Subscribe to Computing Intelligence

Thursday, August 7, 2008

A note about crackers

I believe most people reading this blog have heard about the whole eucharist 'stealing' business that went on in Florida a while ago, followed by the desecration of one by PZ Myers. Up to this point I have avoided comment on this subject simply because it seemed rather absurd to me and I plan to continue with the no comment policy. This is just a quick post to mention that even Hobbes, one of the founders of modern political philosophy, pointed out multiple times throughout his seminal work Leviathan that the concept of transubstantiation was utterly ridiculous and made absolutely no sense. That was three and a half centuries ago. I have many issues with Hobbes' conclusions (he is scarily totalitarian. In fact, I think it is specifically in chapter 19 that all of Hobbes' careful ruminations shockingly lead him to the nonsensical declaration that a despotic monarch is the best form of government). Actually, I seem to have lost the original point behind this post, but I think I'll put it up anyway, because I found it to be interesting tidbit of information. Hobbes is an odd character - sometimes nearly atheistical, other times he is arguing straight from scripture. I think it might be safest to regard him in a similar manner to Jefferson, in that he was raised in a Christian society but was intellectually frustrated with the contradictory and evidentially baseless nature of many of the church's teachings.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Good post, "A note about Hobbes" might have been a more accurate title though, great stuff though, thank you for reading leviathan so I don't have to

wisefly said...

Ha, got a little sidetracked, did you?

Mozglubov said...

Yeah. I haven't really been capable of putting together something coherent for the last few days, which kind of sucks since I have a final essay due in the course and a final exam Monday night, which will be some more essay writing. It was only a few weeks ago that I was feeling confident and eloquent...