<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2912" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The movie "Contact", based on the novel by Carl Sagan posits the dilemma of an agnostic and hard-nosed scientist needing to convince a skeptical audience that a very real phenomenom that the scientist experience did in fact happen. Absent any physical evidence to substantiate her claim, the scientist had to rely on instilling a faith in this reality in the minds and hearts of her audience. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Human finiteness of sense, intellect and duration prevent any or all of us from ever knowing with absolute certainty much beyond the most rudimentary of demonstrable facts about the physical cosmos. And, all we can ever hope to do about the non-physical cosmos is to speculate and to trust. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To "know" within one's own self that such and such is True and Absolute is fine and often rather necessary. To share one's "truth" with others is also fine and often helpful, if ocassionally risky. To impose one's personal truth on another, against their will, is to be untruthful and even indecent, in my opinion. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Individuals who do not believe in a supreme being, of whatever description, would do well to be as tolerant of those who do as they demand in reverse. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Religious conviction may be an inconvenient truth, to borrow a contemporary movie title for better use than its inventors made of it; but it is neither going to go away nor need it be feared in and of itself. There are good and ill peoples everywhere, of any and all demographics. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But, it really IS amusing that George Carlin, after all of his effusive second guessing of the Deity, should end up off-handedly using the masculine pronoun in making reference to that which he so unappoletically mocks!!!!!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That's the truth......so help me Al Gore.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robin Blankenship, still using A-440</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=pianotune05@comcast.net href="mailto:pianotune05@comcast.net">pianotune05@comcast.net</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, June 19, 2006 12:20 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Gender of God, and other piano-realted stuff.....</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV>Definitly faith I would attest.  Now we're getting into even deeper theological topics which I know I'd get in trouble for discussing because they're not piano related.  Someone else who's been a piano tech longer than I who isn't new might get by with it.:)  All I will say is that discussing those who wrote Scripture then opens the door for the topic, then who truly wrote the Bible the people who thought the earth was flat or God inspiring them?  I know the answer, but I'll leave it for another list.</DIV> <DIV>Marshall</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">-------------- Original message -------------- <BR>From: "Robin Blankenship" <tunerdude@comcast.net> <BR> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2912" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> <DIV>What evidence do you have for that assertion, Luis? Or, is this statement just to be taken on faith............</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Robin Blankenship</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=LuisGalvez@aol.com href="mailto:LuisGalvez@aol.com">LuisGalvez@aol.com</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, June 19, 2006 11:23 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Gender of God, and other piano-realted stuff.....</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>Remember that the people who wrote the bible thought the earth was flat.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Bodoni MT" size=2 PTSIZE="10" FAMILY="SERIF">Luis Antonio Galvez-Alcantara "He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up."<BR><A href="http://www.tenors.net/">www.tenors.net</A> </FONT></DIV></FONT> <P> <HR> <P></P>No virus found in this incoming message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.0/368 - Release Date: 6/16/2006<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> <P> <HR> <P></P>No virus found in this incoming message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.0/368 - Release Date: 6/16/2006<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>