Tuesday, April 17, 2007
a moment with david's privileged life
It is almost 2:30 AM, I just destroyed a T-Bell grilled 'stuft' burrito, and I'm reading (and enjoying) Friedrich Nietzsche in my dormroom while listening to Explosions in the Sky. This is a college moment to remember. I'd thought I'd share this simple, silent happiness with you.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
This blog is long and boring
So for Spring Break, I took the NAFTA tour, hitting up Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. I swung up to Canada for a weekend to see a couple good-looking guys and Michelle Heimowski (who's not a very good-looking guy, but a very pretty girl). From there, I flew to my parents' near the Bay via Sea-Tac where I stayed for a day. After that, I was off to Juarez, Mexico with my parents to see my sister Katia and bro-in-law Micah - who is teaching some classes at Mexican seminary as part of year-long internship in order to complete is tenure at Calvin Seminary. He graduates in May, and then they're off to either Cal-Berkley, Columbia in New York, Yale, Emory in the ATL, or University of Michigan for at least two years as my sister attends grad school to get a Master's in Public Health. She also applied to the U-Dub, U of Washington located 10-15 minutes away from me, but unfortunately was rejected because of a lack of experience in the field of public health. This was disappointing because I'm pretty sure she would've come up here, and it would've been nice to have an incredibly good vegetarian cook nearby. Oh, and I love my sister, blah blah blah. But it's mostly about the food.
Anyways, while it was great to see the fam and it was really fun, its always fairly challenging spiritually for me to spend a significant amount of time around family, particularly my parents. This stems from my inclination to rebel against the way in which I was immersed and saturated in Christianity during my childhood and adolesence, which was always one of the biggest sources for any type of skepticism or rebellion against my Christian faith. So, being around my parents remind me of this and all the Christianese that gets tossed around in pre-dinner prayers and the like kinda bothers me.
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that if governments were to intervene and prevent parents from teaching religion to their children and instead let them decide when they were older teenagers, then this would result in a quick end to theism. I think there's a lot of rational soundness to that argument. If I didn't believe in the Holy Spirit and his/her active work on earth (which I do, often earnestly and whole-heartedly), I'd buy this argument in a heartbeat.
So I've been on a little bit of one my regular skeptical kicks, doubting things and whatnot, mainly ignited simply by being around my parents. (My parents are awesome by the way- I know this is a cliche, but in getting older and being away from them a lot more, i even like hanging out with them for short periods of time once in awhile. Crazy.) One of the things I've been playing with and trying to figure out where I stand on is the idea of the infallibility of the Bible, which is kinda a pretty fundamental Christian truth. Lately, I've been less confident in this notion -quite simply, because there's so much humanity involved: Human writers, human readers, humans canonizing and deciding what IS scripture, human historians, human scholars, human translators. There's a lot of context that's involved and makes me question how applicable all this is to us. It leaves a lot of doubt in my mind of how much and how well the present-day Christian church truly understands about..um..well..everything. I have faith that the most important and essential doctrines have been preserved, but other 'filler' questions I'm not completely sold on. What I have been leaning towards, however, is using the examples and teachings set by Jesus as a lens through which to view the rest of Scripture. This has a couple problems (like it assumes the accuracy and infallibility of the Gospels - written decades after Jesus' life), but its the option I like the best.
Anyways, I'm getting kinda tired and bored and this is long, but I have some more thoughts I want to run with related to this.
Anyways, while it was great to see the fam and it was really fun, its always fairly challenging spiritually for me to spend a significant amount of time around family, particularly my parents. This stems from my inclination to rebel against the way in which I was immersed and saturated in Christianity during my childhood and adolesence, which was always one of the biggest sources for any type of skepticism or rebellion against my Christian faith. So, being around my parents remind me of this and all the Christianese that gets tossed around in pre-dinner prayers and the like kinda bothers me.
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that if governments were to intervene and prevent parents from teaching religion to their children and instead let them decide when they were older teenagers, then this would result in a quick end to theism. I think there's a lot of rational soundness to that argument. If I didn't believe in the Holy Spirit and his/her active work on earth (which I do, often earnestly and whole-heartedly), I'd buy this argument in a heartbeat.
So I've been on a little bit of one my regular skeptical kicks, doubting things and whatnot, mainly ignited simply by being around my parents. (My parents are awesome by the way- I know this is a cliche, but in getting older and being away from them a lot more, i even like hanging out with them for short periods of time once in awhile. Crazy.) One of the things I've been playing with and trying to figure out where I stand on is the idea of the infallibility of the Bible, which is kinda a pretty fundamental Christian truth. Lately, I've been less confident in this notion -quite simply, because there's so much humanity involved: Human writers, human readers, humans canonizing and deciding what IS scripture, human historians, human scholars, human translators. There's a lot of context that's involved and makes me question how applicable all this is to us. It leaves a lot of doubt in my mind of how much and how well the present-day Christian church truly understands about..um..well..everything. I have faith that the most important and essential doctrines have been preserved, but other 'filler' questions I'm not completely sold on. What I have been leaning towards, however, is using the examples and teachings set by Jesus as a lens through which to view the rest of Scripture. This has a couple problems (like it assumes the accuracy and infallibility of the Gospels - written decades after Jesus' life), but its the option I like the best.
Anyways, I'm getting kinda tired and bored and this is long, but I have some more thoughts I want to run with related to this.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Go Falcons
The good news: I'm alive.
The bad news: there's nothing to blog about.
Just some quick notes:
I separated my shoulder hitting that bastard to the right.
I listen to rap once in awhile.
My girlfriend plays the harp. 'Nuff said.
The Seattle U Red Hawks suck......go partake in the eucharist, you dirty catholics
We play SU today at SPU's Royal Brougham Pavilion, and I'm honestly considering breaking up with Julianna because she refuses to go. It's our cross-town rival, they crushed us at their place earlier in the year which ended with a half-court shoving match, their fans are into beastiality and incest, it's our homecoming - how do you not get up for this game? Ugh...girls...
Thai food can give you a hangover.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are my homies.
Immanual Kant's hott too.
I kinda like school....shhhhhhh
I'm on the greatest Madden losing streak (vs. a human) ever. It's not like I'm being outplayed, I've just been extraordinarily unlucky. Randomly impossibily interceptions, horribly timed fumbles, crucial defensive collapses at big moments....its uncanny.
When I lose in Madden, I'm usually really pissed off and grumpy for like an hour.
I gave up reading and homework months ago.
I think I'm wagering on the Super Bowl because that's the only way I'll really care who wins.
Is it rascist to root for the Bears because Lovie Smith looks more black than Tony Dungy? I wish one of them was white, I love cheering against white people. I say equal opportunity, you say reverse discrimination.
God is really faithful.
SU's center is one of the ugliest people I've ever seen. He looks like a shaved big foot with a head the size of tennis ball.
1 hour 'til game time. I'm ready to explode. Maroon>>>>>>Red; Falcon>>>>>>Hawk; protestant school>>>>>> catholic school
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Guaran'Sheed
Hey, whats up, I'm blogging right now. You know what that means - yep, midterms and papers. Time to spend hours procrastinating setting up my fantasy football lineup, looking for a way to trade for Rasheed Wallace in my NBA league, checking out which bands are coming to Seattle in February, and, of course, to blog.
So I've been at SPU for over a month, and it's been a great start to sophmore year. First off, the new freshmen on my floor are legit - just a bunch of really fun, enthusiastic cats. Plus, it's kinda funny for me to pretend I'm way older than them (because it feels that way with an extra year of college experience under my belt) when half of them are actually older than me. A couple of the kiddies turned 19 a little bit ago leading me to reminisce about all the great times I had back in the day when I was 19 - which I'll turn in a month and half. What can I say? I'm just so unbelievably mature and good looking for my age. Plus, I have a great singing voice.
I'm finding being a sophmore is heckuva lot busier than being a freshman, but I think its mainly because I'm getting more involved. I'm writing an opinions column for our weekly student newspaper, The Falcon (which I may or may not post here on occasion, look below for one or two); tutoring some elementary school kids in an underprivileged, predominantly african-american neighborhood; incorrectly using semi-colons; leading a small group of freshmen with my ex-roommate Brennan; getting involved with some of the groups and clubs around campus like Young Democrats; and playing intramural football (which is amazing) and volleyball (which is 'aight).
On the spiritual side of things, God is doing something special on our floor. It's exciting. I've been hearing so many stories of people just really changing over the summer and just getting really excited to grow and mature in relationships with eachother toward God. It's hard to explain, but there's just a different feeling to the floor this year. Almost everyone's in a small group, almost everyone shows up for floor worship in our balcony lounge, and just a ton of awesome events are being organized. Last year was all swell and good, but there's something pretty awesome here as we all begin to grow together. Any pray for this to continue up here on Sixth West would be legit.
Anyways, back to work. I love you all, even James.
-Thirty Foot Cliff
So I've been at SPU for over a month, and it's been a great start to sophmore year. First off, the new freshmen on my floor are legit - just a bunch of really fun, enthusiastic cats. Plus, it's kinda funny for me to pretend I'm way older than them (because it feels that way with an extra year of college experience under my belt) when half of them are actually older than me. A couple of the kiddies turned 19 a little bit ago leading me to reminisce about all the great times I had back in the day when I was 19 - which I'll turn in a month and half. What can I say? I'm just so unbelievably mature and good looking for my age. Plus, I have a great singing voice.
I'm finding being a sophmore is heckuva lot busier than being a freshman, but I think its mainly because I'm getting more involved. I'm writing an opinions column for our weekly student newspaper, The Falcon (which I may or may not post here on occasion, look below for one or two); tutoring some elementary school kids in an underprivileged, predominantly african-american neighborhood; incorrectly using semi-colons; leading a small group of freshmen with my ex-roommate Brennan; getting involved with some of the groups and clubs around campus like Young Democrats; and playing intramural football (which is amazing) and volleyball (which is 'aight).
On the spiritual side of things, God is doing something special on our floor. It's exciting. I've been hearing so many stories of people just really changing over the summer and just getting really excited to grow and mature in relationships with eachother toward God. It's hard to explain, but there's just a different feeling to the floor this year. Almost everyone's in a small group, almost everyone shows up for floor worship in our balcony lounge, and just a ton of awesome events are being organized. Last year was all swell and good, but there's something pretty awesome here as we all begin to grow together. Any pray for this to continue up here on Sixth West would be legit.
Anyways, back to work. I love you all, even James.
-Thirty Foot Cliff
Jesus Didn't Advocate Wealth
Note: this is one of the articles I've written for our student newspaper at SPU, the Falcon. I'll prolly post one here from time to time.
Prosperity theology is a term given to the controversial doctrine that states that one’s prosperity and success, especially financially, is a result of God’s favor. This favor is often thought to be a reward for spiritual merit or prayer.
Prosperity theology is a growing issue in the North American church, with its roots found in the Pentecostal wing of Christianity. The debate has grown to such proportions that Time Magazine featured it on its cover in recent weeks, begging the questions “Does God Want Us to be Rich?”
In a poll showcased by Time’s article, 31 percent of Christians surveyed agreed that “if you give away your money to God, he will bless you with more money”. Likewise, the article highlighted several mega churches, who are strong advocates of prosperity theology, including the largest church in America: Houston’s Lakewood Church, led by Joel Osteen. Osteen is also author of Your Best Life Now, a book premised on the worldly rewards God will grant us in this life.
One such Seattle-area church is The City Church, who, according to its website, averages over 4000 attendees at its three campuses in Kirkland, Belltown, and Issaquah. The City Church recently ran its annual conference, entitled “Prosperity with a Purpose”.
According to The City Church’s website, this year’s conference has the theme “Prosperity with Integrity” which “will be a life changing key to biblical financial success”.
Now, the last thing I want to do is question the faith of Joel Osteen or the legitimacy of any of these churches.
However, I disagree with their beliefs regarding earthly rewards granted by God, and I think Scripture supports me. While the Time article claims that scripture presents conflicting passages on the issue, I have found the Bible’s message on the issue to be very clear to me. Many are the passages promising persecution and suffering for the followers of Jesus, yet who would want to attend to church preaching that message? It's much more comforting to attend to hear the message of prosperity.
The passages those in the prosperity theology camp use to support their philosophy rely on an equivocation on terms such as wealth, blessing, abundance, and gifts, like the one found in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Now, from a worldly point of view, this passage could be construed as saying Jesus provides us with material and financial success and prosperity. But He’s not talking about that kind of abundance. The rewards that God gives aren’t the kind of success that our American culture values. An abundant or blessed life does not mean a financially prosperous one. The riches Jesus offers are not monetary ones.
One of the reasons that prosperity theology’s dogma fires me up is its similarities to social Darwinism. Social Darwinism applies Darwin’s idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ to social stratification. In other words, according to social Darwinism, the ‘fittest’ and most worthy of society will be able to move up the social ladder and thrive in society, while the losers become the losers of society.
Prosperity theology is dangerously close to this theory. The concept of God’s favor suggests that those who have not been blessed with prosperity are bad Christians or in someway undeserving of God’s rewards. This is heresy.
There are millions of starving Christians around the globe who are much more ‘deserving’ of God’s favor than I am, yet I am privileged and ‘blessed’ in ways and quantities that are unimaginable to some of these people.
I believe in a totally depraved, fallen world. In fact, I believe that the world is so depraved, that I, through my own power and by myself, can do anything that is purely good and righteous. Instead, I believe that I am totally reliant on the Spirit to work through me to accomplish anything that is considering completely sinless and good.
Therefore, I believe that I deserve no rewards or prosperity from God. Any blessings I receive—worldly and carnal, or otherwise—are not because of anything I have done. Instead, it is solely from God’s pure grace.
Prosperity theology is a term given to the controversial doctrine that states that one’s prosperity and success, especially financially, is a result of God’s favor. This favor is often thought to be a reward for spiritual merit or prayer.
Prosperity theology is a growing issue in the North American church, with its roots found in the Pentecostal wing of Christianity. The debate has grown to such proportions that Time Magazine featured it on its cover in recent weeks, begging the questions “Does God Want Us to be Rich?”
In a poll showcased by Time’s article, 31 percent of Christians surveyed agreed that “if you give away your money to God, he will bless you with more money”. Likewise, the article highlighted several mega churches, who are strong advocates of prosperity theology, including the largest church in America: Houston’s Lakewood Church, led by Joel Osteen. Osteen is also author of Your Best Life Now, a book premised on the worldly rewards God will grant us in this life.
One such Seattle-area church is The City Church, who, according to its website, averages over 4000 attendees at its three campuses in Kirkland, Belltown, and Issaquah. The City Church recently ran its annual conference, entitled “Prosperity with a Purpose”.
According to The City Church’s website, this year’s conference has the theme “Prosperity with Integrity” which “will be a life changing key to biblical financial success”.
Now, the last thing I want to do is question the faith of Joel Osteen or the legitimacy of any of these churches.
However, I disagree with their beliefs regarding earthly rewards granted by God, and I think Scripture supports me. While the Time article claims that scripture presents conflicting passages on the issue, I have found the Bible’s message on the issue to be very clear to me. Many are the passages promising persecution and suffering for the followers of Jesus, yet who would want to attend to church preaching that message? It's much more comforting to attend to hear the message of prosperity.
The passages those in the prosperity theology camp use to support their philosophy rely on an equivocation on terms such as wealth, blessing, abundance, and gifts, like the one found in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Now, from a worldly point of view, this passage could be construed as saying Jesus provides us with material and financial success and prosperity. But He’s not talking about that kind of abundance. The rewards that God gives aren’t the kind of success that our American culture values. An abundant or blessed life does not mean a financially prosperous one. The riches Jesus offers are not monetary ones.
One of the reasons that prosperity theology’s dogma fires me up is its similarities to social Darwinism. Social Darwinism applies Darwin’s idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ to social stratification. In other words, according to social Darwinism, the ‘fittest’ and most worthy of society will be able to move up the social ladder and thrive in society, while the losers become the losers of society.
Prosperity theology is dangerously close to this theory. The concept of God’s favor suggests that those who have not been blessed with prosperity are bad Christians or in someway undeserving of God’s rewards. This is heresy.
There are millions of starving Christians around the globe who are much more ‘deserving’ of God’s favor than I am, yet I am privileged and ‘blessed’ in ways and quantities that are unimaginable to some of these people.
I believe in a totally depraved, fallen world. In fact, I believe that the world is so depraved, that I, through my own power and by myself, can do anything that is purely good and righteous. Instead, I believe that I am totally reliant on the Spirit to work through me to accomplish anything that is considering completely sinless and good.
Therefore, I believe that I deserve no rewards or prosperity from God. Any blessings I receive—worldly and carnal, or otherwise—are not because of anything I have done. Instead, it is solely from God’s pure grace.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
rockin' the suburbs
So I'm still in norcal for ten days before driving old lady Ranger to seattle to start kicking it at SeaPac U. I'm stoked - there are so many things that I'm looking forward to its crazy. Last weekend I drove the five-six hours down to LA to do a lil chillin' and illin' (i'm such a cracker) with my sister Sara who is a month into law school at USC. Law school is crazy, absolutely ridiculous amount of work. Is it in my future? Vegas has the odds at 2 to 1. If not law school, there'll almost certainly be grad school in my future. Either way, I'll be attending a div 1 school with a good football team. I got my priorities straight.
Walnut Creek (aka Dub C) is cool, though I technically live in Concord. I have fun though - there's so many slang terms for the area. Its also known as East Bay (eBay) or Contra Costa County (3C).
I like this area because I sorta feel like I'm in a city, but then I can also feel like I'm a very pretty, nice open area. I'm in the ultimate suburbia.
I know a couple people who live in the area from SPU but I'm not really good friends with them yet. Two of my friends have come and visited me here, which was fun, but otherwise its been mega low key. I'm sick of typing.
Payce.
Walnut Creek (aka Dub C) is cool, though I technically live in Concord. I have fun though - there's so many slang terms for the area. Its also known as East Bay (eBay) or Contra Costa County (3C).
I like this area because I sorta feel like I'm in a city, but then I can also feel like I'm a very pretty, nice open area. I'm in the ultimate suburbia.
I know a couple people who live in the area from SPU but I'm not really good friends with them yet. Two of my friends have come and visited me here, which was fun, but otherwise its been mega low key. I'm sick of typing.
Payce.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
They're just thoughts, so go ahead and speak
So I've kinda been working through and thinking about a blog for most of this summer that I thought would be finished a long time ago. It'll come out some day, but there's just too many thoughts in there and I'm sick of processing and analyzing my life. Instead, I'm trying to go against my basic nature in order to avoid thinking too much. I'm trying to take some time to give my mind a break and to just live - without questing towards meaning, perspective, and value.
In short, I'm trying to take a break from idealism to spend a little time as a realist.
Of course, as I imagine the rest of this blog will show, I'm not doing a very good job.
As many of you know, about 11 months ago I committed to eating no animals except for most seafood. About five months ago, I began eating chickens and turkeys. Last night, as I learned more about the intelligence of chickens, I recommitted myself to avoid eating all animals excluding most seafood (I won't eat larger, predatorial fish such as swordfish primarily for environmental reasons). Now, I didn't bring this up to stir up an old debate (as fun as that would be), but instead to bring up a point that almost directly contradicts what I wrote in the first paragraph.
I'm a fish-eating pseudo vegetarian for several reasons: my peronal health, animal rights, and for environmental and social justice.
For example, my personal ethical convictions lead me to believe that an organism that has sufficient cognitive abilities is sentient. (In otherwords, I believe that since chickens are intelligent enough to develop object permanence and complex social heirarchies then they are conscious and aware of their own existence.) Now, if an organism is sentient, then it feels pain and can suffer. My convictions then lead me to believe that it is immoral to inflict suffering on a sentient being unless there is a greater moral reason for doing so. Satisfying my taste for chicken is not a greater moral reason, so therefore, I don't eat chickens.
Likewise as another example, I also recently learned that animal agriculture contributes to global warming. Basically, turning factory farmed animals into food is responsible for 17% of America's fossil fuel emission. The average vegan diet generates at least 1.5 fewer tons of carbon dioxide emissions anually than does the average American diet. In comparison, driving a hybrid car generates just more than 1 ton less than a "regular" car per year.
Now, it would be so easy for me to ignore this knowledge and my own personal convictions regarding moral value and the environment (not to mention all the other examples and reasons you should ask me abou) and to go on eating chickens. In fact, it WAS so easy to for me to eat chicken and turkey the past 5 or so months.
And here's my point- there are a million other things that I am ethically convicted about that I don't follow through on. There are a million other things that I'm ignorant about that I purposely don't try to learn about because I don't want to be morally convicted on the issue and I don't want to sacrifice my money and my concern. It would be so easy for me to go through life just thinking and talking without acting. It would be easy to pursue a career with a nice income to provide security for my family and material items for my pleasure. It would be even easier to go through life without ever really thinking about what really matters and instead to do whats best for my family, friends, and myself. But I don't think that's me; I don't think that's why we exist. Happiness isn't the point, and ignorance isn't bliss.
In short, I'm trying to take a break from idealism to spend a little time as a realist.
Of course, as I imagine the rest of this blog will show, I'm not doing a very good job.
As many of you know, about 11 months ago I committed to eating no animals except for most seafood. About five months ago, I began eating chickens and turkeys. Last night, as I learned more about the intelligence of chickens, I recommitted myself to avoid eating all animals excluding most seafood (I won't eat larger, predatorial fish such as swordfish primarily for environmental reasons). Now, I didn't bring this up to stir up an old debate (as fun as that would be), but instead to bring up a point that almost directly contradicts what I wrote in the first paragraph.
I'm a fish-eating pseudo vegetarian for several reasons: my peronal health, animal rights, and for environmental and social justice.
For example, my personal ethical convictions lead me to believe that an organism that has sufficient cognitive abilities is sentient. (In otherwords, I believe that since chickens are intelligent enough to develop object permanence and complex social heirarchies then they are conscious and aware of their own existence.) Now, if an organism is sentient, then it feels pain and can suffer. My convictions then lead me to believe that it is immoral to inflict suffering on a sentient being unless there is a greater moral reason for doing so. Satisfying my taste for chicken is not a greater moral reason, so therefore, I don't eat chickens.
Likewise as another example, I also recently learned that animal agriculture contributes to global warming. Basically, turning factory farmed animals into food is responsible for 17% of America's fossil fuel emission. The average vegan diet generates at least 1.5 fewer tons of carbon dioxide emissions anually than does the average American diet. In comparison, driving a hybrid car generates just more than 1 ton less than a "regular" car per year.
Now, it would be so easy for me to ignore this knowledge and my own personal convictions regarding moral value and the environment (not to mention all the other examples and reasons you should ask me abou) and to go on eating chickens. In fact, it WAS so easy to for me to eat chicken and turkey the past 5 or so months.
And here's my point- there are a million other things that I am ethically convicted about that I don't follow through on. There are a million other things that I'm ignorant about that I purposely don't try to learn about because I don't want to be morally convicted on the issue and I don't want to sacrifice my money and my concern. It would be so easy for me to go through life just thinking and talking without acting. It would be easy to pursue a career with a nice income to provide security for my family and material items for my pleasure. It would be even easier to go through life without ever really thinking about what really matters and instead to do whats best for my family, friends, and myself. But I don't think that's me; I don't think that's why we exist. Happiness isn't the point, and ignorance isn't bliss.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Who the hell decided tulips were so great anyways?
Popularly known as the "L" in "TULIP", limited atonement is an idea that's tough for me to swallow. If God is all-powerful, then God has the power to atone for the sins of all humanity. If God is all-loving, then God would want to save his beloved from the distance of hell. If there is limited atonement, then God can't be all-loving or all-powerful. That is the logic I can't get past. Thus, I constantly find myself floating back to the idea of universalism - an idea I've been indulging in from time to time since I was little. Thinking about God's love and power being so powerful to save everyone(screw justice), regardless of faith or works (inclusively), makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
Too bad feeling warm and fuzzy isn't the point of religion - there's also legitimatizing social arrangements, promoting social unity, providing meaning and encouraging a sense of belonging (thanks sociology of religion). But seriously, that's another issue my thought train has been running into - religion, and specifically Christianity, makes a lot of sense through a perspective of functionalism. It seems so logical that religion exists to complete the functions listed above. I also know people are socialized into their faith - the whole "parents' faith" shabang. Well, maybe not parents' faith, it could be grand parents' faith. Or great grandparents faith. Or great great grandparent's faith, or which ever ascentor converted first. In any case, most Christians are introduced to their religion through their parents, sunday school teacher, or maybe school - right along with all the social norms and whatnot that we are socialized with; I was taught to be a good Christian like I was taught to be a good American.
Throw in some other ideas that give me pause (the issue of Lost in Translation, except instead of Bill Murray in Japan, its the Bible in the past two millenias, the neurology of a Christian spiritual experience isn't different from the neurology of a Buddhist spiritual experience ect, ect) and we have some bonafide doubt and searching.
I was reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (*coughsexist*) awhile back, and I came across a passage (which I'm too lazy to look up) that said something about hearing what the Bible said about issues instead of using the pieces of the Bible to support previously held social and political beliefs. I then realized that I'm more confident in my social, political, and ethical convictions than in my spiritual and religious convictions, which is a fun little paradox, since my social, political and ethical convictions are (I like to think) derived from my religion.
I'd like to continue this conversation, but I have class tomorrow and am going to bed, so I'll leave with this thought:
I feel as I grow into the academic life that lays ahead for me, I'm like Jack and Locke in Lost, I feel a conflict looming between faith and learning. It's not as though I believe that the Bible necessarily conflicts with science (unless you take it literally) its more like the world makes a lot more sense to me through an academic or scientific perspective.
Too bad feeling warm and fuzzy isn't the point of religion - there's also legitimatizing social arrangements, promoting social unity, providing meaning and encouraging a sense of belonging (thanks sociology of religion). But seriously, that's another issue my thought train has been running into - religion, and specifically Christianity, makes a lot of sense through a perspective of functionalism. It seems so logical that religion exists to complete the functions listed above. I also know people are socialized into their faith - the whole "parents' faith" shabang. Well, maybe not parents' faith, it could be grand parents' faith. Or great grandparents faith. Or great great grandparent's faith, or which ever ascentor converted first. In any case, most Christians are introduced to their religion through their parents, sunday school teacher, or maybe school - right along with all the social norms and whatnot that we are socialized with; I was taught to be a good Christian like I was taught to be a good American.
Throw in some other ideas that give me pause (the issue of Lost in Translation, except instead of Bill Murray in Japan, its the Bible in the past two millenias, the neurology of a Christian spiritual experience isn't different from the neurology of a Buddhist spiritual experience ect, ect) and we have some bonafide doubt and searching.
I was reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (*coughsexist*) awhile back, and I came across a passage (which I'm too lazy to look up) that said something about hearing what the Bible said about issues instead of using the pieces of the Bible to support previously held social and political beliefs. I then realized that I'm more confident in my social, political, and ethical convictions than in my spiritual and religious convictions, which is a fun little paradox, since my social, political and ethical convictions are (I like to think) derived from my religion.
I'd like to continue this conversation, but I have class tomorrow and am going to bed, so I'll leave with this thought:
I feel as I grow into the academic life that lays ahead for me, I'm like Jack and Locke in Lost, I feel a conflict looming between faith and learning. It's not as though I believe that the Bible necessarily conflicts with science (unless you take it literally) its more like the world makes a lot more sense to me through an academic or scientific perspective.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Running Thoughts
Sorry I haven't blogged lately, I've been too busy procrastinating and being bored.
I got back from Easter in Walnut Creek the other day. It was great -saw the whole family. We went to Santa Cruz for my sister's birthday. It's a great, kinda shady place. It's like if you took Santa Monica, moved it up the coast a couple hundred miles, made it less famous and glamorous, and added even more stoners and groups of Mexican high schoolers walking around doing nothing. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself thoroughly.
Walnut Creek was very noticeably green - and I'm a northwest kid. It reminded me of Scotland with its rolling green hills and In'n'Out Burgers. I miss Scotland.
I lost my cell phone in SFO which sucks. And then my iPod battery ran out on the way back so I couldn't watch the Office even though my mom made sure we could still make the plane in case the plane departed two hours early. So, I'm pretty much saying I'm the most unfortunate person alive; no one has it touher than me. The Office is good, though.
Spring quarter has been alright. My classes are decently interesting and fairly challenging, so its been 'aight. Y'all.
Today, Brennan created a player for his Portland Trailblazers franchise on NBA 2k6 named Jesus Christ. This long-haired, fully bearded white guy went 3 for 10 while I watched. Clearly, Jesus was cold. Brennan spent an hour practicing with Jesus trying to build up his skill and then forgot to save. Poetic justice, divine punishment, or Brennan is sorta a dumbass? You decide.
This is what happens on Wednesday nights when Lost isn't on. Lost is usually good, though.
Oo, something sorta interesting: two weeks ago, I caught an elbow to the mouth in a pickup basketball game. My front tooth which experienced considerable trauma from a kneeboard ten years ago was dislodged pretty bad, so it turns out I'm going to have to an oral sugeon and get a tooth transplant. The good news is I'll probably get to wear a Brendan Morrison type tooth flipper inbetween extraction and implantment operations. Plus, my new dentist looks like Mr. Rogers and wears lots of bow ties, except his right hand is half gone which makes him even cooler.
Later.
I got back from Easter in Walnut Creek the other day. It was great -saw the whole family. We went to Santa Cruz for my sister's birthday. It's a great, kinda shady place. It's like if you took Santa Monica, moved it up the coast a couple hundred miles, made it less famous and glamorous, and added even more stoners and groups of Mexican high schoolers walking around doing nothing. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself thoroughly.
Walnut Creek was very noticeably green - and I'm a northwest kid. It reminded me of Scotland with its rolling green hills and In'n'Out Burgers. I miss Scotland.
I lost my cell phone in SFO which sucks. And then my iPod battery ran out on the way back so I couldn't watch the Office even though my mom made sure we could still make the plane in case the plane departed two hours early. So, I'm pretty much saying I'm the most unfortunate person alive; no one has it touher than me. The Office is good, though.
Spring quarter has been alright. My classes are decently interesting and fairly challenging, so its been 'aight. Y'all.
Today, Brennan created a player for his Portland Trailblazers franchise on NBA 2k6 named Jesus Christ. This long-haired, fully bearded white guy went 3 for 10 while I watched. Clearly, Jesus was cold. Brennan spent an hour practicing with Jesus trying to build up his skill and then forgot to save. Poetic justice, divine punishment, or Brennan is sorta a dumbass? You decide.
This is what happens on Wednesday nights when Lost isn't on. Lost is usually good, though.
Oo, something sorta interesting: two weeks ago, I caught an elbow to the mouth in a pickup basketball game. My front tooth which experienced considerable trauma from a kneeboard ten years ago was dislodged pretty bad, so it turns out I'm going to have to an oral sugeon and get a tooth transplant. The good news is I'll probably get to wear a Brendan Morrison type tooth flipper inbetween extraction and implantment operations. Plus, my new dentist looks like Mr. Rogers and wears lots of bow ties, except his right hand is half gone which makes him even cooler.
Later.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Update
Finals went well and we won a thriller monday night culminating in the student section rushing the court jumping up and down with all the players. Great game, on to the Elite Eight in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Finals, March Madness, and Slamming James for No Reason Except Jealousy
So this upcoming week is finals week here at SPU. I've got a bio and politics final on monday, and a take home final due tuesday for my ucor. This past week I was also accepted into University Scholars, which is the honors program. This means a couple things - first, I'll probably start blogging more because I'll have a lot more reading and papers to write so I'll need to procrastinate and distract myself more. Second, my U-Core and Biology classes I unfortunately took this quarter are now almost worthless, but I won't have to waste future time on common and exploratory curriculum. Instead, I can work towards the honors curriculum and my (probable) majors of political science and philosophy and, hopefully if I have room, a minor of sociology, but that may be far too ambitious.
Enough with my life, lets move on to something interesting. Our Seattle Pacific men's basketball team is in the midst of a great season, and, as an Orangemen (6th West Ashton tradition), I have a front row view. As GNAC (Great Northwest Athletic Conference, "gee-nack") champions and the top seed in the West, SPU was awarded host of the men's west regional. This is the third time its happened in the past 41 years. Anyways, the Big Dance works a little differently in Division II basketball than in Division I. In DII, there 8 regions instead of four, and after winning your region you advance to some centrally located host city to play in the Elite Eight, instead of the Final Four. Well after victories over Central Washington and Cal State Bakersfield last night and tonight repectively, we're on to the sweet sixteen, the regional championship, against our archrival Western Washington at Seattle Pacific's Royal Broughm Pavillion, and I am pee-my-pants excited.
Enough with my life, lets move on to something interesting. Our Seattle Pacific men's basketball team is in the midst of a great season, and, as an Orangemen (6th West Ashton tradition), I have a front row view. As GNAC (Great Northwest Athletic Conference, "gee-nack") champions and the top seed in the West, SPU was awarded host of the men's west regional. This is the third time its happened in the past 41 years. Anyways, the Big Dance works a little differently in Division II basketball than in Division I. In DII, there 8 regions instead of four, and after winning your region you advance to some centrally located host city to play in the Elite Eight, instead of the Final Four. Well after victories over Central Washington and Cal State Bakersfield last night and tonight repectively, we're on to the sweet sixteen, the regional championship, against our archrival Western Washington at Seattle Pacific's Royal Broughm Pavillion, and I am pee-my-pants excited.
Action shot of the Orangmen at work (from left) Sam Delay driving the bus to V-town, Geoff "Jersey" Jacobs basking in the ecstasy of the three, Jake "Peer Advisor" Buter knew it all along, and David "Slutbag" Van Hofwegen peeing his pants for Dustin Bremerman's three ball
Dustin Bremerman makes me weak in the knees. Not only does the silky-smooth guard sort of look like an attractive James Harskamp, he's money from trey-land. Though not as flashy as GNAC player of the year and point guard Tony Binelli or as dominating as center "GNAC Shaq" Robbie Will, Dustin effortlessly throws up 20 point performances. Plus, his middle name's Tyrel - ya know, like the White Rock star who set the RCMP tourney scoring record because James was guarding him.
That's all kiddies, I'm back to the books and looking forward to an intense Monday night.
Edit: James likes girls.....and he plays World of Warcraft.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Thugged out
So I'm just innocently travelling the harsh streets of downtown Seattle - Ya know, finding homes for the homeless, families for the orphans, and food for the hungry - the usual Tuesday night for me.
Unfortunately, an evil neo-Nazi drug dealing Satan worshiping corporate thug was out on the s ame street stealing these helpless people to make money and somehow increase global poverty through torturing them. I was just like, "Dude, you can't do that."
And he was just like, "What?" and then he shot my in the face - thus, the bloody brow. Then, I ate some spinach and convinced him to convert to Christianity through non-violent protest. Happy day.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
...and Andrew thinks I'm anti-Semitic
A couple things: if you're looking to add something to your reads, check out My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok - a powerful novel about the battle of religion, family and tradition intertwined against inner impulses, gifts, and expression - emotional and profound. It's one of those stories that just gets you, ya know? impacts you in ways only really good stories can. This one was special as well because I think most people who grow up in religious families can relate Asher in some way.
Lost is seriously scaring me - I feel like the creators are on the verge of losing control. Such a brilliant show with so much potential, and there's a very good chance it'll all go down the tube. I blame the Bush Administration.
Third, expect a long post about Alexis de Tocqueville and my future soon. Also, I'll finally get on getting some pictures out on here.
Pax,
DMV
Lost is seriously scaring me - I feel like the creators are on the verge of losing control. Such a brilliant show with so much potential, and there's a very good chance it'll all go down the tube. I blame the Bush Administration.
Third, expect a long post about Alexis de Tocqueville and my future soon. Also, I'll finally get on getting some pictures out on here.
Pax,
DMV
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Doesn't matter if you're Canadian....
Dear Friends, I just took action to protect our National Parks, will you join me? The Bush administration has launched yet another stealth attack on America's most treasured wild places - our National Parks. Their plan would dramatically reduce protections for our parks,which could lead to increased off-road vehicle use, additionalcommercialization, smog and other forms of degradation. These changes could erode the look and feel of places likeYellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. We only have until February 18 to weigh in on this outrageous proposal - click thelink below to submit your comments now.
http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/nationalparks?source=200602_adv_nptaf
From the vast depths of the Grand Canyon to the majestic peaksof the Grand Tetons, America's National Parks are breathtakingnatural treasures. For almost a century, our National Parks havebeen protected by the strictest standards designed to safeguardtheir historical, archeological and natural value. Without any justification or explanation for changing the wayour parks are managed, the new proposal would fundamentally weaken key protections and dilute the Park Service's coremission of conservation.
For generations Americans have been confident that despite shifts in political climate, our National Parks will remainprotected and pristine. We cannot let this administration be the first to abandon the spirit of conservation that has been thecornerstone of the park service mission.We still have a chance to prevent this dangerous surgery on ournational parks, but only if you take action quickly. The deadline to submit comments on this proposal is February 18,2005, so please don't wait - click here to submit your comments now!
http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/nationalparks?source=200602_adv_nptaf
Thank you for your help.
http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/nationalparks?source=200602_adv_nptaf
From the vast depths of the Grand Canyon to the majestic peaksof the Grand Tetons, America's National Parks are breathtakingnatural treasures. For almost a century, our National Parks havebeen protected by the strictest standards designed to safeguardtheir historical, archeological and natural value. Without any justification or explanation for changing the wayour parks are managed, the new proposal would fundamentally weaken key protections and dilute the Park Service's coremission of conservation.
For generations Americans have been confident that despite shifts in political climate, our National Parks will remainprotected and pristine. We cannot let this administration be the first to abandon the spirit of conservation that has been thecornerstone of the park service mission.We still have a chance to prevent this dangerous surgery on ournational parks, but only if you take action quickly. The deadline to submit comments on this proposal is February 18,2005, so please don't wait - click here to submit your comments now!
http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/nationalparks?source=200602_adv_nptaf
Thank you for your help.
Oh wasted day
Have you seen my creativity? I think its hiding with my honesty, or out back taking a hit with my responsibility. I want it to know I'm ready for it now again, hopefully with more maturity this time. And, yes, I promise to feed it more Straylight and the Ros.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
why you'd want to live here
Hey, check it out, I'm blogging again. That must mean....you're right, I do HAVE a quiz, a midterm, and a paper tomorrow. In any case, I'm in a reflective mood. I just got back from Northgate mall where I saw my parents (and had unsatisfying teriyaki - shrimp, of course) who are probably in Tacoma right now in a U-Haul trucking it down to NorCal. Yes, my dad is finally moving to Walnut Creek. Its real, and that realization is somewhat invoking. What emotions it invokes, I don't really know, but the state I'm in right now (aside from Washington o' course [badda ding]) can only be described as emotional. I miss my dog, my house that'll be there until april-ish, my church. I miss the Canucks being able to beat the Blues. I've always maintained that I wasn't moving, only my parents are, but it still feels like a significant event in my life. I have had two homes (Seattle and Vancouver) for the past 4 months or so, and now, after my mom leaves in aprilish, my parents won't be in either one. I'll (hopefully) live in Vancouver this summer, but will I ever again?
I think the North American family can sorta generally be divided up into categories- people who stick around in one spot for like 19 generations and tend to be the solid backbone, we're-always-here people of the church and we-have-a-super-tight-extended-family. And then you have families like my family: the my-youngest-son-is-about-to-be-a-citizen-of-three-different-countries families (werd up, applying to get Canadian citizenship soon to go along with the other two). There's benefits to moving around and getting all these different experiences for sure, but there's something really sad about it. After this year, how often will I see my immediate family? I'll probably see my parents 2 to 4 weeks out of the year, Sara maybe a week or two (she's off to law school in either Virginia or one of four spots in Cali), and Katia + Micah (who leave Grand Rapids next year to God knows where) probably two weeks every two years - and that's most likely how it'll be for the rest of my life. That's how it was for my parents.
Anyways, I'm off to learn about VO2 Max and consititutional democracies, then write a paper on why Samuel Huntington is a warmongering racist and Mexican immigrantion shouldn't be impeded.
much love
david
P.S. props if you got the death cab reference in the title. And yes, know that song is about LA, not North Cal, but it was a good effort, eh (gotta practice for Canadian citizenship eh)
I think the North American family can sorta generally be divided up into categories- people who stick around in one spot for like 19 generations and tend to be the solid backbone, we're-always-here people of the church and we-have-a-super-tight-extended-family. And then you have families like my family: the my-youngest-son-is-about-to-be-a-citizen-of-three-different-countries families (werd up, applying to get Canadian citizenship soon to go along with the other two). There's benefits to moving around and getting all these different experiences for sure, but there's something really sad about it. After this year, how often will I see my immediate family? I'll probably see my parents 2 to 4 weeks out of the year, Sara maybe a week or two (she's off to law school in either Virginia or one of four spots in Cali), and Katia + Micah (who leave Grand Rapids next year to God knows where) probably two weeks every two years - and that's most likely how it'll be for the rest of my life. That's how it was for my parents.
Anyways, I'm off to learn about VO2 Max and consititutional democracies, then write a paper on why Samuel Huntington is a warmongering racist and Mexican immigrantion shouldn't be impeded.
much love
david
P.S. props if you got the death cab reference in the title. And yes, know that song is about LA, not North Cal, but it was a good effort, eh (gotta practice for Canadian citizenship eh)
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Almost two months later....
I figured since Stewie would break up with me if I didn't blog today, I figured I throw a bone to all of ya and dust off the blogging machine after a two month absence. Two months, eh? I'll be brief...
So after throwing together an insanely high number of hours studied for finals, I pulled together some solid grades achieving the sexy 4.0 gpa I had been lusting after all quarter. What's sexy about a 4.0? Welp, I've been finding myself wearing glasses and knee-high socks, reading fantasy books, talking with a lisp, and playing World of Warcraft. My new role model is now Neil Goldman. Sexshy. This quarter I have two really boring classes (arts and christian community and biology of human motion), and one really interesting one (intro to politics), so I'm finding myself less motivated.
Alright, I need to go find something else for me to do to keep procrastinating from writing a small politics paper, but I promise each and everyone of you I'll be back with more interesting gossip (you'll never guess who has gotten fat). Enjoy the commercials.
So after throwing together an insanely high number of hours studied for finals, I pulled together some solid grades achieving the sexy 4.0 gpa I had been lusting after all quarter. What's sexy about a 4.0? Welp, I've been finding myself wearing glasses and knee-high socks, reading fantasy books, talking with a lisp, and playing World of Warcraft. My new role model is now Neil Goldman. Sexshy. This quarter I have two really boring classes (arts and christian community and biology of human motion), and one really interesting one (intro to politics), so I'm finding myself less motivated.
Alright, I need to go find something else for me to do to keep procrastinating from writing a small politics paper, but I promise each and everyone of you I'll be back with more interesting gossip (you'll never guess who has gotten fat). Enjoy the commercials.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Things you should know about me but maybe don't
I'm not a terrible volleyball player for spending the past five years hating the sport, my roommate is Jesse Van Hove's art student twin, I'm a half-assed vegetarian (I eat fish), I'm Seattle Pacific University Flag Football B-League Intramural Champion, my dad is moving to his hometown of Walnut Creek, CA in January with my mom to follow later in the spring to pastor his sister's church, I secretly hope my sister Katia and bro-in law Micah move to Seattle area next year (but they won't) while I hope my sister Sara goes to UC-Davis or UC-Berkeley law schools (I know, she's brilliant) so she's close to my parents and I won't feel obligated to visit as much, both my ears are pierced, I am double majoring in two of the following (maybe): philosophy, journalism/communications, sociology, political science, english, I'm really frustrated with the Dolphins and Hurricanes right now but the Seahawks are thriving, Dwayne Wade>Dontrelle Willis>Nick Saban(loss to Browns on Sunday makes me nervous)>Ronnie Brown> Miguel Cabrera (attitude problem)>Kyle Wright in the pantheon of the future of Miami sports, I haven't seen the last two episodes of Lost, Death Cab show receives a 8/10, I had a dream that James and I did something illegal, and I kinda like sports.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Vegetarianism #3 (also, sucking at Halo but not sleepy is condusive to blogging)
So again, in attempting to reply to all the comments, I found my self with a really big paragraph so I figured I'd post it up here where everyone would actually read it:
Adam, numbers : From Good News for All Creation (Kaufman and Braun, 2002): "Yet worldwide in 1998, 37 percent of all harvested grain was fed to animals being raised for slaughter; in the United States that figure was 66 percent. Meat wastes between 66 and92 percent of grains’ proteins and calories." They have their figures sourced from different journals and books. When writing the posts, I quickly grabbed my figures from a U of Penn website I pulled off google, so that's how i got the water numbers and the 70% compared to the 66%. As for the amount of people starving to death a day, that's the figure I've heard several times in the past year, somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 thousand daily. I just briefly browsed around and got 16 thousand children dying a day of hunger related diseases from bread.org, 1/3 of the world is well fed, 1/3 is under fed, and 1/3 is starving according to the World Health organization, and according to thinkglobal2005.org, 10 million people died in 2003 of starvation, which comes to about 28 thousand a day. Likewise, according to makepovertyhistory.org, 30,000 children die of poverty related causes. So I think I was thinking of poverty, not just starvation, for my 30 - 40 thousand number. But my point remains the same, way way way too many people are dying for us to be so careless with a essential to life resource.
Secondly, Dan - the whale comment about Free Willy was intentional at the end, but good catch.
And since I have nothing else to add, I may as well began to ramble on about my economic justice paper, too. The premise of this paper is that billions around the world live in unjust conditions while David chillaxes ('99, what) with his 20 t-shirts, six pairs of shoes, and lots 'o cable tv up with the affluent west. Basically, I'm saying in this paper that we all have a duty to provide far more aide than we currently now give, and the failure to give such aide is akin to murder. Hopefully, just because I'm a major hypocrite (I've failed to even reach a basic 10% tithe the past 4 working years of my life) on this topic (throwing out the ad hominem on myself before all y'alls drop it on me) doesn't mean the arguments I'm trying to make are invalid. By the way, I don't really feel like searching up a bunch of quotes about how x number of people are living on y number of dollars a day while zee (not zed) number of billionaries have more money than n number of countries. But those numbers do exist, they aren't disputed, and they are staggering. Anywho, listen to me ramble, yo:
Lemme first establish some points crucial to my argument: Every person has a right to a healthy life, which includes a helluva lot of other things (shelter, clothing, etc) . Every person has right to his or her own property and to decide to do with such property as he or she wishes unless it compromises human freedom, dignity, or anything along those lines. The right to life of every human being far outweighs any property rights of any amount of persons. In other words, if I am able to destroy a hundred thousand hummers owned by a hundred thousand different people to save one human life, I have a directy duty to that one person to do so. If I take no action to save that one life, I have committed a moral wrong - something akin to murder. Maybe not murder exactly, but my point here is inaction resulting in a violation of a basic human right in almost equal to action resulting in a violation of a basic human right. Follow me? AKA, not preventing (if able without any harm to self and others) someone from killing someone is almost as bad as shooting someone in the head yourself. Ace? See where I'm headed with this?
We have the ability to satisfy so much essential need in the world, but instead, we satisfy our own superficial material needs and desires. Example: "To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US $13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year. " (http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm) Dude, I have three bottles of axe sitting on my dresser right now. Who the hell needs three? People are dying, but I like smelling good. What my actions say is, it is more important for me to smell good for a couple months than it is for a fellow human to have food for a month or whatever the h-bomb $25-30 will getcha. This is a grave moral wrong committed by a helluva lot of people (you and me included) that is akin to murder. People die, I spend hundreds of dollars a year on vanity. Now I'm going to stop writing and you're going to stop reading, and we're both going to go do something else and forget about this injustice and inequality we daily contribute to because, quite honestly, it is very uncomfortable, depressing, and guilt inducing. I'll hopefully have the stones to return to this later, and hopefully, maybe I can grow up and help someone or something. And I don't know, maybe you and I both can start thinking about how maybe we shouldn't go out to eat, maybe we shouldn't pick up the new broken social scene album, or buy that dwayne wade poster, or that dwayne wade jersey, or that dwayne wade shirt, or more make up, or more perfume, or more shoes, or, and this one is directed right at stewart, more man-thongs (or any sort of thongs). Anyways, I've become incredibly cliche so i'm going to run and hide in the bathroom stall where the poster of hilary duff watches me poop until I feel original again. Love.
Adam, numbers : From Good News for All Creation (Kaufman and Braun, 2002): "Yet worldwide in 1998, 37 percent of all harvested grain was fed to animals being raised for slaughter; in the United States that figure was 66 percent. Meat wastes between 66 and92 percent of grains’ proteins and calories." They have their figures sourced from different journals and books. When writing the posts, I quickly grabbed my figures from a U of Penn website I pulled off google, so that's how i got the water numbers and the 70% compared to the 66%. As for the amount of people starving to death a day, that's the figure I've heard several times in the past year, somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 thousand daily. I just briefly browsed around and got 16 thousand children dying a day of hunger related diseases from bread.org, 1/3 of the world is well fed, 1/3 is under fed, and 1/3 is starving according to the World Health organization, and according to thinkglobal2005.org, 10 million people died in 2003 of starvation, which comes to about 28 thousand a day. Likewise, according to makepovertyhistory.org, 30,000 children die of poverty related causes. So I think I was thinking of poverty, not just starvation, for my 30 - 40 thousand number. But my point remains the same, way way way too many people are dying for us to be so careless with a essential to life resource.
Secondly, Dan - the whale comment about Free Willy was intentional at the end, but good catch.
And since I have nothing else to add, I may as well began to ramble on about my economic justice paper, too. The premise of this paper is that billions around the world live in unjust conditions while David chillaxes ('99, what) with his 20 t-shirts, six pairs of shoes, and lots 'o cable tv up with the affluent west. Basically, I'm saying in this paper that we all have a duty to provide far more aide than we currently now give, and the failure to give such aide is akin to murder. Hopefully, just because I'm a major hypocrite (I've failed to even reach a basic 10% tithe the past 4 working years of my life) on this topic (throwing out the ad hominem on myself before all y'alls drop it on me) doesn't mean the arguments I'm trying to make are invalid. By the way, I don't really feel like searching up a bunch of quotes about how x number of people are living on y number of dollars a day while zee (not zed) number of billionaries have more money than n number of countries. But those numbers do exist, they aren't disputed, and they are staggering. Anywho, listen to me ramble, yo:
Lemme first establish some points crucial to my argument: Every person has a right to a healthy life, which includes a helluva lot of other things (shelter, clothing, etc) . Every person has right to his or her own property and to decide to do with such property as he or she wishes unless it compromises human freedom, dignity, or anything along those lines. The right to life of every human being far outweighs any property rights of any amount of persons. In other words, if I am able to destroy a hundred thousand hummers owned by a hundred thousand different people to save one human life, I have a directy duty to that one person to do so. If I take no action to save that one life, I have committed a moral wrong - something akin to murder. Maybe not murder exactly, but my point here is inaction resulting in a violation of a basic human right in almost equal to action resulting in a violation of a basic human right. Follow me? AKA, not preventing (if able without any harm to self and others) someone from killing someone is almost as bad as shooting someone in the head yourself. Ace? See where I'm headed with this?
We have the ability to satisfy so much essential need in the world, but instead, we satisfy our own superficial material needs and desires. Example: "To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US $13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year. " (http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm) Dude, I have three bottles of axe sitting on my dresser right now. Who the hell needs three? People are dying, but I like smelling good. What my actions say is, it is more important for me to smell good for a couple months than it is for a fellow human to have food for a month or whatever the h-bomb $25-30 will getcha. This is a grave moral wrong committed by a helluva lot of people (you and me included) that is akin to murder. People die, I spend hundreds of dollars a year on vanity. Now I'm going to stop writing and you're going to stop reading, and we're both going to go do something else and forget about this injustice and inequality we daily contribute to because, quite honestly, it is very uncomfortable, depressing, and guilt inducing. I'll hopefully have the stones to return to this later, and hopefully, maybe I can grow up and help someone or something. And I don't know, maybe you and I both can start thinking about how maybe we shouldn't go out to eat, maybe we shouldn't pick up the new broken social scene album, or buy that dwayne wade poster, or that dwayne wade jersey, or that dwayne wade shirt, or more make up, or more perfume, or more shoes, or, and this one is directed right at stewart, more man-thongs (or any sort of thongs). Anyways, I've become incredibly cliche so i'm going to run and hide in the bathroom stall where the poster of hilary duff watches me poop until I feel original again. Love.
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