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International Cuisine Conference on Traditional Asian Diet
Panaji, Goa, September 2-5, 2007 - http://www.indologygoa.in
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Hei Rui,
Thank you for your compliments and encouragement. You are making a
GoaNet monster out of me as the veteran GNetters know not to stroke my
ego... it only goes to my head ;-)
To answer your first question, I am a professional (companion animal
veterinarian) with more than a passing interest in the theory of
evolution though not as a career. I apologise for misleading you by
putting the two words together (for GL's benefit) but have come to the
realization that after studying evolution for the last 25 years, but
only the last 5 from a secular perspective, it is understandable why
the Church banned Darwin's 'Origin of the Species' for over a hundred
years. His thoughts and conclusions have been verified by many
unrelated scientific disciplines and the body of proof in biology is
as incontrovertible as the Theory of Gravity in physics. A true
understanding of evolution is incompatible with a belief in God unless
hermetically sealed in separate intellectual compartments. As I have
said before, there can only be ONE truth and it is up to each one of
us to question the integrity of our own beliefs.
As to your second question, I can no longer revert to the bliss of a
'simple belief' without suffering some catastrophic cerebral accident!
In fact, one of my greatest fears is that in the coming years I might
suffer the misfortune of a right temporal lobe injury which might
relegate my current understanding of life to the darker recesses of my
memory, instead stimulating the delusions of my indoctrination to the
delight of the organized religious. I am making this public
proclamation as I wouldn't want to be misunderstood in the future in
the unfortunate circumstance that the injury is an invisible stroke as
opposed to a gunshot wound or inadvertent nail gun misfire :-(
http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2004/05/05/nail-skull.jpg
My sincere conviction today is that of an unapologetic atheist. I
don't expect convince anyone other than myself that there cannot be a
god or afterlife or soul or any other of the myriad of convoluted
explanations that accompany faithful belief of angels, etherous
spirits, psychic communication with the dead, heaven, hell, purgatory
etc. etc. I have come to this conclusion entirely on my own,
coincidently after converting to vegetarianism. I see a connection
between that dietary change and a deeper understanding of our (human)
connection with all life forms which, I am convinced, all had a common
ancestor approximately 3.5 billion years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor's_Tale
I would answer your question 'is HOPE a stronger currency then BELIEF
and is belief an insurance policy which is a tradeable commodity
milked at the alters of all religions?' with a resounding YES! But
for the right and wrong of alcoholic addiction (or for that matter ANY
addiction including belief) I would suggest a neurological
predisposition or chemical imbalance which may actually have an
inheritable component. In my opinion, there is no difference between
'mind' and 'the physical process of neuronal computation' or 'body'.
Sincerely,
Kevin Saldanha
Mississauga, ON.
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Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:54:22 +0200
From: "rui nuvo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Re: Evolutionist Kevin?
But Kevin an evolutionist or Kevin a believer or Kevin both an
evolutionist and a believer would be very interesting to know in
private or in public.
--
Be impeccable with your word - Don Miguel Ruiz
http://www.nderf.org/4AgreementsReview.htm
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