Number 94 : November 1998 |
I am in a world of shit at present. It’s all change on the everything front and I'm none too pleased with any of it. The bonus is that you may be spared my vitriol for a while, at least in part. This outing then just a few paragraphs by way of reply and comment - all to do with C93 and previous.
Theo (C93/26) : I think our views on abortion aren't so radically different there's much to gain arguing the toss. Maybe with ongoing developments and the odd technical breakthrough it'll be obsolete one day. Until then though I can but foam a bit when the "Right to Life" brigade start steaming in with all sorts of unwholesome nonsense. Not, I suppose, that they like my views any the better.
Re. "Creation Myths" (C93/27) - it's not that the "scientific" ones seem especially "extraordinary" compared to religious ones. Just that and they don't really tell us a great deal more. The tricks are the same - avoid the issues, dismiss difficult questions as irrelevant or irreverent and state the obvious ("Here we are" ).
Like, is there really so much difference between quantum soup and the primeval waters, or between quantum fluctuation and things just sort of popping up out of the Void ?
Kevin Arbuthnot (C93/10) : " ... thin, but very necessary, veil of the social contract ... "? More of a hypocrisy than a necessity in my opinion. If there was irony in my previous comments it was more in what's out there than how I described it.
Albert Dean (C93/18) : Believe me Albert I know what's in the trees.
Since I hold to a sort of "free will over limited options" view I, broadly, agree with a fair bit of what you seemed to be saying though I'm not sure about the "command" bit. Unless you're setting "the free-will" as "commander", with options limited by troop quality, supplies and resources, terrain, strength of enemy, etc.
Nor am I convinced that free-will is a terminal or objective, more of a means towards one. It's not something one reaches, but something one has (or hasn't should "Hard Determinism" rule).
Graham Dare (C93/35) : I once knew somebody who was allergic to lamb.
Me, I'll eat just about anything - and I've no scruples about seeing the whole process through from field to table. Only it's not always entirely practical, excepting things like rabbits, wildfowl, fish etc. - which can itself lead to all sorts of fun with farmers, landowners, gamekeepers and water-bailiffs.
Stef Gula