C.S. Lewis on humanity

"It is a serious thing," says Lewis, "to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whome we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment."

C. S. Lewis, From The Weight of Glory.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.
Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
Mongol General: That is good! That is good.

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Oh happier days.

Debate Review: William Lane Craig and Sam Harris

Philosopher Glenn Peoples evaluates the Bill Craig versus Sam Harris debate, and finds it to be just as bad as I feared.

Although he is critical of some of Craig's arguments, Dr Peoples had to reserve most of his criticism for Harris who, it seemed, failed to realise the moot of the debate was "Is Good from God?" not, "how many ad hominems and non sequiturs can I get through in an hour and a half?"

It is apparent that the so-called "New Atheists" have this in common. They are full of snark, but lack substance. Whilst the average internet atheist, being equally insubstantial, laps this up, most reasoning people from both sides of the debate find it simply embarrassing.

Atheists, you have the power in your own hands. If you don't want to be coloured with the same brush as these retards, don't buy their books, don't fête them when they turn up in your village, don't repeat their "arguments" and for goodness sake don't invite them to debates.