"Do not neglect medical treatment when it is necessary, but leave it off when health has been restored...Treat disease through diet, by preference, refraining from the use of drugs." - Bahá'u'lláh

Monday, February 27, 2006

Two Great Quotes About Cows

On materialism:
Strange indeed that after twenty years training in colleges and universities man should reach such a station wherein he will deny the existence of the ideal or that which is not perceptible to the senses. Have you ever stopped to think that the animal already has graduated from such a university? Have you ever realized that the cow is already a professor emeritus of that university? For the cow without hard labor and study is already a philosopher of the superlative degree in the school of nature. The cow denies everything that is not tangible, saying, “I can see! I can eat! Therefore, I believe only in that which is tangible!”
Then why should we go to the colleges? Let us go to the cow.
-Abdu'l-Bahá

On the creationism vs. evolution debate:
The controversy seems to me to be similar to an argument about a cow. One side argues that the cow is brown. The other side argues that the cow gives milk. Why don't we simply pet the cow and drink the milk? From a Bahá'í viewpoint, the act of arguing is wrong.
-Duane Herrmann

4 comments:

emily oi! said...

dan, not only are you brown and lactating, but you are a gem.

happy ayyam-i-ha, and thank you.

Marco Oliveira said...

Happy Naw-Ruz!
:-)

Anonymous said...

The problem I see, is not that we aruge the samethig, but that some see the two as mutually exclusive. In some contexts they are right. However, a cow can be brown and give milk. Petting the cow and drinking the milk will confirm one of the two assertions. Worshiping god, and studying evolution, will not satisfy either side to the argument.

dan said...

Exactly, the cow is brown and gives milk. That's the point; both sides are arguing for their ideas without considering the possibility that they're both right. Creation and evolution are both aspects of the process by which we came to be what we are.