by cameron | Sep 4, 2007 | Atheism, Podcast, science vs religion
While recording a new episode of the Advaita Show podcast today, my co-host Steve mentioned the recent book that has been published with Mother Teresa’s letters to her spiritual mentors which point out what a big bloody faker she was.
Check it:
Yet no sooner did Teresa start her work in the slums of Calcutta than she began to feel the intense absence of Jesus—a state that lasted until her death, according to her letters.
“The paradox is that for her to be a light, she was to be in darkness,” Kolodiejchuk said.
In a letter estimated to be from 1961, Teresa wrote: “Darkness is such that I really do not see – neither with my mind nor with my reason – the place of God in my soul is blank “There is no God in me” when the pain of longing is so great” I just long & long for God. The torture and pain I can’t explain.”
And this:
“Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love—and now become as the most hated one. You have thrown away as unwanted unloved So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them because of the blasphemy If there be a God please forgive me I am told that God loves me, and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.
Note: “If there be a God…”
And this:
The whole time smiling sisters and people pass such remarks they think my faith, trust and love are filling my very being. … Could they but know and how my cheerfulness is the cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery, she wrote.
What a big bloody faker. All the time pretending she was spiritually “with it”, and yet underneath she was a mess.
But… I hear you say… what does it matter? Look at the good she did?
Did she? By lying? By faking? By pretending? By letting the world believe her good works were inspired by her belief when really she was devoid of belief?
Imagine, instead, how much good she might have done had she had the courage to be honest and forthright about her lack of belief, and yet had continued to do her good works regardless??
We’ve seen it before – the bigger the poseur, the bigger the fake. Remember that lesson kids.
by cameron | Aug 28, 2007 | science, Uncategorized
Via Terraminds, here is a random selection of responses to the eclipse from Twitter tonight:
jimmykramer Wondering why i watched the eclipse. less than one minute ago
taterunino @Mercy I’ve never seen an eclipse. less than one minute ago
steakknives Watching the lunar eclipse. less than one minute ago
ihavecooties A lot of stars look red tonight. Is that an eclipse thing, or have I just not been paying attention? 1 minute ago
Peachiemoon watching lunar eclipse! ^_^* 1 minute ago
nungana is observing a lunar eclipse. 1 minute ago
tow314 just looked at the lunar eclipse 1 minute ago
muffuletta Observando el eclipse lunar. 1 minute ago
benbarren more people on mordy pier as i run out day as they look 4 eclipse if the ‘eart 2 minutes ago
melissaox I can see the lunar eclipse on my way to work. 🙂 2 minutes ago
thetappingman Trying to watch moon eclipse http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/lunaeclipse2007/mooncam.html 3 minutes ago
RobinInSeoul Did anyone actually see the eclipse? Too cloudy/smoggy to see anything here. 3 minutes ago
Chuckumentary Too stormy too see the lunar eclipse in MN. 3 minutes ago
starlajo went out to look at the eclipse. it looked rad, but outside was freeeeeeezing and then it clouded over. 4 minutes ago
mjollnir Post eclipse wine at sweet mother’s kitchen…. [tiny twitter] 4 minutes ago
Kitta Telling the clouds to go away so I can see the eclipse. 4 minutes ago
mightymur insomnia again. But if I’d remembered the eclipse, I would have gotten up instead of staying in bed trying in vain to sleep. blast. 4 minutes ago
VBrown Done for the night. Gotta get some sleep for work tomorrow. Was a beautiful lunar eclipse. Just wish the sky was a little less cloudy. 5 minutes ago
skytrystsjoy @jhando what lunar eclipse? I can hardly even see the moon it’s sort of red and blotchy 5 minutes ago
isiscolo Totality, yay, and then a big cloud crept across the sky. So much for the rest of the eclipse. I need to sleep more, anyway. 5 minutes ago
emp Jumping out of bed for a bit to watch the eclipse. Opening a Pellegrino and texting sweet nothings to all my remote honeys. I’m romantic … 7 minutes ago
KenyB Got to see the lunar eclipse and it wasn’t freezing cold out! ^^ 7 minutes ago
orbis_quintus lunar eclipse not the most spectacular i’ve seen, but the sky was exceptionally clear to view stars themselves. Five falling stars too. 8 minutes ago
Jakeness Watching the lunar eclipse! The moon is red! 9 minutes ago
Mercy It’s a beautiful eclipse. Glad you’re all here to share it with me, even those of you who can’t see it. 9 minutes ago
prat The eclipse is now total. The moon is red! 9 minutes ago
Allanahk I posted a better photo with the red colours showing now the eclipse is in full swing. 9 minutes ago
pdow didn’t think i’d be awake, didn’t think the fog would let diana through; total eclipse over san francisco, ruddy moon. 10 minutes ago
karlbright Eclipse ftw! 11 minutes ago
copano Llegue a la radio. Me saludo Filito. Hay Eclipse de luna. Transmiten 3×3 11 minutes ago
silvergull Lunar eclipse = Wow! 12 minutes ago
rberger Total Lunar eclipse over Silicon Valley. The Moon as a smouldering bal of fire 12 minutes ago
R2C13 Taking pics of the eclipse. Hot, muggy and texas sized mosquitos attacking me. Oh, and I suck at night photography. Why am I doing this 12 minutes ago
wildriverblum watching the total eclipse of the moon…spectacular 13 minutes ago
l0k1 watching lunar eclipse 13 minutes ago
onebortup Lunar eclipse is startling … Walked down the street, looked up, gasped. One of the most amazing things I’ve seen. 13 minutes ago
Apollia Ongoing lunar eclipse will be astrologically exact at 6:35 AM EDT, according to freeware Astrolog 5.40. http://astrolog.org/ 13 minutes ago
JVB Me and my wife just saw our first Lunar Eclipse. Pretty flocking awesome. 13 minutes ago
CyprianoHawaii Lunar eclipse! The clouds moved far away-the eclipse is in totality! The stars are really visible now, unlike before the eclipse. Way cool! 14 minutes ago
mollydotcom hope someone eclipse watching has a really good camera. Out of umbra and headed toward totality. Dark, with an amazing orange glow 14 minutes ago
bbqmag full lunar eclipse: a glow-in-the-dark bouncy ball. 14 minutes ago
JaceFuse Why is it that so many came to me this morning to confirm that there is supposed to be an eclipse? Yes, I scheduled it. 15 minutes ago
CyprianoHawaii Lunar eclipse!T he clouds moved far away- the eclipse is in totality! The stars are really visible now, unlike before the eclipse. Way cool! 15 minutes ago
TheCosmicJester Swimming by the light of a total eclipse 15 minutes ago
by cameron | Aug 26, 2007 | Podcast, science
Hunter and Taylor, my 6 year-old twin boys, join me tonight for what might become the pilot edition of their own podcast. It’s something we’ve been talking about for ages and, based on their excitement tonight after we wrapped, I think they are about ready. This is a show designed for kids aged 5 – 8. So if you aren’t one of those and don’t have one of those – you might want to give it a miss.
On tonight’s show, the boys talk about Age Of Empires, their favourite XBOX games, what they are watching, reading, playing, toys they want, as well as their thoughts on AFL, religion, business, and science.
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by cameron | Aug 18, 2007 | science
Cait pointed to this on Twitter. There is some debate in the article about the interpretation of the data, and it isn’t the first time I’ve seen researchers claim to have broken the speed of light (I remember having an email conversation with Aussie physicist Paul Davies about the teleportation of an electron about 7 years ago) but just the very idea that the speed of light isn’t a fundamental barrier in physics could open up a lot of possibilities, especially for intergalactic travel… one day.
The two scientists say they have now tunneled photons “instantaneously” across a distance of up to one meter. Their conclusion, stated in a recent paper, is that the speed limit of special relativity has been violated. Dr. Nimtz claims quantum tunneling is a little understood process that is “the most important” aspect of quantum physics, one that may be responsible for the computational efficiency of the human brain. |
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by cameron | Aug 4, 2007 | Christianity, Podcast, science vs religion
Aaron Heath sent me this image:
Reminds me of the Point of Inquiry podcast I listened to this morning with Peter Irons. Irons is “a noted constitutional scholar, historian, and lawyer, he is the author of the bestselling May It Please the Court; The Battle for the Constitution; War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution; and A People’s History of the Supreme Court. His newest book is God on Trial: Dispatches from America’s Religious Battlefields.” In the podcast he mentions that the “Founding Fathers” of the US were very clear that the country was NOT based on Christianity or any other religion. They were fighting FOR separation of church and state and yet, somehow, many Americans seem to have turned that on its head.
For all our problems (and, having just watched BLOOD DIAMONDS, we don’t have many), Australia is at least not run by the religious right. Not yet, anyway.
Aaron also has this video on his blog. Nicely done.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OruQy-X32O0]
by cameron | Aug 2, 2007 | Podcast, science, singularity
Rodney Brooks is Panasonic Professor of Robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Chief Technical Officer and sits on the Board of iRobot Corp. From July 1, 2003 until June 30, 2007, he was director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; prior to that, he was director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
He chatted with me this morning about my deep-seated obsession to have a humanoid robot and HAL-like AI.
Prof Brooks will be speaking at the Singularity Summit in California next month. Get your tickets here.
For more reading about the current state of robots:
NY Times article “The Real Transformers”
Honda’s ASIMO
The robot fly spy
Become part of the G’Day World conversation.
I’ve created a couple of groups inside Second Life. You can now add yourself to the following groups:
Friends Of G’Day World
MODM
The Podcast Network
If I knew how to link directly to those groups from here, I would. But I don’t. So for now you just need to search for them in-world. Or you can add “Cameron Switchblade” to your friends and check out the groups I belong to.
If you’re a member of Facebook, you can ADD ME AS A FRIEND and then ADD YOURSELF TO THE G’DAY WORLD GROUP.
Add me to your Twitter account.
Do me a solid and digg the show.
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Don’t forget to make use of my new comments line – +613 9016 9699.
You can now buy transcripts of this podcast from Pods In Print.
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed and leave us a voice comment!
The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
