"rtk" wrote in message ...


george wrote:

You are saying that you really
don't want to discuss facts, but would rather stay ignorant because it makes
you feel better than knowing the cold, hard truth.

And there we get to the heart and soul of the problem. The truth need not be
cold or hard, nor facts brutal.

Ruth Kazez
kazez.com


Well, if you want to get philosophical, I must tell you I believe that the world
we live in is a wonderous, beautiful place, full of mystery. Yet within that
awesome beauty is a cold, stark truth, and that is that the universe is ever
moving towards chaos and absolute zero. The laws of thermodynamics demand it.
We see this fact in the mountains that rise up, only to erode onto the plains,
and eventually back into the sea, in the sun which is ever burning towards
extinction, and in an ever expanding universe that will eventually reach
absolute zero temperature because of its sheer expansiveness and ultimate
dispersion of energy.

A recent memoir by my paleontology professor contains a passage that, in my
opinion sums up what I'm trying to say. His name is Dr. James E. Conkin,
Professor Emeritus in the Geology department (now folded into the Geography
Department) at the University of Louiville. In his memoir, "A Geologist's
Ramblings Through The Labyrinths of Time", He states the following:

"These anguished cries and pitiful prayers for help are merely cosmic background
"noise" to which nature must (not out of evil intent, spite, revenge, or
punishment, but by necessity) turn a "deaf ear", for were it not so, Nature
itself would be destroyed by these same laws which it had ordained "in the
beginning" (if there were one) and must continue to operate in perpetuity (if
time and the universe are truly eternal), or there would be an ending to the
cosmic laws: a true "twilight of the gods", and of cosmic harmony, Chaos never
returning to cosmos." The one constant that can not be doubted is the
inevidability of change. So all in all, death is an inescapable part of our
world, our universe. It is part of the very fabric, part of the engine that
drives the universe. But never fear. I'm not completely without a positive
outlook, for I am often reminded of Omar Khayyam's wish (he was a Persian
mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer in 1048 C.E.), that "my tomb shall be
in a spot where the north wind may scatter roses over it". It's something to
think about when you're sitting out by the pond throwing food at the fish. :-))

George