A girl asks Terry Pratchett whether he believes in “a god or gods” and gives a thoughtful response . He says his “religion” is that we are
shaped by the universe to be its consciousness. We tell the universe what it is. In my religion, the building of a telescope is the building of a cathedral. I have no truck whatsoever with Genesis, I was inoculated against the Christian religion by reading the whole of the Old Testament in one go (apart from the begats). And I thought if this were true, we were in the hands of a maniac.
The whole video is interesting, be sure to watch it.
It’s not surprising this conclusion was reached after a single read of the OT “in one setting.” First of all the OT cannot be read in one setting, secondly, even if it could one would have to speed read or skim. We shouldn’t lend much credence to people who reach conclusions so hastily.
So we shouldn’t listen to ID people without first ensuring they’ve read On The Origin of Species?
I’ve read it dozens of times, slowly, and with great care. I’ve studied it in the original language. I’ve partially outlined it.
If it’s true, we are in the hands of a maniac.
I’ll also say I’ve read it dozens of times, slowly, and with great care. I’ve partially outlined it.
If it’s true, we are in the hands of a fucking maniac.
Maybe he only read up through Genesis before he realized that there’s nothing original in the OT.
He said “in one go”, not “in one sitting”. I would say that the two are pretty different.
Dino, I am a bit confused. You say that if your read it in one go then you come to the conclusion that there is a manic out there. If you read it in chunk you do not get this conclusion.
If I read a science book in one go, in chunks or backwards I ALWAYS come to the same conclusions.
Frankly, I find the notion that our existence imbues the universe with some anthropomorphic attribute, such as conscience, to be a silly idea. We don’t define the universe, except in our own heads. But maybe Pratchett was using a figure of speech and I’m interpreting his words too literally.
Yeah, that notion as described in the text (I can’t see the video at work), also strikes me as silly, and way too much importance placed on us dumb naked apes.
I think you’re getting him wrong. What I get from the video is that he try to say that his religion is to wander at the universe and at the way that evolution could bring a monkey to the point it can make youtube videos. The “we give the universe purpose” line is I think more of a literary embelishment.
Yes, and the 13-gendered slime beasts on (name most recently discovered exoplanet) feel that the universe was fine tuned to coddle them with lovely clouds of chlorine gas and smiles upon their sacred cannibalism.
My favourite author, been reading him since I was eight years old. I have all of his work. Unfortunately, he now has early onset alzheimers :-(