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HomeSpun™ Publishing

Escondido, California

That Little Hardback

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means

without the written permission of the author

ISBN: 978-0-9779708-0-3 (hc)

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That Little Hardback

Fifty years of free thought from an old physicist

Chuck Borough

Married to a woman who encourages thinking, and

living in the USA, I speak freely. Thank you, Leona,

and our country, for that inspiration and liberty.

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That Little Hardback

Dedicated to our Children and to our

Grandchildren, and to our Great

Grandchildren, yet to be born.

Email: ckborough@aol.com

www.GoAskGrandpa.com

The photographs are available for download at:

www.ThatLittleHardback.com

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e Contents f

Thoughts

Numbered from 1 to 876 - - - - - - - - - 8

Essays

What We Must Own to Exist - - - - - - 245

The Real Beginning - - - - - - - - - - - - 251

Kick a Rock - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 256

Santa Claus - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - 278

(In this book, the thoughts have been kept, as much

as practical, as they occurred and as they were written

down at the time, from teen years to the present.

Some thoughts do not include what we have come

to expect regarding "politically correct" usage. It is

said that, in polite company, religion and politics are

not discussed. Plenty of both are found here.)

When thoughts or pictures are from other than

the author, the names are included with them.

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e 0 f

Please enjoy the thoughts that follow, and think

with the complete freedom that we all deserve.

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e Thanks f

This book probably would not exist were it not for the

encouragement and prodding of Benita Silas, of Canada.

Sometimes people we have never met apply influence

enough to get real jobs done. Thank you, Benita, for a

little shove, and for believing in having these thoughts

exposed.

The following editors graciously read through the

manuscript for this book to suggest changes. They

have made the book better. Thank you to:

Leona Smith - Heather Campagna - Benita Silas

Professional file format editing by David Jess Borough

By the efforts of these editors and the use of modern

editing tools, there have been corrections of grammar,

spelling, punctuation, format, sentence structure, over-

used words, and a list of other things beyond the author's

scope. There were a few changes in the interest of better

taste and more than a few changes to make things clear.

For a physicist, writing with clarity is sometimes a

challenge. There was concerted effort to keep meanings

unchanged.

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e Introduction f

These are the thoughts more of a man than of a

physicist. There is no calculus here and little

reference to such a language. I am free. I may

think and speak critically, and some of that free

speaking is "That Little Hardback." The earliest

thoughts came from age 13, found in the essay,

"Kick a Rock." There is no intent to induce any

reader to agree with anything, with one exception:

each person should be in charge of his or her own

thoughts and beliefs; we should not let other

people determine what we are to believe. All our

other freedoms are made possible by having

freedom of thought. There is an intent to

stimulate thinking and debate, which, for me, are

useful and enjoyable. Younger, I thought I knew

many things with certainty. Having grappled with

physics for more than 50 years, I know how little I

know. I will never again believe that my opinions

establish facts.

They are points of view.

Each thought is given a number and space enough

to write notes. Controversy is not unfriendly just

because both sides are heard, but when someone

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wants only one side to be heard. Friendly

controversy is one of our most valuable tools.

There is a little sarcasm in these pages, but not

much, and there is a little devil’s advocacy, but not

much. Though these thoughts often run counter to

the mainstream, they are nonetheless actual

thoughts, not insincerely contrived. Some will be

ideas repeated on other pages, in different words.

Others appear a contradiction to some other, and

they probably are. The book is not laid out

chronologically. The order was determined using a

computer’s random generator, with only a few then

re-positioned to fit a picture, or to make repeated

ideas not too near each other.

Since boxes of books like these sometimes end up

in authors’ garages, they may be handed out at my

funeral. I would like that better than any stone.

Do as I have done, and write your thoughts down.

Journals, diaries, or thoughts put in writing, are

more valuable than we know. If not a single copy of

this little book is ever sold, it will be worth it to

have it for my own family, including those not yet

born, and for friends.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

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e 1 f

If we spend our lives silent or lying about

what we believe, then at the end, there will

be too little time left to tell our truths.

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e 2 f

Sometimes I call two opposing arguments

counterpoint. I like the word, because counterpoint

in music is when one melody is complemented by another

entirely different melody. Both are heard while still

harmonious. Both sides of an argument and

harmonious? What a nice and useful thing. Note that

the word is singular, while including both melodies.

e 3 f

No government is "of and by the people" while a

more powerful government is keeping secrets from

the people. How can the people rule when they do

not know the whole truth? The power to classify is

the power to take government away from the people.

e 4 f

Peace is comfortable. It's not hard to recognize. A coiled

and ready snake is not at peace, even if nobody comes by

to disturb it. Peace is not only quiet, but also includes an

expectation that the quiet is not threatened.

e 5 f

Much truth is reasonably feared, but science

values truth too much to fear a search for it.

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e 6 f

When things are true, we may find evidence enough to

bring belief in them for us. This does not work the other

way around. Believing a thing does not make it true.

e 7 f

The only truths that matter are those we can deal

with, either by being able to use them or adjust to

them, or by being able to change them. If we are

wrong about other truths, how can that matter to us?

e 8 f

We know practically nothing past our adjustment to

the environment. These adjustments are made just

as well by beings as dumb as germs and insects, and

some of these have survived a hundred times longer

than we. Our knowledge has made our individual lives

longer, but may shorten the existence of man.

e 9 f

For our intelligence to serve us, we must

give up many unfounded security beliefs.

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e 10 f

Whether we know the truth or not, she will deal with us.

e 11 f

Teach children to be their own bosses at a young

age, and they will not follow every little boss

they meet on the playground. Be generally their

advisors, almost never their bosses.

e 12 f

With the wonderful restoration of the ancient truths

of science, we again know that the Earth is the center

of the universe, around which the Sun rotates, and

that we can make mice by putting wheat and rags into

a barrel. Some restorations remove progress and

return us to a less knowledgeable day.

e 13 f

Faith is the engine we cannot drive without.

Doubts are the brakes some do drive without.

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e 14 f

Betty told us about her serious heart attack.

She wrote, "It was a blessing. All of my

grandchildren came out of the woodwork to

visit me." She had nothing for them to inherit.

This was just the grandkids expressing real love

that is often neglected for too long. Loneliness

is far more painful than a mere heart attack.

e 15 f

Evidently, "The Last Days" last and last and last.

e 16 f

We learn far more from debate

than from testimonial or sales pitch.

e 17 f

Death: When life ends permanently. People

often hope there is no such thing as death.

e 18 f

If breaking a law or laws makes a person an illegal, then we

are all illegals, for we all break laws when it suits us.

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e 19 f

There is a time of departure and independence.

It is not reasonable for a grown man to continue

to blame his parents for his lack of progress. There

is a time when he must take responsibility for

himself. The same is true of us and our God.

Bill Snapp

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e 20 f

Rover's discoveries show that Mars

once had water. There will come a time when

Earth also will have once had water.

e 21 f

There is nothing true about a language. English is

not true. Neither is the mathematics of physics.

These languages are invented tools, like screwdrivers

and paint brushes. Tools are not true, but useful.

e 22 f

The lack of a thing is not the thing's opposite.

"Not very good," does not mean "very bad."

e 23 f

If someone does not care about the math,

the logic is not worth considering.

e 24 f

We each refuse to be under the other,

and that gives us the chance to accept

being beside each other, as brothers.

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e 25 f

Scientists are not immune to hope. They often hope

for particular results. Sometimes this leads to research

with pre-determined conclusions. These conclusions

are unlikely to find acceptance. Other scientists in

the community will keep them down by many challenges

against each claim. If the claims survive these tests,

they may become accepted, but there will always

remain the option for further testing.

e 26 f

Commonly, we try hard to hold onto things

that contradict our intelligence.

e 27 f

Evolution does not play the lottery. Evolution

runs the lottery. It pays a winning mutation

now and then, among millions of losers.

e 28 f

Just before you die, you might as well burn

up your awards, diplomas and degrees, but

if you have written, that can continue on.

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e 29 f

We, like snowflakes, became what we are without

being made. This may be the greatest of all

miracles, all that is, what has become of matter.

e 30 f

I did not learn how to curtsy or kneel or bow,

nor to need anyone to do these for me.

e 31 f

To veterans, on the whole, our society does not

respond as if we were responding to heroes.

Many veterans are not as well off as they would

be if they had never been heroes. Football,

baseball, basketball and movie heroes, on

the other hand, we treat with awe and money.

e 32 f

Does God take time to stop and smell the roses?

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e 33 f

Our freedom exists only while there are reasonable

restrictions. The lion must have some freedom to eat

gazelles, or the lion must perish. Gazelles must have

some degree of safety from lions, or the gazelle must

perish. Each fails without restrictions on freedom for

the other. A people with too high a degree of both kinds

of freedom, freedom from attack and freedom to attack,

would destroy the freedom of the world, including even

the freedom of their own nation. The world is lucky

that all nations will always be vulnerable.

e 34 f

Worthiness? Why that's just a matter of doing

what one is told by the one who is measuring it.

e 35 f

We have a round dining table. Our little boy

hit his glass of milk reaching for something,

and the milk fell right off the edge.

e 36 f

There’s a little bit of snooker in every game.

Kennard Borough

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e 37 f

I know things I would be better off not knowing, but

I often argue against secrets, and if nature shares

with me, I cannot reasonably complain. I find myself

sometimes unwilling to share what has been shared

with me, causing me to question my arguments

against secrecy. I am not absolutely sure that my

positions and beliefs are ok. Silence feels selfish,

but broadcasting appears a dangerous wrong.

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e 38 f

If we are able to accomplish it, making it possible

for someone to be happy is the most effective

punishment of all. Happy people are the most likely

to live responsibly. Even for the most heinous of

criminals or enemies, this is the most likely cure.

e 39 f

Whatever is, is, and except for our reseeding of

the random generators, we have extremely little

to do with it, and we possess absolutely no definable

control over it. This is with regard to the universe

as a whole. Over the Earth, we are a little in control,

over our town, a little more, within our families,

more, and over our own selves, quite a lot.

e 40 f

We think we are wise to take risks as we calculate

the odds to be enough in our favor. The process of

evolution is risk after risk without any consideration

of odds at all. The odds, factually, are extremely

poor, yet the risks have led to the greatest

progress of which we are aware.

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e 41 f

One of the most significant lies we are told is the

one that purports, "It is the principle and not the

amount that counts." This is patently untrue. The

amount counts. The product of the importance

of the principle times the amount might be used as

a better measure of how much something counts.

The error causes obsessing over trivia.

e 42 f

Measure fitness rather than worthiness, just as

nature does. Select a surgeon, for example, based

on his history with that operation, rather than a

surgeon who is privately what we want him to be. The

same principle applies in selecting political leaders.

e 43 f

When many people give exactly the same answers

to complex questions, a reasonable assumption

is that they are sharing answers, and that

they have not done their own research.

e 44 f

Those who lack honest faith are without an engine,

and those lacking honest doubt are without a rudder

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e 45 f

We think of "making" ice cubes, but most frozen water

happens without a designer. Water, rather than being

made into ice, becomes ice by responding to the

environment. Most of what we see around us

became so without invention or intervention.

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e 46 f

Control over one's own life, we call freedom.

Control over other's lives, we call power.

They, freedom and power, can be in conflict.

Power to control others may come by many

different levels of influence or force.

When the power comes by lies or secrecy, such that

the follower does not know why he follows, or when

it comes by threat of loss or pain, such that the

follower follows out of fear, or when physical force

is used, such that the follower has no choice, then

only the power remains, and freedom is gone.

When the control is by way of respected influence,

wherein the other person follows by choice, having

been inspired by logical and honest data or by

example, then freedom is preserved.

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e 47 f

Ultimately, love, truth and justice will prevail.

Peace of mind, now. This wisdom is our joy.

Rex Borough

e 48 f

Do I fear truth? Likely I do, with all the

secrets I keep and all the things I resist to know.

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e 49 f

When others are quiet, will I try to find their wisdom?

e 50 f

If He didn't know it was good for us, no loving god

would employ any devil to tempt us. Even among seniors,

we know now that resistance exercise is beneficial.

e 51 f

It’s easy to win a war when one is powerful and

not required to identify the enemy. Bombing

whole cities is a snap. The winnings are what’s

left, and that’s not much. The gains most certainly

are not worth the cost of all those innocent lives.

e 52 f

Plenty of people will accept

the absurd, if absurd enough

to be far outside their experience.

e 53 f

Who was more intelligently designed, Neanderthals,

Cro-Magnons, or we Homo Sapiens? Or perhaps it

was the developing amphibian finding its way to

land, or the first tiny bit of pre-DNA?

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e 54 f

I should love animals and people, not stuff and things.

e 55 f

Two Step diet:

One: After each bite, decide if reasonably comfortable.

Two: If the answer is "Yes," that’s the last bite.

e 56 f

Many know that man made the creeds.

Maybe they are good inventions, when

inclusive and used well and with care.

e 57 f

Honoring the non-existent seems an awful waste of

time, unless we understand that worship is valuable of

itself and for its effect on our own self-concept.

Were we to worship knowing this, that might be

labeled something it is not: hypocrisy. Are we aware

of how often and how long this secret is kept?

e 58 f

Sometimes we get so excited about

making money that we forget our goals.

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e 59 f

Once free-path discoveries are made, this is

soon enough to subject them to the logical process.

e 60 f

When our beliefs are formed wholly or partly by way

of our emotions, they are probably not data-based.

e 61 f

For science, faith is a supposition. Something

is thought possible, and the supposition will be

tested and argued. For religion, faith is an

affirmation. Something is known without doubt

to be true, and the sure truth will be broadcast.

e 62 f

While we are growing, we are over our parents, who

are our foundation. We hope to grow enough to find

ourselves beside them, and as a foundation for our

children. Further along, We may grow to be under our

parents, as a foundation for them in their old age.

Our children will come to work beside us.

e 63 f

Our actions are our professed beliefs. Other

forms of speaking are comparatively unreliable.

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e 64 f

Science does not request evidence; science demands

it. If evidence is denied, science withholds its conclusion.

"Scientists," however, do not always do science.

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e 65 f

We can respect a church which teaches love and no

harm to anyone here and not to a single one hereafter.

e 66 f

Pride is not love.

e 67 f

It is not about bossing and obeying.

It is about love and inclusiveness.

e 68 f

She didn’t pick stocks based on their

likelihood of going up. She supported them

for their potential to give service.

e 69 f

The more capable the steed, the more

aware and careful the rider must be.

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e 70 f

If something almost happened, it's really just

something that did not happen. (There are

millions of these near events we never become

aware of.) If we learn from the near event, that

is its only value, and there is no negative value.

e 71 f

Religion should not be about proving

that God favors some above others.

e 72 f

How do you communicate with someone

who tells you what you mean?

e 73 f

Those who vote a straight ticket form two fixed groups,

say 30% for one party and 30% for the other. Because

their thinking does not affect their vote, they mostly

cancel each other out. The decisions are then made by

the flexible. The fixed 60% will yield to the 40%.

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e 74 f

A lie feels no need to be proven, and thus

may be shared with great efficiency. Truth is

shared more slowly, and thought is encouraged.

e 75 f

If he does not agree, then he is judged

not listening, nay, though he turn his

head and cup his ear with sore intent.

e 76 f

Having become afraid of controversy, they came

more and more not to discuss things. They

settled for unity and discontinued progress.

e 77 f

Why would God provide help for the strong to win a

war, when the strong would prevail without help?

e 78 f

The best voyages through lives are not made on

a single prefab ship, but on one and then ever

another, continually designed and improved.

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e 79 f

No one comes into this world alone.

No one should leave this world alone.

Leona Smith

e 80 f

The IQ of evolution? Zero. Yet more is accomplished

than by all the intelligence of humanity all combined.

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e 81 f

We must hurry! We must waste no time getting

ready for eternity! Why? With an infinity of

time, why must the readying time be limited?

e 82 f

This word, "instantaneously," requires the possibility

of an infinitesimal event. If each event takes a quantum

of time, then we are limited to the speed of light for

the travel of information as well as matter.

e 83 f

Most murders are committed by steely quiet.

e 84 f

No need for a diet program. It's a

decision. Many things work this way.

e 85 f

Don't let fascists teach you about freedom;

they want to dictate. Don't let coyotes teach

you about cats; they eat them. Don't let the

superstitious teach you about science; they

are threatened by the methodology.

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e 86 f

What is, is, regardless of our inability to understand.

e 87 f

They held to the thing not because they thought it

was true, but because they desired that it be

true. They confused belief with hope.

e 88 f

Keep a journal, for your thoughts are

valuable long after your life is over.

e 89 f

Unfortunately, those who stir and last may eventually

be honored and credited for the progress that

consequently comes by increased natural activity

and selection from among the random results.

e 90 f

Studies indicate that, on average,

conservatives are happier than liberals.

Still, the highest happiness is not available

to those who, to conform, cede their liberty.

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e 91 f

One cannot learn how giving a person

is - if things are taken or promises extracted

before the chance for free giving occurs.

e 92 f

Believing that something is true is not the

same as believing in something. I may believe

in Santa Claus without believing the chubby

little fellow actually exists. I may speak of

his attributes and name his reindeer without

a hint of hypocrisy. Can we see how this

works regarding other impossible things?

e 93 f

Stirring has no moral, but is change for change's

sake. Add adaptation and selection among the

stirrings, and more gets done than all the

engineering we can muster all of us together.

e 94 f

When these dear Alzheimer's patients

learn computers and email, we get to laugh

at the same good jokes over and over.

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e 95 f

Given an eternity, everything will happen.

Fred David Borough

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e 96 f

Regarding something that will go to waste;

is gleaning a virtue only for the poor?

e 97 f

To get out truth is of utmost importance.

Equally important is to promptly publish

error, for that also is truth.

e 98 f

What is spoken is soon gone, unless hurtful.

What is written lasts, good or bad.

e 99 f

Will you live in fear? Or will you be heard?

e 100 f

Sometimes, when nobody is listening, I sit at the

piano and pretend I am a concert pianist. The

risk improves my ability a little each time,

though the pretense is undeniably unreasonable.

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e 101 f

By some process we decide which of God's examples we

may follow. We cannot kill the firstborn of our enemy, but

we can forgive our neighbor. We cannot ask our son to kill

his son to prove his love for us, but we can do good unto

"the least of these." How do we decide those acts we

cannot rightly emulate were good for God to do?

e 102 f

True stories are often used to tell lies, when

the stories support the rare side of a statistic

and are then used to deny the statistic.

e 103 f

If one is frustrated by the unknown, then he

is doomed to be so with a vigorous constancy.

e 104 f

Words have only two definitions that matter. One is as

the speaker or writer intends, and the other is as

interpreted by the listener or reader. Communication is

aided when the definitions become about the same.

e 105 f

Being unhappy can be plain and selfish

and generally gets one nothing.

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e 106 f

Don’t miss a perfect

opportunity to say nothing.

Valéria Jones

e 107 f

Get it out.

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e 108 f

There is not a trillionth part of the universe

where one might stand with our most

powerful telescope and see the Earth.

e 109 f

When Democrats regulate or block change,

they are the conservatives. When Republicans

try new ideas, they are the liberals.

e 110 f

Without doubt as a tool - we'd

just follow every little wind.

e 111 f

If we already know that it is not about

humans, how could it, by any stretch

of the imagination, be about money?

e 112 f

Miraculous as we are, we are limited creatures.

e 113 f

All failure is temporary.

(It is unfortunate that temporary can last so long.)

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e 114 f

It's simple; I want a god who's

example I can rightly follow.

e 115 f

A weapon well chosen gives its holder a significant

advantage. Handguns do not qualify. They bring unintended

results far more often than intended results.

e 116 f

Harmony is better than Unity.

e 117 f

We don’t learn much if all the information is outgoing.

David Kennard Borough

e 118 f

Giving is best when the recipient is unexpectant

and does not know from whom the gift comes. The

world will be appreciated, rather than the specific

agent, and both the giver and the receiver grow.

e 119 f

When we are called "Sodom & Gomorrah," will we

become so or more so to spite the awful accuser?

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e 120 f

Tolerance is learned and produced by

our attitude toward others - not by

trying to get others to tolerate us.

e 121 f

We either know or do not know something;

this is not always in our control. We either

acknowledge or do not acknowledge that we

know or do not know; this is in our control.

e 122 f

A blank piece of paper - Not a coloring

book. Better is the poor practice of

creation than the good following of lines.

e 123 f

Failure is almost always a zero. It leaves us where we are,

but does not set us back. This is why those who try often

are those who succeed. They lose little or nothing with

each failure, and have the successes to show for it.

e 124 f

They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely?

The only one I know of who has absolute power is

God – and I see what they mean - as He has been

described, He most certainly is absolutely corrupt.

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e 125 f

Something fantastic is going on that we don't

understand. The key to maintaining humility is to

openly confirm that we do not understand, and to be

unsupportive of groups that claim to know the details.

e 126 f

If not operating in both directions, it is not

a worthy principle. Orders come from above,

but good principles come from the side and operate

both up and down. Obedience is not a good principle.

Respect is. Worship is not a good principle. Love is.

Obedience and worship are unidirectional.

Respect and love are bidirectional.

e 127 f

Lincoln was a little proud that he blacked his own boots.

We've lost something in that. People who excuse

themselves from mundane tasks are then free to do more

important things, but they lose some of their humanity.

e 128 f

If I listen to a nag, and consider only the issues

themselves, and not the delivery or the attitude of

the speaker, I may get some valuable information.

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e 129 f

What makes a sick gambler is

the confusion of hope with belief.

e 130 f

If I am a fly, the spider is my enemy,

but it is not wrong for her to be my enemy.

My moral judgment of her is useless.

e 131 f

You know that shoes are not clothes.

And fish is not meat.

You know that secrets are not lies.

And that smell is not my feet.

e 132 f

Expecting to understand everything by

way of science is unscientific. Science

reveals that we can't; it's in the math.

e 133 f

Death's sweet sleep is independent of

whether or not there is an afterlife.

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e 134 f

What we earn is almost infinitesimal compared with

what we accept without earning it. We need oxygen, the

Earth, the Sun, and much more, just to stay alive. If

we feed an "undeserving" man, he receives a little

without earning it, but we don’t lose much, and the

man receives a real need. Furthermore, we act just

as nature acts in giving us almost everything we need,

which is virtually infinite, and entirely unearned.

e 135 f

If the delusions or the paranoia are socially

supported as truths, then a small level of

disease will bring acceptance of them. Entire

large groups of people often do this. They

may believe they are the only ones who know

the truth, or that the world is soon ending.

e 136 f

Liberals will vote for less taxes for guns and

walls, but will vote for more taxes for food

and education. Every administration asks for

more taxes than the last, regardless of side.

What differs is what they want to buy.

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e 137 f

My common sense tells me that what's good for humanity

is good period. This is founded on the superstition

that humans are what the universe is about.

e 138 f

Someone who drives to the beach and then will not swim

because of the possibility of sharks, has not figured

out that driving is a thousand times the danger.

e 139 f

If the possibility for disobedience is not

clear, then obedience is not possible.

e 140 f

Non-conformance requires no anti-social

disease when the motivation for conforming

has gone away by way of real data.

e 141 f

We may go from risk to risk and live.

Or we may seek safety and not live at all.

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e 142 f

In the scheme of the entire universe, we are no more

important than that spider. When we divide anything by

the infinite, we always come up with zero.

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e 143 f

The combination of fundamentalism and atomic

weapons might be the setup that destroys humanity.

"We are right, and everyone else is wrong,"

is the most dangerous of all thoughts and beliefs.

The weapons multiply that danger.

e 144 f

I feel certain that I know nearly nothing. Is this

humility? I am proud that I feel certain that I know

nearly nothing. Is this the opposite of humility?

e 145 f

Many of our beliefs are engineered by other people.

e 146 f

"Give without remembering," but

if you do, there will be no tax deduction

and no proof of worthiness for the church.

The rules tempt us never to learn real giving.

e 147 f

Doubt and faith are the eyes of research; both are

needed for a reasonable process. There is not one evil

and the other good; they are both good, when not blind.

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e 148 f

The whole idea of worthiness is a human

invention. Nature disregards worthiness

entirely. Nature measures only fitness.

e 149 f

Dreams are good for people,

even if they don't come true.

e 150 f

True guilt does not come from error, but from will.

e 151 f

Our knowledge does not make us functional. We are

functional because we developed evolutionarily to fit a

complex environment. It's an environment that could

not have been figured out with anyone's mind.

e 152 f

Are we happy that God loves sinners,

while we hate them ourselves?

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e 153 f

We think of growth as upward, as with limbs or fruit,

but growth is just as much downward, as with roots.

e 154 f

If I were a good king, would you want me

for your king? - - - - - I didn't think so.

I don't want you for my king either.

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e 155 f

A Roller Coaster - no matter how much safety

data I understand that puts me in the way of

knowing that it's safer than my car - still feels

dangerous. I'm aware that the danger is just

fantasy, but my fast heart rate down the big hill

tells me that I don’t fully believe what I know.

e 156 f

Listen, Christian warriors. We

are not David. We are Goliath.

e 157 f

I find it difficult to believe that a loving god is

going to be angry with me for carefully considering

data or for drawing conclusions responsibly.

e 158 f

Our planet is a smaller part of our

galaxy than a tiny grain of sand is

part of our planet, and our galaxy is

an even smaller part of the universe.

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e 159 f

Humility is recognizing that we are more powerful

with the help of others. Alone, we are relatively

weak. The more humble we are, the more powerful,

for we tap the power of the world around us.

e 160 f

The best is honest faith uncertain,

with an open and logical mind.

e 161 f

Princely? Royal? Noble? Regal?

Such are awful things to be.

Power by birth should not be legal,

Not here and not across the sea.

e 162 f

Knowing the wars we've fought as humans - knowing the

names of human leaders - the towns they've named and

settled – is altogether the smallest part of our real

history, which is replete with so much that is not human.

Much ingratitude is born of this ignorance and this pride.

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e 163 f

Many organized atheists doggedly do not believe

because they have agreed not to believe. In this way, the

non-believing becomes much like a creed. Believing or not

believing should be based on data, not on agreement.

e 164 f

Happiness is Fattening.

- Cosette Tessier

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e 165 f

The relatively weak, if willing to risk or sacrifice

their lives, become strong against the more powerful.

If those in power are to continue in peace,

their treatment of the weak must be caring.

This is not only a duty, but a necessity, for both

the welfare of the weak and of themselves.

e 166 f

I am free to speak my view of the truth, except when

I am at church. There, any differing view of truth is

received with fear and angst. If you would like to

experience this, go to meeting and express gratitude

for all the life forms that were our ancestors and for

the selection and speciation that made us possible.

e 167 f

Do not explain your motives to a

paranoid. He already knows.

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e 168 f

What am I? Well, I find it impossible to believe

that a person made the universe, so reasonably, I

am an atheist. I know something is going on that is beyond

my comprehension, something far more than myself, so

evidently, I am a believer. I do not think anyone is capable

of knowing the details about what is going on, so obviously,

I am an agnostic. I am all of these at the same time, all

the time. I am not one of them in a foxhole and another

when secure. I am an atheist agnostic believer. If I were

to select a single label, agnostic is the least incorrect,

but that label fails to explain much of my life.

e 169 f

The only real doctrines are those accepted by

the group and applied in their lives. The myriad

of inapplicable doctrines are no more than a game.

e 170 f

To me, what is sacred are the arms and legs of little

girls and little boys, not the cloth flags of nations.

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e 171 f

We played backgammon that night. We cannot be sure

whether there is any link to cancer. The data is not

clear enough to be absolutely certain, and insufficient

funding is available for the necessary testing. We

know that some players get cancer. (That bump

in my cheek is just a large tumor, most likely benign.)

e 172 f

The notion that we may in some small way be

important to the universe is not so unreasonable

as the illusion that the universe is about us.

e 173 f

A certain amount of hypocrisy appears reasonable and

kind. Agreeing with a child, who really is incorrect,

may be good for the child and also for the Tooth Fairy.

e 174 f

Being the king's son or the bosses son or the

president's son or God's son does not make one

good. Goodness comes not by birth, but by living.

e 175 f

Want to make baseball more interesting? New rule:

On a walk, a batter with no strikes walks to second.

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e 176 f

To reduce crime and wrong-doing, first

achieve understanding and encourage change,

all along with the intent of forgiveness and

befriending. Effective punishment is about

fixing and improvement, not about revenge.

No person is punished well who is not loved.

e 177 f

A book cannot be minus one inch thick. It cannot be

published tomorrow and burned up yesterday. Dimensions

of time and of thickness, of width and height, are all of

this same character. Their least value is zero.

e 178 f

The mistake that people make, who wish to

be effective in the world, is that they

believe in defined and concerted effort,

when stirring would do immensely more.

Stirring, however, gives them no credit,

which may be what they want. Those who stir

may be treated only as trouble makers. Fair

enough; troubling and stirring can be synonyms.

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e 179 f

Which children to love?

That's easy, the ones who like cookies.

If you can find one who does not like cookies,

Oh well, love that one too.

e 180 f

Restoration (Regaining old - Reactionism)

Cooling (Slowing down - Regulation)

Stillness (Keeping peace - Conservatism)

Moderating (Considering – Openness)

Changing (Moving - Liberalism)

Stirring (Accelerating - Activism)

Creation (Making new - Radicalism)

There are things that ought to be restored.

There are things that ought to be reduced.

There are things that ought to stay as they are.

There are things that ought to be considered.

There are things that ought to be changed.

There are things that ought to be accelerated.

There are things that ought to be created.

We need every kind from reactionaries to radicals,

but we need them to be caring and responsible.

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e 181 f

There is no way to know whom the next warrior

will be. That is why they cannot be defeated by

fearful preemption. The fight must be against

the motivation for new warriors, whether or

not that motivation is reasonable.

e 182 f

If you were all alone in the universe and had the

power to do anything at all, would you create equals

and have the pleasure of good company, or would

you create only inferiors and consider them all fools?

e 183 f

If a country has many religions, none forming a

majority, free speech is likely to develop. Other

countries may only pretend such a freedom.

e 184 f

There's only one Universe. There's only one "All

That Is." Things can all go in any of infinite ways, but

once the past is laid out, that part is a done deal.

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e 185 f

Would we be wise to follow God's example? He does not

worship us; He loves us. He does not obey us; He respects

us. He does not pay to us; He shares with us.

e 186 f

Does good prevail? This is one of those ultimate

questions the agnostic believes has no answer. Is

our ultimate significance one of amplitude only?

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e 187 f

One should not bow down to truth. One

should use truth. The worship of truth

is just as silly as any other worship.

Truth does not care; it only is.

e 188 f

This is not a war against the disease of hate and fear.

This is a war against those who suffer the disease.

Supporting such a war, one catches the disease.

e 189 f

In attacking the wrong enemy, we destroy

even more innocent people, and thus become

ourselves more like the violent people we fear.

e 190 f

Tools are not beings with thoughts and feelings.

Their enslavement is reasonable.

e 191 f

We need fair-minded conservatives.

We need caring-mind liberals.

We do not need cruel-hearted conservatives.

We do not need bleeding-heart liberals.

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e 192 f

Take considered risks. With logical means to

consider the odds favorable, take the risks.

e 193 f

Why suicide bombers? Because dead men do not regret.

To rue the day, a new day must come.

e 194 f

The emotional process put against the logical process

is often as a match put to a report. The match

prevails, but it tells us nothing at all about the report.

e 195 f

Caring is not difficult.

It is as much habit as attitude.

e 196 f

To know more good is not the need. It is what we

care enough to do that matters. Every one of us knows

enough good to keep us busy for the rest of our lives.

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e 197 f

The paint was out of control on my canvas. As the

colors ran together, I came to realize that the resulting

complexity was far greater than I was capable of

designing myself. The impressive patterns did not

come from me; they came from God's nature, but I saw

the work and appreciated it, and so it became beauty

for me, and I felt included in the process.

Bryan Borough

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e 198 f

She is truth, and science is attracted when she teases.

e 199 f

Even released slaves sometimes longed for their masters

and a simpler life. Do we sometimes want our kings back?

e 200 f

There is no history of the future, for it is not

laid out that it may be written. We have only

limited short-term predictability, variably

reasonable imagination, and fiction.

e 201 f

Retire from the goal of making money.

That's real retirement.

e 202 f

Sure, believe in obedience, as it is chosen, but not as

forced, not coerced, not rewarded, as one trains a puppy.

The best obedience is not caused, but may be inspired.

e 203 f

Patience is not lazy, not afraid, and not inert.

Patience waits like a cat.

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e 204 f

You can be out of touch with reality while deeply

involved in a good novel. When the book is put down,

one must get back in touch. Religion should be this

way also. The illusion of eternal life can be most

refreshing. We may escape and rest from our

greatest fears. After resting, we must wake up.

e 205 f

We are far too confident in

our ability to know ultimate truths.

e 206 f

It's not about being right. It's about thinking.

e 207 f

John Lennon said, "And no religion too." It's only

the exclusiveness, and not any of the loving and

caring, that needs to go. It's folks thinking they

are the only ones or the chosen ones or the

special ones, and viewing all the others as inferior.

e 208 f

Please do not press me to be your king. There are many

addictions both more pleasant and easier to escape.

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e 209 f

They were both born in America. The difference

was that she was glad to be a citizen, like it was

her good fortune, while he was proud to be a citizen,

like the accident was somehow a credit to him.

e 210 f

If there were ever a time when nothing existed,

then it would be the same now. The possibility for

it to become what it is now would need to have

been there, and possibility is more than nothing.

Possibility is made up of conditions.

e 211 f

An air of unfriendly controversy enters a discussion,

not when both sides are presented, but when

someone wants only one side to be heard.

e 212 f

If we cannot do fractions, then we might be tempted

to buy more lottery tickets than just one for fun.

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e 213 f

Just because someone is blind doesn't mean

they can't see where they are going.

Sean McPherson

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e 214 f

The history from which we came includes our escape from

kings and queens, princes and princesses. Do we remain too

attracted to these? We would not honor "Der Fuhrer" of

the senior prom. We would not call our little daughters

"Tsaress." We would not worship "The Pharaoh of

pharaohs." How did we not learn from our escape? Do we

believe in our principle of no monarchs, or are we still

attracted to kings and their unquestioned power?

e 215 f

If I tell lies or stay silent to keep acceptable, I

may eventually be called a hypocrite. That would, of

course, be a correct call. If I tell the truth now, I

may immediately be called a trouble-maker. This

would also be a correct call. Which is preferable?

e 216 f

Do not choose beliefs for their attractiveness.

Test them for validity, and then accept them if

you are convinced, and never become unwilling

to consider the results of continued testing.

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e 217 f

It's easy. At eight or so, a child can see there is no living

being who can fly with reindeer. At not much older, one

can easily realize that there is no living being who

organized the universe. One is not given permission to

admit the latter. He is called evil for speaking or thinking

this way, or warned he will be severely punished forever.

How mean and cruel. They threaten no punishment,

but only revenge, for they have no goal of correction.