The Mood Just Begged For Good Conversation

Prince Edward Island
July 14, 82

Hello again journal! I'm looking out over Campbell's Cove; it's a very nice
ocean view. This is the nicest campground so far. It's too bad that we
can't stay, but, after checking our money situation, we decided to
head for Nova Scotia. The weather is beautiful.

Mike and I stayed at Rustico Campground for a couple of days and then
biked up the north coast of the island. That part of the island is
much less touristed, as it is heavily forested and less populated.
Today we will bike down the east coast, and camp somewhere close to
the ferry. Oh, before I forget, last night Mike and I spent a very
enjoyable evening at a bar, or maybe I should say pub. The place had a
remarkably quaint atmosphere. The booths were set into honeycomb
walls. The mood just begged good conversation. In fact, that's when I
found out that Mike was a staunch determinist. When the subject of
evolution came up, I said "it's a theory" and he said, "No, it's a
process, which, more or less, selects the changes taking place with
regard to the environment." He also said, "It's only a theory in the
sense that it represents a `pattern of claims' that scientifically
explains those changes." Well, that got the ball rolling because I was
quick to point out that creation's starting point cannot be found in
matter.

"Oh," he said, "and what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing much," I said, "it's only that the way we know anything at
all is because we relate things to other things and things are relative."

"Go tell that to the starving children in Ethiopia," he said, "or to
South Africa's tortured black activists. I'm sure that will make'em
feel a whole lot better!"

"Now wait a minute, that's not fair, you're jumping way to far
ahead," I said. "Take length for instance. That concept is fixed only
by the operations used to measure it. Identity is the same way; it's
fixed by the conceptual relationships used to oppose it, or by
arbitrary labeling. You know, as I know, that our descriptions of the
material world, especially at the quantum level, become strained. Your
cause and effect assumptions get the kybosh on that level.
Indeterminacy rules down there."