Another Arkansas birder who soon joined the search was Mel White, a book author and freelance magazine writer who has a regular column in Living Bird. Mel and I are old friends, and we have traveled together in Africa and a couple of other places over the years...Tim Gallagher is identified here as editor-in-chief of Living Bird.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Old friends
If you're wondering why Mel White appeared to pull some punches in his recent National Geographic article, this excerpt from Tim Gallagher's The Grail Bird (page 176) may provide some clues:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
7 comments:
Yeow! That's a fortuitous relationship, aye?
In any case, I have disagreements with my friends regarding the existence of God, and I hold no punches ... and I still have my friends.
Perhaps his friendship is a little different.
interesting. I was just thinking about the god parallel.
I wonder how many IBWO believers also believe that Mary gave birth to Jesus without sex. Or believe that he died and then came back to life. Or there's a man in the sky that cares about (certain) people's lives on earth.
I bet the percentage of cross-belief is pretty high.
(and I call myself an agnostic!)
P.S. I kinda miss BIRDFORUM. Now that they have their own forum, they don't get nearly as riled up as they used to. Ah...good times...good times.
The IBWO rediscovery community appears to be as inbred as any remaining IBWO population would be at this point.
IBWO Agnostic said: "interesting. I was just thinking about the god parallel.
I wonder how many IBWO believers also believe that Mary gave birth to Jesus without sex. Or believe that he died and then came back to life. Or there's a man in the sky that cares about (certain) people's lives on earth.
I bet the percentage of cross-belief is pretty high."
______________________________
I bet you that the cross belief is practically non existent. Wealthy yuppie, Ivy League, East Coast bird fanatics are not religious believers.
This is where the partisan bashing of Republicans is sheer hypocrisy and ludicrousness. (I'm sorry I flunked my IQ test did I spell something wrong.)
If I may stereotype again, these birders are atheists, buddhists (me too) spiritualists, and agnostics whom are belief crazy, ga ga, over the IBWO.
BTW: I will add Alabama and Mississippi to active breeding locations.
BBTW: This is the most fascinating study of human behaviour. It ain't about the bird anymore.
"BBTW: This is the most fascinating study of human behaviour. It ain't about the bird anymore."
It don't take a high IQ to figure that one out.
I wonder how many IBWO believers also believe that Mary gave birth to Jesus without sex.
Probably no more than the general population.
In fact, I discovered this blog after arguing elsewhere about the Cornell paper with some devoted and vociferous critics of "intelligent design". Granted, both of those otherwise skeptical people likely felt compelled to defend the honor of their alma mater.
And I have no idea if they subsequently realized that the script they were reciting had already been debunked.
If I may stereotype again, these birders are atheists, buddhists (me too) spiritualists, and agnostics whom are belief crazy, ga ga, over the IBWO.
They may think they are atheists or agnostics but they have not gotten rid of the "god gene". If anything the Lord God Bird supplies them with something that allows that desire for meaning, mystery, something larger than oneself and a social group with similar beliefs to be satisfied in a way that doesn't lump them with the Evangelicals or Wiccans.
There are more religions around than those with temples and churches and mosques. The many devout consumers , devout NPR listeners and devout IBWO TBs have all bought into paradigms that satisfy the same needs that Christians satisfy with believing in Christ.
Post a Comment