C is for Contradictions

Here's a few. In the Koran. In the Bible. In Webster's.
Some Christian contradictions from atheists in the US. The deafening silence that is an oxymoron. 19th century historical contradictions. Poetic contradictions. A band called Contradictions. The Great Gatsby and contradictions. I'm sure we can find more.

B is for Bicycles - and Biiible?

I'll get to this is a moment. Oh yeah. Bikes. And Biiible? Freaky!

A is for Alfa

As in Alfa Romeo. I've owned 3. Still have 1. Hard to shake this particular Italian illness.

A is for 'a' list of books

OK, it's a stretch. But it's here now anyway.

I will cover in this blog subjects beyond literal truth. And I use truth advisedly as mathematics is the only provable truth, IMHO. Everything else is either awaiting a mathematical proof or is a belief, a theory or an assumption.

Just to explain my thinking: you may believe in what you can see, hear and/or touch, and that's cool; but it's not necessarily a literal truth. Even if a thousand people see, hear and/or touch that thing it doesn't make it true. It may be real enough to the people concerned but it's not an incontrovertible truth. It may be an illusion. It may be a shared thought. It may be a shared assumption. It's something, but it's not a literal truth. To be a literal truth requires proof. To my mind we can only be certain of mathematical proofs, as I haven't seen any other proof that convincingly lives outside the mind or perception of man.

And I could be wrong about maths. Perhaps there is no independent proof? Ahhh, but that's an undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns....

So to the first installment of my 'way out but worth it' booklist, in no particular order:

• Bill Shakespeare's works in full. An essential lesson in the use of the English language, up there with Fowler's.


• The Elegant Universe (by Brian Greene. Post-Einstein string theory to get you thinking.)


• Anything by Richard Dawkins or Stephen Jay Gould. As I said, there are mathematical proofs and there are theories. Some theories are more compelling than others.


• The Torah (the Pentateuch, the Book of Moses: a lively read, basis for Judaism and the Old Testment and a fascinating read on any level)


• The Bible (Greek for 'Books'; The Old and New Testaments: basis for the Christian cults and a brilliant read)


• The Koran (Arabic for 'Recital': another excellent piece of writing and the basis for Islam. I have the Dawood translation)


• The History of Magic (by Eliphas Levi: a great, compelling read. Spot the a ha! 'Harry Potter' moments and see the footprints of Rowling's research)


• The Theory of Celestial influence (by Rodney Collin: immensely detailed, it wallows around trying to 'prove' a case scientifically but falls magnificently short. Can be heavy, clumsy and painful to read... but still worth it for the determined!).
  

• Anything by Joseph Campbell, but Occidental Mythology is a great start. I'll get to Joe in a moment.
  

That's just for starters. Let me know what you think.

This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 9:51 am on my OODB site and is filed under No idea where this one goes, Writing, Religion and Essential Truths. You can follow any responses to this entry through the usual RSS feeds here or there. You can leave a response by commenting here , or trackback from your own site.

Welcome to A

I think I've gone alphabetical now. A is for alpha, alfa, aleph and archive. Amongst many other things, of course. We'll see where this takes us (or me, more than likely)