On Darwin and Witnesses
Thanks for your note, Duke. I'm looking forward to your comments.. but please restrict them to issues of logic, as I have. Discussions about virgin births, miracles, evolution, etc, really do seem like a waste of time to me. Much better to get to the heart of things, which is what I hope I've done with that simple little piece of logic.
Once one has accepted, by following the principles of logic, that Materialism is fatally flawed, then one must accept that Idealism of some sort must be 'True'. Then you can start digging deeper. That's what I did, anyway, and got surprisingly far.
On the question of the origin of life, do you remember (from the footnote in 'Scenes') that Darwin mentions 'The Creator' in all editions of 'Origin of Species' but the first? I'll quote the footnote in full, for the benefit of anyone else who reads this who might find it of interest…
*Quote: 'I may here premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself.' Charles Darwin: second sentence, Chapter 8, sixth (final and therefore definitive) edition of 'The Origin of Species'. Does this quotation surprise you at all? If it does, I wonder why? Might you have been previously misled?
And just for the record, Darwin mentions 'the Creator' (yes, with a capital), nine times in the final edition of 'Origins'. Check it yourself. But make sure you are reading the '6th, final' edition. There has been a recent flurry of re-prints of the first edition, the only one which does not mention 'the Creator'. Now why would anyone want to re-print the first and not the last edition?
(A quick test: turn to the last page of your copy of 'Origins'. If the last sentence, ie, the very last sentence of the whole world-shattering book, contains the phrase 'There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator …', then you have almost certainly got the 6th, final edition.. ie, Darwin's final thoughts on the whole matter of Evolution. If, on the either hand that sentence does not mention 'the Creator' you are holding a modern re-print of the first edition. I repeat.. why would anybody print Darwin's first thoughts on the matter, and not his final thoughts? And why would the editor not tell us that he'd done this? In other words, why is Darwin being systematically misrepresented in this matter? Write to Mr Dawkins and ask him!)
I used to find Jehovah Witnesses annoying, as I think you do, until I realised the simple truth that these people were going out of their way to do me what they considered to be a good turn. They were being kind! Me being ratty at them was no sort of way to respond to kindness!
Now I just thank them (quite genuinely) for their kindness and concern for me, and tell them I'm very happy with my own understanding of the universe. We part on very good terms, and quite right too.
I don't think you'll ever get anywhere engaging Witnesses in rational debate. They are driven by belief and not reason. They simply won't hear what you are trying to clarify, and can only give pre-packed answers, as will most other belief-people, who take their rules and paradigms en masse from a book. Reason-people are quite rare in the religious world, and are most likely, it seems to me, to be found among Buddhists.
But that's another story, eh!
Have a great weekend, Duke.
Once one has accepted, by following the principles of logic, that Materialism is fatally flawed, then one must accept that Idealism of some sort must be 'True'. Then you can start digging deeper. That's what I did, anyway, and got surprisingly far.
On the question of the origin of life, do you remember (from the footnote in 'Scenes') that Darwin mentions 'The Creator' in all editions of 'Origin of Species' but the first? I'll quote the footnote in full, for the benefit of anyone else who reads this who might find it of interest…
*Quote: 'I may here premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself.' Charles Darwin: second sentence, Chapter 8, sixth (final and therefore definitive) edition of 'The Origin of Species'. Does this quotation surprise you at all? If it does, I wonder why? Might you have been previously misled?
And just for the record, Darwin mentions 'the Creator' (yes, with a capital), nine times in the final edition of 'Origins'. Check it yourself. But make sure you are reading the '6th, final' edition. There has been a recent flurry of re-prints of the first edition, the only one which does not mention 'the Creator'. Now why would anyone want to re-print the first and not the last edition?
(A quick test: turn to the last page of your copy of 'Origins'. If the last sentence, ie, the very last sentence of the whole world-shattering book, contains the phrase 'There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator …', then you have almost certainly got the 6th, final edition.. ie, Darwin's final thoughts on the whole matter of Evolution. If, on the either hand that sentence does not mention 'the Creator' you are holding a modern re-print of the first edition. I repeat.. why would anybody print Darwin's first thoughts on the matter, and not his final thoughts? And why would the editor not tell us that he'd done this? In other words, why is Darwin being systematically misrepresented in this matter? Write to Mr Dawkins and ask him!)
I used to find Jehovah Witnesses annoying, as I think you do, until I realised the simple truth that these people were going out of their way to do me what they considered to be a good turn. They were being kind! Me being ratty at them was no sort of way to respond to kindness!
Now I just thank them (quite genuinely) for their kindness and concern for me, and tell them I'm very happy with my own understanding of the universe. We part on very good terms, and quite right too.
I don't think you'll ever get anywhere engaging Witnesses in rational debate. They are driven by belief and not reason. They simply won't hear what you are trying to clarify, and can only give pre-packed answers, as will most other belief-people, who take their rules and paradigms en masse from a book. Reason-people are quite rare in the religious world, and are most likely, it seems to me, to be found among Buddhists.
But that's another story, eh!
Have a great weekend, Duke.
posted by Chas Griffin at 1:58 pm
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