After being raised Christian in my early childhood, I converted back and forth between Christianity and my skeptical viewpoint. Religion is an ongoing debate but I want to focus more on the concept of "God" for now, not so much religion. I've come to the conclusion in recent days that people believe in God but they don't know of God, and there's a difference. The mysteries of the universe have yet to be solved and to say we know is only to say we hope we know.
For the last 5 years I've labeled myself a hardcore atheist. About a week ago, I decided I was agnostic. What changed my mind after 5 years of being set on my decision? Well, I have an open mind. If someone comes up with reasoning that is different to mine and it happens to make more logical sense than what I previously thought, then I accept the alternative viewpoint. The turning point in my perspective on "God" came from a follow up interview of the documentary "Religulous" created by Bill Maher, the host of "Real Time with Bill Maher." The documentary was very well done and had a lot of funny parts if you despise religion as much as I do.
Overall, the documentary was as I expected, very secular and I thought surely that someone that makes a film like this has to be an atheist. I was wrong. I searched youtube.com for a follow up interview on the film and Bill Maher stated he wasn't an atheist. He said in his interview he's not an atheist because atheism mirrors the certainty of Christianity. In other words, atheism is the certainty that there is no God as Christianity is the certainty that there is a God or divine creator. So, when it comes down to it, after you've preached what you supposedly know as fact, after all is said and done, at the end of the day, you really don't know. "How do I know you don't know?" Bill Maher asks, "Because I don't know..and you do not contain mental powers that I do not."
Bill Maher's documentary doesn't promote atheism or the disproving of God, he promotes doubt, as he states it, "Doubt is humble.." Try it. Atheism and religions like Christianity or Judaism are two different sides of the same coin. It's understandable when people have 'hope' of life after death and heaven and all that, but when they start preaching it as fact and anybody that's not a follower is wrong, that's when it becomes a problem.
Click here to watch the interview with Bill Maher.
When Bill Maher gave his reasoning for not being an atheist. I contemplated this idea for a couple months and then came to the conclusion. "Hey, wait a minute..I don't know either..in fact, nobody knows." There's a difference between what "is" and what you think "is" and since the origin of the universe is not understood and may never be understood completely; to say that you know is just arrogance. The best scientists and astronomers don't know and the religions don't know. All we have are theories, guesses and wacky ideas. Usually when something is fact, it is almost, if not, universally agreed. We all know the sun is pretty hot, most people would agree. When everyone is asked how we got here, we will get a billion different opinions.
It is human nature to want to know all the answers to life's mysteries. Human beings don't like saying "I don't know," because people want to know. And when we don't know or we are desperate for an explanation, we make them up, and that's where we bring in religion. We naturally associate someone who says "I don't know" as a fool. And when people are afraid of looking like fools, they make up answers and ironically they look more foolish claiming a false answer rather than just saying "I don't know." So, face the fact that you don't know and nobody in the world knows. And please, don't tell me that you know, "..because I promise you, you don't."-Bill Maher
People can live their lives peacefully and find true happiness without resorting to religion. Let us not worry over where it all came from and spend more time enjoying it for it is. Have hope, have doubt, have peace.
Amen.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Kudos to the Black Friday worker
With the upcoming Black Friday, I thought it would be appropriate to extend a certain appreciation to all the retail associates out there that hate their lives. 2 years ago I worked for a hellish electronics store. I won't say any names but here's a hint: Fry's Electronics... Everyone get that? Good. I worked in the computer department as a computer accessories sales associate, I wasn't exactly a salesmen quite yet. I was more of a helper for the real salesmen. I didn't become an actual salesmen until after Black Friday. I was earning minimum wage which I think was $7.50 per hour and the salesmen were getting $15 per hour plus commission. Needless to say, considerably more than me.
I was to work 20 hours from 5am to midnight on Black Friday with only a 3 hour break spread throughout the day. When I arrived to work, the line of people wrapped around the perimeter of the store waiting to get in and get all their special deals. This day was already bad and I was not looking forward to it at all. When the store opened, it was chaos as any Black Friday is at a retail chain. Customers are extra demanding on this day too because of the good deals but it's only while supplies last and if we don't have that one item, someone is going to be blamed...might as well be me.
This day was pure hell. To add to my stress, I had to be at work again the following day at 11am and work another 7 hours. I might as well be in the military. Whether or not this is even legal has been in the back of my mind ever since. After Black Friday was over after what seemed like an eternity, I went to work the next day like the reliable slave worker that I am. At the end of the day I started feeling really sick. I had about three hours left in my shift and I told my boss that there's no way I was going to make it. And my boss was one of those guys that didn't believe anybody was sick unless they were bleeding out their eyes. If you called in sick, he wanted you to to come in to work and prove it, no joke. Anyway, I convinced him I was not lying and I almost did not make it out the store without puking right there in the middle of the store, I knelt down in the middle of the store for about 5 minutes and rested, trying to hold off this upchuck. After I got up, I sped walked toward the time clock and punched out hoping that if I was going to throw up here, at least it would be outside. I was lucky enough to save it till I got home and I let loose. I puked the nastiest brown liquid but it felt so good.
My theory is that my sickness was caused by the massive amounts of holiday stress with the 20 hour workday and the following day, but I kept in mind that my paycheck would be a lot more because the rule is that when we go over a certain number of hours, the pay goes into double time, then triple time. This helped my motivation to work harder. I was averaging $230 per week already, so I figured I would make more than that in this day alone not including the hours from other days in the week.
Pay day arrived and I was looking forward to it. I opened up the check and saw $320. Are you kidding me? After working the most stressful 20 hours of my life plus my regular hours and getting sick on top of all that, my check was only $90 more than a regular work week? But who am I to complain? Who is going to listen? Fry's Electronics doesn't care about what I think is fair or even it's employees in general. I speak from inside experience and honestly when I say that this company is corrupt and evil. Things happen behind closed doors, that's all I can say. And it's no coincidence that the company had a class action lawsuit against them which I got a little money from, but it was barely gas money.
Another thing about retail chains like this that cracks me up is their ways of motivating their workers. I remember every morning we'd have a 'morning meeting' near the front door before the store opened and at the end of the meeting we'd have to do a little cheer. This little cheer involved five people picked from each department that would lead everyone else in a cheer. We'd say "Give me an F! Give me an R! Give me a Y! Give me an apostrophe, Give me an S!" As we would say these letters we'd have to make the shape of the letter using our body and arms as if you were acting out the classic "YMCA" song. If we didn't participate, we were forced to do the whole thing by ourselves in front of everyone. First off, you know you're in the wrong job when you're doing stupid cheers like this. And what kind of sick person thought this would be a good idea and an effective way to motivate the associates? I will bet on my life that not once did I, or anyone else that walked away from a cheer feel motivated to work at Fry's Electronics. In fact, it made us hate the company even more for being so stupid. After working for this company for 8 months and being in retail for 6 years, I vouched to never return to retail again. I would rather die.
So I say "Cheers!" to the hard working retail associate who will be working on Black Friday and all the crappy people you have to deal with. May God have mercy on your soul.
I was to work 20 hours from 5am to midnight on Black Friday with only a 3 hour break spread throughout the day. When I arrived to work, the line of people wrapped around the perimeter of the store waiting to get in and get all their special deals. This day was already bad and I was not looking forward to it at all. When the store opened, it was chaos as any Black Friday is at a retail chain. Customers are extra demanding on this day too because of the good deals but it's only while supplies last and if we don't have that one item, someone is going to be blamed...might as well be me.
This day was pure hell. To add to my stress, I had to be at work again the following day at 11am and work another 7 hours. I might as well be in the military. Whether or not this is even legal has been in the back of my mind ever since. After Black Friday was over after what seemed like an eternity, I went to work the next day like the reliable slave worker that I am. At the end of the day I started feeling really sick. I had about three hours left in my shift and I told my boss that there's no way I was going to make it. And my boss was one of those guys that didn't believe anybody was sick unless they were bleeding out their eyes. If you called in sick, he wanted you to to come in to work and prove it, no joke. Anyway, I convinced him I was not lying and I almost did not make it out the store without puking right there in the middle of the store, I knelt down in the middle of the store for about 5 minutes and rested, trying to hold off this upchuck. After I got up, I sped walked toward the time clock and punched out hoping that if I was going to throw up here, at least it would be outside. I was lucky enough to save it till I got home and I let loose. I puked the nastiest brown liquid but it felt so good.
My theory is that my sickness was caused by the massive amounts of holiday stress with the 20 hour workday and the following day, but I kept in mind that my paycheck would be a lot more because the rule is that when we go over a certain number of hours, the pay goes into double time, then triple time. This helped my motivation to work harder. I was averaging $230 per week already, so I figured I would make more than that in this day alone not including the hours from other days in the week.
Pay day arrived and I was looking forward to it. I opened up the check and saw $320. Are you kidding me? After working the most stressful 20 hours of my life plus my regular hours and getting sick on top of all that, my check was only $90 more than a regular work week? But who am I to complain? Who is going to listen? Fry's Electronics doesn't care about what I think is fair or even it's employees in general. I speak from inside experience and honestly when I say that this company is corrupt and evil. Things happen behind closed doors, that's all I can say. And it's no coincidence that the company had a class action lawsuit against them which I got a little money from, but it was barely gas money.
Another thing about retail chains like this that cracks me up is their ways of motivating their workers. I remember every morning we'd have a 'morning meeting' near the front door before the store opened and at the end of the meeting we'd have to do a little cheer. This little cheer involved five people picked from each department that would lead everyone else in a cheer. We'd say "Give me an F! Give me an R! Give me a Y! Give me an apostrophe, Give me an S!" As we would say these letters we'd have to make the shape of the letter using our body and arms as if you were acting out the classic "YMCA" song. If we didn't participate, we were forced to do the whole thing by ourselves in front of everyone. First off, you know you're in the wrong job when you're doing stupid cheers like this. And what kind of sick person thought this would be a good idea and an effective way to motivate the associates? I will bet on my life that not once did I, or anyone else that walked away from a cheer feel motivated to work at Fry's Electronics. In fact, it made us hate the company even more for being so stupid. After working for this company for 8 months and being in retail for 6 years, I vouched to never return to retail again. I would rather die.
So I say "Cheers!" to the hard working retail associate who will be working on Black Friday and all the crappy people you have to deal with. May God have mercy on your soul.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Technically Ahead
Today I was working on my computer like I do everyday of my life. Then, not surprisingly, I start getting software issues and error messages. This happens quite often and It makes me progressively angrier every time it happens. Whenever I see that "Unexpectedly quit" notice on my screen, it's an instant adrenaline rush of frustration and pure hate for humanity. I immediately want to find the people that made the program and punch them as hard as I can. On top of the unexpected quits, who has time to save their work nowadays? Or who even remembers? It absolutely ruins your day when you've worked on something for 3 hours straight then the program quits suddenly and you think "I didn't save!"
This is what baffles me about computers and the innovative men and women that build them. You'd think of how far we've come in the technology world, we'd have the knowledge and tools necessary to make a home computer work flawlessly or at least give more of a warning before errors occur. We can put satellites in space, build robots, navigate with GPS, build particle colliders, send pictures through cell phones and way more. We can do amazing things. None of these technologies work flawlessly of course, but they all seem so superior to the standard home computer.
Here's my theory on what has happened. The computer was invented, they improved upon it over the years and today is an amazing machine, then mankind got more curious. They thought of other possibilities with this new technology and started making cell phones, plasma televisions, robots e.t.c. Rather than improving upon stuff that's already been invented, they wanted to invent something completely new. I think if we can invent all these wonderful things then we can make the simple home computer a little less flawed.
I say that if programs are going to 'unexpectedly quit' then they should save a copy of your project to a folder before it does quit. Then that 3 hours of your life was not a waste. I have seen one application do this and it's amazing. The question is, why aren't they all doing this? This is a serious problem, human beings are too entranced in their work to remember to save. Software programmers need to create back-up saves at abrupt quits and account for the forgetfulness in people. Slow down making the rocket ships and talking robots and fix our home PC's for goodness sakes. Spend less time inventing new pointless things and more time perfecting the things that already exist.
In conclusion, this modern age technology is so far ahe..
(This message has unexpectedly quit)
This is what baffles me about computers and the innovative men and women that build them. You'd think of how far we've come in the technology world, we'd have the knowledge and tools necessary to make a home computer work flawlessly or at least give more of a warning before errors occur. We can put satellites in space, build robots, navigate with GPS, build particle colliders, send pictures through cell phones and way more. We can do amazing things. None of these technologies work flawlessly of course, but they all seem so superior to the standard home computer.
Here's my theory on what has happened. The computer was invented, they improved upon it over the years and today is an amazing machine, then mankind got more curious. They thought of other possibilities with this new technology and started making cell phones, plasma televisions, robots e.t.c. Rather than improving upon stuff that's already been invented, they wanted to invent something completely new. I think if we can invent all these wonderful things then we can make the simple home computer a little less flawed.
I say that if programs are going to 'unexpectedly quit' then they should save a copy of your project to a folder before it does quit. Then that 3 hours of your life was not a waste. I have seen one application do this and it's amazing. The question is, why aren't they all doing this? This is a serious problem, human beings are too entranced in their work to remember to save. Software programmers need to create back-up saves at abrupt quits and account for the forgetfulness in people. Slow down making the rocket ships and talking robots and fix our home PC's for goodness sakes. Spend less time inventing new pointless things and more time perfecting the things that already exist.
In conclusion, this modern age technology is so far ahe..
(This message has unexpectedly quit)
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