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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grandk who wrote (19762)	3/24/2005 6:53:53 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

The atheist mindset also embraces a true form of resurection, the resurection of information in generations of reproducing systems and organisms. It's not the harps and clouds of some different astral plane, but a continuation of life in our very own universe. TP

To: Grandk who wrote (19762)	3/24/2005 7:02:27 PM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

"You have embraced death so completely and totally that you no longer fear it. You are simply waiting for it." It is definitely waiting for me! What I have embraced (and I have tried over and over again to make clear) is LIFE. Death can come at any moment. The flesh of the mind (our trillions of neurons) is our "life". When the mind is gone, our remaining life is meaningless. At death, the neurons die along with all the other tissue. The body then decomposes over time and enters the soil where the elements are used to nourish the growth of new life such as tomatoes or lichen or asparagus. As Lucretius said: "Life goes on; it is the lives, the lives, that die..."

To: Grandk who wrote (19762)	4/7/2005 5:02:39 PM
From: Solon	Respond to of 28931

You must remember what Lewis Carroll knew--that meeting with a "Boojum" will cause you to vanish away. But there is nothing to fear in death or unconsciousness. You have been dead forever...almost. We only fear the "Boojum" when we are alive and aware. Once you have "vanished"--you will have nothing to fear whatsoever. It is strange how people feel the need to anchor their sanity and meaning around one or another mystical dogma. Life is short. If you miss it, you miss it. Therefore, choose life... And of what true value is a life lived in eery superstition? "They roused him with muffins--they roused him with ice-- They roused him with mustard and cress-- They roused him with jam and judicious advice-- They set him conundrums to guess. When at length he sat up and was able to speak, His sad story he offered to tell; And the Bellman cried "Silence! Not even a shriek!" And excitedly tingled his bell. There was silence supreme! Not a shriek, not a scream, Scarcely even a howl or a groan, As the man they called "Ho!" told his story of woe In an antediluvian tone. "My father and mother were honest, though poor--" "Skip all that!" cried the Bellman in haste. "If it once becomes dark, there`s no chance of a Snark-- We have hardly a minute to waste!" "I skip forty years," said the Baker, in tears, "And proceed without further remark To the day when you took me aboard of your ship To help you in hunting the Snark. "A dear uncle of mine (after whom I was named) Remarked, when I bade him farewell--" "Oh, skip your dear uncle!" the Bellman exclaimed, As he angrily tingled his bell. "He remarked to me then," said that mildest of men, " `If your Snark be a Snark, that is right: Fetch it home by all means--you may serve it with greens, And it`s handy for striking a light. " `You may seek it with thimbles--and seek it with care; You may hunt it with forks and hope; You may threaten its life with a railway-share; You may charm it with smiles and soap--` " ("That`s exactly the method," the Bellman bold In a hasty parenthesis cried, "That`s exactly the way I have always been told That the capture of Snarks should be tried!") " `But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day, If your Snark be a Boojum! For then You will softly and suddenly vanish away, And never be met with again!` "It is this, it is this that oppresses my soul, When I think of my uncle`s last words: And my heart is like nothing so much as a bowl Brimming over with quivering curds! "It is this, it is this--" "We have had that before!" The Bellman indignantly said. And the Baker replied "Let me say it once more. It is this, it is this that I dread! "I engage with the Snark--every night after dark-- In a dreamy delirious fight: I serve it with greens in those shadowy scenes, And I use it for striking a light: "But if ever I meet with a Boojum, that day, In a moment (of this I am sure), I shall softly and suddenly vanish away-- And the notion I cannot endure!""