vol VII: Notes
Introduction
These notes are the log of a journey. Not a systematic log, as we might expect the captain of a ship to keep, but an opportunistic log, entered only when I feel the need to write. I am publishing these notes for three reasons:
First, they capture some fleeting thoughts as they flit past. So they are not a coherent essay, but a series of scenes that might fit together somehow. By writing them out and rereading them, I hope to capture some of the process that led me to write this natural theology site.
Second, the writing process, by which I transcribe my mental states into text is largely unconscious and out of my control. On rereading, I often find traces of ideas that have not yet become fully conscious. By establishing a searchable archive, I can give myself and others access to the genesis of the textual expression of these ideas.
Third, to establish a context for the more refined sections of this site, documenting some of the personal motivations behind the positions I have occupied. Like the data leading to an hypothesis or theory, this context gives meaning and relevance to the more abstract expressions that arise when one tries to generalize personal experience to the whole world.
I have come to think of this part of the site as an open (but personal) laboratory notebook.
Much of the experience and insight recorded here has been happened in the company of other people, many still living. I hope I have suppressed anything and everything which might identify anyone.
