I receive a daily quote along with a word of the day in my email from wordsmith.org. These little snippets of wisdom give me a few moment of quiet reflection so I look forward to them with an almost religious fervour. ;)
Here is today’s:
Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination as a zebra. Apparently it does not occur to nature whether or not a creature is within our range of vision, and the suspicion arises that even the zebra was not designed for our benefit.
- Rudolf Arnheim, psychologist and author (1904-2007)
It reminded me of the furore over Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The idea of an designer implies that the creation has a purpose. Religion makes the claim that the creation is directly for the benefit of God’s faithful. I know that it’s not just me who thinks that this is incredibly arrogant and conceited. If we are the product of some kind of divine creator then so is a zebra and so is the humblest of insects. Why should humans as a species receive such special favour above any other animal?
Posted in Jason | 4 Comments »I was planning on writing a long post about how atheism can be positive. The word is a negative after all: not a believer in gods. Atheists like me define that aspect of ourselves that relate to religion as a denial. We are not religious.
I was going to write about how atheism can be positive in the same way that anti-war or disarmament can be positive. We deny the negative aspects of religion (intolerance, persecution, deferment of opinion, belief without supporting evidence, living for an afterlife rather than a life, etc) along with the positive ones (social group, shared interests, support structure, affirmation of belief, loving your enemies, etc).
I was going to write about the time I have to myself and my family by not spending that precious time in religious observance.
I was going to do all this but it snowed today so we spent the Sunday morning having snowball fights and laughing uproariously. Then we enjoyed a delicious family meal and spent some quality time together as a family. I think that atheism can wait for another day.
Posted in Jason | 10 Comments »Kate Winslet in Extras.
More British humour. This time with nuns.