Hare in the Times: � I hate all that late art � late Ibsen, late Beethoven. I don�t like that stuff where artists are doing what they used to do with more minimal means�. I suppose that goes for Pink Moon too?

Prematurely Mad Hare in February?

As promised another animal - Fool�s Tigers � they would be creatures which looked like tigers and might be easily mistaken for them by someone who isn�t an expert. The parallel with gold and fool�s gold is clear. The point about FT is that they illuminate metaphysical ideas about mythical species � like say unicorns. Such mythical beasts are inherently not accidentally mythical. Suppose some cross between a horse and a rhino was found � maybe in the fossil record � the horsrhinoid. Then as the experts engaged with this evidence they would establish facts about the horsrhinoid that are not even relevant to the unicorn - the unicorn doesn�t have the kind of detailed internal structure that establishes evolution relationships for example � cladograms and all that apparatus. These ideas come from Saul Kripke � the metaphysics that is - but talking as someone who spent almost 6 months in a group called the White Unicorn they make sense to me. We had no idea about the digestive system or breeding patterns of the eponymous creature.

The idea can be carried across to people and their identities. Some people are inherently fictional like Sherlock Holmes. This is an interesting track to be on � because some people have thought that God was a person whose existence was contained in his essence � who necessarily existed � who was thus inherently unfictional. You only had to think through his properties- not least his perfection to see that he had to be. (Others hold the opposite view of course.)

Lets go back to SH � the argument might be that he doesn�t have a DNA structure � of the kind now used to connect people with places crimes etc. I suppose a clever author might take the character � SH � and get him into a time machine and have him turn up in the present and then as the narrative unfolds his DNA structure might become part of the story. In these circumstances, it is a necessary truth that SH�s DNA structure it is fictional. The author might (as a trope) include the DNA structure as an Annex to the work of fiction. If someone turned up with just that DNA structure we would know he wasn�t SH � without looking at the facts. We wouldn�t want to check out any other points.

This is exactly the opposite of the reasoning that would apply if my DNA (say) came up on a victim�s coat. That�s because I am real person and SH is fictional (bold claims).

Consider a related argument. There�s no way we would ever want to check God�s DNA and in fact we can�t imagine what it would be like so God isn�t real. By way of a counter we could go back to the Fool�s Tigers and The Unicorns and see how angels fitted in. We can imagine a fools angel � something or someone mistaken by someone for an angel. So the message the fools angel appears to carry isn�t really from God. We need our experts to tell us what a real angel might be like so we know one when we meet one so we know what to believe.

Another approach would be to look at calculators � when we use a calculator we learn a truth (if we use it properly). It�s a truth we don�t otherwise know � that�s why we use the machine. But the truths we learn that cannot be otherwise � its not an accident that the answer is what the answer is to that particular sum. That�s a necessary truth. So there are necessary truths that we discover through experience. God�s existence could be one of these. We don�t �just know it� like we do with some necessary truths � we have to discover it � but that doesn�t stop it being necessary � that God exists.

In fact Swinburne has weighed all the evidence for the existence of God and has decided that the balance of probability is in favour of existence � but only slightly. This obviously makes the existence of God a belief which people can acquire from looking at evidence although perhaps most people don�t acquire it in that way. The point here is whether we are truly compelled by logic to believe in the existence of an entity where the balance of empirical evidence is only slightly in favour. Take UFOs � the evidence might be slightly in favour � but no one has to accept it. Of course the existence of UFOs isn�t necessary as the existence of God is thought to be. God exists out of necessity but most people don�t study logic and so they rely on indifferent empirical evidence and can�t make up their minds. (Those who study logic don�t all agree either.) Some who study logic and probably believe for different reasons uphold the logical argument. Maybe logic never compels anyone to do anything.

I wrote some stuff first thing about yesterday�s meeting. It was called The Three Ring Circus and the Sheep with No Legs. This was work not fiction. I wrote it at home � before I forgot. So by the time I drove along the street the record store was open � so I stopped and bought Hejira and listened to it on the way to work. Jaco and Coryell play on the opening track. But Jaco drops out on the second � Amelia � which is a Travel song but Victor Feldman plays vibes on that one � unfortunately JP is not on Strange Boy either (a guitar duo with percussion) but he is on the title track. It�s the classic Mitchell-Coryell-Pastorius trio on the awesome Black Crow and Jaco is in a bigger band on Refuge of the Roads which includes Tom Scott. So he plays on two of the three songs that end up on Travel � as does Coryell.

Miss M comments. �Someone said to me � there�s this kid from Florida � here�s really weird � you �d probably like him�. Maybe he is the strange boy p better check his DNA.

Tonight I had a quick � ermmmmm � jam � with a song from the Airburst Suite � I think its title will become Reading and Sleeping and I think it will pass itself off as a lullabye. Cathy sings it. I think the U2 has something to add. I think I actually wrote the tune at the end of Wild Oats. There are eight Airburst songs recorded and two halfway done - without vocals - one is Ash Wednesday and the other is the first Birthday Letter.

An Armenian turned up in my mailbox � Justin. He used to be the account manager at WCRS on the account where I was the client side interface. Good account managers find out the clients weakness and exploit it. I think this one read English at Oxford.

Anyway - astutely winning my affection - we all went to see the Neville Brothers under Justins effortless hospitality. Its the kind of recycling that is easy to endorse - the clients money is recycled to really get a groove on. It is the only time I have ever seen a truely great New Orleans band on official business � in the service of the Queen.

To say that Justin is a Van Morrison fan does an injustice to people who simply idolise their heros - who are merely obsessives. What is it about working for that agency that can make people cosmic completists? Anyway J had followed the thread to www.kwase-kwaza.org and was making enquiries. The last time I saw Justin was when Radio 2 recorded Patrick�s launch of the ND bio at Helter Skelter. It turned out that Justin lived in the same street as Patrick � this came as no surprise. Do we have the first genuine sale for 10 Short Stories and Four Fifths � and who better to buy the inaugural copy and look after it?

Banana beer at the Bear and Flagstaff in Berkswell � another first.