h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

-Very- nice article!

'Nonnie

Impressive and consise. Oh and amusing, what more can you ask for
BCNU - Crescent

Yes... the subs would have to be a little touched to turn down this exceptional piece.

Marvellous stuff - both entertaining and stimulating. It'll be interesting to see what sort of reactions this article provokes... Great ending, by the way - nice and snappy.

Um...

Dare I mention one or two typos? Don't want to appear picky... Well, here goes nothing

(guttural, cannibalism, deity and flaming bit -> pit)

All the best,
Azimuth

Colour me impressed! More like this, please!

Much thanks for your input folks. I particularly appreciate having spelling errors pointed out! I'll try to edit this piece forthwith.

Excellent piece of rightly (or should that be righteously) deserved God-bashing. The world needs more of this! "Atheists of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but other people's pre-conceived notions of a vacuous Other!" Not pithy, but what the hey...

Thanks much! People around here are wonderfully supportive, though quick to assume I am an atheist when in fact I am probably more of an agnostic Ah well. Thanks for the reminder, I need to do some editing on this piece.

Cheers

Speaking of atheism vs agnosticism, perhaps you could clear up a touch of confusion for me...

Atheists believe there is -no- 'higher power' while Agnostics believe there -might- be, this I understand. What I'm confused on (and I meant to voice this on FFFF, but Forgot) is what -exactly- is considered a 'higher power' ...

I'm probably not being clear. I believe in a 'higher power', but not in one being possessing it. I believe that 'higher power' is within each of us, and that each of us can (with the utilization of some of that unused 90% greymatter) control our own destinies. I don't dismiss a life after death, but what I believe is that we -can-, if we individually make it so for ourselves, cross over into another realm, so to speak.

'Nonnie
(Who probably still isn't clear, but -I- understand me... I think. )

I think the way the terms atheist and agnostic are used today are a bit off from their original meaning. I define an atheist as one who has made a commitment to a certain cosmology (universe without conscious guidance) and an agnostic as one who recognizes his ability to know any such thing to be limited. therefore an agnostic makes no such commitments and leaves his options open.

I try to stay true to the tenets of agnosticism as i see them. By keeping an open mind to various possbilities i hope to let reason guide me to the most meaningful answers, given enough time and energy. I'm not sure if it would be prudent to explain my own theoretical preferences at this point... I remain undecided about matters of an afterlife and so forth, but I have suspicions about what might be the case.

One thing to keep in mind is that the opposite stance to theism does not have to be atheism. Eastern thought recognizes God to be 'the ground of being' and imminently part of creation, which is not a theistic viewpoint but is certainly not by any means 'atheistic' either as the term has come to be understood.

I consider it somewhat pointless to label oneself by one's desire to reject theistic religion; surely there's more to inner peace and cosmic wisdom than the denial of pagan superstitions.

TG,
Having experiened the conversations you inspire, I hope to see a great deal more of your thinking on this site. Your discussions constantly inspire me to look foreward to logging on to this site every day when I get home from work!
Love is the law,
Mordek93

Wow, heavy praise. I'll try to meet your expectations Love IS the law, except on Valentine's Day, when depression kicks in.

Right on!
By the way, forget about the VD-err, Valentines Day-crap. It's a purely commercial holiday, marked most memorably by Chicagoo's Saint Valentine's Day masacre!
Love is the law,
Mordek93

How uplifting of you.

One of the things I notice on this site is a very western view of religion. The God you describe is (with exception of that one bit) Judeo-Christian. I'd be fascinated to hear what you have to say on, say Allah, or the one that I find fascinating - Persian ditheistic (I hope that's a word) ystem of one evil God and one good God. But, I liked the article a bunch anyway.

Loreth, I'm intrigued...

It's a religious view that has hitherto completely bypassed me. I run a site on Belief systems and the Paranormal at http://www.paranormal.org.uk - there there is a faith and philosophy survey (note my use of the double-"there") - if you can point me to an authority on this religous view I will approach them for an entry in the survey...

I actually know absolutely nothing about it. My knowledge of the concept comes from studying Talmud, where the Rabbis go to great length to prevent prayers from sounding ditheistic. I wish I had a source - it's why I asked.

And it's Ioreth. (I is the letter between H and J)

Ioreth: If you think h2g2 is Western-slanted.. check out the links here:

http://www.h2g2.com/A254314



'Nonnie

Sorry, Ioreth! I have the "Arial" font set as default, so an uppercase "I" and a lowercase "l" look identical on screen!

Hoping to coin a new term, but "Adeism" or "Adeitism", if such words make sense, might be a better description of some people, say buddhists, who are spiritual but don't believe in god. I f i'm rambling don't hesitate to rip me to pieces.(verbally.)

's ok. Everyone does it. Fonts have such funny names, though. Arial? Times New Roman? My personal favorite is Haettenschweiler.

Nonny - may I call you that? - I had noticed that one also. Most of those who reject religion are actually rejecting Christianity. Maybe that says something... although as an anti-Jew I shouldn't talk. Of course, there is the matter of the overwhelming majority of H2G2ers being "Westerners," or better English-speaking. Which does make sense, given that it's in English...