Our Favorite Quotes

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
Alexis de Tocqueville

 

In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty.
-- Thomas Jefferson

“In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.”
– James Madison

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion.
Arthur C. Clarke

“Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?”
– Robert G. Ingersoll

 

In every country and every age, the revolutionary ruler has become hostile to Liberty.
-- me

“In no instance have . . . the government been guardians of the liberties of the people, not for very long anyway.”
– me

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that boating forums get hijacked by religion.
-- me

 

One of the problems with religious commentaries, for or against, is they quickly morph into vehicles for insulting those who hold other beliefs. Since a belief is precisely that - a belief - it is resistant to arguments to the contrary and such exchanges merely escallate into ever more vituperative comments and counter-claims.

It is odd but some of the least tolerant quotations in recent posts originated with people renowned for their pursuit of liberty in all things for all men. The smaller the difference between the opinions of two people, the more passionately they will argue, especially on religion.

Religion, and its mirror-image beliefs, does not belong on this forum. There are sound reasons for banning it. It is time to move on.


(For the record, I disagree with all of you, just a little bit . . . )

 

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that."

Bill Shankly, late (highly successful) manager of Liverpool Football Club.

He also said "We murdered them 0-0"

 

Alligators and crocodiles are some of the most aggressive creatures on the planet - they'll take down a boat if you come up to their nest.
Jack Hanna

 

Information is not knowledge.
Albert Einstein

 

It's difficult to believe in evolution in hardly any case.
Something fairly new, as in a new growth of Nuts to make some Nut eaters change the Hunting habits maybe, but to say all life slithered up out of the Mud & Algae at a pond somewhere is just too much of a reach for me.

 

Some examples of evolution are easy enough to see, I have witnessed them close up.

The peppered moth in the UK used to be dark brown, it was typically found on the sooty bark of the trees and blended in well. During the 1950's, following a series of heavy fogs that brought London traffic to a halt and killed hundreds especially seniors, draconic (for the time) clean air and water regulations were passed and enforced, new solid fuels were developed to replace the coal which was largely burned in open hearths at the time, and many other changes were made. Over the next few decades the fogs virtually disappeared and the trees lightened in color as they were cleaned by rain. Over the same period of time it was noticed that the color of the moth species became much lighter to match the trees. The speed of the change was unexpected as it had been assumed that evolution took place over thousands of years.

The height of humans has increased in later years. 500 years ago Henry VIII was a tall and athletic man in his youth but I have seen his armour and estimated his height at a modest 69" or 175 cm. These days he would struggle to be considered merely average. That increase is no doubt due to nutrition.

More recently, in 1976 on a trip to Japan I noticed a huge difference between older and younger generations and the same change is taking place in China today.

It is a bit hard to accept that a creature similar to an amoeba was about mid-way in the evolution from bacteria to us, though. Provides a needed dose of humility to our species, perhaps.

 

Revisiting the discussion Hoyt started on the duality problem, I recently stumbled onto another example that actually does involve a darned smart fellow using the same sort of argument. While promoting his new book, Jaron Lanier was caught happily arguing that technology doesn't exist as a thing in and of itself. He says something to the effect that it is only when we choose not see the people who created technology that it gains the sort of existence that we often attribute to it. To whit- technology is the (misguided) impression that people are absent from the process. His new book will probably interest a lot of members here. Among other things, it deals with intellectual property rights and the evolving role of intellectual pursuits in the digital economy.

Weird bug- I had trouble getting this post up. Then there were two of them, and when I tried to delete one- they both disapeared! Talk about a duality problem.

 

Its the start of evolution of the Internet - its morphing into an intelligent entity, and will edit all your entries that do not meet its approval.

The use of PRISM monitoring programs by the US has accelerated the development.

 

I am not an evolution skeptic, but those examples are not evolution in the strict sense.


Evolution is characterised by permanent genetic change. eg your children will inherit the characteristic.

"Evolution proceeds as changes (mutations) occur in the genetic code of an organism. These mutations are 'tested' by the environment in which the organism exists. Many (most) of the changes will be harmful to the organism, and it will die before the harmful genes are passed on to its offspring." http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/communication/boulton/basics.html


a) The white moth - is an example of natural selection ( which is not evolution ). All species throw mutant colours in offspring, and white moths had always been around, but easily seen, thus eaten by birds. When the environment got whiter, the black moths became easier to see by birds, and the white moths got more numerous.

b) The height of people in japan, and from the middle ages is just the body reacting to changes in nutrition, advances in health through research etc.
If a modern Briton had to go back to eating and living like the Kings of England, they would revert to shorter, less longer lived people.



People who cannot understand how all life derived from slime, only need to actually study the science. Too often, all they have to go on is throwaway lines and silly comparisons to base their understanding on. If one cares to spend some serious time reading the works.

Consider that all living things share a huge percentage of the identical DNA as each other, and start from there.

 

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Einstein.

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace – but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" Patrick Henry

And some of my more recent favorites:

“The problem is, is that the way Bush has ... [taken] a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt ... so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” http://leftofthemark.com/quote/barack-obama-bushs-deficit-spending-is-unpatriotic Now we are over $55,000 per person ...

"What difference – at this point, what difference does it make?" Hilary Clinton

"It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.
I'm worried now... but I won't be worried long." Guess Who?
Lyrics from <a href="http://www.elyrics.net">eLyrics.net</a>

Who said this? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” and “Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do--then do it with all your strength.” http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4356.George_Washington

And in respect for my Vietnam heroes - I won't quote Kerry.

But, who said, "Nuts!"

And of course, George C. Scott's rendition of George S. Patton's speech. I can hear the music now .... Sadly, I cannot find the complete video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b5g1avyCSA

This video contrasts the two Georges .... by the way, Scott was a better speaker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4_47O2Pfy8

And then there is:

"They always came in threes."

And

"Mike are you there?"

 

RWatson,

Having studied DNA, Cosmic Evolution, Biological Evolution, Cosmology, and Cosmogony

You might be off a little bit. . .

 

Yes, and Nuclear Genetics as well.