Word: absurdities
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Early Christianity had its own embryonic scriptural criticism. The great 3rd century church father Origen declared that some passages in the Bible "are not literally true but absurd and impossible." Even St. Augustine of Hippo, a 5th century champion of biblical orthodoxy, cautioned against literalism. "We must be on guard against giving interpretations of Scripture that are farfetched or opposed to science," he wrote, "and so exposing the word of God to the ridicule of unbelievers." Despite such precedent, this spirit of critical inquiry?limited though it was?did not carry over into medieval Christendom...
...activities--a government whose public activities seemed to clearly exclude the promotion of culture, science and education. Lots of governments that might fit this categorization are in UNESCO now--Libya and the Soviet Union, both of which supported Israel's expulsion, are among them--but it would be absurd to argue that Israel, despite its repression of political activities in the territories it occupies, is a prime offender...
...this production won't gain Gilbert and Sullivan any new admirers, particularly since The Mikado's theme (almost alone among Gilbert's plots) deals with more than minor, absurd social issues of the Victorian age, such as cleaning up salty language (Pinafore), Walter Pater-style aestheticism (Patience), and the House of Lords (Iolanthe). The Mikado, like some of Shakespearian and Johnsonian comedy, is about the impossibility and immorality of repressing the passions. It is the play in which Gilbert moves farthest away from the Victorian center he usually represented and comes closest to criticizing society as well as ridiculing social...
Claude Chabrol defines absurdity as the gap between the awesome finality of death and the trivial reasons men adduce for killing or putting themselves in the way of being killed. To him, murder is the ultimate emotional excess, an enigma he has worried with a tough-minded, ironic and often subtle compassion in such recent films as This Man Must Die and Le Boucher. These movies are about the exorcizing of private demons. Never until The Nada Gang has Chabrol concerned himself with murder in its most absurd manifestation-as an act of public political protest...
Taxing Oil. There would be conflict in an 8 a.m. decision on banks, suggested Edwards, a 9 a.m. decision on oil, a 10 a.m. decision on airlines, an 11 a.m. decision on communications and a noon decision on insurance. Replied Rockefeller: "I think that's absurd. The decisions you refer to affect the American people. They don't affect the Rockefeller family." Throughout, he was at pains to separate his family's wealth from the actual management of companies. "I have not followed the management of the companies I invest in. They are investments for investment...