I never met my great-great-great-great-great-greatgrandfather. I am confident that he is deceased. I have nothing against his contribution to my descent and I imagine it was ultimately a fortunate contribution, judging from a quick glance at ME! The guy could have been a cattle rustler or a bankrobber. He might have contributed to Communist causes if he had been given an opportunity to do so. The tone of the world that man lived in and the tones of the world since can be characterized in many ways.
My thesis is that since I don't know, it is better to stay sort of neutral about the nature of great6-grandfather and many other things, people, ideas, causes until I learn more and perhaps verify to my satisfaction. I was listening to a talk by Prof. Sean Carroll today on the physics of time. He described Galileo's attempt to measure the time taken by a swinging lamp in the ceiling of the church when a boy. Carroll said that all boys in that town had to go to church and they did. I dispute that statement because I am betting that two or more boys in that town at that time skipped church at times. If you track me down and show that 100% of the boys dragged their tired, bored selves to church during Gally's time, I will try to expand my argument to accept not paying attention while physically present and try to have such mind wandering accepted as a type of absence.
I understand that attempting to cover all counter arguments results in annoying and picayune statements that try peoples' patience. I am getting some amusement from keeping my eye open for statements that may well have a little leeway that goes unrecognized.
