Recently I visited Ireland twice in as many months having not been in the country for several years. The first visit was to Dublin, the more recent one to Cushendun, a village in the Glens Of Antrim in Northern Ireland.
Arriving into Dublin I found nothing I recognised but then I hadn't seen the place for more than two decades. Time passing has wrought changes in us both, in the case of the city for the better. No longer a grimy, slightly down at heel, poor poetical relation of a place but a modern metropolis possessing every good aspect of the 21st century and every bad aspect too, of course.
There is no room in this short piece to list all of the changes the Republic has witnessed so I have chosen one to represent all of them. Tragedy is a bred in the bone part of the Irish psyche. But when I was young the way in which historical tragedies were remembered in Ireland disgusted me even though I hadn't the words or the wit to say why it did so. Now, I would describe some, a lot, of what I saw and heard then as ersatz sentimentality, an almost cosy wallowing in the tragic past. But on this recent visit to Dublin I found, in a park, this memorial to the victims of the famine. It is an honest work, stark, unsentimental and profoundly moving.
The changes in Northern Ireland are even more profound. Although the peace now reigning there is precarious and although there are still occasional, deadly terrorist outrages; life in the North seems, to this infrequent visitor, to have become blessedly almost normal. My images of Cushendun and the area around show it to be what it is, an idyl. To experience the very essence of tranquillity, walk on the shore there or hike into the hills.
No picture of Northern Ireland would be complete without a memorial to those murdered or injured during the decades long 'Troubles' but I have been unable to find a single, unifying memorial to all of the victims of the conflict; perhaps it is too soon for that.
These trips to Ireland woke a feeling in me, a feeling too long submerged by the habit of existance. The Germans have a word for it, Heimat, a word which to German ears means more than just 'homeland.' Heimat evokes a feeling as well as a place, an identity as well as a location, a physical, spiritual and poetical reality. Ireland's gravity pull on her separated children, is like that.
For some time I had been wondering about the ways in which these states of mind both counteract and compliment one another but had not put my inconclusive meanderings into print as they were neither original nor conclusive.
But then a recent re-reading of Graham Green's wonderful novel Monsignor Quixote provided the perfect answer. Late in the story, the Monsignor and his 'Sancho,' the communist ex-mayor of the town in which the two men live, discuss the matter .
Enrique Zancas, otherwise Sancho: "Do you know what drew me to you in El Toboso father? It wasn't that you were the only educated man in the place. I'm not so fond of educated men as all that. Don't talk to me of the intelligentsia or culture. You drew me to you because because I thought you were the opposite of myself. A man gets tired of himself, of that face he sees every day when he shaves, and all my friends were in just the same mould as myself. I would go to Party meetings in Ciudad Real when it became safe after Franco was gone, and we would call ourselves 'comrade' and we were a little afraid of each other because we knew each other as well as each one knew himself. We quoted Marx and Lenin to one another like passwords to prove we could be trusted, and we never spoke about the doubts which came to us on sleepless nights. I was drawn to you because I thought you were a man without doubts. I was drawn to you, I suppose, in a way by envy."
Monsignor Quixote: "How wrong you were, Sancho. I am riddled by doubts. I am sure of nothing, not even the existence of God, but doubt is not treachery as you communists seem to think. Doubt is human. Oh, I want to believe that it is all true - and that want is the only certain thing I feel. I want others to believe too - perhaps some of their belief might rub off on me. I think the baker believes."
"That was the belief I thought you had."
"Oh no, Sancho, perhaps then I could have burnt my books and lived really alone, knowing that all was true. 'Knowing', how terrible that might have been. "
Extract taken from Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene - Vintage Classics Paperback Edition
I have just read, in the July 2009 edition of Scientific American, an article by Dr. Michael Shermer PhD.
In the article, entitled, I Want To Believe, Dr. Shermer describes the importance of the null hypothesis to scientific exploration; the notion that, in general, scientific claims are regarded as untrue until and unless they can be verified by means of controlled experiments validated by statistical analysis. However, he goes on to describe a class of such claims which, by their nature, cannot be tested in that way but instead rely for verification on "nuanced analyses of data and a convergence of evidence from multiple lines of inquiry that point to an unmistakable conclusion" Cosmology and archeology are given as examples of this type of study.
Later on in the article, Dr. Shermer refers to a question, the answer to which can probably not be ascertained by either approach, the question of what came before the Big Bang. In other words, what brought the universe into existence? He mentions the idea that the universe which we inhabit might have been proceeded by a multiverse which spawned daughter universes one of which was the one we inhabit but that there is no positive evidence for this conjecture. He then adds an intriguing comment to the effect that nor is there any positive evidence for the traditional answer to the question of the origin of the universe; that it was created by God.
I refer to this as intriguing because that remark would seem to compare the possibility of there having been a physical precursor to our universe with the possibility of there having been a metaphysical one, a case, to my mind, of comparing apples with elephants. The implied comparison is invalid.
I raise this matter because Dr. Shermer, who elsewhere describes himself as a skeptic, says that he has concluded that he is a skeptic "not because I do not want to believe but because I want to know." That seems to me to be both an honest and an honorable position. However, to speak about knowledge in respect to God is surely a misuse of the word. Theoretically at least, everything about the physical laws governing the universe is discoverable. However, we should not delude ourselves that any comparable process could uncover any knowledge about God.
I neither know that God exists nor do I know that God does not exist but I am sure that knowledge is not the issue in this context. Dr. Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic (www.skeptic.com) and the author of Why We Believe.
A friend of mine, a theologian who spent his working life in India, was greatly impressed by the vivacity and diversity of religious life in the sub-continent. He studied the sacred works of all the major religions present there and found, once the trappings of ceremony and the gaudy accretions of popular belief were put to one side, a remarkable congruity of core belief.
The first five words of the Nicene Creed are; I believe in one God. When I was a small boy I somehow gained the impression that only Christians believed this but Jewish school fellows soon disabused me of that notion and later on I realised that what I had thought of as an exclusive club actually had three members because Muslims also believed in a single, all powerful deity.
Still, I thought, a club with only three members is not too bad and we three can still look down with pity upon those poor benighted souls whose belief systems include pantheons of gods and goddesses whose behaviour, as exemplified by that of the denizens of old Olympus, is often less than edifying.
But later on in life I looked into the several books written by my theological friend and saw there that the characters who provide the external appearance of polytheistic religions are merely aspects of a much deeper reality in which there is only one supreme Absolute. Jolted by this into further reading , I soon realised that the notion of a Supreme Creator is a common characteristic of almost all organised religions as well as of many individuals who profess a faith in God. Another common characteristic of those who believe in the existence of a Creator is a notion that it is desirable and possible to communicate with that being, hence the notion of prayer.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, asking God for something; relief from sickness, success in business, a happy death, a bountiful crop and so on is probably the most common form of prayer while the next most frequently used type is the praise prayer . As a child I was urged by my spiritual mentors to pray; to tell God what I was thinking, to offer praises to God, to tell Him that I was sorry for having offended Him and to ask Him for things; mercy principally but also alleviation from sickness and pain for me and for others, always remembering though that God might not do as I asked because, in the long run, He knew what was best for me and for everyone else.
In my own case, when no relief came from my chronic asthma, for instance, I was adjured to 'offer my pain up to God as a sacrifice.' Naturally, as an aspirant son of Holy Mother Church I complied but by my tenth year I had begun to wonder whether it wasn't a bit odd; talking to someone who never answered, not even enigmatically. I'd read about the Oracle at Delphi by this time and thought that even a cryptic answer would have been better than nothing.
Now, as a young person, I could see the point of supplicatory prayers; I wanted something and thought that He might give it to me but praising seemed somehow unedifying. After all, God knew all about Himself and hardly needed me to remind him that he was great, good, loving etc. In any event, as I have argued elsewhere in this blog, God is beyond the ultimate event horizon and is consequently unknowable and the attributes that we ascribe to God are a reflection of our wishes rather than of His reality.
In the Don Camillo stories by Giovanni Guareschi, the eponymous priest talks directly to God via the figure of Christ on the cross over the altar of the parish church. And God, in the figure of Christ, not only replies but initiates conversations, particularly when He wants to make a point to the saintly but worldly Don Camillo. Their talk is natural and easy, Don Camillo does not bow and scrape although he does show a proper respect and reverence for his Lord. I have often wanted to be able to talk with God in that way, especially when I have been very worried about something, a seriously ill child, for instance but to no avail; God has never had anything to say to me. I have no way of knowing whether anyone else has ever received a conversational answer from God but I'd lay very long odds on its never having happened. I am now in something of a bind. I am sure that praise of God is an absurd activity and pretty sure that petitions to God are never answered. And yet and yet, I have never been able to quite rid myself of the notion that my nowadays conversational asides to the God whom I cannot affect might, in some unknowable, celestial sense of the word, be being heard. Whistling in the dark, perhaps?
I have just returned from Greece, or more precisely from a section of the the Peloponnese known as The Mani. It is a most beautiful land of high mountains, deep gorges, cyprus and olive groves, tower houses, tiny churches, of welcoming villagers and hardy fishermen who get their livelihood from the Gulf of Messinia, an inlet of the Ionian Sea. I stayed with friends who have built themselves a house there. We explored high and low and ate and slept well. In fact for the first time in several years, I slept each night like a child. Having gotten home, I bought a cookbook I had seen in Greece, in the house of the friends with whom I stayed. In the last couple of days, I've made various meze and cooked Chicken Baked With Yogurt (and many spices) and tonight I'm cooking Sesame-Crusted Roast Chicken (in tahini and caper sauce) I have not yet cooked fish in the Greek style nor yet had the opportunity to gut freshly caught red mullet as this chap is doing in a waterside taverna.
Oh, and I imported some superb olive oil from the press to which my friends take their olives at harvest time in November. Here are some of their trees.
Know Middle English, from Old English cnāwan; akin to Old High German bichnāan to recognize, Latin gnoscere, noscere to come to know, Greek gignōskein Date: before 12th century Transitive verb:
To perceive directly, have direct cognition of.
To have understanding of.
To recognize the nature of.
To recognize as being the same as something previously known.
To be acquainted or familiar with.
To have experience of.
To be aware of the truth or factuality of.
To be convinced or certain of.
To have a practical understanding of.
From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary
Believe Middle English beleven, from Old English belēfan, akin to Old High German gilouben to believe Date: before 12th century
Intransitive verb
To have a firm religious faith
To accept as true, genuine, or real
To have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something
To hold an opinion
To consider to be true or honest
To accept the word or evidence of
To hold as an opinion
From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary
A few of the things I know
How to use trigonometry to measure the height of a mountain. That an organism denied nutriments and fluids will perish That light from the Sun takes approximately 8.2 minutes to travel from the outer edge of the solar photosphere to the surface of the Earth. That if, while swimming, I allow my lungs to fill with water, I will drown, unless I quickly eject the water.
We gain this type of knowledge either from textbooks or from experience but these examples and millions more like them have another characteristic; they are capable of independent verification by experiment.
Information about the universe may be divided into two broad categories, facts and theories. Facts have been verified by experiments that can be repeated. Theories remain just theories until and unless they are either verified or refuted by experiment. In principle, everything about the universe is discoverable by this method, although some theories may be doomed to remain unproven or unrefuted because experiments to test them are either prohibitively expensive or have apparently insurmountable technical difficulties attached to them. However, the material point is that every physical attribute of the universe, from the physics of the smallest sub-division of an atom to those of the largest aggregation of galaxies, is, in principle, discoverable by experiment.
A few of the things I believe That the Baltimore Orioles baseball team will win the 2010 World Series, this in spite of the fact that the O’s haven’t won that competition since 1983. That the next general election in Britain will be won by the incumbent administration, the Labour Party. That the British monarchy will be abolished within twenty years, in other words no later than 2028 That there may be a God in whose ‘mind’ all that is resides.
It is obvious from these few examples that there is more than one kind of belief. Some, the first three of those listed, might be called reasonable expectations which will, with the passage of time, be seen to have been either right on target or seriously wide of it.
But the forth item is in a category containing only one example. Neither reason nor knowledge informs it. Belief in the existence of God is, in the strict sense of the word, irrational. Not that every philosopher has been content to leave it there. Anselm of Canterbury, Renee Descartes and others have striven to prove that God exists by means of long and complicated ontological arguments with, in some cases, elements of the Unmoved Mover argument attached. Aristotle , who may have invented that argument relied on it entirely in his attempt to prove the unprovable.
For my part, I believe that God may exist because I cannot honestly say that God does not exist but beyond that I cannot go. The God who may exist is as unknowable as the physics that produced the singularity from which the universe was born explosively. We have not the eyes to see beyond either horizon.
But I am sure of a few things about the God who may exist: He has no attributes He is neither in time nor space He is unknowable In the next chapter, I will demonstrate the truth of these assertions.
Chapter 2
Attribute Middle English, from Latin attributus, past participle of attribuere to attribute, from ad + tribuere to bestow Date: 14th century
Noun
An inherent characteristic
An accidental quality
An object closely associated with or belonging to a specific person, thing, or office
A word ascribing a quality to a person thing or object
Time Middle English, from Old English tīma; akin to Old Norse tīmi time, Old English tīd Date: Before 12th century
Noun
The measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues
The non-spatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future
Space Middle English, from Anglo-French espace, space, from Latin spatium area, room, interval of space or time Date: 14th century
Noun
A period of time; also: its duration
A limited extent in one, two, or three dimensions: distance, area and volume.
An extent set apart or available
The distance from other people or things that a person needs in order to remain comfortable
A boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction
Unknowable Date: 14th century
Adjective
Not knowable; especially: lying beyond the limits of human experience or understanding
All three definitions from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary
What are God's attributes?
Faced with this challenge, a Hindu might first ensure that the questioner was not referring to Shiva, Vishnu or Shakti or any member of the Hindu pantheon because they are are thought of as simply manifestations of Ultimate Reality, a concept about which nothing can be said. Hence the need for something more nearly human through which one might direct one's devotional feelings.
Faced with the same question, a Muslim might say that although God has revealed his will through the prophets, his nature remains unknowable, adding that when we speak, for example, about God being all-knowing and all-merciful, we are simply referring to what we believe has been revealed to us and not to anything actually known.
A Jew might reply that God cannot be divided into parts located in time or space and that therefore the notion that he has attributes is merely an imperfect attempt to understand the nature of the infinite. He or she might add that scriptural references to the Hand of God or to God's anger and so on are simply figures of speech used to make God's apparent actions comprehensible.
A Christian might also say that God is essentially unknowable, and that, therefore, any reference to attributes in respect of God must be seen as allegorical.
In stating what I understand to be the position of Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus on this subject, I am, I believe reflecting the views of historical and contemporary scholars from each faith rather than those of the many adherents of these religions who hold and express other, less aesthetic views.
And it is that spirit that I ask the following two questions: when did God create the Universe and where did God create it?
When? Current theories about the origin of the Universe put its age as between 13.5 and 14 billion years but when did its Creator act to create it?
The word, 'When' refers to time but as reported above, time is "the measured or measurable period during which an action or process or condition exists or continues" and "the non-spatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from the past through the present to the future."
Where? The word, 'Where,' refers to a boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction."
The verb to create, is thus seen to betoken an action performed in time and space but God exists outside of time or space. It follows that God did not create the Universe, it simply is in God.
Conclusion We exist temporally and our existence is bounded by birth and death, God exists eternally and there are no boundaries to God's existence. Anything we say about God is an attempt to humanise God for our own purposes but has nothing to do with God. God is truly truly unknowable and beyond the limits of human experience or understanding.
What Light An outward sign A presumption A binding An order A way
Mock Morris
Suitably dull days Mock the Spring Mock new shoots and plover's eggs Mock guiless girls and gummy men Mock false hopes and compass points Mock all that is and ever will be
To Be A Pilgrim
You need more than a badge or a staff or a good stout pair of boots or even the watery blessing of Holy Mother Church.
You need the heart and lungs of a lion, a couple of bracing thighs, an ego the size of an armoured train and a devil at your heels.
It takes more than prayer to follow the Master on His way. You’ll need quite as much iron in your soul as devotion in your heart.
And a good dose of laughter will always make the miles go whizzing by. So, tell a few jokes and a tale or two and keep your glasses full.
And when you get to the end of the march and they stamp your passport up don’t gawk like a bumpkin come to town just rest; then get you Home
Characteristics of Pilgrims Valiant – Constant – Funny – Hopeful
Umbra
When the Sun went out, my heart fell out of my chest into my boots, "Gone," I thought, "for good." But the darkness wasn’t so bad. Actually, it made me feel rested, renewed; is reborn too fanciful? No; it’s just right! "When is the next eclipse?"
Cross Over Jordan
Standing by a dark shore, a hot wind in my face I asked, innocently enough, “What lights are those Just there, right at the edge of this old sea?
“That’s Eden,” said my guide, “Remember Eden?” And, while I gaped; added, “Where G-D walked” “The Angel’s gone now, of course, and the Snake”
“And the Tree and the love, that’s altogether gone.” “It’s all palms now and sand and soldiers, of course, Who waste their lives waiting for Him or us or both
Magic and Music
Magikos (Greek) The pretended Art of influencing the course of events by occult means
Mousike tekne (Greek) The Art of combining sounds to create beauty of form
In the garden of the Almavivi The Countess pretends The Count pretends And Figaro burns
In the garden of the Almavivi The Countess hides The Count rages And Figaro laughs
In the garden of the Almavivi The Countess forgives The Count is humbled And Figaro smiles
In the garden of the Almavivi The good come to a Good end, as do the bad Comedy demands it
But
In the garden of the Almavivi Hear the Countess sing: “Piu docile io sono E dico di si”*
And find
In the garden of the Almavivi A subtle alchemy transforming Through the power of love alone Base nature into pure gold A very unpretended magic
* I am kinder I will say, yes! Inspired by Act 1V of Le Nozze di Figaro
The Tuesday Angel
On the day before the stroke struck her, A Tuesday, as it happens, Helga met an Angel.
On the day on which the stroke struck her, She remembered the Angel when she was Unconscious,
On the day after which the stroke struck her, She told me about the Angel just as she fell Asleep.
Der Dienstag Engel, she muttered As she drifted away, a child again Whispering to her Mutti or Someone.
On the day after the day After the day of that stroke, Helga’s Angel vanished As her memory drained away Entirely
We waited and wished him Away, a spell that worked For a deceiving while But He waited too and came Again
Multi Purpose Compost
Multus Purposer Compositum Latin Old French Latin Many Intended Mixing
Mixed Intentions Unintended Consequences
Multiple purposes Mixed Compositions
Intentional mixes Purposed Multiplicity
Inspired by Thalia (Thaleia) the "Flourishing" The muse of comedy and of playful and idyllic poetry Often seen with a comic mask and a crown of ivy and a crook. By Apollo, Thalia had the Corybantes, priests who castrated themselves in identification with the goddess, Cybele And a bag of Mole Valley garden compost
Siebenburger Pottery This rare pottery comes from Transylvania in Rumania. It was made by ethnic Germans who once had a thriving community in that land. * Transylvania was once part of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1140 King Bela of Hungary invited ethnic German merchants and farmers to settle in the area. He gave the Germans generous property rights, tax exemptions and limited political autonomy in exchange for military service whenever the need arose. * Eventually, the region came to be known by its German name, Siebenbürgen because the Germans founded seven fortress towns there in the 12th and 13th centuries. * The Siebenbürger, prospered over the centuries under various rulers but the Second World War was calamitous for them. Many perished on the Eastern Front whilst many survivors became refugees at the end of the war* * However, the refugee Siebenbürger community in Germany keeps the musical and artistic culture alive and this pottery is one aspect of that culture. The examples pictured are decorated with traditional designs and colours. The brown jugs are older and more rare than the blue examples.
Deruta Majolica
Deruta Majolica Deruta, a town in Umbria in the heart of Italy; is known all over the world for its production of ceramics. For centuries its finest products have been bought by individuals for private use and by museum directors for their collections. The items shown here, examples of the Raffaellesco range, are from a private home.
The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall, annotated by Jeremy Bernstein . In September 1939, some of the most important German nuclear physicists were called to a meeting in Berlin. This meeting saw the establishment of several research programmes set up to investigate the possibility of developing atomic weapons. The group called itself, the Uranium Club. As the war progressed, the research programmes got bogged down by various practical and theoretical problems which ultimately stalled the German atomic bomb programme. . When the war in Europe was almost over, a joint Allied team of military and scientific personnel entered Germany and scooped up many of the German researchers including Werner Heisenberg, the leading theoretician of the Club. Shortly thereafter, ten of the scientists, including Heisenberg, were flown to England and incarcerated in a country house, Farm Hall, in Huntingdonshire. They were held there for exactly six months even though the war in Europe had ended before they arrived in England. . During their stay at Farm Hall every word the scientists uttered was recorded and extracts of these tapes were sent to American and British Intelligence for analysis. The listeners were trying to establish how near the Germans had been to making atomic bombs. In due course, it was determined that their efforts had failed because of fundamental errors in the theories they had developed. But early on in the process, the listeners noticed that the Germans were developing another version of the story. Although they did not consult over it, they seem to have collectively produced a version that put their failure down to reluctance rather than inability. They implied that they had not wanted to equip Hitler with atomic weapons and so the programmes got no further. After the men were released, this story was embroidered to the point where the leading scientists appear to have convinced themselves that it was true. . This book is a collection of the transcripts of those taped conversations. It makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in physics, in the history of nuclear warfare and in the psychology of those who provide the weapons. The annotations by Jeremy Bernstein are invaluable for non-specialists and experts alike. He writes lucidly about all of the issues and makes them very accessible. His 'pen portraits' of the ten men are especially revealing . Hitler's Uranium Club is published by Copernicus Books
RIFLES
During the night of the 29th / 30th of March 1810, at Barba del Puerco, in the borderlands between Spain and Portugal, men of the 95th Rifles skirmished for the first time against seasoned troops of Napoleon's Peninsular forces. Although greatly outnumbered, the Rifles prevented the French from advancing and eventually helped to force their retreat. This first action set the tone. Through five more years of fighting, the Rifles distinguished themselves in action after action and, in the process, became an example to every succeeding generation of British soldiers.
In this wonderfully exhilarating book, Mark Urban, distinguished author, editor and military historian, recounts the exploits of the green-jacketed sharpshooters of the 95th in a campaign that took them from Iberia to Waterloo. Using personal testimonies as well as Army records, he describes the feelings as well as the actions of the soldiers and their sometimes inspired, sometimes awful officers; while his descriptions of the battles they fought are every bit as exciting as those of their fictional counterparts, the riflemen led by Bernard Cornwall's 'Sharpe.'
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Of course no military history of the period would be complete without a description of looting, of desertion and of worse crimes. Mark Urban supplies examples of all of these. Even so, in the end, I was left with an overwhelming sense of admiration for the prowess of these men and for their endurance in conditions that were literally quite dreadful for much of the time.
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As a chronicler and as a writer, Mark Urban is superb. I thoroughly recommend this book
*
Rifles is published by Faber & Faber
English Passengers
In 1857 the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, developer of the Theory of Divine Refrigeration, mounts an expedition to find the Garden of Eden; believing it to be located, not in Arabia after all, but in the island of Tasmania. Finding it, he thinks, will finally nail shut the coffin of the atheistic adherents of geology.
But the ship Mr. Wilson charters is actually a Manx smuggling vessel whose Captain and crew agree to take their English passengers to Australia in order to escape the attentions of the British Customs whilst other important members of the expedition; a sinister racial theorist and a feckless ‘cold climate’ botanist have their own secret and non religious reasons for travelling to the other side of the world.Meanwhile, in Tasmania, the aboriginal people are being eradicated by a determined group of genocidal British colonists.
Out of this extraordinary mixture, Mathew Kneale has produced a story full of pathos, comedy and horror. If you like to be made to think and don’t mind having your emotions wrenched in at least two directions at once, read this book. But beware; you won’t be able to put it down once you start it, so take a week off work before you begin.
*
English Passengers, published in paperback by Penguin Fiction was the Whitbread Book of the Year 2000.
