Category: General

In discussion last night with a longtime, dear friend, I was making a point of argument about Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament.

To underscore my argument, I went to the bookshelf to get my Bible. Yes, even atheists own Bibles. Mine is the New King James translation (chosen mainly for its beautiful language).

And I found, upon reading the text, that I had misremembered. It had been a while, a long while, since I had read it, and I was wrong. In fact, I made a special point of stating, “I misremembered. I was wrong,” to my friend. And the discussion moved on to other points.

I consider that an act of intellectual honesty. That’s what honest argument looks like. That’s what I value about science; the ability to admit mistakes openly and move on. In fact, science advances as much by mistakes and failed experiments and hypotheses as it does by its successes.

If I can admit when I’m wrong, is it expecting too much to hear the same from the other side once in a while?

To me, the inability of religion or faith to ever admit a mistake, the fact that no amount of evidence will sway a believer’s feelings about God, is sad commentary. Frustrating.

In fact, most often theists will use one of science’s greatest strengths (comfort with uncertainty and ability to admit mistakes) as a point of attack, as a weakness – while still never admitting any mistakes on their own part.

I will likely remain frustrated on the topic of God or religion unless and until I receive the same level of intellectual honesty that I try to bring to the discussion.

The closest response I’ve received in the past is some equivalent to “well, we’ll never agree, so maybe we’re both right!” or a statement that they themselves don’t know, but they’ll get back to me after checking with others who “know better”. Or, most often, a quick change of subject to something else.

sigh

I’ll keep trying. I know I will, for as long as I live. It’s just me. But I’m done for now. Feel free to comment but I’m off this topic for a while.

Or maybe your “feeling” about the existence of God is more like:

• …your feeling that you’re standing on solid ground? The surface of the Earth is moving at over 1,037 MPH at the equator; about half that at the 45th parallel.
• …your feeling that the Sun moves across the sky? The Sun is the central point in our solar system, due to its much larger mass compared to the satellites and planets that orbit it.
• …your feeling of happiness and satisfaction upon eating a full meal? That single meal of a Big Mac, large fries, and large Coke contains 1420 calories – more than would be burned by over an hour of hard running for most people.
• …the feeling of beauty at the twinkling of the stars in the night sky? The light from distant suns is steady; the twinkling effect is caused by shifts in the upper atmosphere.
• …the feeling that the images on the movie screen are, well, moving? Projecting a series of still images faster than the eye/brain can process them results in the illusion of a moving image due to the effect known as persistence of vision.

Sorry, but neither your “gut” nor your “heart” have a very good predictive rate. You’ll get 10 out of 10 points for poetry, but minus 1,000,000 for accuracy.

So, you believe in God because you “just feel” it to be true, no matter what?

Why not apply that same standard to the rest of your life?

Be the cop who “just feels” someone to be guilty, no matter what! (I guess it won’t matter if you plant the evidence because, hey, they’re guilty!)

Be the doctor who “just feels” someone to be healthy, no matter what! (Or ill, for that matter…)

Be the spouse who thinks their significant other is perfectly moral… no matter what. (Hope you enjoy being a cuckold.)

Be the parent who thinks their children are perfect and responsible. (We all know how the preacher’s kids turn out, don’t we?)

Be the employee who thinks their bosses are correct, no matter what (you’ll have a place in the Bush administration…)

And it’s not a coincidence that all these examples are about people believing things about other people. Who do you think benefits from your “no matter what” feeling about God? That’s right – other people.

Wake up!

Way too much to say.

Every time I sit down to write something, one thread or story or scene out of my life lately, I either ramble on and on without end, or I stop writing after just a few paragraphs because I can’t extract just a small piece out without giving the whole context for the story.

Bear with me, please. I appreciate the continued readership and I really want to give all y’all somethin’ good to read.

“I can help you here!”

I walked up to the cash register at Borders, magazine in my hand. I felt lucky – it had been a long line but I had, through random chance, gotten the cute brunette girl, instead of the large bald guy with the goatee.

“…OK,” I said with a smile, in response to her offer of help. “I’ll let you.” I moved deliberately, not too fast or slow. I placed my magazine on the counter. 2600: The Hacker Quarterly.

She smiled politely, picked up the book and scanned it. While she entered whatever information the computer required, my eyes wandered down to her breasts, under a thin t-shirt and framed by her unbuttoned sweater. Small, conical, and no bra. She must be cold.

When my eyes came back up to eye level, I saw her wriggle her nose. It was cute, like she was suppressing a sneeze.

“Your nose itches” I said. I often state the obvious. I tossed my cash on the counter.

“Yes, it does!” she said, brightly. “I –“

“Either that,” I continued, “or you’re a witch…”

She laughed. “Or maybe a bit of both.”

Oh, you’re like that, I thought. “Well, I don’t see any evidence of any spell being cast. I must be safe for now.”

“I try not to touch my face. It keeps me from getting sick.”

In that moment, I suddenly saw her as the type of girl who touches doorknobs with a napkin or tissue. Who doesn’t use public toilets. A cleanliness fanatic. She went from being a cute, if bookish, girl, to being… weird.

Why do you carry that umbrella? It’s not raining.

It keeps elephants away.

I gathered up my purchase. “…I see. Does it work?”

“Well,” she said, “I’m not sick!”

Does it work?

You don’t see any elephants, do you?

I listened to Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” sixteen times straight through, in order, before I felt the need to listen to something else.

That something else? Spoon’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”. “The Underdog” is catchy pop and it’s going to be added to my running playlist immediately.

But after a couple of listenings… I’m back with Radiohead. Just sayin’. I loves it. Especially “Reckoner” and the closer, “Videotape”.

In honor of Blog Action Day for the environment, which is today, I just wanted to say, very briefly, why I care about the environment and why I take the threat of global climate change very, very seriously.

Yes, I’m generally a rational person, and I have a scientific bent. Yes, I’m a progressive and a liberal, and the environment is traditionally a concern for progressives and liberals. Yes, I’m an atheist and therefore I accept, whole-heartedly, the idea that humans can affect the environment and the planet.

Yes, yes, all of that is true. But it’s not the main reason.

The main reason I care about the environment and why I take the threat of human-caused global warming seriously is because it pisses off the dead-ender right-wing trolls. Trolls like “Curt” who vented his impotent rage in the comment thread of my previous post.

For every comment I get on my blog that is anti-global climate change, anti-environment, or anti-progressive/liberal causes in general, I’ll be making a donation to an environmental group, like Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy or The Sierra Club.

Feel free to try to break the bank, dead-enders… It’ll only hurt you in the long run by energizing your “enemies”.

I noticed a little drop-off in the past few days in my readership. Sorry, folks, been busy with various things, one of which is preparing for NaNoWriMo, another of which is a refresh of the site design and possibly a whole new look. Plus I’m working to re-add some features I had before (I miss my picture gallery) and maybe add more features, like a tag cloud.

But I’ve also found some interesting stuff on the internets and in the interest of having some content here without too much thought, I’m sharing! Did you see:

• Albert Gore shares the Nobel Peace Prize with the UN IPCC panel. That means that Steve Jobs wins one, too. By proxy.
• Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Apparently someone found her in a train station.
• Speaking of strippers, apparently they pull in more tips when they’re fertile. A lot more – almost twice as much per five hour shift. New Scientist tells about the study.
• Crazy Fox “News” correspondent John Gibson makes the music bloggers at Stereogum laugh out loud at the thought of “classic hip hop” – is it like “classic rock”?
  

  “What happens in a classical hip-hop shooting? Does it have to have a message, or is it more light-hearted and fun than newer, more recent shootings? Are there Puba Snacks? Anyone know?”

• The folk at the ‘Gum also posted about a mashup of one of my favorite tracks from the new Radiohead album and DJ Shadow. One day after the release of the album. I wasn’t ready for a mashup then. I’m still not. Damn this internet time!
• Blogs typically need a theme, an idea, a motivating force behind the posts; politics, music, you name it. (That’s probably why my blog isn’t super-popular – it’s a mish-mash). Sometimes the motivating force is, well, hilarious. Like The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. You’re welcome.
• This image is supposed to be a test for which hemisphere of your brain is dominant, left or right. Which hemisphere of your brain is dominant is supposed to reveal personality traits; left brain is more linear and rational, right brain is more emotion-driven and creative. Some folks, like Jason Kottke and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, can make the image change directions. Why can’t I make the image change directions?! More importantly, when did my right brain become dominant? I’ve always considered myself more of a left-brainer. Maybe if I work harder at making the image go the other direction…
• Oh, did you hear? Between Radiohead offering their latest album for download for whatever you feel like paying, Trent Reznor cutting ties with Universal Music Group, and Madonna apparently doing likewise… looks like the future of the Big 4 music labels as middlemen is, um, doomed.
• Oh, and Albert Gore, the man who by any just measure won the 2000 US presidential election, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Nifty. President Bush? Still endangering our children and killing our men and women. Yay, Supreme Court. Hope all y’all can sleep at night.
• There was a darker theme emerging from the personal blogs I perused last week, too. Grace, Undressed posted a moving piece that shows what a lop-sided relationship looks like. And College Call Girl bravely revealed her history of assault. And, almost in antidote, Athena revealed, in detail, her experience with assault – and then follows it with an amazing tale of self-discovery and shows her plans to use that experience (among others) to strengthen her self-image and her life. It saddens me that these ladies’ stories are commonplace.

…and that’s the week that was! Tracy’s gonna hate this post – she doesn’t click my links.

This is the first sentence in David Reinhard’s column* in today’s Oregonian:

Things must be improving in Iraq, because you don’t read or hear about it as much these days. If things were getting worse — or staying the same — you can bet the big networks and newspapers would be out spreading the news.

Hmmm… gee, yeah, that’s a good point. Tell me, David Reinhard, Associate Editor for The Oregonian, the oldest and largest continuously-published newspaper in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, owned by Advance Publications, a major media corporation… can you think of any reason why there’s so little news about the daily bloodshed in Iraq? I wonder who is in control of that whole “reporting” and “getting out the news” thing that has apparently so stymied Mr. Reinhard? Oh, well, I guess “people” just don’t seem to want to hear about this stuff. That’s why it’s not in the papers.

* Link disappears down the memory hole in 14 days. Not my doing, sorry. If anyone knows how to link to Reinhard’s column so that it will work longer, I’d be happy to hear it.

Sometimes painful, uncomfortable experiences turn out to be freakin’ hilarious.

Like, for example, when Ken and I went to lunch today.

The next time something similar happens to me, I am not going to quietly try to let the manager know. No, I shall not be subtle. What, do I think I’m somehow protecting the image of a fast food restaurant?

No, I’m going to go all Jim Carrey. I’m going to stand up on the counter and shout and wave my arms:

There’s a nugget of poo in the pop machine!