I'm pretty sure my identity crisis is over. Actually, I think the 12 years I spent at USJ were my identity crisis! But to be a good lemming, here goes:
1. Western vs. Eastern. Both have their perks. The West focused on progress, the East reminds us of the benifits of simplicity and balance.
2. I have found no reason NOT to believe there is a God. Everything is too ordered and complex to have just happened, and belief in God provides hope that this isn't the only thing we get.
3. I'm not trying to fit into any type of mold. I like washers. I like numerous types of music. I do some artsy things. The natural world inspires me and makes me curious. I am a math nerd. Basically, I'm like potpourri.
4. Society is defined by the people in it. Some societies are luckier than others.
5. Whether we can see it or not, there is a balance to everything, no matter how badly we have managed to screw up. To rip off an old Greek proverb: Everything in moderation. It's a pretty good guideline for life.
6. Realists get a bad rap, but their views are far more practical than optimists or pessimists. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
7. For good mental and physical health, doing productive work is a must. One gains a sense of accomplishment while making provisions for a comfortable life.
8. Ambition is good. Without it, we would all be lying on the ground drooling. Obsession, however, is destructive, whether on a small or large scale.
9. From the time we are born, we are trained to expect instant gratification. HUNGRY! WET! NASTY! COLD! However practical this instinct was in infancy, it began to develop into something unnatural once we began using our "superior" brains and opposable thumbs for things other than pure survival.
10. For a full life, there are only a few necessary components. People - we are pack animals (or herd, depending on one's mental capacity) and do very poorly if we don't have regular contact with other people, preferrably friends and family. Goals - reasons go get off our butts and not be vegetables. These can be occupational, domestic, or physical. Recreation - something good for your blood pressure.
11. All forms of government are flawed. On paper they look good, but people are generally stupid and/or corrupt, so what was a good thing quickly turns to crap.
12. We all have responisibilities that should not be ignored, both to ourselves, people close to ourselves, and society as a whole. When we screw up, it generally causes somebody else to have (at minimum) another headache.
13. I hate politics. I forget which of my friends said it, but we have probably solved all the world's major problems over caffeine and sugar breaks. Elected officials and other dignitaries are paid massive sums of money to run the world, but they inevitably plunge us into economic turmoil and make the rest of the world mad at our policies.
14. If simple pleasures are so satisfying, why do we demand luxury?
15. Know what you believe, but examine other opinions with an objective mind. You could either learn something new and useful or reaffirm your own beliefs.
15...a good number. Heck, if you haven't noticed, I always aim for the middle. (Right between Heather's 10 and Miki's 20)
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4 comments:
Hello :-) Just one point of comment. Order and complexity really don't require a guiding creator... doesn't mean there can't be God; and particularly since we don't know why there is existence as opposed to nonexistence. But given the size of the universe, and the time scales involved, is it that hard to think that the observable complexity and such could not have arisen without help? I mean, the laws of nature give rise to many complex and ordered structures by themselves. Just curious what you thought :-)
Well, it would make sense that a Creator would be the root cause of the laws of nature. And there are so many things that we supposedly understand, but do we really know why one thing is capable of life while another thing isn't? I mean, we're all a few dollars' worth of chemicals that were somehow endowed with animation. If it was a fluke, well, that was one heck of a fluke!
Well I definately agree that a creator could definately be behind the laws of nature, but the laws themselves tend to be relatively simple, and I don't know that I think the laws necessarily had to be directed by a creator... and if so, I'm not sure they would have been made to produce us specifically, though I suppose an all-powerful God would be able to see the order in the chaos. As for why one thing is capable of life and another isn't, actually we know that quite well; what we aren't really clear about is how those chemicals first organized into self-contained cells; but we've got some fairly strong ideas about how it could have happened, and in ways that may not be as improbable as previously thought due to the presence of catalysts. Although, sometimes I wonder... if the answer to why we exist is a creator, then why does the creator exist in the first place? And that's almost the same sort of problem, because if a supernatural intelligence exists infinitely, why not an infinite pantheon of universes? *scratches chin thoughtfully* lol.
Puzzling dilemma, no? However, I don't want to end up like Georg Cantor, pondering infinity (or other intangible subjects) until someone locks me away. :S
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