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| marfknoxSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA3739 Posts
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|  Posted - 11/06/2006 :  06:52:24         
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           	| From a friend of mine's blog: "Philosopher Daniel Dennett was recently rushed to a hospital for heart surgery. He's since written his reflections on his brush with death, God & goodness, and good intentions & responsibility." 
 Link to Dennett's reflection, blasting prayer: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dennett06/dennett06_index.html
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| "Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
 
 Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
 
 
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| KilEvil Skeptic
 
  
USA13481 Posts
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|  Posted - 11/06/2006 :  07:08:42   [Permalink]           
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| quote:Dennett:
 I prefer real good to symbolic good.
 
 Well said...
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| Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
 
 Why not question something for a change?
 
 Genetic Literacy Project
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| GorgoSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA5311 Posts
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|  Posted - 11/06/2006 :  08:29:27   [Permalink]     
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| Thanks.  Amazing. |  
| I know the rent is in arrears
 The dog has not been fed in years
 It's even worse than it appears
 But it's alright-
 Jerry Garcia
 Robert Hunter
 
 
 
 
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| DudeSFN Die Hard
 
  
USA6891 Posts
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|  Posted - 11/06/2006 :  09:34:57   [Permalink]     
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| See Gorgo, we can agree on something. 
 That is a fantastic essay.
 
 
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| Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
 -- Thomas Jefferson
 
 "god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
 
 
 | Hope, n. The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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| HalfMoonerDingaling
 
  
Philippines15831 Posts
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|  Posted - 11/06/2006 :  12:49:18   [Permalink]     
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| Wow, great article.  Thanks, marf.  Good bless Dan Dennett and the mighty goodness of all those who have given him more wonderful years with us! 
 It's so refreshing, for a pleasant change, to see someone thank all those hard-working, dedicated, science-using people who were actually responsible for his survival.
 
 Strange, isn't it, how the same kind of people who thank God for their survival after some close call rarely seem to blame God if things go bad?  Rarely, but it does happen.
 
 I seem to vaguely recall a couple of cases where people caught in Katrina's awesome devastation had expressed an opinion that their God had either deserted them or didn't exist.  (Unfortunately, the goodness of people must have seemed to have deserted them, too, as disaster response was not prepared to bring goodness to them.)
 
 Epiphanies work both ways, I think.  I'd like to collect a few examples of epiphanies of atheism.
 
 
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| “Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.”  —HalfMooner
 Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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| Edited by - HalfMooner on 11/06/2006  13:02:57 |  
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