“…stories dramatize ideas and truths that we all intuitively recognize. Although these stories are not exactly ‘true’, they nonetheless offer a kind of Truth that is more compelling than hard facts.” Rabbi Cary Friedman, ‘Wisdom from the Batcave‘ “Believe nothing, No matter where you read it, Or who has said it, Not even if I [...]
‘Of course the Chinese mix everything up – look at what they have to work with! Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoist alchemy and sorcery. We take what we want and leave the rest, just like your salad bar.’ Egg Shen in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble In Little China (Disclaimer: I am, to quote Jim Jarmush’s great [...]
‘ I’ve long been interested in “Occam’s Razor” — the scientific maxim that maintains that all things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the correct one. But who gets the honor of defining “simple”? It’s a lot like Carl Sagan’s “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” What, exactly, is “extraordinary”? “Extraordinary” to who? Are [...]
…and sometimes I just get downright pissed off. Please – if you are (as Stephen King put it in the Dark Tower series) ‘for the Jesus-man’, read the whole piece before throwing stones. (From 6 November 2006) Christianity is stupid (part of the xtianfuckwitwatch service) I have finally fucking well had enough. It’s time to [...]
This second rant, from 6 April 2006, is a good example of how I write, in that it’s got swearing and a certain degree of exasperation. But it comes from a good place, I hope… People of the Book, People of Books Or, Cat makes yet another attempt to explain the multi-model approach to belief. [...]