"But there were shadows..."
-Sandra Miesel, Forward IN Poul Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2 (Riverdale, NY, February 2018), pp. 3-5 AT p. 5.
The Polesotechnic League, "...sprawling from Canopus to Deneb...," spreads civilization and peace:
"Nevertheless, it had its troubles."
-Poul Anderson, "Margin of Profit" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 135-173 AT p. 146.
Parallel situations on interplanetary and interstellar scales, respectively. Anderson's phraseology probably influenced Miesel's.
11 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Since I believe perfection to be impossible, it follows that all merely human socio-politico-economic setups will have flaws, shadows, problems.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: agreed, though for slightly different reasons. Conflict is inherent in human interactions, for evolutionary reasons.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I agree. Popes like Pius XII and John Paul II declared evolution, properly understood, does not contradict divine revelation. Our flaws springs from both Original Sin and evolution.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But that means that we were not created perfect.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I disagree. I said "Original Sin," meaning at some point in the extremely remote past the first man with a soul failed a test and all the flaws Stirling and I mentioned became parts of that man's life and the lives of his descendants.
You are still insisting that only the non-supernaturalist answer is correct, which I do not believe.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I am not insisting on anything here! I just thought that Christian doctrine was that mankind was created in a state of perfection and willfully fell from that. That does not sound like imperfect evolution.
Paul.
BTW, "insistence" on naturalism is inaccurate. Naturalism should be assumed until supernaturalism s proved. That is not insistence. Just Occam's Razor.
is
"Insistence on naturalism is unwarranted. Therefore, assertion of supernaturalism is justified."
That would be a very weak argument if anyone were to formulate it.
(Sometimes it is necessary to deduce what the other person is getting at.)
Kaor, Paul!
But that's what I meant, the first man with a "soul" had that soul created perfect, and that would affect his body, which, if the first man had not Fallen, would mean he and his descendants, besides having divine grace, would have been free of the flaws left by evolution in their kludged up bodies.
I'm repeating here nothing that is not ordinary, Catholic belief and teaching.
Then I was using "supernaturalism" the wrong way in some of my comments here.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Well, some of that is new to me.
Paul.
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