Just Today's Thoughts

So, I was at work today, and I was walking with a co-worker to take care of an issue. As we were making the walk from Plaster to Legget-Platt we were engaging in small talk about classes and finals. My partner brought up the subject of his final in a philosophy class, and how it was writing intensive. Without much prompting from me he said that, basically, the subject of the final will be a two thousand word argument proving or disproving the existence of God. I was kind of shocked that he even mentioned this to me because I assumed that he knew of my belief in Christ, but perhaps he did not. Anyway, I used the opportunity to see what his perspective was on the matter. Apparently, he is a deist, at least that is what he claimed at the time. He said that he believed there was a god, but not the “Christian God.” Basically, he said god does not interact with creation, but instead god is like a watchmaker who made everything and then sat back to watch everything unfold. Also, he said the only reason he thought a god existed was to justify everything human knowledge has not understood thus far. Honestly, I do not know if he was trying to convince me of anything, or just simply stating his opinion. Personally, I have an interest in hearing what people think about God and existence. Philosophy is a topic I find very interesting indeed. However, it seems that most of the time people are trying to convince me that their perspective is the correct one when it comes to such topics. I feel that this is not exactly the right way to go about such conversations. I mean, if someone has an opinion I am willing to listen, but that doesn’t automatically insinuate that I will concur. I believe for the most part I just listen without much input, and this is mistaken a lot for agreement. I like to examine what people say, and see if I can understand where they are coming from on the issue. Usually, I will give a reply on the subject if I have a disagreement, but I did not today. This makes me wonder, how much do people think I try to force my views upon them? This is kind of an interesting situation because it begs the question, “why is it that whenever a Christian expresses their views they are, as some would say, ‘shoving religion in people’s faces’?” Personally, I do not think I can really talk about the deep issues of life without talking about God, because that is who I am. I mean, if someone believes a certain way everything they do and say reflects that belief. I believe it is completely possible for two people to have completely different views, and respect each other even though they disagree. Perhaps, this is wrong though. The Bible does present the idea that darkness and light have no communion together. I guess, it goes back to spiritual warfare. All I know is that when such topics come up I want to seek after the truth, and not simply try and convince someone I am right. I have said before that I do not believe anyone knows everything, but I still think that there is an absolute truth that gives foundation to everything. My hope and faith is that the foundation is Christ.

Today

Well, today was a pretty laid back day. I did not really do too much, or at least it feels that way. I mean, I went to class and work, but even though both classes had lectures it seemed like everything went by quickly. After, class I went out to the Oval to find that they were finally doing the free food I had been anticipating since I saw the tent propped up earlier this week. There was potato chips, pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, and barbeque chicken. A pretty nice lunch, especially since I was just planning on getting a muffin with some juice to eat. Though, I only had the chicken and pasta salad because I choose not to eat pork, and the potato chips were not all that appealing for me today. Anyway, to my surprise I met up with some friends that I never see on campus except at work or bible study. It was a good time of relaxing, though at that time it was cloudy and windy causing it to be slightly chilly outside. Another perk to the little outing was that there was a Frisbee decorating booth as well as someone making balloon animals. I definitely took advantage of the Frisbee creation opportunity, and found it pretty enjoyable. Apparently, there was tie-dye t-shirt making at the last Oval gathering at the beginning of the school year, but I missed that because I did not know about it at the time. Anyway, after the free food I had to go to work, but fortunately there were not many tasks that needed to be done, and the tasks that I did do went by quickly.

So, the finish of the last full week of classes has come, and I still have a decent amount of work to do for my other classes. However, I am confident that next week will not be all that bad as long as I get through my tests alright. Really, what I want to do is just take a break from school this weekend, but I know that would be a really bad idea. Thus, the nose must go to the grindstone. At least after finals I will have some more free time, and not have to worry about deadlines until summer classes begin. Also, I will be working more, so I will earn more cash to put back for fall semester. Even though I will be working I look forward to the intersession because I would rather work more, and not have the pressure of doing assignments. Not to mention I will be able to finish playing final fantasy, since because of the increased workload in my math classes I have not been able to play more than an hour a week. To be honest, I really want to finish it this weekend, but I must resist the temptation and be diligent to accomplish my responsibilities that I happen to be paying to have. Who knows, maybe I will get a chance to wield my controller for at least a couple of hours this weekend.

Dark Matters (PS)

Once again I went in search for a subject I find interesting to blog about this week, and what I came up with was dark matter. The first article I came across was about a research project being done in Italy that is seeking to produce results of the exotic particles that are claimed to be the majority of the substance of the universe. As of yet there has not been anything that confirms the existence of these particles, but the article explained why there was some hope of getting positive results. After, reading through the piece I was compelled to look for more information on dark matter. What I found was pretty interesting. Apparently, in the realm of the universe as we know it there exist phenomena that are unexplained by what we have observed. Specifically, the speed at which stars in galaxies rotate around the galaxy is greater than should be possible for the amount of mass that is measured in the galaxy. In physics, the mass of an object exerts a force called gravity on the objects around it. This force becomes less as the distance between the two objects increases. Therefore, stars at the edge of a galaxy have less gravity acting on them than inner stars. Well, according to measured speeds of these stars’ orbits they should not be able to stay within the gravitational pull of the galaxy. That is, there is not enough mass in the galaxy to create a gravitational force strong enough to hold them at the speeds at which these stars travel. Thus, scientists believe there is a component that has not been accounted for called dark matter that surrounds the galaxies. What exactly is dark matter? Yeah, no body knows what it is. There are two main ideas which boil down into the acronyms MACHO and WIMP. I gleaned this information off of a fairly easy-to-read article. Basically, a MACHO can be considered something like a black whole or a brown dwarf, which is a ball of hydrogen gas that did not have enough mass to cause the nuclear reaction to become a star (i.e. the planet Jupiter). One cannot really see either of these if they are outside a galaxy, but they can be detected using some fancy observations and calculations using Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which proposed that light bends around super massive objects. In fact, I watched an hour long video about a guy discussing this possibility of dark matter. Ultimately, the observations of MACHOs has concluded that there are simply not enough of them to make up the entire mass needed to justify the observations of the “missing mass.” Thus, scientists are now looking for WIMPs as the remaining ingredient. Basically, a WIMP is a particle that does not react with matter very often, but according to the theory they are everywhere moving through everything. Because they only occasionally interact with known matter they are very hard to measure, and impossible to see. Basically, the research in the first article and particle smashing are the types of experiments being used to discover what exactly these dark matter particles are. I found a nice article that simplifies a lot of this information, and it is kind of funny as well. Personally, I am just waiting for someone to come along with an accidental experiment that blows all of the observations out of the water, and everybody scratches their heads saying, “huh?”

Weekly Adventure

This week is coming to an end and I do not really know what to blog about. Thus, I thought I would relate one of the events that occurred during this week. This particular occurrence happened on Monday. I was working in the shop at around four-fifty in the afternoon when I got a call from one the kids in the youth group I help lead. Basically, they wanted to know if I could take them and a couple of the other kids “exploring.” By exploring I mean walking through the storm tunnels under Joplin around the Main Street area. Well, I am always up for new things, most of the time, and I told them that after I got off of work at five I would come and pick them up. They were hanging out at the church all by themselves for whatever reason, and I had to go over there to get them. After loading up we headed down Main Street to around Fifth Street where the entrance was to be found in an alley behind the first row of buildings. After parking, the kids showed me where exactly the opening was, and it looked like at one time the area had been fenced off, but someone had clipped the fence and rolled it back. Anyway, we jumped down into the place where the entrance was, and proceeded into the gaping dark hole. For the most part the tunnel was pretty clean and dry, but it became cramped as soon as we were inside. Well, at least for me being six foot it was pretty hindering. Thus, I was doubled over for the first few minutes or so, but the passage eventually widened and the ceiling rose to the point in which I could stand up straight. I thought it would continue at the same dimensions for the rest of the way through, unfortunately, I was wrong. After about another ten minutes the tunnel size started to decrease, and remained the same for most of the rest of the way. The entire time we were traveling two of the kids were pretty nervous because they happened to be girls, but for the most part I think they did pretty well. Every now and then we would hear the scraping and scurrying of animals, but we never saw any. At one point we came across a fairly large object some distance from us in which we could not perceive what it was exactly. We thought it could have been an animal because the kids thought they saw it move. I thought it was a guy sleeping in a blanket at first, and proceeded to call out to them. However, there was no noise or response being made. So, I had to go ahead of everyone and see what it was in order for us to keep moving. As I got closer I realized it was a huge log sitting off to the side of the tunnel. This was really kind of funny at the time because we had sat for a good fifteen minutes discussing whether we should continue forward for fear that it was some wild beast that would maim us all. Eventually, after an hour and a half we made it through to the end. Indeed, it was a pretty interesting time.

The Aliens are Coming! (PS)

Life on other planets, does it exist? I do not know, and really am not very focused on the possibility. However, when I came across an article featuring Stephen Hawking warning if life does exist elsewhere in the universe humans should be a little worried, I thought it would be an interesting topic to blog about. Basically, Dr. Hawking was portraying aliens to be similar to humans in their way of thinking of gathering resources. He likened any possible encounter with aliens to Christopher Columbus coming to the “New World.” Except this time, the natives are everything on Earth. I mean that could make sense assuming that these aliens moved in a similar development of society. However, I am not completely convinced of this view (or with the existence of aliens.) Anyway, if aliens have achieved a level of ability that would give them the capability to travel throughout the universe I think that they would have matured along with their technology. This is because having such power means the destructive abilities of such a race would have been first turned upon themselves. That is of course assuming, like Dr. Hawking, that their social development would be like the history of man. The only reason weapons of mass destruction are made is to wage war upon our own race, thus any advanced aliens would have had to go through a stage of extremely destructive warfare, and after such a war in which neither side would have emerged as the victor there would probably be a maturing in society towards a peaceful way of living together. Thus, through peaceful efforts they would achieve their super-advanced status. Hence, instead of exploring space in a nomadic fashion looking for resources, as Dr. Hawking explains in the TV show Into the Universe, the aliens would have learned to be good stewards of their world, and would explore space for more civil reasons. A couple of these motives for space travel could be seeking other life to commune with, cultivating new life on planets showing promising signs, and the exhilaration of exploration. I mean, “To go where no ‘alien’ has gone before.”

I found it interesting that an earlier article talks about Dr. Hawking giving another opinion about life in the universe. Essentially, he was saying that if life does exist elsewhere in the universe most likely it is primitive. To be more exact, he was saying that primitive life is more abundant than intelligent, because such is the example we perceive here on Earth. Of course, I do not really think it matters too much. The thing about any theories of extraterrestrial life is they cannot be taken much further from the theory stage at this point in time.

If you want to know more about Stephen Hawking he has an official website. I checked it out because of my interest of finding out more of his ideas, and there was some interesting information. However, for the most part I think Dr. Hawking and I have some different perspectives on the fundamental workings of the universe. Though, he certainly has better credentials and experience than myself, but even so I think it is possible to go an entire lifetime asking and answering the wrong questions.

Wildlife

If I had the ability and the free time, do you know what I would do? I would go out on a walk-about. That’s right I would take a lesson from Dundee. I have always wanted to go into the forest and live out in nature for a while or for good, which ever one suits me at the time. I think I first started thinking about this when I was in high school. At the time though I just wanted to escape from reality, I did not like the world or anyone in it, so, I thought it would be good to live away from everything. Of course, I never really built up the courage to do such a thing. I mean, I had crush at the time, and then there was the idea of having to find and cook my own food. I think the latter is probably what deterred me the most, because I was pretty lazy back then. (Though, I still get lazy these days too.) Also, another reason for my desire to live in the wild at that time was I wanted to experience some pretty fantastic adventures. By adventures I mean, the kind of quests that are displayed in the world of fantasy. For example, I would daydream of finding a forgotten place of old with hidden mysteries waiting to be discovered, and possibly meeting an adventurous gal that I could fall head-over-heels for. Alas, nothing ever came of those fancies accept procrastination.

When I came to know the Lord, I still dreamed of living in nature. I would say, probably even more so than before. This was because, I desired to escape from what I believed was a world without hope. I thought I should just live alone and wait for the Lord’s return because I believed there was nothing that could be done for this world to steer people away from the path of destruction they walked. I was pretty pessimistic. Fortunately, I know that is not true because even one person coming to know Christ is enough to make the world better. Really, I would say that was the reason I did not abandon society, because of the command to live among people to be salt and light.

These days I would like to go out into nature for a short while and live. Mostly, I think of Jesus fasting for forty days and nights as my inspiration for this. I would be fasting from the world more than from food. Though, I guess in a way I would be fasting from the foods of society. However, I mostly would want to get a way to focus myself on God and grow deeper in Him. Also, I would like to foster a discipline of going out and appreciating the daily task of survival. Yeah, I definitely feel like getting out there and making a walking stick that could double as a spear to go fishing with, that sounds really good right now. I will definitely have to do that sometime.

iPhone Prototype (PS)

I am assuming that most people have heard about the drop-of-the-year involving the lost prototype of the new iPhone. If not, I will relate some of the details. I learned from an article that the person who happened to lose the priceless piece of equipment was an Apple engineer by the name of Gray Powell. Apparently, he had gone out to a bar about twenty miles from Apple’s base site, and was testing it while having a drink. Well, according to the article I read he said, “I underestimated how good German beer is.” This was because, he happened to simply leave the prototype sitting on the table when he left. If someone has not said this yet I will, “Epic fail!” Seriously though, I feel a little sorry for the guy. I did not really check to see if Apple gave him the boot, but maybe they did and maybe they did not. Though, I think it might be safe to say that if they didn’t Mr. Powell got a pretty good reprimand, but who knows. I mean, to be trusted with a prototype of the new iPhone says a lot about his position and capability. Anyway, after Mr. Powell left someone noticed the prototype, and an unknown person claimed it was theirs. At this time no one suspected that it was a prototype because it was in a cleverly designed case made to look like an older iPhone. However, once this person found out what they had I hear they actually tried to call Apple and give it back, but because customer service, obviously, does not know anything about prototype iPhones they wrote the call off as a joke. Thus, the guy takes his offer to the people who run a site called Gizmodo, and they pay him five thousand dollars for this thing. Now, at the time they do not know if this is the real deal, but they still paid the guy a good chunk of cash. Once in their possession they dismantle the device, and play around with it for about a week before posting an article on their site. The article goes into pretty good detail about the device, and some speculations about new features. Needless to say, Apple is most definitely not happy. Another article I read talks about the police investigating on behalf of Apple to see if they have grounds to take legal action over the issue. According to the article there is a law that calls what happened theft because they knew whose property it might have been.

Personally, I think Apple has legitimate excuse to prosecute, but at the same time I do not think they should. I say this because they got the item back. Sure, I see they might have lost some edge on the competition because of the leaked information, but that happens all the time. I do not think it is worth giving someone a hard time over, especially after they gave the item back. Besides, Apple is most definitely got some hardcore publicity for free from the Gizmodo website. Really, the real culprit is the person who played the finders-keepers game, and got 5k out of the deal. Then again, I guess he did try to give the prototype back according to what I was told.