Centroids :
Back from cyber
purgatory . Two months of no computer. Still not sure if
the
more-or-less
new system is fully functional. Still cannot get USB ports to
work
and that makes
it impossible to use my "pet mouse," which is far better
than
the substitute
mouse I'm compelled to make do with for now, which screws
up
my inadequate
typing skills. Some other problems too. but to give you an
idea.
Question : Why
does the Web allow idiots to produce debilitating viruses
without
severe
punishment for the hackers who create such things ? This
has already cost me
a small
fortune. not even counting the significant help that Barry
extended to me that
allows computer
access again. And not counting the in-person help given me
by another
friend, Valdas, who spent several hours in person helping
me get the new
system up and
running as much as it is.
Whomever put
together the virus that caught me flat footed deserves,
IMHO, to be
burned at the
stake, after, that is, I am allowed to punch him out for a
full 60 minutes
with brass
knuckles on my fists. Plus a few well placed kicks to the
groin with
steel toe work
boots.
Not to worry
about that virus any more, it has been confined in the old
computer tower--
all data, as
much as could be transferred, now in the new system. It
will be weeks before
I am able to
replace all the programs ( icons ) that were part of my
repertoire previously.
Still, there
were real advantages to being off line for 2 months, such
as seriously catching up
on deferred
reading. I plowed through about 25 books in that time,
including Jonah Goldberg's
"Liberal
Fascism." Very good read, but based on false premises
first devised by Hayek.
More about this
later if anyone is interested.
Lots or reading
about the Paleolithic origins of religion, roughly 50,000
BC, all of which
makes mince
meat of the views of religious origins in each and every
Big Religion on Earth,
both East and
West. Why bother ? Well, for starters, because claims
about religious origins
are fundamental
to Christianity, Judaism, Islam. etc. and the rather solid
stuff that is now
documented in
spades --as usual, unknown to the great unwashed--
really creates major
theological
problems for just about everyone. And it does no favors at
all to Atheists who
have their own
religious origins mythology which says that in a state of
nature humans are
naturally
virtuous, irreligious, and are de facto "liberal
Democrats" but who happened to
live in caves
which they painted with artwork worthy of the Guggenheim.
Actually, and
alas for all, our remote Cro-Magnon ancestors were
Shamanists who believed
in a world
filled with spirits of various kinds who were religious
fanatics who seemed to
have made use
of a wide range of beliefs around which to organize their
lives from cradle
to the grave.
They were also mostly rather blood thirsty as far as
evidence allows us to say,
and in all
likelihood killed off the Neanderthals plus sub
populations of each other.
This is NOT the
Noble Savage of yore, to say the least, even if , yes,
some groups
were mostly
hunter gatherers / fisherfolk. who weren't all that keen
on killing
other humans.
Anyway, all the
data are there to be looked at and all it is necessary to
do is actually
read the stuff
and learn the facts --which was accessible to me but
which I had put off
reading for far
too many years for my own good.
Also read Ann
Coulter's "Godless, The Church of Liberalism," and was
aghast. Sure, the
book is filled
with useful insights and witty criticisms of the Left,
much of which I appreciated
greatly,but
what a mess. Coulter knows next to nothing that can be
called serious knowledge
about religion
and she concluded the book with 3 chapters attacking
evolution. WTH ?
It isn't just
the femi-Nazi Left that is anti-science ( especially
anti-sociobiology ) it seems
as if elements
of the Right have not gotten the news that the decision in
the Scopes Trial
is now widely
regarded as not in the best interests of political
Conservatives.
Also in this
vein is Dinesh D'Souza's "What's So Great About
Christianity ?" Another very good
read, but also
a compendium of errors on one level , with so many
mistakes in the realm of
philosophy, on
which D'Souza rests much of his case, that I was rather
surprised.
I do think he
pretty much seriously injures the case of Atheists, his
primary objective,
which is all
well and good, but there are many problems he is simply
blind to, in
no small part
because of his ignorance of Mesopotamian history and
--inexplicably--
basic ignorance
of Hindu and Buddhist traditions beyond a really
elementary level
which, in the
kind of book he was writing, is mostly useless given the
fact that
the arguments
he was making lead in very different directions once you
actually
know about the
philosophical traditions of India and South Asia
generally.
D'Souza doesn't
seem to know that such traditions even exist.
Lots more to
tell everyone about, but for openers this ought to be
sufficient.
What's been
happening at RC.org
these past 2 months ?
Ciao
Billy
