tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post863095661904967976..comments2023-12-15T02:38:55.020+10:30Comments on Still Life With Cat: Um, noKerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-23991781983103676532009-11-21T08:36:57.814+10:302009-11-21T08:36:57.814+10:30I may not have made myself entirely clear, or Our ...I may not have made myself entirely clear, or Our Alan may have instigated a bit of thread drift, but I think I need to say again that my quarrel is with the encroachment of organised religion in general and Christianity in particular (in the instance of the Australian politicians and press; I know it happens with other religions and I know it happens elsewhere, but in the case of Australia I am personally implicated) into public life, <i>as though it were the official norm</i>, and with that encroachment being made via language. <br /><br />I've got a fairly strong sense of the sacred and of the discourse of the sacred myself (and both 'evil' and 'prayer' belong to it, with their built-in assumptions of spiritual/occult forces, as per Michael's comment above), and can find plenty of uses for its vocabulary. I just think that it's both misleading and coercive, in a particularly creepy way, to use it in an ostensibly secular country's public life.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-87405328612801743222009-11-21T01:41:39.448+10:302009-11-21T01:41:39.448+10:30"I do use the term "evil" a bit ......"I do use the term "evil" a bit ... I reserve it for rare occasions of things I find truly inexplicable"<br /><br />This is the main reason why I cannot use the term 'evil' anymore. Evil is used to denote acts motivated by occult forces (I use occult here in the non-religious manner). <br /><br />As human understanding has progressed over the last couple of centuries less is occult and more is known. As such 'evil' is being used less and less.<br /><br />This combined with the clash and deconstruction of ethical systems over the last centrury has in my mind made the concept of 'evil' an archaic term.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08037644526739893410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-16460741581631585532009-11-20T23:37:02.067+10:302009-11-20T23:37:02.067+10:30All though I generally classify myself as an athei...All though I generally classify myself as an atheist I do use the term "evil" a bit, and not only with irony.<br /><br />I think it conveys a sense of monstrous sadistic behavior that simply passes our understanding in a way that "psychopathic" doesn't. I try to reserve it for rare occasions of things I find truly inexplicable, rather than examples of ordinary greed and selfishness. <br /><br />litrates - how long has verification been waiting to put *that* on your blog.feral sparrowhawkhttp://rapturousthinking.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-51918669492253739812009-11-20T16:22:57.229+10:302009-11-20T16:22:57.229+10:30This is a topic that gets rehashed periodically at...This is a topic that gets rehashed periodically at the pub with friends - both the political and personal aspects of it. <br /><br />From a personal point of view, I really struggle with how to convey the same idea of "I'm thinking of you and hoping for the best for you and genuinely care how it all turns out" in a simple fashion. "Praying to the Almighty Stephen" removes any hint of religion, but doesn't address the political aspect so well.Arianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17977679825245376111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-63173719688703013482009-11-20T12:38:35.441+10:302009-11-20T12:38:35.441+10:30The concept of evil is actually quite useful, PC, ...The concept of evil is actually quite useful, PC, even for an atheist. (I agree there's a fair overlap with "psychopathic", though.)<br /><br />I'm sure I don't attach quite the same meaning to it as the religious folk do, though.David Irving (no relation)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-2646644321113644362009-11-19T19:38:45.827+10:302009-11-19T19:38:45.827+10:30Heh. I know the temptation well.Heh. I know the temptation well.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-50011979709983254642009-11-19T19:12:28.540+10:302009-11-19T19:12:28.540+10:30My apologies for feeding the pests :)My apologies for feeding the pests :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08037644526739893410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-24526577282225129282009-11-19T18:50:05.543+10:302009-11-19T18:50:05.543+10:30Elisabeth, it's all the same one person. I ded...Elisabeth, it's all the same one person. I deduce from the details available to me that he has spent quite a lot of time reading my blog, including in the small hours of this morning, which frankly I find a bit sinister. Michael has tried to engage with his points so I haven't just wanted to delete every one of his comments, but enough is enough, I think.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-59460049481918227802009-11-19T18:37:53.270+10:302009-11-19T18:37:53.270+10:30Why do these certain people bother to read your bl...Why do these certain people bother to read your blog, Pav? <br /><br />I find it disturbing. I don't think it's simply that I want everyone to be of like minds, it's just that there's something awful and ugly about people,'shitting in other people's nests'. <br /><br />Sorry to put it so crudely but reading these offerings from these two naysayers feels like this to me. Although I hesitate in wading in on the furor with the thought that I should not offer them even a hint of recognition, I also feel the need to offer you some support in the face of these ugly attempts at hijacking the discussion, particularly when it's clear they don't even understand the vaguest gist of it.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04015624747225433940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-70703098789802485282009-11-19T18:28:10.807+10:302009-11-19T18:28:10.807+10:30As a matter of fact, someone I would miss terribly...As a matter of fact, someone I would miss terribly is indeed in danger of dying. The time that I might have spent praying for her is actually being spent keeping her company while she has chemo and making her her favourite curries so she can defrost them for dinner when she's feeling too tired to cook. To my way of seeing, that is far more useful.<br /><br />'"The discourse of the sacred"?<br />What's that, I only know words.'<br /><br />Might I suggest ever so gently, then, that perhaps you are not properly equipped to have the conversation. <br /><br />I assumed you were Christian because the people who occasionally turn up here spitting foam at my posts about the encroachment of Christianity on public life usually are. Apologies if you are offended by being called Christian. And now, I really do think you should quit while you're behind. Any further comments from you will be deleted.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-17379583534548728302009-11-19T17:32:33.775+10:302009-11-19T17:32:33.775+10:30"Do you know if there's a God? No.
Do I? ..."Do you know if there's a God? No.<br />Do I? No.<br />When someone you'll miss is in danger of dying, pray for them.<br />Why not?"<br /><br />Replace your 'god' with a ancient god like Thor. Then it sounds completely farcical<br /><br />"Do you know if Thor exists? No.<br />Do I? No.<br />When someone you'll miss is in danger of dying, pray to Thor for them. <br />Why not?"<br /><br />Why Not? Well because it would be completely the inappropriate thing to do in the face of death.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08037644526739893410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-35689034564140364602009-11-19T17:20:45.051+10:302009-11-19T17:20:45.051+10:30Do you know if there's a God? No.
Do I? No.
...Do you know if there's a God? No.<br /><br />Do I? No.<br /><br />When someone you'll miss is in danger of dying, pray for them. <br />Why not? <br /><br />"The discourse of the sacred"? <br />What's that, I only know words. <br /><br />Why did you assume I'm Christian?Alannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-50775691187631830482009-11-19T16:44:06.149+10:302009-11-19T16:44:06.149+10:30Oops. apologies for the double post.
While I'...Oops. apologies for the double post.<br /><br />While I'm here...on the subject I'm praying, i'm reminded about a documentary called 'Touching the Void', in which a mountaineer is in a position in which he's certain he's going to die. He searches his emotions and is very pleased to find he has absolutely no desire to pray to any God and is still an aetheist to the end. Of course, he survived.Finehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14210474034971320200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-29840142621891644062009-11-19T16:41:00.133+10:302009-11-19T16:41:00.133+10:30I find what has been irritating me enormously abou...I find what has been irritating me enormously about this is how the twins' parents are completely absent from the story. They're not literally orphans. Rather they were left at the orphanage by parents who couldn't care for them. I haven't heard one word about whether their parents have been contacted, what they think about it, whether they'd like to spend some time with their kids, or even get them back eventually etc. It's great that they're being helped, but at the same time I have the same queasy feeling I get whenever I read about middle-class white people adopting Third World babies, who are only available for adoption because of the parlous state of their parents' lives.Finehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14210474034971320200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-62266690663017801402009-11-19T16:40:04.236+10:302009-11-19T16:40:04.236+10:30I find what has been irritating me enormously abou...I find what has been irritating me enormously about this is how the twins' parents are completely absent from the story. They're not literally orphans. Rather they were left at the orphanage by parents who couldn't care for them. I haven't heard one word about whether their parents have been contacted, what they think about it, whether they'd like to spend some time with their kids, or even get them back eventually etc. It's great that they're being helped, but at the same time I have the same queasy feeling I get whenever I read about middle-class white people adopting Third World babies, who are only available for adoption because of the parlous state of their parents' lives.Finehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14210474034971320200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-49809340842665233292009-11-19T13:20:38.799+10:302009-11-19T13:20:38.799+10:30Michael, thanks, it always helps to have someone e...Michael, thanks, it always helps to have someone else reinforce the point.<br /><br />Alan, you again. But since you are halfway civil this time, I will answer you. Your question reveals that you don't actually understand the point that's being made in the post, which is about language, discourse, belief systems (of any kind) and politics. The answer to your question is that the word I would use to describe the 'evil' crime you cited in your original comment, the torture of animals, is 'psychopathic'. But that word is not from the discourse of the sacred. It refers to the dark place where neuroscience meets socialisation, not some mystical evil force in opposition to a god.<br /><br />You don't seem to quite understand that this is my personal blog, not some public site where total strangers are encouraged leave anonymous foam-flecked personal abuse. Comments are welcome, but not from hostile drive-bys who don't understand the posts.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-71487512731678010942009-11-19T12:47:52.627+10:302009-11-19T12:47:52.627+10:30"As for prayer, in desperation we'll all ..."As for prayer, in desperation we'll all do that, religious or not."<br /><br />This is a typical comment from a religious person who cannot concieve of there being no god. It is also the same conceit that caused the wording of the original article.<br /><br />I don't address any of the 1000's of deities people worship even in desperation and I think a significant portion of the population would feel offended that they would be assumed to.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08037644526739893410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-53082628185635100852009-11-19T12:22:52.873+10:302009-11-19T12:22:52.873+10:30There are crimes so extreme evil is the best word ...There are crimes so extreme evil is the best word to use. Or would you prefer Unacceptable? That's what I said. <br />As for prayer, in desperation we'll all do that, religious or not. <br />But why do you assume I'm Christian? Prayer isn't exclusively Christian, I happen to be Muslim thanks very much.Alannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-88178029146248834472009-11-19T09:15:00.559+10:302009-11-19T09:15:00.559+10:30If any other outraged Christians want to turn up a...If any other outraged Christians want to turn up and hurl opprobrious epithets (I'm quite looking forward to being a daft old woman, actually, but so far I'm only one of those three things -- I'm guessing that for Alan, who called me that in the comments that have been deleted, as threatened above, all three of those words are insults) could you PLEASE, PLEASE read the post properly first. I am not knocking either prayer or Christians. I am knocking politicians and the media.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-73924178851501975212009-11-19T09:04:22.123+10:302009-11-19T09:04:22.123+10:30I have excised a couple of troll comments there. A...I have excised a couple of troll comments there. As you were. <br /><br />FXH, I take your point, but personally think that one person's waste of resources is another person's not-waste of resources. I'm feeling a bit overexposed to the twins myself, and I'm quite sure that the combination of the words 'surgery' 'baby', 'twins' and 'deformity' is indeed a money-spinner for the press which is why they are going on and on about it (I don't blame the hospital, I blame newspapers on their knees), but I'd rather see the money spent on that surgery than on sending the Navy to rescue some rich French yachtie from the Southern Ocean or having some Emergency Services person risk her/his own life to haul some gormless bushwalker up off a ledge below a cliff he should never have gone near in the first place, much less by himself. But other people froth at the mouth about public funding for opera, of which I totally approve (which will get me into trouble with both ideological sides, I'm sure). Horses for courses.Kerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-63728895535750232632009-11-19T01:17:44.511+10:302009-11-19T01:17:44.511+10:30Today UoM apologised for using orphans in medical ...Today UoM apologised for using orphans in medical research in the 1970s. Am I being cynical and really unkind to suggest that there's a bit of experimentation going on here, plus the usual media frenzy?<br /><br />While I too wish these children all the best, of course, and I hope it all works out OK, I tend to agree with some of the commentators here, that I don't really want to be continuously bombarded by this story. <br /><br />As for prayer. Well, it's all been covered very nicely.Tatyana Larinahttp://www.google.com/profiles/110149002210467039807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-51434047528357744952009-11-18T21:33:22.322+10:302009-11-18T21:33:22.322+10:30I'm trying to get drunk enough to lash out a w...I'm trying to get drunk enough to lash out a write about what a waste of resources this has been. Cost - I'd estimate more than $1m, other surgery delayed - possibly around six or seven 4 hour sessions, how many kids died from lack of food in Bangladesh in the last week ??? thousands? how many lives in Bangladesh would the cost of surgery have saved?<br /><br />Cons<br /><br />Royal Childrens plays the shroud waving and cute baby again - a weeks worth of front page on Sun and Age, headlines on TV news, interviews on AM and PM, feature articles in Sun and Age. Pictures of heroic medicos etc etc - all priceless. the PR team at the Children's will be working harder than the surgeons.<br /><br />I'll go before I say something silly about rational allocation of resources.<br /><br />Whens the next RCH Fund raising appeal again?Francis Xavier Holdenhttp://landownunder.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-229606559882306282009-11-18T18:24:54.048+10:302009-11-18T18:24:54.048+10:30In other news: If God needs Joe Hockey to defend h...In other news: If God needs <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/foraradio/stories/2009/2744364.htm" rel="nofollow">Joe Hockey to defend him</a>, he's definitely in a bad way.Helenhttp://castironbalcony.media2.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-19718326184132007672009-11-18T15:31:27.438+10:302009-11-18T15:31:27.438+10:30Much and all as I subscribe to mindfulness, on the...Much and all as I subscribe to mindfulness, on the odd occasions when I remember to practise it, Nation Engages in Mindfulness for Krishna and Trishna, doesn't quite have the same ring...yet.elsewherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15201501156740807013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-32178365110407175952009-11-18T13:18:14.629+10:302009-11-18T13:18:14.629+10:30Oh, maybe I'm wrong. Inside (see how far I go...Oh, maybe I'm wrong. Inside (see how far I got before I obstreporated)are the full images and it seems it was just a photog moving around the room a bit.Zoehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01546885088503890394noreply@blogger.com