Cogitations - Summary

Home.. Help.. Blog.. ImageGallery.. Art.. Bikes.. Bio.. BitsNpieces.. Boats.. Cars.. Cogitations.. Computers.. Gadgets.. Green.. Health.. Life.. Love.. Models.. Money.. MyGod.. OurHouse.. PaperModels.. Poetry.. Quotes.. Science.. Story.. WakkyPedia.. Wildlife.. SiteMap..

The French philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal wrote his "Pensees", French for "thoughts". We get our English word "pensive" from the same root.

"Thoughts" seemed a bit bare, so I've called my collection of thoughts on topics philosophical and religious my "Cogitations", from the Latin "cogito", for "I think"

BTW, in case you get the idea I am a great linguist, sadly no 8-<. I have the barest smattering of High School French, and a few fragments of Latin that I picked up from my brother and daughter.

As far as philosophy and religion go, is there really a difference - philosophy means "love of wisdom" and the Bible says that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

• 3 Things Wives Wish Their Husbands Understood
• A Tribute to Anne Frank
• Bad Memories
• Asking Basic Questions
• C.S. Lewis Quotes
• The Glory, Dignity and Dislocation of Man (with some signposts to Man's Healing)
• God Humbles Man's Pride - Genesis 11:1-9
• Hidden Art
• Insight
• Life, the Universe and Everything
• Living in God's Time
• Where to love and communication come from?
• Profit and Loss
• Finding Meaning
• More Prayers from the Ark
• No Other Name
• Of Course We Communicate
• The Origin of Evil
• The Problem of Pain
• Some Pitfalls in Reading the Bible
• The Tardus Society
• Raphael's School of Athens
• This World of Dew - Is It?

3 Things Wives Wish Their Husbands Understood

CLICK HERE for the full article 3things: I gave this presentation to a men's group at my church. The general thought has that I was very brave! I think they enjoyed it. I hope it helped. Click here for the presentation (slideshow exported from Open Office as HTML) MORE...

A Tribute to Anne Frank

CLICK HERE for the full article anneFrank: I remember, about 20 years ago, watching on old movie based on Anne Frank's diary. It made a strong impression on me, with its pathos of 8 Jewish people in hiding for 2 years in Nazi-occupied Holland and their eventual betrayal to the Gestapo. The pathos is all the greater because the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe was well underway when they were betrayed, and their hope of liberation was high. While on holiday this last couple of weeks we found a secondhand copy of "The Diary of Anne Frank" in an op-shop, and I have just read it with delight. A sombre sort of delight admittedly because of the setting, and the knowledge that this remarkable 13 year old girl would die at 15 in Belsen. The only one of the 8 to survive those 2 years in their "Secret Annexe" was Anne's father, Otto. MORE...

Bad Memories

CLICK HERE for the full article badMemories: "When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot MORE...

Asking Basic Questions

CLICK HERE for the full article basicQuestions: Here is a passage from "L'Abri" by Edith Schaeffer, illustrating how her husband Frances answered a questioner. "So you believe all those myths really took place? You just start with the Bible, and go on from there" someone would ask. MORE...

C.S. Lewis Quotes

CLICK HERE for the full article cslewis: I count C.S.Lewis as one of the clearest and truly deep thinkers of my times (ie, 20 and 21st centuries). He had a profound effect on my that continues to this day - see Tardus Society As these quotations are all brief and not in any way substantial portions of Lewis's works (still largely under copyright) I believe them all to be within the boundaries of "fair dealing". If I am wrong please let me know. MORE...

The Glory, Dignity and Dislocation of Man (with some signposts to Man's Healing)

CLICK HERE for the full article gloryDignityDislocationOfMan: Genesis Ch.1:1-5, 26-31, Ch.2:4-9, 15-25, Ch3:1-8 - "Lets' start at the beginning" - fascinated with future - should be just as much fascinated with the past, only place we can find meaning. MORE...

God Humbles Man's Pride - Genesis 11:1-9

CLICK HERE for the full article godHumblesMansPride: I set out to tell you about the Tower of Babel, and what it can teach us. However, in a time when there is so much confusion about the early chapters of Genesis, where the story is found, I think it wise to say something about the truthfulness of this whole section of the Bible. There is no final conflict between the actual words of the Bible and the findings of good science. In the one book, the Bible, God reveals Himself in Words. In His other book, the Cosmos, He reveals Himself in His Works. How then could these two ever be in real conflict? MORE...

Hidden Art

CLICK HERE for the full article hiddenArt: I read a book called "Hidden Art" by Edith Schaeffer, and it altered my approach to art and beauty. I have always had a love for both, but the pragmatic engineer side of me would often opt for "rough enough is good enough". This book showed me that everyday objects and needs can and should be treated as art and beauty. A meal can be prepared with the eye in mind as well as the stomach! A bookcase can be beautiful, even is less than 100% efficient, like my "boatcase" I built a few years back. MORE...

Insight

CLICK HERE for the full article insight: This is a poem that my friend Nesta wrote some years back. Nesta often visited Mum, and this was one she read to her.

To the blind, untouched

Life, the Universe and Everything

CLICK HERE for the full article lifeUniverseEverything: ...and the answer is not in fact 42, even when you know what the Question is. Years ago I read "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", the sequel to Douglas Adams' famous book "The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy" (THGG). Well finally I have read that book too! How did I find it? MORE...

Living in God's Time

CLICK HERE for the full article livingInGodsTime: Psalm 90 Our lives are obsessed and harassed by the clock, by time MORE...

Where to love and communication come from?

CLICK HERE for the full article loveAndCommunication: Francis Schaeffer, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, wrote:-

Modern man is deeply plagued by the question, "Where to love and communication come from?" Many artists who pour themselves out in their paintings, who paint bleak messages on canvas, many singers, many poets and dramatists are expressing the blackness of the fact that while everything hangs on love and communication, they don't know where these come from and the don't know what they mean. The biblical answer is quite otherwise: something was there before creation. God was there; love and communication were there; and therefore, prior even to Genesis 1:1, love and communication are intrinsic to what has always been. ("Genesis in Space and Time", p12)

Profit and Loss

CLICK HERE for the full article mark8-36: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" The Bible, Mark's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 36 MORE...

Finding Meaning

CLICK HERE for the full article meaning: "Modern man is deeply plagued by the question, 'Where do love and communication come from?' Many artists who pour themselves out in their paintngs, who paint bleak messages on canvas, many singers, many poets and dramatists are expressing the blackness of the fact that while everything hangs upon love and communication , they don't know where these come from and they don't know what they mean. The biblical answer is quite otherwise: something was there before creation. God was there; love and communication were there; and therefore, prior even to Genesis 1:1, love and communication are intrinsic to what has always been." MORE...

More Prayers from the Ark

CLICK HERE for the full article morePrayersArk: is a wonderful book of poems by French writer Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, written during the grim years of the Second World War. Noah and a representative group of animals offer their own style of prayer, some funny, some sad, some full of hope, all brief and fresh. The book is readily available secondhand - just Google for it. There is a new edition too which also includes "The Creatures' Choir". MORE...

No Other Name

CLICK HERE for the full article noOtherNameRossetti:

None other Lamb, none other name,
        None other hope in heaven or earth or sea,

Of Course We Communicate

CLICK HERE for the full article ofCourseWeCommunicate: "Melinda and Melinda" (Woody Allen, 2004, USA) Another wonderful Woodyesque line is when Hobie accuses Susan of never communicating. She replies, "Of course we do; now can we not talk about it." MORE...

The Origin of Evil

CLICK HERE for the full article originOfEvil: "Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil; I observe there is evil, and that there is a way to MORE...

The Problem of Pain

CLICK HERE for the full article pain: "No God But God", Part 2 of "The Story of God" by Lord Robert Winston (a venerated world expert in human fertility research, and an orthodox Jew).

He goes in search of the answer to the centuries old question: "If God created humanity, why does God allow humanity to suffer?"

Some Pitfalls in Reading the Bible

CLICK HERE for the full article pitfalls: "`Cheshire Puss,' (Alice) began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. `Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' `That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. MORE...

The Tardus Society

CLICK HERE for the full article sandwich: (following taken from an interview published in the "Pipeline", the staff magazine of the company I work for) In 1969 Kurnell's Stephen Bates sat down to read Perelandra, the second book in C.S. Lewis's famous science fiction trilogy. MORE...

Raphael's School of Athens

CLICK HERE for the full article schoolOfAthens: Raphael's "School of Athens" is one of my favourite paintings. In it the artist depicts the many philosophers and their thoughts. In the middle are Plato and his student Aristotle, each pointing in a different direction. Plato, who was more concerned about the realm of the spirit and the "universals", points up to heaven. Aristotle was more concerned with the specifics, the realm of the body and nature, and points down to the Earth. MORE...

This World of Dew - Is It?

CLICK HERE for the full article worldOfDew: My friend C. died this week, suddenly, of a heart attack. He was 52 and super-fit (gym, running and surfing as often as he could). I still have a sense of shock and disbelief, and can only guess how his family are feeling and suffering (only God can know it all). The day I heard of it, these lines came into my mind MORE...

This document was generated using AFT v5.097