As soon as some Huxley starts talking about the veracity of the Christmas story, right away you know you've got a ping pong on your hands.
Silas: So, Huxley dude, do you remember Immaculate Conception in Biology 101?
Huxley: Uhhhh
Mixing faith and science is patently rubbish. There is no question for me in the value of science ... so long as it's good science, practiced correctly, etc. However, any idea that it explains Every Damn Thing is kind of a blind techno-fundamentalism that isn't particularly useful and isn't even good science. A scientist is open to anything no matter where you look for it. Maybe he wants to know if magnets attract alien souls from other planets. I'd say he would have a little difficulty getting funding for research but I understand he has to know.
Don't be too rough on your scientist when he insists there was no Star of Bethlehem, no Wise Men, etc, etc. Keep in mind he probably hasn't been laid in a year and they forced him to write the article because one gets printed every Christmas. (MNN: How much of the Nativity story is true?)
If you go after the story like a woodpecker trying to poke holes in it then, sure, you can do it. But what's the first thought when a woodpecker wakes you up at the crack of dawn for the thirteenth day in a row with that damn noise. Yah, wring its damn neck is the first thought.
Note: if you've never been graced by the presence of a woodpecker in your life, be thankful. They are louder than a machine gun and I've heard both. Even a .50 cal isn't that loud ... but much cooler to watch.
There hasn't been some Christmas conversion in me except insofar I've been highly determined not to disrespect it, for your sake and for mine. It's not my way to avoid offense but at the same time it's not my purpose to create it gratuitously.
I didn't know until today that it's something of a Jewish tradition to eat Chinese food at Christmas. The Mystery Lady and I did it because no other restaurants were open and who wants to cook up a huge feast for just two. She isn't even close to a pagan ... well, except insofar as she was sitting next to me; there just wasn't anywhere else to go and what good is a day off if you just work more.
It's well into Christmas Eve in Germany now as it comes up on 2100 which is 'right about narn' in Texan or nearly nine o'clock in English. Second Life has you looking around the world all the time and it's a delicious perspective. Cat and I don't use German too much and the biggest driver for learning is talking to people at the MusikCircus where they may be speaking any of four or five languages. She's good but she doesn't know all of them and I just tumble along with Google Translate at my side.
So Christmas Eve has arrived for some of you already and it's coming for the rest. From all of us here on the Search for Ithaka production team (i.e. me), we wish you:
MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH NO WOODPECKERS (unless you want one for some strange reason)
Silas: So, Huxley dude, do you remember Immaculate Conception in Biology 101?
Huxley: Uhhhh
Mixing faith and science is patently rubbish. There is no question for me in the value of science ... so long as it's good science, practiced correctly, etc. However, any idea that it explains Every Damn Thing is kind of a blind techno-fundamentalism that isn't particularly useful and isn't even good science. A scientist is open to anything no matter where you look for it. Maybe he wants to know if magnets attract alien souls from other planets. I'd say he would have a little difficulty getting funding for research but I understand he has to know.
Don't be too rough on your scientist when he insists there was no Star of Bethlehem, no Wise Men, etc, etc. Keep in mind he probably hasn't been laid in a year and they forced him to write the article because one gets printed every Christmas. (MNN: How much of the Nativity story is true?)
If you go after the story like a woodpecker trying to poke holes in it then, sure, you can do it. But what's the first thought when a woodpecker wakes you up at the crack of dawn for the thirteenth day in a row with that damn noise. Yah, wring its damn neck is the first thought.
Note: if you've never been graced by the presence of a woodpecker in your life, be thankful. They are louder than a machine gun and I've heard both. Even a .50 cal isn't that loud ... but much cooler to watch.
There hasn't been some Christmas conversion in me except insofar I've been highly determined not to disrespect it, for your sake and for mine. It's not my way to avoid offense but at the same time it's not my purpose to create it gratuitously.
I didn't know until today that it's something of a Jewish tradition to eat Chinese food at Christmas. The Mystery Lady and I did it because no other restaurants were open and who wants to cook up a huge feast for just two. She isn't even close to a pagan ... well, except insofar as she was sitting next to me; there just wasn't anywhere else to go and what good is a day off if you just work more.
It's well into Christmas Eve in Germany now as it comes up on 2100 which is 'right about narn' in Texan or nearly nine o'clock in English. Second Life has you looking around the world all the time and it's a delicious perspective. Cat and I don't use German too much and the biggest driver for learning is talking to people at the MusikCircus where they may be speaking any of four or five languages. She's good but she doesn't know all of them and I just tumble along with Google Translate at my side.
So Christmas Eve has arrived for some of you already and it's coming for the rest. From all of us here on the Search for Ithaka production team (i.e. me), we wish you:
MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH NO WOODPECKERS (unless you want one for some strange reason)
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