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World of New Genesis
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- Moloth – The Believer is Happy; the Skeptic is Wise
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I will be gone to New York, New York from Oct. 25th to Nov. 1st.
I plan on seeing the Empire State building, Times Square, Ground Zero, The Statue of Liberty… and any other thing that i can squeeze out of the Big Apple.
Kelly and I have reservations at Tao’s for Friday night and we will be roving the city, dressed in our Halloween best, on the 31st.
I’ll be taking B33j’s camera (and i will hopefully remember to actually USE it).
This will be a trip of lifetime for me… or will it? There is a possibility, depending on my experience there, that i may move to the NYC area to pursue other opportunities. It’s no secret that I rather despise living in central Georgia… and i can think of no other place to cleanse my palette than the city that never sleeps.
Feel free to talk about me behind my back on the forums when i am gone. I may or may not get around to reading them while abroad.
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I’ve found Peter Griffin’s worst nightmare.
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Japan really IS superior.
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I’ve never wanted to watch the new Battlestar Galactica.. until i saw THIS.
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WIRED on the New Atheism. There are three main figures of the new scientific, rational and free-thinking movement. They are Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett. I have read and watched a variety of media concerning these men and I support them fully. As a matter of fact, Richard Dawkins will be live in the studio of the Rational Response Squad on Nov. 2nd. Kelly, of the RRS, is going to be kind enough to be getting me a signed copy of Dawkins’ new book, “The God Delusion”. Don’t forget what i owe you for that favor, Kelly!
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It is time to reverse the prevailing notion that religious commitment is intrinsically deserving of respect.
Faith is a commitment to belief contrary to evidence and reason, as between them Kierkegaard and the tale of Doubting Thomas are at pains to show; their example should lay to rest the endeavours of some (from the Pope to the Southern Baptists) who try to argue that faith is other than at least non-rational, given that for Kierkegaard its virtue precisely lies in its irrationality.
On the contrary: to believe something in the face of evidence and against reason – to believe something by faith – is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant, and merits the opposite of respect. It is time to say so.
(Click the title link for the rest of the article)
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I had a minor epiphany today.
You know how Christians tend to treat anything good that happens as being God’s will, but they almost NEVER blame God for bad things that happen? They have a double-standard of responsibility for the things that happen. That way, God is only a good guy… his only actions are good ones. Even if something horrible happens, they’ll still try to create some sort of ‘miracle’ that was by his omni-belevolent hand… like an orphanage fire in which 99 orphans die in flaming agony, but 1 manages to make it out alive… ITSA MIRACLE! PRAISE JESUS! GOD IS GREAT! Nevermind the fact he just sent 99 innocent orphans to a horrible death.
It’s sick, twisted and illogical.
And I do something very similar to myself. Only in reverse.
If something goes right in my life, if something good happens, it was a fluke. It was totally against the odds. It was probably in spite of me, rather than because of me. However, if something bad happens, its always my fault. Even things that I cannot control… Like other people or random chance. I always think, deep down inside, that when something bad happens or something happens that hurts me or makes me sad, that somehow, i caused it or, at very least, deserve it for some past negative karma i may or may not have introduced into the world.
It’s a strange, ego-maniacal way of thinking, i admit; to think that EVERYTHING negative that happens to you is somehow your fault. As if I, or ANYONE, has THAT much control over the universe. I have to learn that i cannot control, even surreptitiously, the actions of others. If they don’t like me, if they leave me, if they don’t see my points, or my way of thinking… is it because I have failed or screwed up somehow? Or is it that there are simply things that i cannot control? Do i have to admit to myself that i just don’t even have the ability to effect the universe to that degree? Do i have to admit that, sometimes, things may not actually be my fault? Do I, should I, or even CAN I let go of that perceived mastery over misery that i hold over my life?
I can’t make people like me. I can’t make them stay. I can’t make them believe me, no matter how ardently i truly feel. I can’t make them trust me.
What will i do if i cannot blame myself for every horrible thing that happens to me? I wonder…
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Oh, Kieth Olbermann… why are you such an angry, bitter man? Why do think that people want to hear your ceaseless whining and complaining? You go on these long-winded rants about things no one really cares about and it only annoys the people around you. Haven’t you learned that ‘if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’?
You’re mean. You make people feel bad. You shouldn’t go expressing you opinion on things that matter to you in such a willy-nilly fashion. You need to stop and consider who’s feelings you might be hurting before you speak. You twist the truth into such negative sounding things. You do it all the time. Instead of making people happy, you try to make them sad, scared or angry. You’re a mean person and you make me feel bad.
Therefore, i’m no longer going to be your friend. You make me think. You ask me questions that confuse and bother me. You point out things about my life and my little world that make me uneasy. You ask questions that i don’t know the answer to and that makes me feel dumb. Making people feel dumb is mean. I don’t want someone in my life like that.
Maybe you should stop bitching about everything and DO something about it.
Maybe you should stop caring about things… you’d be happier that way. You can’t change anything anyways. We can’t know anything anyways.
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After using the term “Room and Board” in a conversation recently, it suddenly occured to me that i had NO idea what the fuck “Board” was. I mean, when you get room and board, that means a place to stay, right? Well, that’s the room part, but what about the board?
Behold… Room and Board. The answer was actually suggested to me by someone more intelligent than I. I should have just listened to her to begin with and bypassed a ton of cognitive dissonance.
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From natural:
Yaro, I like your term ‘pseudo-logic’. It totally fits the idea of someone who says, “Science can’t explain X, therefore God exists.” In pseudo-logic, the argument from ignorance is thought to be a valid argument. I think we should strive to make this word as well known as its counterpart, pseudo-science. Soooo many people *think* they are logical, when really they are only pseudo-logical. Here are some pseudo-logical ideas:
- To ‘know’ something, it is enough to weed out all the blatant contradictions. (Of course, the pseudologist can only resolve one contradiction at a time, so he fails to notice the circular logic this naive method creates.)
- If someone cannot prove me wrong, I must therefore be right.
- If we don’t yet understand something, it must be beyond understanding, and therefore supernatural.
- You can’t disprove anything, especially God, therefore God exists.
- Nobody really knows anything.
- As long as there are no blatant contradictions, two opposing belief systems are basically ‘equally true’, even if it’s impossible that both could be right.
It is THIS kind of thinking that makes me have the attitude of “I’ll try being nicer, if you try being smarter”. Perhaps people would find me to be more pleasent if they did not almost constantly assault me with pseudo-logic.
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Today i am 28 years old and the population of the United States of America reached the ‘official’ number of 300,000,000.
No song could be more appropriate for me, on this day, than Time – Pink Floyd.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but youre older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
Its good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.
I never thought i would make it this far… so, as far as i’m concerned, every day past this one is a ‘freebie’. I’ve played, i’ve worked, I’ve worried, I’ve laughed and I’ve cried. I have seen beauty and ugliness, i have made stands and have been beaten down. I have been hated and i have been loved. I have felt happiness (for short amounts of time) and i have completed the few goals attainable to me. I have tried to stand up for what i believe in and I have compromised. I have made and lost friends and i have made and lost enemies. I have dreamed and i have awoken.
I look to my immediate future and i see great possibility for both great joy and happiness… and for great sorrow, lonliness and heartbreak. And, quite possibly, both.
I have spent the last 28 years trying to understand my own mind and my place in this world… neither have ever been particularly clear to me. There was never a plan for my life, never a structure or an end goal to be attained. I feel somewhat cast adrift (and always have)… this is both a boon and a curse. I have the freedom to be whatever i can attain, to chart my own course, to be the captain of my soul. But, i am also homeless… i have no port to which to think fondly of returning to. I sail, with an albatross around my neck it seems at times, to no place. I am simply wandering, searching to find that beacon, that shining light of a home I never even had to leave to begin with, to find meaning and reason in this world. I am searching for my own place… a place where i might actually belong and be appreciated… not for what i keep inside and spare other people from of myself, but for what i think and for how i feel.
I continue on simply because i know that i have yet to see all that there is. I have no promise of happiness. I have no ticket that will be redeemed. But, neither do i know that i will not happen upon one somewhere, some time, in this vast world of human experience. I do not go into the world because i have faith… i go into the world because i have uncertainty.
I do not know. But i will find out. On my dying bed, i will be able to, at the very least, say that i tried.
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Stephen Hawking! Looks like he has a new movie coming out… i wonder if its too early to camp out for tickets?
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Last night’s Eric Clapton concert at the Gwinnet Center in Atlanta was incredible! Despite Clapton’s age (61), his playing hasn’t slowed down a bit and his voice is as strong as ever. Even his opening act was strong… they made several other appearances throught the show. Seeing Derek Trucks play was an unexpected treat, as well. I have heard Collin’s dad extol his virtues as a guitar player several times and even heard some of his music, but seeing him play live really gave me the opportunity to see just how un-goddamn-believably good he really is. From playing with the Allman Brother’s to playing right next to Clapton… the boy can play.
And Dad… i know why you were “sick”. You had to use orange juice as an excuse to “stay home”, when in fact, you had to be on stage that night. 
Oh… and Roll Tide! 
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I’ll be turning 28 on Tuesday, October the 17th. …Otherwise known as the unluckiest day ever. ..In fact, i was BORN on a Tuesday, the 17th, way back in ‘78. I’m sure that people could find more correlations between Mr. Hoek and I. Yooooou eediots.
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