A bit about perspective, science, religion, and death.

What really matters? What do you care about most? You can learn a lot about people, or yourself, from the answers to these questions. For me, my beliefs define my life and the way I live it. Sometimes I forget what's important, like everybody, and I get caught up in the world. I'm a person who needs a vision, a purpose, a clear, attainable goal. Sometime it's hard to maintain focus on the fact that this life is a preparatory state, a time to prepare to meet God (and yes, I'm getting into religion, it's Sunday, so sue me). I think a lot of peoples' problems could be solved by simply taking a step back and putting things into their proper perspective. Try it next time you find yourself in conflict with someone else, or facing a personal problem or crisis, with the proper perspective you may realize that perhaps the entire issue is unimportant.



It bothers me when people are like Steven, Nacho Libre's sidekick, when he says: "I don't believe in God, I only believe in science." God and science are not opposites, nor by their nature are they in conflict. And I would make a logical argument here, but I'm braindead at the moment and no one cares anyway.

Now, on to more interesting things, I saw the Dark Knight yesterday. Good movie. I must say I had no respect for Heath Ledger going into that movie. But dang, now I know he's at least a good actor. Maybe he sold his soul to the Devil to play that part, and that's why he died afterwards. It was a lot different from the first, and thinking back it made the first look like more of a prologue than anything else. It also made me think about how Batman never kills anyone. Only in comic books and movies does that work out. Sometimes it's just better for everybody if the bad guy dies. In the words of Joseph Stalin: “Death solves all problems - no man, no problem.” While this is a terrible philosophy to base a life or a government on, it has a morsel of truth. My favorite part of Orson Scott Card's novel Shadow Puppets, is when the protagonist has the villain on the ground with a gun to his head,
"Achilles laughed nervously. 'Come on now, Bean. We've known each other a long time.'. . .'I know you, Bean,' he said. 'You can't just kill a man in cold blood, no matter how much you hate him. It's not in you to do that.' 'Yes it is,' said Bean. He aimed the pistol down at Achilles's right eye and pulled the trigger. . . It didn't bring back Poke, or Sister Carlotta, or any of the other people he had killed. . . It didn't end the wars Achilles had started. It didn't make Bean feel any better. There was no joy in vengeance, and precious little in justice, either. But there was this: Achilles would never kill again."

And there's a lot of truth in that. Sorry my posts are so ADD but whatever. No one is making you read this.