Evolution of the Choice of Fate

I don't think the post title has anything to do with what I'm about to ponder.
I just thought it sounded interesting.

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So far, it's been scientifically proven that people subconsciously seek out mates whose genes are as similar as possible to their own. This makes sense evolutionarily, in that dominant traits are reinforced, and recessive traits are further diluted.
(Not counting family members, of course ... but the fact that every single one of us is essentially distantly related is a topic worth waging war on. Both the Bible and science say that humanity is descended from [a] common ancestor[s]; however, proponents of the Bible seemingly can't stand the real world possibilities.)

My point being that every girl I've been attracted to thus far in my 20 years of life (at last count ... three) has been in some way similar to me/my family.

Girl #1:
- Intelligent
- Musical
- Rather modest, as I try to be
- Mildly religious, I think? I never got to know her as well as I should have.
- A little on the short side

Girl #2:
- Very intelligent
- Very musical
- Humble, as I also try to be
- Very religious
- A little on the short side

Girl #3:
- Very intelligent
- Very musical
- Random like me, I'd like to think. I don't know her as well as I'd like to either.
- Very religious
- A little on the short side

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I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a pattern here.
(My dad's side of the family has a history of achievers and musicians.
My mom's side of the family isn't exactly vertically challenged, but they're far from tall.
Both sides of my family come from very devout Catholic backgrounds.)

There's also the fact that they're not exactly drop-dead gorgeous. (I myself certainly am far from being a stud.) I can safely say that I've seen people who are more beautiful at first sight.
But they grew on me as I spent time around them, and though they'll probably never know it, sometimes even the mere thought of any one of them can cause my heart to skip a beat. (This is of course dependent on my mood, but no matter what, thinking of them makes me feel a little bit happier.)

Anyway, story of my life, right here in this song.
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*UPDATE* To be honest, I blew my chance with girl #1 a long time ago. And girl #3 - I only met her a few times, and I talk to her online every now and then, and she has a boyfriend she adores, so there's not really much in my favor there. But girl #2 ... oh, girl #2.

The Fallacy of Faith

It is a sad thing to say - but in its own way, faith promotes ignorance.

By definition, faith is belief without knowledge or question, and so many of the most 'faithful' people are also sadly the least knowledgeable.

I mean, don't get me wrong - I used to enjoy going to church regularly and I sang in the choir. I believed wholeheartedly in God. Jesus Christ is a pretty awesome dude in concept.
But really, is Jesus going to solve the world's problems? or are we, we who have the brains to do so, brains ostensibly given to us by God? Knowledge of the Bible has its uses, but not in any pure scientific sense.

Think about it: so-called knowledge of the Bible is one of the major contributing factors of the Dark Ages, which set us back hundreds of years in scientific development. The Bible was used as justification for the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, and the oppression of women.

I've found that some people who know the Bible cover-to-cover are sometimes incapable of using plain (God-given) logic, and seem to only speak in Bible verses. (I'm sorry, did someone say "brainwashing"? Oh ... that was me? ... I'm sorry! Never mind then.)

All the faith in the world isn't going to do squat if you know nothing.
Think about it.
- Faith didn't put astronauts on the moon - scientists and engineers did. Faith doesn't power your car and fly our planes - physics does.
- Faith doesn't make your computer (or your refrigerator or microwave or anything in any modern construction or contraption) work - electricity does.
- Faith isn't going to save an ill or injured person - a doctor, however, stands a chance of doing so.
-Faith does nothing (yes, I said nothing) to assuage world hunger and/or poverty, or to secure world peace - visionaries, revolutionaries, and good people (of every religion!) work to do so.
A final, more engaging example, for posterity:
- Faith isn't going to do your work for you or make you pass any evaluations or examinations anywhere, anytime, or anyhow. Why? Because if you don't know anything worth applying, faith isn't worth a pair of dingo's kidneys*. Try passing your exam, driving your car, or saving impoverished children by spouting Bible verses, see if that works.
All of this, why? Because that's what I have come to see all around me. And I can't simply ignore it because while ignorance is, in many ways, bliss, it is in equally many ways foolhardy.
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*Courtesy: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Book 1, Chapter 1, for the phrase "a pair of dingo's kidneys"

And now for the part where I seemingly contradict myself or appear to present a paradox for no reason whatsoever:
For all that, faith is in fact an integral part of the human psyche.
- The astronauts in the Space Shuttle had to have faith that the scientists and engineers had done their job right.
- You take it on faith that your car is built to specifications and performs as advertised without breaking down; you take it on faith that a plane doesn't break up in the air.
- You take it on faith that your computer will not fizzle out or melt down as you turn it on or plug it in.
- A patient in a hospital has faith that he is in the care of medical personnel who know what they are doing. (Every time you take a pill or a swig of medicine or an injection ... can you honestly say you know what is going to happen? Thanks to allergies/pre-existing conditions/etc., sometimes even doctors don't know. Think about that.)
- All the impoverished communities in the world can only have faith that they will find or receive aid or nutrition, because there is no way for them to know. The only people who know are the ones who supply it, and sadly supplies are far from unlimited.
- You can only know what you know ... but you can only take it on faith that the person(s) evaluating your work knows more than you do on that particular subject. For example, it is not unheard of for underhanded and/or undermanned higher-education centers to outsource the grading of graduation tests. Do you know that your final high-school exit exam wasn't graded by some homeless person off the streets? And if it was, do you know whether that person is uneducated? There are homeless people with PhDs all over the world!

My eventual point, if ever there was one, is this:
It is essentially willful ignorance to take everything you see, or hear about, on faith. You should only do so for things that are beyond your discernment - for example, you can only take it on faith that you won't be vaporized by a meteorite as you walk into a building. Do you know? If yes, it is safe to say you're flat-out lying.

I will not simply take it on faith that a car can 'automagically' drive; I know, beyond reasonable doubt, how cars work. I don't have to have faith that aeroplanes can fly; I know the physics of flight (however, again, I must take it on faith that the person in the pilot's chair knows what he/she is doing, and so on and so forth). I know the basics of how computers work, and I am actively learning more about them; therefore I need not even take faith in them, because what I don't already know about them I will learn.
Therefore, the idea I wish you, the reader, to learn from my thoughts is that you should only take faith in what you are incapable of understanding. You should be actively learning about all that you can, because all that you do not know will be explained to you; and your horizons of understanding will increase, allowing you to take in more knowledge, which gives you more understanding, leaving room for more knowledge ... and forever on. In this vein, even what you once thought incomprehensible would become a matter of learning.

Creationism, as a basic example of pure faith, is nothing but taking the words of people dead for a few thousand years and attempting to explain the whole observable Universe by those words, rather than using the brains given by God to understand and learn about said Universe.
Most scientific theories of creation essentially say exactly what creationism says - only in a realistic, scientific manner, and the fact that we have so many different theories is not proof of fallacy, but rather proof that science is willing to actively search out the true answers until the right one is found. Why do Creationists stick to pure faith? One of two possibilities: either they are incapable of understanding - or else they voluntarily choose not to seek out/accept the knowledge they know exists. Either way it's hard not to feel sorry for them.

I hope I have made a strong case for my ideas; here's a P.S., as it were:
The truth does not require belief. You could ignore every word I've just written, and it would make no difference to the world (or, indeed, the universe). You could choose to call gravity a lie; would still continue to function. You could censor every book on nuclear fusion in the world, and it would still be the source of energy in the Sun's core. You could burn every Bible in existence; and God would still continue to exist. You could call down curses upon every proponent of evolution before or since Darwin; it doesn't change the fact that we are highly-evolved primates.
You could call the Earth the center of the Universe; it will not change the fact that we are one planet out of nine (yes, I said nine!), orbiting a single star out of a hundred billion in our galaxy, which is one of thirty or so such galaxies in the Local Cluster, which is one of hundreds of clusters in the Virgo Supercluster, which is one supercluster out of millions in the observable Universe.
If that doesn't make you feel insignificant, nothing will.
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As I've heard it said: "If you ain't pissin' somebody off, you ain't doin' it right."
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Gosh, it feels good to express myself. Don't you think so?

Yet Another Meaningless Mire of Musing

I've often wondered how we all get along. Especially when you consider my previous post; we're just so divided it's a wonder the planet itself hasn't fractured into minuscule fragments already.


But enough of that.


Homework is nasty, I hate it.


My room is large and messy, and yet so vacant; all too often I get that empty feeling - the one where you know that no matter how hard you hug your pillow at night, it just isn't enough.


An ominous feeling of being crushed (metaphorically, of course) clouds the back of my mind every so often. Perhaps skydiving would be enough to scare all the fear right out of me ... but I have yet to conquer that stepping stone.


Homecoming Ball this Saturday, the 23rd. Two's company, eh?

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Because we're stupid, that's why.


Embedded below you should see the Wikipedia page with the list of world religions.




You see that list and it comes as no surprise that no-one can get along.


I once heard it said that "There are six billion religions in the world." (That is, six thousand million.) Well, by the 2050s, there will be about ten thousand million religions in the world, and if "everyone else is going to hell but us" then the entire world is sure as hell to be going to hell.


That irks me, somehow.

A Hundred And One Thoughts (That Are Not My Own)

Thank you Laysa. ^_^

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1.    Sometimes opening up to someone you don't know very well is a good thing.

2.    Instinctive feelings happen for reasonable reasons.

3.    You can have fun with anyone. Don't limit who you can have fun with.

4.    It is what you want it to be.

5.    "A person's a person, no matter how small." [Dr. Seuss, Horton, Horton Hears a Who!]

6.    Enjoy nature. Why not?

7.    As trite as this sounds, you really should do what makes you happy. If you're not doing what makes you happy, what are you living for?

8.    Adults are often just as silly as children.

9.    Be open-minded. Everyone is different and everyone has good points and bad points. But there's always a lot more to a person than it seems.

10.   "Never mistake thoughtlessness for malice." [Robert Charles Whitehead] There are people who do things intending to hurt you and there are people who do things and accidentally hurt you. It is one of the most important things to be able to tell the difference.

11.   Dreaming is fun, even if it's about things that will never happen.

12.   Complaining is a good thing because you need to let things out. But don't waste your life complaining about everything and everyone who has wronged you, because in the end, the only person who will have lost is you. Instead, go against the odds and better yourself. Win.

13.   Getting presents for friends is fun, no matter how much money, time, and/or effort you end up spending on them. :)

14.   Have pride in yourself - be proud of what you've done and who you've become. But that doesn't mean you're better than everyone else. They're people, too, and they probably have something to be proud of, too.

15.   It's easier to be lazy than happy.

16.   Laughter is one of the best medicines, because laughter is an example of happiness and fun.

17.   When learning a new musical instrument and being asked to do something that doesn't seem humanly possible, you realize that it apparently is possible, with tons of practice, thus nullifying any thought you ever had about the limitations of the instrument or musician. In short, what you think is impossible probably isn't actually impossible. Humans can really do a lot of things if they try.

18.   "I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later." [Mitch Hedberg] Sometimes that's just the best option.

19.   The best thing about music is that you can listen to whatever you want, as much as you want, and for whatever reasons you want. There's really no right or wrong to it.

20.   The appearance of confidence, happiness, or enjoyment is often just a guise. We feel as though, by hiding our hurt, we are hiding others from hurt as well. We see no use in showing it; in fact, we feel much better ignoring it. In the end we think, why should we worry other with our problems? What no one knows doesn't matter to anyone.

21.   "Your life is what your thoughts make it." [Marcus Aurelius] Would this be what it is if you didn't think it was?

22.   Time is often the best cure.

23.   Being tickled is probably the only time when you're laughing but you actually want what's making you laugh to stop.

24.   Your stomach doesn't have to be grumbling for you to be hungry.

25.   Even the institutions you trust the most, or you expect to be the most trustworthy, don't do everything they should.

26.   What you often complain about, you eventually get used to, so much that it doesn't even bother you anymore.

27.   The past is always there to haunt you.

28.   But suddenly, the past doesn't matter any more.

29.   It's amazing how much your emotions can get you carried away. And you don't really realize how carried away you got until those emotions have settled down a bit.

30.   Others' problems will often get in the way.

31.   "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." [Aristotle]

32.   It's possible to be an optimist and a realist.

33.   I don't think procrastination is really that horrible. I usually have to really be in the mood to do work, and sometimes it takes that sort of adrenaline rush when you realize something is due soon to really do a good job on it. I bet a lot of great things have come out of procrastination.

34.   If you constantly keep looking forward to something in the future, you'll be old before you know it, and you'll feel as though you've done nothing. Enjoy the moment. Make the most of every day. And have fun. Why not?

35.   You don't have to be talking to someone to enjoy their company. Sometimes their presence is just enough.

36.   Suck it up. You have to.

37.   There are a lot of people out there who are probably better at doing something than the people who are "qualified" to do it.

38.   Don't deny the fun you had with anyone, even if it's someone you don't care about anymore.

39.   Giving a name to something helps a lot more than it may seem.

40.   Awkwardness is all in your mind.

It's all in my mind.

41.   Saying 'yes' to everything is not a good idea.

42.   It's not until you break out of a routine that you are able to really look back on it and criticize it.

43.   'Love at first sight' doesn't really make sense.

44.   'Normal' is just the appearance we try to give.

45.   It's really amazing how many people don't know what they should know in order to do their jobs.

46.   The world gets smaller as you get older. I don't think that's a bad thing.

47.   Happy people are nicer than unhappy people.

48.   What do circumstances have to do with success? You don't need good circumstances to be successful. The ingredient for success is merely a determination to succeed.

49.   There is always something more to learn.

50.   It makes sense to strive to avoid the bad things. But they happen. You of course want to to look back on them and wish they didn't happen, but when looking back on those pains, think instead of what you have gained, not what you have lost, from them.

51.   As much as I don't want to agree with it, I appreciate the fact that I have been told about some of the harsh realities of life.

52.   We spend our lives preparing for the future, so that when it becomes the present, we can enjoy it. So don't forget to enjoy the present; isn't that what you've been working for?

53.   We aren't always looking for advice. We just want someone to listen.

54.   Money may not guarantee you happiness, but it's certainly nice to have around.

55.   On certain subjects about uncertain things, sometimes it's just best to shut up.

56.   It's more complicated than it seems. Did you really think it was that simple?

57.   New things can be shocking. Maybe you should let them settle in before doing anything.

58.   Don't forget where you came from. It makes you unique and awesome. This includes your heritage, your parents, the places you've lived, and just your past in general. It makes you who you are, and even if it's a past you'd rather not go back to, bring out the best from it, and learn from its pains.

59.   Sometimes arguments are necessary, for the sake of sanity.

60.   Communication is essential.

61.   People complain just to let something out; they themselves don't necessarily think it's as big of a deal as they are making it. It can be hard to know for sure, though. Sometimes you have to ask.

62.   Everyone gets annoying every once in a while.

63.   Little kids remind you of the things you were taught to forget.

64.   "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." [Buddha] Makes sense to me.

65.   Ignorance is bliss. I can't deny it.

66.   You've gotta do what you've gotta do.

67.   Your words and actions have just as much of an effect on others as others' words and actions do on you.

68.   Panicking is one of the worst things you can do.

69.   A good friend is one with whom you share the bad and good times.

70.   Don't give a gift expecting one in return.

71.   People say things they don't mean and mean things they don't say all the time. I don't blame them, but this certainly doesn't make things easier.

72.   Perhaps you would have done the same thing if you were in that person's place.

73.   Rules seems so strong and sturdy, but with only a little persuasion, they can melt like butter.

74.   It's easy to forget what's not right in front of you.

75.   The place you grew up in stays with you forever.

76.   Past a certain point, there's nothing to do but give up.

77.   "Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young..." [J. K. Rowling, Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]

78.   If you don't beg, persuade, and cajole people to let you do something, you'll never be independent.

79.   We can only be at most and at least one person.

80.   Hate only proves that you care. Indifference hurts more.

81.   You're unique. Just like everyone else.

82.   Confidence is key.

83.   Many groups of people hide their oppressive ideologies behind other ideologies, thus tainting those innocent ones.

84.   Others are just as uncertain as you might be.

85.   There are things you will never know and things you will never understand.

86.   Right and wrong aren't as obvious as they're made to seem.

87.   There is always something to live for.

88.   Everything is subject to change. And you live with it.

89.   Every land is beautiful. It's the people who make it different.

90.   What matters to you doesn't matter to another. What doesn't matter to you matters to another.

91.   Just because you were dumb when you were young doesn't mean all those who are younger are dumber.

92.   Nothing is perfect. No one is perfect.

93.   Some people will never change.

94.   Some things just don't make sense.

95.   One minute others are trying to control you. The next, you must try to control others. Neither is much fun.

96.   Life is boring.

97.   Sometimes the walls listen better than people do.

98.   The only person who will be with you forever is yourself. In the end, we are all alone in our world of consciousnesses. The journey you make in life is one only you are taking.

99.   It's one thing to be pessimistic. It's another to be prepared.

100. Don't let the unimportant come between you and the important.

101. So, what actually is important, anyway?

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A Rant On Reason

I am saddened by all the small-minded people, and utterly disgusted by the media which made them that way. :-/

To all you stupid ignorant SOBs:

1) First and foremost! It is NOT a mosque being built near Ground Zero! It is an Islamic community center, which is planned to include "a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, food court serving halal dishes, and Islamic prayer space for 1,000–2,000 Muslims." By the media's logic, I should be calling my room a RadioShack because I have a computer!

2) Secondly, it is not *AT* Ground Zero; it is 2 full city blocks away. They are building on privately owned property, therefore no-one else except the landowner should have a say in it. Besides which, do you have any idea how many Muslims make up the economy of New York? And have you taken into account how terrorist groups distort Islam into the violent paradigm that the U.S. media has latched on to so desperately? One of the primary tenets of Islam is peace! Much like Christianity; and yet, think of the Crusades, and the Inquisition! Despite all that, there are churches all over Europe and the Middle East!

Let's start calling it Ground "Zero Tolerance", why don't we!

Bored.

Osama bin Laden usually:

Osama bin Laden after shaving:

More Potentially Powerful Ponderings

And the deep questions keep on coming - or at least they were, a couple of weeks ago.. Read below, an extract from my Formspring page (feel free to leave a question, dear blog follower):

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What is the meaning of the universe? From a physicist's perspective?

I was just about to put in a long speech about the meaning of the Universe .. but then I realized that that makes no sense. What is the Universe? It is the physical realm within which we perceive our existence - it has no meaning in and of itself.

If you intended to mean the meaning of Life, I could say 42 and leave it at that.

Remember, the question "Why do we exist?" can have two meanings:
1) Why are we physically capable of existing?
2) What is the ultimate goal of our existence?
1) The point of physics is not to actually find a meaning for existence; rather, it is to (ideally) find a unifiable set of laws that completely and unequivocally explain all physical phenomena within the known universe, and, perhaps, even beyond.
In other words, physics aims to answer the first interpretation of that question "Why do we exist?".
While it is not meant to answer the questions of sentience or consciousness, I would not be surprised if it offers some explanation in those regards.

2) But the second, more controversial interpretation of the question - that's what philosophy and religion are for (or better yet - an unbiased, but discerning mind).

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To further clarify (or more accurately, to reiterate), the question "Why do we exist?" consists of the two components How and What, which are completely independent of each other. Specifically:

1) How is existence physically possible?

2) What is the ultimate goal of existence?

1) As answered above, the How component is the question that the ever-evolving fields of sciences hope to explain. It is somewhat clarified by this comic, courtesy of XKCD:

2) The What component is the one that inspires so much of the controversy we love. All them religious fanatics have no other answer than "to worship God", or "to get to heaven", or some other idealistic fantasy that doesn't really lend itself to logical evaluation. Of course, I believe in some of that illogical crap too, albeit in my own science-influenced way that would probably guarantee me death stares in more conservative circles.

However, something that not many people think about is a minor corollary to said existential question: namely, what is the definition of existence? How do we know we exist?

Perhaps we should take the example of The Ruler of the Universe and just all be solipsists .. but even then, how could we be sure of consciousness?

As always, I'm open to comments.

-- Everything's Relative.

Religion vs. Science, revisited, perhaps revamped.

I have been meaning to write this post for quite a while. It came to a head a while ago when I was honored with a particularly deep question on my Formspring page:
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Q: Why is it that physicists spend their time trying to discover the meaning or the secrets of the universe? What is it that they hope to gain by answering this question?


A: It's simple, really. We want to know why we exist and what the limits of this universe are, among other things. My own potentially controversial viewpoint is that the day we understand science in its entirety, we will truly know God. Because almost all religions teach that the only pure purpose of life is to serve God and others, and in doing so to come closer to God. God created this Universe and everything in it. He didn't simply set down laws (i.e. the laws of science) to govern its existence; He IS the Universe around us. Thus by understanding the Universe we will become one with God. ^_^ Thank you for this question; I've been meaning for weeks to write a blog post about it, and hopefully I soon will. :-)


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This, being synced up to my Facebook profile, sparked a minor discussion on how it makes sense. (If you are my Facebook friend you can see it here.)


A couple of days prior to that, my strongly religious buddy had posted a status update reading:
"Jesus is the answer to everything! Thank you Jesus!"  
(If you are his Facebook friend, you can see it here.) 
Being my comedic self, I had to ask a logical question to see if this was an indicator he'd lost all logic. Like, say, "What's your girlfriend's name?" Or "What did you do with the bodies?" You get my drift.


Now, while all of this may or may not have something to do with anything, the point is that virtually all religions, while far from a waste of time, are rife with uncertainties and instability*. For the more devout, there is pretty much no issue since everything is taken on faith; however, for the more logically-minded such as myself, science provides a calm, ever-developing haven for thought (and, theoretically, truth).
I have no problem with faith - heck, I'm a church-going, choir-singing Catholic. But my issues arise when the new discoveries and developments in scientific realms cause such tremors and tribulations in the religious world that you'd think, somehow, they were competing.


Take a look at my answer to the question I was asked, and you'll get my idea of why religion and science, far from being such bitter rivals, were meant to coexist.


At the very least: in a simple way, it gives us an answer as to how evolution could indeed be a way that God created us; it is a process that humans have used to a large degree, known as directed evolution. The name says it succinctly - evolution, but with an end goal in mind, and a hand guiding the path there.
Whereas the Bible says the Universe was created out of Nothing and Man was created out of dust (or clay, depending on the translation), science says that the Universe was most likely created out of Nothing, and that Man evolved from, and is still essentially composed of, many of the particles (i.e. atoms and molecules) that also compose dust (and clay). Why is there an issue about this? I'll leave you, the reader, to your thoughts on that.


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*Just as an example, the Bible has around ONE HUNDRED translations, just in English. God alone knows how much was lost in translation of each one, compared to the original Hebrew Bible.
In this regard, I respect the Qur'an of Islam, because they strongly advocate the use and study of their scriptures in the original Arabic.

Acknowledgement of Ambiguity

To Whom It May Concern,

I Love You.

Sincerely,
Anand Lobo.


P.S.: It does not say "To who may be concerned about it".

P.P.S.: Read the P.S.

In the Name of God ...

Has anyone ever stopped to wonder, what, in the name of God, is God's name?

I mean, we call Him God, sure. His Son is the great and awesome JC. We have the Holy Spirit moving around there too. (Being Christian, this is the Trinity we have faith in.)

He's omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and above all, benevolent.

Being such a powerful being, it brings me to wonder, what is His true name? A being of such infinite greatness would, I think, have its own name. We can safely say His name is not God. That was a name coined by humans to describe, well, gods. The Sun god, the Moon god, the god of the Underworld, etc. ... no, God is not God's name.

Perhaps Yahweh, or its anglicized representation, Jehovah? Yahweh (and by extension, Jehovah) is widely considered to be the 'proper name' of God. However, in the Hebrew Bible, it is written as YHWH; there are no vowels to guide the pronunciation. Therefore, we are not even sure how it is pronounced.

Potentially even the Muslims might have it: Allah. The supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.

But I don't think so.

Not because I think religion is wrong, but simply because I believe God is so powerful, and so divine, that His true name would be incomprehensible to us mortals.

Think about it. By most accounts (including my own), God is an infinite, supreme being, perfect in every possible way, and anyone who's religious enough will tell you that there is NO WAY to comprehend Him in His entirety while our minds are still limited to this world. Why? Simply because the human mind has little capacity for the infinite.

Therefore, by extension, His true name would be similarly baffling to us.

I think of this because I would hate to die and find out that our creator's true name was, say, Bob.

(I would almost be surprised if anyone gets that reference.)

And I would think, sure, God works in mysterious ways ... but Why couldn't you have TOLD US?

I would not be surprised if I get flak about this from any super-religious types, though. If you are the type who thinks a little healthy curiosity and expression of one's ideas is wrong, and if you 'care for my soul' enough to condemn me simply for philosophizing, then you can be sure you deserve the same judgment that you expect me to receive.

Baba Yetu

Be YOU (-tiful)

So many kinds of beauty in this world.

Not 20 minutes ago, I had an idea of what I was just about to say ... and now it's gone ...

*-*

Ever met that one person, who, no matter what - the angle; time of day; their emotional or physical state; the background; the surrounding environment; etc. - looked surreal?

I thought I did.

Again.

Perhaps this is indicative of glitches in the Matrix.

I'd better talk to them (or them to me, whichever) before I wake up and they've faded away ...

:: Pictures re-blogged from I Can Read ::

Why is Love?

Well, that's the immutable question, isn't it?
You figure out that answer to that, and you're made for life, if not eternity.

Where is Love?

Following up from my previous post - kind of - I figured I'd explore where love can be found, now that we all know what it is (after a fashion ... ).

Is it over here?

Or over there?

Under that rock?

Out on that branch of the tree?

I just love my little games, don't you?

I remember talking about relationships with my friend some time back. For some reason we'd fallen into the metaphor of "the relation-ship" and "many-fish-in-the-sea". I'm far from remembering the exact conversation, but this recently occurred to me:

If I'm sitting in my 'relation-ship' on, shall we say, the 'sea of relations', the only way I'll get my 'fish' is if I 'fish' for it.

Now, the 'hook' stands a chance of hurting my 'fish', so I'd feel bad using that; and using a 'net' would likely give me more than I need - not to mention I'd have to face the task of sorting out the 'inadequate' ones.

So I was thinking about the whole metaphor, and I realized that I had it wrong.

I am a 'fish' too, and not only am I hurting my own kind by being all high-and-mighty 'fishing' from my 'ship'; I am also slowly 'dying' out of the 'water'.

This has been a great 'talk'.

-- Everything's Relative.