Zen and the Art of /.*/

I recently received a forward from a family member:

A Little Boy’s Explanation of God — Fabulous!!! Out of the mouths of
the Babes–I certainly don’t think an adult could explain this more
beautifully!

The so-called “freedom of religion,” which is supposedly protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (emphasis mine)

is also, quite clearly the freedom FROM religion, if that is what the individual seeks.

A recent Time article, Can Atheists Be Parents? explains that:

I got quite the laugh at Barnes & Noble this evening when I stumbled upon this scene:

A character in Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, when told the theory of Pythagoras that the earth is round and revolves around the sun, replies:

“What an utter fool! Couldn’t he use his eyes?”

Flat-earth geocentrism is the quintessential modern epithet applied to an opponent who either can’t or refuses to see past the immediately evident phenomena and grasp the larger truth.

Despite its tired, clichéd status, it is still a great metaphor.

The following is in response to a discussion we’ve been having at work lately which was sparked by these two posts:

Why CSS should not be used for layout

CSS and the meaning of life

Which was then followed up by a link to this post:

Recreating the button

A few thoughts:

Well, I certainly did not expect to be completely incapacitated for four days, but such is the price one pays for having thin corneas, apparently.

On Wednesday afternoon, I underwent photorefractive keratectomy. It was a fascinating experience on many levels. First, and most obviously, having your eyes partially numbed, drawn upon, propped open, scraped, and then burned is a slightly terrifying experience. It was in some ways better and in some ways worse than I expected.