Frustration at faith.

A nice man I know, who has helped me in the past has faith.

Faith however, messes with his reason.

I see that. Yet, I can not tell or explain it to him, because its so imprinted upon his mind that there would be no way to unwind it.

So, he said a number of things. He had been in trouble with the law, and in jail as a result, yet during that time his grandmother was praying for him, so things got better, he got out of jail and got a good job.

Well, it took "god" awhile to get him out of jail I suppose god couldn't rush the justice system along, but go grandma - pray his way out of jail... at the same amount of time that the system would get him out anyway! Hmm. Seems to me the prayer had nothing to do with his change of behavior. He behaved himself in jail. He reformed, was a model prisoner, got good behavior. That lowered his time. 

As far as getting a job - well, god must have hooked him up as soon as he got out right? Like just someone there at the door, waiting to give him a job right? No? Oh, well he had to look for work, make calls, apply, ask for work. Hmmm seems like god wasn't doing much there, but hey grandma is still praying away! So life is good.

Then grandma dies. Mortality sucks! Uh oh- now he has back problems! Well CLEARLY that is because no one is praying for him now. I mean it's not because he is older or got into a car accident or anything like that in fact the car accident must be because no more prayer .... hold on, isn't grandma up there WITH GOD NOW? Surely she would be asking god for help even now right? Or is it that prayer only works when you are alive? Hmmm seems to me he got a hurt back because of the accident and getting/being old.

Nah, must be the prayer!

Now he says that he was wise in the ways of the world - ah yes, don't be wise in the ways of the world, be stupid eh? No well what he means is that he thought he was smart by beating the system (doing illegal things) well no, that was not wise - if he had been wise in the ways of the world he would have known were doing illegal things would land him... but what he really means is that one thing was "the world" and to not be wise in that aspect of the world that is bad. Ah yes, a convoluted way to just say that doing some things are a bad idea, all because of what the BIBLE says about being "wise in the ways of the world" .... SIGH.

So, he has been cleaning up his area - that is good, we need to pray for the area! Why? Well.. that will somehow get people to clean up as well. Or well, maybe - and just an idea here, but perhaps others will see your actions and want to mimic it, or still others if you just say "hey clean up" they might do it, still others might have to be offered money to do it or be scared into doing it in fear of a fine - or both! Nah, pray! PRAY for things to change - yes all that work and effort are clearly not needed, "god" was cleaning up that area long before you started to do so... although... well no, because it wasn't clean. God wasn't doing a god-damn thing.

YOU WERE.

YOU ALWAYS WERE.

YOU ARE THE ANSWER.

NOT PRAYER!

If there is a god - it's not doing a god-damn thing to change anything.

But YOU are.

The faith you should have - is in yourself.

God doesn't deserve it.

Until God picks up some litter. Or gets you a job. Or fixes your back.

Until then, it's all you, and always has been.

Ah well, I can't tell him any of that.

Because his faith is stronger than facts.

He is a kind man.

But he is also a blind man when it comes to faith.

And - it frustrates me.

Because there isn't anything I can do about it.

..... so I'll just complain online!

Well... I wasn't going to not complain but that's a whole other thing.

Sigh.

"Cuts" learning the "art" of insult.

Back in the day, I was young. Ah yes. Good times. In a school I went to - it was not a normal school, if you were there it was because you had problems with law or problems of mental health issues, and had fallen though the cracks, so to speak, and a handful of schools existed trying to help out kids that were in that zone. Troubled kids who had major issues of all sorts, was it wise to blend such together? I do not know, but it somehow worked somewhat, I found out some years ago that funding got cut even more then it had and they now only help out kids that have trouble with the law, so all the mental health issue kids (46-42) are I guess, falling though the cracks.

My problem had been that I had stoped going to school for extended time because I hated school. Not because I wasn't good at the tasks - but because the tasks were pointless and I knew it. I pointed out that nothing we were learning or doing had any place in the real world, yet it was still done, as if it mattered. I was tired of getting up early, going out in the cold to wait on the bus to bring us to school. It sucked bane.

So I simply stoped going. Well - eventualy the school figured that out and made a fuss about it and I "had" to go - the law requries it - fun fact - your parent gets in trouble but you the kid does not, what are they going to do? Lock you up? Oh no no school! Its nonsenscal. Regardles they told me I could go to this school or to jail. Most likely it was an empty threat, but I figured I'd go to this school.

The kids were of all sorts but it was mostly boys, very very few girls, like maybe 4 or 5 - because well, I guess mostly boys have issues that are noticed by the "system" (sigh broken system is broken).

Anyway kids would insult you - this was known as "cuts" the ""game"" was to insult them back, because - well that was what was done. If you didn't insult back you were seen as a target. You would be picked on more. A lot of kids, I strongly suspect insulted because they wanted attention - and this got them attention, sure it was negative attention but it was something. They didn't know how to get postive attention.

I think that became clear to me this one time when I happened to be in class with a frined of mine who normaly would not be in my class and this other kid was insulting him. My frined, who was shorter then that boy (and myself) stood up ready to fight him - because that was how he responded to insults I suppose. I saw that as brave, but I also saw that the kid didn't want a fight - he would fight of course, but something clicked in my head I guess, and I said to the kid "Hey why are you insulting him I'm right here!" and then proceded to insult him back, he smiled and insulted me and we insulted each other a few times as the teacher tried to get us to be quiet and return to learning. But it had worked, he had gotten what he wanted and was now able to calm down.

So I learned to "cut" I learned to insult. I devolped one heck of a thick skin, and so online these days when I see people crying over words I just can't help but tell them to get over it, its like look - your going to be insulted - its going to happen, and crying about it isn't going to stop it, you need to fight back, you need to have a thick skin.

This nonsense of "safe spaces" and "triger words" that has been overused also waters down people and does not prepare them for the real world. My word, its rough out there, people are going to be harsh, its going to be a lot worse then mere words. How the bleep are you going to handle that if you can't handle some nitwit online insulting you? Grow the bleep up. That sort of jadedness is not recived well by some that are to fradgle to handle things "snowflakes" - oh man they would have been beat up in the school I went to - forget about insults they would be targets for beating up all the time. 

That isn't right, and that isn't how it should be. But it is a thing. People are not nice in the adult world, just as much as the kid world. People say and do nasty things. So toughen up!

Anyay, I guess what I'm saying is that you might need to learn the art of cuts, the insult - so that rather then a target or victom you are able to fend for yourself.

Else, you might just be cut down.

The problem with John

I had watched some of this video (click) and John has - many problems, but the main problem is, I think that there can not be a distinction between non-mind events and mind events.

I'll explain.

After AronRa gets quite upset at John for saying that Aron Ra is "making things up" John gets around to listing his "evidence" for God.

The first: fibonacci sequence.

He says, that we "never" have a pattern without a mind.

AronRa of course, rejects that in full, but for John its true.

The problem here is that John thinks that a mind (God) made EVERYTHING thus, when John says we have never had a pattern without a mind, John thinks that is the case - because God made all the patterns we see. 

So, for John, there is no way to ever point to anything at all in the universe and say that God is not responsible for that thing. There is nothing random. There can not be anything out of place, everything must have a reason and order to it, because God put it there, just so. Of course, if John believes in free will that would, I dare say conflict with this, although I'm sure 

John could come up with several hoops for us to jump though to get past that problem.

So for John, when you point at "nature" you are pointing at "God" - God drives the wind, even the sand dunes must be God letting us know its there, if we could only see the patterns.

There is nothing that could not be positive evidence for God for John.

If there is a single thing that God is not responsible for, then there is at least one thing that can be done without God - and that would ruin the whole thing for John because one example means that God might not be needed for anything else.

I would dare say that although we no longer (broadly speaking) say that lighting is due to God, that John would say no - lighting no matter how well we understand it, is in the end, due to God.

That is the problem with John, and for others in that mindset there is nothing to point to and say "not mind" vs "mind" - there can not be any comparison made. There are no "natural" objects - all objects are created.

That is a mighty big problem for John, but he doesn't understand that.

Now, maybe you who reads this might wonder why that is a problem - well if we have no way to point to something and say "mind did that" and point to something else and say "mind did not do that" then everything becomes proof of your idea of a mind doing it - and that locks you in.

For some, that would be fine, but not for me, as I want to be able to be wrong and find out what is correct, I need to have my ideas be ones that could be falsified.

John, and those like him I'd bet, do not want the idea to be falsified, because that would be the end of that version of God.

Perhaps that would be for the best.