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"A thought crushed my mind..."

I have often said how I don't like dreams. I don't think dreams do anything but keep your mind busy while you sleep. I just get annoyed by the emotional response from dreams. I very rarely have nightmares. Most of my dreams are dumb situations that would not happen, but more realistic.

I did have a very weird dream the evening of February 16, 2011. I had a dream that I haven't spoke with my mother in a long time. In the dream it was like I just haven't called her in that time and I just remembered. I attempted calling phone numbers from my childhood to contact her, and even remembered the numbers correctly. I then talked to my siblings to find a way to contact my mother, but all of us were in the same situation of not talking to her and no way to talk to her. After that i woke up. I wasn't upset or angry when i awoke, but more confused. I did think i need to call her and the next realized she had died many years ago.

I don't recall have any dreams about my mother in many years. The weirdest part i didn't realize till the next day. February 17, 2011, the morning that I woke up after the dream, was exactly 16 year anniversary of my mothers death. I didn't really think about the anniversary before that day so how did my mind know? Does my sub conscious have its own calendar? Or could it be more of a supernatural element? In the Sixth Sense the spirits can relate feelings and thoughts to the living while they are sleeping. Could this be an example of that? My mother telling me to contact her? But she would know there isn't a way to do that. Is she a restless spirit that has waited 16 years to finally make contact? Most likely it is all just a strange coincident.

exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life...

I guess a few months back the pope had some negative words to say about atheism. It was more aimed at extreme atheist. But i am not sure how you can be more extreme atheist than a casual atheist. Maybe extreme ones are move vocal. Extreme religious people are louder than casual religious people. The pope even explained that the holocaust happened because of atheism.

Clearly people need god to give them morals. I have always been please with most of the morals from christianity. But for people to think that without god and/or religion people will live in anarchy is really extreme. It makes me think about the story of Cain and Abel. They didn't have a bible for reference. So when Cain murdered Abel why was he blamed when he didn't know any better? There was no commandments to inform them not to kill. But the truth is that we know that they knew better. That is because there are certain moral basics that most people won't debate.

I suppose you could say that atheists pick and choose their morals more than religious people do. That is because atheists don't have a book full of guidelines to follow. But i suppose if the rule book was very clear there wouldn't many different denominations of christianity. So i would say that even christians can pick and choose their morals too. I would also argue that someone picking their morals versus having them pushed upon them. When someone choses the moral i think they will be much more willing to follow it. Remember that the culture makes a big difference on morals. Think about an interracial relationship in 50's compared to one today. Problem with religions is they make rules that come from god, but clearly the rule isn't relative at a later time. But at that point it is too late. Religion is built on the fact that god can't be wrong. Anything that the pope says is an instant rule, because he has his ear to god. A great example is that catholics aren't allowed to use contraceptives, because of course that would be playing god. So the pill and condoms are evil. Now as missionaries in africa are telling people the same thing. Africa is a place that is full of AIDS and people that can't be fed. If there is anywhere that should use contraceptives it is africa. I understand the hard stance on contraceptives is because of the thought that they would led to people to think there is no ill effect to engaging in sex with anyone and everyone. But the fact that a married couple isn't allowed to use condoms when one of the couple has AIDS is stupid. That couple could become pregnant with a child that will most likely have AIDS too. But the problem is that the pope didn't think it completely through, and again god can't be wrong. God being wrong would undo everything about religion.

"As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a reductive vision of the person and his destiny." Pope Benedict

Read more at: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/pope-benedicts-attack-on-atheism/

Science above all else...

Over lunch today I was discussing time travel. Why are nerds so obsessed with time travel, I'm not sure. I know this conversation was started because of Star Trek. I am not sure there is another show that isn't based on time travel that uses it so much. I have always put too much thought into time travel. I find it to be a very interesting topic. So many ideas about paradoxes, alternate futures, and time-space continuum.

I do think if that time travel would be a scientific discovery that could easily disprove the existence of god. So many questions could be answered just from observing the past. We could learn so very much. We could see if jesus was a real person. We could see how old the human race really is. We could get the facts about noah's ark. We could witness moses wondering the desert unwilling to ask for directions.

I am trying not to share my many thoughts about time travel and the possibility of it actual happening because this blog isn't about that. But i do wonder what other scientific breakthroughs would question christianity. Maybe just discovering time travel would kill god. I would imagine that god would never allow man to travel through time. God wouldn't let man play god, right? Like god would never let man create life too. Oh wait that was man stopping man from cloning, not god. I guess god was busy. I did hear that god was really into reality tv.

To each their own...

I was watching old episodes of Penn Point[http://revision3.com/pennpoint] on my Zune. I find myself enjoying a lot of things that Penn does because he seems to be very honest. I was enjoying the show[http://revision3.com/pennpoint/mollynorris] were Penn talks about the cartoonist that went into hiding by the suggestion of the FBI because she was going to do "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day". I understand that Muslims think it is wrong to draw Mohammed in any way, shape, or form. I can respect that it is very important to them. But i never gave the Molly Norris situation much more thought than that. In the episode Penn made a great point. Their rule about drawing Mohammed is just that. THEIR rule. I, like Penn, don't consume drugs or alcohol. But that was a choice that i made long ago. It is not something that i make everyone around me obey. So Muslims have every right to be upset with people within their same group, in this case religion, breaking the rule. When people start thinking other people have to follow their guidelines that are not laws it causes problems. I think that mode of thought can be applied to almost anything.

It is shame that poor Molly Norris had to change her identity. I hope she is doing well, where ever she may be.

Documentary Fooled...

I spend a lot of time searching for interesting movies and shows on Netflix instant queue. I am a sucker for the Sci-Fi and documentaries. The other day I found "Dinosaurs or Dragons?" and it sounded interesting. It has been a theory for science that bones of dinosaurs inspired the existence of dragons all over the world. I started watching the documentary one evening as my wife tried to sleep on the couch beside me. I thought the video would just compare how dinosaurs helped many cultures to create dragons. It was mentioning the possible existence that some remote areas of the world believe these creatures still exist. Which was a little odd for it to bring up. Then it started discussing Evolution vs Creation. At first i thought they were just covering all bases, but i quickly learned that it was just a documentary for creation riding on the coat tails of a dragon documentary. I realized as i stopped the video that there was a subtitle of "Evolution or Creation" on the bottom of the image of the box that i didn't notice before. I could watch a documentary on creation, but i felt suckered into watching it. There also wasn't any interviews from true evolutionists. It seemed like a one sided argument. Such a shame that creationist try to hide their true intent behind a talk about dinosaurs and dragons. Most of the documentary is based on the fact that Carbon dating isn't correct. I am not a scientist, but I could understand if there was a problem with carbon dating. Science is built on theories that are tried and tested over and over before becoming a law. But all the discussions on the problems of carbon dating would mean that their has to be some scientific journals talking about it. After a quick google search I just found three pages of creationist websites articles about it. Thus telling me that it is a creationists thought up science. I suppose some can think it is a conspiracy by evolutionists, but that is extreme. I won't get into the possibilities of it, but i am more disappointed in the way the documentary was presented.

Here is the documentary http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Dinosaurs-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B0033HKDX6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1294154583&sr=1-1

Christmas Or Xmas?

I have long felt that Christmas has become an American Holiday more than a Christian holiday for many many years. I understand it is called CHRISTmas, but it has moved from just celebrating the birth of Jesus to a winter celebration in America, and probably most of the world.

There have been many celebrations in and around winter solstice. Hanukkah, The Saturnalia, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, Brumalia, and Yule to name a few. The Winter Solstice is the mark when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun. It is suppose mark that the worst of winter is over. Most of the celebrations that occur at this time seem to be linked to fertility for the new year. Growing of crops, birth of cattle, etc. Feast were very common for Europe during this time, because livestock was slaughtered so they wouldn't have to be fed during winter because lack of grain. It was the only time of year that there was a large supply of fresh meat. Also most wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking.

Christianity didn't celebrate Christmas till the fourth century. Till that time Easter was the main holiday for Christians. In the fourth century church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Pope Julius I chose December 25 because the bible doesn't mention the date for Jesus' birth. Many people believe Jesus was born in spring because shepherd wouldn't be herding in the middle of winter. It was thought that December 25 was chosen to make it easier to adopt the traditions of Saturnalia (A Roman holiday to honor Saturn the god of agriculture). By having Christmas at the same time as many other winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be embraced.

When the United States was Christmas was not a national holiday. Actually Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, which is the first Christmas under the U.S. Constitution (The Constitution was created September 17, 1787, but needed to be ratified by nine states to completed. New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify the Constitution on June 21, 1788 after which Congress chose to start operations under the new Constitution on March 4, 1789). Christmas wasn't made an official holiday till June 26, 1870 (This fact should point out that the founding father were not Christian despite popular belief, but that is for another post).