Roseyland

Hello everyone. Today is a big day. It’s my 100th blogging anniversary. Well, it’s my 100th post. That’s the same thing right? Regardless, this is a big deal, and I’ve decided to get you something. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have. It’s you who should be showering me with gifts and admiration. If it helps, consider this a gift for all of us to share. Without further ado, here it is:

Do you like it? I do. Boxing day is my new favorite holiday. I have no idea what Boxing day is, but judging from the picture above, it’s awesome. You are probably wondering where I got her, I mean it, the picture. I got it at istockphoto.com. That’s right, I paid for her, I mean it, the picture. Here’s another:

I think this picture is cool, but I can’t remember, are you supposed to walk towards the light or away from it? I was going to do this whole long post on where I find images for my blog, but then I thought that just posting a bunch of images would be more fun. I’ll give you the list version though:

• I feel like every post should have a picture. Pictures help set the mood and convey much more information than words alone.
• You can’t just grab any picture you want from the web and put it on your blog. You have to have permission from the content owner. Don’t steel, it’s bad.
• Whenever possible, I try to use my own images, but shockingly, I don’t have a picture of everything.
• If I can’t use my own picture, I try to find a creative commons licensed image. These are images that people allow you to use for free. There are different licenses, but most commonly the images are free for non-commercial use with attribution to the author. All of the images on my Flickr account are licensed under creative commons. The only thing I don’t like about creative commons is the attribution part. It isn’t exactly clear to me what attribution means. If it was just a link on the photo, that would be cool, but I think you are supposed to put a caption under the image, and captions suck. I’ve yet to find a caption scheme that I’m happy with. Currently I use tables, but the code for that is ugly. I feel like there should be a more elegant solution.
• When it comes to celebrities, or commercial products, or any type of image that is all over the web anyways, I just download the picture and use it. I don’t know if this is right or wrong, but if the image is everywhere anyways, I figure it doesn’t really matter.
• After all that, I’ve started using istockphoto.com. You have to pay for these pictures, but you don’t have to attribute them to anyone. It’s feels weird to pay for a picture, but the photos in this post only cost a $1.50 each. I certainly waste more money on less important things. Plus, I love browsing the images. Its fun. Seriously, you should try it.

Here is another picture. I already have lots of pictures of a cat, but I thought this image was particularly striking.

Here is a political picture for you. It’s a tea party with Alice and the Mad Hatter. Hmm. The Mad Hatter is crazy. A crazy person at a tea party. Interesting.

Just for fun, I thought I’d throw in the meaning of life, which is clearly defined in the equations below. I’d explain it, but it’s so obvious. I don’t want to insult your intelligence.

I both love and hate this next picture. I love Buddhism and the whole complex human relationship with spirituality and suffering and stuff. This image would be an awesome illustration of all that, except that it’s fake. The problem with a lot of istockphoto.com images is that they usually use models. Which is fine for some things, but I can tell that the woman in this photo is striking a pose rather than expressing any real experience. That sucks, because if this was a real picture, it would be amazing.

One more image just because I love you. You’re welcome.

See, sometimes models are good. This post cost me $10.50. I think that makes it my most expensive post ever. I doubt I’ll use istockphoto.com images very often, but it’s a nice option to have, if you can’t find the perfect picture any other way. So, what did you get me?

I have a thing for documentaries, and possibly my favorite documentary ever is Jesus Camp. Jesus Camp follows the lives of a group of children from evangelical christian homes. A lot of the documentary focuses on a summer “Jesus” camp the children attend.

I’ve always been fascinated by evangelical religion. Not being that religious myself, evangelical religion is very foreign to me. I like to think that I can always understand another person’s perspective and why they feel the way they do, but evangelicals are a tough nut to crack. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll all about the importance of community, and incorporating some sense of spirituality into your life, but I don’t get blind faith. I can’t shut off the logical/rational side of my brain. I need my beliefs to be compatible with factual reality.

I could ramble on about evangelical religion forever, but we don’t have time for that. In this post, I want to focus on my favorite scene from Jesus Camp. This scene isn’t even in the movie, it’s a deleted scene, and it’s awesome. Check it out:

Let’s recap what we just saw. The leaders of the camp have called a meeting to discuss contingency plans in the event that any of the children become possessed by demons. I imagine if you are running a summer camp, you have to have a lot of back-up plans. You know, things like what to do if it rains, what if one of the kids gets sick, oh, and also, what if the children become possessed by demons. Because you know, that could happen. I think what I love most about this clip is the way nobody is surprised when the head pastor announces that they will probably have to deal with “demonic manifestation”. It looks like there are about 15-20 people in that room. You would think at least one person would be like “wait, wait, this is a joke right?”, but no, they all act like this is a completely normal meeting. Given that nobody thinks this is a joke though, why aren’t they more freaked out? I mean if I believed in demonic possession, and someone told me it was likely to happen, I’d probably lose my cool a little. Aren’t demons supposed to be fallen angels who follow Satan? That sounds bad.

Another thing I want to point out in this scene is the description of a demonically possessed child. In the words of “Uncle Leon”, a demonically possessed child might be “a child doing funny things with their hands or whatever”. Dude, demonically possessed children are EVERYWHERE! It’s an epidemic worse than the swine flu, from now on, I’m throwing holy water on every child I see. Better safe than sorry.

I’m going to leave you with one more scene from Jesus Camp. I’ll let it go without comment, because well, I wouldn’t know where to begin.

I saw Bill Maher’s Religulous last weekend. I can not resist a good documentary, especially when it is about religion or social issues, so I knew that I had to see this film. I had high expectations for Religulous. I have lots of issues with religion and the things religious people do. I was hoping that Bill Maher would lay it all out there and put the hypocrisies and injustices of religion on full display, but I also hoped that he would look at the positive aspects of religion too. I wanted Religulous to seriously ask the question of whether religion has a positive or negative net affect on today’s society, and maybe even provide insight into how religion could evolve for the better. While I am glad that I finally saw Religulous, I was disappointed. (continue reading…)

I like to ponder deep questions. Not often, but sometimes. Usually my deepest thoughts are things like: what should I watch on Tivo tonight?, do I make something to eat or go out?, and how can I make the cat just a little more insane? Occasionally though, I go deep. This is often coffee induced. When I drink coffee, I get all philosophical, and when that happens, these are questions I ponder.

1. Why is there something instead of nothing?

This is a variant of the “why is the universe so finely tuned for the existence of life?” question. I prefer this version though, because it cuts to the point. We could ask whether or not we live in one of an infinite number of parallel universes, or we could ask whether or not some god designed our universe, but these questions miss the point. Why does anything exist at all? If God created everything, why does God exist? If we live in one of many parallel universes, why do all these parallel universes exist? Why are we here?

2. Why am I alive right now?

At first this seems like a stupid question. I mean if you weren’t alive right now, you wouldn’t be around to ask silly philosophical questions. But seriously, why are you alive right now? The time span of your life is minuscule compared to all of time, isn’t it odd that you just happen to be here right now? I know some people will say that it is only possible to be conscious of a time in which you are alive, but wouldn’t that mean from your perspective you are always conscious? That’s weird.

3. Why am I me?

Why are you you? I think we tend to believe that who we are is just random chance, but doesn’t that mean we are pretty lucky? I certainly don’t have the perfect life, but considering all the people in this world, I’d rather be me that most. 80% of the world’s population lives in a third world country. Lucky for me, I’m in the other 20%. Not only that, I’m college educated, I have a good job, I seem to be healthy, my family is relatively normal. All in all, I’m very fortunate, but why am I so fortunate. Further more, why am I human. Isn’t it also possible that I could have been a cat, or a horse, or an elephant? There are far more animals in this world than humans, why did I luck out and get to be human?, and a fortunate human at that.

So these are my coffee induced deep thoughts. Do you know the answers to any of these questions? Seriously, if you do, leave a comment. I know that ultimately these questions can’t be answered, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun to think about. If nothing else, they point out just how much of reality is completely unknown, and that helps keep everything in perspective.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the true nature of reality. Is that weird? Probably. The thing is, reality is weird. First, there is observable reality. This is not so weird. Observable reality is basically the physical universe and the laws that govern it. Things like apples and trees, and apples falling from trees. Also, rocks, cats, mountains, beaches, the human body, etc… Nothing can compete with Science when it comes to explaining how the physical universe works. However, science can not tell us why the physical universe works. Most people don’t even think to ask why, but why is a really important question.

The physical universe consists of many different and apparently independent things. Things like galaxies, planets, animals, plants, cells, proteins, DNA, atoms, photons, etc… Science does an excellent job of explaining how these things work, but it is amazing that these things happen to work in such a way that allows life to exist. Planets and DNA do not have much in common, but both are required for life, and both are governed by the same laws of physics. If you really dig into the details, like those crazy scientist do, you would find that the laws of physics are insanely precisely tuned toward the existence of life. The most minute changes to the laws of physics would result in a completely different and lifeless universe.

Science has acknowledged the fine tuned nature of our universe and has struggled to explain it. Mainstream science seems to have settled on the concept of parallel universes. The idea is that there are actually infinite universes out there, each with unique laws of physics. Only an infinitesimally tiny set of these universes are capable of supporting life, but since those are the only universes we can live in, our universe is one of them. This explanation is probably true to an extent, but there is no evidence to support it, and personally I don’t find it to be a sufficient explanation for the uniqueness of our universe.

There are many other explanations for the fine tuned nature of our universe. Some people believe that conscious observation causes the quantum wave function to collapse, which in effect creates our universe. Some people believe that we live in a computer simulation like the Matrix. Other people believe that life is just one big collective dream, and of course many people believe that God created everything.

All of these explanations are possible, but the problem is they are completely untestable. I think the only thing we can say for certain is that there is a level reality beyond our observation, and in this unobservable reality, life and/or consciousness is fundamental. So while we appear to live in a reality where life is a mere fortunate side effect of the physical universe, the truth is that there is a deeper level of reality where life is fundamental. Since life is fundamental in the deeper level of reality, it is only natural that life is possible in the derivative levels of reality.

I think on some level we all know that there is a deeper reality. This is probably where religion comes from. I also think a lot of our fears are ultimately fears that there is no reality beyond the physical universe. We are in an awkward situation here. To get the most out of life, we need to have a connection to this deeper level of reality. However, we will never ultimately know what this deeper level of reality is. How can you have a relationship with something that is completely unknown? When you figure that out, please let me know

The image in this post is “Spring on the Prairie - Biplane” by Teo and is licensed under creative commons.

I was in church today, which is weird for me because I’m not the church going type, but that is another story. During the sermon, the pastor mentioned that he had prayed before to experience something divine. Something miraculous that would would prove to him that his faith was real. Of course this divine experience did not happen, and there was more to the sermon after that, but I forgot what it was. If you really want to know, you can listen to the sermon yourself here.

This got me to thinking. I think a lot of the tension between science and religion stems from the fact that many religious people insist on believing in a supernatural God. When it comes to science vs. religion, I’m a science guy. I don’t believe that Jesus literally walked on water, or healed anyone, or even that he was immaculately conceived. In other words, I don’t believe that there was anything supernatural about Jesus. In fact, don’t really believe in anything supernatural at all. That being said, I also don’t believe that life is just a side effect of matter and energy interacting according to randomly set physical laws. I believe that miracles happen, but they don’t happen outside of our reality. They happen within our reality. Our existence itself is a miracle, we shouldn’t feel like we need to look beyond our own universe to experience something divine. This all reminds me of a story I have heard a number of times in a number of different ways. I found the version below here.

The Flood

Once upon a time there was a man of great faith. The man lived in a small town. One day it began to rain. The rain continued until the streets in the town began to flood. The mayor sent police officers through the streets, knocking on doors and shouting through bullhorns for the citizens to evacuate their homes. But the man said, “No, I will not evacuate. God will save me.”

The waters continued to rise until the man was forced to climb the stairs to the second floor of his home. Soon the mayor sent the fire department on rafts through the streets of the town. They called to the man to get into the raft. But the man shouted from his second floor window, “No, I will not get into a raft. God will save me.”

The rain fell heavily and soon the water rose above the second floor. Now the man had to climb to the roof of his house. The mayor sent the rescue squad in a helicopter. They dropped a rope ladder and shouted over the din of the propeller blades for the man to grab onto the ladder. But the man called back, “No, I will not take hold of your ladder. God will save me.”

Soon the flood waters rose even higher and washed the man off his roof, and he drowned in the raging current.

When the man reached heaven, he angrily banged on the gates and demanded to see God. After some negotiation, he was taken to the Throne. The man said, “I am a man of great faith. Why didn’t you save me?’

And God replied, “Well, I sent you police officers … the fire department … the rescue squad …”

– Author Unknown

The man in the story above was so focused looking for a supernatural miracle, that he overlooked the obvious solution right in front of him. Let me switch gears to evolution. I think the biggest problem creationist have with evolution is that they are obsessed with a supernatural God, which is not required by evolution. Evolution is still a miracle though. The fact that the same laws of physics that allow for atoms and molecules, also allow for stars and planets, and also allow for DNA and multicellular organism that can evolve into the diversity of life on this planet, is a miracle. If you really take the time to think about it, evolution if far more miraculous than a supernatural God *poofing* the world into existence. I don’t know for sure what form of God I believe in, but I believe that he (or she, or it) is an integral part of this reality, not something beyond it.

The image in this post is “Miracles Can Happen” by joesflickr and is licensed under creative commons.

Yeah, so all I have been doing lately is posting videos. I had to post one more though, because this is my favorite documentary ever. Well… one of my favorites. This is a documentary that aired on channel 4 in the United Kingdom. In it, the astronomer Sir Martin Rees explores the true nature of reality. This documentary discusses the fine tuned nature of our universe, parallel universes, the intersection of science and religion, and even the possibility that we all live in a computer simulation. I love this documentary because it encompasses the basis of my spirituality.  I spend a lot of time trying to put my spiritual beliefs into words, but I never feel like I get it quite right. This documentary gets it right. I don’t agree with everything in it, but my beliefs are not so much beliefs as they are a set of questions I like to ponder. This documentary stimulates a lot of pondering, and I love pondering. It is 48 minutes long, but you’ll know withing 2 minutes if you want to keep watching. If I watch 10 seconds, I end up watching the whole thing. Incidentally, I’m really annoyed that I can’t buy this documentary on DVD. I do have a bit torrented version of it *gasp*. For the record, I would gladly buy this if it were for sale!!! Okay, here it is, enjoy.

I did something a little out of the ordinary for me today. I went to church. If you have read this post (or you visited Colonial quad 6 from 1997 to 1998), you know that my views on religion/god are not exactly conventional. I do think that there is symbolic value to religion though, and I definitely have a spiritual side. To me spirituality is more about questions like “Why does anything exist?” or “Why is the universe so finely tuned for life?”, rather than “What does this Bible verse mean?” or my least favorite of all “What would Jesus do?”.

Anyways, back to the point of this post, I went to church today. I went to The Gathering, which is a newer United Methodist church on McCausland Avenue. I was familiar with both of the pastors of this church from a young adults group I went to a few years ago, and I’ve been meaning to check out The Gathering for awhile now. Today I finally got around to it. I was a little uncomfortable at first, because let’s face it a 30 year old guy showing up at church by himself is a little odd. Nobody seemed to care though, so that’s good. There were five things I really liked about the gathering:

1. No pews and comfortable chairs. Seriously, I really liked the chairs.
2. Free coffee. Unfortunately, I came in the wrong door and didn’t see the coffee until I left.
3. The exposed brick wall. In the sanctuary the front (or is it the back) wall has the brick exposed. You can see it in the picture in this post. I’m sure it has a deep symbolic meaning, but I don’t care about that, I just think it looks cool.
4. The Neighborhood. I like the neighborhood The Gathering is in. It is fairly close to me and has lots of good restaurants like Olympia and Chuy’s.
5. Communion with real wine. I was in the wrong line for the real wine, but I still liked the fact that it was there.

The only thing I didn’t like was that for one prayer everybody held the hands of the people on either side of them. I’m not a big fan of praying and holding hands, mostly I’m not a big fan of holding hands. That’s my own hang up though, and it only lasted for about 15 seconds, so I can get over it.

I’m going to try and become more involved with The Gathering. My chances of sticking with it are probably about 50-50, but I figure I can at least make to church once a month or so. It is a nice way to start the day. The Gathering also has a lot of small groups. One of them is a skeptics group, which I think would be right up my alley. I always feel a little weird at those things, because I know I’m probably the least religious guy in the room, which makes me a little reluctant to share my true thoughts. That being said, the Gathering seems to be a fairly open mined environment and I’m pretty sure nobody there is going to try and “convert” me. If nothing else, it will be a new adventure, and that’s always fun.

“Tell me are you a Christian child?”… “Ma’am, I am tonight”. This is by far my favorite line in a song. In case you don’t recognize it, the line is from “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn. Religion and/or spirituality is one of my favorite topics. I think about it a lot, but I rarely discuss it in real life. Religion seems to be one of those touchy subjects, and I’m not fond of awkward situations. I have a feeling I will be blogging about religion a lot though, so I figured it would be a good idea to get some of my basic beliefs and disbeliefs out of the way. I’m going to do this question and answer style, because well… It’s my blog.

Do you believe in God? Yes and no. It would be more correct to say that I believe in the concept of God. I don’t really believe that there is a human like entity out there looking over us and deciding what should happen to who, but I do believe that there is a deeper purpose and meaning to life. I believe that there will always be a level of reality that is unknown to us, and somewhere in that unknown is my concept of god.

Are you an atheist? It depends. When most people think of an atheist, they are really thinking of a naturalist. A naturalist is someone who believes that the physical universe is all there is. I am definitely not a naturalist. Naturalists view life as a side effect of the physical universe. The problem with naturalism is that our universe is incredibly finely tuned for the existence of life. To me, the only logical explanation is that life is somehow fundamental to the nature of the universe. In fact, it is entirely possible that the physical universe is a side effect of life. Technically atheists are just people who do not believe in theistic gods or deities, but that does not mean they are naturalist. While I do not believe in the conventional view of god, I also wouldn’t call myself an atheist.

Are you a Christian? Personally I consider myself Christian, but I do not feel that any religion is completely right, or that any religion is wrong. I think of religion as being like software and “God” as being like hardware. The hardware in a computer is incredibly powerful, but it’s all a bunch of 1’s and 0’s. Interacting directly with hardware is pretty much impossible. We need software to turn the 1’s and 0’s into something more familiar that we can relate to. Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that the software is the computer, but in reality the software is just one face of something much deeper and more complex. Religion is the “software” that allows us to have a relationship with “God”. Religion itself is not God however, and it does not reveal what the true nature of God is. Different religions are just different “software” interfacing with the same hardware or “God”.

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior? Ewww… I hate this question most of all. It makes me feel all weird inside. I have two problems with this question. First, it feels very evangelical, and I’m not at all evangelical. Second, it is too literal. I’m fine with the concept of giving your life to something greater than yourself, which is what I think this question is getting at, but the question itself is too specific. I feel like answering it pigeonholes you as a certain type of person, and I don’t like that. It makes me feel weird.

Do you believe in reincarnation? Why do bad things happen? What happens when we die? Why does anything exist at all? Is this all just one big simulation? Do you follow the force? What is consciousness? Yeah, umm… let’s deal with these questions in a future blog post.

The image in this post is “Religion” by Exolucere and is licensed under Creative Commons.