--- In "stoatwizard" <> wrote:
> Must be scary to hear that in the dead of night!
"One of the cleverer and more mature of my undergradtuate
contemporaries, who was deeply religious, went camping
in the Scottish isles. In the middle of the night he and
his girlfriend were woken in their tent by the voice of
the devil, Satan himself; there could be no possible doubt:
the voice was in every sense diabolical. My friend would
never forget this horrifying experience, and it was one
of the factors that later drove him to be ordained. My
youthful self was impressed by this story, and recounted
it to a gathering of zoologists relaxing in the Rose and
Crown Inn, Oxford. Two of them happened to be experienced
ornithologists, and they roared with laughter. 'Manx
Shearwater!' they shouted in delighted chorus. One of
then added that the diabolical shrieks and cackles
of this species have earned it, in various parts of
the world and various languages, the local nickname
'Devil Bird'. Many people believe in God because
they believe they have seen a vision of him..."
Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion", page 87.
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