Religious truth doesn’t describe the world

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From Karen Armstrong’s A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam:

Science demands the fundamental belief that there is a rational explanation for everything; it also requires an imagination and courage which are not dissimilar to religious creativity.  Like the prophet or the mystic, the scientist also forces himself to confront the dark and unpredictable realm of uncreated reality.  … [T]he scientific vision of our own day has made much classic theism impossible for many people.  To cling to the old theology is not only a failure of nerve but could involve a damaging loss of integrity. The Faylasufs attempted to wed their new [scientific] insights with mainstream Islamic faith… Yet the ultimate failure of their rational deity has something important to tell us about the nature of religious truth.

Instead

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I’d like to stay home this morning with my coffee and a novel, or maybe finish up some blog posts I’ve started, but not finished, in the last few weeks.  But you’ll have to wait to hear what I think about The Wild Trees, to analyze February’s migraine data, and to find out what music I’ve been particularly enamored with lately.

Because today, I’m going to work, and I’m going to stay there much later than I’d like. I’ve got a meeting tomorrow about my research, and I want to have some exciting new model runs to show off!

Just a shoe

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I have a pretty serious love of yellow shoes, but I only own one pair.  They aren’t nearly as lovely as these:

Maya Vintage by Frye

Maya Vintage by Frye

The Gunslinger

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A friend of mine recommended The Dark Tower series to me almost 7 years ago, but I’ve only recently begun reading it.  I put it off for so long partly because I’m not much of a Stephen King fan, but the first two books in the series (The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three) were a pleasant surprise.

The story isn’t particularly novel, but that doesn’t hurt the books.  They pull from a lot of different genres, which makes the story feel new and the world the story is set in feel both strange and familiar.  The characters, especially the main character, Roland, are very interesting.

Roland isn’t a character I can identify with at all.  It’s hard to understand how he works and why he does what he does.  And that makes him seem a bit unpredictable and is utterly fascinating.  He can be hard to like, but is very easy to respect.

I’m hoping I’ll get the third book in the series soon through swaptree.

Any thoughts from those of you who’ve read the books?

Your health or your money

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Over the last year, the frequency of my migraines has increased. Then last week, I had a new and frightening kind of aura.  If I were seeing a neurologist, those two statements would be certain to worry her, and she’d likely demand all kinds of fancy brain scans.

Unfortunately, I can’t afford health insurance. While I have plenty to pay my bills (I’ve even got enough saved for almost a year’s rent!), there is simply no way I could afford being treated by a neurologist.  So, like the many other Americans without health insurance, I’ve just got to hope it’s nothing serious and that by some miracle our government gets some real health reform passed – soon.

What’s wrong with the religious right?

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From Karen Armstrong’s A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam:

The problem of predestination and free will … indicates a central difficulty in the idea of a personal God.  An impersonal God, such as Brahman, can more easily be said to exist beyond “good” and “evil,” which are regarded as masks of the inscrutable divinity.  But a God who is in some mysterious way a person and who takes an active part in human history lays himself open to criticism.  It is all too easy to make this “God” a larger-than-life tyrant or judge and make “him” fulfill our expectations.  We can turn “God” into a Republican or a socialist, a racist or a revolutionary according to our personal views.