quotes on truth

I am writing, and revising, my chapter on truth - how we come to believe what we do. I've come across some fantastic quotes I thought I'd share here.

There are truths, that are beyond us, transcendent truths, about beauty, truth, honor, etc. There are truths that man knows exist, but they cannot be seen - they are immaterial, but no less real, to us. It is only through the language of myth that we can speak of these truths. - J. R. R. Tolkien

Only through myth, through story telling can we aspire to the life we were made for with God. To write and/or read myth was to meditate on the most important truths of life. – JRR Tolkien

"No doubt those who really founded modern science were usually those whose love of truth exceeded their love of power." -- CS Lewis, The Abolition of Man

"And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies' plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger." -- CS Lewis The Last Battle (this has got to be the most insightful quote ever - so apropos to intelligent design!)

"To admire Satan [in Paradise Lost] is to give one's vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography." --CS Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost

"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it." - Pascal.

The E Word: a playground adaptation

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to the blog for the upcoming play by Sharon Sparlin, who I met at the November 2008 hearings at the State Board of Education in Austin. The play looks riotously funny - I've seen the "treatment" which takes place between young kids (the young Charlie - aka Charles Darwin and Emma). Check out the E Word blog: http://www.theewordplay.blogspot.com/. She also links back to my blog, as well as several other fantastic science blogs out there.

Colbert on evolution

A brief interruption in programming to share something funny.

“Evolution is that like, millions and billions of years of mutations and recombinations and cosmic rays knock something out of one DNA so when the mitosis or myosis or whatever –osis come together something else happens and the fur falls off and suddenly King Kong is a man?”

– Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report.