A Daily Occurrence At My House

"I could be arguing in my spare time...."says The Rationalist.

Twittering

Joined Twitter.  Apparently, I don't waste enough time online.  I had to put more effort into it.

http://twitter.com/terri987

Let me know if you want to be my friend...or a follower. 

 I'm trying to amass enough followers to start my own cult.

I'm already scoping out compounds and trying to pick cool outfits for us to wear.

There Is A God--some thoughts.

First off, I enjoyed the book overall.  My favorite part was the preface, and I am intrigued enough by Roy Abraham Varghese's writing to consider picking up some of his books.

The first chapter or so was somewhat dry as Antony Flew recounts his many contributions to philosophy and his role in promoting atheism. He's setting the stage to pre-emptively disarm those who doubt his former sincerity as an atheistic philosopher, or think he hasn't fully considered the philosophical options.  

The most striking thing about Flew's "conversion" to acknowledging the existence of God is his complete honesty and the humility he is willing to show in "following the argument wherever it leads." I dare say most atheists, and many Christians, wouldn't be so open and humble in re-evaluating some of their longstanding assumptions/presumptions about the existence/non-existence of God.

I'd recommend the book to anyone who has begun exploring the common philosophical arguments between atheists and theists, and who is familiar with the basic ideas involved in such arguments.

So...what led Flew to this reversal?

Flew's primary motivation can be partly categorized as a recognition of the Argument from Design; the complexity of the universe, DNA, and the immutable laws of Nature communicate a rationality which springs forth from a superior Mind, as he calls it. He quotes several scientists in this area, such as Einstein, Schrodinger, Planck and even Stephen Hawking, revealing their sense of the ultimate guiding force of the universe as one of rationality and purpose.

He has several good quotes from Einstein, who while not "religious" in the sense that most people would understand the word, possessed a definite sense of mystery and wonder attributable to this "superior Mind" which seemed to form the laws of Nature.

One of the Einstein quotes:

Everyone who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the experience of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.

another one:

My religiosity consists of a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

Flew makes an important distinction between science and philosophy and the ability to come to conclusions about the existence of God.  This is significant because it pinpoints the Achilles heel in the arguments made by someone like Dawkins, or PZ Meyers, who attempt to use scientific advancements as refutations of the existence of God. Ultimately they are using data and interpreting the results into a philosophical argument, not a scientific argument.

Flew says it best:

You might ask how I, a philosopher, could speak to issues treated by scientists.  The best way to answer this is with another question. Are we engaging in science or philosophy here? When you study the interaction of two physical bodies, for instance, two subatomic particles, you are engaged in science. When you ask how it is that those subatomic particles--or anything physical--could exist and why, you are engaged in philosophy. When you draw philosophical conclusions from scientific data, then you are thinking like a philosopher.

He goes further:

Of course, scientists are just as free to think as philosophers as anyone else. And, of course, not all scientists will agree with my particular interpretation of the facts they generate. But their disagreements will have to stand on their own two philosophical feet. In other words, neither their authority nor their expertise as scientists is of any relevance. This should be easy to see. If they present their views on the economics of science, such as making claims about the number of jobs created by science and technology, they will have to make their case in the court of economic analysis. Likewise, a scientist who speaks as a philosopher will have to furnish a philosophical case.  As Albert Einstein himself said, "The man of science is a poor philosopher."

I was surprised that some of Flew's reasons for believing in the existence of God were already intimately known by me, and are perhaps the strongest cases that I myself have made to people when discussing this subject. The main points of contention lay in three important areas: First Cause--from where did the universe come?; Life itself--how does matter suddenly become alive, self-replicating and purpose-driven towards survival and consciousness?; the complexity and organization of Nature--one can't break nature's laws.

The book didn't cover any new ground for me.  I didn't discover a new way of thinking about God's existence, but I have read several books in this vein, so that wasn't surprising. However, I think the most enlightening points in the book are rooted in Flew's  case that philosophically speaking, many atheistic scientists are deficient in their refutation of God's existence.

There's still more rolling around in my head...so I might come back to this in a few days.

Plumbing Drama, Day 2 and 3

Yesterday, the plumbers arrived at 7 am and didn't leave until 10:30 pm.  It was an exhausting day and I wasn't even the one doing the manual labor.

Apparently, the plumbing company hired the three stooges to work for them, minus one stooge. That is not to say that they were incompetent, but that I swore that at any moment a fist fight was going to break out.  Lots of yelling.  Lots of name-calling.  Lots of mumbling under their breath at one another.  All that was missing was Curly's "woo..woo..woo" and "nyuck...nyuck...nyuck" and Moe's signature slap to the head of whomever was closest to him.

The senior plumber kept taunting the younger one calling him a little girl, stupid, idiot...etc.  It was breathtaking how much of a jerk he was being.  What made it funnier/worse is that the younger one would let the curse words fly when he became frustrated.  The senior, emotionally abusive, plumber would then tell the younger one to watch his language.  I guess in his economy yelling, "F@ck" at a pipe is worse than insulting another's manhood and constantly berating him throughout the day.

Most of these tantrums took place when the plumbers thought I wasn't around or couldn't hear them, but sound carries through the ventilation shafts when you're in the attic yelling at the top of your lungs.  By the end of the day I was happy to see them go.  They were always very nice when speaking to me, but the tension between the two of them had me frazzled.

My reward for listening to their bickering for 2 days was a hot shower after they left.  

We now have water!  Not only do we have water, but it is actually contained in pipes and not running out all over the floor or inside walls.  It's a joyous occasion

The plumbing inspector is supposed to swing by today to check everything out and make sure it's up to code. After that, we have to repair several holes in the drywall. 

We have vaulted ceilings and when the house was built, at the normal ceiling height, two 2 x 4 boards were laid horizontally from which the vaulted part of the house was built upwards.  This meant that the plumbers couldn't slide pipes down the walls, because the walls were blocked off.  They had to open the walls, drill holes through the 2 x 4's and then slide the pipes through the holes. This contributed to the already foul mood between them as they tried to snake a pipe with a diameter about the size of a quarter down several feet from the attic and through a similarly sized hole.  It was a two-person job, requiring teamwork, so you can imagine how that went.

Here's hoping I never have to call another plumber for a very long time.

Mel Gibson Embarks on a New Career

He won't say much about it but sources close to the actor/director say he has been investing in  "special" herbs and spices....eleven by last count.

Stranger still, are the reports that he is forming some sort of competitive racing league

Spokespeople for the actor declined to comment.

Breaking News..we missed the apocalypse!!

But don't worry....we'll have more chances to die in a fiery asteroid/earth collision in the future.

Have a nice day.

There Is A God

While wandering through Barnes and Noble this morning, trying to see if they had this book (which I am going to order soon) in stock, I found another one of interest to me; There Is No A God; how the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind.   It's written by Antony Flew who apparently was the world's most notorious atheist.  

It must be true; the cover of the book says so itself.

Actually, I had already heard of Antony Flew, and his supposed change of mind about the existence of God, several years ago.  I filed it away in my head just in case I might need to retrieve it someday, like when I go on Jeopardy and astound the world with my incredible trivia skills.

I picked up the book and used my arbitrary selection method of reading material.  I open halfway through the book, read a few paragraphs and if it's interesting and engaging, I'll read it.

I opened the book to Chapter 4, A Pilgrimage of Reason, pages 85-86...and this is what I read:

Let us begin with a parable. Imagine that a satellite phone is washed ashore on a remote island inhabited by a tribe that has never had contact with modern civilization. The natives play with the numbers on the dial pad and hear different voices upon hitting certain sequences. They assume first that it's the device that makes the noises. Some of the cleverer natives, the scientists of the tribe, assemble an exact replica and hit the numbers again. They hear the voices again. The conclusion seem obvious to them. This particular combination of crystals and metals and chemicals produces what seems like human voices and this means that the voices are simply properties of the device

But the tribal sage summons the scientists for a discussion. He has thought long and hard on the matter and has reached the following conclusion: the voices coming through the instrument must be coming from people like themselves, people who are living and conscious although speaking in another language. Instead of assuming that the voices are simply properties  of the handset, they should investigate the possibility  that through some mysterious communication network they are in touch with other humans. Perhaps further study  along these lines could lead to a greater understanding of the world beyond their island. But the scientists simply laugh at the sage and say: "Look, when we damage the instrument, the voices stop coming.  So they're obviously nothing more than the sounds produced  by a unique combination of lithium and printed circuit boards and light-emitting diodes."

I was hooked.

Having some spare time before I had to leave for an appointment, I plunked myself into an overstuffed chair, flipped to the beginning of the book and read the preface written by Roy Abraham Varghese.  It was a delight! He hit so many points square on the head in reference to the "New Atheism", which has become so prevalent in the last few years.  I silently nodded my head while reading, yelling inside my head,"Yes!  That's exactly right!"  He addresses, in those few pages, several deficiencies in Richard Dawkins's, The God Delusion, which the disappointingly anemic The Dawkins Delusion, by Alistar McGrath, never touches upon.

My two very brief readings compelled me to buy the book, rather than merely borrow it from the library. I'm looking forward to reading more of it in the next few days.

Expect to hear more about it soon.

Plumbing Drama, Day One

Right now there are two grown men crawling through my attic, trying to snake PVC pipes down through our walls in order to bring an end to the tyranny wielded over us by our copper pipes.

Earlier, an hour into the project, we heard the word no homeowner ever wants to hear..."Oops!"

Um, yeah.  That's not where that pipe was supposed to go.

Overheard

Two boys wrestle and giggle under the covers of Mom and Dad's bed, hiding in their superhero fortress.

"Stop!  What are you doing?"

"I'm just hugging you."

"Batman does not hug Superman!!"

Wikipedia Names Your Band Meme

HT to BlogHer Post, The Meme That Ate The Internet's Brain

The Rules:

Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band.

Then go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

Then, go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Use an image editor to make your band's album cover. I used Photobucket.

Post an image of your band's album cover.

Here's my first album. Rock on!

A First For The Rationalist

The Intuitive Monkey has been very sick for the last few days; high fevers, chills, a cough...etc. Naturally, he's missed school.  The first day he missed, he felt well enough for us to go pick up The Rationalist and bring him home. The wonder of Children's Tylenol had eased his discomfort for a few hours.

Yesterday, as the time to pick up The Rationalist approached, Monkey had a high fever and was laying on the couch in a sound sleep.  He was beat.  I didn't want to wake him and wasn't sure he could handle a thirty minute wait to pick up his brother in the car-rider line at school.  I called DH at the last minute to see if he could make it in time to get The Rationalist, but he was in the middle of a meeting and couldn't get there before school was dismissed.

So, I held my breath, called the school and told them to let The Rationalist walk home on his own. We live about half a mile from the school. It's a pretty straight shot lined with crossing guards and other children walking home. We've walked it many times together. He is almost nine years old.  Still, it was with great trepidation that I made the call.  

I asked the office to let me speak with him and ran down the long list of things not to do.  I told him if he wasn't home by 2:30, 15 minutes after school was out, I would be freaking out and worried.  I told him not to get in anyone's car, not to go with anyone anywhere, not to go down streets that weren't the normal streets we walk, to look both ways before crossing the one street without a crossing guard, to wait after school for Mark, whom we normally give a ride to or walk with, and walk with him, because it's safer to walk in groups....etc., etc.

He mind-numbingly said,"ok...uh-huh...all right...," to all of my cautions.

At 2:25 I walked out my door to look down the street and was greatly relieved to see his sweaty, happy self running home, safe and sound, with a big grin on his face.  He was very pleased with himself.

"Can I walk home on my own tomorrow too?"

All of my worries eased and the nervous clenching in my chest subsided.  He was OK.  He could be trusted.  He came through for his family when we needed him to be responsible and make good choices.

Score one for The Rationalist.

see more puppies

Wheat Among Tares School of Culinary Instruction, Tip #7

You're not really cooking if you haven't set off the smoke detectors.

Empathy

Each of my children has had particular moments of sympathy and empathy.  They have both, of their own volition, at one point or another, given all of their money to causes through church, such as feeding the poor. These are not small sums to a 7 or 8 year-old child.  Fifteen dollars might as well be a thousand in their minds.

I'm always encouraged when these little bits of empathy spark into view.  It soothes me when I am dealing with their sometimes bratty, selfish behavior towards one another and assures me that they are growing into kind people.

Last night, while watching The Biggest Loser again(I know..I know...not exactly ground-breaking, intellectual TV) a few of the contestants were very emotional.  Their teams were being split up and one team in particular, a father and son, was greatly affected.  They were both in tears.

I didn't think much of it.  Cynic that I am, my first thought was ,"Get over it already!"

Later on, as I tucked The Rationalist into bed, covering him with his patchwork, monkey-decorated quilt, he confided in me:

"I felt like I was going to cry when we were watching that show."

I was proud of him, not because I want him to cry, but because it revealed an ability to care about people he had never met.  

I comforted him and reassured him that the father and son would be OK; not to worry about them.

I shared that sometimes movies, or television, can make me cry too.

Reassured that his feelings were normal, he hugged me and hid under the covers as I left him to sleep.

Watching them mature and evolve has got to be one the best things about mothering these rowdy children.

Home Is Where the Money Goes

So my house has been in a drawn-out conspiracy to slowly break my spirit, regularly employing my appliances in the vicious scheme.  

My bubble-gum repair, which is amazingly still holding up after almost a week has gone by, is a cry for help in the battle of home ownership. Desperate times; desperate measures and all that.

Tomorrow I have the privilege of having several plumbers come and give me estimates for re-plumbing our house in anything other than copper pipes. I'd take a Roman aqueduct as a replacement at this point.  

To add to the fun, just before the latest leak, my washing machine decided to break....not all the way, mind you. No, it still works, but only on medium loads.....every other Monday. It refuses to spin consistently, waiting until Venus and Mercury are properly aligned before choosing to put forth an effort. It's like my first car; it functions, but you have to know all the secrets and tricks to get it going. It's useless in inexperienced hands.

The most frustrating thing for me is rooted firmly in my own superficiality.  For several years I have been wanting to update our house; new sofa, repainting outside and in, redo the bathrooms..etc.  I've wanted to make our home more like Better Homes and Gardens, and less like Hand-Me-Down Chic.  I resent having to spend so much money on practical things like roofs, air conditioners, and new plumbing.  I want hard-wood floors and a new sofa, not PVC pipes.

Yet, every time I get to the point of moving forward with a home improvement project, instead of home repair projects, one of these "events" happens.  It's like the house is secretly listening to my plans and finds ways to divert the resources for its own structural good, leaving my grandiose decorating plans in the dust.

At any moment I expect to see the walls breathing like all the houses in the numerous B horror movies I watched as a child....Amityville eyes and all.