Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dies At 84 380
At least twenty-two readers took the trouble to make sure we knew that Kurt Vonnegut has died at 84. From the Times obituary: "Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' 'Cat's Cradle' and 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan... Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz." Reader SPK adds: "He will be remembered not only as a great writer, but also as a staunch civil libertarian (long-term member of the ACLU) and as a 'mainstream/literary' author who integrated science fiction concepts into his writing. So it goes."
Bokononist last rites (Score:5, Insightful)
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"
"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars."
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going God.
So long, Kurt... (Score:2, Insightful)
Another one bites the dust. Ho hum.
Thanks for the good reads, Kurt (Score:4, Insightful)
a little less love (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd easily have traded all of hollywood, (Score:5, Insightful)
The world is truly poorer for his loss.
Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84. (Score:5, Insightful)
Kurt is up in heaven now (Score:3, Insightful)
RIP
Re:Thanks for the good reads, Kurt (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:5, Insightful)
The inability to conceive of a God who would find that amusing is the biggest reason that belief is on the decline.
The idea of an omnipotent God who creates a creature capable of reason, then throws an eternal hissy fit when that creature doesn't spend all his time telling God how wonderful He is... Well it seems like rather insecure behavior for an all powerful, all loving being.
A God who didn't want anybody in heaven unless they had the spunk to spit in His eye would make more sense. So Vonnegut, you're in. Give my regards to Twain when you see him.
Re:Tralfamadore (Score:2, Insightful)
"Pulls plug on cancer patient living in delirious agony."
Good or evil?
"Builds nuclear weapon to figh WWII."
Good or evil?
"Allows birthing mother to bleed to death to save baby."
Good or evil?
"Beheads monarchy to establish democracy in France."
Good or evil?
"Creates strawman to win argument on Slashdot."
Good or evil?
The rules are signposts, not walls, and all morality is relative. Deal with it.
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Thanks for the good reads, Kurt (Score:3, Insightful)
As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single time in my life that I thought to myself, "Gee! I wonder what the literary elites would think about that?"
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't say who's right, but I can certainly say I raise my kids to question everything, even me, if they don't understand it.
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:4, Insightful)
I think learning enough about theology is probably enough to turn anyone into an atheist.
Read enough holy books, and you'll realize they're lovely fictional works that do contain some generally good lessons, but couldn't possibly be the work of a superhuman being.
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you mean, why do I presume to understand religion better than a person who believes in it? Or, on the contrary, do you mean that the believers are misled about their own beliefs? I'm not sure.
In any case, I think that knowledgable people know more about everything. A learned believer, or a learned atheist, will know about the same. But the vast majority of people are unlearned in such matters. As a consequence, the majority of believers do not fully understand the complexities of their religion, while all of the atheists who are interested enough to learn about religion will know quite a bit (but exactly the same as the learned believers). That may be misleading at first glance, of course.
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:1, Insightful)
You seem like a nice guy, and I would like this notion of social justice to be true too, but wanting does not make it so.
Now get going, you have a big book to rewrite.
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bokononist last rites (Score:3, Insightful)
Too many times people try to refute Christians by trying to force a false dichotomy "Either you believe the entirety of the Bible is the infallible word of God, or you are a heretic to your own religion." That's just dishonest to try to do that.
No insult intended to you, I just wanted to reiterate the point.