Personal

I've been to North Dakota more than usual over the last few months, and I think every time I've been up there it's been suggested that I start a blog. Those of you who have suggested this know already how horrible I am about emailing regularly, and I strongly suspect that my blog activity will have the same failing. Nonetheless, I really want to keep in touch better, and maybe this is how to do it. So, for friends and family the whole country over, this post shall serve as my announcement of greater things to come. Or something like that...anyway, good-bye for now.

Hello!

I decided to have a Blogger site. I don't know if I'll use it or not, but it's kind of fun to at least have it. Keep watching if you're interested; don't if you're not. Have a great day!

Something I've found interesting for the past few days (and off and on again before that) is the question of whether (and in what direction) time is infinite. In attempting to answer this question, both in religious discussions and philosophy classes, something interesting has come to my attention.

I always figured that time must be at least measurable in some small sense, at least its parts. For instance, it has been less than a minute since I started writing this post. "Less than a minute," defined more clearly, would be a great example of a finite period of time.

Next time you're out looking at the stars, fix your eyes on one in particular and think about this:

That star you're looking at just might have some planets around it, and if it's got some planets around it, it's not impossible that one of those planets has lifeforms. In fact (especially if you're a Star Trek junkie), it's quite possible that at least some of the potential lifeforms on that potential planet are not so dissimilar from us. And if that's true, then maybe one of those not-so-alien bipeds is looking at the same star you are.

Jamie and I have been dating for two years. I think that's awesome. In honor of the occasion, I have written a poem (or rather, I am about to write a poem, which by the time you read it will have been written already):

Ahem...

That Jamie is a real cool girl
I need not to convince;
She never yet has made me hurl;
Yes! I do love her, since
her smile, it dances on her face,
and 'neath it lies a heart
which, with great kindness interlaced,
can make the bad times part.

It's amazing how people will take very seriously a book about whether or not the world exists, and then turn around and treat the Bible as though it's hilariously inaccurate.

Sometimes I think people are shallow. That's probably pretty stupid of me, because when I think about it, I can't really bring myself to believe that anyone is truly characterized by what we mean when we say "that guy's shallow."

Instead, I think shallowness is probably a coverup for something painful or difficult...a way of coping with life by lying to oneself and one's acquaintances about one's personal "depth."

What's really funny is that overt depth is probably often used the same way.

Christian faith has never been blind, nor need it ever be, except perhaps at two points which very few people would ever seriously question.

First, it is a leap of faith to assume that there is anything outside of myself. Not a difficult leap of faith at all, especially considering that there are so many things in the world I experience which (a) I do not want to experience, or which (b) I do not consider myself capable of imagining, owing to their extreme profundity and my desperate finitude.

Erff...today was a rough day, but it ended well. I'm always irritated when some dumb thing some radical group of Christians once did makes someone think that all Christians are dumb or silly. Today's example: one of my professors told a story about a pre-movie announcement he once saw in the 70s that some religious group had paid for saying that daylight savings time was evil. Gahhh. The class laughed; I did too...that kind of crap is ridiculous and unbiblical...I don't know of any reasonable Christian that has ever suggested otherwise.

It's probably rare to use a Xanga site to comment on a textbook, but I figured it'd be a good way to process what I've been reading.