From: sprowell@grape.cs.utk.edu (Stacy Prowell)
Subject: PRELUDE TO RED IGUANA DAWN (3 of 5) Lemonade
Date: 14 Mar 1994 15:00:42 GMT
Message-ID: <2m1u6qINNbut@CS.UTK.EDU>

In this post I find myself having a relaxing discussion
with Publius...

----
Re: CONTROVERTED QUESTIONS

[Scene:  Doctor Stan and I are sitting in a
 moss-covered cabanya in the hills of North
 Carolina.  It is unseasonally warm and
 pleasant.  We are both sipping lemonade.]

In article <2k6lro$k0h@inca.gate.net>, publius@inca.gate.net (Publius) writes:
|> "Looking at the matterfrom the most rigidly scientific point of
|> view, the assumption that, amidst the myriads of worlds scattered
|> through endless space, there can be no intelligence, as much greater
|> than man's as his is greater than a blackbeetle's, no being endowed
|> with powers of influencing the course of nature as much greater than
|> his, as his is greater than a snail's, seems to me not merely
|> baseless, but impertinent."

[I take a sip of my lemonade to try to wash
 the huge block of syntax down.]

Me:  [Scratching my head as I try to make sense
      of Stan's run-on sentence]
     I'd hate to have to diagram that sentence.
     That seems a little long-winded, even for
     you, Stan.  Also, I think you said life
     "didn't happen anywhere else" in an earlier
     post.  Are you reversing that stance now?

publius@inca.gate.net (Publius) says:
|> Without stepping beyond the analogy of
|> that which is known, it is easy to people the cosmos with entities
|> in ascending scale until we reach something practically               
|> indistinguishable from omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.

Me:  Analogy of that which is known?  I don't
     have a clue what that means, Stan.  Besides,
     I don't think you know what those words mean.
     Omnipotence doesn't just mean "really
     powerful," or "more powerful than me *and*
     my cat-"

Orithyia:  Meow!

Me:  ...uh, me and my *wife* combined.  Besides, are
     you reversing your earlier stance or not?

publius@inca.gate.net (Publius) continues:
|>   Thomas H. Huxley - The Crew of the "Enterprise"- and PUBLIUS
|>  (Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions)
|>   P.S. - Sure beats the Life-less God of the Atheist Religion!

Me:  Uh, if the god is lifeless, then it isn't a
     god.  I've been trying to tell you this.
     Have you heard a word I've said?

publius@inca.gate.net (Publius) quietly sips his lemonade:
|>

Me:  Hello?

-- 
-- _Stacy Prowell_______sprowell@utkcs.utk.edu_
  |                                            |
  | The mysterious UNIX paradigm:              |
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  |   "No design is better than a bad design." |
  |                             - Ken Thompson |
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