tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post6394072477239432366..comments2023-09-28T10:08:44.827+02:00Comments on Gwynt: Endings and BeginningsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-11183845868188213942013-05-13T09:54:46.910+02:002013-05-13T09:54:46.910+02:00Ellena: It is an ever-present problem, how to des...Ellena: It is an ever-present problem, how to describe the indescribable, how to define the indefinable. I think what is important is that we don't simply walk away from something like that and say it doesn't exist. The journey is at least as important as the arrival; maybe more so. Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-71371265076119448442013-05-13T07:28:42.886+02:002013-05-13T07:28:42.886+02:00Oh Tom, I knew it would happen.
I lack the words ...Oh Tom, I knew it would happen. <br />I lack the words to comment on your thoughts.<br />How can we become free enough to get closer and closer to the truth? Or, can we define our own motifs for our actions and and or or. Thank you.Ellenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14965850008354379369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-90614867543448075502013-05-12T09:51:24.570+02:002013-05-12T09:51:24.570+02:00Bruce: Thank you; I will continue to write. And...Bruce: Thank you; I will continue to write. And welcome to Gwynt.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-50359015973061895492013-05-12T04:39:49.864+02:002013-05-12T04:39:49.864+02:00Wow! Thomas, please keep writing. Your words are...Wow! Thomas, please keep writing. Your words are stirring me. Thank you.Catalysthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03804837416104556928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-37189291259855587652013-05-11T18:08:06.303+02:002013-05-11T18:08:06.303+02:00Zhoen: We-e-e-e-ll! Into every post a little fun...Zhoen: We-e-e-e-ll! Into every post a little fun must fall. ☺ No, but will follow up on Single & Single.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-43699826673146497192013-05-11T17:26:12.008+02:002013-05-11T17:26:12.008+02:00Marja-Leena: I think it is a pity bordering on tr...Marja-Leena: I think it is a pity bordering on tragedy that as a species we tend to project our inner world onto the outer and call it reality. Firstly, it is a projection and therefore not real. Secondly, the projection is filtered through personal, national and religious egos that warp and twist paths that could have led to some awareness of reality. Instead, we have conflict. On the matter of religious practice, well that's a whole can of worms that I'll put to one side.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-64479207047530395992013-05-11T17:24:35.092+02:002013-05-11T17:24:35.092+02:00Suddenly, I imagined atheists as ants, standing in...Suddenly, I imagined atheists as ants, standing in cartoonish melodramatic stance, defiant against the onslaught of a foot. Probably because I dealt with a bunch of ants yesterday. <br /><br />Have you read Single & Single?Zhoenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03515663141425057088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-21466762994061079522013-05-11T17:15:59.123+02:002013-05-11T17:15:59.123+02:00Natalie: I cannot adequately express what a boost...Natalie: I cannot adequately express what a boost all the comments to this post have given me. I do understand that sometimes this little box is too small; even words themselves are too "small". I will continue.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-65489590360707007942013-05-11T17:14:11.657+02:002013-05-11T17:14:11.657+02:00Tom, you are such a wonderful writer, where have y...Tom, you are such a wonderful writer, where have you been all these years!? I ponder your words about this eternal struggle for many. Though brought up Christian, I've left it behind without much angst or questioning. There are certain aspects of religions that I still love, such as the churches and the art, but dislike the organized practise and the still continuing religious wars. The nature based faiths of our earliest ancestors and the natives here feel closer to me. <br /><br />I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this, Tom.marja-leenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634791656471132347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-36612665037051384832013-05-11T17:05:30.078+02:002013-05-11T17:05:30.078+02:00"... It seems to me that I have spent large p..."... It seems to me that I have spent large parts of my life in that state of catching up, of bringing into realisation statements of 'what is'."<br /><br />Tom,this whole post (and especially the above sentence) speaks to me deeply, too deeply to comment adequately in this little box. But at least I can tell you that I will be continuing to read attentively everything that you'll be writing in follow-up. These things matter, they matter a great deal to me.Natalie d'Arbeloffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07757081405040926647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-25296536846112190832013-05-11T16:58:26.249+02:002013-05-11T16:58:26.249+02:00Rouchswalwe: In thought, I will down your proffer...Rouchswalwe: In thought, I will down your proffered glass of Ebbelwoi' in thanks, and a celebration to our friendship. We will most certainly continue this talk for as long as you wish. Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-70476073565493996262013-05-11T16:48:51.132+02:002013-05-11T16:48:51.132+02:00Robbie: No! No! No! Carry on the way you're ...Robbie: No! No! No! Carry on the way you're going, please. Honest talk is of value, even if we disagree. At least there is the possibility of opening new ways of seeing things. It didn't occur to me that you were scoring points, I was only trying to express my desire to reach further into that "somewhere" closer to truth, or maybe the experience of truth.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-59315735348662163712013-05-11T16:20:10.893+02:002013-05-11T16:20:10.893+02:00Sorry about that. Wasn't trying to score point...Sorry about that. Wasn't trying to score points. Tanks off your lawn from now on.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-66118302178384305612013-05-11T15:35:10.354+02:002013-05-11T15:35:10.354+02:00Your bookend paragraphs placed me in a cosy sittin...Your bookend paragraphs placed me in a cosy sitting room, dear Tom. I imagine there are glasses of Cider (<i>Ebbelwoi'</i>) on the table as we settle in for a good long talk. "Listening" to your seekings and wonderings, I was struck by the portions of your struggle similar to mine and I found myself honestly attempting to understand less familiar portions so important to you. This is huge, as the young ones around here would say, because I live in an area where too many people seem to be constantly attempting to sway others, to "save" them. As a result, I tune out completely the moment I catch a whiff of the big G or hear the J word. <br /><br />Not this time. You've got me thinking on a few things you mentioned, such as the subtlety of the biblical serpent (not equal to the Devil in my mind), identity and rejection, psychic/spiritual lateral damage, the "in here" and "out there" and humanity's ego.<br /><br />Allow me to pour you a glass of <i>Ebbelwoi'</i> in thanks and in hopes that we'll continue this talk. Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-15197100793074722362013-05-11T10:55:15.581+02:002013-05-11T10:55:15.581+02:00Robbie: Your comment demands more than I am able ...Robbie: Your comment demands more than I am able to offer at present. I would, however, like to make one or two points. First, this a subject that I might like to develop over the coming weeks and months, not as a subject for debate - I have no interest in "winning" or scoring points - but to share experience.<br /><br />Second, I love science, but I'm not sure I know what it means "to believe" in science. It simply is, and can be studied and experienced. That is how I view the matter of God. One major difficulty here is that because science deals with the "out there", definitions are possible. That cannot be said of matters "in here", and God was never "out there".<br /><br />Thirdly, I do enjoy listening to Dawkins, but if Hitchens is the Oxford professor that I think you are referring to, I must confess I have no time for his opinions.<br /><br />Finally, thank you for your response.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09028121782477111901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2683318922990064067.post-81947469960643469462013-05-11T09:20:36.908+02:002013-05-11T09:20:36.908+02:00Surely, that other non-God entity goes under the a...Surely, that other non-God entity goes under the admirably concise name of The Devil. He comes in different forms, virtually all of them tempting. Given our respective ages he may have arrived to both of us as a perception of Julie Christie (not the actual lass herself, of course) and the initial appeal may have resulted in a localised increase in blood pressure - far harder to resist than being shown a huge arid expanse of wasteland in the Middle East and being told "All this could be yours - and I could arrange development funding on favourable terms."<br /><br />I cannot tackle this knotty sequence head on, and comprehensively, but I would dispute "atheism and religion are simply the two opposite sides of the same coin." A few years ago Jonathan Miller, that well-ordered misanthrope, did a series about atheism on BBC4. The first point he made concerned the word itself. Atheists, and I am one, should have stepped in and said "Delete the -ism." Why? Because it suggests a coherent set of beliefs instead of an absence of belief. Atheists don't believe in science (or capitalism, Arsenal FC or the novels of Elizabeth Goodge) as a substitute for God, they take these subjects up because they are interesting.<br /><br />Nor do they extrapolate the Goodgean philosophy (or evolution, for that matter) as proof that God doesn't exist; atheists' avoidance of the supernatural means that this is unnecessary. Pointless, in fact. Reading Dawkins and Hitchens may suggest otherwise but to preach atheism is a contradiction in terms. As ridiculous as saying: "I'd like you to subscribe to my belief that Arsenal FC - Hartlepool United, if you prefer - is unimportant."<br /><br />I am trying to mount a campaign to find a substitite for atheism, preferably based on the elegant word <i>néant</i>. All English-speaking snobs, and I'm one of those too, respond to French words, the more airy-fairy the better. I have high hopes.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.com