Here's a quote by prominent atheist Richard Dawkins that I ran across a few years ago, and which provoked a strong response that I'm still trying to quantify. He says, "An atheist in this sense of philosophical naturalist is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe, no soul that outlasts the body and no miracles — except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don't yet understand. If there is something that appears to lie beyond the natural world as it is now imperfectly understood, we hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the natural. As ever when we unweave a rainbow, it will not become less wonderful."

It's really the last sentence that gets to me. "As ever when we unweave a rainbow, it will not become less wonderful." I'm not sure whether or not I agree with that. My initial reaction was that the mystery of whatever beauty we're contemplating makes it that much more majestical. But, upon reflection, I realized that the more I know about something, the more I appreciate it when there's an exceptionally fine example of it. For example, being a violin-player, a virtuoso violin performance gets more awe from me than a virtuoso trumpeter, although both musicians might be of the same calibre.

But, returning to the question, knowing that a rainbow consists of light refracted through water droplets at such and such an angle--does that make me enjoy the rainbow's beauty more? Am I more in awe of the precise conditions necessary to produce this wonder? Or does that take away from the magic and mystery? Is a certain amount of mystery necessary for beauty? Is anything beautiful that we can fully understand? Can we actually fully understand anything? And is there a danger in continually thinking that there's some true "real" behind the easily observable real that we think we see?

I'm (bashfully) back

Introductions are always difficult. Whether it's being introduced to a new acquaintance--definitely scary...it feels like selling yourself as a cool, fun, multicultural and eco-friendly person in the time usually devoted to appreciating industrial smokestacks...in other words, not fun.

Actually introducing people TO each other though, is possibly even worse. I always start out with such good intentions. Person A is a wonderfully lovely person. So is Person B. But to actually make them comfortable enough with each other to realize this simple fact is...difficult. Added to that, my terrible memory makes me likely to introduce people to each other multiple times. Yes, as in like three or four times. It's terrible. It's awkward. What can I say? Good intentions...how often you turn awry. And speaking of awkward...does english have any good synonyms? Awkward is such an overused word...but with such an essential meaning. Hmmm. Any words to be used in lieu of?

Introductions to papers are also trying--how to simplify something that took months of research into just a few sentences? And introductions to speeches--those are beyond awful...and in fact, might be classified in the So Far Beyond Awful, We Begin To Call It Really Far Beyond Awful territory.

Anyway, the point of that awkwardly long introduction is just to say...I'm not really sure how to start this blog post. Should I reintroduce myself after this long sabbatical with a peppy "Hey y'all!" That opening, of course, assumes that there is enough readers to require a "y'all."

Perhaps that opening is overly-ambitious.

Let's try again. "Long time no see!" Naw...so obvious as to be not really worth saying. And really, it's sort of insulting the audience's intelligence.

"It's good to be back." Is it? That remains to be seen...

How about this: "Well folk(s), I wasn't really sure whether this blog would continue or not, but it looks like it will..." Exciting, right? And yet, that's really what I want to say. I've spent far too much time chiding my friends to keep up with their blogs, not to feel slightly ashamed for not doing more with this one....so thus is this post born.

The basic structure will be thusly based on this simple idea. Every week, I'll try to read at least one book not required by school. Then, I'll review it. Hopefully, this will benefit both my reading list, and the frequency of bloggings.

The idea was lifted from Nina Sankovitch, who read a book a day for a year, and posted her thoughts on her blog. An article about her can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/nyregion/12towns.html

The first review will come soon, *yawn*

G'night.