The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - The Emblems of Religion don't belong ... or do they?

bilbo_baggins · 04-18-2005, 02:52 PM

[QUOTE=alatar]I'm also a pragmatist, and so avoid the wondering whether I am a butterfly imagining that I'm a human posting to a Tolkien-lover's forum. Time is short...

And granted, I do make assumptions and accept certain data/evidence by faith - again, time is short and I'm not exactly sure how one goes about verifying that water really is comprised of two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms. [\QUOTE]

Why is time short? As one of your admired scientists proclaimed, "Time is relative, and no man can understand it."

Truly, you make a comment and assume that Time is short. But why? Is it not of the utmost importance that your very view on whether time is short be reconciled to yourself? Do you really believe that everything one has told you concerning findings is accurate?

You mock me when you depict yourself an imagining butterfly. Who is to say you really exist? Do you reconcile yourself to the fate that your eyes see something, and therefore you are there? Or hear yourself speaking, and therefore you must be able to communicate? Do you find a piece of evidence as Chicken Little did, and proclaim with all self-sincerity that the sky is falling? Or that there is no God?

All thought and all reason points to the simple fact that an outside intelligence acts and makes us assume that we ourselves exist, and not only that, but that our fellow man exists. And that Time is slipping by. That there is learning that has been made by great men of olden days.

So, not to attempt to strike an enemy that seems fallen, but could very well be standing, I will say this.

For man to have survived the trials of life, and survived the five or six thousand years we all agree have occured, then there must have been someway to have foreknowledge of what paths to take, and what trains of thought to wander, and what ideas to defend. How did our ancestors make themselves self-aware if not by God? How did they assume that their neighbors were real if someone didn't tell them. I can recall to mind a little girl asking her father if the animals in the zoo were really there. Or a little boy asking why the sky is blue.

The questions of the ancients had answers and ours do too.

A world cannot exist without such answers, and so Tolkien included them in his work. LoTR was really just a great big answer to historical legend.

b_b

04-18-2005, 02:52 PM	#38
bilbo_baggins Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: May 2003 Location: In my front hallway, grabbing my staff, about to head out my door Posts: 275	[QUOTE=alatar]I'm also a pragmatist, and so avoid the wondering whether I am a butterfly imagining that I'm a human posting to a Tolkien-lover's forum. Time is short... And granted, I do make assumptions and accept certain data/evidence by faith - again, time is short and I'm not exactly sure how one goes about verifying that water really is comprised of two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms. [\QUOTE] Why is time short? As one of your admired scientists proclaimed, "Time is relative, and no man can understand it." Truly, you make a comment and assume that Time is short. But why? Is it not of the utmost importance that your very view on whether time is short be reconciled to yourself? Do you really believe that everything one has told you concerning findings is accurate? You mock me when you depict yourself an imagining butterfly. Who is to say you really exist? Do you reconcile yourself to the fate that your eyes see something, and therefore you are there? Or hear yourself speaking, and therefore you must be able to communicate? Do you find a piece of evidence as Chicken Little did, and proclaim with all self-sincerity that the sky is falling? Or that there is no God? All thought and all reason points to the simple fact that an outside intelligence acts and makes us assume that we ourselves exist, and not only that, but that our fellow man exists. And that Time is slipping by. That there is learning that has been made by great men of olden days. So, not to attempt to strike an enemy that seems fallen, but could very well be standing, I will say this. For man to have survived the trials of life, and survived the five or six thousand years we all agree have occured, then there must have been someway to have foreknowledge of what paths to take, and what trains of thought to wander, and what ideas to defend. How did our ancestors make themselves self-aware if not by God? How did they assume that their neighbors were real if someone didn't tell them. I can recall to mind a little girl asking her father if the animals in the zoo were really there. Or a little boy asking why the sky is blue. The questions of the ancients had answers and ours do too. A world cannot exist without such answers, and so Tolkien included them in his work. LoTR was really just a great big answer to historical legend. b_b __________________ "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and with more knowledge comes more grief."