A quote

[Duppers]

"I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect never will again. One day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald, I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged onto a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split, and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."

- Lord Havelock Vetinari, from Terry Pratchett's 'Unseen Academicals.'

[Duppers]

1. Hard to be a theist when...

[Leith]

6. I've been to the Grand Canyon

and all I could think about was the awesome power of the mighty Colorado River and the millions of years of sedimentary rock it exposed.

Nothing in nature has ever made me believe that a deity made it. Quite the opposite.

[Croney]

2. Very interesting. "And that's when I first learned about evil."

Quite a conclusion. Is an eagle eating a rabbit demonstrating evil? I don't believe in a supreme being, but if one exists, there in its existence is your proof of evil. And proof of good. So, no proof of anything at all.

[mountain grammy]

3. Agree! it's nature after all.

[uriel1972]

5. The evil does not lie with the animal,

But wi5h the creator that made it necessary.

[Ohio Dem]

4. I LOVE Sir Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books!

Rereading Guards! Guards! right now!