Friday, April 17, 2009

Pet rocks


If Charles Darwin had been a reader of Blase Pascal he may have come to a different conclusion watching subtle changes in wildlife. In Darwin's thinking life evolved. Consider the beautiful rock formations above in Moab Utah.. Man and rocks evidently have a common ancestor before the slime (of unknown origin) got zapped by lightening (of unknown origin) or whatever the current explanation of the big Bang is. Do you think those rocks have any self awareness, fears or joys. The absurdity of that was commercialized at Christmas in a boxed pet rock that came with complete instructions for the care of your new pet. The instruction I liked the best was teaching the rock to roll over. It simply said, don't be ridiculous, pet rocks don't do that. Rocks don't actually do a lot of things and they are pretty easy to care for. Blase noted 300 years before Darwin:

...there being nothing so inconceivable as to say that matter knows itself. It is impossible to imagine how it should know itself. So, if we are simply material, we can know nothing at all; and if we are composed of mind and matter, we cannot know perfectly things which are simple, whether spiritual or corporeal.

The quote is a lot longer but basically Blase would find Darwin's logic simply illogical. I sure wish Chuck had paid more attention in class or at least had seen a pet rock. the shack study guide, discussion guide for the shack

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