05 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Alien Plot to Invade the Earth: First Undermine Faith in ...
“Given a time gap of forty thousand hours, the strategic value of any traditional tactics of war or terror is insignificant, and they can recover from them. To effectively contain a civilization’s development and disarm it across such a long span of time, there is only one way: kill its science.”
The science consul said, “The plan focuses on emphasizing the negative environmental effects of scientific development and showing signs of supernatural power to the population of Earth. In ... 1 
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notes21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Science was Inconvenient for Religion
Science’s contributions to the spread of disbelief is the least controversial segment of the virtuous cycle for which I am arguing in seventeenth-century Europe. For science’s methods are clearly troublesome for religion. The devout, to begin with, are not wont to view their precepts merely as propositions to be controverted or confirmed. The orthodox, as a rule, are used to arguments being settled by authority, not experiment. The hope belief offers does not always stand up well to obser... 1 notes
notesAs scientific knowledge grew it revealed knowledge that conflicted with scripture.
24 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Rationalists and Scientists are Allies
Religion is still parasitic in the interstices of our knowledge which have not yet been filled. Like bed-bugs in the cracks of walls and furniture, miracles lurk in the lacunae of science. The scientist plasters up these cracks in our knowledge; the more militant Rationalist swats the bugs in the open. Both have their proper sphere and they should realize that they are allies. 1 notes
notesOne plasters the god-of-the-gaps with knowledge, the other swats the bugs that come through.
25 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
Prayer is Silent Observation
Learning to pray, then as I understand it, is learning to listen with the mind and the heart – making oneself attentive to each exquisite detail of the world. It is a fearsome exhilarating task, best suited to solitude and silence. Such prayers are answered not with miracles tagged with our names, or those of our loved ones, but with beauty and terror. For the prayerful listener, the world becomes the sublime scripture, full of stories of structure and chaos, law and chance, complexificatio...Folksonomies: observation prayer
Folksonomies: observation prayer
1 notes
notesSimply looking at the world for what it is and what it has to tell us.
05 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Disproving Miracles
A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined. Why is it more than probable, that all men must die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the air; that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless it be, that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and t...Folksonomies: natural law miracle
Folksonomies: natural law miracle
1 notes
notesBy definition, it is a violation of the laws of nature. Where do we see this happen ever?
12 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Greatest Enemies of the Gospels are Their Believers
The truth is that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of ...Jefferson was very skeptical of the Gospels, which he felt were perverted with miracles that diluted the reformer's message.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Dr. Victor Frankenstein Inspired by Science
‘The ancient teachers of this science,’ said he, ‘promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of Nature, and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heav... 1 notes
notesScience promises the secrets of the Universe, Shelley makes it sound like a dark art.
10 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The Efforts and Rewards of Naturalism
One day I buried myself, prone, in the muck
of a muskrat house. While my clothes
absorbed local color, my eyes absorbed the
lore of the marsh. A hen redhead cruised by
with her convoy of ducklings, pink-billed
fluffs of greenish-golden down. A Virginia
rail nearly brushed my nose. The shadow of
a pelican sailed over a pool in which a
yellow-leg alighted with warbling whistle; it
occurred to me that whereas I write a poem
by dint of mighty cerebration, the yellow-leg
walks a better one just by...
1 This passage describes the lengths the naturalist will go to in order to witness nature's miracles.
03 APR 2011 by ideonexus
The Intangible Nature of a Superstition Makes it Irrefutable
Fable should be taught as fable, myth as myth, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truth is horrifying. The mind of a child accepts them and only through great pain, perhaps tragedy, can the child be relieved of them. Men will fight for superstition as quickly as for the living truth -- even more so, since a superstition is intangible, you can't get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, as so is changeable.
~ Hypatia of Alexandria (370 - 415 BC)1 
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notesA superstition cannot even be falsified.
03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Miracles Should be Investigated to Improve Upon Them
Now, it might be true that astrology is right. It might be true that if you go to the dentist on the day that Mars is at right angles to Venus, that it is better than if you go on a different day. It might be true that you can be cured by the miracle of Lourdes. But if it is true it ought to be investigated. Why? To improve it. If it is true then maybe we can find out if the stars do influence life; that we could make the system more powerful by investigating statistically, scientifically jud... 1 notes
notesIf there are miracles, then we should investigate them in order to figure out how to make them better, in order to figure out how to best take advantage of them.
