We’re urged to tolerance at all times. Indeed, without tolerance, modern society simply couldn’t exist at all. However, there are those who’ll take a state of tolerance and abuse it as much as they can.

In Taoism it’s recognised that any extreme situation must, eventually, swing back to a balanced position. This is what I mean by moderation in tolerance, that yes we should be a tolerant society, but when people abuse that tolerance, there should be sanctions applied to those people.

It’s the same on a personal level, tolerant should not equal doormat. We shouldn’t have to be afraid to have views and defend them with quiet, firm diplomacy when needed. But with the way things are going, any view that doesn’t conform with what people want to believe as the norm is attacked. We shouldn’t have to be afraid to think outside the box, as long as those views are in touch with reality and are defendable.

DRM is a fairly hot issue in the geek community. The notion that you can’t have any control over something you’ve already paid for is a thorny one. Does your cash buy you a copy of the music or video, or does it only buy you the right to watch it? Frankly, this could be covered by an essay, never mind a blog entry!

Lao Tzu warns us about too much regulation and control, he believed that it was better to let people be, rather than seeking to bind them. Too many laws make criminals out of people who aren’t really doing much wrong, they also threaten to make a complete ass of the law. For example, the RIAA recently prosecuted a family for music downloading, the problem is that the family doesn’t even own a computer!

I personally, consider the Creative Commons to be much better aligned with The Watercourse Way, simply let people use your art or create derivative works with the only provisio that it remains in the commons.

I’ve found something interesting. The very act of Blogging can be a Taoist experience.

Some days, the words flow, I can write and write, on others, it’s like a mental block. Generally I think up enough material on the good days to see me through the bad ones. But on the bad ones I’ve learned that it’s best to walk away from the keyboard, I can never force the words if they’re not ready.

It’s the same with the Tea House, sometimes I’m quiet, others more vocal. But I can never force it, it just happens when it’s ready.

I’m convinced that this creativity flows from the subconcious mind more than the concious one, so the only way to access it is to go with the flow of the watercourse.

Dogma

1. A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a church.
2. a religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true without proof

Most organised religions are dogmatic to one degree or another, I personally consider dogma to be a fairly bad thing. From my perspective dogma gets in the way when trying to follow The Watercourse Way, what happens when your dogma tries to take you against the flow? It breaks. The problem is that dogma is inflexible, the eventual effects of flowing water on inflexible things in it’s path are well documented, eventually they have to give.

For me, part of the flow of Taoism is accurate correspondance with reality, if a doctrine or dogma contradicts reality, which is most likely to be in error? There are numerous examples of religious doctrine contradicting what science has revealed about the world, how then can anyone be expected to believe in a doctrine that is full of holes? Such doctrine does have wisdom in it, but that wisdom is not in the literal interpretation. Something religious dogmatists would do well to consider in my view.

This is the reason I stopped putting my faith in religious doctrine and one of the major reasons I find Taoism such a good fit.

Wait, aren’t they the same? In my opinion no, spirituality provides a basis on which all religion is built. Spirituality is the cake, religion is simply the icing. To continue the analogy, you can change the icing on the cake, even take the icing away, the cake remains fine. But if you take away the cake, the icing is left in a mess, with nothing to hold it up.

Coming from an Anglican background, I’m no stranger to organised religion. As I’m due to marry into a Greek family, I’m going to have at least a passing acquaintance with the Greek Orthodox Church, but I can see the commonalities on the spiritual side.

One thing I can see is that spirituality can be done without religion, eastern philosophies tend to be a good way of starting on that path, also this tends to give a more understanding approach to other beliefs. Religion without spirituality however, is just a shell. People will attend church mainly to keep up appearances, it becomes a very ornate social club. The other very real danger of the spiritual disconnection is that the dogma becomes more important than spiritual growth. That’s when the real trouble starts….

Well, I’m going to stay off on my Sci-Fi tangent for a little longer.

I’ve come across a fan written Battlestar Galactica game, it’s based on the new series, not the old one and they’re making a lot of progress, the gameplay videos are awesome!

Here’s the link: Battlestar Galactica: Beyond The Red Line. Well worth a visit!

I’ve been a bit on the serious side lately, so it’s time for a bit of light relief! This one is courtesy of my fellow traveller on the watercourse A.V. Michaels, you can find his blog at Surfing The Tao.

If I were a Star Wars character, I would be: Qui-Gon Jinn. You’re very in touch with nature and greatly value living things, even the more inferior creatures. Your calm demeanor is admired by many and you don’t sweat the small stuff and things you can’t change. You’re kind, quiet, and strong. Take the ” Which Star Wars Character Am I?” Quiz by Always Two There Are

This is quite cool, as Qui-Gon Jinn is one of the Star Wars characters I admire.

I noticed that the Conservative party is making promises about their new environmentally friendly policies. They promise to lead a new green revolution in Britain.

Apparently, they plan to run council vehicles on Biodiesel, starting with a pilot project in Kent and claim to have the highest recycling and composting rates of any of the main three parties.

While I applaud any positive environmental commitment from any of the three main parties, I’m all to well aware of what happens in politics, these promises are all too soon forgotten.

I honestly think that if we’re to have a green Britain, the best way is to give incentives to the public to use environmentally friendly alternatives.

I think it’s time I took the chance to clarify my position on Creationism. I do oppose it, not out of blind hate.

My problem with it is twofold. Firstly, it fails to provide any evidence for it’s assertions, as a movement it wants the respectability of science, hance the term “Creation Science”, but doesn’t want to go through the method that brings that respect.

This leads to my second problem with it. The lengths that are gone to in order to distort science, befuddle the layman and raise a smokescreen. I have seen logical fallacies and distortions used quite blatantly in articles and essays by Creationists and have heard of intimidation against people who oppose them.

Just thought I’d get that off my chest!

I’m sat here watching our cats at play. I’m amazed at the way they simply play, anything can become a cat toy! Ours have a habit of doing fuzzy escape artist tricks as well.

It’s amazing, they simply sit quietly and watch the world go by, but come to some very clever conclusions. Mia, for instance has now worked out door handles. They’ve also worked out that if they get the timing and hang around the front door first thing in the morning, and when we get home at night they can avoid the effort of having to use the cat flap!

Sit quietly, pay attention, don’t let things get too complicated. I think there’s a definite lesson to be learned from them!