Edward Dolan wrote:
> "Bill Baka" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Edward Dolan wrote:
> [...]
>>> The above is nothing but sheer male fantasy of course. But hey, I would
>>> not mind residing on Planet Baka for a short period of time in order to
>>> see what I might have missed in life. However, women can spot an ascetic
>>> like me a mile off and avoid me like the plague. I think they can sense
>>> that I am NEVER in the mood for love.
>> God,
>> Do you live on an island or something. It happened, or did you forget how
>> us people in California did things back then? Not to mention I was living
>> in the hottest part of L.A., Hollywood. I had an apartment of Sunset Strip
>> about a block from the Whiskey a Go-Go. Perfect timing to be living there.
>> Too bad you missed out on life.
>
> I abhorred the 60's with a passion. I hated everything about that decade.
> And so I spent it wandering in the mountains and deserts of the Western U.S.
> where I occasionally encountered hippies and yippies. I never met one of
> them that I did not instantly hate. I literally wanted to kill them. I
> simply can't stand scum humans.
> [...]
You sort of have a point, since I at least had a job, first working real
work in a paper plant (International Paper) then when they laid off a
bunch of people I had to settle for a Jack in the Box. At least I did
work, even if my college to that point was ignored.
>
>>> Nope, all men fear death.
>> I don't unless it is a prolonged and messy experience. No nursing home for
>> me. I will go out (I hope) in the Steve Irwin style, doing something I
>> like. A heart attack at 90 trying to attack an insane hill or being shot
>> in bed with another man's wife.
>
> A heart attack is not a bad way to die, but dying is not about death. Death
> is about no longer existing, a very hard concept for us humans to wrap our
> minds around. Hence, the necessity for religion.
Ok,
But the only problem I can see is that my kids, kids^2, will miss me,
and I won't get to watch the various bicycle tours on OLNTV. That would
be my biggest gripe about going early.
>
> Once I wasn't, Then I was, Now I ain't again.
>
> - Epitaph found on tombstone in Ohio graveyard
>
>> Until fairly recently, it was something that all
>>> men lived with every day of their lives. Imagine what it must have been
>>> like at the time of our evolution as naked apes. Only men can think due
>>> to language.
>> You have lost it. Higher animals can think, from Dolphins and porpoises to
>> my cat. I doubt they spend their time contemplating death but they do
>> think but not talk.
>
> Nope, without language you cannot think. There is no way any animal other
> than the human animal can have a concept of death. Various 'wild boy'
> discoveries have proven this. Furthermore, unless you learn language by a
> certain rather young age, you are lost forever to humanness.
Ed,
You are coming out as a holy fanatic now, elevating this shoddy race as
the only one who can think, by way of speech. Ocean mammals communicate
over great distances via sound, Dolphins and Porpoises even have equal
brain size to us, and Elephants grieve the loss of one of their own.
Just because whales talk via FM and not AM like us does not mean they
can't think. Maybe they know what's ahead and don't mind sacrificing
themselves to the whalers, knowing that at the present pace humans who
can think will probably ruin the surface of the Earth, if not also the
oceans. It has been shown that linguistic skills cause the brain to grow
more, thus a higher adult IQ but who knows what they are talking about
underwater? We have never decoded it, but they could be discussing some
pretty exotic stuff. Their disadvantage is no written language.
>
>> Therefore he can KNOW death the way no other animal can. How can
>>> you live if you fear death every living second of your life. Truth is you
>>> can't - and so the brain evolved religious beliefs. Even an atheist like
>>> myself fears death and would like to believe in something beyond it.
>> Dying is like going to sleep and not knowing if you are going to wake up,
>> or wake up alive one more day, or in some sort of afterlife. I have been
>> paddled back to the land of the living a few times in 1970 when the
>> doctors really thought I was a goner after a royal car wreck, and I didn't
>> 'see the light'. Either there is, or not. At worst I will miss the next
>> TdF scandal.
>
> Maybe so, but the realization of death itself is what matters. Only we
> humans can contemplate death as a future for ourselves. It will be the same
> after death as it was before life of course, but most humans cannot accept
> this brute fact of life. Hence, religion.
>
>>> I am convinced that there is a segment of the brain where religious
>>> beliefs reside. Evolution is so remarkable because it insists on life
>>> above all else and will be able to do almost anything to accomplish this
>>> purpose. Darwin was 100% right about everything in the main and anyone
>>> who disagrees with him is 100% wrong.
>> Gee,
>> I must be wrong. Many of my wife's relatives and a few people I have known
>> have died before my age so I figure I am ahead of the curve right now. If
>> I don't make it to tomorrow I won't be worried about it, but my daughter
>> and grand kids will be.
>> Don't worry, be happy.
>
> Bill, you are being a realist and practical about it all, but there is more
> to it than that for most of the rest of us. You cannot easily explain away
> the universal belief of men in spirits and the supernatural. It all comes
> from the fear of death of course. Bravado is NEVER any substitute for this
> fear, but it makes a good show for others who do not think deeply on these
> matters.
From my scientific point of view, which apparently puts all here to
shame, there actually could be interwoven parallel universes with
completely different rules and the explanation for ghosts might just be
a little 'bleed through'. Space is infinite and there could be more
universes out so far we would never have a chance to see them or hear
their radio signals. Do you think there is a brick wall 14+ billion
light years out? Infinity is infinite, as in beyond the imaginations of
the still primitive human race.
People are so self centered and limited in imagination.
Bill Baka
>
> Regards,
>
> Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
> aka
> Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota
>
>
