If I knew how, I would ask forgiveness, but of whom? Of Aeore? The Sky? Myself?
Who else?
Are you afraid?
Not of death.
Of what?
Of that enormous sky.
You’re going to die.
Well, kill me then, says I.
You’re going to die then.
…
Well I said kill me then or else be quiet.
+++
(This photograph was taken by Gleison Miranda of Brazil’s National Indian Foundation [FUNAI] on a recent flyover of an uncontacted Indian tribe in the Brazilian state of Acre. The quotation is from Peter Matthiessen’s At Play in the Fields of the Lord.)
I didn’t think it possible, but this article on the work of anthropologist James Dow actually makes Richard Dawkins’s take on religion sound subtle:
God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved.
By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out–perhaps because they are impressed by their devotion.
From Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon:
[Paul] had learned to his regret that in the class struggle the double Nelson was not done.
For those who get their daily digital emunction via RSS: Campbell McGrath and I have been discussing my Bookforum review of his Seven Notebooks in the comments section of my last post. (And here you thought the “Tenzone” was exciting…)
My review of Campbell McGrath’s Seven Notebooks appears in the summer issue of Bookforum. Check it out…
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