Define “religion”?
A Google search reveals a not-so-wide variety of meanings for the word. The several varying definitions I found were pretty consistent, most all of which were pretty much synonymous to some extent. It all boils down to, simply: An organized set of beliefs or values shared by the many people who subscribe to the same system, and whose beliefs pertain to divinity, spirituality, morality, after life, mysticism, ritualism, and other matters transcending physical reality.
I called my bank a month ago to check my balance. My bank is Chase. I was on the move, so I didn’t have some of my information in front of me. Who memorizes their bank account number? Or credit/debit card number for that matter? I had recently moved, and I didn’t even have my new address memorized yet either. I had my name, my birth date, my social security number, what else do you need? I didn’t have what they wanted, exactly, so I had to go through their phone security check. You wouldn’t believe the hoops you have to jump through to get access to your own account.
When I got out of the military service – the navy – I had the hardest time finding work. I still do, five years later. I have tried to rationalize it. I have tried to ask questions and feel with my feelers about the hows and whys.
Understand this. I didn’t join the service out of “not having options”. I joined out of military tradition in my family, a sense of pride and loyalty. To serve country. I am a highly educated guy. I was before I joined and I’m even more-so now. You know what I did in the navy? I was what they called a “nuke”. I played my part in maintaining, repairing, operating, managing, supervising… that’s right… a Nuclear Power Plant. I was an electrician, in addition to a nuke.
Let me be the first to congratulate al Qaeda on a job well done.
Its been a little over eight years now, since your attacks. It was your agenda to destroy America. It was your goal to tear us down. Although you may have meant to achieve this by destroying our economy with the World Trade Centers and our military leadership with the Pentagon, and failed in that regard, your goal was still realized.
Though the means may not have been what you intended, the ends were the same. America is destroyed. America is still being destroyed – at your hands. Congratulations.
The question was posed to me:
Is pi – the ratio between the circles circumference and its diameter – a constant approximating 3.14159? How can we be certain that math is ever truly “right”?
As it just so happens, we can be certain that it isn’t. Most of math is in fact wrong.
Two days ago I wrote about how society, law, and the policies of our world contradict themselves. Specifically, I wrote about how society asks us to not drive, to ride mass transit or bicycles or to walk, to stay off roads, minimize traffic and pollution, be more economical and environmentally conscious, etcetera. That article turned about mid-way through into a rant about the mass transit organization. Even though perfectly applicable to the post, that portion of the post could have been made its own article.
In any case, after reflecting on my own post at a bus stop I came to realize even more about the contradictions in society in regards to environmentalism.
“Take mass transit. Commute. Ride a bike. Do what you must to be economically conservative. Be environmentally-friendly. Be health-conscious.”
You’ve heard the lines and the philosophies. The old-wives-tales, so to speak. Its a nice idea. Save on gasoline. It’s healthier to ride a bicycle. Save on insurance, maintenance and repair, parking fare, fairy fair, traffic and parking tickets and legal hassles, etc, etc. Man, it would be nice.
Suppose for a moment, hypothetically, that the crazy Mayan prediction is true and December 2012 marks the end of civilization. Suppose we knew it and saw it coming, doomsday was indeed upon us. When asked “how would you live your life?”, “what would you do?”, and similar such questions, most people that I have seen answer these questions have stated an answer of the sort: “live it up”, “have fun”, and the like.
Others suggest that if the governments of the world knew that doomsday was coming, they wouldn’t tell the people of the world for fear of panic, chaos and rioting.
This has always puzzled me. What rationalization would anyone have to either be chaotic or be hedonistic if they found out their lives were about to end? Personally, I would find religion. There is a rationality to my choice, and a rationality to my criticisms of those who would choose differently.
Something gravely worries me about our notion of justice. I came across a few articles and vlogs over the past few days on the topic of these men accused of orchestrating the attacks on September 11, 2001 finally going to trial in New York. These articles – the vlogs mainly – sounded all happy and excited, thanking the world that “justice was finally being served”, criticizing the government for taking so long, and similar such comments. Well, let me just tell you that I feel some degree of sympathy for those men who are going to trial…
When I was in small claims court a couple months ago, a few things totally threw me for a loop and darn near pissed me off.
First of all, I’m sure most people have heard the expression, “winning is easy, good luck getting what you’re owed”. Well… would you like to know why this happens? I know exactly why and I will tell you…
