Kierkegaard - Concluding Unscientific Postscript

"Universe

Uni-verse

One verse"

-author unknown or is He?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers...nd_definitions

“The rational approach start from the idea that everything is explainable and that mystery is in some sense the enemy. This means that it prefers pejorative, and even wrong, answers to admitting its own lack of understanding.”
― Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge



Jeremy Narby is an anthropologist and writer. Narby grew up in Canada and Switzerland, studied history at the University of Canterbury, and received a doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University. Narby spent several years living with the Ashaninca in the Peruvian Amazon cataloging indigenous uses of rainforest resources to help combat ecological destruction. Narby has written three books, as well as sponsored an expedition to the rainforest for biologists and other scientists to examine indigenous knowledge systems and the utility of Ayahuasca in gaining knowledge. Since 1989, Narby has been working as the Amazonian projects director for the Swiss NGO, Nouvelle Planète.


More quotes from Narby:

“When I started reading the literature of molecular biology, I was stunned by certain descriptions. Admittedly, I was on the lookout for anything unusual, as my investigation had led me to consider that DNA and its cellular machinery truly were an extremely sophisticated technology of cosmic origin. But as I pored over thousands of pages of biological texts, I discovered a world of science fiction that seemed to confirm my hypothesis. Proteins and enzymes were described as 'miniature robots,' ribosomes were 'molecular computers,' cells were 'factories,' DNA itself was a 'text,' a 'program,' a 'language,' or 'data.' One only had to do a literal reading of contemporary biology to reach shattering conclusions; yet most authors display a total lack of astonishment and seem to consider that life is merely 'a normal physiochemical phenomenon.”
― Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge


“All the peoples in the world who talk of a cosmic serpent have been saying as much for millennia. He had not seen it because the rational gaze is forever focalized and can examine only one thing at a time. It separates things to understand them, including the truly complementary. It is the gaze of the specialist, who sees the fine grain of a necessarily restricted field of vision. ”
― Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

More quotes here:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quot..*******remy_Narby

I've never met a rational thinker who had a problem admitting they didn't understand something. I have, on the other hand, met many a religious person who claims to not only know the deepest secrets of this universe, but also a thing that stands apart from the cosmos and even what fate comes after it.

I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. ― Richard Feynman

Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceding generation ... Learn from science that you must doubt the experts. As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. - Richard Feynman

Just in case anyone thinks Richard Feynman is an exception...

If you wake up tomorrow morning thinking that saying a few Latin words over your pancakes is going to turn them into the body of Elvis Presley, you have lost your mind. But if you think more or less the same thing about a cracker and the body of Jesus, you’re just a Catholic. ― Sam Harris

“Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision… We can recognize here a shortcoming—in some circumstances serious—in our ability to understand the world. Characteristically, we seem compelled to project our own nature onto Nature… “Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy [of] the interposition of a deity,” Darwin wrote telegraphically in his notebook. “More humble and I think truer to consider him created from animals.”… We’re Johnny-come-latelies. We live in the cosmic boondocks. We emerged from microbes and muck. Apes are our cousins. Our thoughts and feelings are not fully under our own control. There may be much smarter and very different beings elsewhere. And on top of all this, we’re making a mess of our planet and becoming a danger to ourselves… The trapdoor beneath our feet swings open. We find ourselves in bottomless free fall… If it takes a little myth and ritual to get us through a night that seems endless, who among us cannot sympathize and understand?… We long to be here for a purpose, even though, despite much self deception, none is evident. The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life’s meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable… Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop… Our commonsense intuitions can be mistaken. Our preferences don’t count. We do not live in a privileged reference frame… If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal…” - Carl Sagan

“How can you have order in a state without religion? For, when one man is dying of hunger near another who is ill of surfeit, he cannot resign himself to this difference unless there is an authority which declares ‘God wills it thus.’ Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

“I wish all mankind had one neck so I could choke it”. - Carl Panorama

‘If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then—then what’s the
point of trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s
how I thought anyway. I always believed
the theory of evolution as truth, that we all
just came from the slime. When we, when
we died, you know, that was it, there is
nothing. . . ’ Jeffrey Dahmer,

It's Carl Panzram, not Panarama. (On a serial killer kick lately?)

The great thing about all the quotes and stuff about morals not existing is the irony. They couldn't of even been written without morals. There would be no society or writing without them. - Me

I like it.

People who believe in morals are no better than people who believe in God.

MMM

So writing = morals. Could you prove that?

If you want to talk about morality, do so in one of the other 5 threads currently on that topic.

Quote:

Napoleon Bonaparte had a strong belief in God, but he voiced many criticisms of organized religion.

He is frequently quoted as saying: "As for myself, I do not believe that such a person as Jesus Christ ever existed; but as the people are inclined to superstition, it is proper not to oppose them." However, other quotes by Napoleon indicate a strong belief in Jesus Christ. Possibly Napoleon's views changed over time, or possibly some quoted have been inaccurately attributed to him.

A number of quotes attributed to Napoleon indicate a utilitarian view of religion. "Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."; He also said: "Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich" (quoted from Robert Byrne, 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1988).

From: Ervin Shaw, "Napoleon Bonaparte: 'Emperor' to EMPEROR" webpage, posted circa 2000, latest addition 14 August 2005; in "Christian Testimonies" section of "The Truth . . . What Is It?" website (http://poptop.hypermart.net/testnapb.html; viewed 7 November 2005):

"I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity..." So says Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), emperor of France.
Napoleon expressed the following thoughts while he was exiled on the rock of St. Helena. There, the conqueror of civilized Europe had time to reflect on the measure of his accomplishments. He called Count Montholon to his side and asked him, "Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?" The count declined to respond. Napoleon countered:

Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man. . . . I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this is was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

Whatever else one may say in response, it is difficult to explain this away as mere eloquence. In fact, it was to counter mere eloquence and such artificial power that Napoleon said what he did. With unbelievable insight, he saw how Jesus Christ conquered. It was not by force, but by winning the heart.

-- from Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias, 2000, W. Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee...quoting from Henry Parry Liddon, Liddon's Bampton Lectures 1866 (London: Rivingtons, 1869), 148.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
-Galileo Galilei

"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself."
-Peter O'Toole.

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself."
-Richard Francis Burton

Alan Watts

Carlos Castaneda

Faulkner - Intruder in the Dust

"At this point, godless materialists might be cheering. If humans evolved strictly by mutation and natural selection, who needs God to explain us? To this, I reply: I do. The comparison of chimp and human sequences, interesting as it is, does not tell us what it is to be human. In my view, DNA sequence alone, even if accompanied by a vast trove of data on biological function, will never explain certain special human attributes, such as the knowledge of the Moral Law and the universal search for God. Freeing God from the burden of special acts of creation does not remove Him as the source of the things that make humanity special, and of the universe itself. It merely shows us something of how He operates."

Francis Collins, The Language of God, former head of the Human Genome Project and current head of the NIH

"Whatever gets you off, gets you off, you may be able to suppress these feelings, but whatever gets you off, gets you off"

“My perception is infinitely vast. I am the unbounded multiverse manifested in human form. I have gazed into the void and become one with the universal dark energy, and am now essentially a god. I am this planet's first prophet and emperor of the Infinite Empire, which will be called the New World Order, then the Galactic Empire, then surpass the power of the Guardians of the Universe, the Q Continuum, the Time Lords, the Monitors and even Azathoth the amorphous one, who bubbles and blasphemes at the center of infinity. I am beyond all Kardashev scales; I am the unity of all dualities; I am Satan; I am God; I am the Tao.” –Zenjedi