Planet Earth, Unitarians and Dawkin; Reviews, Arcanacon, and Valedictions

[tcpip]

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. 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?

Comments

[drjon.livejournal.com]

Dawkin's fundamentalist-materialist atheism is a bit hard to swallow, as is his assertion that atheism (as opposed to agnosticism) is "scientific".

Fundamentalism seems to be the Horror of our Age. Even science has become infested and infected...

[discordia13.livejournal.com]

Ah the Slavers Series. I think thats still my favorite of all the original AD&D material. I think I still have A1, A2 & A4 lying around somewhere plus a few of the follow on modules.

I also envy you. I could never convince anyone to run or play Mega Traveler (or Rune Quest) after I left high school.

You've been called out.

[evil-genius.livejournal.com]

http://ghoststrider.livejournal.com/47931.html

[decrypt-era.livejournal.com]

Most times, when i hear ppl arguing bowt god,
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.