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

We should not forget the giant goat that sneezed our universe into existence. I must confess to forgettings its name, though. If it ever had one

A goat that big would not need a name unless it decided it wanted one. Chances are, there wouldn't be any other goats of that size around that it could be confused with.

We may have to ask the Golgafrinchams. They seem to be the only one believing in this deity

The Golgafrinchans are fictional, so how would I ask them?

How do you know they are fictional?

(sensing a slight drift)

They are characters in a book by Douglas Adams. I haven't seen them mentioned in any other context.

That is hardly evidence enough to proove their non-existance. And you can't call Adams to the witness box

See, this is what The First Church of Agnosticism is all about

But Adams is said to have been a stringent atheist. Does it make sense that he would make a case for the existence of a divine being?

Nevertheless, I can't rule out the possibility of this enormous goat, so I will take your point into consideration. As systems of religious thought go, it has some advantages: simplicity, for instance. It doesn't preach the existence of 20 million deities the way Hinduism does.

Douglas may have been an atheist, but the Golgafrinchans were not - and Adams has never been known to tell a lie. I rest my case

You are right about the advantages of simplicity!

I believe in the Giant Goat!

Nighthoover is the only true prophet

Lettuce spray

F S

Yeah, well, each to his or her own

Most creation myths are kind of preposterous. Then again, the Big Bang Theory has some holes in it -- and not all of them are black. What it all boils down to, for me, is that it's absurd for human beings to submit each other to Inquisitions and tortures and religious wars. No one really knows where we came from, and where we'll go. What matters is that we're here now, and it's a miserable existence if people are constantly fighting each other over religion.

Psychopathics need a rationale for their confidence swindles.

Whatever whomever is to be swindled holds most dear is usually the best basis for a confidence rationale justifying betrayals of trust.




For my own part, my favorite biblical quotation, attributed to the apostle John, is "So long as people are good to one another, then God is with them."

One can raise a question as to whether the reverse also obtains.

Two rather good points, paulh and ITIWBS

Being nice to people may be harder than it sounds. I expect that the expression "patience of a saint" sums it up. Sometimes giving it all you've got counts for a lot. Of course, it helps if an inherited fortune lies ahead as an incentive. I'm thinking of Brooke Astor, who married the grumpy, misanthropic heir to the Astor fortune. Turns out his idea of a pleasant evening was sitting on his sofa and listening to Brooke sing and play the piano. Most people rubbed him the wrong way, but he was actually smitten with her. By mutual consent, Astor's fortune was put into a trust earmarked for charity, and Brooke showed great ingenuity at finding ways for the money to benefit the people of New York. Brooke was eventually reckoned as the best-liked woman in New York. Tony Marshall, her son, came off badly by comparison....

No matter how lofty one's ideals, if one cannot afford to pay for them, they remain empty wish fulfilments.

Industry and mass production are wonderful things.

Mass production may be a good thing overall from the consumer's point of view, but assembly line work has been reckoning as soul-deadening. William Blake's poem "Jerusalem" mentions "Dark, Satanic mills." The labor movement arose from a reaction to nasty working conditions in many factories.

I believe you can have industry and mass production with a humane face. Just not under capitalism

What has this got to do with religion then, I hear you ask

Nothing as such, I believe. But religionists are as human as any others and as history shows in abundance they too can be corrupted

They say life was better when we had matriarchal societies, (where the moon and not the sun was there focus of worship) but I have not yet found of any evidence of true matriarchal societies.

There are some who say that England has a matriarchal society. It's probably all relative, though.