Science And Society

More On Born To Believe

Michael Novak writes about prayer. His example of Sartre is just more evidence for my thesis, I think. If I’ve ever prayed in my life, it was only as a very young (pre-school) child, and then only because I was told I was supposed to. I don’t ever recall any sense that there was anyone home when I did so, and I haven’t done so since the age of five or so.

As Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, he tried hard all his life to be a serious atheist, but even he felt himself breaking out in thanksgiving to God for certain beautiful days, certain stunning events. Of course, he then withdrew these “prayers,” but he quite recognized the naturalness of the impulse in himself. He wrote that being atheist is in practice much harder than many let on. One needs to stay on watch at every moment against little surrenders. The world so often seems “as if” there is a God.

Despite the fact that he reasoned himself into atheism, he was a natural-born believer. I’ve never felt an impulse such as that he describes, and the world has never seemed “as if” there is a God to me.

[Update a few minutes later]

Oh, and just to make clear, nothing in either of these two posts should be construed as an argument either for, or against, the existence of God. If God exists, He does so entirely independently of my, or anyone else’s beliefs about Him.

Errrr…unless, of course, you think that God exists for those who believe, and doesn’t for those who don’t. Which may actually be the closest thing to the truth.

General

Is The Age Of Carriers Over?

1 Comment

Could be.

Certainly, it’s very long in the tooth, and it lasted quite a bit longer than the age of battleships (the transition between the true was, arguably, abrupt, occurring on a quiet Sunday morning in Hawaii in early December 1941).

It will be interesting to see how new space capabilities start to trump conventional air power in the next few decades.

War Commentary

Why Europe Abandoned Israel

A long, but insightful essay.

There are a number of factors that explain European behavior towards Israel. I have identified seven of them:

  1. Europe’s dependence on Middle East oil
  2. Europe’s rivalry with the US
  3. The growing number of Muslims and their militancy
  4. The small number of Jews, and their passivity
  5. The role of elites in Europe’s politics
  6. Europe’s long term disease of anti-Semitism, and
  7. The decline of Christianity in Europe.
Space

Falcon Launch This Weekend?

Elon Musk says that the window opens on Saturday.

I’m guessing that this flight is one of their milestones for COTS.

Meanwhile, speaking of COTS, Jeffrey Bell wonders what’s really behind it.

He confuses VSE and ESAS (as many do). The Space Frontier Foundation is not opposed to VSE–it is opposed to ESAS.

I think that the answer to his question is much simpler than any of his speculations, and I don’t buy his theory of “COTS as management slush fund for Constellation.” COTS is funded because the White House wants COTS to be funded. What their motivation is, I don’t know, but this is not a NASA-driven program, for any reason of the reasons he states. And that’s bad news, since it may not have any defenders in a new administration. They’re going to have to make a lot of progress in the next two years to ensure program survival. And even then, it could be cancelled. We’ve certainly done dumber things.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!