XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: fwbrown@bellsouth.net   
      
   In alt.fan.tolkien Stan Brown  wrote:   
   > On Thu, 5 Jun 2014 15:14:09 +0000 (UTC), Wayne Brown wrote:   
   >> My belief in God is based on three things: partly on evidence, partly on   
   >> logical argument (I consider the arguments of C.S. Lewis in books like   
   >> "Mere Christianity," "The Abolition of Man" and "The Problem of Pain"   
   >> to be irrefutable),   
   >>   
   >   
   > I used to think so too. But then I read his likening of shame(*) to   
   > hot coffee: it will burn you if you touch it, but you can drink it   
   > without harm. that bit of nonsense revealed to me that his apparent   
   > logic is simply really, really persuasive writing.   
   >   
   > (*) In /The Great Divorce/, if I recall correctly.   
   >   
      
   I agree with his coffee analogy, if you define "burn" not as "cause   
   physical damage" but "cause a strongly painful sensation."  I've had   
   hot beverages that could be drunk slowly and carefully, giving lips and   
   tongue time to adapt to the temperature and reduce their sensitivity,   
   while still remaining hot enough to "burn" my finger.  The body can   
   adapt its response to stimuli and the more frequently a nerve impulse   
   is triggered, the less sensitive it becomes to the trigger.  Something   
   I've noticed while remaining in one position for a long period of time   
   (as while reading or watching television) is that sometimes a part of   
   my body, such as my arm resting on the arm of a chair, will seem to   
   "disappear" as far as my sense of touch is concerned; I'll be unable to   
   feel that it is touching the chair.  The nerves that were transmitting   
   the feeling of contact have stopped responding because the stimulus has   
   continued unchanged for so long.  But the slightest movement of that arm,   
   even a twitch, causes the feeling of contact to come flooding back as   
   the nerves are reawakened by the slight change in stimulus.   
      
   I remember a great experiment about sense perception from school.   
   Put one hand in a bowl of hot water, so hot that you can barely stand   
   to keep your hand in it.  Put the other hand in a bowl of ice water.   
   Leave both hands in until they have adapted to the temperature.  Then put   
   both hands into a bowl of room-temperature water.  The water will feel   
   warm to one hand and cool to the other hand at the same time.   
      
   --   
   F. Wayne Brown    
      
   Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg.  ("That passed away, this also can.")   
      from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)