Readers, including runner, please note:

As there is no god, or even the tooth fairy, this essay is wasted.

As with the majority of his.

Looks like this article is, in fact, 2 essays.

I agree with the non-god second essay. In particular Sells' final paragraph:

"Australia has done well with a Liberal federal government acting quickly and effectively to co-ordinate with the states. Unlike in the US, we have overcome politics and geography so that we can act together to produce a better outcome. We have done so, mainly because the Labor Party has gradually inaugurated what may be called "soft" socialization. We have universal healthcare, many forms of welfare support, but unemployment benefits that ensure a life of stress and poverty for those who cannot find work, as the prime minister strangely added "through no fault of their own." The lessons learnt from our experience of the pandemic is that societies who have entertained some form of social democracy, whose governments maintain strong institutions and public trust do better than those who rely on the market and private enterprise. The sins of Thatcher and Reagan have come home to roost."

An image is not the thing but a reflection seen as reflected light. And in may all mean in as a part thereof. When I see and image of a glass of water, I am not seeing either glass or water but a reflected refractured image of both. And I see the water in the glass. In being the operative word. That is, in the image of the glass.

The universe and all therein is composed entirely of energy as atoms all with huge atomic space inside them and vibrating at just below the speed of light.

Futher, immutable law tells us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just transmuted.

We carbon forms are part of that transmuted energy. And given energy cannot be created or destroyed had to exist as another for of energy before the birth of the unified field of energy that is the universe.

And as incomprehensible as that is in size or volume it is but a small part of all the energy there is and dwafed by dark matter and its gravity field.

It beggars belief that some rational folk seriouslybelieve, form nothing you get something. I started with nothing and have lots of it left.

Levity aside, some now believe that the universe was created by the extrusion of altred/transmuted dark matter. And fits the immutable law of energy!

Can the universe think dream empathise, love or remote? Well you and I can and we ar an integral part of it.
Alan B.

Correction, another for of energy was originally written as another form of energy. and remote ( a nonsense) was autocorrected emote.

This is allegedly advanced autocorrection from Grammarly. I mean, would you buy that?

I had word, mine for life, allegedly. and now with a free version of Grammarly, my bought and paid for word is gone/unavailable/sabotaged? What an indearing and compelling marketing strategy?
Alan B.

'Readers, including runner, please note:

As there is no god, or even the tooth fairy, this essay is wasted.'

obvious plantagenet why you are rarely able to make a rational statement. Goes hand in hand with god deniers.

@runner

Your concern for the lives of the unborn is only exceeded by your disdain for the lives of the born - under Trump's deadly COVID response.

What I hear your brain-twin say? Never? http://youtu.be/d9uHhLe6WE0

What runner?

:)

Meanwhile this essay describes the situation in 2020:
http://www.dabase.org/up-1-6.htm

Further reading re Narcissus
http://www.beezone.com/narcissus.html

A related essay on the origins of the situation in which we are now all trapped http://www.daplastique.com/essay/the-maze-of-ecstasy

Interesting but confusing article- and complex in its deception- kudos.
I liked Malthuse and Darwin.

Good article, Peter - thanks!

A good balance was indeed reached in Australia as to how to run an effective, yet compassionate society.

However, the original liberty that is based on man's creation in the image of God, has been lost: the lost liberty is the freedom to live or not within a society.

Well and good that society is well-run, but choice must be respected to stay out of it and have nothing to do with it.

This is not a call for economic neo-liberalism and irresponsible tax-avoidance, because anyone who truly does not wish to be in society, would not be using its money!
Should one freely choose to live in society, then they must respect the norms and obligations of that society. BUT what is missing is - or else leave!

In ancient times, any individual who wanted to keep away from society, only had to walk away a kilometer or two to the next valley. In biblical times it became more difficult, but still, those who really wanted to stay away from society could move to the desert or another remote area and build their hermitage there where they could observe higher standards of purity. By the 19th century, following the industrial revolution, only exceptional people like Henry David Thoreau were able to escape and live on their own away from society, that too only because his friend, Emerson, legally owned the land by the Walden pond.

The tragedy is that current society has become cancerous. By that I mean that as society becomes more industrial and "efficient", instead of enjoying the newly-found efficiency, it breeds more and more people, requiring ever-increasing "efficiency" to feed them and in the process filling up every remaining spot for refuge on this planet, perhaps even beyond.

What a curse in disguise of a blessing: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it..." [Genesis 1:28]

The only guarantee for keeping society honest, fair and balanced, is to allow those who are unhappy with it, whatever be their reason, to vote with their feet and keep away from it.