Introduction: The Illusion of Design [Richard Dawkins]

Natural History Magazine ^ | November 2005 | Richard Dawkins

[grey_whiskers]

Don't be shy, whiskers. Tell us how much the primitive elephant lived to see the far side.

Given the combination of an erection with a hunting-related fatality, I'm afraid The Far Side is about what I had in mind.

Cheers!

[jwalsh07]

Hawking contended that information could not escape a black hole. He made a bet to that effect with John Preskill of CalTech. Last year Hawking concluded that information could escape but Preskill was unconvinced ny Hawkings proof. At any rate Hawking paid up.

[hosepipe]

[ If something like "spiritual revelation" ever happened to me, I'd make an appointment with a neurologist to see if I had epilepsy or a brain tumor or such like. ]

UNLESS it was a real one.. then;
You might blow the neurologists mind.. on that visit.. IF he were lucky..

[cornelis]

Ok, I'm back to Belloc.

[Virginia-American]

The problem with your (one-sided) characterization is that you can't build a civilization from thorazine and epileptics.

Please expand on this, it doesn't make much sense to me.

Personally, I think that the Arabs (and a lot of others!) would be a lot happier now if thorazine and dylantin had been available at the time of the Prophet.

[cornelis]

You associated revelation with neurosis. That is a one-sided characterization because it fails to explain the beauty of Western Civilization.

[betty boop]

(What are later "electro-archaeologists" or extraterrestrial aliens doing their own SETI going to make of the juxtaposition of ABC's Nightline with ads for Oprah or Britney Spears?)

LOL grey-whiskers!!! Possibly they would conclude that "we" are an insane asylum bursting with vitality!!! (To crib from Eric Voegelin here.)

To any person interested in the articulation of human symbols (e.g., cultural anthropologists, philosophers, et al.), there is no "might have that significance" to it. Plus I used the correct technical term for it, which is a fertility symbol, pointing to the life yet to come....

Thank you so much for writing!

[Doctor Stochastic]

I would pick July 28 to August 3, 1914. That's when the Nineteenth Century was bludgeoned to death.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Andrea Yeats vs Joan of Arc: both had "more certain than any other type of knowledge" it seems. Of course, Joan was responsible for far more deaths.

[hosepipe]

[ Plus I used the correct technical term for it, which is a fertility symbol, pointing to the life yet to come.... ]

Phallus pointing to the life yet to come..
That comment could burn the eyes right out of a femi-nazi..after reading it..
You're dangerous..

[streetpreacher]

Exactly. Evolution is a mere hypothesis, a failed one that should be discarded and regulated to the ash heap of history.

[jwalsh07]

Of course, Joan was responsible for far more deaths.

Yes, the nerve of such a young girl defending her homeland against invaders. The shame of it all.

[js1138]

It would be, except that like capitalism, it is better than all the alternatives.

[streetpreacher]

regulated = relegated

[Virginia-American]

...Why the phallus -- except to denote the idea that death and life were even then understood to be intimately, inseparably intertwined?

did the people who painted the cave know the relationship between sex and birth? I remember reading that there are some modern hunter-gatherers who were unclear on the concept, but I might be misremembering.

PS, the figure has also been interpreted as a shaman with a bird mask in a trance, partly because of the bird-headed staff near him.

[YHAOS]

"Oh, definitely with feathers!!! "

I knew you would choose the elegant option.

[RightWhale]

Yeah, I was thinking of the American pragmatists, who got off the isolationist kick after a while.

[cornelis]

when the Nineteenth Century was bludgeoned to death

And then went on to live in the voice of Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.

[snarks_when_bored]

Well, if "Richard Dawkins, a world-renowned explicator of Darwinian evolution" says it, it has to be true. /s

Nope...as Rod Serling used to say, "Presented for your consideration..."

[RightWhale]

The phenomenon you mentioned is very common.