Posts by BenWilson
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That's because Maurice Gee's YA work is awesome. And the "mystical" stuff (e.g. Halfmen of O, Under the Mountain) is the best of it.
It's the nostalgia, the mysticism, the non-mimeticism that I love the most. I like to suspend my disbelief. It gives it a rest for a bit.
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If only my art could resemble my truth. Then I could program automagically, rather than spending years laboring so that others can feel the automagic, and come back with the automagic question "but how come it doesn't....".
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Surely the nation's Van can be found hanging out with the nation's Munter.
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I woke up one morning and found that I was dead, which was something of a shock
It happens to me a lot...common name unfortunately.
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I just want to say: You did a good thing, Jolisa.
Ihimaera knows this. Don't beat yourself up.
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;-) is sometimes useful for double meanings. Winking. Also, seems like ay? and eh? get used that way a lot in NZ textese.
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Now I think about it (Timaru) is a (Tui Billboard). T. T.
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I seem to remember a brief fashion in the 90's of saying "not" at the end of a sarcastic sentence. This was quickly abbreviated to "t". Actually pronounced without a vowel, so is sounded a bit like "tsss". If the full "not" was used, it was almost always used extremely emphatically and scornfully, with as much put-down tone and sneering as one could muster.
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Personally I would like to try each flag on first to see if I look fat in it.
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IOW we don't get morality from religion, religion gets its morality from us, particularly as social animals.
For sure. So far as the connection between God and morality is concerned, I always remember the important distinction Socrates makes in Euthyphro "Is an act pious because the gods love it, or do the Gods love it because it is pious?" Euthyphro rightly (IMHO) chooses the latter. The connection between gods and morality is not what defines morality. It is what defines godliness, at least, it is part of the definition of some gods.
Perhaps we could come to know morality from the words of gods, if they are an infallible guide. But it's not the only path possible, since morality is already clearly independent of the gods.
It's interesting to hear this idea from someone who clearly was a true believer, indeed, Socrates seems to have believed that at least one god spoke directly to him most of the time. He said as much during his trial, at which there were a great many witnesses. To even say such a thing no doubt struck the religious Athenians as highly impious. He was convicted, and after the worst plea bargain in history, sentenced to death by a greater margin of people than had found him guilty in the first place.
It's a fairly stark reminder of religion's response to reason. The arguable founder of the western tradition of inquiry into ethics was put to death for how irreligious his method and teachings were. To even inquire into such matters was too much. To claim to be doing so on a mission from the gods was pure sacrilege.
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