Ever since I saw The Lord of the Rings in the cinema and found myself blasted into tiny glittering fragments of awe by the sheer brilliance with which Christopher Lee plays an Evil Genius, long my favourite breed of villain, when confronted with a decision I have asked myself, 'What would Saruman do?'
I had one such moment this evening, when a young man and a lady approached me on the street, not, as I'd hoped, so the gentleman could hit on me, because he was a bit cute, but so they could talk about Jesus. He was studying to be a pastor. Of course, I didn't find this out right off the bat, oh no. First they made small talk, and left me with the hope I was about to be hit on. Only then did they drop the Jesus bomb.
'What would Saruman do?' I asked myself.
I demolished his very flimsy and basic teleological argument with a few well-placed bullets of logic. I mean, he couldn't even come up with a rejoinder to 'What causes the First Cause?' It was too easy. If we're going to posit that there exists (at least) one cause that causes itself, to serve as the First Cause of everything else, then we've abandoned the idea that all things need external causes to begin with, so whence teleology?
Then I chanted until an avalanche of snow buried them.
***
A pick-up line, to be used in a gay bar, courtesy of Rusty Schrader: 'Can I push in your stool?'
***
And here's some prose, too. The Assistant Librarian went very well, very smoothly. But I do so like to sleep. At least I've left myself at an inspiring point this time, with a thread I can pick up again easily enough later on. Stopping at the end of a scenario kills one's momentum, I find. And this weekend I start moving...There's so much to do! And I have so little energy after doing a day's mathing! Perhaps I should take up hardcore drug abuse?
Today's wordchuck: 19,488
Today's draft: 20021122
Posted by aloysius at November 22, 2002 11:56 PM |