What I know and what I believe

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.

Some Verses

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

Ceramics

Siebenburger Pottery
Brown & Blue



























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.

Books

Hitler's Uranium Club

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.'
.
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.
.
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.

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