The Hour of the Trolls is once more upon us.
Virtual Ignore is the only solution!!
Posted on 07/09/2003 12:08:32 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
Ahem, what about the Platypus?
I wouldn't know - probably, 'I cry, make mama come.' Maybe 'what instincts does a 9 month old have' is the better question, since 'making assumptions' might give you the idea that I think 9 month olds are sitting around thinking through everything they do with articulated rationality. Your original phrasing, though, was:
When you were 9 months old, and noticed that when you cried, your mother appeared almost immediately, what was the philosophical basis of your actions?
Are you re-asking because you think 9 month olds don't have any assumptions or instincts about anything at all? Is there an infinite regress of observations?
We have already established that f.c. is a BTO fan.
For me looking at the Constitution is probably a lot like what Radio Astronomer experiences when he looks at the night sky, only when I see the complexity, I also see the living, breathing people who made it so.
When I was in college, and even more so when I was in law school, I used to wonder about the people behind the cases and read backwards through the appeals to see what the case was all about, and read legal history to find out what happened to them.
My law professors would laugh at me because the cases were supposed to stand for principles, and the people were not important. After first year, I quit letting people know my proclivities. I think not caring about the people is the reason they are professors, for what it's worth.
Some really good history has been written about legal cases. For example, Gideon's Trumpet, about Gideon vs. Wainwright (Indigent's right to appointed counsel, a great book and an excellent movie starring Henry Fonda as Gideon). Scottsboro, a great book about the Scottsboro boys (tough slogging unless the topic really fascinates you). Amistad was a wonderful movie, although I have read that it wasn't all that historically accurate. It seemed consistent with the legal case, anyway.
To me, Dred Scott isn't just a name. Neither is Brown of Brown vs. Board of Education fame. Neither is Milligan of Ex parte Milligan. Neither is Korematsu. I know the entire history of the Bank of the United States, both of them, and the roles of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Justice Marshall, Andrew Jackson and Justice Taney. I could go on but you get the point. Constitutional law has involved hard fought battles between real men and women made of real flesh and blood over matters of life and death from the beginning.
To say you can pick up the Constitution and understand it just by reading it is as charming as a child insisting that Polaris is always the North Star and the moon is made of green cheese.
Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?
Informational Properties
The hologram exhibits some very profound properties beyond the three-dimensional image. In fact, it is one of the most profound means to distribute information throughout a given media. All of the information it contains is distributed over the entire image surface. One can remove a portion of the hologram without losing the image! Drill a hole in the hologram, and one can still view the entire object by simply moving one's eye to a more convenient angle (some resolution, or sharpness, will be lost however). Cut the film into pieces, and each piece contains the complete image.
An engineer who is designing a communication system in anticipation of hostile jamming, or other countermeasures, needs to employ several critical techniques to be effective. In addition to taking advantage of available error detection and correction techniques, he will also attempt to spread his message throughout the available bandwidth. He will avoid clustering his message into areas which would increase his vulnerability to jamming or interference.
It is provocative to notice that the Biblical text evidences these same techniques. Where is the chapter on baptism? Or salvation? Or any specific critical doctrine? Every major theme is spread throughout the 66 books making up the total message. There is no concentration of any critical element in any single location. One can tear out a surprising number of pages and still not lose visibility of the essential message. (Some resolution or clarity would be lost, however.) This design intent of distributing the vital elements throughout the entire message system is even highlighted by Isaiah:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isaiah 28:9,10
(snip)
The holographic paradigm thus seems to give us a glimpse into the interconnected relationships of the human mind (reviewed last month), and even the very nature of physical reality itself ... also appears to leave its imprint within the Word of God itself. This would appear to be a subtle, but significant, fingerprint of the Author of it all.
A Biblical Analogy
When one examines a hologram in natural (uncollimated, noncoherent) light, it has no apparent form nor attractiveness. However, when one examines it with the laser with which it was formulated, a three-dimensional image appears. When one examines the Bible in unaided, natural light, it "has no form nor comeliness that we should desire it."3 But when we examine it illuminated by the Light that created it, the Spirit of God that put it all together in the first place, we see an image: the image of the One that every detail in it illuminates, the promised Messiah Himself.
From Genesis to Revelation, God's program for the redemption of mankind is carefully distributed throughout 66 books,4 penned by more than 40 different individuals spanning several thousand years! And, indeed, this abused collection has survived the jamming and interference of its enemies over many centuries without material damage!
(However, if we illuminate the hologram with a laser of a different frequency, it will yield a false or distorted image. So, too, the Scripture!)
I propose that people who completely disagree with the foundational values become intellectually honest and do one of the following three things:
1.) they propose that the U.S. Constitution is scrapped and we start all over, perhaps creating a new constitution based on their own set of values,
2.) they completely divorce themselves from all involvement in government and politics, especially holding office and voting,
3.) they relocate to a place where their values are more consistently applied, such as Cuba or North Korea.
Or inane stellar motion posts few will read ping!
I'm one of the few. Keep posting them.
Whoohooo! :-)
Deal!
I sense a design flaw there...
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