{"id":4085,"date":"2020-02-10T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T02:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/?p=4085"},"modified":"2021-06-27T16:13:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T04:13:19","slug":"the-whys-of-a-philosophical-scrivener-martin-gardner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/2020\/02\/10\/the-whys-of-a-philosophical-scrivener-martin-gardner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener &#8212; Martin Gardner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"717\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-717x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4087\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-717x1024.jpg 717w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-768x1097.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-1075x1536.jpg 1075w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-1433x2048.jpg 1433w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-105x150.jpg 105w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-1200x1715.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_20200328_153224-1-scaled.jpg 1792w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 717px) 100vw, 717px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I love reading almost anything that Martin Gardner wrote. His thinking is clear and logical, sensitive and nuanced. Mostly I have read his writings on mathematics and puzzles, though I also really enjoyed his book of essays <em>The Night Is Large<\/em>. Unfortunately, this book is not in the same league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is that he writes in this book about his religious views. These essays suffer in comparison with his other writing &#8212; they don\u2019t convince at all. They are variations on the same theme: \u201cI believe in God because &#8212; well, I just do.\u201d It gives a good insight into Gardner\u2019s psyche, but I am more interested in what he can tell me about the world than about himself. I think I\u2019d rather re-read <em>The Night Is Large<\/em>.<\/p>\n<!-- wpsso rrssb get buttons: buttons on archive option not enabled -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love reading almost anything that Martin Gardner wrote. His thinking is clear and logical, sensitive and nuanced. Mostly I have read his writings on mathematics and puzzles, though I also really enjoyed his book of essays The Night Is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/2020\/02\/10\/the-whys-of-a-philosophical-scrivener-martin-gardner\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,198,28],"class_list":["post-4085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-books","tag-martin-gardner","tag-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4088,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4085\/revisions\/4088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}