Alex > Recent Status Updates

"If, therefore, it [the human soul] knows by right reason that God ought to have made something, let it believe that God has in fact done so, even if it does not see the thing among those that God has made."

The vampire hunter chapter is the first one that didn't suck. In fact, I found it quite enjoyable and intriguing.

The chapter on toxicokinetics was unfathomably boring.

Right now, this sucks.

Between 1543 and 1545, around three dozen supposed witches, men and women alike, were burned or torn apart as punishment for witchcraft. Supposedly, they poisoned people in a way that looked like the plague, but wasn't the plague. Some killed themselves in prison, and one of the accused only confessed when he was told Calvin pleaded for his forgiveness before the council. That was a lie, and Calvin was in the know.

Evans is ridiculous. This book has also gotten a lot weaker again.

This just got good. I am impressed.

The "human computer" is an extremely fascinating idea.

"[...]for, as far as the voice of woman, when attuned by gentleness and love, transcends all other sounds in harmony, so far does it surpass all others in discord, when stretched into unnatural shrillness by anger and impatience."

"You must simply hold with unshaken faith that every good thing that you perceive or understand or in any way know is from God. For any nature you come across is from God. So if you see anything at all that has measure, number, and order, do not hesitate to attribute it to God as craftsman. If you take away all measure, number, and order, there is absolutely nothing left."

"More problematic, many critics today point out that the metaphysical assumptions informing Hume’s argument here do not work in light of modern physics. [...] Hume works in a deductive circle, as scholars often note. He argues, based on “experience,” that miracles do not happen, yet dismisses credible eyewitness testimony for miracles (i.e., others’ experience) on his assumption that miracles do not happen."