What makes a belief acceptable?

(Warning this thought isn't as flushed out as I would like it, I hope I can be granted some latitude, I hope to further refine this through some discussion and repost a revised copy in the future, so let us debate)

I cannot disprove that Heavens gate cult dressed up in Nikes and killed themselves allowing their bodies to transcend time and space into a spaceship that was trailing a comet. They could be on a sweet ship cruising around the universe. It could have happened, but I do not believe that is what happened. I believe that they were mentally disturbed, that their longing to believe and be accepted lead them into a situation where they were taken advantage of for someone elses gain. Why do people dismiss the belief in the space ship they died for, but will fight to the death for the promise of some paradise in the next life? Does that not sound just as obscene? It lacks just as much evidence. They would have me believe that this world is nothing more than an entrance exam into a garden paradise. That life is reduced to checkbox of do you believe yes or no? I hear the argument all of time that God makes life worth living...I think the belief in god diminishes the value life insomuch that a belief in eternal existence lessens the value of a fixed duration of time which is your life...rambling...so....

This led me to the thinking of what constitutes a belief? What makes it ok to believe in something?
Numbers?
Is it ok to believe in something because many other people do? (Heavens gate members outnumbered the apostles and it took a while for that message of Christianity to catch on maybe the next time the comet passes millions will believe in it?) I do not believe that either. I think the apostles sound just as insane as any member of heavens gate cult does. I mean it is not as if anybody in the New Testament is an authoritative figure in science...fishermen tax collectors, no doctors where available? Wait that is probably a good thing since medical practice was quite antiquated...hopefully we have learned in the last 2000 years that health has nothing to do with demon possession. Numbers do influencee belief, the more people believe in something the more acceptablee it is to hold that believe, note that this is not the same thing as the belief being true..and since it is not a measure of something being true the amount of people who believe in something is not a good indication thatI should believe in it.

Mythology,Legend or Ritual?
Should I believe in something because of ancient writing and landmarks or simply because it has, been done for so long? Zeus had his own Mt Zion called Olympus stories of his great works were acted out on stage and told to children. Oracles communicated with him. Followers saw evidence of spats in the heavens with lightening and thunder and then suddenly he feel out of histories favor. Authority in Rome said Christianity was to be the law of the land (Most Religious Leaders and Worshipers would be well advised to study this period. Note the Canonization Process, Formation of the Church, the actual creation of the new testament (since it was written down decades after the death of Christ) the dissolving of divergent Christian sects that all were founded by apostles with radically different beliefs than we hold today)

Authority?
So is it authority should I believe what someone else says because they are in a position of authority? This is a tricky question I would say yes and no. I would say no if it was forced and non-transparent. I would say yes if that person is an expert and leaves the process open to debate, challenge, explanation...but this would not suppose authority it would suppose proof!

Proof? (Or at least supported conjecture)
This is what should quantify belief (IMO) that there is enough empirical evidence to support a conjecture.

Brian by Numbers

Apperntly i am coming off cold, distant and have been added so some watch group....so i thought it a good idea to let people know a little more about me....so get ready for Brian by numbers

NINE Things on my mind
1.) Why do people need to believe in god?
2.) Why am I so depressed all the time?
3.) What would make me happy?
4.) Is my fly down?
5.) Do they like me?
6.) Should I kill them? (joking, but it did cross my mind)
7.) Am i ever going to be as sucessful as i want to be?
8.) Why am i still here when i know better?
9.) Is it ok that i don't develope the attachments to other people that other people seems to hold in such high esteem?

EIGHT Things I touch every day
1.) Coffee Cup (usually filled with tea, but I hate using the word teacup because i think it is demeaning to the tea.)
2.) My balls (just making sure you guys are still there, hi Mom)
3.) My laptop....ahhhhh
4.) My dog ...Anyone want to go outside?
5.) My cell phone if it wasn't always turned to silent and i answered it more i bet people would start to call me again...wait i don't like talking on the phone so don't get any ideas plus calling is rude it places you demands of time on someone else...leave me a message or send me an email i will respond when it is best for me...what a fucking prick...no wonder you are lonley.
6.) Preping materials (soap, razor, etc)
7.) A book....latley just school related but a book no less and yes for all this technology i love the deel of flipping through the pages of a book.
8.) A person not alway the person and the parts i would like it to be but hey...

SEVEN Things I Shouldn't Do
1.) Be mean to water girl...or just talk about people in general
2.) Lie....Damn
3.) Beat myself up
4.) Drink so much....Damn
5.) Spend so much money...get it under control dill weed (see #3)
6.) Make out with tons of beautiful girls (see #2)
7.) Be afriad to go for the world in my dreams no matter what that means

SIX Things I want to do before I die
1.) Live Abroad
2.) Enter a Dance Contest (Actually it is to be the worlds greatest dancer but thats not a SMART goal)
3.) Become a Ninja
4.) Be a dad
5.) Be a millionare
6.) Be happy with me

FIVE Things I wish I could teach the world
1.) God does not exsit and that is ok
2.) You don't have to believe in God to be a good person who is full of virtue
3.) Convention can be over turned
4.) The pie gets bigger:)
5.) The world can be better nothing is set in stone

FOUR Things I am wearing
1.) Socks with little checkers (not white ones for a large part of life I only wore white socks now I feel weird in them)
2.) Peacoat because damn it is cold
3.) Jeans that are pulled up and not 4 sizes too big
4.) A smile that masks the complications that are just below the surface

THREE People I would like to trade places with for a week
1.) Jude Law
2.) Jesus lets just settle this all once and for all.
3.) A guy with a huge penis

TWO People I miss (There is a ton of you SOB's you know who you are)
1.) My Dad (although i am not sure i remember him enough to miss him or i just miss the idea of my father)
2.) Eddie - To go back I would do it all different and anybody who says different hasn't taking enough risks to realize right from wrong...I wish sorry was enough but sometimes its just not. I am sorry and I love you.

ONE Thing that makes me sick
1.) Bush and all the support our troops bumpersticks and the blood thing is fucked and people cheer him on make me want to puke. The next person who comes up to me asking to pray for him is getting knocked out...

Stripped

Going to a strip club is like going to a dinner and paying to watch some else eat. Why do we do this and even more why do we enjoy it? Don't get me wrong I am always happy as umm a clam when ever I have a drink, regardless of what is going on in front of me. However, why not just pay to have sex? Is this less guilt? I go to the doctor when I have a headache... Dentist when I have a toothache, masseuse when I am stressed out. Why not a prostitute when I am feeling randy? I have heard the argument that you go to professional for items no other can do for you, making sex an ill argument because it is something your partner can do for you. (However, even if they can it does not mean that they do) Besides, does having sex with other women mean that I do not love my partner? I am not committed to long-term goals and vision? I am some how less than the perfect mark of a man because I enjoy sex more than my partner does?


Some random quotes on the subject for whom the sources may be lost to time…

“A marriage is a burden at times best carried by three”

“When I said “I do” I was having sex 5 times a week

Proverb I need to heed...

"If you are going to drowned yourself don't do it in shallow water"

Romanian Proverb

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.8
Mind:	7.2
Body:	8.4
Spirit:	4.5
Friends/Family:	5.3
Love:	6.9
Finance:	7.4
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Google Vs. Gold

What’s worth more an once of Gold or a Share of Google?

Gold is the winner for now.

Strange though because they are betting on the opposite things and both are right. Google is betting on all that is out there still to be discovered, that the human imagination is infinite that knowledge is the new forger of class and that they can capitalize on the infinite nature and potential for educational growth. (My apologies to Cantor) Gold is betting that all that there is to discover has been discovered, that its resource is finite that our demands, taste, needs increase for the resource that is fixed. (Bulb: Rarity makes something precious by default.) .

So why is it that I know that both of these things will make a balanced portfolio…I still would rather live in a Google world?

Being Real?

Watching MTV recently and (swear thou who laughs shall be struck down from on high by natural causes) sat though a show of young women completing for an internship at 17 magazine. The host was narrating a question and answer session with the group of contestants. She would ask a question and the other contestants would hold up little cards denoting if they thought the person was giving a "real answer", a "beauty pageant answer" or a "fake answer". I admit I found this very interesting. A real answer was something that was blurted out all emotion, no screening so to speak. A beauty pageant answer was an answer where a person sat back and maybe thought about the question and how to respond using there mental faculty. The fake answer was either of the two above-mentioned responses given by somebody who none of the other contestants liked. I thought it was strange who we value being real or as I would like to say primal. This response is considered "from the heart" "genuine" "passionate" while a person who thinks is "cold", "manipulative” brown nosing" etc. Since when is thinking about a situation a bad thing? Being aware of the outcomes? Showing compassion and the ability to think about how what you say and do may affect others? even yourself? As a culture, we are spending a little too much time keeping it real. I am not saying by any means that we should turn our backs the emotional aspect of what makes us human, but should we not at least celebrate the fact that we can think and communicate without having to give into the primal urge that is a part of us? Is it not this ability to choose that makes and defines our species? If it is this choice, why do we raise up those among us who fail to use it?

Missing: Fight (poem)

Constant Arrhythmia.
Energetic Fatigue.
Canned Dreams.
Pickled Future.
Breath in life,
Choking on the dust,
Covering an engine so shiny.
Hyper racing heart,
Bronzed.
On your mark,
Get set,
Stop.
Alone on the track
I cannot lose him
He is not fast enough
Freeze
When should my happiness,
Tip your scale?
Sand spills
Sits still
I said Freeze?
A drowned rat
A shorn sheep
Caught him
Felt Him
Looked in his eyes
I look tired
I feel numb
I have not moved

Another silly superstition - Marriage

Can this really be happening here? Feeling as if I went to sleep and woke up in Mississippi as I am watching the news and hearing my fellow citizens argue about who has the right to be married. (http://www.startribune.com/stories/614/5720160.html) First off, I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to get married in the first place. What needs to take place is not an amendment to allow everybody to get married and submit to a religious suppositious dogma but to shift an entire paradigm of how we look at and value the function of marriage or partnerships of people((POP)- instead of husband and wives we will say are you popped instead of are you married- thats my poppie stuff like that) . As long as we hold the conversation on the grounds of who has the right to get married, we are surrendering our rights and liberties as free persons to the church. Marriage as I see it provides a few benefits that could be taken of a number of different ways minus the religious dogma and control. Marriage in its boiled down sense provides two things security and monopolization of breeding rights. Breeding rights is the easy part of this since this is not 1625 for$200 we can have a DNA test to determine paternity so the idea and concept of declaring breeding rights over an individual via a religious ceremony seems somewhat antiquated. We could provide a contract that says if you produce a child into this partnership that is not mine or has not been prior agreed to in writing by me you are waiving all rights of ownership in our shared properties and there proceeds. (<- will be returning to this section in a future blog since the subject of technology influencing sexual selection is so fascinating to me) Therefore, the real issue then is the security piece and for this exploration, I will be focusing on the financial impacts rather than the emotional security provided by a partner since you we should not attempt to legislate the emotions of people. First off, let me say that any two people who wish to enter into a contract to be partners should be allowed to do so. They should be allowed to grant benefits to each other through their employer if their employer has them available. There is no evidence that says this will lead to abuse, people are selfish in nature and since this equals a deduction from my paycheck, I am not going to just pass it out to everybody. If you doubt this look at the charitable organizations who accept donations to help pay for pre- condition medical expenses their intakes are very small and if it is post condition care for example a cancer center ect. Your insurance premium for pre-diagnosed conditions known prior to the issuance of insurance should then lead you to pay a higher premium hence raising the deduction from my pocket giving me more incentive to scrutinize the relative worth of my partner. Property ownership and survivor rights? Really, who is the church or the government to direct who gets my estate that is earned and taxed in my lifetime? Should I want to leave this to my child, my wife or my gay lover I should be able to designated that and pass that trust on with little or no interference in the form of taxes and bureaucracy. I should be able to designate any person I choice to have power of attorney and the ability to make decisions on my behalf of me. I mean come on we should at least give human being the same rights and protections we offer businesses.
After all, research points to homosexuality as being a genetic condition no different from that any other. Would place height restrictions on who can get married or eye color restrictions...of course not..... so what are we auguring about then?

Pervert or Liar?

“Why is it when you meet a pretty girl you have to act like you don’t want to make love to her?” Paraphrased Line delivered by Cary Grant in North by Northwest

Watched a little Hitchcock last night and pondered this line by Cary Grant. (I apologized to the purist if I have it misquoted above)
At the risk of over simplifying this would leave one to believe despite the overwhelming inclination for honesty to be the number one sought after trait listed on personals that a liar is favored over a pervert. Now this could be a case of lesser of two evils, could be a faulty base assumption on my part that all men are perverts. (which I stand behind and use of the term insomuch as it refers to the fact that men do want to sleep with every women they meet even if they do not act on these impulses) The term I think women are looking for more than honesty is restraint or at least the ability to be discrete in other words some form or standard of self-control. These standards of self-control are the defining measures of how mature we are or at least I believe this would be a theory worth exploring further. Nevertheless, is a life of self –control more fulfilling than a life of self-indulgence? Aristotle had it closest when he stated that virtue is the mean between two extremes, but in any case, I would rather error in this dilemma slightly on the side of the self-indulgent pervert. This being honest with myself and my partner about my needs which in order to fulfill in our closed puritan society I have to become a liar….go figure. Therefore, I keep on pretending that I do not want to sleep with women in order to get more opportunities to do so.

Does this seem absurd?