Here is my final unoriginal post from the original site, you may all now either fear the future posts (bear in mind that I still haven't settled on a personal format) or rejoice that I'll be coming up with new crap to BS about.

Here we go, Column #5: July 28, 1999 ...

Ok, so my last column was a departure from the norm, but I think that maybe that is what I was in need of. Much like your palette craves certain tastes and textures, and your nose longs for specific aromas, so to does your mind require a break from the day to day monotony of meaningless stimulation and a return to the primal urges that are emotions. That was pretty damn poetic if I do say so myself, but since no one is paying me for my opinion on my opinions, or even for my opinions for that matter, I guess it doesn't matter what I think. Stuff happens, things change, nothing is ever the same that is was 2 seconds ago, and all we can do is adapt to this vicious cycle called life and make the best of our situations. With that in mind, I'd like to prematurely kill the series of installments I had planned, and move on to something that has captured my fancy over the past two days, I will more than likely return to the series in my next column, I'll explain why later. However, before I dive headlong into the abyss that is the subject I have in mind, I'd like to thank everyone out there who has taken the time to visit my site, and read my articles, and generally justify my fixation with spouting off. Without you, I would not be at 200 hits on my site for the last article, nor would I have known that the overall layout of the site, creative as it may be, was hard to read and difficult to navigate. Keep coming back, because I have some big plans in the works for "Misfiring Synapses: the web site". I could go on and on about all that jazz, but what good what it do, after all, sometimes less is more. So I'll just head on over to my rightful place atop the soapbox and get to the heart of the matter, the reason we are all here...my thoughts about some subject or another (I do it all for your entertainment, really I do).

One hundred or so years ago, the world would not even admit that there might be not only a conscious, but a subconscious as well, not to mention ego, id and super ego. The reason that the collective minds of the world refused to grasp these ideas is that it was intangible, since they couldn't see it or touch it, how could it possibly exist. Next in line to be refuted were the laws of physics and the universe, and why is that? Couldn't see it, couldn't touch it, couldn't possibly be true. The concepts of these few were denied plausibility at first by their peers and then by the ignorant masses, in time they were accepted not only as theories, but also as truths, as real as the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, and the food we eat. What happened to cause this leap of faith, so to speak? Define the answer to that question and you will also know what it is that causes people to believe in the existence of a higher power(s). That's not the question I want to answer though, I'd prefer to look at how the acceptance of these few ideas (and the thousands of other finds and discoveries through the wonders of modern science) sparked a change in the human ability to concede that there might in fact be a god.

For thousands of years, mankind and its many societies have looked to god(s) and religion(s) to explain that which they did not understand. We have always known that things happen, but it wasn't until recently that we had the tools and the knowledge to reason out why these things happen. For many, having an understanding of cause and effect, the laws of the universe, and the inner workings of the human brain has been enough to discount the existence of anything greater than themselves. For others, the belief in god was more than enough to condemn the possibilities that evolution occurred, or lend any credence to the Big Bang theory. And on the seventh day, the rest of us were created. Think about that statement. You know, I've heard its easier to think when you aren't massaging the membranes that line your nasal cavities. You don't know what that means huh? Well, in lay terms, STOP PICKING YOUR NOSE! Yes you were, I saw you doing it. Not only were you picking, you were eating, that's just WRONG. For Jeezy Creezy's sake, if you have to pick, have the decency to flick or stick. Anyhow...think about that statement, what do I mean by the rest of us? Well, I'll tell you. We are all born with the ability to reason and we all possess convictions, but one will invariably interfere with the other. While some people are able to stand by their convictions and know that any other suggestion is not only out of the question, but doesn't even deserve the time it rakes to get a cursory overview of it. You know what I call those people? Close minded and stubborn. I'd wager dollars to donuts that the vast majority lies somewhere in the middle of the science versus religion battle. In my opinion the reason that the majority lives on the fence is because they seek the truth and aren't willing to say
that one is wrong and the other is right (maybe that is because just in case the pious ones are right, then we don't want to be standing at the proverbial gates only to be turned away due to their lack of open mindedness). Of course, there are those that are neither here nor there in regards to the matter and float through life doing there own thing, caring little or not at all as to whether or not there is a god and subscribe to the philosophy of "Be here now".

So the battle lines are drawn. In the red corner, we have science; and in the white corner, we have religion (aren't they quite the set of small-minded bookends?). Who's gonna get hit first? The ones of us who are willing and ready to accept a higher power, but still want to understand the natural cause of things, that's who. I've got an idea, when one or the other decides that you need to be converted, listen to them, let them explain their stance, and then ask them what it is that makes them so arrogant as to think that they are right, every one else is wrong and that's end of the story.

I do have some good news for those of you how are my neighbors on this great fence of sitting. The religious people are busy trying to figure out which god is the real one, and which ones are the imposters. When they aren't doing that, they are trying to decide how to approach this evil that we call progress and knowledge, and make it understand that it is wrong. The scientists are having trouble pulling themselves from their microscopes, keyboards, and dig sites to even bother to take a firm and vocal stance on the matter. The people whispering in the ears of, and pulling the strings attached to the appendages of the two combatants are too busy lining their pockets with their other hands and telling us as many lies as possible in one day out the other side of their mouths to care much about whether or not we believe all the rhetoric ...*cough..politicians..cough*. And then there are the layers of respective parties, lets not even go there.

Believe what you want to believe people. I respect your morals, I respect your gods, I respect your science, I respect you. All I ask is that you decide things for yourselves and don't refuse me my right to stand by my beliefs and discuss them in whatever forum I so choose (except in places where I am not allowed to discuss them, like everywhere but here, my car, and my bedroom). Take as much in as possible people and don't close your mind or your ears of to that which others have to say, that's what separates us from the other animals, the ability to reason and retain.

Don't like my position? Don't like how little I really said? Don't like me? Don't have any cigarettes? Well, email me or drop me a message on ICQ or AIM and I'll help you out, unless you are out of cigarettes, well, that's your problem.

Well, that concludes our little journey to my small, and hopefully interesting, previous foray into the world of social commentary...this was article #49 for alienated.org, so be on the lookout for #50 within a few hours...yes, it will be coming from me...why? I'm a glory hog, thats why...ingrates!