Religious holidays make me grumpy. I'm not gonna apologize for it, either. It's just one of those things, I suppose. I think that it's neat to celebrate one's religion... I really do. I just don't like the commercialization and the the mostly non-religious pressure to participate. That said, happy spring everyone. I wish you fertility and health. May this spring bring you restoration and may you all boink like bunnies. *wicked grin*. That's what spring's for, after all. Just be safe.

I wanted to talk about spirituality today but I don't think I can do it without becoming mired in too many complicated issues. Whether you believe in a god or gods, some natural force greater than yourself, nothing beyond yourself, or anything in between, it is too personal to have any kind of a general discussion about. The only thing I think that I will say is that I draw a huge dividing line between religion and spirituality and that I find the places and ideas from which people draw their sprituality completely fascinating.

Of course, now I'm kind of at a loss for what to say...

I suppose, in the end, the most important individual choice any of us makes is how to address all of those questions that there are really no concrete answers for. Why are we here? What's wrong and what's right? How should I lead my life? Etc. It's taken me a long time to arrive at the answers I have now and they change every time that I learn something that alters my perception of the world.

It doesn't really matter much what my answers are. I'm certainly no more or less right about them than any of you. How's that for fundamental equality? I guess what does matter is how well your answers fit you and whether or not they help you find happiness. Do you feel like you have answers that work for you? Do you think about it at all?

It's funny. I tend to believe that conciousness is a purely emergent behavior. A fluke of complex chemistry that leads down that fractal garden-path that seems to be the nature of things. If that's indeed the case then what do those blind-spots (the classical unanswerable questions) tell us about ourselves? This is something I want to think more about. I wonder if the so-called "human need to believe in something greater" isn't just a case of some kind of motherless child syndrome. I have to hand it to true existentialists. Accepting all the responsibility for your own creation and for all your actions and their consequences is a huge task.

Just one more bit of randomness on this topic and then I'll let you be. It seems to me that between a purely mechanistic universe and the universe as whiteboard for some higher power there lies the chaotic universe. A universe with simple rules whose effects are beyond our, or anyone's, ability to perceive or predict in their entirety. I find this thought pleasing.

...

In other news the libertarians have a little bitty quiz on their website that will tell your political tendencies. While I think their quiz tends to massively oversimplify things in decidely libertarian way it was still fun. Apparently I am a left-liberal with strong libertarian tendencies. Who knew? ;) Take da quiz. Fun fun. Thanks to Bean for turning me on to this.

Extra

I find that my ideas are too easily altered by those of my friends. Stop trying to change me, dammit! (joke! joke! ;)

Today I've been listening to the Cardigans' _Gran Turismo_. I picked it up new at Gardener's (a local used book store) for about ten bucks and I am very, very happy with it. Nina Persson's voice is something else. Whoosh. Also worth checking out (and I think I have mentioned this before) is a remake of Burning Down the House featuring the Cardigans and Tom Jones. It's too cool. Of course, all of this stipulates you can forgive them for Love Fool. Barff!

Links

Gardner's Used Books
If you are ever in Tulsa and for some reason need used books this is probably your best bet. It's not a great used bookstore and it's poorly organized but they do alright. I usually make it out to see them about once a week.
Andy O'Meara
This is one interesting guy. I read This Article on Wired and then This Article on FEED and finally his website (this link) and I was really struck by what an unusual person he seems to be. Have a look. If nothing else he's written some great vis plugins for the world's mp3 players. Seems like a guy with a lot on the ball.
6,6,66, I was little and didn't know shit about 7,7,77 11 years later still don't know any better by 8,8,88 it's way too late for me to change and by 9,9,99 sittin' on the back porch drinkin red wine...
Bean
WWBD? What would Buddah do?
I believe that religion is a good way to keep the masses from destroying themselves completely. Look at all of the main things that most religions teach: Christianity has the 10 commandments and the teachings of Jesus as a guide to be good to each other. Jeudisim teaches that by killing one person you destroy a part of the world because all of the children that that person could have had are now dead as well. Buddists believe in the eightfold path and five precepts http://www.edepot.com/buddha.html (for the eightfold and the five) which basically are there to make people good people. That's all religion is about. Humans are fallable creatures that need guidance from somewhere, I don't care if it's parents, others around them, or a religious figure, but they need that in order to learn. Life is about learning what you can during the time you're here. If you can't tell, I believe that there has to be something after this. In my eyes, we can't be here just to be. There has to be some bigger picture that we can't see now but that will be revealed to us after we've learned what we need to here. I find such beauty in that. Maybe that's my religious upbringing, or just my fear of being without meaning. I think it's more to do with the idea that I'm apart of some grander scheme where this is just the learning part of existence. It sure makes me think about death in a whole new light. It's comforting to me and that's where I find a bit of peace in it. The idea that thoughts are emergent behavior leads me to one thing: the soul. Our minds are all individualistic and I think the soul is what the difference is in all of us. We are all energy and as we all know, energy doesn't go away; it changes. But what makes it all work together? What is the difference between life coming from other life and trying to create it in a lab? I think the soul has a bit to do with that. Anyway, that's just my thoughts on this subject...