Argumentum Ornithologicum
I close my eyes and see a flock of birds. The vision lasts a second, or perhaps less; I am not sure how many birds I saw. Was the number of birds definite or indefinite? The problem involves the existence of God. If God exists, the number is definite, because God knows how many birds I saw. If God does not exist, the number is indefinite, because no one could have counted. In this case I saw fewer than ten birds (let us say) and more than one, but did not see nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, or two birds. I saw a number between ten and one, which was not nine, eight, seven, six, five, etc. That integer--not nine, not eight, not seven, not six, not five etc.--is inconceivable. Ergo, God exists.
A dialog about a dialog
A: Absorbed in our discussion of immortality, we had let night fall without lighting the lamp, and we couldn't see each other's faces. With an offhandedness or gentleness more convincing than passion would have been, Macedonio Fernandez' voice said once more that the soul is immortal. He assured me that death of the body is altogether insignificant, and that dying has to be the most unimportant thing that can happen to a man. I was playing with Macedonio's pocketnife, opening and closing it. A nearby accordion was infinitely dispatching La Comparasita, that dismaying trifle that so many people like because it's been misrepresented to them as being old...I suggested to Macedonio that we kill ourselves, so that we might have our discussion without all that racket.
Z: (mockingly) But I suspect that at the last moment you reconsidered.
A(now deep in mysticism) Quite frankly, I don't remember whether we committed suicide that night or not.
Incongruous music time:
I close my eyes and see a flock of birds. The vision lasts a second, or perhaps less; I am not sure how many birds I saw. Was the number of birds definite or indefinite? The problem involves the existence of God. If God exists, the number is definite, because God knows how many birds I saw. If God does not exist, the number is indefinite, because no one could have counted. In this case I saw fewer than ten birds (let us say) and more than one, but did not see nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, or two birds. I saw a number between ten and one, which was not nine, eight, seven, six, five, etc. That integer--not nine, not eight, not seven, not six, not five etc.--is inconceivable. Ergo, God exists.
A dialog about a dialog
A: Absorbed in our discussion of immortality, we had let night fall without lighting the lamp, and we couldn't see each other's faces. With an offhandedness or gentleness more convincing than passion would have been, Macedonio Fernandez' voice said once more that the soul is immortal. He assured me that death of the body is altogether insignificant, and that dying has to be the most unimportant thing that can happen to a man. I was playing with Macedonio's pocketnife, opening and closing it. A nearby accordion was infinitely dispatching La Comparasita, that dismaying trifle that so many people like because it's been misrepresented to them as being old...I suggested to Macedonio that we kill ourselves, so that we might have our discussion without all that racket.
Z: (mockingly) But I suspect that at the last moment you reconsidered.
A(now deep in mysticism) Quite frankly, I don't remember whether we committed suicide that night or not.
Incongruous music time:
No comments:
Post a Comment