Mini Blogs
Today I made a list of a few blog-worthy ideas. My usual M.O. consists of fleshing out an idea as I write. Its a slow process, but it feels like exploring, and I like that. The period at the end of each sentence is like a question mark-"where to now?". Sometimes (usually) I get caught up in prefacing the thing I really want to say. Building up to an idea can be torturous, but the context is sometimes important. Today, I want to try something different. I'm going to present a few ideas that I jotted down this morning in very short concise essays. Brevity will be the goal. If I'm intrigued enough by one or more of the subjects, I'll revisit them in the future. Let's start with
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE
The ideas that you hold sacred could be anything. There's no end to the combinations of wacky notions that could make up your "religion" (in quotes because religion could be defined in non-traditional ways). You may believe in Jehovah, Allah, Zeus, Mother Nature, The Angry Volcano, Sol, Maker Elves, The Turtle, The Great Spirit, whatever. You could believe in your god and all the strange angels and devils and trolls and snakes and so on, and your life would be a success. You would be happy and fulfilled, regardless of the unique combination of superstitious features in your religion. Because these things don't exist, and if you have not been compelled by your beliefs to help or hurt anyone, your religion is for all intents and purposes nihilistic and impotent. You could replace the features of your religion with any other combination of features and your life would not be changed. Despite the religious dress we put on reality, our lives are guided by natural personal needs, social dynamics, and societal norms.
WAR IS A TOOL OF THUGS
Thugs, gangsters, hooligans, and cold blooded killers roam the earth unrestrained thanks to the cult of nationalism. They are the men (almost never women) who decide to take nations to war and lead their followers to violence. The brainwashed followers are the people who accept the reasons for war, and help perpetuate the myth that killing is somehow noble. Thugs roam the streets and alleys of this world, starting fights and killing innocents. We call these thugs Presidents, Prime Ministers, Clerics, Supreme Commanders, Master, Prophet, etc.
DIFFERENT DEATH
Death is a word that refers to the end of a life, but our reactions to death could not be more varied. The death of our partner or our child can be so heartbreaking that we might feel like we our about to die as well. We may go through life fearing our own death or the death of loved ones. The end of life is such a terrifying proposition for many that some believe religions were spawned from that fear specifically.
Yet death is so prevalent in every aspect of our world. At this very second, countless creatures-from single celled bacteria to complex life forms like our own species-are dying. We live our lives with almost no thought or care for the genocide the natural world commits every second of every day.
Most death we dismiss-we're simply not intimately and cognitively aware of it. Some death we are more aware of, but we are left emotionally unaffected by the dying. Sometimes we do the killing ourselves-we can even feel good about it. We squash bugs, we pull weeds, we eat...
Evolution (read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins) explains our varied emotional response to death. Its explainable, but death itself can't be labeled by moralists as universally and pervasively bad. There is not enough logic surrounding the subject to base a solid moralistic approach from. As the most powerful species on the planet, we do take the right to create and enforce a morality that is human-centric as opposed to, say, squirrel-centric. But we should always remember that at their base, moral systems are manufactured and arbitrary. This doesn't mean, of course, that we don't take the subjects of character and behavior towards others seriously-they are worth discussing, debating, and developing. And it doesn't keep us from having our natural feelings regarding death, nor does the fact diminish the nobility of those who work to minimize death and suffering in the world.
I GET IT
Hands in the air, reaching for god, tears of joy(?), communing with God, feeling his power-I get it. I too have experienced "religious ecstasy". You don't have to be in a church praying to God to feel that spiritual feeling. Religion doesn't hold a monopoly on awe, joy, humility, gratitude, happiness, sadness, passion, connection, and any combination of these natural human emotions. I feel that spiritual feeling when I listen to certain music, when I look up at the starts at night, when I watch certain movies, when I'm with certain people. I get it guys. What you're feeling is not a sign that your religious claims are right-its a sign that you're human.
GRANDPA'S IDEAS
Grandpa Satchel was perhaps the most philosophically minded member of my family. I had the privilege of living with him for a few months when I was 19-20(?) years old. At the time, he was in his mid 70s and living in an a large old folk's apartment building in Independence, Kansas, my hometown (he died a few years later). My dad and stepmom had just divorced and Dad was moving to Arkansas. I had moved out of their house and was months away from moving to Boise to live with my brother, Seth. Living with Grandpa Satchel was a temporary arrangement in that transitional period.
I wish I would have recorded some of the conversations Grandpa and I had. And I wish my memory was better than it is. At the moment, I can't remember much about Grandpa's ideas and beliefs. I do recall that he belonged to some kind of society, and I think its symbol was a triangle, but I could be confused. He had a necklace emblem that he'd sometimes wear. Around that time he drove up to the Kansas City area for some kind of a meet-up with this society (he probably shouldn't have been driving at the time). One thing I remember him saying was that life or consciousness transcended our bodies, like the information on a computer lives on even after the computer is destroyed. It's always seemed like a flawed idea to me-no, energy is not destroyed when a computer is destroyed, but the order or design of that energy does not survive. It seemed at the time that Grandpa was trying to argue for a life after death-that our minds would survive in some kind or another after we die. Like I said, I wish I could remember more of what we discussed at the time, and I wish I could talk to him again (perhaps his eternal energy-based mind is reading this now). I just remember this little snippet (along with various details of our daily lives in the apartment). But I know his religious and philosophical positions changed multiple times in his life. He was even a member of the LDS church at some point. Perhaps he never could pin down "the Truth". Unfortunately, I won't be able to talk to him to find out why.
ENGAGE
From an early age, I've felt something missing in casual, face-to-face social interaction. There seems to be this facade that is put up, preventing people from connecting on deeper emotional and intellectual levels. We all laugh, posture, recant stories, share opinions, etc-and all of this is meaningful and important to enjoy life and connect-but this at times does not seem like enough. Really listening, really understanding, exploring ideas together, sharing wisdom...this is what I sometimes find missing. Perhaps I should drink more beer with more amateur philosophers.
And from an early age, I've looked to adult members of my family to tell me what is really significant, to share the cache of wisdom they've collected during their lifetime. Today, I keep my ears and mind open for more of the same from people around me and from society at large. Its as though I've always wanted a father or mother or someone to sit down next to me, look me in the eyes, and say, "this is what you need to know about life...." Even though I have the utmost respect for my parents, I still feel as though I've rarely if ever experienced this kind of connection and sharing. I have no plan to have a kid of my own, but I can say that having my chance to pass on life's lessons is one of the biggest motivators to consider the option. Of course, there's this blog...
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE
The ideas that you hold sacred could be anything. There's no end to the combinations of wacky notions that could make up your "religion" (in quotes because religion could be defined in non-traditional ways). You may believe in Jehovah, Allah, Zeus, Mother Nature, The Angry Volcano, Sol, Maker Elves, The Turtle, The Great Spirit, whatever. You could believe in your god and all the strange angels and devils and trolls and snakes and so on, and your life would be a success. You would be happy and fulfilled, regardless of the unique combination of superstitious features in your religion. Because these things don't exist, and if you have not been compelled by your beliefs to help or hurt anyone, your religion is for all intents and purposes nihilistic and impotent. You could replace the features of your religion with any other combination of features and your life would not be changed. Despite the religious dress we put on reality, our lives are guided by natural personal needs, social dynamics, and societal norms.
WAR IS A TOOL OF THUGS
Thugs, gangsters, hooligans, and cold blooded killers roam the earth unrestrained thanks to the cult of nationalism. They are the men (almost never women) who decide to take nations to war and lead their followers to violence. The brainwashed followers are the people who accept the reasons for war, and help perpetuate the myth that killing is somehow noble. Thugs roam the streets and alleys of this world, starting fights and killing innocents. We call these thugs Presidents, Prime Ministers, Clerics, Supreme Commanders, Master, Prophet, etc.
DIFFERENT DEATH
Death is a word that refers to the end of a life, but our reactions to death could not be more varied. The death of our partner or our child can be so heartbreaking that we might feel like we our about to die as well. We may go through life fearing our own death or the death of loved ones. The end of life is such a terrifying proposition for many that some believe religions were spawned from that fear specifically.
Yet death is so prevalent in every aspect of our world. At this very second, countless creatures-from single celled bacteria to complex life forms like our own species-are dying. We live our lives with almost no thought or care for the genocide the natural world commits every second of every day.
Most death we dismiss-we're simply not intimately and cognitively aware of it. Some death we are more aware of, but we are left emotionally unaffected by the dying. Sometimes we do the killing ourselves-we can even feel good about it. We squash bugs, we pull weeds, we eat...
Evolution (read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins) explains our varied emotional response to death. Its explainable, but death itself can't be labeled by moralists as universally and pervasively bad. There is not enough logic surrounding the subject to base a solid moralistic approach from. As the most powerful species on the planet, we do take the right to create and enforce a morality that is human-centric as opposed to, say, squirrel-centric. But we should always remember that at their base, moral systems are manufactured and arbitrary. This doesn't mean, of course, that we don't take the subjects of character and behavior towards others seriously-they are worth discussing, debating, and developing. And it doesn't keep us from having our natural feelings regarding death, nor does the fact diminish the nobility of those who work to minimize death and suffering in the world.
I GET IT
Hands in the air, reaching for god, tears of joy(?), communing with God, feeling his power-I get it. I too have experienced "religious ecstasy". You don't have to be in a church praying to God to feel that spiritual feeling. Religion doesn't hold a monopoly on awe, joy, humility, gratitude, happiness, sadness, passion, connection, and any combination of these natural human emotions. I feel that spiritual feeling when I listen to certain music, when I look up at the starts at night, when I watch certain movies, when I'm with certain people. I get it guys. What you're feeling is not a sign that your religious claims are right-its a sign that you're human.
GRANDPA'S IDEAS
Grandpa Satchel was perhaps the most philosophically minded member of my family. I had the privilege of living with him for a few months when I was 19-20(?) years old. At the time, he was in his mid 70s and living in an a large old folk's apartment building in Independence, Kansas, my hometown (he died a few years later). My dad and stepmom had just divorced and Dad was moving to Arkansas. I had moved out of their house and was months away from moving to Boise to live with my brother, Seth. Living with Grandpa Satchel was a temporary arrangement in that transitional period.
I wish I would have recorded some of the conversations Grandpa and I had. And I wish my memory was better than it is. At the moment, I can't remember much about Grandpa's ideas and beliefs. I do recall that he belonged to some kind of society, and I think its symbol was a triangle, but I could be confused. He had a necklace emblem that he'd sometimes wear. Around that time he drove up to the Kansas City area for some kind of a meet-up with this society (he probably shouldn't have been driving at the time). One thing I remember him saying was that life or consciousness transcended our bodies, like the information on a computer lives on even after the computer is destroyed. It's always seemed like a flawed idea to me-no, energy is not destroyed when a computer is destroyed, but the order or design of that energy does not survive. It seemed at the time that Grandpa was trying to argue for a life after death-that our minds would survive in some kind or another after we die. Like I said, I wish I could remember more of what we discussed at the time, and I wish I could talk to him again (perhaps his eternal energy-based mind is reading this now). I just remember this little snippet (along with various details of our daily lives in the apartment). But I know his religious and philosophical positions changed multiple times in his life. He was even a member of the LDS church at some point. Perhaps he never could pin down "the Truth". Unfortunately, I won't be able to talk to him to find out why.
ENGAGE
From an early age, I've felt something missing in casual, face-to-face social interaction. There seems to be this facade that is put up, preventing people from connecting on deeper emotional and intellectual levels. We all laugh, posture, recant stories, share opinions, etc-and all of this is meaningful and important to enjoy life and connect-but this at times does not seem like enough. Really listening, really understanding, exploring ideas together, sharing wisdom...this is what I sometimes find missing. Perhaps I should drink more beer with more amateur philosophers.
And from an early age, I've looked to adult members of my family to tell me what is really significant, to share the cache of wisdom they've collected during their lifetime. Today, I keep my ears and mind open for more of the same from people around me and from society at large. Its as though I've always wanted a father or mother or someone to sit down next to me, look me in the eyes, and say, "this is what you need to know about life...." Even though I have the utmost respect for my parents, I still feel as though I've rarely if ever experienced this kind of connection and sharing. I have no plan to have a kid of my own, but I can say that having my chance to pass on life's lessons is one of the biggest motivators to consider the option. Of course, there's this blog...
posted by Josh at
12:29 PM
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