Bizarro is brought to you today by Spooky Stuff.
It seems our old friend, Harold Camping, is back in the news. He was the kooky old geezer who convinced so many discerning Americans last spring that he had figured out some secret code in the Bible and that the world was going to end on May 21st. I might have believed it if it had come from Nicolas Cage since he has proven his ability to figure out secret codes, but I didn’t find Harold very compelling.
Anyway, Harold had a stroke in June and is now recovering, which begs the question that maybe his premonition that the world was ending was just about his own world ending when he died of a stroke. But he’s still alive so that can’t be it.
Anyway again, he’s now predicting that the world will “begin” ending “quietly” this Friday, October 21. (Harold seems to be fond of the number 21.) So keep an eye out for “quiet” evidence of the End of the World. Nicolas Cage could not be reached for comment.
Speaking of the end of the world, we in the U.S. are in the early conniptions of another presidential campaign season. I used to follow politics pretty closely (I even published a political satire in ’04) but it is so disappointing and frustrating that I have abandoned hope. I’ll keep voting, but that’s the most energy I can muster. The more I learn about history, the more I see that things never change. (Compare the policies of the Hoover administration which led to the Great Depression with the policies of Bush and Company.) I’ll admit that even though the Dems are not much better, the Republicans still favor ruining our economy by propping up the rich and screwing the rest of us, so I’ll vote Democratic. For all the good it will do.
And finally, what is the meaning of life? It is a question that has haunted each individual human for thousands of years. My personal journey started in the Catholic church when I was a kid. I then moved to fundamentalist Christianity as a teen, then to a nondescript belief in an undefined “higher power” in my early adulthood, which morphed into basic agnosticism. For me, peace came to me in my forties when I embraced the logic of atheism and accepted that there is no meaning to life. I wasn’t born for a “reason” any more than the moth that died on my porch last night was born for a reason. I happen to exist, same as the moth and every other random collection of molecules in the universe. Once seen from that perspective, the question becomes more pragmatic: how do I make the most of my life and enjoy the time I’m alive? I find that approach much more comforting than a system of invisible magic. For me, the world ends when I die. Could be later today, could be another 50 years. Once that happens, I’ll be as unaware as I was for all those billions of years before I was born. I’m cool with that.
A food blog was asking people what they were having for dinner. Someone said that they were having roasted potatoes, asparagus , and liver and onions. She then proudly exclaimed, “all organic!”. I couldn’t resist, and commented, ” Mmm… Organic liver”.
Sunday Punnie? J Stewart
Yeah, vote democrat and let Obama keep screwing us over by continuing Bush’s policies. You are a fucking sheep, Piraro. The GOP Candidates are shit (except for Gary Johnson), but Obama is just as bad. Wake up and face reality, idiot.
Well, now that I’ve been called a “fucking sheep” and an “idiot” I can see your point of view perfectly. Thanks!
Oh hell Dan, I’m sure you’ve been called worse by better than he. I know I have ;-)
And ya know what? I haven’t even heard of Gary Johnson … and I don’t care enough to Google him. Chalk another one up for political ennui.
Excellent post today, thanks!
Like you, I studied history and determined that voting doesn’t do much and that elections are bought one way or another. I vote if I am interested in a candidate but don’t vote to pick the lesser of two assholes. Also like you I started out on the Catholic bus. The picture of the stained glass window (Catholic church link) is interesting. I am a little disturbed by the second priest who is just watching. What is that about? Oh well, those wacky stained glass artists!
I’ll keep my eyes open on Friday but I am not changing plans.
Lynn Margulis, co-articulator of the Gaia Hypothesis with James Lovelock, says the Purpose of Life is to reduce the thermodynamic gradient.
Just thought you would all want to know. And now you do.
My pleasure.
dude . you are on a serious roll
I wish I was a sheep, too. They’re such fantastic animals. Great post Dan!
Hey Dan. Enjoyed your blog post. A couple of language quibbles:
This (from: http://www.wordnik.com/words/beg%20the%20question) is just FYI. Your usage of “begs the question” is whatever you want it to be but I’ve always liked the following commentary:
“Begging the question” is a form of logical fallacy in which an argument is assumed to be true without evidence other than the argument itself. When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place.
A simple example would be “I think he is unattractive because he is ugly.” The adjective “ugly” does not explain why the subject is “unattractive” — they virtually amount to the same subjective meaning, and the proof is merely a restatement of the premise. The sentence has begged the question.
To beg the question does not mean “to raise the question.” (e.g. “It begs the question, why is he so dumb?”) This is a common error of usage made by those who mistake the word “question” in the phrase to refer to a literal question. Sadly, the error has grown more and more ubiquitous common with time, such that even journalists, advertisers, and major mass media entities have fallen prey to “BTQ Abuse.”
While descriptivists and other such laissez-faire linguists are content to allow the misconception to fall into the vernacular, it cannot be denied that logic and philosophy stand to lose an important conceptual label should the meaning of BTQ become diluted to the point that we must constantly distinguish between the traditional usage and the erroneous “modern” usage. This is why we fight.”
BTW, you got away with “lead to the great depression” because it can be read either way, though I suspect you meant “led”.
Thanks for the lesson, Tom. I’m actually the sort who is usually a stickler about usage so I appreciate the knowledge about BTQ. I’m one of those who completely confused it for “raises the question.” I’ll also change “lead” to “led.” My eyes didn’t catch the typo. :o)
One of my biggest pet peeves is the antithetical use of the phrase, “I could care less,”
Yah, that’s a good one (…could care less) too.
And, whew! we dodged the big end-of-the-world-quietly bullet, thank god (or maybe not thank, eh what?).
Quite pleased to have enlightened you about BTQ.
Cheerio,
TK
Really appreciate your post about your maturing from having religious beliefs to atheism.
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