Today, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said: Gasoline prices have soared an average of 60 cents a gallon in less than a month because suppliers are unable to keep up with demand, a situation that could persist up to three more years. Bodman went on to suggest that stablilizing Iraq is…
Erich’s post about George Washington and not prejudging the opposition reminded me of a superb essay written by Benjamin Franklin about Native Americans, titled: “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” (1784). The essay is reproduced below and I think it illustrates why Mr. Franklin is considered one of America’s most important individuals.
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Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.
Perhaps, if we could examine the manners of different nations with impartiality, we should find no people so rude, as to be without any rules of politeness; nor any so polite, as not to have some remains of rudeness.
The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors, when old, counselors; for all their government is by counsel of the sages; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory, the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honorable. Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for improvement by conversation. Our laborious manner of life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish and base; and the learning, on which we value ourselves, they regard as frivolous and useless. An instance of this occurred at …
I recently dug out three interesting quotes of George Washington, our first president: A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator. Only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of the crowd. I go the way that Providence…
I have to admit, when I read grumpypilgrim’s post that the evidence supporting Christianity is on par with the evidence supporting alien abduction, I got nervous. It sounded so very harsh. I couldn’t help thinking of the many sincerely Christians who would be insulted by such a comparison. I’m well aware that many Christians (including many of the people who regularly visit this site) are incredibly generous people who give much more back to this world than they take. I truly admire their good works. It is not my purpose (and I’m sure it’s not grumpypilgrim’s purpose) to insult them. I’ve tried to make this clear as part of other posts.
On the other hand, grumpypilgrim’s post reminded me of some of the many questions Daniel Dennett raised in his recent book, Breaking the Spell (2006). On page 210, for example, Dennett cited Richard Dawkins (from A Devil’s Chaplain):
We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
I have often criticized believers who are so absolutely certain of their own beliefs, all of which are based upon a personal “feeling” and apocryphal writings, that they take political steps to disparage the beliefs and doubts of all other people. Jimmy Carter has termed such people “fundamentalists,”:
…A fundamentalist believes, say, in religious circles, that I am close to God. Everything that I believe is absolutely right. Anyone who disagrees with me, in any case,
I just finished reading Michael Shermer's book, "Why People Believe Weird Things." It's very long-winded -- the book could easily be 1/10th its size and still make the same points -- but it did make me realize one thing. The book discusses alien abduction as an example of a weird…