RE: The Case for Theism
March 11, 2013 at 1:53 pm
(This post was last modified: March 11, 2013 at 2:00 pm by downbeatplumb.)
(March 10, 2013 at 10:00 pm)ManMachine Wrote: Folklore has grown up around an old English King, Canute. It is said he once stood against the waves to demonstrate his power, and as expected the waves carried on and he dissapeared under the water as the tide came in. We can hold science up, Canute-like, against irrational human behaviour but, like ancient Kings, we too will be washed away.
Cnut the great may have done this for the exact opposite reason you suggested.
He was surrounded by sycophantic toadies who insisted he was all powerful. He disagreed and ordered the sea to stop coming in knowing that it wouldn't to prove his point.
Quote:there may be a "basis of fact, in a planned act of piety"[54] behind this story, and Henry of Huntingdon cites it as an example of the king's "nobleness and greatness of mind."[95] Later historians repeated the story, most of them adjusting it to have Cnut more clearly aware that the tides would not obey him, and staging the scene to rebuke the flattery of his courtiers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut_the_Great
(March 10, 2013 at 11:04 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Oh, and when you make cultural references, please be sure to get them right. Bear in mind that as an Englishman I am not unfamiliar with King Canute (or Cnut, as he's now rather dyslexically known). The legend has him defying the tide of the River Lavant, not as an Ozymandias-style exercising of his power over nature, but as a clear demonstration that no-one, not even a King, has that sort of power. In other words, he knew ahead of time what was going to happen and proved it to anyone who thought otherwise.
Bugger, you beat me to it
(March 11, 2013 at 1:22 pm)Drew_2013 Wrote: Oh and by the way I have refuted all your counter arguments they are null and void as well as any future arguments you might make. Thanks for participating but you lose.
As an observer all I have seen from you is you re-stating the same rather feeble point over and over again in slightly different ways.
I am afraid that you lost a long time ago.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.