Leonidas on Religion (Pt. V) - Rationalisations

I was talking about this with a very close and amazing friend of mine just yesterday, and now that I think about it, I'm surprised I haven't talked about it much before. This is the topic of religious rationalisations, and I think it's one we all need to pay a bit more attention. Especially Google Chrome, as it's telling me I spelled it wrong...

Leonidas on Religion (Pt. IV) - "Laissez-faire" to religious security blankets?

When some people are feeling shit, they turn to a friend, or a parent. Some seek solace in a psychiatrist (gotta love amazing alliteration.) Others use meditation, medicine, or things that branch out into all kinds of bizarre alternative medicine. Yet others still turn to a god. Usually this bothers me, but I'm starting to wonder: should it?

When it comes to real-life arguments

If you talked to me about something like religion, or perhaps philosophy, or LGBT, or ethics, or some issues like that, I could probably have a discussion with you for a while on it. If you were arguing against something I am for or vice versa, I'd probably be able to have a cogent debate with you for a while on the matter. But that's in text, on screen, where I have the luxury of time and the internet at my disposal. When it comes to real-life arguments, I find it so much harder.

Update - No, I haven't died.

Just been slightly inactive, is all. The reason I didn't write anything last weekend was because frankly, it was a shit weekend, I felt so bored and crap and tired et al. that I didn't really have the energy to write. And then the reason I didn't post anything til the next posting day is because I was simply completely dried up on ideas for things to talk about. So basically, I'll be writing as soon as I've something to write ;).

Obfuscation for the sake of simplification

 It's the strangest thing. Anyone who's ever tried to read law, to name just one academic subject, will realise just how impossibly, ineffably dense it is, and how little sense it makes. The same is probably true of a newcomer to linguistics texts or mechanics/engineering texts or sociology texts, and so on and so forth. But the point is, they're so complicated. Just why is that?

Unlearning

A few months ago, I walked out of my science classroom to prevent myself from actually throwing up. I wasn't ill, Dr. Clarke was doing a demonstration of the human anatomy, and I'm extremely squeamish. But on a deeper level, what was the problem there? I received input, both through sound and images, that my brain processed, and when I understood what it meant, I reacted with disgust that became nausea, and had to walk out and endure ridicule from everyone in my class to stop myself from understanding.

But you know what a better solution would be? If I could simply stop understanding.

The road to recognition

So I've been on the internet for a long time now. I was a bit of a lonely kid when I was younger. Those statements sound completely unrelated, but bear with me on this one.

Optimism

Optimism's a funny thing. Some people swim in the stuff, and succeed in finding a silver lining to every day of their lives. Others keep up the whole "We're all going to die one day" mode for pretty much their entire existence, and for every single proposition they feel the need to butt in and point out the flaws or disagree in some way. You might've noticed in the way I wrote that sentence that I don't best slide with this attitude, and that I find that kind of constant pessimism very unhealthy.

But the question is, where do you place the line between being pessimistic, and realistic?

Progress by regress

For several years now, I had formerly been at the helm of a campaign within RuneScape to try and make the game and the website more inclusive. This included the removal of words such as "gay", "lesbian" and "bisexual" from the website/game censor, which doesn't allow the words to show, and then primarily the allowing of LGBT discussion in the off-topic area of the forum.

Both spawned several threads, many supporters, many debaters, and in the end did not achieve their goals. But both were fascinating to discuss among the people with a vested interest in the topic, both for and against. And one particular point made by the against is something that really resonates throughout the whole area of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights.

I'm talking about the direction we have to move in for progress.

Work Experience

I was at a sleepover yesterday, so, this will be a day late, but I promsied a post on Work Experience :).