The Best Way To See Whether You Have a Good Argument

The Best Way To See Whether You Have a Good Argument is to search for the best possible counter arguments. Honestly and sinserley attempt to prove yourself wrong. Ask your friends to put up the most vigiorous devil's advocate arguement in opposition.

If, after all that, your logic seems air tight (be a little objective here) then you may progress with confidence. If you hold an opinion steadfast without subjecting it to all critisms you are probably doing so because you are affraid of what you will find when you do. Fine - know that your opinion may be flawed but if you are ok with that no skin off my back. But if you want me to consider what you have to say, know that I wont take your word on something if its obvious you have not given it the thought that thoughtful opinions deserves.

The most frustrating thing

Is that I want to BE the things inside my head, but to other people, I am exactly what I DO habitually.

Change is hard.

Judgment Day - A Story

On May 21^st 2011, the year of our Lord, Jesus, son of Yahweh, returned to Earth and Judgment Day began. First, he went to his old stomping grounds in West New York. None of the locals could understand his Aramaic or any of the Seneca that he remembered from last time he was there. Someone pointed him to Utah so he stopped in over there. And left quickly.  Same story in Canaan; mostly, it was just very loud there and he was never one for yelling.

All in all, he took 138 people back to heaven. Most of them were subsistence farmers who worked the land with their bare hands. There were going to be almost double that number until he learned they were raising pigs for food – no one who’d ever eaten pork gets to go to heaven - that was one of the really important parts of that book he helped write.

Through his whole trip he was very surprised at how humans acted about the whole thing. On one hand, so many people were happy THEY were RIGHT.  But that shouldn’t have been so hard, that instruction book couldn’t have been clearer – well, actually it could have been a little less vague in some parts, but deciphering was some of the fun, right?. It really baffled him to see that EVEN THOUGH he clearly remembered saying that you had to be RIGHT about EVERYTHING to get to heaven AND they got the date of return correct, most everyone didn’t spend more than a few years trying to pretend to be on the up and up before inspection time. He would have seen through those attempts anyway, but just 6 months of temple attendance? “Come on!” he thought, “you could have tried a little harder than that.”

He did feel a little bad that apparently his teachings were so hard to interpret – he laughed (privately) about all the different attempts that flubbed up so miserably. Maybe he should have spent a little more time with the editors to make sure the message got across clearly but at the time he really just wanted to get his father’s stupid assignment over with.

As he and the 138 were about to rise to heaven, many of those to be left behind were dumb struck. They had spent most (but not all) of their lives trying to figure out how to get into heaven. Some of them got really loud amplifiers to communicate with him as he was rising into the sky. (This whole levitation process took about 2 days. What? You thought the survivors would just shoot to heaven instantly?). He agreed to a question and answer period – the first 2000 feet were kinda awkward so this was the best way to break the tension. Mostly he just phoned in the answers. “What is God like?”, “I don’t know, what is your Dad like when the puppy he got ends up shitting on the rug all the time?”. The one question he gave some real thought to came from a 16 year old girl. He only called on her because she was kinda cute.

"So what are we supposed to do now? Some of us were closer than others, should we all try to live our lives like those that you took? The bible doesn’t say what we are supposed to do after the Rapture, will you come back to get more of us later if we do the right things?"

So he responded after a little thought:

“ First, RAPTURE is a mistranslation. It was talking about a RAPTOR, a bird of pray. That fucking sweet eagle I rode down here on. You think I would use this slow ass levitation bullshit if I didn’t have too? But nooOOOOooo, you had to kill all the mother fucking bald eagles. Now there are only 27 left? Fuckin’ A humans!  Secondly, there’s not a chance im coming back here. I said it’s gonna happen once and I keep my word. Yeah, and good luck ever getting my dad’s attention ever again – ever wonder why there haven’t been any miracles lately? It’s cause he is busy with all his other projects across the universe. Seriously, I want to speak in no uncertain terms: he doesn’t give a shit about you anymore.” He laughed at the clarity of it all and continued, “I guess you should all just be nice to each other and enjoy yourself. From here on out, you’ll just go to the ground when you die. Like, listen to me, I’m honestly not trying to test you like my father was: heaven and hell will not be an option for you any more. Really. Really, I’m not trying to be cute. We won’t be watching anymore. That golden rule thing those atheists came up with sounds good, go with that. Just, uh, have fun.”

There was a long silence and Jesus remembered he had left the coffee pot on at home and was frustrated the levitation was taking so long. And so he politely stopped answering questions and called his girlfriend to see if she turned it off and if she could pick him up from the airport. Wireless service while you’re flying, amazing what technology can do these days.

Remember

You only have so many high-school friends and they know you in ways others never can. Respect the special type of bond you have between them. Try to not let them slip away, all it takes is a facebook message.


Joke of the Day:
Helium walks into a bar and orders a beer, the bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve noble gases here." He doesn't react.

Whoa

Damn, just like that, ive gone from a kid with people to look after me and tell me what to do, to an adult. For all my pondering about what adulthood will feel like and when it will come, maybe its just starts when you realize how much of a bitch all this paperwork is. Responsibilities man, responsibilities.
Whoa.

2 Possible Views of Nature

There are two distinct views one may take in regard to the vast majesty, the amazing, consuming, unfathomable hugeness of nature in comparison to us. There are two distinct ways of dealing with gazing over the unending miles of ocean or the continues bloom of a forest's trees. There are two distinct conceptions of our place in the seemingly incalculable expanses we see everyday if we but look out the window.




They are:


1. Nature is big and we are small. Humans can but only pitifully hope to churn up a few meters of dirt  in a few places on earth and otherwise have little impact on the Earth or Nature as a gigantic whole. Any conception that we are important in the grand scheme of things is a delusion: we are but tiny tiny boats in a sea larger and deeper than we can imagine. As such, we have little impact on the environment and thus little responsibility for its well being.


2. We have power over nature in ways cloaked a thousand fold by our relative size. The choices we make impact Earth more than seems apparent. As the dominate species on the planet, we have deep responsibility to ensure the continuance of the beauty that engulfs us. Not only for our children, but for the other species of the planet who make  up this so called Nature. While we sometimes cannot hold all of Nature in our minds, it is clear that we do hold all of Nature in our hands.









So step back and consider these two world views. Ask yourself what you believe: are we a spec floating in the wind or are we masters of our domain? If this exercise seems a little silly, that is because your mind is so made up about your view; remember that there are many many people out there with the opposite viewpoint.


More to come on this soon, but for now, take some time to figure out where you stand.

A Quick Word on Protests in the Middle East and Then a Joke

I'm not saying i understand the political situation there fully, but it is pretty cool to see people taking their lives and their freedom into there own hands. How interesting that a powerful semi-dictator is being taken down without 1 US troop involved. Revolutions and changes in power in the name of democracy are sometimes violent but don't necessarily have to come at the end of a American's gun. Maybe this would have been good to know 10 years ago.


I understand that I really have no way to effect the situation at all and there is a serene calm that comes with such a realization even though it is obvious that violence is part of the process. I don't particularly care if the new ways of life forged by these social uprisings are more friendly to the US, I only hope that the new system, after the riots are over, is more just than the current one. Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof. 

And now, for the unrelated Joke Of The Day: 

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!"

"Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?" "Well ... are you religious or atheist?" "Religious."

"Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?"

"Christian." "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant."

"Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist."

"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"

To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off. 

Creativity

I am of the disposition that the sphere of mental possibilities is endless.  Sometimes it seems that everything good has already been thought of, has already been created, has already said, has already been tried.

But that is so plainly false that I laugh at the notion even now that I write this.

Go ahead, spend 1 minute thinking about something that doesn't exist yet. Its hard at first but let your mind go a little bit and you'll see a whole new world of possibilities.