA-THUD. Funny looks from the old crones in the white 4-wheel drive behind us as they squeeze past. Open the door, check the front passenger side tyre for damage, none present. “OK, now SLOWLY turn off the gutter, I don’t want to lose a hubcap as well.” We get home without incident. It’s only later on that I realise I have to have the steering wheel at about 35 degrees to keep the car straight. Bugger. And it’s a real bastard because wheel and steering alignment isn’t something you can do manually, well not legally anyway. Oh well, I’ll get my parents to cough up the money to pay for it. And I now have a water-tight argument for saying “No, you’re not driving my car anymore.”

“Hey, you know in Attack of the Clones when-” “I haven’t seen it.” “What?” “I haven’t seen it.” “Oh. Why not?” “I dunno, I just haven’t. Why, is it really that important?”

…

“Hey, you know in Minority Report when-” “I haven’t seen it.” “Huh?” “I haven’t seen it.” “What’s wrong with you?” “Nothing’s wrong with me! I just haven’t seen it.”

Lawyers for the Bali bomber Amrozi say they will appeal the death sentence handed down to their client yesterday.

The court said Amrozi - who had confessed to involvement in the bombings - was legally responsible for an act of terrorism which claimed more than 200 lives.

The verdict and sentence were greeted by loud cheers in the courtroom, where many Australian survivors of the blast and relatives of victims had waited for the outcome.

The defiant Amrozi smiled when the court pronounced him guilty but was expressionless and shifted in his chair when the judge handed down the death sentence.

He clenched his fists, punched the air in triumph and smiled as police led him from the courtroom after the sentence was passed.

Must mean that daylight savings is finally over. And all is right with the world again. Mostly.

I was flicking around late night tv yesterday and found that this was on. *heart* Sure, some of the acting is fairly ordinary, and a few of the lines are pretty trite, but put it in perspective. This movie was made 70 years ago. 70 years ago. And yet I still find the claymation-esque monkey/snake fight more exciting and absorbing than any stupid fucking CGI bombing of Pearl Harbour.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has expressed his opposition to gay marriage, saying the institution should be about ensuring the survival of the species.

Mr Howard says his comments are not an attack on gay people but are a strong statement in support of the central role of traditional marriage in Australia.

Mr Howard says marriage is one of society’s bedrock institutions and he does not want to see anything weaken it.

“Marriage as we understand it in our society is about children, having children, raising them, providing for the survival of the species,” he said.

“And I think if the same status is given in our society to gay unions as are given to traditional marriage we will weaken that bedrock institution.”