A while ago I read a book called 'Job: A Comedy of Justice', which takes on as a premise that God is real, but he is a bastard. Thinking back on the book recently I was grappling with its core issue, that of faith, and I had something that was to me a revelation. Maybe (and most probably) this revelation has been mentioned before, but I can't recall reading or hearing about it, so I'll pass it off as mine until proved otherwise.

In my revelation, I thought of the Garden of Eden, faith, free will and critical thinking. Now, according to some dictionary quotes, and the majority of people I encounter using the word, Faith is believe without proof. And for us to enter heaven, we are required to have faith in God (amongst a few other things).

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were cast out for partaking of the forbidden fruit. Was this fruit free will and critical thinking? By utilising these skills that are either God given or evolved, I find it rather hard to have faith in God.

If God as written in the Bible does exist, then it is not a far jump to credit him with creation as well. He would also be responsible for Free will and Critical thinking. If we use these God given ability, we run a very good chance of been refused entry to heaven. So, to me, they are the forbidden fruit, if we just have faith (everything else in the garden) we will be allowed to return to Gods side. If we think about things, question, investigate, we will be punished.

Thats assuming God exists. And if he does, then he is either a bastard or needs to get himself a new P.R. department.

I'm often reminded of hypocrisy in life, how we can judge all around us and still be blind to what is in front of us. In this volatile world, where it often seems the true measure of a person is the factors beyond their control that we are more keen to group by divisions, and to make our selfs feel better by constantly reminding of how others are worse.

Two cases, slavery and poverty.

Slavery seems to be getting more space in the media these days, with comments been made about reparation, and the damage done to Africa in a quest to fill the coffers of places like Europe and America. No coverage or mention is ever made of the fact that many Africans were involved in the process, capturing other Africans and placing them in bondage for their new masters.

Less still is mentioned about the Barbary coast, about how it was African nations that also engaged in the systematic capture and usage of slaves, be they black, white, brown or yellow.

Now, it is fair to say that the European/American slave trade was far in excess of the Barbary one, but does that make them more evil, or simply more successful? I would say that they are both the same.

As for poverty it seems to me in Ireland and I dodge the daily harassment on the street and though the media of people trying to make me guilty and hand over my money that this constant barrage of negative African imagery might in some ways do more harm than good. Maybe a few more African positives of the kind that would encourage investment would be better? At the most selfish level I'm sure more money would flow in if more money was flowing out. People give when they think they will receive. Its a human characteristic (look at religion, how much time and effort and money is given, so that we will receive a great afterlife?).

After reading this article on the BBC I must say I do feel better about myself. The article take a sample of random men off the street, and measures their BMI (Body Mass Index) and tells them how fat they are.

And they were all obese it seems. As are George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. Unsurprisingly that same test puts me on the wrong side of porky, but when I'm sharing it with such esteemed company it doesn't feel so bad :)

Fresh from the blogosphere I have been reading up on the thoughts of many about the quality of our news services. In particular was the BBCs use of the phrase 'so called' in front of 'war of terror'.

Most of the posts I read were quite critical of the BBC for this, and 'accused' it of having a left wing agenda.

What worries me is that out western political system is been polarised right down the middle. The Right hates the Left, the Left hates the Right, everyone hates the Liberals (including me).

I myself would lean more to the right, I'm not a fan of Political correctness, I don't believe that talk can solve everything, and I am opposed to the artificial insulation that nationalised industries and services are kept in.

However, I do believe that before you punch you should listen, try to understand and attempt to talk, I do think that if you want respect you should give respect, and that there are many instances when a fledgling startup or idea needs protection before it can stand on its own two feet.

What worries me is that we are losing the ability to think outside the box. The internet has grown so vast that whilst it is possible to view almost any side of a story (except for poor people, as they can't afford to be heard, and not many would listen), it is all to easy to surround yourself with like minded peers and mutually reinforce your arguments without fear of changing your mind.


A nice quote I read ( from the great people at Games Workshop, and probably borrow from elsewhere) stipulates:

"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates wide open and its guards asleep"

The context around this enforces the idea (this is from a fictional universe by the way) that closed minds do not ask questions, and can be relied on to do what they are told. I myself would suggest that you keep the gates of your fortress closed for the most part, but you should make an attempt to read the mail and answer the phone.

The ability to communicate abstract ideas is one of our greatest assest as humans, and in this regard we have evolved a great many tools to aid and abeit us in this quest.

There are many these days who would bemoan the current direction of our linguistics, and cite primarily the rise of digital communications with its ability to slice up our thoughts into neat little packets (both in actuality and technicality), of which the chief offender is the humble txt message, which belies in its simplicity and ease of use the power to destroy friendships, exposes misdemanours and forever imortalise the insanity that is the drunken mind in the dark hours.

So many times I have recieved a message incomphensible to all but the most ardent cryptologists that I feel its sender must have been working for in a previous life German intelligence during the Second World war .Names are reduced to insulting single letters, and more often than not in lower case to add insult to injury. Punctuation is abandoned in the attempt to squeeze every inch out of the cruel 144 character limit as the sender works their arthritic thumbs into a blurred frenzy, in much the same way as a mainiac removes the steering and brakes from a car to make it go faster.

Do these people not know that lurking on their very shelve is a tomb in whose hallowed pages lurks the ability to communicate with such effieciency and eloquence as to leave the recipient replendant and awash in the very ideas you have plucked from your mind.

Whilst I do hate recieving such affronts to thousands of years of determined evolution on my ancestors part, I can understand. What really offends my soul (a glorious phrase that I cannot claim credit to) is to recieve such a message in the form of email.

People forget that communications is more than just words, it is tone, inflection, context, body language, history, experince and so many other things. In an effort to capture this mysterious ether with permeates the sentances we send forth to the world we have puncuation, a tool which I must myself admit to been a hit and miss user of, but a user none the less. Its use can turn sarcasm to irony to deadly seriousness. When left absent from our words it is up to the recipient of a sentence to fill it in, often with terrible consequences.

I am not however one to cling to the past, our languages change as the world changes, and so must we follow to keep up. We should not fight to preserve our language, we should rejoyce in its evolution. But, as my friend Bernard pointed out, change needs to be managed (not a term I am fond of), and in this regard we must insure that we do not disregard the tools which can serve us so well, but use them to enhance and to clarify our thoughts so that others would understand us better!

Was just having one of those innane conversations that seem to litter the working day, like so many gems sprinkles accross manure, when I had a blinding insight.

The conversation had turned to the matter of Antidotes, those wonderful mixtures that enable us to play with cute and furry poisonis and venomis critters all day long.

The word, Anti-Dote.

In my experience the term Dote is most often used by women to describe a man who they think is lovely, kind, friendly, non-threatening, etc, etc.

Very often this man can appear to me as a slimey, lying, manipulative, bastard. But now it makes sense. Antidote is Anti posion.

Anti-Dote = Anti-Posion.
Dote = Posion!!!!

These guys are Posion!!!!

...but it kind of fecks things up when your thinking of new Careers. I think photography is one I should definately look at, so I got a load of my pictures printed off (yay iPhoto) and am eagerly waiting for them in the post, along with my new iPod (I have mentioned that I'm an Applephile).

So today marks the day that I am going to set about changing my career. Lets hope the next one is better.

I was just reading this blog, and as usual the comments are more interesting than the actual posting.

In particular I was struck by the get a life, get a girlfirend, get something lines. Why is it that people can't raise legitimate points without been shouted down by those who would rather that we freeze our society at this point in time and never move on?

There is one great force in our universe, and that is change. It marches forward in an unstopable manner. We cannot hope to halt it, only flow with it, and that is good. Why stay the same, you have been there, you have done that. Always move forward, always adapt, always question, never accept a truth without thinking about it.

The world is full of people who want to maintain the status quo. Be it religious, financial, political, scientific, or even TV shows. Maybe they have lifes, and maybe its time they got new ones.

For some who know me it is apparent that I suffer from an uncontrolable love for Apple products. I have tried to convert those of a windows persuasion (even though I have it dual booting on my Mac). I even told my mother when she was buying a new computer that I would not provide technical support if she purchased a computer that had anything to do with Redmond.

Well, I shall try to explain it. I'm sick of computers. They are evil and fincky. Many will try to explain this by saying that you need to know what you are doing, that if things go wrong you didn't pay attention, didn't read the manual.

This is true, in the same way that a shotgun used to open a can of petrol can be dangerous.

Computers are tools, and a tools purpose needs to be defined, so it can be designed and built to fulfill it. An Apple is designed to be useful. It is designed to organise and present. And it is designed beautifully.

Linux is cool to. It more open of course, and so my argument can be thrown back at me, but it can be tailored to exactly what you want, or if your not able to do it, there is someone out there who can, or who has.

Windows trys to be all things to all things, and ultimatly, while it does a lot more than everything else, it does none of it better. Its a swiss army knife, which I will admit is useful, but I prefer a powersaw in the garage, and a kitchen knife in the kitchen.

Well, this is my first post, and for those who know me, which is proably all who are reading as I'm probably not interesting enough to warrant attention from others, or maybe even from you, the theme will not be anything new.

I have an extremly short attenion span. And for the past year or so have been hopping from job to job like a rabbit with piles. I don't know what the problem is, but the symptons are always the same. Boredom, boredom, boredom.

Is it just me that is afflicted by this, or is it only me that can't deal with it? I don't know, either way, its driving me nuttier everyday.

Anyway, todays solution for the problem is to become an artist/photographer. Selling my work to the adoring masses and reaping in your praise. Ye can all help by visiting my flickr page and choosing which photos ye would like to buy for a hefty price tag. I know that you all want to do more to help, but for now I'll be happy with just your cash.

I'm also feeling riled up about religion and politics today, so I might vent my rage into the keyboard soon. Stay posted!