Religion Vs Science: Don’t Shoot Me Yet, Please

Sometimes I feel like there are two personalities rattling around in my brain. One loves space and planets and learning about how the Earth was formed and what the heck the lithosphere is, the other loves God and thinks the world revolves around Him, that everything I have gained is because of Him. But so many people seem to think religion and science can’t live in the same house. You have the creationists verses the evolutionists, the scientists verses the church members, and so on. There are a ton of examples.

But why can’t God be the meaning behind the Earth’s place in our solar system while science explains and studies logically what’s going on to make our Earth rotate around the Sun?

God is the reason I wake up in the morning. My faith in him gives me an optimism I wouldn’t have otherwise. Science tells me, logically, that I sleep at night because of my body’s functions and processes. Science tells me that I wake up and am able to process what I see, hear, feel, and smell because of other various processes. But that doesn’t change the fact that, as far as my meaning in life is concerned, God is at the end of my path in life regardless. All I do is to try and find my meaning. I feel God gave me the gift of writing, so I pursue that. Science might tell me that I just have a higher proficiency in the side of my brain that processes words and is responsible for creativity. Nothing more. But that doesn’t give that process meaning. It just explains it logically, by what we can study and define.

So I think it should be religion and science, a separation of both but still coexisting within a sort of system. Sort of like the separation of church and state. By allowing the state to be the lawkeepers, it gives individuals a broader religious freedom. By allowing logic to be defined by science, it gives me the right to pursue meaning through God and my faith, as I choose, not as science logically dictates. Because having an explanation doesn’t give it value any more than, to some people, God is worth having faith in. And that’s perfectly okay. So long as you give me room to be who I want to be.

Sorry, this has been on my mind since yesterday and I wanted to get it out here. You can shoot me now if you want; I promise you won’t get too many more religious posts here.

What do you think about science and religion? Please be aware that any rude or otherwise derogatory comments will never be approved and will be deleted.

Random Thoughts: Is Our Attention Too Divided by the Internet?

Even the cat can't resist checking its email every two seconds.

So I tend to spend a lot of time on my iPhone or on my laptop. Who doesn’t have a phone nowadays that connects to the internet, or a tablet or something along those lines? While all of those devices are brilliant and proof of our innovation and creativity, I’ve noticed I have a strange compulsive addiction to checking my phone. Email messages, online account inboxes, things I know are empty or haven’t changed in the last five minutes since the last time I checked.

I’m not the only one. Some people check Facebook religiously while others tweet what they had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No, really.

Okay, Elisa, what are you trying to get at? Well, when I write, I had a hard time focusing on my writing. Instead, I keep rejecting the urge to open up a new tab in Google Chrome and re-checking my deviantART messages (that I never answer at that moment anyway, just check on like some weirdo). As a result, writing takes twice as long compared to when I write things down in a notebook.

I wrote a short story about a gryphon the other day. It’s decent and it might end up in my mythological creatures collection, Beings of Myth and Fancy, but we’ll see. Anyway, I was trying to type it out in One Note when I finally decided to say screw it and write it out by hand. It took me thirty minutes to write — and then transcribe — two thousands words. Not bad, eh? So I’m going to experiment for a while with this. Test turning off the internet and then writing, writing with the internet on but closing all the browsing windows. Maybe I can get my stamina back up to the point where it’s faster to type out my work again. Or maybe hand writing that story was a fluke. Who knows.

What do you think? Does the internet help all the spiffy iPhones and Androids and mobile devices in general enhance how distracted we are? Is this a good or bad thing for productivity?

Thoughts on Existence and Being True to Yourself

Not in the, “is there life on Mars?” type thoughts on existence, but more so the, “who are we and what does it mean to be?” type. I know there’s a philosophical term out there for it, but I’m sorry to say I don’t know what it is.

Let me back up and explain where I’m coming from. Recently I realized that I do a lot of people pleasing. Okay, it’s not necessarily a new realization, but more so the same realization from a different perspective, if that makes sense. By people pleasing I mean I shove my emotions down and do things for people I don’t want want to (this is obviously outside of any work relationship; that’s a different thing). I allow people to say things I find rude or demeaning because I want to seem like the good friend or the good person. Instead, all I end up doing is taking on a different face when what I really want to do is stop talking to those people all together.

This sparked the question in my mind about existence.

Also, I think I’m looking at the term existence through a social lens, as in what does it mean to exist to an individual or to others in a group? Is that existence supposed to be conflicted, one where you always give your ideas and  stick up for them even when no one wants to hear them (the Christian always spewing Bible verses comes to mind here)? Or is it some combination of silence and conflict?

I guess at this point, my own conclusion is that I need to be true to myself but also be careful with who I befriend. If it’s apparent someone likes to demean and sees no issue with it, then I shouldn’t really be around that person. It’s not that I want to hear people kiss my ass all day long, but I don’t want people to tear into my ass all day long, either.

Does any of this make sense? Or am I just being weird? Either way, if that was tl;dr, have a happy Friday.

PS: I have a new favorite quote. It’s from Roy, the awesome guy in Blade Runner. The book it’s based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (which I’ve only gotten halfway through, sadly) really does question existence, and what it means to be, in a very real sense. But here’s the quote:

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Thoughts on College General Ed Classes

College: It's like winning a four-year marathon. Or something.

I think everyone hates general ed in college. That goes without saying. This isn’t a post about how much I hate general ed and me whining about how it’s more work than necessary. No. I’m willing to take the classes, willing to do the work (even though math’s quite the deathly subject).

What bothers me is the amount of repetition. Here in the US, you take the same or similar classes from middle school through high school. I took algebra in eight grade, then took it again my first year of high school. Then geometry, then algebra two. Okay, so I’m pretty good on math. Took chemistry in high school, too (and aced it, to my delight). I even took two years of Japanese because I was sick of Spanish. So tell me why, if I’m a set English major, I need to take college level algebra (basically pre-calculus). Tell me why I have to have two language courses (probably Spanish or French). Tell me why I need to take more labs or another biology class, if, again, I’m a determined English major.

Why are these classes required? I guess the repetition is frustrating because I don’t feel like I’m learning anything new. To spend two years on general ed and then two years on whatever second level English classes I need to take to fulfill my major just frustrates me. I want more English classes, if that makes sense. Less math, less language, less science that I already know. Give me more unique classes instead of this repetitive near-identical stuff that makes me forget why I ever bothered to go.

Maybe what I’m really trying to ask is why are these classes so important? To round me out as a human being? To make sure the US still has kids who know something about math and science? I know for a lot of people that’s the time they take to figure out what majors they really want. That’s awesome, power to them. But what about people like me? I know my major, I want to spend as much time involved in that major as possible, and forcing me to take general ed that I will never need just because is very frustrating and a waste of money.

Thoughts? Is general ed a good idea, or can it get in the way? What’s the point of all the repetition? Does it even help?