8th March 2003, 3:46 PM
Wowie wow wow!
My past is different regarding this. I used to be a person who believed, everything at the same time actually. I was all like "well ya never know" and such, afraid my kidneys were going to be stolen by aliens working for Satan. Essentially, my past self was an utter idiot. That was me, I have full rights to call that line of thinking idiotic because I thought it once! Eventually, the fact of what faith truly is dawned on me. You see, I was afraid only believing in one thing was just illogical, so I just said "all or nothing" out of fear, and bought it all. I was simply too afraid to put real faith in one thing, that being that by putting it into one thing I do not believe in all other things contradicting it. Fear prevented that choice up until a certain point. I finally realized that "faith" is not attempting to cross ALL the bridges I see at once, out of fear of choosing one that is broken and no longer being able to get to the right one, it's the opposite, picking JUST one and going with it, no matter what. Faith has some exclusionarity to it. One may call that closed minded, but I would say the way I used to think was far more closed minded because I closed myself off from believing any one thing out of fear of missing out on the rest (the only reason of course for that fear would be thinking every single thing I had believed in easily could be wrong, which of course means I never really believed in any of it). So, via a process I can't really fully explain, I chose to put all my faith into one thing. It's worked out fine so far, mainly because it's right :D. My reason for the faith is the amazing simple and clean and perfect design of the universe. It just feels like a program. There's that and all other religions seem to be based on works, whereas this one is based purely on faith, works being done because you WANT to (the proof of it) not because they are needed. All others require you to obtain perfection, when logically a single act of wrongness makes you imperfect. Perfection takes into account all past acts, logically. That's the "reason for the faith" anyway, though as I've said, faith is faith. You don't KNOW, you are simply willing to believe in that, and that alone, as the way. Oh, and may I point out it's more than just "knowing it's true". It's faith as in being in battle and putting your trust into the ally guarding your back, and acting with that in mind not even turning around knowing that it's safe back there thanks to the ally. It's more than knowing the roller coaster is safe, it's getting on.
Okay, enough
from me. I've made my point, which as I said seems to be in total agreement with LL here. Well, I would have said "Couldn't care less" since "could care less" means you care more than the minimal amount you are capable of.
The only other thing isn't quite related to this. I myself am horrible at communication too. I do love logic though (language helps convey it, but logic isn't language dependant). I've always enjoyed a good debate (well, good ones), though as a result of that tendancy I've gotten into some stupid arguments, as you have noticed. I'm trying to fight that. In any case, my love of logic is why I love programming. Math is LL's love it seems, but logic is mine. I say if you are going to get into a career you must love at least one aspect of the core work of it. LL likes the math, I like the logic (of course, math is based on logical principles, and so I'm obviously trying to get into math and actually enjoy it too). I wouldn't suggest trying to be a programmer if you don't like either one of those "core aspects". You may find it very boring indeed otherwise.
My past is different regarding this. I used to be a person who believed, everything at the same time actually. I was all like "well ya never know" and such, afraid my kidneys were going to be stolen by aliens working for Satan. Essentially, my past self was an utter idiot. That was me, I have full rights to call that line of thinking idiotic because I thought it once! Eventually, the fact of what faith truly is dawned on me. You see, I was afraid only believing in one thing was just illogical, so I just said "all or nothing" out of fear, and bought it all. I was simply too afraid to put real faith in one thing, that being that by putting it into one thing I do not believe in all other things contradicting it. Fear prevented that choice up until a certain point. I finally realized that "faith" is not attempting to cross ALL the bridges I see at once, out of fear of choosing one that is broken and no longer being able to get to the right one, it's the opposite, picking JUST one and going with it, no matter what. Faith has some exclusionarity to it. One may call that closed minded, but I would say the way I used to think was far more closed minded because I closed myself off from believing any one thing out of fear of missing out on the rest (the only reason of course for that fear would be thinking every single thing I had believed in easily could be wrong, which of course means I never really believed in any of it). So, via a process I can't really fully explain, I chose to put all my faith into one thing. It's worked out fine so far, mainly because it's right :D. My reason for the faith is the amazing simple and clean and perfect design of the universe. It just feels like a program. There's that and all other religions seem to be based on works, whereas this one is based purely on faith, works being done because you WANT to (the proof of it) not because they are needed. All others require you to obtain perfection, when logically a single act of wrongness makes you imperfect. Perfection takes into account all past acts, logically. That's the "reason for the faith" anyway, though as I've said, faith is faith. You don't KNOW, you are simply willing to believe in that, and that alone, as the way. Oh, and may I point out it's more than just "knowing it's true". It's faith as in being in battle and putting your trust into the ally guarding your back, and acting with that in mind not even turning around knowing that it's safe back there thanks to the ally. It's more than knowing the roller coaster is safe, it's getting on.
Okay, enough
from me. I've made my point, which as I said seems to be in total agreement with LL here. Well, I would have said "Couldn't care less" since "could care less" means you care more than the minimal amount you are capable of.The only other thing isn't quite related to this. I myself am horrible at communication too. I do love logic though (language helps convey it, but logic isn't language dependant). I've always enjoyed a good debate (well, good ones), though as a result of that tendancy I've gotten into some stupid arguments, as you have noticed. I'm trying to fight that. In any case, my love of logic is why I love programming. Math is LL's love it seems, but logic is mine. I say if you are going to get into a career you must love at least one aspect of the core work of it. LL likes the math, I like the logic (of course, math is based on logical principles, and so I'm obviously trying to get into math and actually enjoy it too). I wouldn't suggest trying to be a programmer if you don't like either one of those "core aspects". You may find it very boring indeed otherwise.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)