Re: A reaction to ID

Tony

Thank you for your little cattychism, but as I have a dog I tend to be a bit
more dogmatic about things. However to get my claws into your belief I must
remind you that cats are responsible for killing millions of birds and other
little furry animals, so I question whether this could be part of the
original text and must have come from another source - mew rather similar to
the Q the Gospel writers used.

May I finally ask whether your faith is realist or non-realist?

Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Ortega" <Tony.Ortega@pitch.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>; <dickfischer@earthlink.net>; <TDavis@messiah.edu>;
<gmurphy@raex.com>; <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>
Cc: <ashmank@umkc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: A reaction to ID

Michael, I'm glad to answer your question.

You wrote: "I am glad we gave you a laugh as you gave us a laugh with your
skit on ID. But, can you explain why you and anything else actually exists
and Whether there is meaning and purpose to it all? What do you base your
ethics on? Also why is serial killing wrong?"

Well, Michael, as I mentioned in my column, I'm convinced that the universe
was created by my pet cat, Whiskers. Although I continue to look for
physical laws to explain nature * the way of science * I'm always putting it
into the context of my furry feline friend, who communicates to me by the
way she arranges the waste in her litter box. One message, for example,
clearly forbade me from killing other human beings and from eating
shellfish, so I'm happy that my little kitty gave me such a clear ethical
guide to living. Without it, what would prevent me from going on a killing
rampage?

Anyway, getting back to my sometimes pretzel-like attempts to fit the latest
scientific understandings into my faith in the droppings of my cat, I
sometimes find it difficult to reconcile science's latest discoveries with
Whiskers' messages. At times like that, I find that it's best to consider
the metaphorical meanings of Whiskers' literal commandments. For example,
when Whiskers says that the Earth, Moon and the Sun were coughed up by a
giant cat over the course of three days like they were so many furballs, I
have to realize that "days" to a cat might actually refer to a different
measure of time to a rational human being, which I clearly am.

Now, some might say that as long as I'm treating my kitty's words as
metaphorical, what's the point of considering them at all? If there's no
real need to bringing Whiskers into the equation when science answers so
many questions about nature, why try to force nature's laws into the
strictures of my feline faith?

But that's crazy talk. I know Whiskers is the ruler of the universe. The big
smelly one she just laid says that quite plainly.

Sincerely,

Tony O.

>>> "Michael Roberts" <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk> 3/1/2005 10:05:26 AM
>>>
Tony
I am glad we gave you a laugh as you gave us a laugh with your skit on ID.
But, can you explain why you and anything else actually exists and Whether
there is meaning and purpose to it all?
What do you base your ethics on?
Also why is serial killing wrong?
As much as I oppose YEC and fundamentalism, they do try to answer

Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Ortega" <Tony.Ortega@pitch.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>; <dickfischer@earthlink.net>; <TDavis@messiah.edu>;
<gmurphy@raex.com>; <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: A reaction to ID

> George, Dick, Ted, Wayne, etc.:
>
> Thanks for including me in your recent e-mails. It's been fun watching
> y'all dance on the head of a pin.
>
> Tony O.
>
> >>> "George Murphy" <gmurphy@raex.com> 2/28/2005 7:25:10 PM >>>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Roberts" <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>
> To: "Ted Davis" <TDavis@messiah.edu>; <asa@calvin.edu>;
> <dickfischer@earthlink.net>
> Cc: <Tony.Ortega@pitch.com>
> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 5:51 PM
> Subject: Re: A reaction to ID
> ..........................
>
> > I have long reckoned that the most important issue was the vast age
> of the
> > earth and universe and that evolution is a secondary issue.
> ..........................
> I can't see that at all. The age of the earth & universe is a minor
> theological issue, at least once you get past the notion that early
> Genesis
> is a notebook of scientific observations. Evolution, & especially
> human
> evolution, raises very important questions about theological
> anthropology.
>
> Shalom
> George
> http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
>
>
>
Received on Tue Mar 1 16:30:08 2005