It's not about what's popular to believe
or
how convincingly you can back-up contention number two with twenty-three analogies and fifty-six references to published articles in renown journals,
it's about the truth.
or
how convincingly you can back-up contention number two with twenty-three analogies and fifty-six references to published articles in renown journals,
it's about the truth.
To go.
Hmmm. Seems to me that there can never be enough Twilight-hate, so here's an appetizer. More to come shortly.
The plot of New Moon.
I've been spending way too much time playing Heroes of Gaia and Unnamed Artillery.
There's a global chat enabled in Heroes of Gaia with a 30 second cooldown time after every message. This understandably leads to hilarious results.
"All we do here is discuss interspecies sex and laugh at noobs."
The global chat in HoG spends 99% of its time being filled by the following topics:
In other news, stem cells may be able to kill them HIVs.
A typical newb question: "How can I speed up game???".
Replies:
"Animals have the right to be tasty."
A vast majority of the time on Gaia is spent waiting.
Unnamed Artillery, on the other hand, is like Worms. With a limited range of weapons that was very cleverly chosen. You have the Smart Bomb that zooms in on the nearest target when you shoot it. Then there's the Bouncing Mortar that bounces about 5 times all over the place and pisses everyone off. And the Mini Flash Nuke that only detonates when dropping down. Doesn't detonate on impact. And it can't be used if your target is on lower ground.
Then there are the two standard multi-mortar rockets. And a digger. Plus jet packs. And a shield. And 2 Napalm Rains.
Each game is short, brutal, and to the point.
In a 1-on-1 situation, I will probably win 80% of the time, regardless of the opponent.
Lately, though, the lobby has been packed, so they're all 4 on 4 games. Which is the perfect opportunity to troll.
Sample game:
HAI GUYZ IM NEW HERE HOW TO PLAY LOLOLOLO
just click
HAY MAN I CANT MOVE DURRRR
HALP ME I CANT MOVEEEEE
WHY CANT I MOVE, HEY MAN HELP ME
CAN WE BE FRIENDS
no
HURRRR
wtf? time over?
JUST KIDDINGZ *shoots*
Trolling is incredibly satisfying.
Moving on, though.
Cats are evil.
Wikipedia on Wikipedia.
Rock music is the devil!!!1!!11
The poor fools. Blues is clearly the devil's music.
Two appropriate responses:
Video
and
Soooo... where exactly does Christian rock fit into all this?
Frequent Wikipedia critic Andrew Orlowski: "Even when a Wikipedia entry is 100 per cent factually correct, and those facts have been carefully chosen, it all too often reads as if it has been translated from one language to another then into to a third, passing an illiterate translator at each stage."
The Wikipedia article on goats.
Garden Gnome Liberationists.
Time. Will discuss this philosophically after finals.
The Big Bang Timeline.
Wikipedia is an excellent example of an idea that doesn't look very clever on paper, but works out well in practice.
Focus focus focus
Hmmm. Seems to me that there can never be enough Twilight-hate, so here's an appetizer. More to come shortly.
The plot of New Moon.
I've been spending way too much time playing Heroes of Gaia and Unnamed Artillery.
There's a global chat enabled in Heroes of Gaia with a 30 second cooldown time after every message. This understandably leads to hilarious results.
"All we do here is discuss interspecies sex and laugh at noobs."
The global chat in HoG spends 99% of its time being filled by the following topics:
- Recycled Chuck Norris jokes, with references to Mother Russia.
- Hilarious hating of the undead species.
- Sexism.
In other news, stem cells may be able to kill them HIVs.
A typical newb question: "How can I speed up game???".
Replies:
- Drugs are your best friend
- Speed-up card
- slow down ur clock
- Blow the developer?
- Be an orc
"Animals have the right to be tasty."
A vast majority of the time on Gaia is spent waiting.
Unnamed Artillery, on the other hand, is like Worms. With a limited range of weapons that was very cleverly chosen. You have the Smart Bomb that zooms in on the nearest target when you shoot it. Then there's the Bouncing Mortar that bounces about 5 times all over the place and pisses everyone off. And the Mini Flash Nuke that only detonates when dropping down. Doesn't detonate on impact. And it can't be used if your target is on lower ground.
Then there are the two standard multi-mortar rockets. And a digger. Plus jet packs. And a shield. And 2 Napalm Rains.
Each game is short, brutal, and to the point.
In a 1-on-1 situation, I will probably win 80% of the time, regardless of the opponent.
Lately, though, the lobby has been packed, so they're all 4 on 4 games. Which is the perfect opportunity to troll.
Sample game:
HAI GUYZ IM NEW HERE HOW TO PLAY LOLOLOLO
just click
HAY MAN I CANT MOVE DURRRR
HALP ME I CANT MOVEEEEE
WHY CANT I MOVE, HEY MAN HELP ME
CAN WE BE FRIENDS
no
HURRRR
wtf? time over?
JUST KIDDINGZ *shoots*
Trolling is incredibly satisfying.
Moving on, though.
Cats are evil.
Wikipedia on Wikipedia.
Rock music is the devil!!!1!!11
The poor fools. Blues is clearly the devil's music.
Two appropriate responses:
Video
and
Soooo... where exactly does Christian rock fit into all this?
Frequent Wikipedia critic Andrew Orlowski: "Even when a Wikipedia entry is 100 per cent factually correct, and those facts have been carefully chosen, it all too often reads as if it has been translated from one language to another then into to a third, passing an illiterate translator at each stage."
The Wikipedia article on goats.
Garden Gnome Liberationists.
Time. Will discuss this philosophically after finals.
The Big Bang Timeline.
Wikipedia is an excellent example of an idea that doesn't look very clever on paper, but works out well in practice.
Focus focus focus
Wish I had got a N900 instead of a HTC. If Rogers actually had the phone, I mean.
Maemo looks pretty impressive as an OS. And instead of the lame pinching, you get to double-click/swirl your finger to zoom in and out. The most awesome thing, though, is the integration of Firefox. Mmmm.
The internal storage is, of course, a beast. 32GB. With the option to add an extra 16 GB, though that's hardly necessary.
The RAM is interesting. It's only 256MB - moderately impressive - but it also comes with 768 MB of virtual memory. So technically you're running on a 1GB application memory. Damn.
But, come on, Ovi Maps? Bleh.
Ah, Apple. The masters of charging excessively for products that look good and using the revenue for advertising that promotes how cool they are.
Also, apparently there's a plug-in for tabbed documents in Office 07. This is brilliant.
Office '10 is coming soon, though.
Maemo looks pretty impressive as an OS. And instead of the lame pinching, you get to double-click/swirl your finger to zoom in and out. The most awesome thing, though, is the integration of Firefox. Mmmm.
The internal storage is, of course, a beast. 32GB. With the option to add an extra 16 GB, though that's hardly necessary.
The RAM is interesting. It's only 256MB - moderately impressive - but it also comes with 768 MB of virtual memory. So technically you're running on a 1GB application memory. Damn.
But, come on, Ovi Maps? Bleh.
Ah, Apple. The masters of charging excessively for products that look good and using the revenue for advertising that promotes how cool they are.
Also, apparently there's a plug-in for tabbed documents in Office 07. This is brilliant.
Office '10 is coming soon, though.
Tried cooking banana rice. Came off moderately well. Didn't realize the banana slices would soak up that much water. Not sure if I should add more next time.
Or less.
The rice hardly got oily so I guess I might have added too much water as opposed to too little. HURM.
During the 2-week winter break, I'll attempt to cook at least 20 new dishes.
Stir-fried some pork just now. Starched it up with corn starch before frying. And added some turmeric. I'm adding turmeric to everything nowadays. Meh.
Added soya sauce, a hint of oyster sauce, and plum sauce.
Need to get a pot to test out some curries, rendangs, and chilis.
A proper one.
Nash equilibrium.
And I need a blender. Should start making smoothies for breakfast. Haha. Wonder if I should add in my multi-vitamin pills.
Or less.
The rice hardly got oily so I guess I might have added too much water as opposed to too little. HURM.
During the 2-week winter break, I'll attempt to cook at least 20 new dishes.
Stir-fried some pork just now. Starched it up with corn starch before frying. And added some turmeric. I'm adding turmeric to everything nowadays. Meh.
Added soya sauce, a hint of oyster sauce, and plum sauce.
Need to get a pot to test out some curries, rendangs, and chilis.
A proper one.
Nash equilibrium.
And I need a blender. Should start making smoothies for breakfast. Haha. Wonder if I should add in my multi-vitamin pills.
Go and let it out. Use somebody.
Like a stone.
The evolution of African-American music.
Buffy v. Edward.
Scholes, don't go.
Tandem story at its best.
How to save a life.
Because everyone hates banks.
Singer: Don't come in late... Don't come in late... GAH I CAME IN EARLY!
Guitarist: I wonder if I can sneak in an improv solo in this song... Whoops, I can't.
Bassist: Shit I forgot this song. Ah well, I'll just watch the rhythm guitarists hands.
Drummer: BOOM BOOM CRASH BOOM BOOM CRASH
Rhythm Guitarist: Shit I forgot this song. Oh well, I'll just watch the bassist's hands.
What do you call a black priest?
A priest, you racist.
Like a stone.
The evolution of African-American music.
Buffy v. Edward.
Scholes, don't go.
Tandem story at its best.
How to save a life.
Because everyone hates banks.
Singer: Don't come in late... Don't come in late... GAH I CAME IN EARLY!
Guitarist: I wonder if I can sneak in an improv solo in this song... Whoops, I can't.
Bassist: Shit I forgot this song. Ah well, I'll just watch the rhythm guitarists hands.
Drummer: BOOM BOOM CRASH BOOM BOOM CRASH
Rhythm Guitarist: Shit I forgot this song. Oh well, I'll just watch the bassist's hands.
What do you call a black priest?
A priest, you racist.
"Very few people have intercourse that goes longer than 12 minutes," says sex therapist Barry W. McCarthy.
Apparently caffeine is not a good substitute for sleep. Expecting, at the very least, a poor replication of wakefulness, I downed 300 mg of caffeine in various forms. This involved consuming caffeine pills, drinking 'Energy Shots', and pouring an energy drink into my humidifier. Lol kidding I don't have a humidifier asdasda.
As a result, my eyes felt like they were being held open by the mighty hands of Goliath. While this might seem like a satisfactory result, IT IS NOT SO. Beneath the facade of red eyes and swollen eyebags, a dying man bleated in agonizing pain. A blanket of weariness sporadically washed over my body, forcing me to crumble and fall to the ground in a heap - if not for the caffeine causing my muscles to spit in the face of the law(s of science).
More worryingly, my basic motor functions deteriorated exponentially despite me feeling more awake as the day progressed. Attempting to draw upon the nourishing Nesquik (vanilla) milk to replenish my life essence, I lifted the milk packet to my mouth. As a result, I pierced myself on the lip. Howling in pain, I attempted to grasp at the injured spot - a perfectly natural involuntary reaction. Instead, I missed the spot by several inches and gently punched myself on the tip of the nose. Staggering from the blow, I reeled around before realizing I was seated. Then the caffeine ran out and my head descended violently on to the table, smashing my keyboard as it went. Bloodied and dazed, I flailed about, trying to reach the water bottle.
Then I opened it and water splashed everywhere, turning my vision into a dizzying haze of diluted blood. The laptop buzzed happily and Jack Black's voice cut off abruptly in the middle of 'Fuck Her Gently'. I started panicking at this point. Blast it. I hadn't had the time to back up my data. Mostly because I didn't have a hard drive. Screaming maniacally, I attempted to rouse the blasted Dell laptop with an ancient Maori chant. I coaxed it, I begged, I pleaded, then i grew angry and jabbed it a bit to let it know i wasn't joking. To my dismay, several electronic farting sounds billowed around the room, attacking my open wounds. i collapsed to the floor, my armchair shooting out behind me, rebounding off the mattress, and flying back to smash its master on his bloodied head
drunk with the pain and lack of sensible eye-to-body coordination, i coughed up blood then pulled myself to my feet. still the black screen watched me impassively even as i crushed its crooked jaw with a stinger of a right hook. i felt the skin tear but it was too late for pain. adrenaline coursed through my weakened body and i bellowed and crushed the cursed machine between my hands and the desk
with a mighty fling i tossed it at the window but it smashed the first layer and bounced off the insect netting. roaring i rushed at it and fell over the stack of textbooks on the carpeted floor. i noticed the jagged, cracked glass and called upon the adrenaline pumping through my body, channeling it into the air around me. time slowed down enough for me to grab my curtain and pull myself to the safety of the bed. i crashed against the corner of the wooden ikea structure and something popped. bed boards cracked and my right foot got caught in the wreckage
snarling i pulled my foot out wincing as the dried out skin resisted my motion and clung on to the ruined wooden planks
grabbing what remained of the sizzling black demon i rushed at the closed door and smashed into it with my shoulder. a searing pain screamed out but the door stood impassively still. sniffling back tears of anger i attacked it with my epiphone amp striking it repeatedly uthnil the greenw ood gave way to splinters of remorse ang foolishnes
pushign my way through tthe wreckage i held teh struggling demon aloft in my hands laughing uproariously in victory. sweet swet victoru! i bounded down the stair, tripping at the last step but quickly regaining my balance. it was a moment of victory and no devil drug ould spoil the moment
shouting loudly to draw the attention of onlookers staring up at the spectacle i muttered a quick war crya ndt hrew the balsted black thgn down int the crowd. screams of eutter fear a ndpan ic echoedloudly adcross the mall as they saw the beaten demon sweoopd own towards them init sevil wretchedness
ocfource! iwas c fool it had merely feigned deferat! my heat pounding painfully in my ears i cried out DO NOT FEAR I WILL PRTOECT YOU obilvious to my cries the peasfasnts yelled andr ran awat from the black monter. it hit the groun gradcefully with several loud exclamations o death andblackwizardry
i stgared deep itoits eyes and i knewwat i hadtodo
I WILL PETECT YU
i shouted again
then i dived down to end thisrwteched battle oncea ndfr al
As a result, my eyes felt like they were being held open by the mighty hands of Goliath. While this might seem like a satisfactory result, IT IS NOT SO. Beneath the facade of red eyes and swollen eyebags, a dying man bleated in agonizing pain. A blanket of weariness sporadically washed over my body, forcing me to crumble and fall to the ground in a heap - if not for the caffeine causing my muscles to spit in the face of the law(s of science).
More worryingly, my basic motor functions deteriorated exponentially despite me feeling more awake as the day progressed. Attempting to draw upon the nourishing Nesquik (vanilla) milk to replenish my life essence, I lifted the milk packet to my mouth. As a result, I pierced myself on the lip. Howling in pain, I attempted to grasp at the injured spot - a perfectly natural involuntary reaction. Instead, I missed the spot by several inches and gently punched myself on the tip of the nose. Staggering from the blow, I reeled around before realizing I was seated. Then the caffeine ran out and my head descended violently on to the table, smashing my keyboard as it went. Bloodied and dazed, I flailed about, trying to reach the water bottle.
Then I opened it and water splashed everywhere, turning my vision into a dizzying haze of diluted blood. The laptop buzzed happily and Jack Black's voice cut off abruptly in the middle of 'Fuck Her Gently'. I started panicking at this point. Blast it. I hadn't had the time to back up my data. Mostly because I didn't have a hard drive. Screaming maniacally, I attempted to rouse the blasted Dell laptop with an ancient Maori chant. I coaxed it, I begged, I pleaded, then i grew angry and jabbed it a bit to let it know i wasn't joking. To my dismay, several electronic farting sounds billowed around the room, attacking my open wounds. i collapsed to the floor, my armchair shooting out behind me, rebounding off the mattress, and flying back to smash its master on his bloodied head
drunk with the pain and lack of sensible eye-to-body coordination, i coughed up blood then pulled myself to my feet. still the black screen watched me impassively even as i crushed its crooked jaw with a stinger of a right hook. i felt the skin tear but it was too late for pain. adrenaline coursed through my weakened body and i bellowed and crushed the cursed machine between my hands and the desk
with a mighty fling i tossed it at the window but it smashed the first layer and bounced off the insect netting. roaring i rushed at it and fell over the stack of textbooks on the carpeted floor. i noticed the jagged, cracked glass and called upon the adrenaline pumping through my body, channeling it into the air around me. time slowed down enough for me to grab my curtain and pull myself to the safety of the bed. i crashed against the corner of the wooden ikea structure and something popped. bed boards cracked and my right foot got caught in the wreckage
snarling i pulled my foot out wincing as the dried out skin resisted my motion and clung on to the ruined wooden planks
grabbing what remained of the sizzling black demon i rushed at the closed door and smashed into it with my shoulder. a searing pain screamed out but the door stood impassively still. sniffling back tears of anger i attacked it with my epiphone amp striking it repeatedly uthnil the greenw ood gave way to splinters of remorse ang foolishnes
pushign my way through tthe wreckage i held teh struggling demon aloft in my hands laughing uproariously in victory. sweet swet victoru! i bounded down the stair, tripping at the last step but quickly regaining my balance. it was a moment of victory and no devil drug ould spoil the moment
shouting loudly to draw the attention of onlookers staring up at the spectacle i muttered a quick war crya ndt hrew the balsted black thgn down int the crowd. screams of eutter fear a ndpan ic echoedloudly adcross the mall as they saw the beaten demon sweoopd own towards them init sevil wretchedness
ocfource! iwas c fool it had merely feigned deferat! my heat pounding painfully in my ears i cried out DO NOT FEAR I WILL PRTOECT YOU obilvious to my cries the peasfasnts yelled andr ran awat from the black monter. it hit the groun gradcefully with several loud exclamations o death andblackwizardry
i stgared deep itoits eyes and i knewwat i hadtodo
I WILL PETECT YU
i shouted again
then i dived down to end thisrwteched battle oncea ndfr al
WAITING FOR MY LUCKY BREAK TO COME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
So I wrote this message and sent it off to the Entertainment Editor.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, LOOK AT THE PRICE OF ADVERTISING IN GATEWAY:
So I wrote this message and sent it off to the Entertainment Editor.
I'm Wayne and I'm as talented as a kitten drunk on absinthe.
WAIT DON'T SWITCH TO FACEBOOK YET, THIS WILL NOT BE A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME, I PROMISE YOU
I was wondering if you would be willing to accept a slightly-longer-than-the-usual-cartoon-strip into the Gateway. It's not a cartoon strip, of course, it's a highly stylized GRAPHIC NOVEL detailing the epic adventures of an adventurer. Very mature stuff (ie. lots of needless violence and badly drawn nude women). Uhm, kidding. I can't draw women. Anyway, would the Gateway be open to such an idea? I'm not saying I have such a series available, I am merely contemplating the notion the way a pre-pubescent kid toys with the idea of a musical revolution after achieving a perfect score on Guitar Hero.
Oh, and I'd also like to try out reviewing CDs. Stuff like that.
I probably should list my weaknesses for evaluation. Here they are!
(1) Poor resistance to fire.
(2) Attempts to draw in 3D have resulted in a hilarious amalgamation of bizarre 2D shapes scribbled in faded HB carbon.
(3) I've never reviewed a CD before.
(4) This message might be due to the usual pre-exam mental breakdown.
(5) I suffer from a very severe, fatal, and fatally severe medical condition where contact with more than 2 other human beings at a single moment in time results in a severe medical condition.
Also, my surname is obviously not Ghuty-man.
P.S. lol, I was kidding about the promise. You can continue your Booking now.
P.S.S. Good luck for the finals.
P.S.S.S. Is this supposed to be P.P.P.S.? God this is all so confusing
P.P.P.P.S. if the reply is something like 'lol bye' i will be heartbroken please do not crush my tormented heart i am alone on the freezing lands of canada crying for acceptance with pair of sennheiser px100 headphones that do not function anymore
MORE IMPORTANTLY, LOOK AT THE PRICE OF ADVERTISING IN GATEWAY:
- Text Charge
- Ad text is priced at 6¢ per character, with a minimum text charge of $5 per ad. Spaces count as characters.
- Insertion Charge
- In addition to the Text Charge, each ad is charged a $1 insertion fee each issue of The Gateway that it runs in.
The writer (lol) of this blog (lol) is currently suffering from a mental breakdown. The House of Jupiter will resume normal (lol) operations when demonoid.com does (lol). In the meantime, some links to brighten up your day.
On the birds and the bees.
Do you suck in it or are you good?
Has anyone seen Ken Lee?
Put your hands up.
Surely one of the greatest human achievements (except for the stupid banana kid and the group of retards at the end).
Is Garfield alone and dreaming as he slowly starves to death? One certainly hopes so.
It was... the Swamp Ghost.
Interesting thread. There seems to be less juvenile humour in The Pit nowadays.
Ah, that's more like it!
The legendary thread that started the Prestige meme.
The three greatest UG memes: The Prestige, brang, and ACKWARD.
On the birds and the bees.
Do you suck in it or are you good?
Has anyone seen Ken Lee?
Put your hands up.
Surely one of the greatest human achievements (except for the stupid banana kid and the group of retards at the end).
Is Garfield alone and dreaming as he slowly starves to death? One certainly hopes so.
It was... the Swamp Ghost.
Interesting thread. There seems to be less juvenile humour in The Pit nowadays.
Ah, that's more like it!
The legendary thread that started the Prestige meme.
The three greatest UG memes: The Prestige, brang, and ACKWARD.
Ooooooooh controversial.
Presbyterians believe that only some stories in the Bible are true. The others are allegories and analogies.
Of course this leads to the problem of deciding which ones are true. Since it's pretty obvious there's no external way to do so, holding such a belief entitles one to create a custom-made Bible, so to speak.
Though, of course, my religious views do tend towards that.
Let's see.
Am I living in denial? Maybe I'm already an atheist at heart, fighting to hang on to tales I was brought up with. Some call it brainwashing. Meh, semantics. It is what it is. I doubt I'm an atheist, though.
Being an agnostic theist Catholic is closer to being an atheist than to being a Catholic, all things considered. I hardly think I qualify to even be categorized as a Catholic, in the most traditional sense. Nevertheless, I will doggedly continue to use the label because I'm hardly that different from many other Catholics I know. They just don't think about it that much.
As it is, I've seen religious debates go on and on and on and on. Pretty much the same topics are brought up. Atheists mock the delusion called 'religion' and liken it to believing in purple unicorn overlords. The typical over-religious Christian pops in with atrocious spelling and shouts at the heathens. The occasional Muslim strolls by and proclaims victory, as well as predicts a united Muslim world in the near future based on the growth rate of Islam. Poor kids. The lack of religion is growing faster than religion, particularly in developed worlds.
Why do you think so?
It is impossible to logically prove that God exists. Of course, it's impossible to prove otherwise too. In the same way that it's impossible to prove that purple unicorn overlords do not exist.
Logically, there is no way to prove that
I grew tired of defending agnostic Catholicism in the LowYat forums against multiple atheists who flailed about without any real points. Atheism counter-attacks are the easiest points to pull off, really. An 8-year old kid could do it.
It's a good deal harder defending Christianity using rationale and logic. In fact, I agree that logic and religion cannot co-exist. But more of that later.
Psht. Religious debates. There's no middle ground for Christians and atheists. There isn't something both sides can agree on. Unless that happens, both camps will see everything through a single biased point-of-view, warping even the most obvious of proofs.
I know. It was hypocritical of me to try to defend Christianity logically.
As an aside, you practically never see any other religions except the Abrahamic ones in these debates. And, well, atheism. Not that that's a religion. It's the lack of one.
Where was I?
Hypocritical. Right. But anyway, I did so. It helped me understand where I was 'with my faith', as they say. Obviously, I couldn't defend arguments with ipse dixit fallacies. The problem with arguments from misleading authority is that, in this case, they are both hilarious and obviously wrong. Also, applying such arguments in this context creates circular reasoning. I can't take passages from the Bible to be a proof that the Bible is not a work of fiction.
So, logic it was. To be fair, I was really only defending my stand that agnostic Catholics could indeed exist (only cos that's what everyone picked on). Sure, agnostic theists are perfectly real creatures. It's the application of agnosticism to Catholicism that creates finicky problems.
I speculated a bit on the idea of God. Clearly, the concept of a higher being that sparked creation seemed to be an innate notion. We laugh at the idea that the world is supported by a series of turtles stretching towards infinity, one on top of the other, but atheists laugh in the same way at the concept of God.
Meanwhile the Eastern religions watch (with the obligatory scornful laughter) both camps fight a heated battle over an age-old concept.
One that seems to be on a downward spiral now more than ever.
Things don't look good on the theist camp.
Especially when you consider the way that all these higher beings are sculpted in our own image. To be more precise, in the image of the believers.
So why the atheist rebellion against religion (besides logic)?
I suppose you could trace this all the way back to the idea of Earth not being the center of the solar system. Once that idea was proven to be false, "man lost his place in the Universe" (to steal the words of Mr. Tan). Ever the amusingly self-absorbed race, mankind struggled to prove that they weren't insignificant. After all, God created them to look after everything on Earth (and maybe the Universe too?). And he didn't go around talking to deer and elephants, did he? No siree. He killed them with a flood.
Over time, this struggle to find a footing in the Universe led to humanism. The focus was once again on our uniqueness - this time, though, religion did not come into play. Then we have existentialism and absurdism and what-not, after which modern philosophy dissolved into a bubbling cauldron of depression. No wonder philosophers nowadays only seem interested in linguistics.
All that chit-chat aside, I am pretty much one of those people the atheist camp ridicules on a daily basis. I believe blindly. Hey, at least I can admit as much. Every Christian believes blindly, really. They just don't admit it. Or they say it in a different way. And by different, I mean blending together long phrases of religious padding that have no purpose other than to establish a befuddled faux superiority and piss of everyone who can't stand that bullshit. Me, for example. And Andrew. Just because we're seen as bumbling fools in a cult living in the bronze age doesn't mean we can't speak clearly and logically.
Bleh, I meandered again.
As I was saying, I believe blindly. After all, that's the very definition of faith. Believing without concrete evidence/proof. And there's no concrete evidence of God, not unless he decides to pop down and laugh at the atheists anytime soon. So there it is. I'm living on empty faith. Does that make me delusional and irrational? Yes, undeniably. I am also, however, a Christian.
But a Catholic agnostic? Hurm.
To take a slight deviation, how does the concept of the Holy Trinity really work? To be honest, I haven't heard a single explanation that makes sense. All the explanations I've heard rely on either: (a) quoting multiple Bible passages (the more you memorize, the larger your mansion in Heaven) and lashing them together with derogatory/highfalutin fluffing or/and (b) circular reasoning and a liberal dose of the appeal to misleading authority fallacy.
The best I've come up with was that we can't truly understand God because he represents something on a different level from us. Which is also why we won't ever be able to know if he exists or not. If God did indeed exist, he would presumably have to be on a different dimension from us or we would have been able to notice him far more frequently than we do now (ie: 0 in modern times). The closest analogy I've been able to cook up is that we similarly can't comprehend more than three dimensions, though multi-dimensionality is pretty much an accepted fact.
That wasn't a strong one, obviously. We're still in constant arguments over how many dimensions there actually are.
Hurm.
I remember writing a good refutation of The God Delusion some time ago. Richard Dakwins, lol. Could have tried harder, the poor chap. Got caught up with his Christian-hatred in the end.
Where was I?
Oh, yes.
Essentially, the only thing keeping me from being an atheist is that I believe with no rational reason to do so. I can invent rationale for myself, of course, but I'm trying to maintain an objective standpoint here. Frankly, it sucks. How am I supposed to find a real supportive reason for me to keep believing? God only knows. Yes, a little joke there. Smile please.
I guess I'm not a strong agnostic theist. I have my doubts about God's existence.
Using the Bible to keep the faith alive will be rather silly. I can read whatever I want into it. That's what most people do, after all. It's a bit like this thing Avinash and I did during debate practices. I would let him choose an object in the room and proceed to use it as an analogy for whatever our debate topic was. It was absurd. It was funny.
This chair, ladies and gentlemen, looks distinctly unremarkable to you. I pity your lack of surprise and astonishment at the world you're inhabiting for a very short period of time. This chair, you see, is like the government and health care. Let's take the seat of the chair itself to be the government. The legs of the chair then are the people, both holding up the seat and being a part of the chair - just like the seat. Then again, we could flip the roles and have the government holding the people up. How does it do this? WHY, THROUGH HEALTH CARE GODDAMNIT.
Prayers?
I've never had any answers. If I do get answers, I might be insane.
I read a very interesting article on Joan of Arc, the un-French woman, some time ago. I'll post up a summary of it after the finals.
All that being said, religion can be a good balm. Some people claim they don't need it. Some do. It's the way of the world.
Being an agnostic means having to compromise on several almost-core Catholic principles.
In a nutshell, I have faith despite the world of logic and rational telling me religion is an antique farce. I don't know how long this situation will continue. I certainly hope it'll last long.
And I also believe that all believers essentially operate on faith, not logic. Those that believe in the 'logical truth of God' are, well, wrong. In any case, they still have faith.
And most importantly, my agnostic stand is derived from my belief that we can never tell if God exists or otherwise. We cannot know aspects of Him, and we cannot know Him himself, however much we would like to.
In the most literal way then, Christians have no idea what they're talking about.
Presbyterians believe that only some stories in the Bible are true. The others are allegories and analogies.
Of course this leads to the problem of deciding which ones are true. Since it's pretty obvious there's no external way to do so, holding such a belief entitles one to create a custom-made Bible, so to speak.
Though, of course, my religious views do tend towards that.
Let's see.
Am I living in denial? Maybe I'm already an atheist at heart, fighting to hang on to tales I was brought up with. Some call it brainwashing. Meh, semantics. It is what it is. I doubt I'm an atheist, though.
Being an agnostic theist Catholic is closer to being an atheist than to being a Catholic, all things considered. I hardly think I qualify to even be categorized as a Catholic, in the most traditional sense. Nevertheless, I will doggedly continue to use the label because I'm hardly that different from many other Catholics I know. They just don't think about it that much.
As it is, I've seen religious debates go on and on and on and on. Pretty much the same topics are brought up. Atheists mock the delusion called 'religion' and liken it to believing in purple unicorn overlords. The typical over-religious Christian pops in with atrocious spelling and shouts at the heathens. The occasional Muslim strolls by and proclaims victory, as well as predicts a united Muslim world in the near future based on the growth rate of Islam. Poor kids. The lack of religion is growing faster than religion, particularly in developed worlds.
Why do you think so?
It is impossible to logically prove that God exists. Of course, it's impossible to prove otherwise too. In the same way that it's impossible to prove that purple unicorn overlords do not exist.
Logically, there is no way to prove that
I grew tired of defending agnostic Catholicism in the LowYat forums against multiple atheists who flailed about without any real points. Atheism counter-attacks are the easiest points to pull off, really. An 8-year old kid could do it.
It's a good deal harder defending Christianity using rationale and logic. In fact, I agree that logic and religion cannot co-exist. But more of that later.
Psht. Religious debates. There's no middle ground for Christians and atheists. There isn't something both sides can agree on. Unless that happens, both camps will see everything through a single biased point-of-view, warping even the most obvious of proofs.
I know. It was hypocritical of me to try to defend Christianity logically.
As an aside, you practically never see any other religions except the Abrahamic ones in these debates. And, well, atheism. Not that that's a religion. It's the lack of one.
Where was I?
Hypocritical. Right. But anyway, I did so. It helped me understand where I was 'with my faith', as they say. Obviously, I couldn't defend arguments with ipse dixit fallacies. The problem with arguments from misleading authority is that, in this case, they are both hilarious and obviously wrong. Also, applying such arguments in this context creates circular reasoning. I can't take passages from the Bible to be a proof that the Bible is not a work of fiction.
So, logic it was. To be fair, I was really only defending my stand that agnostic Catholics could indeed exist (only cos that's what everyone picked on). Sure, agnostic theists are perfectly real creatures. It's the application of agnosticism to Catholicism that creates finicky problems.
I speculated a bit on the idea of God. Clearly, the concept of a higher being that sparked creation seemed to be an innate notion. We laugh at the idea that the world is supported by a series of turtles stretching towards infinity, one on top of the other, but atheists laugh in the same way at the concept of God.
Meanwhile the Eastern religions watch (with the obligatory scornful laughter) both camps fight a heated battle over an age-old concept.
One that seems to be on a downward spiral now more than ever.
Things don't look good on the theist camp.
Especially when you consider the way that all these higher beings are sculpted in our own image. To be more precise, in the image of the believers.
So why the atheist rebellion against religion (besides logic)?
I suppose you could trace this all the way back to the idea of Earth not being the center of the solar system. Once that idea was proven to be false, "man lost his place in the Universe" (to steal the words of Mr. Tan). Ever the amusingly self-absorbed race, mankind struggled to prove that they weren't insignificant. After all, God created them to look after everything on Earth (and maybe the Universe too?). And he didn't go around talking to deer and elephants, did he? No siree. He killed them with a flood.
Over time, this struggle to find a footing in the Universe led to humanism. The focus was once again on our uniqueness - this time, though, religion did not come into play. Then we have existentialism and absurdism and what-not, after which modern philosophy dissolved into a bubbling cauldron of depression. No wonder philosophers nowadays only seem interested in linguistics.
All that chit-chat aside, I am pretty much one of those people the atheist camp ridicules on a daily basis. I believe blindly. Hey, at least I can admit as much. Every Christian believes blindly, really. They just don't admit it. Or they say it in a different way. And by different, I mean blending together long phrases of religious padding that have no purpose other than to establish a befuddled faux superiority and piss of everyone who can't stand that bullshit. Me, for example. And Andrew. Just because we're seen as bumbling fools in a cult living in the bronze age doesn't mean we can't speak clearly and logically.
Bleh, I meandered again.
As I was saying, I believe blindly. After all, that's the very definition of faith. Believing without concrete evidence/proof. And there's no concrete evidence of God, not unless he decides to pop down and laugh at the atheists anytime soon. So there it is. I'm living on empty faith. Does that make me delusional and irrational? Yes, undeniably. I am also, however, a Christian.
But a Catholic agnostic? Hurm.
To take a slight deviation, how does the concept of the Holy Trinity really work? To be honest, I haven't heard a single explanation that makes sense. All the explanations I've heard rely on either: (a) quoting multiple Bible passages (the more you memorize, the larger your mansion in Heaven) and lashing them together with derogatory/highfalutin fluffing or/and (b) circular reasoning and a liberal dose of the appeal to misleading authority fallacy.
The best I've come up with was that we can't truly understand God because he represents something on a different level from us. Which is also why we won't ever be able to know if he exists or not. If God did indeed exist, he would presumably have to be on a different dimension from us or we would have been able to notice him far more frequently than we do now (ie: 0 in modern times). The closest analogy I've been able to cook up is that we similarly can't comprehend more than three dimensions, though multi-dimensionality is pretty much an accepted fact.
That wasn't a strong one, obviously. We're still in constant arguments over how many dimensions there actually are.
Hurm.
I remember writing a good refutation of The God Delusion some time ago. Richard Dakwins, lol. Could have tried harder, the poor chap. Got caught up with his Christian-hatred in the end.
Where was I?
Oh, yes.
Essentially, the only thing keeping me from being an atheist is that I believe with no rational reason to do so. I can invent rationale for myself, of course, but I'm trying to maintain an objective standpoint here. Frankly, it sucks. How am I supposed to find a real supportive reason for me to keep believing? God only knows. Yes, a little joke there. Smile please.
I guess I'm not a strong agnostic theist. I have my doubts about God's existence.
Using the Bible to keep the faith alive will be rather silly. I can read whatever I want into it. That's what most people do, after all. It's a bit like this thing Avinash and I did during debate practices. I would let him choose an object in the room and proceed to use it as an analogy for whatever our debate topic was. It was absurd. It was funny.
This chair, ladies and gentlemen, looks distinctly unremarkable to you. I pity your lack of surprise and astonishment at the world you're inhabiting for a very short period of time. This chair, you see, is like the government and health care. Let's take the seat of the chair itself to be the government. The legs of the chair then are the people, both holding up the seat and being a part of the chair - just like the seat. Then again, we could flip the roles and have the government holding the people up. How does it do this? WHY, THROUGH HEALTH CARE GODDAMNIT.
Prayers?
I've never had any answers. If I do get answers, I might be insane.
I read a very interesting article on Joan of Arc, the un-French woman, some time ago. I'll post up a summary of it after the finals.
All that being said, religion can be a good balm. Some people claim they don't need it. Some do. It's the way of the world.
Being an agnostic means having to compromise on several almost-core Catholic principles.
In a nutshell, I have faith despite the world of logic and rational telling me religion is an antique farce. I don't know how long this situation will continue. I certainly hope it'll last long.
And I also believe that all believers essentially operate on faith, not logic. Those that believe in the 'logical truth of God' are, well, wrong. In any case, they still have faith.
And most importantly, my agnostic stand is derived from my belief that we can never tell if God exists or otherwise. We cannot know aspects of Him, and we cannot know Him himself, however much we would like to.
In the most literal way then, Christians have no idea what they're talking about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
