Re: Richard Dawkins is proof that you can be intelligent AND really

On May 10, 10:54=A0pm, "Matt D." <Matt D...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "LMC Society" <aegisi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> news:d6fc1c35-57d8-4c38-856b-6b65605cadf0@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > bach's religiosity was inseparable from his sense of
> > wonderment of nature, moon, stars, and such stuff. =A0he gazed at sky
> > filled with countless stars. baroque and classical composers were
> > closer to the natural state and rhythms of the universe. religious or
> > not, they were in wonderment of the beauty of the world all around
> > them.
>
> Where is your evidence that Bach gave a toss about 'nature' and 'the
beaut=
y
> of the world all around him'...?!? I've never seen any such claim. For
> people at that time, 'nature' was more an irritating inconvenience than
> anything 'sublime': the kind of attitude you are talking about is a much
> later, romantic notion, and it's hard to find a significant composer
befor=
e
> Beethoven for whom 'nature' meant anything connected with 'beauty' and
> 'wonderment'.

I suppose that is true for European culture prior to central heating.
Shakespeare in his sonnets was pretty bitter about the cold, dark,
etc.  though he did appreciate a warm summer's day.  However Indian
literature is very much Nature loving.

When Mozart as a young man crossed the Alps in a carriage, he
> drew down the blinds because he didn't want to see what was around
him...

This reminds me of the piligrims I was bussing with from Hardwar to
Badrinath.  I was amazed by the scenery, but they shut their eyes and
chanted hymns throughout the journey.  Possibly, they felt that God
was more im****tant than Creation.
>
> M.