>Auto de fe matches the definition as closely as can be> But does "closely" not come close to suggesting that the Europeans' God is just as much an ignorant superstition as the gods of human sacrifice? DnlJust testing On Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 19:53, Mike Geary <gearyservice@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Actually Geary agrees with Piet Hein on this issue when he wrote: Man's a kind of missing link fondly thinking he can think. Also, in line with Mister Hein, Geary shares this desire: "I'd like to know what this whole show is all about before it's out." But whether I do or whether I don't, still I concur with Herr Hein when he wrote: "I am the Universe's Centre. No subtle sceptics can confound me; for how can other viewpoints enter, when all the rest is all around me?" Mike "Grooky" Geary Heining out in Memphis n Tue, May 20, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: In a message dated 5/19/2014 4:45:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, >donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes: >Or have I missed something? >Dnl >Simple-minded Darwinist >Ldn > >Geary, who describes his self as a complex-minded Darwinist states that the > "Missing Link" will possibly remain Darwin's problem _for ever_ (at least >*for Darwin*). > >Cheers, > >Speranza > >--- > >From Geary's "Darwiniana": "The term "missing link" is used to refer back >to the originally static pre-evolutionary concept of the great chain of >being, a deist idea that all existence is linked, from the lowest dirt, through > the living kingdoms to angels and finally to God." > >"The lowest dirt is possibly the origin of Godliness is next to >cleanliness." > >"The idea of all living things being linked through some sort of >transmutation process, however, predates Darwin's theory of evolution -- if >theory >it can be called, rather than 'mere hypothesis'." > >"Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, to mention just one, envisioned that life is >generated in the form of the simplest creatures constantly, and then strive >towards complexity and perfection (i.e. humans) through a series of lower >forms." > >"In Lamarck's view, lower animals were simply newcomers on the evolutionary > scene, as we may put it." > >"After Darwin's On the Origin of Species, however, the idea of "lower >animals" representing earlier stages in evolution lingered, as demonstrated in >Ernst Haeckel's figure of the human pedigree." > >"While the vertebrates were then seen as forming a sort of evolutionary >sequence, the various classes were distinct, the undiscovered intermediate >forms being called "missing links"". > >"And the expression stuck." > > >------------------------------------------------------------------ >To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, >digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html >