Knowledge in strange places

Looking over the edited mess of my previous post (and it's still a bit of a mess). There was a part that I cut out (not struck through), mainly because I really felt it deserved it's own post. The part was:

Personally, I like to say I'm a Deist on good days and an Agnostic on bad days. Other days I like to say I'm a neo-social-Darwinist (one who thinks symbiosis is generally a more effective path then "nature red in tooth and claw").

Deist, Agnostic, Darwinist It looks like I'm a bit of a schizophrenic philosopher, but it boils down to the fact that I have no clue with what "The Truth" is, and I'm man enough to admit it. I may have guesses, theories and hunches, but nothing that I can say in my heart "Yes! this is it!". Still I look, and occasionally I find clues in the most unexpected places.

I'm pretty much a hardcore man of science (with a fair bit of mad scientist thrown in, you should hear my evil laugh), and it irritates me to no end when some glassy-eyed fundy says "but how can you live with out the wonder of miracles around?" Here is my answer to that, found it in a comic book (though it's one of the best comic books this century, Watchmen).

Thermodynamic miracles ...events with odds so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter... ...Until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of that thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold... That is the crowning unlikelihood. the thermodynamic miracle.

But... If me, my birth, if that's a thermodynamic miracle... I mean you could say that about anybody in the world!

Yes.

Anybody in the world.

But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget...

I forget.

We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.

Come... dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly.

When a fundy asks me where my miracles are, they are everwhere around me to the point of drowning myself in wonder when I glimpse the knowledge in strange places. How parched they must be for those same miracles, clutching that dry book in the boundless sea of life.

Out.

Life of a blogger

I've heard many places on the Internet that one of the best ways to make your blog better is to post at least once a day. I managed to keep that up for about 2 days. Ah well, at least I got that bit of angst out of my system....

I'm not even sure the direction this blog is going to take, primarily this is currently a political blog ( 2/3 posts), and it's an important part of what drives me, but with the great majority of the population, we don't survive on a single issue. I've lurked on the websites of left blogosphere before it became cool, and it was amazing; to watch the path of the greatest nation one earth change for the better. To actually know that you looked at the moment when the butterfly of chaos flapped it wing and started the change of events that moved nations, that you might have glimpsed a flash of how it all works; there is no mental high like that, it's like freebasing God. I can see why there are so many cranks and would-be prophets out there.

Of course there is always the come-down, I watched and learned and did nothing. A bit of wisdom there, as anyone who has been out here for a while knows you lurk on a board for a while before you post. Being bit repeatedly as a child, teenager and young adult on grandiose ideals, I've learned to be cautious with my passions, to worry when the universe seems to be aligning with what I feel. I also worry that I'm not being aggressive enough, how is that for angst?

But still is there is that rush... when the stars align, when the crowd turns with you, when lady luck smiles, when you make the goal to win the game, when the universe reveals its secrets in subtle splendor. When in all of the confusion of the world falls away: you see clearly, act clearly, feel clearly, and actually do the right thing. If somebody could do that every second of the day, in an day they could save a life, in a month they could be hero, in a year they could be important, and in a lifetime they could change the world, forever. It's what I personally consider "The Divine State" and those who have managed to attain it for sustained periods of time have changed the world in profound manners.

Still, those who I think have managed to reach that state of being a significant part of the time are pretty famous: Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, Patton, Einstein, Alexander the great, Archimedes, Michael Jordan, Plato, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and M.L.K to name a few. Some were able to attain The State more fully than others, some managed to maintain The State longer too. It's those moments of clarity and understanding that sear the soul, you could almost call it an "monolith moment" AKA 2001, where the chimp holds a bone in his hand and sees how he can change the world.

Agh.. too late to expound further.... Need to get to sleep for my meat-job tomorrow. We ain't done with this *points finger to all you out there*

Edit: minor changes since I finished this post at about 2AM last night

From the department of scary precog....

What was I saying? yesterday about the price that the theocons wanted for making it all OK?

"Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us," the Illinois senator said.

Updated: To put the quote in, for better clarity.

First post!

First post on the first blog. I grew up with technology, I remember our family's very first computer, an apple ][ e, that Christmas morning with typing wizard on it, running on a five inch floppy. They had bought the 64k upgrade, and it was probably the most powerful computer around in a hundred miles; I think I was about six.

Strange that with such a young starting in computers, I'm so late to the game with blogging. To begin at the beginning of where computers started to effect our society on a personal level, and be old enough to remember it. Seeing the changes that have happened: word processor, spreadsheet, 3-d graphics, photo manipulation, games, BBSes, cable news, Video toaster, Darpa-net, internet, world-wide-web, MP3, search engines and blogging; it's amazing that modern society hasn't torn itself apart, though you can see some creaking at the seams.

If you have been looking around you know what I mean, the world is abounding with the signs, it's the age old cry "Daddy! I don't know what's going on!! I'm scared!!! make it OK!!'. If there is a god, he's a distant one, either the watchmaker, listener, or giving blessings in the dark, where only the truly needy can see; everyone else is selling something. The jihadists are selling Allah-daddy, the neo-cons are selling State-daddy, and the theo-cons are selling God-daddy, but the price that you will pay for any of their goods is power over you; your dress, your sex-life, your voice, your beliefs, and fundamentally, your soul.

Thankfully, I think we have passed the narrow point, though not through the massive efforts of both sides to tip us into the abyss. Global jihadism never really ignited, and the neo/theo-con alliance (really need to come up with better, non-current-politics, terms for the mindsets) is back on its heels, and looks to go down for the count in 2008. If we survive the next three years without: a) a nuclear/chemical terrorist attack with over 1000 dead, b) an American martial law coup/nuclear attack or c) some thing that throw the world into utter chaos I think we are good for the next 20 years or so. We will see, I've been quoting the old curse "may you live in interesting times" for waaay to long to get comfortable with my predictions.

Good enough for a first post. I'll see where I go with it tomorrow.