“Rabbits, of course, have no idea of precise time or of punctuality. In this respect they are much the same as primitive people, who often take several days over assembling for some purpose and then several more to get started. Before such people can act together, a kind of telepathic feeling has to flow through them and ripen to the point when they all know that they are ready to begin.”- Watership Down
“One watch succeeded another through the day, though how the rabbits judged the passing of the time is something that civilized human beings have lost the power to feel.”- Watership Down
I am continuing to think about the ideas of fatalism and free will, it is like an onion with its many layers. I was also thinking about Einstein and relativity some more, and how his theories brought so much to science, yet one of the greatest ideas he proposes is that the world as we perceive it limits our understanding of the laws of physics, as our observations on the planet are bound by the gravity, velocity and point of observation of where we are, that we cannot be limited by our suppositions that are based on our observations because the functioning of our world is reflective only of those elements present here. It shows how challenging it is to think abstractly of such concepts, with the early programming of our "hard drives" laid down so densely during our formative years and the compressing of files to make more space occurring only in the later entries.
Click on the "driving into face" picture for link to Craig's page with many philosphy links, including one to Houston Smith- thought I would comment on one area in the Smith writings: "These belief do suffer from a philosophical problem of religious determinism - If Allah is omniscient (in the sense that Allah knows the future), then in what sense can humans be free? Without freedom, it would seem that we are not to be held responsible for our actions or lack of beliefs. " Of course he points out that other religions suffer from this same "philosophic problem". However, I see no philisophic contradiction inherit in this type of supposition, it is similar to Einstein's relativity laws that indicate that all time exists at the same time, which is where the idea of time travel gets some legitimacy. This does not preclude free will, in my mind, simply because the individual's path has been completed does not mean that he had not made decisions as he traveled along the path. The conceptual problem is conceiving of time existing all at once, and when you come to terms abstractly with this, there is no conflict between the idea of free will and your actions in a sense already being determined, because your actions that lead to the predetermination still preceeded the ending. Hmmm, sometimes my explanations confoud and befuddle, yet they make sense to me. Whatever your response is to my logic (if it can be called that), it is incorrect unless you are agreeing with me.
Eaton Rapids High School, Michigan
Left: 9th grade, 1966-1967
Right: 10th grade, 1967-1968
Time flies....
The lovely Sherry Roth............................and...Ralph Rei............and....Maureen George
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4/19/02: Everett Work Group Reunion Party Pictures
The Catholic Church. In the headlines a lot these days. What's the deal? If priests have sex with multiple adult women, are they simply chastised and sent to another parish? Not likely, they more likely are viewed as heretical and removed from the priesthood, because the offense to God is very serious. If priests have sex with mulitple children, they are viewed as not understanding their vow of celibacy, sent to counseling, transferred to a new parish. The offense to God is of a lesser caliber than that of having sex with adult women. Is it possible that the Catholic Church's upper echelon has a perverted view of sex and its normal role in human life? Didn't Jesus love the little children- providing them with care, not sex? What happened to protecting the children?
A few months ago my friend Rev. Will asked me: "Where do you go for hope in the face of difficulty?" I said: "I find strength in myself and in my connection to what I feel is god. I look for insight in all spiritual belief systems, not believing that any one is the only way or that god has limited peoples' ability to connect to only those of one faith, and I believe that people pervert their faiths with dogmatism that is often contrary to their own teachings. I believe that god has sent many messengers to deliver teachings to the world in many ways so that all may find at least one way home".
Italics added for emphasis... take care.
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Sometimes we meet someone and there is an instant connection. What/where does that come from? Do they remind you of someone else you have known? Is it that "chemistry" thing? Deja vue? Familiar mannerisms? Maybe someone from a prior lifetime?
There is a new man in my life... the connection was instant... he comes to visit me regularly, wanting to be let in. But I don't let him in, I am not ready and he is too risky- too "manly", marking his territory...
The Good Earth, it is the same book I read many year ago in my teens, simply a novel- a story of the life of a Chinese man as he matures in rural China in the first half of the 20th century. Pearl S. Buck grew up in China, her parents were missionaries, and so her tale is authentic. The book I read had several reviews in it from when it was written in the early 1930s and they were interesting to read, as they concentrated on how she brings the culture of China to the West and how accurate her portrayals are, etc. Which is very curious to me because the thing of value that I saw in this book when I was young is also the thing of value I see in it now, which is not its authentic portrayal of Chinese culture in the early 1900s but its study of family, of universal family themes: how the generations hold different things to be of value, how, no matter what you do, your children will grow up differently than yourself and feel differently about the world and their place in it, because the world is different for each generation. That is why I had thought of the book in recent years, seeing what a different world my children have from that I knew as a child.
Click the picture of Pearl S. Buck to go to a site about her and her works; she was an extraordinary woman of her times.
One last, of the many, April birthdays-
Happy Birthday Don!
Have Another Good Year!
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