section9:

tumblrpigeon:

I just finished reading this book. I’d give it a 2/5 rating

Overly long and mostly dull :\ I think this book could have easily been combined with the next book in the series (as was the original plan). The bulk of this book consists of the different characters talking in far too much length about things that do not warrant or serve anywhere near so many words and pages. That isn’t to say there aren’t cool and interesting ideas here. Card is always good at infusing his books with great philosophical, theological, and ethical depth. This time it’s just lost in about 300 pages worth of excess material that detracts from the experience (the edition I read was just over 600 pages long).
 I absolutely loved Speaker for the Dead, Ender’s Shadow, and Ender’s Game. Shadow of the Hegemon was also more enjoyable than this.

^Exactly. Half that freaking book was shit I already knew from reading Speaker for the Dead and Ender’s Game.

All I have to say about Xenocide is that Children of the Mind is really damn good.

This is brilliant.

I just don’t understand how anyone, even religious people, can believe that the laws outlined in a book from 2000 years ago should have any relevance today.

Why has there been a single new law, EVER, since the time of the bible’s first publication?  Because society changes as time moves forward.  And time DOES move forward. One only has to look around to see that things change with time—hell, if you’re READING this, it means that something is different from how it was 2000 years ago. So what makes you think that ANY law governing people from 2000 years ago is remotely relevant today?

Laws governing societal behavior are inexorably linked with the culture and time in and during which they were created.  That’s all these laws in Leviticus are.  The laws about slavery clearly do not apply to today, and the advances in medical knowledge makes rules relating to menstrual activity and touching animals completely nonsensical. The same goes for mixing crops and fibers; we have an understanding of how to avoid the problems that these laws were originally intended to prevent, so they are irrelevant now.

In short, with a 2000 year change in society, what on Earth makes ANYONE think that ANYTHING in the bible relating to governing laws of how society should function are remotely relevant? The only thing that is relevant is what we know today about the world around us, and there is absolutely no rational reason why there is anything wrong with homosexuality.

That’s exactly why there ISN’T anything wrong with it, never was, and never will be.  People were just ignorant 2000 years ago, and they laws they made were reflective of this in the sense that they made them to eliminate a problem without understanding why they actually occurred.  This is totally logical for the time: if you interact with blood or eat certain foods, you get sick, so stop doing those things.  Now that we know exactly why you get sick and have discovered the real reasons for these things, behavior and law has changed to reflect that.  Soap kills germs? Oh, so pigs aren’t permanently dirty.  Stuff can be cleaned.  Wow! Law/rule changes.

Gay people are not any different from anyone except for who they sleep with, and it turns out all the assumptions made by people 2000 years ago are entirely false? Wow!  Law/ruled changed……..oh wait….what the hell?

Intelligent capabilities. It’s what makes us the species we are.  Let’s start acting like it.

theseanachaidh:

True…False…Useful

The source for this has a slightly different version of the quote. Attributing this to Seneca the Younger has been questioned by some, and the translation varies depending on the source.

According to this source the quote continues thus:

“…And yet the wise man will observe them all, not as pleasing to the gods, but as commanded by the laws. We shall so adore all that ignoble crowd of gods which long superstition has heaped together in a long period of years, as to remember that their worship has more to do with custom than with reality.”

Just trying to keep things as accurate as I can…

Correction made, thank you Senseoftheworld

Awesome shout-out to theseanachaidh for changing the graphic from this original post. Originally I had thought that the graphic came from somewhere on the internet and I was a little confused as to why the yin-yang symbol was included amongst the graphics when it’s representative of a philosophy instead of a religion. It turns out that the graphic was self-made, and upon seeing my reblog theseanachaidh changed the graphic and reposted it.  I think it looks quite awesome now.

Thanks for being polite, too, when my initial response might have come across as somewhat snarky.  :)  I tend to assume that most graphics on Tumblr are found elsewhere on the internet, but I was certainly wrong in this case.  I wish I had some graphics design skills like this!

emergentfutures:

Mission hopes to find fish on Jupiter’s moons

The European Space Agency has approved a mission to Jupiter’s moons to discover whether fish live under their icy surfaces.

The mission will send a five-tonne satellite to the solar system’s biggest planet to study three of its largest moons - Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.

These are of special interest because beneath their icy surface it is thought they might have vast oceans.

Scientists believe this makes them one of the most likely places in the solar system to harbour alien life, possibly even fish.

Full Story: ABC

YES!!!  As I mentioned in a previous post, Europa is one of the most promising places where we might find extraterrestrial life.  As I also mentioned in said previous post, I can’t believe it’s taken anyone on Earth this long to arrange such a mission.

I’m EXTREMELY excited to see what they find.  I think it will be a TREMENDOUS step forward for humanity—both scientifically and culturally—if we finally can confirm the existence of life somewhere other than our planet.

And if they find fish, or any other complex life forms….oh man, that will the greatest scientific discovery in HISTORY to that point.  Guaranteed.