Jo S. Wun's Blog, page 9
November 20, 2011
No Laughing Matter
Listen to these short sound clips of two different babies expressing themselves.
Baby by One
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Baby by Two
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Can you tell which one has been cleansed of original sin? Clearly, Baby One is very distressed while Baby Two is truly glad to be alive and exuberantly happy. Could that be a clue?
But wait. Baby Two's laughter doesn't sound so innocent when you listen closely. Baby One has certainly picked up on it and is distressed because Baby Two doesn't appear to realise, or care about, the consequences of remaining with original sin.
Yeah, right. What a load of codswallup. You can't tell by listening to babies whether they are still tainted with original sin! Only a fool would say that. You can't tell by any observation or interaction. They all seem, by their looks and behaviour, the epitome of innocence. There's no way to tell, from babies, if original sin even exists.
But don't let that fool you. I know a man, who knows a man, who knows a woman, who knows a man who says he has it on good authority that another man committed suicide to redeem us all from our sins. And nobody would commit suicide to redeem people from something that doesn't exist, so it must be true. And besides, the suicide wasn't just an ordinary man, he was a god, so it must be doubly true. What's more, being only one third of a god but at the same time a whole god (a bit like a borg mind?), it must be multifariously true.
Suicide? Well, yes. The Catholic Encyclopedia says, "suicide is the act of one who causes his own death, either by positively destroying his own life, as by inflicting on himself a mortal wound or injury, or by omitting to do what is necessary to escape death...". [My emphasis]
But isn't suicide a sin? Well, again yes. But fortunately for our suicide, there is a 'get out' clause. Apparently suicide is not a sin if done with divine consent, and, obviously, being a third of a god and the whole god at the same time, consent was not an issue.
What I have yet to figure out is why we are still told we are born with the stain of original sin if our sins were all forgiven as a result of the suicide. It all gets rather confusing, what with the buy-one-get-two-free nature of this god, the hand-me-down sins, and the suicide which only lasted a day or two. I get the feeling it's meant to be confusing.
(Grown Up) Baby by Three
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Here's an apposite quote from an anonymous Year 10 student in the UK: "Religion? — it's just organised panic in the face of death!"
And finally, in the interests of honesty and openness, I suppose I should point out that I have no idea if any of the babies, whose voices are reproduced here, have been subjected to any religious rituals.
Credits:
The unedited baby crying soundclip, recorded by Mike Koenig, is available at SoundBible.com.
The unedited baby laughing soundclip is available from either Audio4Fun.com, where it is credited as being submitted by SharpShuter, or from Make4Fun, where it is credited as being created by Jud Steven.
The unedited maniacal laugh soundclip is available from Freesound.org where it is credited to acekasbo.
November 19, 2011
Repeat After Me: "I Don't Know"
Someone close to me often gets quite irritated when I answer a question with "I don't know." I have to explain that if I don't know something then that's the only honest answer I can give.
It got me thinking about why "I don't know" is regarded as a bad answer. I don't know if it's still the same, but when I was at school, knowing stuff was very important. Often, knowing stuff was more important than understanding it. As long as you could trot out the correct answer then everyone was happy, and you could feel proud because you knew! And the shame of not knowing was rewarded with the wearing of, albeit imaginary, a dunce's hat.
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The teachers used the 'in group' - 'out group' thing as emotional blackmail to get students to cram all those bits of information into their heads. If you knew, you were 'in', if you didn't you were 'out'.
Later on, a similar thing applied to peer status. If you knew the right cool words, if you knew what was hot and what was not, then you were part of the in-crowd. Not knowing that stuff relegated you to the ranks of the nerds, the lamers, the losers. You looked up to people who knew stuff, and tried to show you knew stuff too, so 'lesser mortals' would look up to you.
The leader of the pack never said "I don't know". That would mean losing face. Leaders are supposed to know. But what to do if you don't know? Make something up, of course! Make it sound like you do know. It doesn't matter if what you say is bullshit as long as you sound like you know what you're talking about.
How many leaders, or would-be-leaders, can you think of who would answer "I don't know"? None that I can think of in the field of politics, or religion for that matter. Ah, yes. Theologians. They really take the biscuit (if not the piss) when it comes to knowing the unknowable. First they magic knowledge into existence like a rabbit out of a top hat, then they defend it with the certainty of 'one who knows'..
These days, I find it difficult to take seriously, or trust, people who are absolutely certain about the knowledge they posses. If history teaches us anything, then it is surely that we are often wrong about what we think we know. Knowledge is provisional.
I'll concede that, "I don't know," on its own is a bit sad, but "I don't know but I'm going to find out," now that's the mother of invention.
Cosmik Debris by Frank Zappa
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Apostrophe (') available from Amazon UK
November 18, 2011
November 17, 2011
Another Kind Of Remembrance
Last week I posted a tribute to those who have given their lives for a better world. I thought long and hard about what words I would use because the last thing I wanted to do was glorify wars, or even the participation in them. There is no glory in war. Bravery, yes. Glory, no.
The 11th of November is specifically set aside to remember the members of the armed forces who died in the line of duty. And I am grateful to those members of the armed forces whose sacrifice means I live in relative freedom and peace. However, today I am thinking of all the other people whose lives were cut short as a consequence of war.
Yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of the day that Lieutenant William Calley, Junior faced a court martial for directing his platoon in the massacre of at least 400 unarmed peasants in the Vietnamese village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. Although it was an infamous event, what do I really know about those people who were killed? Practically nothing. Were they 'innocent'? I don't know. But it seems likely that they were ordinary people just trying to live their lives as best they could, caring for their children and their elderly. More concerned with day to day survival than with any political ideology. Just trying to survive a war they probably didn't want, much less need. Today I am remembering them.
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This isn't about politics. It's irrelevant which 'side' did the killing, or who was fighting for freedom and who were the oppressors. It's not about patriotism, or any ideology. It's about remembering the individual people in this picture, and millions of other individuals, who did not give their lives in war, but had them taken.
November 16, 2011
November 15, 2011
A Death In Someone's Family
Today has been a strange day. I've spent a lot of it thinking about this man.
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I don't share his taste in sunglasses, but I like some of what he said. In particular, these words:
"There's something deeper than making money off stuff. Being a part of creating stuff for the universe is awesome."
Ilya Zhitomirskiy was one of the co-founders of Diaspora*, the social network which, in his words, won't "tell you that sharing and privacy are mutually exclusive."
He died at the weekend. He was 22 years old. Some reports are suggesting he took his own life.
His last public post on Diaspora*, at 01:10 UTC on 7 Nov, was a re-share of this animated gif, originally posted by someone else.
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I joined Diaspora* only a couple of weeks ago, and despite knowing practically nothing about him, apart from seeing his public posts, his death has affected me much more than it 'should'. Maybe that's an indication of whatever it is that makes Diaspora* unique.
November 14, 2011
Ooooh, He's Got His Mother's Eyes
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I received an email the other day which consisted of a lot of old photos of famous people, including the one above. I'm not very good at estimating ages, but I'd guess this cute little boy was about a year old at the time. Taking a closer look at him, it occurred to me that I wouldn't have had a clue about his identity if the email hadn't included a caption over the photo. And, being rather skeptical about the veracity of the content of such emails, off I scooted to see what I could find via DuckDuckGo.
Online sources confirmed the caption, and also provided photos of the same boy as he grew to adulthood. Here's one of him, at what? About ten?
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Any idea about who it is yet? The photographs are obviously quite old, definitely taken before colour photography became ubiquitous. In the one above, he looks like he's been pulled away from something he was enjoying, had his hair quickly, but not very well, brushed, and has been told to stand in front of the camera:
"Oh mum! Do I really have to?"
"Lawks a mercy! Will you just stand still for a moment! And wipe that silly grin off your face!"
Here he is again, all grown up and looking quite debonnaire in his button-down collar, and with a wistful look in his eye.
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A scientist perhaps? Or a teacher? Maybe a Doctor of medicine? An inventor? A Nobel prize winner? Have you guessed it yet?
Without the 'trademark' moustache, he doesn't look so very evil, until you know who he is. These are pictures of Adolf Hitler. But I'm wondering if my descriptions of the photos influenced how you thought about them. Assuming you hadn't seen them before, and were unaware of the subject's identity, did you think "there's an evil looking specimen!"
Just curious.
November 13, 2011
Pedantic Deity
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Oh silly me! Everyone knows that stuff in Genesis was just a metaphor! Well, they have done ever since it became a metaphor, anyway.
God Shuffled His Feet by Crash Test Dummies
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If you are interested in how various peoples have explained their existence to their children, you might like Creation Stories from around the World.
Crash Test Dummies' music available from Amazon UK
November 12, 2011
Autumn Leaf
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I am but one of countless leaves
Who've fallen from the tree
We wear our hearts upon our sleeves
A golden potpourri
A final flash of colours bright
Before I fade to gray
I give you back some of the light
Which fed me on my way
So be not sad to see me perish
No, do not mourn for me
Life's cycle we should always cherish
It's nature's poetry
~:~
I first saw this photograph, by Birch Wind, on Diaspora*, and she was kind enough to let me reproduce it here. I like it because it achieves, naturally, the same affect which some digitally manipulated photos seek to achieve by the removal of colour from the background. It inspired me to write the poem.
Birch has entered her photo into a competition at photobucket (she's known as MereMoonGirl there). If you like it, you can vote for it here
November 10, 2011
Remember To Pause For Thought Today
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Original photo by Janwo (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
I count myself very fortunate that, unlike those who I am thinking of today, I have never been put in the position where I had to decide whether to risk my life in war.
War is always a tragedy, no matter what the outcome.
Here's Marlene Dietrich singing a poignant version of Pete Seeger's song.
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Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Marlene Dietrich
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