April 2006 Archives
As I think more about our (i.e., the mankind's) "role" in this universe, I am beginning to think that the term (or the concept), "artificial" is arbitrary when it comes to a bigger scale of things. I am not saying that, in the "micro"-level of our ordinary lives, it seems quite obvious to us how we act and what we do "against nature". But is it really?
Just for fun, let's say there was an alien being who's been observing our small planet. Would what we do really be considered so differently from what other animals and plants are doing? Are we just a part of the environment that plays its role however much it seems to us that we are not a part of it?
I think that's where the concept of "artificiality" comes from. That is, we think we are not a part of (or separate from) our environments. Sure, the mankind has a pretty unique gift (or a curse? :p) of self-reflection and detachment, but we are still a part of the whole equation. Yes, we have a greater (relatively speaking) ability to change our surroundings, but still we are not separated from it because we do get affected by things we do.
Sure, one can then argue that the global warming and other harms we are doing as a whole is "natural" and that we don't have to do anything about it. But one of our "natural" attributes is to recognize a problem and to try to solve it.
I believe we can affect the direction of changes in us and our environments (well, I should not even put them separately), and I think that is "natural" as well. If we did not do well and wiped ourselves off the world, it would have been unfortunate, but it still would have been a natural part of the history of the universe. And if we were to do well and learned to exist along, it would also have been a natural part of the history.
I was expecting a bit more scholastic reading. However, this turned about to be an essay trying to explain that the Roman Catholic Church is the only authority on the Bible.
His logic seems to be that even before the words were written down the teachings were done by the church, starting with the first disciples. He continues that the church (i.e, Roman Catholic Church being the "heir" to the first church) decided which books to include in the Bible and how it should be interpreted and translated into other languages (from Hebrew and Greek manuscripts). So, he says that it is absurd to claim that only the Bible is the truth because without the church to guide it is very easy to wrong interpretations.
Anyway, the essay was written more than a century ago, and I think this was a part of things he did to explain his transition from a Scottish protestant priesthood to a Roman Catholic one. I thought the basic argument was basically that, but he was going on and on about it. Not that informative.
903 Reed Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA
408.735.8989
M-F: 08:30 - 17:00
Sa: 09:00 - 16:30
Su: Closed
Another favorite lunch place...
Actually this is the first banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) place I've ever been to (I think it was in 2000). The price is a little bit higher than Dackao ($2.50 vs $2.00 all tax inclusive), but the portion is bigger, so for my wife, one would be quite enough (and she likes the taste here better).
This place is much smaller than the other and the selections are smaller. But it's relatively cheap still. I usually get a shredded pork sandwich ($2.50) and a spring role ($3.00) and that would be more than enough for lunch.
