Moving

Monika and I are hoping to move... we need a quiet place... away from our damned neighbors and their damned dog with fu*%ing fleas.

In the mean time, I've moved my blog. Mostly due to the insistence of Micah, I've switched over to Wordpress. Much better. Everything should still be about the same... wordpress switched everything for me. So come visit!

http://myworldrevised.wordpress.com

See you there!

About the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!

This is a great foreign car commercial... and well worth your time!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esNgg2iN_QE

Christian One Liners...

-Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.
-We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.
-Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisors.
-Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door forever.
-Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited until you try to sit in their pews.
-God Himself does not propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?
-Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn't belong to it.
-God loves everyone, but probably prefers "fruits of the spirit" over "religious nuts!"
-Be ye fishers of men. You catch them - He'll clean them.
-Don't put a question mark where God put a period.
-He who angers you, controls you!
-If God is your Co-pilot - swap seats!
-Don't give God instructions -- just report for duty!
-The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.
-The Will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.
-We don't change the message, the message changes us.
-God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
-Don't let your worries get the best of you; remember, Moses started out as a basket case.
-It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.
-The good Lord didn't create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.
-When you get to your wit's end, you'll find God lives there.
-People are funny; they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.
-If the church wants a better Priest, it only needs to pray for the one it has.
-Some minds are like concrete thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.
-Peace starts with a smile
-Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
-Forbidden fruits create many jams.
-God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage
-Prayer: You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to.....discourage him.

Flip it...

1ɯʇɥ.dı1ɟ/ɯoɔ.pɐɟʌǝɹ.ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ ...ǝɹǝɥ ǝɯɐs ǝɥʇ op uɐɔ noʎ

¡ʎuunɟ ʎ11ɐǝɹ sı sıɥʇ ...ɥɐɔıɯ oʇ uıɐbɐ sʞuɐɥʇ

25 Reasons Why I Am No Longer A Christian...

Thanks to Micah for emailing this to me!

http://www.control-z.com/pgs/why_no_longer.html

The short answer to all of this? The Bible and Christianity don't stand up under scrutiny. There are too many glaring contradictions and inconsistencies, incoherent reasoning and moral repugnances, ethical sidesteps and magical presuppositions. As a spiritual entity it is corrupt and self-serving, ego-centered, narcissistic. When Hitler's "Final Solution" was to send six million Jews to their deaths we condemned him as a monster; when the Christian God sends these same Jews to Hell we are suppose to praise and adore him as the Highest Paradigm of Moral Intelligence. It makes no sense, unless we are living in abject denial.



In other news... I still think that 99% of "Conversations With God" is a crock of $#!+, but I've read some today that may keep me reading...

Mr. 3000

Congrats to Craig Biggio and his 3000th hit! And 3001st... and 3002nd...

5 hits in a single game!!! Woo Hoo!!!

The NEW 10 Commandments...

I know you've all heard already... but don't you think that this is ridiculous???

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/320413_vatican19ww.html?source=rss


I personally think that the vatican should stay the hell to their own problems...

Father's Day...

As I type this at 11:54 CST, according to my computer clock, I have not yet been told "Happy Father's Day". Not that this bothers me... ok, it kindof does. It just seems that everyone forgot to say it in the hustle and bustle of today. And we did have a very busy day today.

ROTFL

A liar, a thief and a child molester walk into a bar, and the bartender says, "What can I get for you, Father?" -Dan Barker, Freethought Radio

Something that makes sense...

Now before you go off and say that I'm just pulling this out my @$$, I should tell you that I've known about and studied the Unitarian Universalist church since I lived in Boston. So I've got at least a couple years under my belt reading/processing this thought. Plus, this definition below pretty much sums up how I feel. A dictionary version of my life, if you will... I'm sure there will be more to post today. After reading through my long post last night, I realized that I didn't really say everything that I needed or wanted to. And I hardly scratched the surface of what I've been thinking about.



What is "post-Christian"?

post-Christian (post-kris'chen) n. [A 20th C. back-formation from Christian.]1. Someone whom Christians would say is not a Christian, but whom non-Christians consider Christian; applied by Gary Dorrien and other scholars of religion to Unitarian Universalism and a few other groups that were formerly considered to be liberal Christians. 2. One who tries to live according to Jesus’s teachings, but who choses to distance himself/herself from conservative or fundamentalist Christianity by refusing to be called "Christian." 3. In certain cases, a non-theist or atheist who follows the ethical teachings of Jesus.

adj. 1. Pertaining to or derived from the moral, religious, and/or ethical teachings of Jesus, but retaining an openess to other moral, religious, and/or ethical teachings. 2. Heretical, not adhering to traditional Christian creeds; especially including the heresies of unitarianism and universalism, which are still considered heterodox by most mainstream Christians. 3. Post-modern (q.v.) interpretations of Christianity.


1971 Dana MacLean Greeley 25 Beacon Street, and Other Recollections. A question asked of Unitarians and Universalists again and again is "Are you Christians?" I have spoken and written many times on this subject, but I have no simple answer to the question. Most Catholic and Protestant Christians, until fairly recently anyway, would have said that we are not Christians. Most Jews would think that we are Christians. When I told one Unitarian friend that Anglicanism’s Dean Stanley referred to Channing as "the morning star of the second reformation," my friend immediately concluded that Channing was heralding or prophseying a new era, and as Protestantism (resulting from the first Reformation) went beyond Catholicism, so the second Reformation would go beyond Protestantism; a post-Protestant, post-Christian era would begin. Numerous people believe that, or interpret Unitarianism that way. It is a plausible diagnosis, though Channing would never have thought of himself as the forerunner of a non-Christian faith. (For that matter, Jesus would never have thought of himself as the forerunner of a non-Jewish faith.

My thoughts on Christianity...

I hope you're comfy.

Let me preface this post by saying that these are my beliefs. I'll do the best I can to present you with the facts as well as my opinion. Though since I'm writing this without my textbooks I can't cite any of it for you. Its there... just look on Google. And I'm being myself writing this... I'm not trying to give you a run-down of Christian Doctrine 101 or Theology 102... just being me.

Sometime in the year 2002-2003, a friend of mine from church told me that there are 2 things that could possibly happen when you go to seminary (which I was about to go to): 1. You graduate firm in your beliefs, with unwavering faith because it has been tested to its breaking point. 2. You come out of seminary distraut, with a faith that is in shards, and a sense of failing something.

I'd love to give that person credit where it is due... he was right. I came out with the second one.

Now the Christian church believes 5 root truths. Every denomination. Even Catholics, though they'll argue that there are more than 5 root truths. In the 1800's (maybe early 1900's, I'm not really sure) these became known as the fundamentals of faith. You'll see... when you read them, they sound naive and senseless. Here they are:

1. The inspiration of scripture as the literal, revealed word of God.
2. The virgin birth as the miraculous and literal means by which the divine nature of Christ has been guaranteed.
3. The substitutionary view of the atonement that was accomplished in the death of Jesus. The affirmation of the saving power of his blood and the gift of salvation that was accomplished by his death.
4. The certainty of the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The accuracy of both the empty-tomb and the appearance stories in the gospel tradition.
5. The truth of the second coming of Jesus, the reality of the Day of Judgment, which would be based on the record of one's life, and the certainty of heaven and hell as eternal places of reward and punishment.

I think I'll take these one at a time. Then add some things.

The inspiration of scripture as the literal, revealed word of God.
I think you would be hard pressed to find a person that believes that God on high wrote the Bible. Or even dictated it. And scholars have proved that he didn't. Take for instance, the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible or the Hebrew Bible... NOT written by God or Moses! There are 4 authors, rather groups of authors that wrote editions of the Pentateuch. They are:
J-Pro-Judah; anti-Israel, their rival. Less interested in Moses.
E-Pro-Israel; anti-Judah, their rival. Pro-Moses; Anti-Aaron.
P-Written as an alternative to JE. Pro-Priests, specifically the priests who claim to be descended from Aaron. Against rival priests who claim to be descended from Moses.
R-Redactor. J & E were put together earlier to create JE. The Redactor combined JE, D, & P, adding just a few lines of his own to make the transitions smooth. The D mentioned was a group that was Pro-Josiah... the king who's country collapsed from underneath him basically.
There are many other examples... I think my favorite one to laugh about is that the Gospel of John was most likely not written by John. :)

The virgin birth as the miraculous and literal means by which the divine nature of Christ has been guaranteed.
This one is kindof tricky for believers. And it is 2-fold. One part is that even the Gospels under scrutiny suggest that Jesus was not born of a Virgin. Lets go to the earliest written Gospel. Written approximately 70-90 years after Jesus chronologically died, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 3, verse 6 quite clearly says, "Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" I can hear you now saying, "yeah, but that's just pointing out who his Mom is"... well no, its not. In those times, a Patriarchal society mind you, people were identified by their birth mother, and the allusion to his siblings meant that they all shared the same father... and the daddy wasn't God.
Second in this two-fold argument is about the divinity of Christ. Christ never claimed divinity. He claimed he was a prophet, no more. He even silenced the people that said that he was more than a prophet for fear that he would be killed. And yes, it finally caught up to him... mostly because Peter couldn't shut up. But the fact remains that Jesus was NEVER (even by the Gospels) assumed to be divine until the Council at Nicea. Thats right, a group of politicians, including the Roman Emperor Constantine got together in modern-day Turkey in the year 325 to decide the politics and direction of the Christian church (to which Constantine only joined from the pagans one year prior). They did a lot more too... read the Nicene Creed sometime. None of it existed before that.


The substitutionary view of the atonement that was accomplished in the death of Jesus. The affirmation of the saving power of his blood and the gift of salvation that was accomplished by his death.
I'll direct you again here to the Council of Nicea. The year was 325 folks. Kindof late to start throwing around rumors that Jesus healed everyone's sin wounds 322 years prior. Again, not much mention of it before this... Even though there was some mention of it before 325. The next fundamental pretty much covers that one.

The certainty of the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The accuracy of both the empty-tomb and the appearance stories in the gospel tradition.
The Resurrection was not written into Mark (the earliest Gospel) until a very late edition of it... somewhere around AD 90-100.
I have much to say about the saving power of his blood, salvation, and atonement and how much they mean in relationship to the resurrection... read on to the bottom.


The truth of the second coming of Jesus, the reality of the Day of Judgment, which would be based on the record of one's life, and the certainty of heaven and hell as eternal places of reward and punishment.
Have you read the "Left Behind" series? Its crazy. My favorite book of the Bible was (and still is) Revelation. I enjoy it for what it is... a story. When the people met at another Council to decide what books (of the Bible) were cannonized and which ones were burned, they argued over this one for days. Not one of them then, nor anyone now should or did take Revelation seriously. It was written by a man, exiled to Patmos, who spent 20 some odd years in isolation. The accounts of visits to him are written down, I don't have my notes to cite where though. But this was one strange bird... Even then it wasn't written until AD 96.

After having written all of this, I'm wicked tired. But I promised a brief run-down on my thoughts about the crucifixion and resurrection.

The meat of the resurrection story is that Jesus died for our sins. He died then and there to erase our sin off of God's radar. Personally, I believe that this is barbaric. Any God that needs to kill or eternally punish those who stray away from him hasn't yet earned the title "God". He'd be essentially punishing that which he created for something that he created for you to have access to... ok, let me explain that. If creation is true (which it's not) then God created you in his image...blah, blah, blah. God is supposed to be perfect right? Then if you are like him, then he cannot punish his perfect being for choosing free will, which he also created.

This is why I don't believe in sin. I don't believe that humans are born into sin… and therefore I don't believe in the necessity of atonement. I don't believe in the theory of "Original Sin", partially because I know that there is no such thing as sin (only an ever changing theory of morality), and partially because there was no Adam, and there was no Eve, but even if there were, they were given the free will to eat from the tree that God created and then hipocritically said do not eat from. With no creation, there can be no original sin, no fall of mankind. Since there are also no universal laws, where would the basis for sin come from anyway?

As far as "sin" goes... I think that there is wrongdoing in this world. I think that there is a morality or a moral code that people live by. This code isn't written, but its a general feeling that pretty much anyone other than a sociopath feels about what is right and wrong. I DO NOT believe that this should be called "sin", mostly because sin, by definition, requires punishment. The bible even says it... "the wages of sin is death." Since I don't believe in the literal and physical resurrection of Jesus, I don't believe that the price for "my sin" has been "paid".

No sin, no need to have the sin attoned for... and therefore no need to have Jesus "conquor death".




Boy, I know that this has been a long post. And there is so much more I'd like to say. So comment, and I'll see what I can come up with.

Let the summer begin... please!?!?

I want to fill you in on a few things around the house, and then I'll get to a real post...

Oli has been safely in Poland now for about a week. He's having a great time as far as I can tell. I really really miss him. So does his brother and sister.

Today was a very trying day. Gabi and Ella were all over the place... all the time. Monika was gone for the entire day. And I'm completely worn out.

I guess that's enough of an update... this is bugging me... and it will be long, that I know.



So anyway, one of the blogs that I usually read (shared by at least one reader here) commonly gives me something to slap my head about... or wish that I could slap someone else's head for... ;) My roommate in college (the first year of it anyway) is named Nick. We went to a Baptist University, so its really no surprise that he's baptist. BUT. Some of the things that he and his wife write there absolutely drive me nuts.

I was raised United Methodist, believed in it all my life, even went to seminary at Boston University hoping to get a masters in Sacred Music (I have a Bachelors in it), but changing my mind to get a Master of Theological Studies. And then, for those of you who may have not yet heard this story, I listened to the facts given. And I stopped believing. Of course, there was much wrestling involved, but ultimately I stopped believing in "Jesus the Christ". I still think that he's a wonderful example, even if he never really did half of the things that were written about him.

Anyway, Baptists and Methodists couldn't be more different. As a matter of fact, Baptists are typically what makes up the "Religious Right." And my favorite quote about that?

"The Religious Right is neither."

And yes, (so sue me) I'm happy that Jerry Falwell is dead. I think the world is a better place without him.

OK, now there have been a lot of posts by my friend Nick and his wife Amanda. No offense to her, but every time Amanda writes something, it irks me. Horribly. I responded once to a post of hers, and after receiving e-hate-mail from that, I won't do it again... on that blog. Here, I will.


I think that the Baptist mentality is completely freaky. A wife should obey her husband and submit to him??? You gotta be kidding me! A woman has exactly an EQUAL right to her opinion! Isn't that what women have been fighting for... Women's Rights?? If you want to submit, do it, then shut the hell up about it. A Baptist has NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to try and brainwash a perfectly good girl. And for that matter, a Baptist boy has no excuse for growing up thinking that his future wife should submit to him. That is just plain stupidity. Once these people step out into the real world, they'll realize that things don't make sense the way they've been taught in the Baptist church.

Speaking of not making sense... the latest post over there is about giving glory to God. I think that is all well and good unless of course you take it to an extreme. Remember, the Religious Right is neither. Doesn't it feel odd when you "give glory to God" all the time, only to be told when you're disappointed that you obviously gave glory to Man sometimes instead of God??? Do you realize the hypocrisy in that? If God were who he is supposed to be, then he's fine with you just giving your best. He even lets you mess up. And if he's doing his job right, he's even fine with you sometimes not giving enough glory to him... he'd have one hell of an ego if he wasn't.

And if he isn't okay with it, then he's not God. And he doesn't deserve what you had been giving so selflessly.

Ponder on it... then comment.

Kinda sorta not really

So this post is kinda sorta but not really a real post... but it has been weighing on my mind more than anything else lately.

Oli travels tomorrow to Poland. And he'll be there the ENTIRE summer.

As much as I am frustrated by him, I am going to miss that boy. I'm closer now to tears than I have been in a very long time. I'm really going to miss him. I don't really want him to go. Well, at least for so long... I can understand a visit, but THREE MONTHS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I'm afraid too... about everything that can change...

I'm saddened as well with the knowledge that Gabi and Ella are going to wail when they realize that Ciocia and "Bubba" aren't coming back for a while. They'll hate me for letting him go. Especially Gabi. He has memories now. He can process it. Ella is still developing. Gabi is old enough now... its going to be miserable for him and us.

Ok, I broke. I'm crying now. I'm going to miss him horribly.

I guess that this turned into a real post after all...

Fantastic Voyage

Slide slide slippity-slide,
With switches in the block on a '65


Now I'm going to have to listen to that song... good ol' Coolio. Yeah.


Anyway, the fantastic voyage of my Pearl Hall Choir went exceedingly well. I was hoping that we would be on TV... but, alas... we were only live and on the radio. :) Still, we had a great time. The kids were fantastic and stayed IN KEY!!! Maybe you don't understand what I mean... 74 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders singing A CAPELLA live in front of 36,815 fans... and they stayed in tune and in key!!! This is outstanding!

In other news... I feel a good post coming soon. I've been thinking about Faith lately, and how mine has dramatically changed over the last couple years. It ought to be a good provoking post when I sit down to write it.

For tonight though, I'm out.

Last call...

I'd love to have a great showing at this Thursday's Astros game... When my school is performing the National Anthem. Anyone going? I'll have enough sanity to post again soon... probably Friday or Saturday.

Help ONE

Hello all!

For about a year and a half, I have been a proud member of www.one.org

(If the link doesn't work, just type it in please)

I have participated in the simple requests that they ask, always via email.

Today, I want you to join. I don't get anything out of this... I just want the peace of mind that my friends are equally concerned about the extreme poverty and AIDS epidemic that is prevalent in Africa. We can help.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Please join.

Time, oh sweet time...

When will I ever have time to post again... not counting this one?

Well, the answer is: I don't know.

Anyway, I'd like to fill you in on some things happening at my school... On Monday we have the Percussion section from the Houston Symphony Orchestra coming to the school... they're bringing an entire 18-wheeler packed with all the percussion instruments that they are going to present and show to us. The kids are off the wall excited!

Then on Thursday we have a Scientist/ER MD. that is coming to our school to be part of our BCB program. Oh, that's right... the cool thing about him. He has just finished a 6 month stint as the resident MD of a research station in Antarctica. He also studied penguins while he was there. Wicked cool.

The week after, we have a bunch of after school practices and things of the sort for our ASTRO's choir... which performs the National Anthem at the Astro's game on the 17th at Minute Maid Park! Its a 7:05 first pitch game, and I'd love for you to come see us... we're sitting in section 420 (yeah, yeah, I know...).

After that, we've only got two talent shows to put on, 4 music rooms (including one storage) to box up, and one week to do it all! All this and teach 6 classes of music every day... by the way, teachers definitely do not get paid enough. Do you know how much crap we have to put up with??? Ah, forget about it... that's a whole 'nother rant.

We're also hoping to have a (ahem) record-setting astronaut come to the school before the end of the year... we'll see!

Woo hoo! I think after the kids leave on the 24th I'm going to crash. Wherever I land, I'm just going to plain lay down and sleep. I'm already exhausted. I need a nap.

Lies...

I despise when people lie. It seems to be a sixth sense that I have... and I bet you know who you are.

VT et al...

Well, ok... here it is. The mandatory post about the VT (Virginia Tech) massacre.

I've been thinking a lot about it. Although I've also been trying to actively NOT think about it.

The whole thing is a very sad story. From the previously unknown student, to the Holocaust survivor turned hero, its all very sad.

I find it interesting that the Holocaust survivor went out like he did. I think that most, if not all, persons that survived the Nazi Holocaust have an incredible amount of integrity. Elie is of course included in this number... but I think that the way that this man chose to be remembered, by holding the door shut for his students to survive, shows the courage that it takes to stare evil in the face and say, you won't get me down again.

I don't really have time to go on tonight... I am very impressed by the heroism, and very saddened by the realism of this story.

Btw, my dad was an engineering student at VT... and as he said, took the majority of his classes there in Norris Hall. He was also in the Corps of Cadets there, FYI. And the last interesting thing is that my dad was a classmate of (the apparently quite wealthy) Ambler Johnston that the dorm there was named after. I thought that was interesting.

Pretty Cool

Heh.

Tomorrow the music teachers at my school, including me, get interviewed by the Houston Chronicle... of course its about our Building Cultural Bridges project that we do.

One of these days I need to post the pdf of that article about us in the Southwestern Musician. Let me see if I can find a link... nope. I'll try again soon.

Anyway, pretty cool, huh?

April, oh April...

Wow. That title sounds bad.


No really, I'm happy that April is finally here. Of course I'm writing this on the 6th... hopefully showing how horribly busy it has been lately.

I wanted to just make a brief post this morning. Today is Good Friday. My family wants to go to church on Sunday for Easter. And I have no problem with this.

What I found interesting though is that the kids at school were so confused as to why we get off school today and Monday. So they ask the only teacher that talks to them... me. And really, all other teachers are so stiff. I want the kids to learn about everything... not just music, science and math. I found it interesting that the kids were interested to talk about such a subject. Some of them said "We're talking about God???" Which my reply was a good one, I think... "Yeah, but just for information. I don't even go to church, so if you don't either, don't worry about it." The separation of church and state at work. :)


Which reminds me, my next post, hopefully again tonight, will be about the conflict in Texas schools whether we should or should not teach the Bible in our High Schools... I have my opinion, of course...

Google TiSP

If you have not seen this yet, you must go check out Google's new free wireless IP service....

http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html

This one's gonna be long...

My dearest Monisia had a book lying around... what would you do? I picked it up and flipped to what looked interesting at the moment.

I was richly rewarded. The book I picked up was "Einstein In His Own Words". A book of Einstein quotes, with commentary separating them.

Nothing seems to weigh more on my mind than religion. I've had a bit of a battle this week. And not in the way you might think. This week at school I've been compiling a playlist on my Ipod of the "100 Songs Every American Should Know", as compiled by MENC (www.menc.org). A lot of them are spiritual songs... and as I fumbled around for them, I came across some songs that used to make me bow. So there I sit, in my computer chair at school, listening to Christian music (the good stuff, mostly hymns), and finding myself thinking about God and wishing that things were as easy as fundamentalist Christianity would have you believe. This has been a very hard week.

My mind skipped over to a quote that Danielle commented with on my first post. "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

Surely you have heard this before. And what I found myself realizing, is that Marx was right. Joseph McCarthy would be coming after me right now... but I think he's dead. And I think Marx was right about a lot of things. Now, I'm no communist, but I just might subscribe to Marxism... not sure yet. But back to the main veins. Marx was right. Lately, having not stood alongside religion for almost 2 years now (with a third year prior as transitory), I find that the only time I need "God" is when I'm hurting or in despair, and yes, stress counts.

Anyway, Marx interests me... and so does Paul Tillich. Neither are what you would call an easy read though.

Now, the quotes I read in Einstein... I found them to agree with what I think. Of course, these are just a select few, but I read many more.

"I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations."

"My position concerning God is that of an agnostic."

"I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals."


"Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."


Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not God."


And finally (for tonight)...
"I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of his children for their numerous stupidities, for which he himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only his non-existence could excuse him."


My thoughts are those that are still in progress... I do not claim to have the right answer. I simply believe that this is MY right answer. And sorry that the blog tonight was 1) too long, and 2) so scattered in thought.

Take care, 'till next time...

Full-Mental Nudity

I really found this article interesting. Follow the link, read it, then come back here to see what I have to say...

http://www.slate.com/id/2161936/?GT1=9231





I thought that this is fantastic news. These are the things that I'd like to be learning about when I turn on the news or open the newspaper. Now, that being said, I don't necessarily agree what is going on... I don't have to. I just want to know that it is going on. What do you think?

Now, this article made me think about what it is to be human. I think that being human is more than just an ability to walk, talk, and think. I think that part of what makes us human is the ability to use our thinking not only to judge what is right or wrong, but also to engineer our future... to evolve.

Think about it... if you only judge something as right or wrong, you are simply following a set of rules. Rules that are created by someone else. Rules that someday may as well be governed by a machine. What purpose in society would people that refuse (conciously or not) to be fully educated serve? What of the people that are satisfied with being mediocre? What of the people that do the same thing, day in and day out? Where do you fit in here?

I'm not happy sitting still... call it ADHD/ADD or whatever you want. I just don't want to be stagnant. I want to refine myself... whatever I'm interested in. I never do the same thing (exactly) in my music classroom. I never teach the same lesson as someone else. I teach my way. I'm always wanting to make it better... and sometimes I fail. But that helps me grow better too. You?

I grew unhappy with religion. I found that it didn't speak to me anymore. I outgrew it. It was old, boring, and stagnant. And some of you are screaming right now. And yes, I know... I'm going to hell... but only if there is one. :)

Please comment. And thanks for reading all my ranting.

Some jokes I've just come across...


Bra Shopping
A very flat-chested woman finally decided she needed a bra and set out to the mall in search of one in her size. She entered an upscale department store and approached the saleslady in lingerie, “Do you have a size 28AAAA bra?”
The clerk haughtily replied in the negative, so she left the store and proceeded to another department store where she is rebuffed in much the same manner. After a third try at another department store in the mall, she had become disgusted. Leaving the mall, she drove to K-Mart.
Marching up to the sales clerk, she unbuttoned and threw open her blouse, yelling, “Do you have anything for this?”
The lady looked closely at her and replied, “Have you tried Clearasil?”



What is red and green and goes 100 miles an hour? A frog in a blender



Have you seen the hottest new Catholic porn film? It's 10 minutes of sex and 50 minutes of guilt.





Lunch Anyone?
A little old lady sits at the luncheonette counter and orders a hamburger. The huge guy behind the counter bellows, "One burger!"
Whereupon the chef grabs a huge hunk of chopped meat, stuffs it in his bare armpit, pumps his arm a few times to squeeze it flat, and then tosses it on the grill.
"That's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," the old lady says.
"Yeah?" says the counterman. "You should be here in the morning when he makes the doughnuts."




Why was the rooster so unhappy?
Because he only got laid once and it was by his mother.





Preacher Playing Hooky
A preacher woke up one Sunday morning and looked outside and saw it was a beautiful day. He decided to skip church and go play golf. So he called the junior pastor at his church and told him he was sick and couldn't give the sermon. The junior pastor told him not to worry, he would deliver the sermon.
The pastor drove about 40 miles away from town to avoid being spotted. As he was setting up his first drive on the first hole, Jesus leaned over to God in heaven and asked him, "Are You going to let him get away with this?" God told Jesus not to worry, he would handle it. Right as God said that, the preacher hit the drive of his life. The ball traveled all 450 feet to the green, bounced once, and rolled in the hole. The preacher was ecstatic. Jesus asked God,"Why would you let him do that?" God said, "Because, who is he gonna tell?"



Alright... that's enough for now... I promise to post something real sometime soon, maybe even tonight! I do hope you enjoyed the jokes... I got them from http://jokes.comedycentral.com

Lunatics among us...

I'm not going to take much time to post tonight... but I did want to say something before I go to sleep for the night, with the morning so near.

This world is nuts. It seems that every single day I read an article, or hear on the radio about some "Evangelical Christian" who is making a mockery of what they believe in. Pat Robertson, along with so many other screwballs say the most unbelievable things.

What started this for tonight is I was reading a friend's blog... and he linked to something that Jack Thompson, a anti-video-game lawyer said.

Basically, it boils down to him misusing the Bible to create some kind of threat, before apparently only perceivable to him. Specifically, he quotes Psalm 35 (claiming that G-d himself wrote it). The verses are 7-9:

7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit,which without cause they have digged for my soul.
8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares;and let his net that he hath hid catch himself:into that very destruction let him fall.
9 And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD:it shall rejoice in his salvation.

This actually bothers me... video games, while they may sometimes be filled with gratuitous violence, porn, and socially non-conformative behavior, are NOT the root of all evil. Video games will not affect or effect the salvation of a person's soul (which I don't believe in anyway, but that's another post). And no matter about that, how can a "christian" go about wishing the utter destruction of a SOUL, of course in exchange for the gladness of his own???

And people wonder why there are fewer people headed to churches on Sunday mornings!???! I don't! Lunacy like this causes it... that and hypocrisy.

And I know, beyond a doubt, that some of you know about this lunacy/hipocrisy first-hand. You've experienced it. You've done it. I have. And to those I hurt in my stupidity, I am truly sorry. Your parents might have pushed it on you and others. Surely you know someone equally crazy...

Now post about it. I love reading your comments.

Inaugural Post...

Welcome to MyWorldRevised. I'm very glad to have you stop by.

My posts will most likely be about the controversial, if existant, christianity that I believe (or don't) believe in. I don't intend to focus on what I already know... however I do want to expand my knowledge by research and debate. The research part, I've got covered...

Other posts will have to do with my life and kids. I have 3, by the way.

I will gripe and complain... and expect for you to bear with me until I snap out of it. You will... and then all shall be well.

Life has some interesting twists in it. And I want to talk about them.

Engage me with your comments.