Irrupt - to burst in forcibly or suddenly

So me and Mike Sapien went skiing on Thursday and Friday.  I've not been skiing in a good 4 or 5 years, and it was Mike's first time.  I decided to give snowboarding a second try; I was a bit worried given the atrocity that was my first attempt - a day full of pain, falls, and bruises.  Well, this time ended up slightly better - I got pain, falls, and bruises, but I also actually did something that could be called snowboarding this time. 

The second day I switched to ski blades (about 3 foot long skis that are shaped slightly different than normal skis).  Mike was doing well, and we wanted to go see the rest of the mountain(s), so I decided it'd be best to not be falling all the time and be able to help him out.  So the second day was great.  First day just good.

I finished Victor Stenger's God: The Failed Hypothesis; it was good stuff, and I enjoyed his approach to the arguments.  It was disappointing in the sense that I didn't come away from the book with the feeling he'd really shown the God hypothesis as a failure.  In contrast, The God Delusion left me with exactly the feeling the title encompasses - belief in a god is delusional, and not in the antagonistic sense; in a really sad sort of way.  The last chapter of the book really just leaves me feeling something akin to pity - firstly, that people get into these situations in life that they feel some sort of belief is requisite, and secondly, that their beliefs can cloud so many parts of their life that could be so great! 

I might be a bit biased towards the book, because it was my first real bit of atheist literature, but I've re-read it twice now, and I still love the arguments and writing style.   Anyway -  that brings the book total for the year up to 19.  I know I won't be able to keep up with this average of 10 books per month that I've set, but it's nice to have that in the "new year's resolution" mentality; I don't make new year's resolutions by the way.  First, it's a pretty arbitrary point at which to be making some life changing decision.  Secondly, because it's such a cliched sort of thing to do in our culture, the resolutions are almost destined to failure, because that's the preconception.  Thirdly, I'd feel dishonest - I know my track record with keeping commitments to new things in my life; it's not that I'd feel bad when I drop off the horse, I just see it happening and decide to be truthful about it up front.

To completely change the topic - I only recently noticed what, at first glance, I perceive to be a flaw in discussing religious topics with religious people.  Being so entrenched in Christianity for so long, I have a fairly large "database" to pull from in discussions.  The flaw: I end up discussing things in their territory.  Why is this a flaw?  I'm having a theological discussion about a god I don't believe exists, so we're just discussing nonsense.  In a sense, it gives credit and credence to any of their arguments.  It's something I need to work on: attack the faulty premises, not the faulty conclusions. 

But, I would like to discuss the possible value of arguing faulty theology with a Christian.  Which leads to the question of the possible value of discussing reason in the face of the tidal wave that is faith.   I know that I'm glad someone at some point decided that pointing out flaws in my thinking was important enough to do. 

Anyway - sleep still sucks and I gotta go back to work tomorrow.  Here's hoping that things can only get better.

Comments

[Mark Horn]

Hey bro -

I wanted to make an argument against your '10 books per month' plan. I know what you mean about wanting to motivate yourself to read more, but I would worry that the point of the reading is being lost if you're concerned with quantity. Sometimes it's cool to fly through a book (especially fiction, I read Animal Farm and Alice in wonderland quickly), but something like Stenger's book (which I liked but did not understand) or The God Delusion should be read for clarity. I know you're not an idiot, and you know this. I just think if your goal is to read more, then you should just try to read more often. An arbitrary limit of books to read in a month, though, just seems to miss the point to me. Books are different sizes - would you say "I need to read 2,000 pages per month"?

Also, I wanted to add a compliment. Your writing is fun to read and clear. I can't wait to get deeper in some issues.

Mark

[Isaac]

He's got a point Moose.