Who is to say?

This one may be a bit hard to swallow for some of you out there. I have very blunt, strong opinions, and I do not expect anyone to agree with me, to be honest. It doesn't really matter to me. I wish everyone would have an open mind, but that is not expected either. Remember, these are just opinions, I'm not trying to teach anyone anything. After 23 years of being on this planet, experiencing the things that I did, more prominently those that I experienced in the years after moving out and going to college, these are some of my core beliefs. It is a philosophical approach to life, really. However, I in no way let these beliefs stop me from living a normal, sane life, if by insane, you think of murdering and going crazy, suicide, depression, and those sorts of things. Actually, I am an easy-going person that just wants the most out of the life I have.

Moving on: I consider that, yes, there are facts, and there is also faith, belief, and other such things. Now I won't go so far as to say that what I say is fact. I could live a life based around that being true, and I could also live a life based around faith, as I have in recent years. Until I am shown evidence to the contrary though, and thus supposing there exists no supernatural, omnipresent, omniscient being, I do not expect my beliefs to really change again.

Okay, so here goes. I will mention a few ideas, and then break them down into sections. Again, don't get angry at me, I wish for nobody to be offended. Everyone has different ideas, beliefs, morals, etcetera.

• Firstly, I believe that nothing happens for any reason, there is no karma, no predetermined path in life, or destiny/fate. 
• Secondly, there is no meaning of life or specific reason for living.
• Thirdly, and lastly (for this particular post), and also the most controversial, there is no absolute truth, aside from facts. There is thus absolutely no right or wrong that everyone should or should not follow. No bad or good, either, for that matter.

Nothing happens for a reason: Everyone has the power to make choices. If not, what kind of life are we living. There is free will, and thus there really cannot be a specific path set for anyone to follow. Also, if something bad happens to you, there is no way to tell that something good will come your way and "balance it out." That is a very selfish thing to think, to be honest. Furthermore, it is better this way. You have more control over your life, you have the power to make your own decisions and shape your own life.

There is no meaning of life: I believe in evolution and the big bang theory, to be straight-forward. There is an unbelievable amount of evidence that reinforces these theories. Yes, there can still be a higher power. But at that point, it is not necessary. Anyway, that's a topic for another post. In any event, there is only happenstance and coincidence, and thus there is real reason for the existence of life at all. We very well could not be here, nor living things or atoms at all. The universe does not care.

There is no absolute truth, aside from facts: Yes, given a procedure, technique, or set of governing rules, facts can be derived. However, there is no absolute "truth." This leads to there being no right or wrong. Who is to say that murder is really bad? Murdering other humans may be good, for the universe as a whole. However, following that line of thought, there is also no good or bad for the universe, either. This is all, of course, unless we define the self-interest of every human, at least in each country separately. Then we can decide what things are good, based on what things would lead to following the self-interest of a group of people, or things bad, which would go against the majority's self-interest. Without self-interest, and more importantly, a consensus of the self-interest of groups of people, there is no absolute right or wrong.

Well that is about it for this post. I have many more things on my mind right now, but they stem from these ideas, so I will make separate posts for each later. I hope I at least made someone think about things, and that is all I really want. Writing things down is a good habit, anyway. Stay tuned for more ...

Early Morning Mind Quiz Parts 1 & 2

A couple weeks ago, Professor Rohm gave us a "quiz" first thing. It had three parts: dot the "i", solve the math problem, and write the word "stupid." I suppose for the first and last parts, there was no official correct answer. I proceeded, however, to put a dot on the dot-less i, whereas some people put a boldfaced dot literally on the line that makes the i. As for writing the word stupid, almost everyone printed the word, when the professor evidently meant to write the word in cursive. Who does that anymore? haha. Oh, and I got the math problem right, of course ;)

Just this past Monday, we were given another couple tasks first thing in the morning. The first was essentially a connect-the-dot, where each dot was a number, 1 through 60. We were to make a line from 1 to 2, then 2 to 3, 3 to 4, and so on, as quickly as we good in one minute. I was able to get to 21 the first time around, and I believe someone got to early 30-somethings, which tells me they were studying the paper before we were to begin. In any case, the professor explained to us that there were two patters on the paper, as to where the numbers were written. Apparently, all the odd numbers were written on the left side, and the evens on the right. Also, the first six numbers were in the top half, the next six at the bottom, the numbers 13-18 at the top again, etc. Then we were given a second change to see how quickly we can go through the numbers. This time I was able to go to 31, which is only a slight improvement. I got stuck for a few seconds because the number I was looking for had a line through it already, so it was hard to spot. Someone else in the class was able to get almost to 40.
The second task was a tanagram-type puzzle with 5 pieces cut from construction paper of various colors. The pieces were to form a capital "T" when arranged properly. I'm not sure if anyone was able to get it without the professor's help, but I do think that everyone's pieces were the same cut outs, perhaps of different colors, though. Anyway, these quizzes and tasks are fun little things that are a nice change of pace from normal lecturing. It might be the one thing that keeps me waking up at 7 to go to the class haha

Been a While ...

Well, I haven't wrote anything in a while. I haven't had motivation. I could have wrote about things, I just didn't feel like blogging. I guess I should try and make it habit, so I can pass my class haha.

In any case, I'll update everyone on what has happened in the past weeks:
- My ankle is still not very good. I went bowling and now the back tendon is bothering me. I don't think I will be able to train outside for a while.
- I saw three movies at the drive-in a couple Saturdays ago: Legion, which wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but was still decent. Sherlock Holmes, which was very funny, but the story wasn't that interesting. Lastly, The Book of Eli, which was a great movie.
- I found out my other two classes, despite what their respective syllabuses made me believe initially. In other words, my work load is significantly less, which is great news.

I have also been reading Crucial Conversations, and I don't I much have a problem dealing with certain things, but the book is nevertheless interesting. However, the other book I was reading, part of the Wheel of Time series, I don't have time for anymore, so that is somewhat unfortunate.