“But the thing that stands eternally in the way of really good writing is always one: the virtual impossibility of lifting to the imagination those things which lie under the direct scrutiny of the senses, close to the nose. It is this difficulty that sets a value upon all works of art and makes them a necessity. The senses witnessing what is immediately before them in detail see a finality which they cling to in despair, not knowing which way to turn. Thus this so-called natural or scientific array becomes fixed, the walking devil of modern life.” WayWritingArtLyingValuesTurnsImaginationNaturalKnowingModernWalkingDespairDevilDirectDifficultyDetailsSensesNosesFixedWorks Of ArtNot KnowingImpossibilityModern LifeLiftingScrutinyGood WritingFinality Book:Kora in Hell: Improvisations Source: Kora in Hell: Improvisations
“Thanks to the scientific method, most people in "developed" countries have an outlook of mild deism. We assume things like weather and disease operate according to fixed natural laws. Every so often, though, problems impinge on us so directly that we stretch beyond that mildly deistic stance and ask God to intervene. When a drought drags on too long, we pray for rain. When a young mother gets a diagnosis of cervical cancer, we solicit prayers for her healing. We beseech God as if trying to talk God into something God otherwise might not want to do.” PeopleIfsWantTryingLongCountryProblemMightLawYoungMotherAsksNaturalPrayerHealingPrayingDiseaseRainMethodAssumingCancerWeatherThanksFixedDragOutlookDiagnosisNatural LawStanceScientific MethodDroughtDeismDeveloped CountryYoung MotherCervical Cancer Author:Philip Yancey
“I am somewhat uncertain whether there is a definite factual question as to whether natural language handles truth-value gaps. Nor am I even quite sure that there is a definite question of fact as to whether natural language should be evaluated by the minimal fixed point or another, given the choice of a scheme for handling gaps. We are not at the moment searching for the correct scheme.” ShouldMomentsFactsValuesChoicesLanguageGivenNaturalHandleFixedGapsSchemesUncertainDefiniteFactual Author:Saul Kripke
“Most of the founding fathers, sympathetic with and influenced by the European Enlightenment, saw religion - natural religion, that is - as a potential good, but with equal clarity they saw the religions of existing institutions and religions based on a fixed scriptural revelation as meddlesome, wrong-headed and hopelessly obsolete.” FatherNaturalSawsAtheismEqualEnlightenmentInstitutionsPositive AtheismClarityFixedRevelationsFoundingSympatheticObsoleteMeddlesome Author:Edwin Gaustad
“All these stupendous objects are daily around us; but because they are constantly exposed to our view, they never affect our minds, so natural is it for us to admire new, rather than grand objects. Therefore the vast multitude of stars which diversify the beauty of this immense body does not call the people together; but when any change happens therein, the eyes of all are fixed upon the heavens.” PeopleMindDoeBodyHappensEyeTogetherHeavenStarsNaturalViewsObjectsAdmireFixedExposedImmenseMultitudes Author:Saint Basil