I am saddened by the passing of the brilliant Marvin Minsky who helped found MIT. I became interested in his writings and wrote him several letters and I took note especially of comments on freewill and population control.
Marvin Minsky: Health, population and the human mind
Uploaded on Sep 29, 2008
http://www.ted.com Listen closely — Marvin Minsky’s arch, eclectic, charmingly offhand talk on health, overpopulation and the human mind is packed with subtlety: wit, wisdom and just an ounce of wily, is-he-joking? advice.
SECOND Correspondence, John Shea Emailed the email below on 5-27-14
To Marvin Minsky, From Everette Hatcher
I wrote you last month and sent you a CD by Adrian Rogers called IS THE BIBLE TRUE? Did you have a chance to listen to it. Here is link to the same message on You Tube. In that letter I included some correspondence I had with the famous skeptics Antony Flew and Carl Sagan back in the 1990’s. Both men were kind enough to look at the evidence that presented them and respond to it and I was hoping you would take time to do that same.
Today, I just wanted to ask you this simple question. Do you think there is a categorical difference between humans and animals or are just different in just degrees?
Dr. John J. Shea appeared on the TV series APE MAN with Walter Cronkite back in the 1990’s and claimed that there is only a degree of difference between monkeys and humans and not a categorical difference. After that program aired I had the opportunity to correspond with Dr. Shea and he was kind enough to send me a two page response to my questions. (This correspondence took place back in 1994 and 1995.)
Dr. Shea also suggested that I read SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS by Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan, and I did so. Here are my thoughts on the question.
First, only humans lie in the sense we are held morally responsible. Sagan wrote, “Deception in the social relations of animals…is an emerging and productive topic in biology…” (p. 379). This may be true, but are animals responsible to God? I think not. Romans 3:23 teaches that “All MEN have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Animals may deceive but they are not morally responsible.
Second, only men feel guilt. Sagan refers briefly to the fact that men feel guilt (p. 4.14), but he does not spend a lot of time on this. Romans 1:19 asserts, “For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God has show it to them” (Amplified Bible). Here Sagan turns to Thomas Henry Huxley who he quotes:
On all sides, I shall hear the cry–“We are men and women, not a mere better sort of apes, a little longer in the leg, more compact in the foot, and bigger in brain than your brutal Chimpanzees and Gorillas. The power of knowledge–the conscience of good and evil--the pitiful tenderness of human affections, raise us out of all real fellowship with the brutes, however, closely they may seem to approximate us.”
To this I can reply that the exclamation would be just and would be most just and would have my entire sympathy, if it were only relevant. But, it is not I who seek to base Man’s dignity upon this great toe, or insinuate that we are lost if an Ape has a hippocampus minor (in its brain). On the contrary, I have done my best to sweep away this vanity…
WHY DID SAGAN AND HUXLEY FACE SUCH A LARGE CHORUS THAT WAS OBJECTING TO THIS VIEW THAT WE DON’T HAVE A GOD-GIVEN CONSCIENCE? The answer is very simple and it deals with the consequences of Social Darwinism. Chuck Colson said that Larry King was not very impressed with his long talk on the historical accuracy of the scriptures, but when he touched on this subject things got interesting:
Larry King invited me to dinner. “I don’t believe in God,” Larry told me straight out. “But tell me why you believe.” I responded, “Have you seen Woody Allen‘s movie CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS?
Yes, he loved it, in fact. It’s about a doctor who is haunted by GUILT after hiring a killer to murder his mistress. His Jewish father has taught him that God will surely bring justice. In the end the doctor suppresses his GUILT, convincing himself that LIFE IS AN DARWINIAN STRUGGLE WHERE ONLY THE RUTHLESS SURVIVE.
I asked Larry, “Is that our only choice–to be tormented by GUILT or else kill our conscience? Larry, how do you deal with your conscience?” He dropped his fork. I said, “What do you do with the GUILT that is in here? What do you do with what you know you have done wrong?
Then he was ready to listen. I went on and shared with him from Romans which teaches about the voice of conscience that God has given us.
__________
Third, men have a longing for significance which expresses itself most clearly in the fear of non being.
Fourth, I would point to the fact that only people worship.
Fifth, men are not satisfied unless they have their spiritual needs met. Carl Sagan quotes the poet Walt Whitman, “Not one (animal) is dissatisfied…Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth…” Sagan comments, “On this basis of the evidence presented in this book, we doubt if any of Whitman’s six purported differences between other animals and humans is true…” (p. 389).
I read Sagan’s book cover to cover and made over 15 pages of notes, and I have yet to find any of the “evidence” that Sagan speaks of on page 389. I find the comments of NOAM CHOMSKY more logical. He calls animal language an “evolutionary miracle” akin to “finding an island of humans who could be taught to fly.”
I like Francis Schaeffer‘s term “Mannishness” of man. He defines it as those aspects of man, such as significance, love, rationality and the fear of non being, which mark him off from animals and machines and give evidence of his being created in the image of a personal God.
The scientist Blaise Pascal is quoted by Sagan on page 364 and then Sagan notes, “Most of the philosophers adjudged great in the history of western thought held that humans are fundamentally different from other animals…”
As you know Pascal was the inventor of the barometer and he lived from 1623 to 1662. Pascal also observed, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man,and only God can fill it.”
What is the solution? “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The scriptural directive is not for us to work harder to achieve God’s favor (Romans 3:20), but to accept God’s mercy through our repentance and receiving Christ as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Thank you again for your time and I know how busy you are.
Everette Hatcher, everettehatcher@gmail.com, http://www.thedailyhatch.org, cell ph 501-920-5733, Box 23416, LittleRock, AR 72221
_______________________________________________________
Emailed the above email on this contact form on 5-27-14
Artist of the moment……Jack Youngerman
{ August 6, 2015 @ 2:03 am } · { Uncategorized }
{ Tags: american, jack youngerman, painter, print maker, university of missouri, university of north carolina }
Jack Youngerman is an American abstract/ minimalist artist. Jack Youngerman was born in St. Louis, Missouri in the year 1926. Youngerman is a painter, jewelry designer, sculptor, and print maker.
Youngerman attended college at the University of North Carolina before graduating from the University of Missouri. He also served in the United States Navy.
The artist also studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts located in Paris.
In this clip we view a group show that features Jack Youngerman’s work. His is the first piece of art:
Youngerman married a well known french actress.
The artist is part of many prominent collections including the Denver Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Youngerman has won a Guggenheim Fellowship and also awards from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Price range information: Works range from $10,000 to $60,000. The artist worked in oils, gouache, prints, and bronzes.
What I enjoy most about Youngerman’s style is his sense of graphic design. Many pieces seem to be very similar to First Nations art, especially those works featuring black, red, and white. His style is very similar to the First Nations style of art work, but with more modern line work.
Jack Youngerman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jack Youngerman
Born
March 25, 1926 (age 90)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality
American
Known for
Painter
Movement
Minimal, Abstract, Ragged Edge
Website
http://www.jackyoungerman.com
Jack Youngerman (born March 25, 1926) is an artist known for his constructions and paintings.[1]
Contents
[hide]
1Biography
1.1Public collections
2Exhibitions
2.1Solo exhibitions
3References
4External links
Biography[edit]
Youngerman was born in 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved with his family to Louisville, Kentucky in 1929. He studied art at the University of North Carolina from 1944-46 under a wartime navy training program, and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1947.[2]
Youngerman was married (and later divorced from) French actress Delphine Seyrig (1932-1990).
Public collections[edit]
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Columbus Museum of Art Columbus, OH
Denver Museum of Art Denver, CO
Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, Portland, OR
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum Minneapolis, MN
High Museum, Atlanta, GA
Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum San Antonio, TX
Michael C. Carlos Museum Atlanta, GA
Neuberger Museum of Art Purchase, NY
Newark Museum Newark, NJ
North Carolina Museum of Art Raleigh, NC
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Reynolds Metals Corporation, Richmond, VA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SF, CA
Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington DC
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
University of Michigan Museum of Art Ann Arbor, MI
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Wright Museum of Art Beloit, WI
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
[3]
Exhibitions[edit]
Solo exhibitions[edit]
1981- Washburn Gallery, New York[4]
1986- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York[5]
References[edit]
Jump up^ Raynor, Vivien (May 14, 1982). “ART: THE CEREBRAL FAIRGROUND OF JACK YOUNGERMAN’S SCULPTURE”. The New York Times. p. 21. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
Jump up^ Jack Youngerman profile, wolffineart.com; accessed October 5, 2014.
Jump up^ Askart.com, Jack Youngerman Public collections
Jump up^ Raynor, Vivien (May 14, 1982). “ART: THE CEREBRAL FAIRGROUND OF JACK YOUNGERMAN’S SCULPTURE”. The New York Times. p. 21. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
Jump up^ Russell, John. “ART: JACK YOUNGERMAN AT THE GUGGENHEIM”. The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jack Youngerman.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jack Youngerman
Jack Youngerman fine art prices, auction results, auction images
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 15984207
ISNI: 0000 0000 7879 5721
SUDOC: 086836722
ULAN: 500004402
RKD: 85997
Categories:
1926 births
Living people
20th-century American painters
21st-century American painters
Guggenheim Fellows
Rome Prize winners
Artists from Louisville, Kentucky
______
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