Library [01-17]

[furnaceface]

Apparently, Jonothon had gone completely off his bleedin' onion, today. Because he was here. When out there, the weather looked like something directly out of an environmental disaster movie in which skyscrapers wound up buried in snow.

Possibly with wolves. Jono hadn't thought to check for wolves.

Either way, there was a fireplace in the library today, which he absolutely wasn't about to complain about. He'd even shifted the bandages on his chest about slightly, which afforded him just enough heat to keep his hands warm, and they'd be easy enough to straighten out if anyone else proved to be insane enough to wind up in here today, too.

[Open!]

Build Your Own Philosophy, Period 2, 1/18/10

[tyler_gone]

Today, the board read:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The Universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the Universe had a cause. - William Lane Craig

"What we're talking about today is called the cosmological argument , which is something that goes back to the ancient Greek guys," Tyler said after everyone was in their seats and the handouts were distributed. He was using notecards for once today, but didn't seem any the worse for wear for the blizzard. "It effectively says everything happens for a reason, and if you trace the reasons far back enough, they turn into proof of God or something God-like."

Yes, he thought that was dumb. But he was an atheist anyhow.

"For example" -- he held up his notes -- "I'm using notecards today. I'm using notecards because I usually research and write on my laptop, and I couldn't use it this weekend. I couldn't use it this weekend because my battery was dead and the power was out. The power was out because there was a blizzard, there was a blizzard because of the existing weather conditions, the weather conditions exist because of the atmosphere on this planet, this planet has an atmosphere because of God." A pause. "Supposedly."

"What I want you to do today is pick some random event in your real lives and trace back the chain of causes, then say if you think it's an argument for or against the cosmological argument. If you don't want to talk about your real life, I'm handing out radio transcripts so you can pick a real event in someone else's life."

He hoisted himself onto his desk and pointed randomly at a student. "You get 10 minutes to read and think about this, then we'll start the discussion with you."