Main Philosophy
Washington DC
I actually returned early this morning, but I’ve been awake so long that this entire weekend has blended together. The march was an amazing experience, and I’ve already started planning my next trip.
At the moment, I’m basically running on caffeine because I only got an hour of sleep before being called in to work, and I’ve spent the rest of my time catching up on my studying.
The Washington photoset is up, so have a look if you want.
Death and Dying
I can think of nothing more exciting than dying. As long as I could have minimal consciousness, and a pad and paper I would die this minute. There is something naturally interesting about death because I believe there is a point where we straddle our universe and something else. It is at this point that I believe we finally find the answers (and questions) to our lives.
I also find death fascinating because I believe in reincarnation. Quickly, reincarnation is the belief that a person’s soul can be reborn in different bodies. The purpose of reincarnation is to allow the individual (soul) learn through life.
I believe in reincarnation not because it is a major feature of my religion, but because I have seen proof that it exists. It is not uncommon for young children (ages 2-4) to recall information from a previous life when stimulated by encountering something that was particularly memorable in their last generation.
I witnessed such a recollection while on vacation in my home country, Lebanon. While on one of many obligatory visits to far-removed relatives, my youngest cousin (about 4 at the time) decided to come along. As we neared our destination, the boy became increasingly restless and fidgety, staring intently out the window as if searching for something. After a few more minutes, his squirming reached a fever pitch and he began telling the driver to turn into a nearby alley. The confused driver continued forward but quickly swerved onto the path when the boy unleashed a piercing scream.
After arriving at a small house deep inside the town, the boy leaped out of the car and strode towards the door in a manner that greatly belied his four years, pointing out various aspects of the house and surrounding property that he had “builtâ€.
A long conversation with the homeowner resulted in the identification of my young cousin as the deceased husband of the woman who owned the house. The boy recalled many details about his life including a long-standing quarrel with his brother, and the location of a pass to his studio whose location had been lost with his death.
The point is that there is some kind of a connection between lives (perhaps indicative of a continuing soul), and that there could be partial consciousness “during†death and the ensuing transition. These memories also suggest that not all information must have a somatic base.
I read a story once of a group of professors who promised that the first to die would attempt to contact the rest (with some surprising results), and I have a similar idea. Reincarnation requires the existence of a soul, and as we saw from the story above, the soul can – at least – hold information that can be accessed by the succeeding body. Although there will be an interesting predicament with Time (who’s passage will be peculiar to say the least), I promise to actively attempt to record and publish my experiences when I die. The mechanism of my communication is unknown, as it was with the professors, but I can at least attempt…
What is delineate?
I’ve been beta testing a new statistics program recently that I have found very interesting. It has most of the features that ShortStat lacked (out of the box, anyway), without being too big like some of the server-based stat programs.
From the four seconds of the live Mint demo that I caught (before it was taken down), I quickly saw that it was a little to much for me and I’ve been on the lookout for something lighter ever since.
It may just be the simple design of delineate, but I found its information much easier to digest. I’ve taken a few screenshots that give a little better idea of what the program is like.
If you have Mint, it’s because it worked for you and fit your site’s needs; however, if you decided to skip it, try delineate. Now, back to my ShortStats and Awstats…
March on Washington
I’m currently in the final stages of planning my trip to Washington DC for the march to end the war on Iraq. I’m waiting for a confirmation of a couple bus seats, but things should be worked out by Monday.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to take plenty of pictures as I’m planning to do a write-up for the university’s weekly magazine.
Updates coming soon!
Knowledge
My questions arose during a Greek Drama course I’m taking – CL316 – when the professor was mocking filmmakers for their heinous mispronunciation of a classical Grecian character. He laughed arrogantly and remarked with complete certainty that it was “Priam” (pree-am not pry-am).
Before he continued on his tirade on the defilement of Ancient Greece by Hollywood, I asked him how he knew the proper pronunciation.
“Well, it’s underst…and some writings refer to…I don’t know…”
Granted it was only a minor oversight, but it bothered me for the rest of the day. Perhaps it wasn’t the only class where I was being taught something that was false or unproven.
And thus, it began, I examined each class intently, trying to find proof of their content’s validity…and to my surprise, (another example of my tremendous naivte) I found none.
For example, Evolutionary Biology, is almost entirely unreasonable, as our introduction to the theory included the admission that numerous other hypotheses fit better in terms of theory validation (Although evolution is clearly the most plausible).
What is true? What can I see, touch, or understand that I can know is fact. Is matter? No, it could disappear as abruptly as it began. What about my senses? Can I trust my eyes? If I were blind, and suddenly regained my sight, would everything look be the same?
The only thing that I have been able to find that most regularly resembles fact is instinct. By this, I am not referring to the romanticized definition, but to its psychological explanation as an innate behavior that can be in response to a specific stimulus. This inborn information, such as the senses themselves and motor control, is completely true, unique, but fact.
The reason that I believe innate information to be unquestionably true is because it has not been affected, and the original information must be true because it is what, essentially, controls our biological functions.
This truth is most likely not stored within the brain itself, and is therefore much less dynamic. One interesting paper even suggests that instincts may be stored genetically in the excised portions of the human genome called introns. These introns are not expressed in protein synthesis, but they are believed to have alternate purposes since they comprise the largest part (over 90%) of the organism’s genetic information.
Since this information is entirely factual (and therefore functional), we can begin to look at other related areas that maintain the same factual basis, but go beyond simple biological instincts.
This is where the line between truth and untruth disappears. For the knowledge to be of any use, it must be learned and not inherited. Growing and gaining wisdom is dependant on the information and the process.
As a result, any knowledge that was gained comes from the outside, where it could have easily become false. This information cannot be verified by the senses, because as I stated earlier, only the process of sensing can be guaranteed as truthful. I am not saying that everything around us is an illusion, I am simply stating that very little is unconditionally true. Hopefully, I will be able to expand on these most basic truths in future articles.
I am sure this will spark a long and heated debate, and that is what philosophy is about. So go ahead, what is Knowledge to you?
9rules
After a tortuous couple of months waiting for the results of the 9rules Round Two submissions, I finally got an e-mail from Paul Scrivens telling me that I was the newest member.
I’m ecstatic (and somewhat intimidated) to be in the company of some amazing designers and thinkers that I’ve been reading for longer than I can remember.
For those visitors who have never seen my site before – it sounds shocking, but I musn’t alienate anyone – this is my online journal. It is devoted mainly to philosophy (and the ensuing discussions) although my personal musings creep up in the middle column.
To the regulars, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting this site with your feedback and activity. Especially those (you know who you are) who were with me from the very beginning.
Joining 9rules has changed many things…for one, I’m already 40% more attractive to normal women and 60% more attractive to blogging women. Other than that and the goat (you don't want to know), nothing will be changing here.
So go ahead, mingle...we're all philosophers here!
Moving to FeedBurner
I’ve been testing out a new service recently called FeedBurner. The reason for my switch was because of some complaints I’ve received about the default Textpattern feeds which are less than reliable to say the least.
With FeedBurner’s SmartFeed technology, the feed is automagically converted into the requested type (ie. RSS, Atom, etc.)
Without further ado, here is the new feed. The old ones will remain active, but I highly recommend that you switch.
Weekend
OK, it definitely isn’t the weekend, but I haven’t had enough time to post about it until now.
Monday was Labor Day here in the States, and provided me with a much-needed 3-day weekend, after my first week of university. After a strategic “family emergency”, I managed to get the latter part of the weekend off from work, and zipped up to Dearborn, MI – a city with (I believe) the highest concentration of Arabs.
Being of Lebanese descent, it was a very refreshing reminder of my home country. The streets are painfully cramped, lively, and loud; the food was bold and delicious, and the parties were amazing.
Unfortunately, it seems that the most exciting events go uncaptured (as I forgot my camera), but a friend of mine managed to grab a few pictures
My boss wasn’t terribly happy when I returned, because I forgot to mention how long I was going to be out, but she’ll get over it.
School
Tomorrow will be my first day of college! I’m pretty excited but also quite scared. I think, however, that I will find comfort in numbers, and hopefully I’ll have enough time after my classes to meet up with some friends from orientation.
I wasn’t able to finish everything that I wanted to and there were some complications with my sister that I will hopefully post about later.
Wish me luck!
God?(#$@)
In the past, whenever I felt myself beginning to wonder about the existence of a God or higher Being, I always cited the same evidence:
If the entire universe began at the Big Bang, the singularity that “exploded” must have originated from an object or being that is outside of our universe, since this creator would have created our time and space.
This seems to be a relatively secure argument, especially because of my own experiences exploring this situation. I believe that there is a reason that it is almost impossible to visualize ourselves outside of our spacetime-bound universe. It is this mental block that creates, both, a higher being and a separation from this being.
Other proof that I find comforting (towards the existence of a God) is the intricacy of our world, and ourselves. If the entire course of evolution from the birth of life was compressed into a one-year period, then “humans” would have evolved at eight in the evening on the final day. While this was still a period of millions of years, based on the complexity of cellular communication and other systems particular to modern humans, I don’t believe that this would be possible without aid (Be it luck, or something bigger).
The actual process of Evolution is far beyond the scope of this article, but it is built upon mutations that create selection. When speaking of advancement, we can focus on the positive mutations. Any alteration in an organisms genetic material will most likely have a negative result, and based on the evolutionary requirements of other organisms – by far the most advanced creatures on the planet – could have evolved without aid (I also don’t find it coincidental that philosophy and questioning our origin is specific to humans).
The question now (for me) is not whether or not a God exists, but what form it takes and what it’s purpose is. I am a member of the Druze faith, which does not have a clear definition of a God or a chiseled heaven and hell. Instead, we believe in the reincarnation of the soul, and as an expansion I believe that God is – in part at least – the soul.
I have recently found a very strong spiritual connenction while meditating. Meditating helps me become my soul and connect with the part of it that is god.
There it is…I believe in a god, a spirit, humans, and myself.
Note: Don’t let the Philosophy and Elitism article die, there seemed to be an interesting discussion going on.
