So, the age old addage, without god what is the point?
Flip the coin.
What's the point even if god exists?
Seriously? Why are we here? Why would God create us so far away from him and then put us through all these tests just so that we can be with him after our bodies cease to function? If God created us. Why wouldnt he want to live with us? Instead of playing around with the whole two stage process. This has never made sense to me. Guess now that I have such a big cup the faith I have sometimes doesn't go very far.
Ok so moving on, if not God the Creator, Destroyer and just overall supreme being, what about some kind of Universal Divine Existance or Will? No proof but people who find the need for a god, but realise that all organised religion's are so narrow minded.
Perhaps there are untapped regions of our brains that we can tap into, and we all have some kind of super powers. And perhaps there is a whole planet of beings all linked together like the trees in Pandora (Avatar the movie reference) and they are communicating with us every now and then when they get bored, perhaps when we are all cyborgs communicating across the hypernet humans will achieve some higher state of consciousness as we are guided by our own AI into Utopian computer game where we will live out a virtual existance for all eternity, thus creating our own Heaven.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Does God Exist?
One of my collegues is extremely Christian. Like the world is 4000 years old Christian. Who tries to convince me that creationism is more likely then evolution. Now seriously, were talking religion vs science, and the argument is like talking to a person with tunnel vision.
Religion is not science and can never be science because it can not be proved with the scientific method. Religion, all religion, is about Faith. Without it you have nothing. If you try and manipulate science to validate the bible, and use science to prove creationism you will fail. God Himself cannot be observed therefore cannot be proved.
Science is not about faith. Its about models and peers, observation and repetition. Anything beyond our current understanding is rationalised with models.
Evolution is a model. Its science. Creationism is faith. Perhaps that section of the Bible is supposed to be read as figuratively, not literally?
Religion is not science and can never be science because it can not be proved with the scientific method. Religion, all religion, is about Faith. Without it you have nothing. If you try and manipulate science to validate the bible, and use science to prove creationism you will fail. God Himself cannot be observed therefore cannot be proved.
Science is not about faith. Its about models and peers, observation and repetition. Anything beyond our current understanding is rationalised with models.
Evolution is a model. Its science. Creationism is faith. Perhaps that section of the Bible is supposed to be read as figuratively, not literally?
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Social Experiment Cont.
So being on site workers are all bound by the same routine and have the same limitations placed on our time.
Basically in a 24hour day we have 4 hours to use with as we please. Within these four hours we must(or should) do our washing, shower, eat and groom ourselves. The rest is free for entertainment. So that probably leaves about 3 hours a day for recreation.
Now the gym is free, table tennis, pool, swimming pool, tennis, cricket nets, foxtel and the wet mess(aka bar) is like $3 for a drink. With all these activities people tend to be clustered into 3 groups. Loners, aka TV watchers. Drinkers and Gym junkies.
So while i go to the gym as often as i can, others drink beer as often as they can and still others hide in their rooms lest anybody recognise them and they have to socialise. These groups are pretty polarised with people clearly belonging to one and without much overlap.
I just don;t understand why people who are earning that much money dont want to take care of their health so that they can enjoy it later? How can we motivate our peers to care for themselves. I remember walking past a party one sunday on my way to the gym after work. They invited me in for a beer and I said nah gotta go to the gym. 2 hours later i came back after a class all covered in sweat and they gave me shit for making them feel bad for drinking beer while I was exercising.
I think that it should be part of the corporate culture that everybody has to exercise, perhaps even force mandatory participation in physical activity everyday. Once it becomes routine the competitive aspect of man will rise and i think the workers will strive to outdo their fellow man and eventually 75%+ might be fit rather then being overweight.
Basically in a 24hour day we have 4 hours to use with as we please. Within these four hours we must(or should) do our washing, shower, eat and groom ourselves. The rest is free for entertainment. So that probably leaves about 3 hours a day for recreation.
Now the gym is free, table tennis, pool, swimming pool, tennis, cricket nets, foxtel and the wet mess(aka bar) is like $3 for a drink. With all these activities people tend to be clustered into 3 groups. Loners, aka TV watchers. Drinkers and Gym junkies.
So while i go to the gym as often as i can, others drink beer as often as they can and still others hide in their rooms lest anybody recognise them and they have to socialise. These groups are pretty polarised with people clearly belonging to one and without much overlap.
I just don;t understand why people who are earning that much money dont want to take care of their health so that they can enjoy it later? How can we motivate our peers to care for themselves. I remember walking past a party one sunday on my way to the gym after work. They invited me in for a beer and I said nah gotta go to the gym. 2 hours later i came back after a class all covered in sweat and they gave me shit for making them feel bad for drinking beer while I was exercising.
I think that it should be part of the corporate culture that everybody has to exercise, perhaps even force mandatory participation in physical activity everyday. Once it becomes routine the competitive aspect of man will rise and i think the workers will strive to outdo their fellow man and eventually 75%+ might be fit rather then being overweight.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Prison Camp
Having spent 5 weeks in isolation from society I can tell you that life really is simple. Once all our basic needs are satiated, we must find activity to occupy our time. I am my own social experiment.
On site I am subjected to no advertising, marketing ploys or even the use of money. What happens when we live in a society without such things?
Firstly, my first experiment was with food. When you pay for a buffet you are inclined to get as much value as you can from the money that you spend. You typically do this by eating the most expensive food first and as much of it as you can. So at a Japanese buffet we gorge on sashimi until we feel sick. What about a la carte? When we go to fast food restaurants or near any restaurant for that matter there is the pressure to up sell. Why by an entree when it’s much better value to get main size, or perhaps more colloquially would you like fries with that?
When I go to a food court, if I have to pay $9 for a small continental roll / foccacia or something or $6 for a burger fries and coke which i know will fill me up its hard to pay more for a perceived less. I know which is better for me but I somehow end up at the line to Maccas. Then when I get to ordering its only 50c more for a large so I get it. Then when I feel full but there are still chips on the plate staring at me to be eaten, I eat them just so that my money is not wasted.
Now on site, there is no money exchanged. I do not pay for my buffet. It is provided as stated in the terms of my employment contract. So because there is no perceived value being lost I feel no obligation to get my money’s worth. So I skip all of the eggs, and bacon, sausages, hash browns for breakfast and get a bowl of cereal, prunes and yogurt. For lunch I have a salad with cold cuts, and dinner I usually have a light vegetable rich one and sneak in a bit of dessert.
More interestingly is that when I am full, I stop eating. There is no mother figure to yell at me for not finishing my food. No financial penalty or perceived gain for finishing it. So I eat what I need and have been taking less and less as I have been losing weight and exercising more.
Amazing what life is like without money.
On site I am subjected to no advertising, marketing ploys or even the use of money. What happens when we live in a society without such things?
Firstly, my first experiment was with food. When you pay for a buffet you are inclined to get as much value as you can from the money that you spend. You typically do this by eating the most expensive food first and as much of it as you can. So at a Japanese buffet we gorge on sashimi until we feel sick. What about a la carte? When we go to fast food restaurants or near any restaurant for that matter there is the pressure to up sell. Why by an entree when it’s much better value to get main size, or perhaps more colloquially would you like fries with that?
When I go to a food court, if I have to pay $9 for a small continental roll / foccacia or something or $6 for a burger fries and coke which i know will fill me up its hard to pay more for a perceived less. I know which is better for me but I somehow end up at the line to Maccas. Then when I get to ordering its only 50c more for a large so I get it. Then when I feel full but there are still chips on the plate staring at me to be eaten, I eat them just so that my money is not wasted.
Now on site, there is no money exchanged. I do not pay for my buffet. It is provided as stated in the terms of my employment contract. So because there is no perceived value being lost I feel no obligation to get my money’s worth. So I skip all of the eggs, and bacon, sausages, hash browns for breakfast and get a bowl of cereal, prunes and yogurt. For lunch I have a salad with cold cuts, and dinner I usually have a light vegetable rich one and sneak in a bit of dessert.
More interestingly is that when I am full, I stop eating. There is no mother figure to yell at me for not finishing my food. No financial penalty or perceived gain for finishing it. So I eat what I need and have been taking less and less as I have been losing weight and exercising more.
Amazing what life is like without money.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Brothers and Sisters of the Future
Why?
Epicurus taught us that there is no god, no divine creator and punisher and that we should live to maximise our own happiness. Perhaps this is an overly simplistic view of reality, but without God how did we get here? Too subjective? Well how did the earth get here? Likely a cosmic ballet of maelstrom and violence. Molten rock, explosions, vacuums and black holes the probability of all of this creating a planet and a star at a healthy distance apart with appropriate amounts of water are so farfetched that one could say you are crazy for believing in chance. Yet by that same argument there are billions of galaxies out there each with billions of stars and so in our game of chance with minuscule odds, winning at least once becomes certainty.
You. One thing that you can be certain about is back to the first bacteria that formed from simple proteins in a primordial soup from when the world first cooled, or back to Adam should you be a creationist, every single one of your ancestors survived to breeding age and produced at least a single child which in turn found a suitable partner and they once again bred. This seems so extraordinarily improbable that the fact that you are standing before me is a statisticians very nightmare and the reason people gamble on lotto every week. People win, we all won in some strange breeding lottery.
So you are special. You are a miraculous lotto that by all mathematical likelihood is improbably and yet here we are. 6 billion of us are sharing this tiny ball floating through the absolute inhospitable, our Noah's ark. We are survivors.
So you miraculous and inevitable being of fate or probability, which is it? An impertinent question to ask any believer and yet it is this single question that has caused more premature deaths than any other in our history. Surely with enough food, water, shelter and clothing we should be happy with our lot and not seek to take another’s?
That is the Why. This blog is my little vent on the world about the things that I see that I believe prevent happiness without giving reward.
Epicurus taught us that there is no god, no divine creator and punisher and that we should live to maximise our own happiness. Perhaps this is an overly simplistic view of reality, but without God how did we get here? Too subjective? Well how did the earth get here? Likely a cosmic ballet of maelstrom and violence. Molten rock, explosions, vacuums and black holes the probability of all of this creating a planet and a star at a healthy distance apart with appropriate amounts of water are so farfetched that one could say you are crazy for believing in chance. Yet by that same argument there are billions of galaxies out there each with billions of stars and so in our game of chance with minuscule odds, winning at least once becomes certainty.
You. One thing that you can be certain about is back to the first bacteria that formed from simple proteins in a primordial soup from when the world first cooled, or back to Adam should you be a creationist, every single one of your ancestors survived to breeding age and produced at least a single child which in turn found a suitable partner and they once again bred. This seems so extraordinarily improbable that the fact that you are standing before me is a statisticians very nightmare and the reason people gamble on lotto every week. People win, we all won in some strange breeding lottery.
So you are special. You are a miraculous lotto that by all mathematical likelihood is improbably and yet here we are. 6 billion of us are sharing this tiny ball floating through the absolute inhospitable, our Noah's ark. We are survivors.
So you miraculous and inevitable being of fate or probability, which is it? An impertinent question to ask any believer and yet it is this single question that has caused more premature deaths than any other in our history. Surely with enough food, water, shelter and clothing we should be happy with our lot and not seek to take another’s?
That is the Why. This blog is my little vent on the world about the things that I see that I believe prevent happiness without giving reward.
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