Jan 16 2007

Ramble

his is going to be kinda random, mostly it’s just a bit of news and some thoughts which are the surfacing of the many tracks of thought which are my life.

A) The life I am living is not the life I want to live. I want to do technology, but I want to use it to build community, to connect people both to their living peers and to their past peers. I think this is the beauty of the internet…. B)… C)….

This is going to be kinda random, mostly it’s just a bit of news and some thoughts which are the surfacing of the many tracks of thought which are my life.

A) The life I am living is not the life I want to live. I want to do technology, but I want to use it to build community, to connect people both to their living peers and to their past peers. I think this is the beauty of the internet.The internet is the apex of what information technology will be during our lifetimes and it saddens me to see it used as little more than an opportunity to make more money. Not that making money is bad… but information has value beyond the $$. I need to get on my plans. Which I won’t tell you about here.

B) Barrack Obamma. I am listening to this mans latest book. “The Audacity of Hope” I have to say this is the first politician I listened to in many years that has even a lick of sense. At the very least the book serves as an explaination how our government actually works, but Obamma adds somethiing else here, he adds wisdom. His ideas forman symphony which I have failed to see in public discourse in…well ever. I hope he runs for President soon as this country is entirely to awash in “spin” and “one liner” word play for it’s own good. A voice that can bring coherence to complex world we live in is badly needed.

C) I went camping this weekend. The point of the trip was to gain some perspective on an event I signed myself up for in May of this year. The Wildflower Triathlon. Wendy and I staid in the campgrounds that host he event. Sunday we did the bike ride, and today I did the run. My body is a wreak. While I’m pretty sure I can finish the even which will be upon me in 3 months. I’m not so sure I willl be able to move fore a few days afterward. More later.

D) I am a revolutionary. It’s that simple. I am driven by the desire to break new ground, to open new pathways, to flush out the stail with something freash. It does not matter in what facet of life, I’m always looking for something better and I do so with little regard to what has previously been standing. This has not been my life as of late. I attribute this to the type of revolution I have lately been marching with. There seems to be 3 kinds. 1) nhilist, the revolution which simply seeks to destroy the status quo, 2) suplantist, one which seeks to tear down the status quo and replace it with a new structure, and 3) irrelevantist, one which fails to even acknoledge the status quo and see only it’s own structure exteding into the all manner of life. I believe I have move progressivly in my personal life from 3 to 1. This is un acceptable.

Man I am soar. More in a later post.


Jan 3 2007

On the End of Faith

Religion allows people to believe on mass what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

Sam Harris

Been working my way through the work of Sam Harris. It’s really a delight. I must say however that I’m kinda sad that he and his words need to exist. For many years I’d worked out a mental framework which saw Christianity, Islam and other religions as neccesary life affirming belief structures. That they provided individuals with stories that gave depth and meaning to their life. That in much that same way as a reader of a novel has his world painted in the hues of the book he is reading, the reigious person had their world painted in the hues of their religion. However as things have turned sour in the last few years I simply can not jive that world view with reality. Between Muslims killing people to prove that they are not a violent and hateful religion and Christians attempting to impead peace and progress in our society I am forced to stand avidly opposed to tolorence of the hardcore adherents of these religions.

Perhaps when Christians begin teaching the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes instead of encourageing war and murder and perhaps when Muslims lay off the bombing in the name of their god I will gladly go back to encouraging the positive aspects of their beliefs. But so long as they choose to value the words of Deuteronomy 13 above the words of Matthew 5. They have no place in society.