The electronic embodiment of my brain farts.
A) My blog got 250 hits… in one day. And it’s still going. Apparently someone put my page as a favorite on Stumble.com (under religion) and now its getting hits like no other. Bravo.
B) I’m reading Japanese Hiragana so much quicker than I used to. I can read it half as fast as I do English and can understand 5/8 of what I read the first time. It’s amazing what the mind can accomplish in a year and a term.
The “truth” of something does not need verification to be a reality, but it does need verification if it needs to have any value attributed to it.
That comes from someone much smarter than me.
After doing some reading last year, I decided to abandon many of my normative values in an attempt to re-evaluate everything. However, I realized that instead of just a re-evaluation, I should re-apply my normative values in order to better analyze them. After all, the age of a normative value sometimes (emphasis on sometimes) correlates with an inherent truth or wisdom in adopting that value.
If that didn’t make sense to anyone, please complain about it.
I was browsing through de-conversion.com today when I stumbled upon a very relevant post. The best part is its premise has nothing to do specifically with religion. Rather, it deals with an aspect of the human condition I would personally like to overcome.In the post, LeoPardus examines our irrational reactions to certain truths, asking what revelations “press our buttons.” He also does a great job being fair to Christians and de-converts in his example (if you disagree, let me know as I have an inherently biased opinion on the matter). Some examples he gave:
- Are you, as a political liberal, perfectly happy when Rush Limbaugh turns out to be dead right about something? Especially if it’s something you strongly disagreed with him about?
- Are you, as a political conservative, glad to discover that Bill Clinton did something good? Especially if you thought him, “the worst president ever”?
- Are you, as a de-convert, willing to acknowledge the good done by the Christian faith in the world?
- Are you, as a Christian, willing to own up to the ugly side of your own denomination, own local church, or own personal failures to evidence “fruits of the Spirit?
To be honest, I fall victim to this type of mentality on a fairly consistent basis, and I’m a little ashamed to say I do. I feel I’ve done a good job working on it, but I need to accept facts as they come regardless of the source.The only aspect of my life where I recognize this sort of mentality is in my political convictions. I’m sure hope that’s the case, because then it isn’t very character shaping.
The last four days involved more turkey stuffing and consumer whoring than one holiday-vacationer student could ever hope to shake a stick at. But it’s over. Tomorrow, at 8:30 (but more like 10:30 given Amtrak’s ability to make it on time), I’ll leave this little vacation-from-reality (cliche` and all) and return to the world of reports, presentations, and memorizing a bunch of material. And believe me, I can’t wait to get back.
I’m not necessarily eager to get back, but I’m not eager to stay. I kind of want a little bit of both worlds, but to be honest, I’m so poor at deciding that I’ll let fate (or destiny, whatever) determine my location.
I’m very glad I got to see my family. My friends are scattered around the country studying, so I didn’t get to see much of them. But it’s ok. It kept me focused on family and schoolwork throughout my vacation.
It bothers me that I’m indifferent about being here or being in school, but at the same time it doesn’t, if only for reasons of consistency.
I’m sure I’ll read this tomorrow and it wont make a lick of sense.
Yes, Black Monday is the staple day for consumerism, and I had to partake, if only a little bit. As you guys may know, I was a little overdue for a new phone, so my mom took me down to the Sprint store (she’s the account holder, and I don’t have a car I can use).
It took me 20 minutes to pick out a phone, but I finally decided on the LG RUMOR (black).
It comes with a camera, a slide out QWERTY keyboard (as shown), MicroSD card slot, and MP3 Capabilities. I haven’t had an opportunity to talk on it much, but I’ve messed around with the other features.
The slide out keyboard works great. The screen adjusts automatically whenever the keyboard is pulled out and automatically displays texting options when the screen is on the home menu.
The MP3 Sound quality is pretty good for one speaker. I’ve seen other QWERTY keyboard phones with two speakers offering stereo sound, but the sound quality on the RUMOR suffices.
The camera is a 1.3 Megapixel, and with my 1GB SD card (not included, you have to buy it yourself), I can take photos and videos at the same quality that I can with my Digital Camera at home, and my memory card will hold more! I know, it’s time to upgrade my camera.
So far, I’m very satisfied with my new phone. Reception seems to be pretty good in most locations around Klamath Falls, but of course, I’ll be using the phone primarily in Eugene.
The clock on my computer reads 12:38 so…
Life on the homefront isn’t terribly interesting. The three things I’ve done today:
1) Played old GameCube games on my family’s Nintendo Wii with my siblings. Yes, classics such as “Super Smash Brothers” and “Soul Caliber” can still bring people together.
2) Went to the dentist to get a temporary cap on my tooth replaced with a permanent one. Seriously, I’m going to avoid ever EVER getting a root canal again. Talk about a pain…
3) Family dinner. Went to my Uncle/Grandmother’s huge house and had our annual pre-thanksgiving taste festival/dinner. Sampled everything that we’d be eating tomorrow… except, of course, the turkey. Mom’s apple pie (sugar crust) was the best.
The best part is, I haven’t been productive in the least! I haven’t looked at my homework or anything… but tomorrow, gotta crack down on studying… even if it is thanksgiving.
There was a post about KFalls on the front page of WordPress today!
The blogger was talking about temperature readings and how ridiculous KFalls climate reading system is (which doesn’t surprise me). You might not be so interested in that as you are the photos.
How not to measure temperature part 34
And it’s a pretty interesting read. I hope the photos don’t discourage any of you guys from visiting.
I just created a Ning account. It’s a social networking site where you can create your own network.
http://bryansfriends.ning.com/
Join my network!
I’m really trying to stay away from religion in my blog posts. I frequently keep up on the study of religion and it’s critiques, but since religion used to be a major part of my life, I’ve found I can be a little to emotionally attached when arguing a point concerning religion. That, and as far as my contemplativeness is concerned, I find it’s healthiest (at least 90% of the time) to take the mentality that I’ve de-converted, I have my reasons, enough said.
But when reading through a post at de-conversion.com, I saw one aspect of my old faith that I was never as a Christian able to reconcile.
Dear reader, I don’t care who you are, what religious background you are from, what you have done or not done in this life, or what you believe or do not believe. You do not deserve Hell. Know that I am not out to de-convert Christians or win them to my side. But my one evangelistic plea that I will make is that you do not have to believe this lie anymore. You do not deserve hell. You have intrinsic worth apart from God. You *are* somebody!
I repeat my claim that Hell is perhaps the most cruel and inhuman invention of the mind that mankind has ever concocted. I can’t even begin to imagine the emotional anguish and mental torment that this superstition has caused over the centuries. The fear of Hell enslaves the soul and robs us of the ability to question our own beliefs. The fear of Hell fuels unquestioning, unthinking and rigid faith, and drives many of life’s downtrodden to fearfully accept conversion as if by gunpoint.
And nobody deserves that.
This passage also reminds me of one of the many regrets I have. Without getting into specifics, I’ll say that had I this mentality earlier, I could have saved a lot of friendships and a lot of hurt feelings.
