tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post696610208205874911..comments2023-11-03T11:32:01.540+00:00Comments on Thought Experiments : The Blog: God, Music and DianaBryan Appleyardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-40980193920087600862008-11-03T06:33:00.000+00:002008-11-03T06:33:00.000+00:00hp pavilion n6000 batteryhp pavilion n6100 battery...<A HREF="http://www.batterylaptoppower.com/hp/pavilion-n6000.htm" REL="nofollow">hp pavilion n6000 battery</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.batterylaptoppower.com/hp/pavilion-n6100.htm" REL="nofollow">hp pavilion n6100 battery</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.batterylaptoppower.com/hp/nx6100.htm" REL="nofollow">hp nx6100 battery</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-57278601262694609822007-09-03T18:21:00.000+00:002007-09-03T18:21:00.000+00:00Gordon, now, now. We're teasing you because we fig...Gordon, now, now. We're teasing you because we figure you can take it -- you often do say controversial things that are bound to get dissenting responses.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, if I have learned anything about British folk, it's that the teasing is relentless and if you can't take it, you'd better move to a less witty and sarcastic place.<BR/><BR/>Just remember when I was being lambasted in the Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-36885082050397410392007-09-03T17:22:00.000+00:002007-09-03T17:22:00.000+00:00Goodness me, there hasn't been such opprobrium dir...Goodness me, there hasn't been such opprobrium directed towards the name of 'Gordon' since the last Conservative party strategy meeting.<BR/><BR/>Still, all the ad hominem arguments make a change from the non sequiturs.Gordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-60973348701386643912007-09-03T13:58:00.000+00:002007-09-03T13:58:00.000+00:00Presumably he would say that, once we get rid of t...Presumably he would say that, once we get rid of that little genetic misfiring called religion, the play will be over and it will be time to relax and enjoy ourselves at the reception.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-78581725254088383332007-09-03T11:12:00.000+00:002007-09-03T11:12:00.000+00:00Oh goodo, Neil, I'm impressed. You are obviously ...Oh goodo, Neil, I'm impressed. You are obviously well on your way to cracking the deeply spiritual seventh circle of love your pals rutting casually and swilling wine in Majorca will never know.<BR/><BR/>But I jest, of course. This has nothing to do with you at all. You actually have no choice. It is your genes pushing you on relentlessly. Fun little critters, aren't they?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-59888284493137586702007-09-03T10:28:00.000+00:002007-09-03T10:28:00.000+00:00Peter, naivety is essential. Otherwise, I wouldn't...Peter, naivety is essential. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get up every morning, change a nappy, get the kids their breakfast, shave, shower, make lunches, wipe jam off the shoulder of my clean shirt, put the bin out, eat my breakfast in the car while my wife ticks me off because I haven't renewed the tax disk, and then work all day before driving home in rush hour traffic to make dinner and..Neil Forsythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00240393170374161007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-11850259947287606822007-09-03T09:53:00.000+00:002007-09-03T09:53:00.000+00:00Excerpt from the transcript of Gordon McCabe's eng...Excerpt from the transcript of Gordon McCabe's engagement party:<BR/><BR/><I>Gordon</I>: "Julie and I would like to thank you all for coming to witness and celebrate the love we share for each other--whatever love is." <BR/><BR/><I>Guests</I>: "Oh no, not again!"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-80150070590455654482007-09-03T00:41:00.000+00:002007-09-03T00:41:00.000+00:00Montaigne said that he and his friend Etienne de l...Montaigne said that he and his friend Etienne de la Boetie loved each other "because it was he, because it was I." Gordon, it seems to me, is confusing love with merely falling in love. Genuine love - as opposed to "luv" - isn't a belief one arrives at by virtue some chain of reasoning. It is the outcome of an encounter. Of course, you have to be open to it, willing to take a risk, which I Frank Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18410473158808750903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-9912944236569909352007-09-02T23:39:00.000+00:002007-09-02T23:39:00.000+00:00Ah, Peter, you have it exactly.Luckily, my teen st...Ah, Peter, you have it exactly.<BR/><BR/>Luckily, my teen still at home is behaving acceptably at the moment. And the one who went to college is doubtless being bad (she's at that No. 1 party school in America), but we don't see or hear about it at a remove of 6 hours.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-64598058313452542452007-09-02T22:34:00.000+00:002007-09-02T22:34:00.000+00:00This kind of love is less funNeil, you mean you ar...<I>This kind of love is less fun</I><BR/><BR/>Neil, you mean you are so naive and immature that you actually believe wild, carefree uninhibited sex and travel without obligations beats an intimate, fretful chat during the washing up with your beloved about your wayward teen's breach of probation before you collapse in exhaustion in bed at 8:00 pm in order to forget you have no idea where the Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-30034215546802197752007-09-02T21:06:00.000+00:002007-09-02T21:06:00.000+00:00Love it. You can't beat a good scrap on a Sunday. ...Love it. You can't beat a good scrap on a Sunday. Of course, the sodium-burning love we experience at the beginning of the journey makes us crazy. Thankfully, it is short-lived. And, later on, as it wears off, another kind of love emerges. This kind of love is less fun, I suppose, but more rational, more enduring and, as the years pass, far more rewarding. Enjoyed your pieces on music and Neil Forsythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00240393170374161007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-1659817852625372602007-09-02T16:22:00.000+00:002007-09-02T16:22:00.000+00:00But of course (from what I can gather from today's...But of course (from what I can gather from today's articles) the big issue for John Humphrys was not so much the nature of love, but whether good and evil are delusional concepts. It would be interesting to get John Humphrys and Richard Dawkins together on this one...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-48920383385001552262007-09-02T15:51:00.000+00:002007-09-02T15:51:00.000+00:00Agreed, Bryan and Philip: the emotion of love cert...Agreed, Bryan and Philip: the emotion of love certainly exists. It is love which is delusional, not the belief in the existence of love. <BR/><BR/>The beliefs upon which love depends are either false, or merely, as Peter points out, unjustified by the evidence. Beliefs which are false or unjustified by the evidence are delusional, and because love depends upon such beliefs, love is a delusion.Gordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-59018336271621995782007-09-02T15:37:00.000+00:002007-09-02T15:37:00.000+00:00PeterAn interesting thought. And many religious be...Peter<BR/><BR/>An interesting thought. And many religious believers take the same view of "outsiders" who challenge their beliefs.<BR/><BR/>(Sorry, didn't intend to post anonymously at 2:44 pm. I was following on from my comment at 1:39.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-64703450721770973502007-09-02T15:31:00.000+00:002007-09-02T15:31:00.000+00:00If Gordon sought to stir up debate, he succeeded. ...If Gordon sought to stir up debate, he succeeded. Admittedly, he appears to have introduced a little confusion through his, perhaps, careless use of 'delusional', but then scientists seem to toss that word around as though handling a sack of spuds rather than, say, a delicate, sophisticated laser. I mention laser because Gordon clearly knows a hell of a lot about being able to see the light (Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-41940608903865741712007-09-02T15:01:00.000+00:002007-09-02T15:01:00.000+00:00Anon:Isn't the idea that there ever could be outsi...Anon:<BR/><BR/>Isn't the idea that there ever could be outside observors even theoretically capable of considering the evidence and making a more reliable "objective' judgment on that score than Aunt Martha and Uncle Bill themselves the mother of all delusions? Yet it is the one that supports a whole industry of social scientists and caring professions, who hold to it fanatically.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-66035547284959555912007-09-02T14:44:00.000+00:002007-09-02T14:44:00.000+00:00In The God Delusion Richard Dawkins says he is usi...In <I>The God Delusion</I> Richard Dawkins says he is using the word "delusion" in the sense of "a false belief or impression".<BR/><BR/>The belief that love is "till death us do part" is obviously a false belief in many cases, one that goes beyond what can be rationally deduced from evidence, and therefore must count as a "delusion" in Dawkins' sense.<BR/><BR/>Is this (as Peter Burnet suggests)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-50565326780825157342007-09-02T14:40:00.000+00:002007-09-02T14:40:00.000+00:00my mum had this saying, passed down from her mum n...my mum had this saying, passed down from her mum no doubt: ''...always wanting to know the ins and outs of a cat's arse!''. I didn't know what it meant and I didn't ask but it sounded funny and it sounded right. Only later did I begin to understand it.<BR/><BR/>I liked the piece on the music though he didn't go far enough. what about feeling irritated by it and why does most (popular but not Ian russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11106519805045337505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-8363855337707235392007-09-02T14:13:00.000+00:002007-09-02T14:13:00.000+00:00Love is delusional because it depends upon various...<I>Love is delusional because it depends upon various false beliefs such as 'this person is the person whose company I will value most for the rest of my life.'</I><BR/><BR/>Gordon, didn't your mother ever smack you for playing with the dictionary like that? You have expanded the meaning of the word "delusional" from believing in a demonstrably erroneous fact to predicting the future with an Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-44318579370720960302007-09-02T13:39:00.000+00:002007-09-02T13:39:00.000+00:00I don't think Gordon (or Humphrys) meant to say th...I don't think Gordon (or Humphrys) meant to say that the "state of love" was delusional, but the commitment that is based on it. Humphrys wrote:<BR/><BR/>"To marry and make the love commitment is the nearest thing to faith I know because it is something done with the same degree of risk."<BR/><BR/>In other words it was the conscious reaction to the state of love which could not be rationally Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-5046093232173022982007-09-02T13:34:00.000+00:002007-09-02T13:34:00.000+00:00Gordon, you're just not gettin' enough.Do you not ...Gordon, you're just not gettin' enough.<BR/><BR/>Do you not have Google in England? You could find "match.com" and sign up!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-22697282427868146552007-09-02T13:01:00.000+00:002007-09-02T13:01:00.000+00:00You're muddling several different levels of argume...You're muddling several different levels of argument, Gordon.<BR/>The state of being in love is plainly real enough irrespective of the outcome. This is all that is necessary to make the original point. If you deny this, you would have to say that the state of being in pain is delusional. You can't say to a person you are wrong to believe you are in pain any ore than you can say they are wrong toBryan Appleyardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-60990766831991424432007-09-02T12:37:00.000+00:002007-09-02T12:37:00.000+00:00Love is delusional because it depends upon various...Love is delusional because it depends upon various false beliefs such as 'this person is the person whose company I will value most for the rest of my life.' <BR/><BR/>The lover is deluded by his/her emotions and instincts, and anyone capable of dispassionately analysing the truth-value of beliefs is capable of judging that it is delusional.<BR/><BR/>The fact that it's a delusional belief doesn'tGordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-67387912738672869842007-09-02T11:30:00.000+00:002007-09-02T11:30:00.000+00:00No, it doesn't, Johnny. Thanks for the long and th...No, it doesn't, Johnny. Thanks for the long and thoughtful response.Bryan Appleyardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-1487237603077457422007-09-02T11:28:00.000+00:002007-09-02T11:28:00.000+00:00Interesting piece on music. I don't think there's ...Interesting piece on music. I don't think there's anything particularly 'astonishing' or revelatory about people approaching a perfect pitch through training, or that hard graft is essential to the full realisation of true genius.<BR/><BR/>A classically trained musician without perfect pitch is clearly much more likely to have a more acute awareness of pitch than a non-musician, for instance. <BRJohnnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12678545794431822288noreply@blogger.com