Canada's National Flag.. bilaterally truncated "It's fascinating when people give reasons why one shouldn't be reasonable, proofs that one shouldn't rely on proof, and philosophic arguments against philosophy." Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. And no, this isn't having "faith" in reason (in the same way that some people have faith in miracles), because we don't "believe" in reason; we use reason. Steven Pinker Typical Canadian Taxi "Body am I, and soul"--thus speaks the child. And why should one not speak like children? But the awakened and knowing say: body am I entirely, and nothing else; and soul is only a word for something about the body. The body is a great reason, a plurality with one sense, a war and a peace, a herd and a shepherd. An instrument of your body is also your little reason, my brother, which you call "spirit"--a little instrument and toy of your great reason. . . . Behind your thoughts and feelings, my brother, there stands a mighty ruler, an unknown sage--whose name is self. In your body he dwells; he is your body. There is more reason in your body than in your best wisdom. Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spake Zarathustra Almost, but not entirely quite unlike Higgins! When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind. -- J. Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known, pp. 51-52 As a matter of fact, we do observe evolution.  Even humans are still evolving... Well, some are. - response to a creationist claim that evolution isn't true because we don't observe it happening "Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin - more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man." -- Bertrand Russell The autobiographical self is the brain state for which the cultural history of humanity most counts. -- Antonio Damasio The Feeling of What Happens Welcome to Taliesin's Back 42 on h2g2 >>> Updates to this page are becoming increasingly unlikely Although I still pop by hootoo from time to time... .. I'm more easily found at that hidden place.. ... or the Dawkins Forum... ...or hangin' around Ask Imagine our surprise when we noticed that in patient LB the left hemisphere said it believed in God whereas the right hemisphere signaled that it was an atheist. The inter-trial consistency of this needs to be verified but at the very least it shows that the two hemispheres can simultaneously hold contradictory views on God, an observation that should send shock waves through the theological community. When a patient like this eventually dies, will one hemisphere end up in hell and the other in heaven?  --V.S. Ramachandran on the two hemispheres of the brain (A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness) Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.  --Russell "The Value of Philosophy" Or, if you're in a questioning mood, ask yourself Why does God hate amputees? And here may be just the proof you're looking for! .. Ebon Musings .. The Evil Atheist Conspiracy Nexus! A good read, and the comments are entertaining, too! The Failure of Christianity to Stand up to Reason .. Let Me Google That For You... .. ..email: elfredeREMOVE_ATgmailREMOVE_DOTcom.. For each new moment self dies