A perfect circle - 3 libras

Art interpretation is the mirror to the soul. It is not so much the intention of the artist but the interpretation of the audience. The more varied the interpretation the deeper the message the more personal the experience. Enjoy Art !

threw you the obvious and you flew
with it on your back, a name in your recollection,
thrown down among a million same.
difficult not to feel a little bit disappointed
and passed over
when i've looked right through
to see you naked and oblivious
and
you don't see me.but i threw you the obvious
just to see if there's more behind the eyes
of a fallen angel,
the eyes of a tragedy.
here i am expecting just a little bit
too much from the wounded.
but i see through it all
and see you.
so i threw you the obvious
to see what occurs behind the eyes of a fallen angel,
eyes of a tragedy.
oh well. apparently nothing.
you don't see me.
you don't see me at all.

A Piece of my mind, if you don't like complaints don't click

If you are reading the preview don't bother and go move on the next one. This is just as the title states its not about anything other than whats going through my head right now, since I feel like its going to implode I wanted to try and put it into words.

Lately its been a hassle waking up, been sleeping so much lately that its not even funny(maybe a tseetsee fly stinging me ? ). Mainly its due to an extreme lack of motivation a very heavy head of thoughts, not having my mother around since she's at sis, and shouldering some more responsibility. So what has been on my head is really just disappointment of alot of things.

Reading all those posts about the situation in Palestine where we got a couple of asses chasing carrots on sticks, and people being so complacent as to not overthrow them both ! they are not politicians so why are they being given the benefit of the doubt. They are a bunch of corrupt and sorry excuses for adults, they come off as more of kids screaming "he punished me first".

No wonder I don't bother with Arabic politics much since under any measure they don't qualify as such and they are the testimony for why we are being ridiculed on the world scene.
Then we got the talk about the confederacy between palestine, egypt and jordan. honestly neither egypt or jordan are willing to shoulder the burden of hosting either gaza or the west bank. For the record I think the palestinian are a 100% with this because with all honesty they have just had enough of their government, they has enough of the arab people telling them to hold their grounds, while at the same time not willing to get their hands dirty.

they tried the Islamic way, they tried the secular way, they tried the democratic way, NON WORKED. so they will be willing to try just about anything, hell if Israel is willing to take them back they would probably gladly welcome it.

Reality says something all the time, but somehow in this region we always go in whatever direction that is opposite to that. So following that reasoning I see the united federal state of Jordan forming in the next 10 years, whether we like it or not is irrelevant. Then we have the sorry excuse of a PR stunt that orphanage pictures that got released a few days ago, come on did anyone buy that ? sound eerily similar to a certain viet stunt I recalled, usually that preceded the genocide there. Anyways younger kids there days are better off dying than living in them, for all they have to look forward to is just more suffering.

Governments in their inception are supposed to be the embodiment of the spirit of the people, since it is far more efficient for the people to appoint other to handle their well being rather than have a Greek democracy. The people are still responsible to keep them in check.
When have we lost that idea in our heads, when was it that we have been so overburdened with fear, debt, lust after money, and illness that we have became so complacent as a world culture that we never shift a limb to express our outcry to the injustices being dealt not out side our borders but affecting our daily life everyday. Not just the middle east region (though we earn the award of the most stupefied nations in the world for the dedication of being a 40 year old complacent culture) look at France with a conservative president that speaks to the fear of the people not the hope of the people, look at Germany with Mercal. god knows what abomination we will get in the US of A or england. the prospects that are favored are not really something to look for, and to boast they have quite of few comedic candidates that if elected might topple the poodle and the dimwit of their comedic crowns.
The people of the world are being enslaved, they are cowering in the corner. They still believe the lies of free market, a rosy view of globalization, and soon enough they wouldn't mind a global currency. purely and simply we are getting sold defuncted outdated ideas that have been rejected in all of the industrialized world except for the champion of it, the United States of America.
Which at this point resembles as much of a fascist state as Italy in the 1930's.
now a common misconception about fascism is that its just the little bully brother of a nazi regime. By definition its the rule of cooperations and business owner to format laws for the enslavement of society and the benefit of big businesses if that doesn't describe the states I don't know what would be a better description ? maybe the lighthouse of democracy of the world, nah...

Essentially the country is on a set course of enslaving the people, they are readily being turned into a debt ridden consumerist superficial society. Which really makes them much easier to control, why don't we take notes from southern America, why don't we strike up deals with them.
Their models are proving to be much more efficient than whatever we have adopted, and they came to us with open arms many times before. We are just probably waiting to have another Argentina on our hands, for the upper class to wipe us all clean and leave! (i just hope i can secure my share of the pie in that case)

It has been 5 years since inflation hit the country hard, and till now salaries haven't followed the trend, soon enough we will be paid slave wages with no benefits. Look at the taxes, compared to what we pay (last calculation i did it came out to be 54% of the income is paid as taxes of which 20% of those taxes are unspecified).
is the government trying to pay its debt to the World bank on our backs ? are we really getting anything in return ? or is it just the price i have to pay for being accepted in this country while others are allowed to loophole out of those ?

That aside, it doesn't bother me as much as the work environment. Am still in my twenties, there is a little disappointed idealist in me. Why is the work status static, you are not allowed much room to move up and learn, no one is willing to be a mentor of the younger generation.
The people at the top are incapable to run a ba2al (minimarket) never mind a multi million dollar group! they lack management skills, they lack authority, and most of all they lack vision.
I worked with quite a few companies in my history and the common thread is that they never have a clear vision or plan of what they need to accomplish to move on. their idea is always adding on to their head count with not addition to the quality of the people.

I work with people in 5 different countries, all of the people that hold the position in the same department at the other countries are years ahead of me in experience, with a better prestige(reads title) than me(I am an Ass. BTW) . Of course they all get compensated better than me, now you would expect me to be taking the back seat to them.
The problem is they are a bunch of stuck-up idiots that if I didn't know any better I would have thought they have other responsibilities, and not that they got there by bloody nepotism.
Some of my co-workers are not that much better. They are the type of workers that accepted the status quo, you work your job from the day you start till the day that you retire without pushing yourself to perform what your job entails, and never bothering to expand your knowledge.

What this has done to me in effect is that it demoralized me and am starting to be like them, after coming back home and trying to find a glimmer of hope in my country. trying to start a business, working my ass of for my job and not complaining about being paid in peanuts I have no accolades or achievements that i am proud of nothing, just frustration with the people of the country that take the no glamor no respect attitude. So needless to say that am formulating my escape plan which should be finalized soon. Me 4 years ago must be disappointed, only if he was less naive and more a realist than an idealist.

On happier notes I have one less year to live, and no plan for life yet. I hate this day, I find it pointless to celebrate. In reality part of my ritual of being gloomy on this day started on my 8th year when i realized it's a celebration for others to have fun and not me.
One less year to live and more time wasted, seems to my gloomy eyes that I hit a dead end. No calling, no passion, no home. Better move on...
Hope hell doesn't exist cause it would surely welcome me there, damn do i get to bring my sunscreen or an inflammable suite ?

eh... ENJOY?

ps. Congratulations to me, I hate this day. I feel like a seal clapping to himself, better go back to reading my Kafka atleast I feel at home in his stories.

Michael Moore's "Sicko" .........Watch it!

Ok did I say watch the film? I'll say it again, watch it. oh but its pertaining to issues of the US health care system.

Hmm not really, Moore's film touches on a personal and human level. Whether it is in the USA or Canada, or France or UK, even Cuba. He places his argument very eloquently without going into head crunching theory!
It touches on so many levels that are not exactly health related (though they are morbidity boosting;) ) So many ideas are floating in my head...

So Watch it, I haven't given a review or anything like that i just want people to watch and tell other people to watch it too. If you have relatives, friends, or are living there please watch.

The movie was gladly leaked on the net and according to the rumors(more like his statement) with the blessing of Michael Moore. Even though you would see it for free it would be great to donate a cinema admission cost or even more to Michael Moore, or anyone who is possessed by the same spirit of change. We have to reward good honest people that are willing to forgo monetary wealth in pursue of their goals (or so the didactic side of me says)

You can watch it online here if you would like too.
(on a different side the homeland security was threatening him because he filmed in Cuba without a permit, now it seems the cage has been rattled and I hope it will be a butterfly effect)

Edit (july, 18th) : didn't realize the link is dead on google video, so here are a few more options
option 1 a b c d
option 2 (direct download)
ENJOY!

Creationism Vs. Evolution ... Follow-up

Well I was just tempted to do this bit. Now the basis of this argument is :

Are we supposed to include dogmatic knowledge when teaching a scientific class since some of the theories undermine some of what is mentioned in religion

Now this has been a heated debate recently in the states, in actuality in this region of the world its not even a debate. not because we are enlightened or any of that, but because we pass over the evolution part of science with the comment of its BS. We move on without even thinking of it, and after that you hear all the pseudo proofs of why that is the case "human DNA has the same components as soil", "the scientific wonder of the Bible/Quran/Torah".
So am going to try to the best of my abilities to lay down the arguments and counter arguments for each one, if i missed any please advise.

Definition(premises):

The Case for Creationism:
(this will mainly on the Christian side which is identical to the Islamic side since this argument was dead in Muslim science since the 14th century and most of the arguments are based on those of the Christian creationists. besides that the accounts for the creation are the same on either side of things, albeit the Christian account is more literal while the Muslim account is slightly more vague)

Essentially its whats in the book of Genesis, especially the first 7 chapters. Essentially the point of creationism (intelligent design or what ever other name it might be given) is to utilize science to prove scientifically what is mentioned there.

1. Earth is approximately 6000 years old (that is based on the calculation of ages of the prophet and since the lineage can be traced down to Jesus Christ (3issa 3aleih 2il salam)
2. The creation of earth, and all of its inhabitants(including humans) came to be at around the same point, on the sixth day (now earth was created in 7 days if you would like to calculate the time of god's days(Muslim point) in thousands of years please do so)
3. Humans are descendant of Adam and Eve, and the "Flood" has reduced the population of the earth and constricted the gene pool (or diversified it not sure since its the first reference to races).
4. People in the past lived longer(biblical & Quranic references) and their point of origin was from what is anthropologically called the agricultural age.
5. Faith; since the evidence is of a religious nature it is eminent that faith will be a strong force even if its being pushed as "scientific" evidence.
   

So those 5 points form the starting point, and the whole "scientific" method of creationist is to counter all scientific evidence that contradict this, and overburden theories with answers that are not know yet.

The Case for Evolution:
(This is based on what I know and could find references to)

The general theory of evolution is commonly meant to mean the biological evolution which was incepted by Charles Darwin. It does stretch to the origins of life since it's "a necessary precursor for biological evolution, but understanding that evolution has occurred and investigating how this happens does not depend on understanding exactly how life began"
The main points of Biological evolution: (reference:theses of darwinism)

1. Transmutationism - that species change form to become other species
2. Common descent - that similar species have common ancestors
3. Struggle for existence - that more are born than can survive
4. Natural selection - that the relatively better adapted have more offspring, sometimes called Malthusianism
5. Sexual selection - that the more "attractive" organisms of sexual species mate more (and have more offspring), causing unfit traits to spread; again there is no alternate, just a denial that it happens
6. Biogeographic distribution - that species occur close by related species, explaining the distributions of various genera
7. Heredity - the more modern view that genes don't record information about the life of organisms.
8. Random mutation - the notion that changes in genes aren't directed towards "better" alternatives; in other words, that mutations are blind to the needs imposed by the ecology in which organisms find themselves
9. Genetic drift/neutralism - the view that some changes in genes are due to chance or the so-called "sampling error" of small populations of organisms. Molecular neutralism is the view that the very structure of genes changes in purely random ways.
10. Functionalism - the view that features of organisms are neither due to or are constrained by the shapes (morphology) of their lineage, but are due to their functional, or adaptive, benefits.

Discussion:
(evolution points are in blue while creationist points are in black)

So in order for creationist to prove their premises they need to disqualify a huge chunk of science for the past couple of centuries. spanning biology, astronomy, geology, physics, and others.

Some points they need to prove:

• The Dating methods Used are inaccurate there are cases were isotropic and other dating methods have been proofed wrong (in essence that Geochronology is a hoax):
• Dendrochronology; tree-ring dating
• isotropic dating(C-14 dating); depending on the half-life of the carbon-14 we can accurately measure dates up to 50,000 without scaling

• This might be bias(from my end not the scientific end), but trees have been dated to more than 10,000 years ago (with living ones aged over 4,000 years which conflicts with the flood accounts) with no refutal point other than it is going to be refuted in the future which is sufficient enough to cancel the debate regarding the age of living things being limited to 6,000 years. I am a bit rusty on my chemistry and physics but C-14/C-12 ratio dependence and contamination arguments are not convincing

• The variation of organisms on the planet need to fit into the arc(inferred from the flood and passages of elimination of all other beings), and dinosaurs need to have coexisted with humans with no relative time space between them.

• Couldn't find much material regarding this, one point was that evolution in small amounts accounts for the species seen today (microevolution), the other is that the flood was limited to human populated areas and not the entire globe. As for the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs its attributed to scientific dishonesty and dating inaccuracy, some even draw evidence from Job 40 that biblically it is documented that dinosaurs coexisted(mentioned as leviathans, behemoths, and dragons since the word didn't exist till the 19th century or so)
  

Major Argument tools:

• Irreducible Complexity: The idea that biological systems couldn't have arisen from less complete predecessors and that They are too complex to have risen through mutation,e.g:
• Blood clotting in humans
  
• Dolphins have an "incomplete" form of the system and it still functions
  
• Flagella bacteria
• Along the same lines as the previous part, different proteins in the flagella serve similar or different function is other organisms so they don't prove the point
  
• Eye is to complex to form by chance
  
• Not having the knowledge of how something came to be doesn't prove the fallacy of what was know, and there are some suggestions as to how it came to be. Evolution does not mean that things pop out of nowhere due to chance !
  
• The idea as a whole is non sequitur since the presence of IC does not falsify evolution or prove creation.
• There are no transitional fossils(the birth of a new species from an older one through a transitional species) , and fossils don't take millions of years to form
• The dating methods used to estimate the millions or hundred thousands of years are discussed above, as for the transitional fossil the expectancy of true chimeras of the creatures around today is what they want to see which makes them ignore other transitional fossils found
  

There are many other points that are made but in my opinion these are usually the biggest and "strongest" ones that could be made. Personally I don't mind either theory to be held by anyone. For the longest time I have been trying to correlate and find a common ground between the two, but the more I learned about both the more I leaned toward evolution since it plainly made sense to what I had been taught in my scientific education.

The argument point is that "what I had been taught in my scientific education" that is the main beef of creationist, is that teaching science in that sense tends to undermine what is being taught in religion.

Hence the idea to teach both sides, or to ignore the evolution part of science which as seen plainly touches on the majority of what we call science nowadays based on Biblical and religious texts mainly . That will bring us back to the earth is flat and it revolves around the sun since thats what is mentioned in the bible.

In my opinion religious text didn't set out to be of a scientific nature they were meant to be understood for people who didn't hold much regard or knowledge to science as we see it today. So that is the first case, that teaching creationism in a science class is akin to teaching alchemy is chemistry and astrology in astronomy. It is a pseudo science.

On the other hand believing in evolution and the general theory doesn't undermine the belief in god or religion (ok maybe not in the general sense or a personal god ), believing in evolution is not equivalent to being atheistic or agnostic since you will still have the faith to believe.

As for Intelligent design I didn't touch much upon it since the idea that god set the systems of nature to test the faith of the people sounds like we are being deceived and its something I don't really like to get too much into it since it will be more philosophical than scientific. Also the arguments of the watch maker and firing squad analogy(Weak Anthropic Principle) fall in that category too.

Sources and reference/ extra material:
creationist arguments
evolution refutals
creationism refutals
creationism vs. evolution entry in wiki
Video of a presentation by Ken miller (catholic biology professor) arguing against ID

So whats the next iteration of creationism

Destiny Dribble

image by i lovegravy(hope she/he doesn't mind me using it)

Voice 1: if we had no knowledge of preordained destiny we would be making less excuses and committing less sins

Voice 2: Nope not really, since If we Don't have any knowledge of destiny(it not existing in our realm of thought) there wouldn't be an all knowing quality for God because it wouldn't make sense. So If you follow your chain of thought without being all knowing, people will think some sins will be unseen and hence more sins will be committed. That is if you consider that our morals are based on us being punished and not being intrinsic to our humanity which is notable but beside the point.

Voice 1: Hmm I don't agree.

Voice 2: why ? which part?

Voice 1: not sure, no reason it just doesn't feel right

Voice 2: :D no way am i going to start arguing against faith, I would never win

Haven't lost it yet! but this one was real, thought I'll be random with it.

more randomness my latest drawing (a commission or a favour or a gift not sure what to call it) Hello John......

ENJOY!
ps. music play list update (rue de soleil - angel eyes, deepak ram - night in lenesia, zero 7 - destiny, Moloko - time is now, phish - billy breathes)

Interstella 5555 by Daft Punk - The best Music "movie"

This is probably one of my favorite albums of all time "Daft Punk - Discovery" and to boast that its the only album that has all its songs part of really nice intricate story that gives a body and sentimental value to the songs.

Am sure that atleast the majority are familiar with the 3 first singles "one more time", "aerodynamic" and "Digital Love" but there are more jewels to this album.

Not sure if you have 68 minutes to spare but those are 68 minutes well spent, here is the movie :D
Part 1a "one more time"
Part 1b "Aerodynamic"
Part 2 "Digital Love" - "harder, better, faster"
Part 3 "Crescendolls" - "Nightvision" - "Superheroes"
Part 4 "High Life" - "Something About Us" (those simple lyrics mean so much to me I LUB this one)- "Voyager"
Part 5 "Veridis Quo"(very very nice ambient background music too bad its too sad for my wedding) - "Short Circuit"
Part 6 "Face To Face" - "too long"
Part 7

ENJOY !

Latest bushism

Oh boy am gonna miss him immensely when he's gone .....
yeah right he put it in his pocket, when did he get that smart !
On another note is that manner of him shaking people's hands like an albanian rock star really safe ? or are they that certain that no one would want to see Cheney as a president ?



older ones in case you missed them

mi cagro en ti



Shake that "thing"



ENJOY!

Trying a new thing ...

I am not sure if you read anything here before or not, but i want to try a new thing....
I want to try an experiment here, people usually read what they like, So Is there any topic that you want to suggest for me to write about ?
Anything from the silly to the philosophical ?

Am mainly interested in what topics you would like to read. The idea came from the fact that each one of the bloggers seems to orbit around certain theme and they never diverge. I tried to do that as often as I could but I kinda got caught in the religion orbit and I want to get out of it.
May something about film and TV ? Technology ? philosophy ? off-beat news ? politics ? ecomony ? Flying pigs ? corck and screw stories perhaps?
(I wonder is this gonna work, well its an experiment anyways)

Orbits sighted so far.....
Quirky & Funny
Just quirky with spasms of the world revolves around me (not in a bad way though)
Journal worthy and this
philosophy and some mental ...... eh
Jordan bil galb,i.e. samat badan 2ordiniya
light hearted fun reading

Funny how different this list is from the first time I started reading Jordanian blogs
ps. dont ask about the pic just felt like it :P

Creationism Vs. Evolution

Recently I read about the views on Turkish people regarding this matter, and that the majority of them believe in creationism. There is even a "scientific" institute to dis-prove the theory of evolution. In the report that they released earlier in the year they claimed alot of "interesting things".

So I wonder what do you think ? what are you views about this ?

I remember back when we were "taught" that in school the mention of it was like "god created us .... blah blah blah, but some silly people think that our grandparents are monkeys and what silly idea that is" a very unbiased way of teaching it relatively. Well atleast they mentioned it :D

On a different note my first post on arab expats which was my first attempt at satire proves that i suck at it but it was fun, it also proves that some people don't even properly read what i write and others are even annoyed by my mentione that they leave such helpful comments as ":S" which was a WTF moment "why bother really ? "
Anyways thank 7aki, who-sane for having me over there .

To every short sighted person..... read this (if you can @_@)

To every glass wearing, contact hating, lazik fearing human on this earth ! Salvation is here. Now you can be able to have 20/20 vision for one whole day, no contacts, no glasses and no hair raising experiences of smelling your eyes burning !

All you have to do is wear a type of contact lenses at night while ur sleeping and you can wake up and be able to see clearly, amazing eh ?

The technology is called Ortho-K, Orthokeratology.
How it works is that ?

By wearing those contacts at night it helps to correct the curvature of your eyes and in the morning it can maintain the correct curvature of the eye for up to 2 days, how sweet is that ?

How did they figure this out ?

The procedure has its roots in a Chinese technique, in which sufferers would sleep with small bags of sand on their eyes. Because myopia is caused by the eyeball lengthening, the weight of the sandbags would temporarily flatten the eye.

Ortho-K was discovered 40 years ago, when opticians noticed that some patients could see better after they removed their contact lenses. At first, a series of lenses were needed, each one flattening the cornea to a small degree over a period of weeks. It is now possible for vision to be restored in two days.

What do you have to do ?

Well you would have to go to an Ortho-K specialist, he would have to take measurements of you eye and check the curvatures.
Then an order is placed to the manufacturer to create your designer lenses (makes it sound special doesn't it ?) and in a few days you will be able to enjoy perfect vision again

Well whats the catch ? it must cost an arm and a leg ?
well not really, according to the article;

It costs around £100 for the initial consultation and provision of the lenses, then £40 or so a month for ongoing care and replacement lenses every six months. This works out about the same as you would pay for standard forms of contact lenses.

well worth it to be able to swim underwater and to hit your head on every edge of the pool because you are technically blind ! (well thats the latest hassle i faced because of my sight).

When is it coming to an optician near you ?
Beats the hell out of me, but if we bug enough of them at the same time am sure they will bring it faster so start asking about it.

Enjoy!
and have your mobiles on auto redial to do your share of optician bugging

for more info

http://orthoklenses.com

www.no7-contact-lenses.co.uk

www.dhthomas.co.uk


source : The Independent
image : http://www.pshaw.org

For all the folks that don't feel like working today !

Yeah this week has been a "productivity minus" week so far. So since i don't like hogging all the fun, here is some fun stuff

This is the longest tongue in the world !













It belongs to a German girl living in hamburg (now i hear some sighs and see some grins out there)

[she] can lick the ice cream from the bottom of a cornet - while her friends have to use their fingers.

You know what us guys are thinking right ? well shame on us she's only 12 years old
(couldn't help but let my middle aged man inside speak his mind)


Now I know that alone can't get you through the rest of the day so here is a treat....
This game is so much fun if you like seeing things work

For THE GAME - CLICK HERE

Enjoy

ps. this day is killing me
pps. thats from the Cbbc website

Dogmatic Amalgam of Thoughts (part III)

Our life boils down to questions and answers in my humble opinion. In our inquisitive journey we find some, we stumble on some, and other are left hanging. Religions offer us such answers, a master plan for life, one to lead in order to obtain salvation.
There are always questions running through my head regarding religion, most of the time I can't find any answer. Or it might be that I don't wanna recognize an answer in fear of losing a part of me.

I see people getting sucked into it, its their method of escape from reality. Why do you belittle your current life so much that you shell your self up and wait for the end by diligently following the code without much thinking.
Is it really honest when your rituals and prayers devolve into a duty without an ounce of spirituality. A drone in a game set out to get points that end up earning him the end game price.

Why do we still parade our figure heads ? in the past there was a maldistribution of knowledge and tools among the people, that is hardly true nowadays. So why are the figure heads still the pivotal point of religion, is it our fear of comprehend religion as our own ? Why do we still get fooled by the claims that we are not qualified to interpret religious text, and abide by our moral understanding. Why are fatwa's still binding, and why is it sacrilegious to revise them?
Why are the relics of religious thought of the middle ages still prying their claws to this day and age ?

How come everyone believes they have the Ultimate truth and all the rest are condemned to hell unless they convert ? one of the harshest memories I have as a kid at school was when I asked the religion teacher in a discussion of judgment, "so what happens to my friends of other religions?".
That reason by itself gives birth to countless annoying missionaries of all sorts and colors that are fighting to salvage your soul, their view of the world composes of the "US vs Them". they never stop to question whether you want to be salvaged by them to start with.

Why do all Abrahamic religions treat that human as an innately corrupt being that can only be salvaged by religion. Are we really corrupt with out religion ? Sweden seems to be doing fine without one....

Isn't it easy for blaming whatever good that a religious faces in life is "the hand of god" while any missteps and mishaps are "the work of the devil". It must be really sweet to take that burden of the shoulder of the person and place the major part on an invisible force. Why don't these people take credit for their own choices !
People pray all the time, how many prayers are really answered ? how many of these would have happened without praying ? So "why" is the answer. The other day I heard someone tell another to do a certain prayer in Islam that is done in order to choose between things, now either way it goes he is making the choice. no matter how it turns out its a closed loop so why do it for the sake of doing it.

They always say god judges people but on this earth people are doing all the judging. It gives them a sense of superiority to condemn the rest of humanity to an eternity in hell without even losing a nights sleep. Then they come back and say god is merciful, Is it really that simplistic of an equation ? doesn't those two statements confound logic ?

The whole religious system that we have in place when the world is getting smaller and smaller is not viable ! those bubbles are crowding the globe and causing chaos.

As for religion it self, it is really weird how people are programmed to disregard certain aspects of religion that they are not comfortable with....
they are oblivious to the consequences of their choice to do that, if you are claiming its the truth then you have to take it all or not, nit picking decrees is not a choice in this case !
Why does a merciful god allow certain humans to be abdicated and abused by the rest of humanity for centuries and centuries because of their skin color, and finally when they obtain some sense of freedom they end up ripping each other apart ?
Why favour some sect of people and ascribe them as "special" then revoke that right ? why do it in the first place if it is going to plague humanity till our time ?
how can people justify that biblically and religiously the earth is only 6,000 years old while abundant proof is that its not ? why do giants and people living for hundreds upon hundreds of years seem logical ? how can a religion propagate the idea of empowering women, while on the other hand allowing the acquisition of sex slaves ?
There are so many contradictions in religion that its just faith and faith alone that can keep it together ! Faith is a personal connection between god and a human so why does it have to be a public thing, why don't we keep religion to our self. Why can't we accept that religious entropy has been reached and be content that there are others that have a different view.

Why is the thought of living life by one's own moral code so apprehensive to people ? what is so bad about following your heart ? why belittle god and think that he takes offense to what "some of his servants" are doing ? Isn't it kinda silly most of the time that religious people tend to make their points by creating tension to be visible nowadays ? simply "Ethical people will do what is right, no matter what they are told. Religious people will do what they are told, no matter what is right."

I am not posing any of this to challenge people's thoughts and make them think. More so it is to allow me to be at peace with my environment and to find a balance.

The parody in all of this is that you can't have a proper argument with a religious person regarding this, it always devolves to shouting. I would like one to base their argument on logic rather than faith.....
Anyone up for trying ?

some quotes on the matter;

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. -- Steven Weinberg

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing, all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes." -- Gene Roddenberry --Robert A. Heinlein

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." -- Seneca the Younger

Dogmatic Amalgam of Thoughts (part I)
Dogmatic Amalgam of Thoughts (part II)

Dogmatic Amalgam of Thoughts (part II)

Back to this series, what i was trying to do is to boil down all my thoughts regarding religion into age groups, the first one dealt with children in religion. The focus was on some extreme examples. Even though in the average sense it leaves a lasting impression on a person.

As soon as a person starts hitting adult hood those Do's and Don't start hassling him more and more. Also his eyes open up on the world, while he was younger he was always seeing the world through the family filter. Everything in his perception has been shaped based on the opinion of his family. At this stage he starts reviewing and rebelling over everything trying to find his own place in the world and find an opinion that he can claim is his. Try to answer any of the why questions that he hopefully learned to not ask by now and you will be stumped.

Usually one of the first things that he tackles is his religious commitment, depending on his upbringing as a child it sets the limit of how far he can go with it. As a Muslim kid you might have conflicting emotions about simple things such as drawing, why can't I draw ? am not gonna kneel down to my drawing ? so whats the reason i can't draw humans ? If you are Jewish it might be why can't I have some cheeseburgers ? or if your Christian, So..... whats the connection between Santa and JC again ?

So that stage carries on in silence, a few small shifts from the point of origin, and no big steps are taken. Then begins the influence of the outside world taking over and the majority develop a duel standard when dealing with the world. one is the mask they show to their families and one that they show to their friends and society and his individuality gets strained between the two.

So as soon as the attachment from the family starts to weaken and more independence is established (usually around the college age) an introspective scrutiny to their experiences thus far takes place and sets the tone for how he is going to carry himself from then on.

At this point it some get floored by the realities of life and religion offers a secure and happy place for them. It helps them from facing reality and developing on their own, instead they prefer the child's mentality of being told what to do, and how to do it. Religion offers a parent's hand of sorts.

In it is comforting to find other people like you, who are facing similar difficulties in comprehending the world. It offers solidarity, but it takes the "awe" out of experiencing life. Some find the experience it self "awe" inspiring to be absolutely fair.
The danger in that view of the world is that its too simplistic, the world is not a black and white.
So trying to fit everything into those boxes eliminates logic process, you rely less and less on your experiences and more and more on your reference. The more loyal you are to your references the easier it is to accept extreme ideas without questioning.

Every coin has a good and a bad side, to shun one and parade the other just because it lessens the burden of holding to your belief is being biased.
If left unchecked it opens the door to abuse of the masses and cult behavior. It also closes the door on progress since you have a long tally of people who lived in different circumstances that you aspire to be like.

What baffles people the most is they are not able to talk rationally about the subject, the only way they are able to argue the subject at this point is through emotions. In the end they still claim to be more rational and level headed ! That form of escapism is fragile and self destructive in nurturing way, it allows your mentality to be assimilated in the crowd which for a person who finds facing reality to be draining is comforting setting. This is what nurtures the disconnect and creates a xenophobic society, and in turns protects the institutions.

These people are usually the most visible section of the religious community and they are the core propagator of the religious thought in society, and that applies anywhere anytime.
They are also the most zealous in criminalizing and announcing heresy that they are swift tongue in their usage of those terms. The reason for that is that they believe their sacrifices in this life time entails them to acquire a superiority status to the corrupt common that they live among.

Then we have the fence sitters, the religious middle. They are prefer to be conforming to their society. They are practicing or believing religiously, always trying to be politically correct. They candidly have admiration to the previous group since they feel that they are extraordinary in their ability to make the sacrifices that they were not willing to do to their religion.
They really feel that they are the please all crowd, but usually their complacency is what allows extremism to breed amok.
Their journey is much simpler and they find security in their origins. They hold tight to their teaching, but not too tight as to cripple their life style. They are the ones that think praying once a week is not too bad its better than nothing. They are prisoners of their environment, "I go to church because my wife thinks it will instill morals in the kids" kinda people.
In the end they hold on that double faced attitude since they hit puberty, and they never develop beyond that.

These wannabe crowd pleaser are actually loathed by both extremes for being what they are Hypocrites.

Then we have the hedonistic crowd, the fashionably religious crowd. who to them religion is a satisfaction of a hip image they aspire to maintain. They can gown any view depending on the time and place. These are usually brushed of from these arguments since they at least recognize that their ideas are not a central point to their lives more of a complimentary aid in living, and rightfully they don't involve themselves in the tussle. which doesn't make them hypocrites atleast to themselves.

Some unshackle themselves from all the views and look for something more they are usually the free thinkers. Some prefer to describe them as Lucifer's agents, they are the greatest threat to
a religious organization since they actually use logic and reasoning. If they are not convincing they will atleast prompt you to do your own research. They are the ones who really want to be left alone, they are the ones shunned by religion for who they are, they are the ones that tried to find logic in religion but their experience and knowledge came in the way.

and that is where my train wreck of thoughts just stalled. I had a strong Urge to keep this part rotting in the draft bin since i find it pointless and doesn't add anything but i thought its worth adding just for the comics

Since am still at that introspective stage i can't really talk about any experiences beyond that, all I can do is observe, and from what I observed in older people is that they treat religion as a tally book (maybe due to fearing the inevitable more than the youngsters) . They try to collect points like kids collecting trading cards, and it is funny how some conversations devolve to how many "points" such and such can get you ! Also the religious middle tend to move closer to the right as their life goes on.

In the end which ever path is treaded is a personal choice, religion is a choice. No one should be persecuted for the choices they make, they are responsible for those choices. When these choices extend to effect a whole community is when silence is no longer an option and that choice extends beyond the personal realm.

"Faith is often the boast of the man who is too lazy to investigate."
-- F. M. Knowles

cartoons from H.E.R.B

Tadayima...

Well am back home, the past two weeks have been too full for me to be able to fit some online time in them. Plus it was for the first time in such a long time that I have been unplugged for this long.

It's Kinda idiotic saying this but I missed "the people", my Online buddies in which the main interaction I have with them is through the web. My heart was warmed up when they actually asked about me (more like it was a "phew, am not too abnormal in feeling that" kinda way)
and thanks for everyone who wrote/commented asking where the hell I was at :D (that means Tala, 7aki, and Summer).

Also thanks for John (if u ever pass by), I got all fuzzy when I heard my name on the radio :D

As for what the hell i was doing, I was in Bahrain for work. It was a hectic couple of weeks. I worked through the day and went out and hanged with my friends there at night, EVERY F'n NIGHT.

So Highlights (I know you don't give a rats ass about this but this lil bit is for me, kinda of an electronic memo):

• Taking after work swims is sooo relaxing, and i hate swimming. better incorporate that into my schedule
• It sucks when 20 people tell you "wow you have gotten so fat!" in one day, EVEN if your a guy who never cares about that. Good thing i can Yo-Yo my weight.
• Whenever you take over from somebody else they will most certainly screw you over, and the first day will always be hell.
• Its nice to see family, but never when they are hosting in a party of their 40 friends when the closest age gap between you and them is 15 years. Plus it ruins the night when its the most important game for the team you cheer for and they LOSE ! (a half hearted congrats to AC on winning the champions league)
• Concerts are FUN, you will not care if they rip you off on the Alc, the bathrooms are flooded, people are pucking even before the party started, people in the gulf seemed to confuse hip hop with techno and started break dancing or any other side effect of a big party. Armin Van Buuren Rocked Manama, and It was a blast. Side note next time lets try to get a better ratio than 1 girl to 10 guys please it kinda sux.
  
• Never excuse your self out of a party because you have to work on a Friday the next day, things will work themselves out
• Be Nice and when invited to home poker game lose the first time you are there, at least to cover the cost of hosting you. It doesn't hurt to lose more at the beginning and then win it all back to help your pride ( Also its a good excuse to use whenever you lose, since guys can only lose on purpose after all)
  
• Nokia phones suck, and fastlink roaming is a rip off. buy a new non-Nokia cellphone so that you will get your calls when you should and get a local sim wherever you go (keeping the sim in the wallet damages it so don't do that, someone better invent a holster for them soon)
• Shopping in Bahrain is not recommended for normal sized people, its frustrating.
• There is one day I wish to erase from my memory, and I had a pretty good job of erasing it so far.
  
• Having to change your plans and look for an apartment 10 hours before your flight is not a good idea, and my company buys cheap worthless tickets that can't be changed easily. Never gonna try to do that again.
  
• Alcohol stores in Bahrain are shady, they hide them with a screen, there are no signs. even when you are on the front door of them you can't recognize them. The only way to recognize them is on a Wednesday when you spot a Saudi changing his clothe on the street (no kidding) then you know you are in front of an alcohol store!
• There is a worst airline than RJ its called gulf air
• My Allergy to photos seems to be easing up, might consider allowing photos again ;) , the reason is no one recognizes me in my photos any more since they are more than 5 years old
  
• Going to a seminar for the 3rd time in less that 6 months to hear the same presentation again (w/o the presentation since they were having tech problems) is worst than watching pain dry. On the other hand it allows some pretty creative drawings.
• Not having an internet connection Sucks, you miss so much that you end up post binging like what am doing today
  

ENJOY !

Ps. I changed the playlist, am wondering is it too annoying having the playlist on the blog ? should i remove it ? what do you think ?
maybe you have not even noticed it !

10 simple pleasures TAG.... took me long enough

Well Tala(since when is it a private blog ? ?) tagged me a long time ago, but i got busy so here is the my contribution. Since this TAG should already be dead by now as usual am not gonna tag anybody ;)

10. My time wasters, by importance, songs, movies, cartoons(anime), series, art pieces(looking at them, and wishing to own the ones I like one day).

9. Am a good listener and a bad story teller, so i actually enjoy listening to other peoples' problems and helping them resolve or understand them from a different angle.

8. Writing in my blog

7. Getting pampered by my mother.

6. Arguing with my dad, not really arguing more of discussing but since we are so polarized (in stances not attitudes, his opinion means the world to me) we end up on the middle ground usually.

5. Drawing, coloring & designing, but that requires me to be in the right mood.

4. satisfying my... err... instincts. call it what you want to call it what you want "choking the chicken", "flogging the dolphin", "spanking the monkey" am a man. and if any male didn't include this in their top 5 something is wrong :P

3. Enjoying my vices; smoking, drinking, having something in my system in general.

2. Learning anything and everything, either through wiki hopping then digging deeper & deeper. Major topics of interest psychology (personality theories), economics(money market, and economical tools and research in unusual fields), politics, and philosophy.

1. Analyzing peoples personalities and making predictions about their behavior. especially uncovering masks that people wear and even better the reason why !


Well hope that wasn't too gloves off
ENJOY