Israel's Latest Suicide Attempt
Sometimes it seems as if reality is considerably more absurd than anything fiction could dream up. And so another American administration embarks on yet another attempt to achieve a settlement between the Arabs and Israelis. The proper image this brings to mind is best exemplified in a number of recent Cox & Forkum cartoons such as this one and this one as well as this one. President Bush like every American President before him will unfortunately learn the hard way that treating the Israelis and Palestianians as moral equals will only perpetuate the problem. As for Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, he too will learn that he is not smarter than former Israeli Prime Minister's Rabin or Barak and his following in their footsteps will lead to exactly the same results --- more terror against Israelis.
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Prager's Chorus
Actually, I almost returned to writing in this blog several days ago when I first came across Dennis Prager's column Monkeys and atheists . As usual, Prager returns to the false alternative between "randomness is the creator" and God as the "Creator/Designer." It was not so much this theme that upset me but the way Prager presents it and the implicit "you would have to be a complete moron to believe otherwise" attitude that pervades the column. At first the column so outraged me that I thought I had to respond to it in detail and take it apart line by line. I even considered writing a reverse column, perhaps titled "Monkeys and theists." But in the end I thought better of it. I reminded myself that I have addressed the essential issue before (although for some reason I can't locate it in my archives). Briefly, the Chance/Randomness vs. Creator/Designer false alternative is resolved via the forgotten third option of Identity/Causality and the absurdities in the culture and science have to do with the decline of reason not the decline of religion. And frankly I have better things to do than constantly harp on Prager's misrepresentations of the supposed consequences of secular thinking.
Actually, I almost returned to writing in this blog several days ago when I first came across Dennis Prager's column Monkeys and atheists . As usual, Prager returns to the false alternative between "randomness is the creator" and God as the "Creator/Designer." It was not so much this theme that upset me but the way Prager presents it and the implicit "you would have to be a complete moron to believe otherwise" attitude that pervades the column. At first the column so outraged me that I thought I had to respond to it in detail and take it apart line by line. I even considered writing a reverse column, perhaps titled "Monkeys and theists." But in the end I thought better of it. I reminded myself that I have addressed the essential issue before (although for some reason I can't locate it in my archives). Briefly, the Chance/Randomness vs. Creator/Designer false alternative is resolved via the forgotten third option of Identity/Causality and the absurdities in the culture and science have to do with the decline of reason not the decline of religion. And frankly I have better things to do than constantly harp on Prager's misrepresentations of the supposed consequences of secular thinking.
I'm back
It's been brought to my attention that I haven't posted in a while which is certainly true. Let me explain: As regular readers of this blog know, most of its content has been devoted to comments on the Dennis Prager show, which I used to listen to on a daily basis. However, since I have recently stopped listening to the show, much of my inspiration for writing has gone away. In addition, the company where I work has quite properly issued reminders that access to the Internet is provided to employees and contractors such as myself for business purposes only. As a result, I have stopped all non-business web browsing at work and this eliminated literally several hours of Internet time a day and thus virtually all my blog writing time since I don't tend to browse the web as much when I'm at home. Nevertheless, a number of issues have come up recently which do require some comment so I have returned.
It's been brought to my attention that I haven't posted in a while which is certainly true. Let me explain: As regular readers of this blog know, most of its content has been devoted to comments on the Dennis Prager show, which I used to listen to on a daily basis. However, since I have recently stopped listening to the show, much of my inspiration for writing has gone away. In addition, the company where I work has quite properly issued reminders that access to the Internet is provided to employees and contractors such as myself for business purposes only. As a result, I have stopped all non-business web browsing at work and this eliminated literally several hours of Internet time a day and thus virtually all my blog writing time since I don't tend to browse the web as much when I'm at home. Nevertheless, a number of issues have come up recently which do require some comment so I have returned.
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