Inconsistencies

I feel completely paradoxical today because I haven't had the urge to write in this for a while, and now I'm doing so twice in one day.
Technically it's not in one day, but I haven't slept since the last time I blogged, so we'll leave it at that.

Anyways, recently I've been in an online conversation with an atheistic evolutionist in the comments sections of a website. The primary subject of discussion has been the Flood, and whether or not the Ark is physically possible.

It's been a fairly nice argument, we have both been cordial and argued rationally instead of with stupid anger. You'd be surprised how many people will just say "whatever God is stupid because evolution disproved him and DON'T FORCE YOUR BELIEFS ON ME &%*#&%*" and leave it at that.

I have made it a goal, almost a hobby, to learn about arguments and apologetics in defending Christianity. But my confusion lies in this:
If they, who insist that us forcing our beliefs on people is wrong, focus on the belief that there is no God and therefore our beliefs have no effect on the afterlife, why do they argue to convince the religious that their religion is illogical and pointless?

I think they just feel a need to be right in an argument. It's either that, or they just have the humble, well-intentioned desire to somehow "cure" humanity of religious stupidity, and make us all want to believe that life is pointless and finite.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'd rather they DO stand up for their beliefs, but it seems to me that their beliefs have no purpose, and thus it's hard to rally behind them. Cheers of "The Universe and living matter were all assembled by random chance!" and "God has been logically dethroned by the wisdom of man!" hardly roll off the tongue.
Morality is also completely unnecessary without God, but that's a different blog.
Anyways, I'm just curious as to what motivation atheists have for wanting us to agree with them, because I highly doubt that they just want us to see the error of our ways.

Any thoughts, insights, or questions?

Throw the Swan Out with the Bathwater

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,627139,00.html


This is why slapstick comedy is popular.
If it happens in real life and not in a cartoon, it even makes adults laugh.

On The Road Again

I'm back home in Tejas.
Didn't really expect to be, but, you know, the best laid plans...
I'm trying to decide what to do.
I want to keep using this as a blog for thought, but I still want a place where I can tell everybody what's going on in my life with my exciting internship and all that rockage.
I'm thinking I'll use facebook notes for the details about my life and just keep using this as what it is. Or maybe I'll use this as both and just use the life stuff on facebook.
Anyways, time for a real blog.

So, today, as I was alone with my thoughts (and some awesome Romanian techno) for 6 hours, my brain did some working.

What if gasoline does not exist?

I realized that I have never run out of gas before. My car has never shut down.
I refill my gas tank, at decent expense, for something which I have never seen the consequences of.
What if the government made up gasoline and, simply out of the fear of running out of gasoline and being stranded, people keep filling up their cars with mystery liquid.

Of course, with this kind of theory, you can only go so long before some dummy runs out of gasoline, and realizes that his car doesn't shut down.

2 things happen at this point, either he thinks God is pulling a flour and oil miracle on him and he has a blessed holy gas tank, or he realizes the whole thing has been a scam and everyone finds out.

To continue the sham, the government (or car manufacturers, take your pick) puts a device in a car that is tied to the fuel meter. If your gas meter (with your gas can filled with mystery liquid) runs to empty, the car automatically shuts itself down and won't turn back on until you buy some more (highly government taxed) gasoline.

Just give the government a share of the profit for gas purchases and you, my friend, have a paranoid conspiracy theory.

Ironically, I just spent a few seconds searching for "gasoline" in Google images. Not a single picture of the actual liquid of gasoline popped up.

Conflict

Part of me feels like college is a ripoff.
I spend many thousands of dollars a year (some paid for by scholarship and loan) in order to do homework and write papers. Eventually, this money will culminate in a piece of paper signed by some deans that says I have written some papers and taken some tests.

The dorm is overpriced for the size of the room, and the quality of the provision, the food is EXPENSIVE and crappy, but at least the library and the school buildings are adequate.
At the same time, I realize that I am paying less that the average lower class income (somewhere around $27k a year) in order to be free of a job. Now sure, I have to work a little to be able to afford that, but while in college, I am provided for in every basic way, plus LOTS of unnecessary treats like internet and TV.
Plenty people who earn and pay that same wage do not live like I do.

So, while I love to complain, college really is a bubble of complacency, with a lot of hard work involved. And I do believe that every college, not just small private Christian schools, is a bubble which the students rarely ever leave.
I wonder if there's anyone who spent his entire life at college for just that reason.

Up Late Again...

Studying and writing papers is getting old.
Like fast.
But, it's always a pleasant little surprise to be scanning facebook at 2 in the morning and find something funny.
One of my friends, I won't say who, listed in her profile that her favorite type of book is Christian Romance Novels.
I am horrified by the idea of this. It sounds like the single worst idea to ever come from a Christian author.

So I googled it.
Much to my dismay, I found this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Christian-Romance-Books/lm/1WKYIUWB1NZJ0

An entire category in Amazon devoted to horrible books. At least it's probably not pornographic like regular romance novels, but it's still probably unrealistic and theologically painful.
Alas, such is American Christianity.

Tag

I refuse to make my blog topics revolve around major holidays. That's cheap. I like to be more creative in my topics. No offense if you do, haha.

I think Facebook is vastly superior to Youtube. Of course I'm going to tell you why. This is a blog, duh.

Every time I look through some website that collects pictures or videos or stories by topic, I inevitably run into a video that shows some person doing something incredibly stupid that gets them hurt, whether it be a hurt pride or a very, very physical pain.

I wonder if these people know their shame is made public for all the world to see.
I am currently aware of about 3 videos that I am actually in on youtube. Most of them are inside jokes that would not entertain anyone who actually watched them without being there for the recording.

At least on facebook, you can tag people who are in video and pics, so they are made aware of this.

I wonder if the world is small enough or coincidental enough that the people who watch the videos of people being stupid ever, by some mysterious chance, see that stupid person in real life. I bet it happens.

In that case, person B, who viewed the video of person A, would already have a preconception of the character of person A, and probably not a good one.

So, just to make you paranoid, I wonder if you guys are in any youtube videos that could destroy your credibility as serious people.

Haha good luck finding them. I think youtube is up to about a billion videos or something crazy.

Running on Empty

I still want to use this thing, I promise.
I just had to take a hiatus from deep thought for a couple of weeks. It gets me into trouble sometimes.
Blog time now.

I noticed today how much my life is controlled by gauges.
Anything that measures how full or empty some item of mine is determines more of my course of action than I like.
Today alone:
-My car ran low on gas and I had to stop to get more.
-My cell phone battery died and I had to bring my charger with me to the library.
-My laptop battery died and I had to walk around campus with the screen turned off.
-My coffee maker ran out of water and had to be refilled.
-My printer cartridge ran out of ink and had to be replaced, very expensively.
-It also ran out of paper. Nothing should have more than one resource. Piece of crap.
-A McDonald's billboard on the highway told me that my "fry gauge" was low, which sadly really made me want fries.
-I know for a fact that my bike tire pressure gauge would read low if I tried to ride it.
-My Febreze bottle is empty, making me less able to combat the encroaching stench of J. Alvin into my clothing.

Every time something becomes empty, it makes me unable to do something. Emptiness takes away my power, it weakens technology, it signifies that work must be done before a device can be used again.

At the end of my day, as I thought of all the things I need to do before all of the trinkets around me would do my bidding again, I realized something that outweighs the joy all of technology could ever bring me.


I'm full inside.