When you read emails, do you read them in your voice or do you try to read them in an imagined voice of the author? I mean this as when you read them in you head (not out loud). Cuz when i'm writing this i'm saying it in my head in my voice, so if you read it in my voice then thats pretty much ESP, right? Man I'm smart! I just invented Extra Sensorial Perception, or reading-emails-in-author's-voice syndrome. which would be REIAV's I guess. By the way, "Sensorial" is not a word. I made it up. But come to think of it, aren't all words made up at some point in time? So when people claim a word is real, is that just because Webster said so? And who cares what some double-minority midget-black guy thinks anyway? 2 wrongs don't make a right! And 2 minorities don't make a dictionary!
Why do people indent? As in the 5 spaces or whatever at the beginning of each paragraph or tab if you're lazy like me. I didn't indent on this email and i think it reads just fine.
And why do we need to capitalize "I" - i ? Its not my name so i don't get it. All it is, is an extra reach for my pinky as I type. See, i just did it! Wasted effort is what that was! If we could not capitalize the stupid little i's anymore and bottle up all that energy, we could solve California's power problems. Now if we could just get rid of backspace we might be able develop a new fossil fuel and make those damn gas prices go back down. Don't ask for that one in a flowchart, just trust me that it connects.
Ok, now i'm gonna turn my little genius switch back off & get some sleep. later tater
Friday, September 14, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
How I'd love to live...
People are never honest about their intentions. And when they are, we never believe them. Pointing back to the ones who were not honest. There are too many walls and past relationship hang ups to get over. You are never really sure if you were settled for or are first choice. And when you figure you don't care, you are never sure how the other person feels about you. Or it's the other way around. Jealousy and possessiveness suck. All around. Don't do it, it drives people away. Don't start something you aren't prepared to follow through on, folks. It hurts. Walls are great to bring down, but not as a challenge to an ego. The wall is there for a reason. Respect it and be in awe that it came down for you. Word.
Learn to trust as hard as that sounds. Try not to judge based on your past experiences. Make that wall a little shorter. No one likes to climb that high. Don't be afraid of what might climb over. Remember your friends. Boyfriends and girlfriends even husbands and wives come and go (hopefully not the husbands and wives) but your friends, like your family, will always be there. Do the little things. The phone calls are neat. Everyone likes them. Emails too. Don't be afraid to speak your mind. No one has to be 100% alike to be compatible. And it's much more fun not to be. Spend time with your friends, have a hobby. It's okay. It'll give you that much more to talk about when you do hang out. Introduce each other to your friends. You don't have to want to hang out all the time. It's good to take a break. That way you won't get bored with each other. As if that would be the case.... Accept that you probably won't change the person you are dating. And that the person you met, is probably not 100% the real them, so allow room to accept them even more as they really are. Be yourself always. Be silly. Be stupid. No matter how old you are, cause it's fun. And have fun. Send each other comments on Myspace. Yes, I just referenced Myspace as a dating aid. So what? Don't over analyze where you are at any point in the relationship. Try not to think too much about the meaning of anything the other person said. It was probably not as heavy as you though it was when you heard it the first time. Ask questions. Find out more about them. Show interest. Talk. More. Fall into the physical attraction. It's okay. Age should not be a factor, but if I hear one more person say it isn't anything but a number, I will get violent. It's not JUST a number, it's much more. It's a level of maturity and personal growth. It matters. But only if you let it. Don't say things you don't really mean, are not sure of or can't back up. But if you mean it, please say it. A lot. And for no reason. And please, don't hold out on calling to see if the other person will call. Does it matter really? Just do it if you want to. Do what you say you will do and call when you say you will call. If you can't talk, find a way to let them know you remembered.
Don't always go to the movies. Take walks. Go on short trips. Cook. Together. In the kitchen. Rent movies and talk through them about the movie. Mini golf is only fun if you are doing it together. Listen to music. Take pictures. Get pictures of you two together. Memories are best illustrated with photos. Lots of them. Make out. It's great. Use your hands. Touch. Everywhere. And feel it, don't just touch to be touching. Feel the other person under your fingertips. It's okay to just lay or sit in each other's arms quietly. It's better to admit what you are thinking about is them. Or even if you are thinking about the million and one uses of duct tape as applied to the bedroom. Never be annoyed at the question. Be annoyed if there isn't one. You don't always have to go somewhere. Enjoy each other's company. Sex is great, but try to see what you can do other than that, because if there isn't anything outside of that, there won't be anything later on.
When it's over. Let it be over. It will hurt. A lot. But it's better to have had that experience than not to have had it at all. Even though you want it to never end. Remember that people come into your life for a reason. Sometimes not to stay. And that's really okay. It's okay to cry. In front of your friends. They care about you and will always be there for you. They will be there to help you pick up the pieces of your heart and put that wall back in place.
Remember the cool stuff about meeting someone new. Try not to look for it. It will find you.
Learn to trust as hard as that sounds. Try not to judge based on your past experiences. Make that wall a little shorter. No one likes to climb that high. Don't be afraid of what might climb over. Remember your friends. Boyfriends and girlfriends even husbands and wives come and go (hopefully not the husbands and wives) but your friends, like your family, will always be there. Do the little things. The phone calls are neat. Everyone likes them. Emails too. Don't be afraid to speak your mind. No one has to be 100% alike to be compatible. And it's much more fun not to be. Spend time with your friends, have a hobby. It's okay. It'll give you that much more to talk about when you do hang out. Introduce each other to your friends. You don't have to want to hang out all the time. It's good to take a break. That way you won't get bored with each other. As if that would be the case.... Accept that you probably won't change the person you are dating. And that the person you met, is probably not 100% the real them, so allow room to accept them even more as they really are. Be yourself always. Be silly. Be stupid. No matter how old you are, cause it's fun. And have fun. Send each other comments on Myspace. Yes, I just referenced Myspace as a dating aid. So what? Don't over analyze where you are at any point in the relationship. Try not to think too much about the meaning of anything the other person said. It was probably not as heavy as you though it was when you heard it the first time. Ask questions. Find out more about them. Show interest. Talk. More. Fall into the physical attraction. It's okay. Age should not be a factor, but if I hear one more person say it isn't anything but a number, I will get violent. It's not JUST a number, it's much more. It's a level of maturity and personal growth. It matters. But only if you let it. Don't say things you don't really mean, are not sure of or can't back up. But if you mean it, please say it. A lot. And for no reason. And please, don't hold out on calling to see if the other person will call. Does it matter really? Just do it if you want to. Do what you say you will do and call when you say you will call. If you can't talk, find a way to let them know you remembered.
Don't always go to the movies. Take walks. Go on short trips. Cook. Together. In the kitchen. Rent movies and talk through them about the movie. Mini golf is only fun if you are doing it together. Listen to music. Take pictures. Get pictures of you two together. Memories are best illustrated with photos. Lots of them. Make out. It's great. Use your hands. Touch. Everywhere. And feel it, don't just touch to be touching. Feel the other person under your fingertips. It's okay to just lay or sit in each other's arms quietly. It's better to admit what you are thinking about is them. Or even if you are thinking about the million and one uses of duct tape as applied to the bedroom. Never be annoyed at the question. Be annoyed if there isn't one. You don't always have to go somewhere. Enjoy each other's company. Sex is great, but try to see what you can do other than that, because if there isn't anything outside of that, there won't be anything later on.
When it's over. Let it be over. It will hurt. A lot. But it's better to have had that experience than not to have had it at all. Even though you want it to never end. Remember that people come into your life for a reason. Sometimes not to stay. And that's really okay. It's okay to cry. In front of your friends. They care about you and will always be there for you. They will be there to help you pick up the pieces of your heart and put that wall back in place.
Remember the cool stuff about meeting someone new. Try not to look for it. It will find you.
Monday, September 3, 2007
On my faith blog...
I just wanted to let everyone know that my blog on faith wasn't a question of whether or not I have faith, but merely looking at all sides of the faith argument. In my opinion, to be a Christian in today's world, it's important to be able to understand where everyone else is coming from...and it's good discussion nonetheless. So I wanted everyone to know that there's no need to worry about my faith!! I appreciate it though!!!
G
G
Prospection
(Gary's work once again)
Prospection: The act of looking forward in time or considering the future.
What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes? Would you race upstairs and light that Marlboro you've been hiding since the Clinton Administration? Would you waltz into your boss's office and present him with a detailed description of his personal defects? Would you drive out to a steakhouse near the mall and order a T-bone, medium rare, with an extra side of REALLY BAD cholesterol? Hard to say, of course, but of all the things you might do in your final ten minutes, it's a pretty safe bet that few of them are things you actually did today.
Now, some people will bemoan this fact, wag their fingers in your direction, and tell you sternly that you should live every minute of your life as if it were your last, which only goes to show that some would spend their final ten minutes giving other people dumb advice. The things we do when we expect our lives to to continue are naturally and properly different that the things we might do if we expected them to end abruptly. We go easy on the lard and tobacco, smile dutifully at yet another of our supervisor's witless jokes, read blogs like this when we could be wearing paper hats and eating pistachio macaroons in the bathtub, and we do each of these things in the charitable service of the people we will soon become. We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy. Rather than indulging in whatever strikes our momentary fancy, squirreling away portions of our paychecks each month so THEY can enjoy their retirements on a putting green, jogging and flossing with some regularity so THEY can avoid the coronaries and gum grafts, enduring dirty diapers and mind-numbing repetitions of THE CAT IN THE HAT so that someday THEY will have fat-cheeked grandchildren to bounce on their laps. Even plunking down a dollar at the convenience store is an act of charity intended to ensure that the person we are about to become, in the next minute or two, will enjoy the twinkie we are paying for now. In fact, just about any time we WANT something-a promotion, a marriage, an automobile, a cheeseburger- we are expecting that if we get it, then the person who has our fingerprints a second, minute, day, or decade from now will enjoy the world they inherit from us and our choices, honoring our sacrifices as the reap the harvest of our shrewd investment decisions and dietary forbearance.
Yeah, yeah. Don't hold your breath. Like the fruits of our loins, our temporal progeny are often thankless. We toil and sweat to give them just what we think they will like, and they quit their jobs, grow their hair, move to or from St Louis, and wonder how we could ever have been stupid enough to think they'd like THAT. We fail to achieve the accolades and rewards that we consider crucial to their well being, and they end up thanking God that things didn't work out according to a shortsighted plan. Even that person who takes a bite of twinkie we purchased a few minutes ago may make a sour face and accuse US of having bought the wrong snack. No one likes to be criticized, of course, but if the things we successfully strive for do not make our future selves happy, or if the things we unsuccessfully avoid do, then it seems reasonable (if somewhat ungracious) for them to cast a disparaging glance backward and wonder what the hell we were thinking. They may recognize our good intentions and begrudgingly acknowledge that we did the best we could, but they will inevitably whine to their therapists about how our best just wasn't good enough for them. How can this happen? Shouldn't we know the tastes, preferences, needs, and desires of the people we will be next year-or at least later this afternoon? Shouldn't we understand our future selves well enough to shape their lives-to find careers and lovers whom they will cherish, to buy slipcovers for the sofa that they will treasure for years to come? So why do they end up with attics and lives that are full of stuff that we considered indispensable and that they consider painful, embarrassing, or useless? Why do they criticize our choice of romantic partners, second guess our strategies for professional advancement, and pay good money to remove tattoos that we paid good money to get? Why do they experience regret and relief when they think about us, rather than pride and appreciation? We might understand all this if we had neglected them, ignored them, mistreated them in some fundamental way-but damn it, we gave them the best years of our lives! How can they be disappointed when we accomplish our coveted goals, and why are they so damned GIDDY when they end up in precisely the spot where we worked so hard to steer them clear of? Is there something wrong with them?
Or is there something wrong with us?
Please leave comments on what you think..I have more to this if you're interested.
Prospection: The act of looking forward in time or considering the future.
What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes? Would you race upstairs and light that Marlboro you've been hiding since the Clinton Administration? Would you waltz into your boss's office and present him with a detailed description of his personal defects? Would you drive out to a steakhouse near the mall and order a T-bone, medium rare, with an extra side of REALLY BAD cholesterol? Hard to say, of course, but of all the things you might do in your final ten minutes, it's a pretty safe bet that few of them are things you actually did today.
Now, some people will bemoan this fact, wag their fingers in your direction, and tell you sternly that you should live every minute of your life as if it were your last, which only goes to show that some would spend their final ten minutes giving other people dumb advice. The things we do when we expect our lives to to continue are naturally and properly different that the things we might do if we expected them to end abruptly. We go easy on the lard and tobacco, smile dutifully at yet another of our supervisor's witless jokes, read blogs like this when we could be wearing paper hats and eating pistachio macaroons in the bathtub, and we do each of these things in the charitable service of the people we will soon become. We treat our future selves as though they were our children, spending most of the hours of most of our days constructing tomorrows that we hope will make them happy. Rather than indulging in whatever strikes our momentary fancy, squirreling away portions of our paychecks each month so THEY can enjoy their retirements on a putting green, jogging and flossing with some regularity so THEY can avoid the coronaries and gum grafts, enduring dirty diapers and mind-numbing repetitions of THE CAT IN THE HAT so that someday THEY will have fat-cheeked grandchildren to bounce on their laps. Even plunking down a dollar at the convenience store is an act of charity intended to ensure that the person we are about to become, in the next minute or two, will enjoy the twinkie we are paying for now. In fact, just about any time we WANT something-a promotion, a marriage, an automobile, a cheeseburger- we are expecting that if we get it, then the person who has our fingerprints a second, minute, day, or decade from now will enjoy the world they inherit from us and our choices, honoring our sacrifices as the reap the harvest of our shrewd investment decisions and dietary forbearance.
Yeah, yeah. Don't hold your breath. Like the fruits of our loins, our temporal progeny are often thankless. We toil and sweat to give them just what we think they will like, and they quit their jobs, grow their hair, move to or from St Louis, and wonder how we could ever have been stupid enough to think they'd like THAT. We fail to achieve the accolades and rewards that we consider crucial to their well being, and they end up thanking God that things didn't work out according to a shortsighted plan. Even that person who takes a bite of twinkie we purchased a few minutes ago may make a sour face and accuse US of having bought the wrong snack. No one likes to be criticized, of course, but if the things we successfully strive for do not make our future selves happy, or if the things we unsuccessfully avoid do, then it seems reasonable (if somewhat ungracious) for them to cast a disparaging glance backward and wonder what the hell we were thinking. They may recognize our good intentions and begrudgingly acknowledge that we did the best we could, but they will inevitably whine to their therapists about how our best just wasn't good enough for them. How can this happen? Shouldn't we know the tastes, preferences, needs, and desires of the people we will be next year-or at least later this afternoon? Shouldn't we understand our future selves well enough to shape their lives-to find careers and lovers whom they will cherish, to buy slipcovers for the sofa that they will treasure for years to come? So why do they end up with attics and lives that are full of stuff that we considered indispensable and that they consider painful, embarrassing, or useless? Why do they criticize our choice of romantic partners, second guess our strategies for professional advancement, and pay good money to remove tattoos that we paid good money to get? Why do they experience regret and relief when they think about us, rather than pride and appreciation? We might understand all this if we had neglected them, ignored them, mistreated them in some fundamental way-but damn it, we gave them the best years of our lives! How can they be disappointed when we accomplish our coveted goals, and why are they so damned GIDDY when they end up in precisely the spot where we worked so hard to steer them clear of? Is there something wrong with them?
Or is there something wrong with us?
Please leave comments on what you think..I have more to this if you're interested.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Does St Louis have a lost and found?
I was working on this blog when my computer decided to go into a coma. I find it amusing that Loss was the topic when the technology department checked out. At first it was a real dookie sprayer but then I began to see and feel the light of being non attached having had all my contacts tossed out into the universe of forgotten passwords and recycled address books burned like the bras contained within them. Again, my cursive is stoked to be getting so much attention.
But now I am home and it feels like no time has passed. My dogs love me as if I'd never betrayed them with my absence. It kind of feels like I just ran to the store, but while I was out, Bushwalla's corn got really tall, Dan Sharp grew a beard, the car tires went bald, and the dogs now have giant heads and need shots.
THINGS I LOST ON THIS SUMMER'S MAGICAL RIDE:
Laptop Power Supply
Spectacles (Eyeglasses)
Sleep
The last cheeky episode of ENTOURAGE
One Pair of Ugly Shorts (on purpose)
Socks (a variety of course)
One Juggling Ball
Money
Calories
Virginity
Brain Cells
THINGS I MISSED THIS SUMMER:
deadline (once)
Toilet (repeatedly)
dogs
Mexican Food
Surfing
Her
THINGS I GOT USED TO:
Mayonnaise
Rain
Sausage
You Tube
Dirty Laundry
smelling fine
Tim
But now I am home and it feels like no time has passed. My dogs love me as if I'd never betrayed them with my absence. It kind of feels like I just ran to the store, but while I was out, Bushwalla's corn got really tall, Dan Sharp grew a beard, the car tires went bald, and the dogs now have giant heads and need shots.
THINGS I LOST ON THIS SUMMER'S MAGICAL RIDE:
Laptop Power Supply
Spectacles (Eyeglasses)
Sleep
The last cheeky episode of ENTOURAGE
One Pair of Ugly Shorts (on purpose)
Socks (a variety of course)
One Juggling Ball
Money
Calories
Virginity
Brain Cells
THINGS I MISSED THIS SUMMER:
deadline (once)
Toilet (repeatedly)
dogs
Mexican Food
Surfing
Her
THINGS I GOT USED TO:
Mayonnaise
Rain
Sausage
You Tube
Dirty Laundry
smelling fine
Tim
The Burden of Faith
Written by Gary (April 29, 2006)
What is truth? Truth may be said to be That which is true. Let us see if we can enlarge the scope and, thus, the utility of this observation. The line between objective and subjective has, of late, been a cause of great upheaval in this country. Darwin observed that animals evolve, from one generation to the next, by a process called natural selection. Giraffes, for example, subsist by eating leaves off of trees. In any generation, giraffes with longer necks are able to eat higher, and thus more, leaves; they, these long-necked giraffes, then have a greater chance of survival than their unfortunately shorter-necked contemporaries. The breeding pool for giraffes, then, will from one generation to the next be composed of those that survive. Over generations, the necks of giraffes will grow longer and longer. Length beyond which is useful will, however, be maladaptive, and hence the mean length of neck will normalize, over time, at the height of the trees.
We understand this process anecdotally, by looking at our families. We see, in our siblings, in our offspring, in our forebears, absolutely recognizable, inherited dispositions and abilities. We applaud the good (Aha, theres Aunt Bettys musical talent) and decry the bad (Yep, she has the same cant get startedism as Uncle Ben.)
We see this particular aspect of the species (our family) in a constant struggle between good characteristics (generally understood as those I possess) and the maladaptive ones (those shown by the unfortunate members of our family, who are nothing but a bunch of bums). We all carry genetic characteristics that influence behavior, and the gene pool throws us random variations, which are constantly at war with each other. Darwin encapsulated this contest as an example of randomness, which eventuated in the progression, generation to generation, of the species toward a better adaptation with its environment.
A theologian or philosopher might as easily suggest that at work was a beautiful divine mechanism, a mysterious progression toward a perfect harmony between man and his world. Yet there are fundamentalist Christian groups who call this view blasphemy. Man, the hold, was created whole and entire, descending from no other species and progressing, from the Garden of Eden to this date, in no wise whatsoever. They base this view on the reading of Genesis.
Genesis, however, could easily be read as a record of evolution. The story begins with an undifferentiated cell, the first cell, made up of waters. The waters are then divided by a rakia, a membrane, and the cell is separated into waters beneath and waters above. Sea creatures are brought into the world, then creatures that crawl on the land, then animals, and, finally, man.
This is a startling, intuitive, and scientifically correct rendition of life on earth. And a fundamentalist could easily argue, from Genesis, for the theory of evolution.
No, however, we are told. Every word in the Bible is literally true, and must be understood as such.
But the Bible also says that an unruly child must be taken outside the camp and stoned to death, that a man must marry his brothers widow, that a servant who does not desire to quit in indentureship must have an awl driven through his ear and into the door, et cetera. The fundamentalists do not believe in these aspects of the Bible, not, I think, do they practice them.
They understood, as rational beings, that, perhaps, these are poetical, and should be treated as such; or that these practices are outdated, and must be approached with common sense. Why, then, is the story of evolution of man exempt and sacrosanct? If all meaning is the Bible is not to be taken literally (even for the fundamentalists, whatever their doctrinal explications may suggest), then need one not admit, in vehemence about certain passages inviolability, that a choice has been made? And by whom was the choice made?
Grant that the writ is holy, the choice has been made by man. And man, being different from God, must err.
The unfortunate error of the fundamentalists is their insistence, then, not upon the primacy of Holy Writ, but upon the primacy of received interpretation. In suggesting that they, in their strictness, glorify God, they in fact exalt man.
Is the Bible true? Is it blasphemy to call it a poem? Is it superstition to call it Holy Writ? Is it possible to hold views that allow us to call it both?
Fundamentalists insist that the Bible is literally true, and work politically to enforce that view upon the general populace. The reduction of absurdum of this view is that of the Muslim fundamentalists, who say of their Holy Writ: It is true and unerring. Abide by it, or we will kill you.
Both are attempts to deal not with faith but with uncertainty.
All life is contradiction; all life is struggle and growth. And the fundamentalists opposition to the theory of evolution may be understood as uncertainty about their place in the universe. The Bible may be turned from a text into a talisman, and the indignant may shout (as one might of the flag) love it or leave it; but this, rather than an invitation to the potential unity that the Bible (or the flag) might symbolize, is an invitation to fight. It is a war cry meaning ratify my view or risk my wrath.
Curiously, though, the Bible is a record not of certainty but of strife: Adam and Eve sin against God; Cain kills Abel; Abraham plots to murder (sacrifice) his child, Isaac; Jacob cheats Esau; Korah plots against Moses; and so on.
There is in the Humash (the five books of Moses) nothing but strife-a record of theft, murder, incest, treason, and rebellion. And yet, say the fundamentalists, it is Gods word; it is perfect and true.
And I agree with them. The Bible is perfect, but we human beings are not. Our capacity to understand is both limited and unusual. The simple animal understands the world as a) those things I can eat, and b) those things that can kill me. But we human beings have been created to wonder at things. The Bible is a record of that wonder. Its ancient questions-Why were we born? Where do we come from? Why do we die? Why do we love and yet live to strife?-are what distinguish us from the lower orders.
The capacity to err, to reflect, and to improve is the special gift we have received from God. To suggest that our understanding of anything is perfect may be seen as blasphemy, which unfortunate capacity might drive or induce us back to the Bible. A mystery cannot be addressed rationally. Our longing to approach the mystery (whether religious, artistic, or mechanical) brings us closer to that mystery.
The mystery may be Why are we born good, and inclined to sin? or What causes this disease? or Why does the wood grain grow in this way? The random distribution of talents is, or may be understood as, a divine insurance that each human would be inspired to pursue this mystery in a unique and wholly satisfying way-thus providing the possibility not only of a beautiful life for the individual but also of the growth and progression toward the ultimate good of the community.
Perhaps more useful than the statement The Bible is true is the statement The Bible exists to make us ask, What is true?
Evolution and intelligent design are both true.
They are each true in a different way.
The first is true, as it is scientifically verifiable. That is, there is a method by which we answer the question How do I know? This method involves replication. If the same intersection of circumstances invariably brings about the same predictable results, we may say that a proposition describing the interaction and its results is true (i.e., paper placed over a flame will burn).
There are also great truths that may not be objectively proved: A Back fugue is superior to a Wrigleys gum jingle, but there is no way in which the scientific method may be applied to prove this truth.
Each human being understands and utilizes both methods of understanding the world. Each is a tool, and the appropriate tool will be chosen and employed according to not only the issue but also the same issue at different times.
The agnostic asserts he does not know if there is a god, but, should the elevator fail, he will absolutely employ his newfound capacity for prayer; the fundamentalist says man did not evolve, and then devotes his energies to combating abortion, as he knows it to be true that man does evolve and that the embryo is a human being.
We know that there are many ways of discerning truth, and that one need not exclude the others. The fact that truth may be defined differently is not uncomfortable until it is brought to our attention and we are asked to choose. At this point absolute certainty ( I know I love my wife, and I know that 2 + 2 = 4) may become confusion.
Human beings forced (or politically manipulated) to choose science or religion may elect one camp or the other and live under its banner. Everyday life will be little affected by the choice of camp (the dying agnostic will still pray, and the financially confused businessman fundamentalist will still refer to his calculator before his Bible).
The current national debates over evolution, school prayer, and gay marriage are not moral debates (as the Rights would cast them); nor are they, as the Left holds, legal debates. They are a contest between two ways of perceiving the truth.
The fervor generated by this contest is, in large extent, rage on each side at finding oneself in and extreme, inflexible, and, finally, absurd position. The American Civil Liberties Union defends the rights of neo-Nazis to march through a community of Holocaust survivors; Christian fundamentalists defend the bombing of abortion clinics; and each side says of the other, Have you lost your mind?
The heat of this contest is both exploited for political ends and exacerbated by its own inertia. Neither reason nor belief will solve the conflict, for both sides know, finally, that the conflict is artificial.
A court may determine whether Jones or Smith owns the overcoat, but it may not rule that chocolate is better than vanilla.
What is truth? Truth may be said to be That which is true. Let us see if we can enlarge the scope and, thus, the utility of this observation. The line between objective and subjective has, of late, been a cause of great upheaval in this country. Darwin observed that animals evolve, from one generation to the next, by a process called natural selection. Giraffes, for example, subsist by eating leaves off of trees. In any generation, giraffes with longer necks are able to eat higher, and thus more, leaves; they, these long-necked giraffes, then have a greater chance of survival than their unfortunately shorter-necked contemporaries. The breeding pool for giraffes, then, will from one generation to the next be composed of those that survive. Over generations, the necks of giraffes will grow longer and longer. Length beyond which is useful will, however, be maladaptive, and hence the mean length of neck will normalize, over time, at the height of the trees.
We understand this process anecdotally, by looking at our families. We see, in our siblings, in our offspring, in our forebears, absolutely recognizable, inherited dispositions and abilities. We applaud the good (Aha, theres Aunt Bettys musical talent) and decry the bad (Yep, she has the same cant get startedism as Uncle Ben.)
We see this particular aspect of the species (our family) in a constant struggle between good characteristics (generally understood as those I possess) and the maladaptive ones (those shown by the unfortunate members of our family, who are nothing but a bunch of bums). We all carry genetic characteristics that influence behavior, and the gene pool throws us random variations, which are constantly at war with each other. Darwin encapsulated this contest as an example of randomness, which eventuated in the progression, generation to generation, of the species toward a better adaptation with its environment.
A theologian or philosopher might as easily suggest that at work was a beautiful divine mechanism, a mysterious progression toward a perfect harmony between man and his world. Yet there are fundamentalist Christian groups who call this view blasphemy. Man, the hold, was created whole and entire, descending from no other species and progressing, from the Garden of Eden to this date, in no wise whatsoever. They base this view on the reading of Genesis.
Genesis, however, could easily be read as a record of evolution. The story begins with an undifferentiated cell, the first cell, made up of waters. The waters are then divided by a rakia, a membrane, and the cell is separated into waters beneath and waters above. Sea creatures are brought into the world, then creatures that crawl on the land, then animals, and, finally, man.
This is a startling, intuitive, and scientifically correct rendition of life on earth. And a fundamentalist could easily argue, from Genesis, for the theory of evolution.
No, however, we are told. Every word in the Bible is literally true, and must be understood as such.
But the Bible also says that an unruly child must be taken outside the camp and stoned to death, that a man must marry his brothers widow, that a servant who does not desire to quit in indentureship must have an awl driven through his ear and into the door, et cetera. The fundamentalists do not believe in these aspects of the Bible, not, I think, do they practice them.
They understood, as rational beings, that, perhaps, these are poetical, and should be treated as such; or that these practices are outdated, and must be approached with common sense. Why, then, is the story of evolution of man exempt and sacrosanct? If all meaning is the Bible is not to be taken literally (even for the fundamentalists, whatever their doctrinal explications may suggest), then need one not admit, in vehemence about certain passages inviolability, that a choice has been made? And by whom was the choice made?
Grant that the writ is holy, the choice has been made by man. And man, being different from God, must err.
The unfortunate error of the fundamentalists is their insistence, then, not upon the primacy of Holy Writ, but upon the primacy of received interpretation. In suggesting that they, in their strictness, glorify God, they in fact exalt man.
Is the Bible true? Is it blasphemy to call it a poem? Is it superstition to call it Holy Writ? Is it possible to hold views that allow us to call it both?
Fundamentalists insist that the Bible is literally true, and work politically to enforce that view upon the general populace. The reduction of absurdum of this view is that of the Muslim fundamentalists, who say of their Holy Writ: It is true and unerring. Abide by it, or we will kill you.
Both are attempts to deal not with faith but with uncertainty.
All life is contradiction; all life is struggle and growth. And the fundamentalists opposition to the theory of evolution may be understood as uncertainty about their place in the universe. The Bible may be turned from a text into a talisman, and the indignant may shout (as one might of the flag) love it or leave it; but this, rather than an invitation to the potential unity that the Bible (or the flag) might symbolize, is an invitation to fight. It is a war cry meaning ratify my view or risk my wrath.
Curiously, though, the Bible is a record not of certainty but of strife: Adam and Eve sin against God; Cain kills Abel; Abraham plots to murder (sacrifice) his child, Isaac; Jacob cheats Esau; Korah plots against Moses; and so on.
There is in the Humash (the five books of Moses) nothing but strife-a record of theft, murder, incest, treason, and rebellion. And yet, say the fundamentalists, it is Gods word; it is perfect and true.
And I agree with them. The Bible is perfect, but we human beings are not. Our capacity to understand is both limited and unusual. The simple animal understands the world as a) those things I can eat, and b) those things that can kill me. But we human beings have been created to wonder at things. The Bible is a record of that wonder. Its ancient questions-Why were we born? Where do we come from? Why do we die? Why do we love and yet live to strife?-are what distinguish us from the lower orders.
The capacity to err, to reflect, and to improve is the special gift we have received from God. To suggest that our understanding of anything is perfect may be seen as blasphemy, which unfortunate capacity might drive or induce us back to the Bible. A mystery cannot be addressed rationally. Our longing to approach the mystery (whether religious, artistic, or mechanical) brings us closer to that mystery.
The mystery may be Why are we born good, and inclined to sin? or What causes this disease? or Why does the wood grain grow in this way? The random distribution of talents is, or may be understood as, a divine insurance that each human would be inspired to pursue this mystery in a unique and wholly satisfying way-thus providing the possibility not only of a beautiful life for the individual but also of the growth and progression toward the ultimate good of the community.
Perhaps more useful than the statement The Bible is true is the statement The Bible exists to make us ask, What is true?
Evolution and intelligent design are both true.
They are each true in a different way.
The first is true, as it is scientifically verifiable. That is, there is a method by which we answer the question How do I know? This method involves replication. If the same intersection of circumstances invariably brings about the same predictable results, we may say that a proposition describing the interaction and its results is true (i.e., paper placed over a flame will burn).
There are also great truths that may not be objectively proved: A Back fugue is superior to a Wrigleys gum jingle, but there is no way in which the scientific method may be applied to prove this truth.
Each human being understands and utilizes both methods of understanding the world. Each is a tool, and the appropriate tool will be chosen and employed according to not only the issue but also the same issue at different times.
The agnostic asserts he does not know if there is a god, but, should the elevator fail, he will absolutely employ his newfound capacity for prayer; the fundamentalist says man did not evolve, and then devotes his energies to combating abortion, as he knows it to be true that man does evolve and that the embryo is a human being.
We know that there are many ways of discerning truth, and that one need not exclude the others. The fact that truth may be defined differently is not uncomfortable until it is brought to our attention and we are asked to choose. At this point absolute certainty ( I know I love my wife, and I know that 2 + 2 = 4) may become confusion.
Human beings forced (or politically manipulated) to choose science or religion may elect one camp or the other and live under its banner. Everyday life will be little affected by the choice of camp (the dying agnostic will still pray, and the financially confused businessman fundamentalist will still refer to his calculator before his Bible).
The current national debates over evolution, school prayer, and gay marriage are not moral debates (as the Rights would cast them); nor are they, as the Left holds, legal debates. They are a contest between two ways of perceiving the truth.
The fervor generated by this contest is, in large extent, rage on each side at finding oneself in and extreme, inflexible, and, finally, absurd position. The American Civil Liberties Union defends the rights of neo-Nazis to march through a community of Holocaust survivors; Christian fundamentalists defend the bombing of abortion clinics; and each side says of the other, Have you lost your mind?
The heat of this contest is both exploited for political ends and exacerbated by its own inertia. Neither reason nor belief will solve the conflict, for both sides know, finally, that the conflict is artificial.
A court may determine whether Jones or Smith owns the overcoat, but it may not rule that chocolate is better than vanilla.
The First Unstructured Specific
Compared to how creative that title was, this first entry is probably gonna suck. That may just be the most creative thing I do all day. Then again I'll be watching a 3 year old all day today - alone. A time in which much creativeness seems to come out of nowhere. I guess parenting is one of those things in life that tends to bring out the best in us. Lets just hope that best is good enough... I would hate to think that I was responsible for raising the Antichrist.
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