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Planet Earth, Unitarians and Dawkin; Reviews, Arcanacon, and Valedictions
Due to several requests, I am working my way through references on my presentation on The Future of Planet Earth. In related Unitarian news, I've decided to resign as a member of the Committee of Management at the Melbourne Unitarian Church. On even more related news, I've been reading Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion. I'm only up to the third chapter, mainly because it is just plain wrong and ignorant on basic matters; the straw-man definition of religion is simply wrong, the section on polytheism doesn't even discuss the issue and the section on agnosticism is a display of extraordinary ignorance of the works of Huxley and Kant.
I have recent reviews up at RPG.net for the excellent RQ module Dorastor, the terribe D&D module In Search of the Unknown, and two of Jonothan Tweet's excellent products, Over The Edge and Everway.
From Thursday to last Sunday was Melbourne's big RPG convention, Arcanacon. There were well over 450 people in attendance and I managed to get into two freeforms ("Class of 83" and "New Years Spirits"), both of which were quite good. The group I was with for the tabletop game "Sentinel: In The Beginning" seemed to be teasing the GM from his rather strict plotline. The Quiz night was lots of fun, with a very close finish between 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I was very impressed by the "Indie Games Demo", especially the wickedly fun "Best Friends". On Sunday I finished running the old AD&D module, The Secret of the Slavers Stockade (A2), except set in SE of the 11th century Kingdom of Navarre, and with El Cid providing a timely rescue. Also had the opportunity to play BattleTech and Megatraveller on Tuesday; honestly the two can be combined ;-)
However, it was not all good news at Arcanacon. Many in the Melbourne gaming, SCA, pagan, punk, and BDSM communities are in some mourning following the passing of one of the game designers, known to many as Aveline.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
erudito notes the many, many people who have noted this sad event, and kitling explains the circumstances and Megan's appropriate and moving commentary at the con itself.
*sigh* How about some plastic surgery disasters and a story about the duck who would not die to conclude?
I have recent reviews up at RPG.net for the excellent RQ module Dorastor, the terribe D&D module In Search of the Unknown, and two of Jonothan Tweet's excellent products, Over The Edge and Everway.
From Thursday to last Sunday was Melbourne's big RPG convention, Arcanacon. There were well over 450 people in attendance and I managed to get into two freeforms ("Class of 83" and "New Years Spirits"), both of which were quite good. The group I was with for the tabletop game "Sentinel: In The Beginning" seemed to be teasing the GM from his rather strict plotline. The Quiz night was lots of fun, with a very close finish between 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I was very impressed by the "Indie Games Demo", especially the wickedly fun "Best Friends". On Sunday I finished running the old AD&D module, The Secret of the Slavers Stockade (A2), except set in SE of the 11th century Kingdom of Navarre, and with El Cid providing a timely rescue. Also had the opportunity to play BattleTech and Megatraveller on Tuesday; honestly the two can be combined ;-)
However, it was not all good news at Arcanacon. Many in the Melbourne gaming, SCA, pagan, punk, and BDSM communities are in some mourning following the passing of one of the game designers, known to many as Aveline.
erudito notes the many, many people who have noted this sad event, and kitling explains the circumstances and Megan's appropriate and moving commentary at the con itself.*sigh* How about some plastic surgery disasters and a story about the duck who would not die to conclude?
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Fundamentalism seems to be the Horror of our Age. Even science has become infested and infected...
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His attempt to reduce the debate of agnosticism down to a question of probabilities indicates that he doesn't even know what the word entails. It is ludicrous.
This said, I am very supportive of his words when we condemns the nonsense of theistic religions.
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So am I.
Scientists don't tend to do too well outside of their fields, no news.
What has annoyed me most is his misuse of words (says Ruth the panentheist word geek).
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Unfortunately this is his field, or rather it used to be.
Education, Positions and Degrees
1954-1959 Oundle School
1959-1962 Balliol College, University of Oxford
1962-1966 Research Student, Oxford University (D.Phil., 1966)
1965-1967 Research Assistant to Professor N.Tinbergen FRS
1967-1969 Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of
California, Berkeley
1969-1970 Senior Research Officer, Department of Zoology, Oxford
1970-1990 University Lecturer in Zoology, and Fellow of New
College, Oxford
1989 D.Sc. (Oxford)
1990-1995 Ad hominem Reader in Zoology, University of Oxford
1995- Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding
of Science, University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow of New College
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Ahh, mea culpa.
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See, my Dad's a scientist and he was taught nowt but some German outside of hard science. In my time and these days a foreign language is not required, as English has become the language of science.
Many hard science people in the Commonwealth have done nothing else academically but maths/sci and secondary school English since year 10...so they tend to be as good at humanities and social science as arts graduates are at Biology!
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The narrative of life!
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I also envy you. I could never convince anyone to run or play Mega Traveler (or Rune Quest) after I left high school.
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I have to say A2 is probably the worst of the set. There were some really ridiculous encounters, such as a beehive in a dungeon. Yeah, because bees just love it to be cold, dark and dank.
I've done several reviews for various MegaTraveller products that should be going up on rpg.net sometime next week. I've had to give "average" ratings because, well, it is average. The detail is great, but on some key issues the design is really quite wrong. The combat system for example requires tracking two types of armour and two types of damage. It's nuts. We've ended up using the old Traveller system instead.
Now, as for RuneQuest, there's still plenty of people playing that all over the place. Maybe you should join a pbem?
You've been called out.
Re: You've been called out.
Re: You've been called out.
Be kind, he's still at high school and at that age where he undoubtably knows everything ;-)
Re: You've been called out.
Cheers. How you find all this is beyond me.
Re: You've been called out.
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Just two clicks and they're doomed.
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But I see much.
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it seems to me that what they'r really arguing about is,
"Just what exactly do you mean when you use that label 'god'?"
Being raisd in religious schools,
hence forced to decrypt th edifice of religion from a young age,
i came to th conclusion that "god" is one of those lazy, all-purpose labels,
like "love",
which we use when we don't know exactly what we mean.
The "here be dragonnes" part of th map.
We infer that something must be there,
but we can't quite get our heads round it.
I find polytheism a pragmatic & healthy form of this symbology,
as it is lively, complex, overlapping, interwoven,
just like th universe it attempts to describe.
Some ancient pagan, living amid forest,
could probably guess that a tree possessd somethin like DNA,
but lacking th tools to observe it directly,
it just became part of th dryad.
And this view needn't be threatend when they do discover DNA;
they'v just unfolded anotha leaf of her beauty.
Th rise of hierarchical societies,
afflicted with notions of perfection,
is what brought us th sterility of monotheism,
and strife has followed ever since.
It's an attempt to impose th map on th territory,
and th territory will always beg to differ.
I like PKD's ontological argument:
reality is that which,
when you stop believing in it,
doesn't go away.
I must confess, tcpip,
your association with th Unitarians baffles me.
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your association with th Unitarians baffles me."
seconded.
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Modal confusion occurs in all disciplines.
which we use when we don't know exactly what we mean.
The strict agnostic position 'we do not know' and 'we cannot know'. It is beyond our ken and should be treated as such.
is what brought us th sterility of monotheism,
It also brought consistency in legal codes and a treatment of the universe as a single entity to be known.
your association with th Unitarians baffles me.
Well, let me elucidate. What part do you find baffling?
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Ah, but i said "don't know exactly," which is different,
and why i gave th example of th pagan & th tree.
Guess it depends on what ya mean by "know".
Perhaps fuzzier labels like "intuition" or "feeling" are needed here.
But there'r things ppl find very meaningful,
they know somethin deep down in their bones,
but can't quite put their finger on it,
so they dream up proxies.
To me, existence itself springs from faith.
I don't identify as atheist, agnostic etc etc, nothing quite fits.
Let's just say i'm a member of the Unchurch of Quantum Agnosticism:
god both exists and does not exist.
We mock those who attempt to collapse the divine wave function,
and foolishly rely on our own whims.
It also brought consistency in legal codes and a treatment of the universe as a single entity to be known.
Both of which are anathema to me.
In th beginning was th word,
and th word was "bored". Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.
So god had a littl multiple personality disorder to amuse itself,
and lo! here we are!
Well, i don't believe that.
I don't believe th universe was ever just one thing,
and that's coming from a lover of physics!
Infinite in all directions - that's my faith.
Paths may merge, yes,
but they also diverge just as often.
What part do you find baffling?
Seems to'v been sorted out further down th thread.
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god both exists and does not exist.
I could be quite happy in such a place.
Both of which are anathema to me.
I understand the reaction; it isn't the most exciting proposition. But it did mean that the implementation of laws, for better or for worse, was procedurally simpler. As for the studies of the universe as a single entity, well, that allowed knowledge to combined with greater ease.
Of course, one of the best lines in The God Delusion, and one which I wholeheartedly agree, is from Ibn Warraq; if you're going to express doubts on the array of polytheistic gods down to just one, why not go a step further?
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Is that the exact quote?
It's goin in my quote file.
The middle easterners were possibly th first to conceive of zero in their maths,
what a pity they couldn't carry th notion over to their spirituality!
Would'v saved th world a lotta grief, eh?
I could be quite happy in such a place.
Ah, but you are in such a place,
it's just difficult to appreciate at our scale. :)
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Not an exact quote - one would have to read Warraq's "Why I am not a Muslim" for that.
I think the concept of zero moved over to India where, at least in a spiritual sense, it was finally taken up by many of the Buddhists.
And yes, you're right. I am in such a place.
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Not I. I gather the Unitarian Church is a lot like many other churches these days: it's much less about believing in 'The Big Guy Up Top' as ascribing to a range of ethical and moral principles. Ascribing to the theistic myth is (at least unofficially) optional.
The Unitarians seem to have a very practical approach to social welfare and education that strikes me as being exactly where Lev's at, particularly after what he's no doubt seen and done in his time in Timor Leste.
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The Unitarians are a non-creedal faith. Belief in any deity is officially optional; at the Melbourne Church, most of the committee of management are atheists.
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Ahh, but that includes various branches of what is called "biblical unitarians" (e.g., the Christadelphians). The various Unitarian (capital U) churches in Australia, the UK etc are part of the Unitarian-Universalist movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism
As you can see, the majority are humanists and agnostics, with a mere 13.1% identifying as Christian.
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and havn't up and got all god-bothery on us then?
Well, that makes more sense then.
So what religious labels do ya stick to yrself these days?
Still a proud apostate?
As to th universalist branch of th unitarians,
why bother identifying as a religion at all?
You could call yourselves "The Society for Treating Each Other Nicely For a Change".
Would save a lotta explanations. :)
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Oh, I still attend the Church philosophy group which engages in metaphyical questions of course; and often there's a lot of discussion on comparative religions.
Still an apostate (that's an institutional label). Still agnostic.
The universalists are an interesting lot. Historically the unitarians were those religious radicals who believed in the primacy of reason. The universalists believed in the primacy of goodness. It was a deft combination to bring the two together.
Match it up with the aesthetically inclined and Socrates would be proud; truth, justice and beauty all under one roof!
Why bother identifying as a religion? Apart from the history (the ideas date back a long, long time) but also because there is a unifying metaphysic throughout - which of course you identified.
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Coming from a religious background,
and possessing a natural curiosity,
i do have some awareness of th world's various religions.
For weeding out a lot of th cruft which grew up around christianity
th unitarians are to be admired.
They seem a pragmatic lot,
who focus more on doing good deeds than pushing ideology,
so i can understand this connection with tcpip's socialist tendencies,
same goes for his trip to Timor.
But where philosophy is concernd,
tcpip is not one for casual relationships.
He wouldn't simply ignore th whole god bit,
so i'm given to wonder what internal impulse has arisen in him
that he's using "god" as a symbol for.
This is th part which baffles me,
considering his generally anti-religious orientation when i knew him in Perth.
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(I can picture him ignoring God bits though, if the organisation were one which doesn't really go on about it to excess and their works and ethics were sound... I gather the Freemasons are a bit like that now: they like you to believe in God, but, they won't bang on about it to drive good people away from doing good things in the community.)
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Oh, I remember that. In hindsight I'm amazed the faith-healer even tried to pull that stunt.
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is tcpip arguing th last vestiges of catholic conditioning out of me
in th kitchen at Rookwood St.
93 was a fun year.
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Nontheistic and opposed to religious attempts to enforce theological moral codes on others.
As a nontheistic church dedicated to the separation of church and state I can be quite comfortable within the unitarians.