No one has ever seen a god produce a nongod…
—Paul Curtin
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It makes sense. And I think it will always make sense to me. It’s a reasonable way to look at the world, especially if you have never experienced anything that you’re willing to classisfy as ‘mystical.’
It’s not the way I look at the world, but I think it’s an eminently reasonable perspective.
OK, looks like I’m already repeating myself. So, I guess I’ve run out of things to say about it already.
I don’t know if this is true or not, but whatever…
TRUE STORY
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AFS president, Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide.
He left a note to that effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
Ordinarily, Dr. Mills continued, “a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended”, is still defined as committing suicide. That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below at street level, but that his suicide attempt probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously, and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the bullets went through the window striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject A, but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was his long standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.
Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident, that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.
It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the bizarre twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was in fact Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s murder. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
Very tidy of him.
A true story from Associated Press, by Kurt Westervel
(original author unknown)
(ring ring)
TechSup: Hello, undead technical support. May I please have your name and the date of your death?
Cust: Ummmm, yes. I am Vlad the Impaler and I am a GREAT AND MIGHTY
VAMPIRE!!!
TS: Can I please have your date of death, sir? We have currently around 120 Vlad the Impalers on file, it’s a fairly common name among the undead.
Cust: Ummm, yeah… uhhh, well you see, I haven’t actually died yet. I was just sort of, you know, looking to see if someone would, you know, bite me, or if there is some sort of trial…?
TS: Yes, sir. Unfortunately, we can not provide that service. I would however point you towards your nearest foreboding castle or dark alley to find a blood sucking fiend of your choice.
Cust: Oh, why thank you! (Click)
(ring)
TS: Hello, undead technical support. May I please have your name and the date of your death?
Cust: Ummmm, Herman Carpinski, July 12, 1876.
TS: So what can I help you with?
Cust: I need to know how I deal with this whole rotting problem.
TS: Rotting?
Cust: Yes, pieces of me keep like falling off, and there’s this horrible smell.
TS: Oh. Sir, were you killed by having an undead bite your neck and suck your blood?
Cust: No, some guy danced around my grave a lot and then blew dust into my face.
TS: Oh, I see. Sir, you are not a vampire as it were. You are what is known as a zombie, and while I can’t really support that, I can tell you that the rotting smell is fairly normal. However, I can give you the zombie support line.
(ring ring)
TS: Hello, undead technical support. May I please have your name and the date of your death?
Cust: I AM VERY UPSET!!!
TS: I understand, sir, becoming one of the walking undead blood-sucking fiends is a big step-
Cust: NO that is not what I am talking about you (bleepity bleep bleep)!
TS: Sir, if you will please calm down, perhaps I can help you?
Cust: I want to speak to whoever is in charge!!!
TS: I can alert a manager, sir, but they will have to call you back in a few hours. Are you sure there is nothing I can help you with?
Cust: YEAH, WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS DAMN SUN THING??
TS: Excuse me sir? A vulnerability to the sun is fairly standard to all vampire types, so that behavior is by design.
Cust: It is not! It says right here in this pamphlet I downloaded from the Internet that if I ingest the blood of 12 virgins on 12 consecutive nights and gouge out my own eyeballs I’ll be immune. Which I have done mind you and I am still vulnerable to the sun, so what gives?
TS: Well, sir, that is a different…ah… application of your powers. You probably want to talk to the people who wrote it, or if it is something specific to your particular type of vampire, you may wish to speak to the person who brought you across.
Cust: WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU PEOPLE SUCK, AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY! (CLICK)
You know I honestly hate calls like that. I mean what is with these people? Is it my fault they don’t read the fine print? I mean, ok immortality is cool and the nifty vampire powers are great, but they all call me when they can’t handle it and expect me to deal with this crap, I mean…one sec got a call
(ring ring)
TS: Undead Techni-
Cust: YOU GOTTA HELP ME! THERE IS SOME GUY WITH A CROSSBOW OUTSIDE, AND HE IS SCREAMING THINGS LIKE, “DIE FOUL FIEND!!!”
TS: Okay sir, please calm down.
Cust: CALM DOWN! HOW THE HECK DO I CALM DOWN? HE IS BATTERING DOWN THE DOOR! AND HE SOUNDS PISSED!!!
TS: Okay sir, are you vulnerable to holy symbols?
Cust: Ummm, actually no. I am a farquath vampire, we don’t do the holy
symbols thing.
TS: Ah, good! I also see your kind of vampire has increased strength and speed and can take a lot of punishment. Okay, is he through the door yet? Are there more than one of them?
Cust: There are 3 of them! And they have crosses and one of them has a crossbow.
TS: Well, okay. Do you have a phone book?
Cust: Yes, WHAT THE HELL GOOD IS A PHONE BOOK GOING TO DO ME?!?!
TS: Sir, I need you to remain calm if you want me to help you, okay?
Cust: All right, now what? They’re almost through the door!
TS: Tuck the phone book inside your jacket over your heart. When they come through the door, let them shoot you with the cross bow, and then hit the one in front as hard as you can.
Cust: Okay, I’ll try. I’m not very violence literate though.
TS: That’s okay, just follow my instructions and I’ll talk you through it.
Cust: (sounds of crashing and muted thunk and a loud scream) Okay, there are two left, now what?
TS: Okay, throw the one you hit at the second one as hard as you can, and then grab the third by the throat and lift him off the ground.
Cust: (loud crashing and some moaning followed by some choking gurgling noises.) Okay, I have the head guy dangling - now what?
TS: Okay, now look into his eyes and laugh maniacally.
Cust: Heh heh heh.
TS: You might want to try a more maniacal laugh. Kind of like this -
MUHAHAHAHAHA!!
Cust: Wow, you scared me. Okay, I’ll try. Muhahahaha. How was that?
TS: Close enough. Now repeat after me, “YOU PITIFUL HUMAN INSECT, DIE LIKE THE CATTLE YOU ARE!!!” and then please squeeze as hard as you can.
Cust: (repeats statement and a cracking is heard from the phone) Nothing is happening.
TS: Sir, I mean squeeze with the hand you are holding him with.
Cust: Oh. Okay. (wet cracking sound is heard) Wow, this isn’t so hard. Maybe I will get the hang of this whole violence thing! Thanks so much for your help!!
TS: That’s quite all right, you have a good night now, and thank you for choosing undead technical support.
(click)
See now, I kind of like those calls. I got to help someone, and you know that’s what this job is all about. Am I one of the undead? Heck no. I don’t care much for the hours really, I am just doing this for money while I study for my Occult Sciences degree. Then I can go out and make some real money as either an undead admin, or maybe a troubleshooter type. Support is great experience for that sort of thing because it gets you learning, and working with people. I know tons about the undead vampire types, and I heard we are going to start supporting werewolves and magic users next. Hey, if they want to train me, I’m not going to complain. I mean, after all-
(ring ring)
TS: Undead technical support. Can I have your name and the time of your death?
Cust: Hey, is this where I call about problems with being a vampire?
TS: Yes, it is.
Cust: Okay. Do I have to drink blood? That’s kind of gross - can’t it just be Kool Aid or something?
TS: No, I’m sorry, but blood is definitely a requirement.
Cust: Oh, well, ok.
TS: Anything else I can help you with?
Cust: Hey, yeah. Can I catch AIDS and things from bad blood?
TS: (hits mute button) MORON! (lets go of mute button) Sir, you’re dead, okay? You really don’t have to worry about that at this point.
Cust: Oh. How do I get the blood?
TS: Generally you bite people.
Cust: Oh, ok. Well, bye.
(click)
(sigh) Geez, dude, read a book. There are times when this job gets on my nerves. But anyway where was I? Oh yeah. I get to start training today for supporting werewolves and magic users. And vampire hunters. You’d think that would be a conflict of interest… oh well.
(2 weeks of training later)
Instructor: ... just to re-emphasize a few things - we do not support major summoning or world destroying rituals. And if the customer is a werewolf and has just shifted and can no longer communicate you will need to direct them to the growling and grunting specialist. Any questions?
TS: What exactly constitutes a major summoning? I mean what is our policy if they attempted a summoning and mispronounced the name and got a major demon lord instead of the minor imp they were trying for?
Inst: Well, assuming they are still alive, you would probably want to send it to Escalation. Any other questions?
(Later that month)
(ring ring)
TS: Shape shifter technical support. May I please have your name and the type of shifter you are?
Cust: This is Derek Thorfin and I am having this problem… scratching
noises) I can’t get this damn hair to go away after I shift. There’s this one patch that just won’t not go away.
TS: Well, sir, is it a rectangular patch on your chest and abdominal area?
Cust: Yes, actually it is.
TS: Well, sir, that will not go away. That patch of hair is the mark of the animal demon that currently possesses you. If you were a shifter by birth rather than by position, it wouldn’t be there.
Cust: So when will there be a solution to this problem?
TS: Sir, that particular behavior, as I have said, is a side effect of being a shifter by position.
Cust: Whatever, when are you going to fix it? Cause I don’t like this hair, it itches.
TS: Sir, as I said this is something that cannot be fixed, unless you want to go through a cleansing ritual and give up being a shape shifter.
Cust: No, you don’t understand! I want this hair gone and you need to tell me how to get rid of it! Have you got that, fella? Cause if not, I’ll have to come down there and rend you limb from limb. I am a werewolf, got that, geek boy? Now you go on and tell me that secret way you have of getting rid of this here hair.
TS: Sir, I must tell you that if you continue to be threatening, I will have to terminate this call and refer your case to our security department. That being said, we do not have a secret way to remove your hair.
Cust: All right, that’s it! You’re lying to me! Either tell me or I come down there and REND ALL YOU blankety blanks INTO SMALL QUIVERING CHUNKS OF FLESH!!! YOU GOT THAT GEEK BOY? WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT, HUH?? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, HUH??
TS: I am sorry sir, you’ve forced me to terminate this call. (click)
(A few days later)
(Loud growling followed by a loud pop followed by distraught howling)
Hmmmm, I wonder if I should have told him about the silver trap we have for werewolves… oh well, back to work.
(ring ring)
TS: Mystical Technical Support. May I please have your name and the name of your group, or your contract number if you are an independent.
Cust: My name is Mike Evenstar and I am a member of the Most Glorious Order of Hiparcthurs and Tolemay.
TS: Okay, sir, what can I help you with?
Cust: Well it’s a small thing really, I was just wondering what would happen if, ah, well, when summoning a 9th level elemental spirit I had gotten two of the glyphs wrong?
TS: Which Glyphs, sir? (Sound of head pounding on table is heard)
Cust: Well, that is, I sort of changed the 9 into a 90 and the elemental to demonic.
TS: I see. Sir, can you hang on a second?
Cust: Sure, no problem. But please hurry - the glowing purple thing is
getting worse, and the walls have started bleeding.
TS: I’ll just be a moment, sir. (hold music) AHHHH why do I get these calls? (off hold) Okay, sir. I want you to listen to me carefully. Once I’m done talking, I want you to follow these steps. First open the door to the room you are in, step through it, and run as fast as you can. Then call 555-DUMB. This is the number for a service that takes care of these kinds of situations.
Cust: Okay, so I open the… (sound of a wet crunching sound, a scream, and then silence)
TS: (sigh) I lose more idiots that way. Oh well, at least I got promoted to major conjurations, summonings and escalation support last week. It means more money, although now I end up with even bigger problems to deal with. But they’re giving me more training I guess.
(ring ring)
TS: Escalations, go for it
Other Tech: Okay, I’ve got this guy on the line who says that he is trying a major summoning, and he has a wizard class account, so he is covered. But I have no clue what’s going wrong. He has the sacrifice he needs, all his sigology looks fine, I mean he even has the blue pillar of fire going for him! Could you take it, please, because frankly, I am stumped.
TS: Sure, go ahead and transfer him. (pause) Hi there, I hear you are having some problems.
Cust: Yes, I don’t understand it. I have all the materials and everything appears to be fine. I have gateway open but I am getting no response to the truename.
TS: A sacrifice was mentioned - could you tell me what kind?
Cust: Yes, a virgin human female sacrifice was needed, and she is waiting right here all bound and prepared for the demon to come through and rip her to pieces. I mean, we even have the proper amount of screaming.
TS: (knowing chuckle) Did you say virgin sacrifice? And how old is she?
Cust: She is 17. I had her checked out beforehand and she is a certified virgin.
TS: Of course. By any chance do you have a young male assistant? A teenager, perhaps?
Cust: Well, yes I… DAMNIT ALL TO HELL, Jedrick come over here! I’m gonna peel the skin off your back and feed you to—truename of major demon omitted—
TS: Sir, you may not realize this, but saying names like that in front of open gateways can be a bad idea.
Cust: What, you mean———-? Why would that be bad?
TS: Sir, I would once again advise you against saying that name in front of a gateway.
Cust: Oh, come on, no one actually expects———- to answer, I mean he (sound of a thunder clap)
TS: (sigh) If this keeps happening I might get written up.
(ring ring)
TS: Escalations, go ahead.
OT: Ummmm, I have a demon on the phone.
TS: You mean someone summoned a demon and he needs help with it?
OT: N-n-no, the demon killed him while he was on the phone and, ummm, it somehow got my name and now it says it owns my soul as well, and I am kinda in over my head, HELP please.
TS: Okay, go ahead and conference it.
OT: Okay, here goes.
Demon: YOUR SOULS ARE MINE—ALL OF THEM!!!
TS: With whom am I speaking, sir?
Dem: I am the Demon Rathgarton! And your souls are mine by the contract of the fool! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
TS: Well, all right, sir. But I need to tell you one thing first.
Dem: SAY WHAT YOU WILL, PUNY MORTAL! MUHAHAHA!!
TS: notraghtar BY THE POWER OF YOUR UNNAMEING, DEMON BEGONE!!!!
Dem: NOOOOOO AHHHHHHH THE PAIN NOOOoooooooooooo (fades into nothing)
TS: See, it’s no problem, you just can’t let those demons push you round!
OT: Cool—thanks dude!
(ring ring)
TS: Escalations, go ahead.
OT: I’ve got an irate, would you please take her?
TS: (sigh) Go for it.
Cust: NOW YOU LISTEN HERE! I AM A POWER CONJURER, AND I KNOW IT IS NOTHING I DID! THE PROBLEM IS WITH YOUR SHODDY MATERIALS!! I KNOW BIG PEOPLE IN HIGH PLACES AND I’M GOING TO HAVE YOU ALL TURNED INTO TOADS!!!
TS: Ma’am, if you will please calm down and read me your conjuring formula, maybe I can help you.
Cust: OH VERY WELL! (long incomprehensible formula follows)
TS: Ma’am, I think I’ve found your problem—it is on the 3rd, 8th, and 21st lines.
Cust: OH REALLY AND WHAT IS THAT MR SMARTY PANTS??
TS: Ma’am, 2+2 is equal to 4 not 8.
Cust: Why you worthl- ummmmm… wait a minute… (click)
TS: Thank you for calling magic support, and have a nice day.
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A question posed on another site… There is a bewildering number of religions to be found. Are they all the same, as in is one belief as true as the other?
So, spiritual truth. If it is subjective only, then in a sense all religions are both equally valid, but yet different from each other. If there is no spiritual truth at all, then all religions are trivially the same - i.e. plain wrong. If there is an objective spiritual truth, the math seems to say that any given religion may partake in that truth, on a sliding scale from totally wrong to fully right, which makes for mildly interesting combinatorics.
The odds for one particular religion to be completely right and all the others being completely wrong are not good. It’s possible, but unlikely. It’s more likely, that if there is any spiritual truth at all, most if not all religions have it right to some degree and it would follow that a religion that is reduced to the common ground is the best bet.
Any thoughts?
A scientist was performing an experiment on frogs to see how far they could jump. He put a frog on a table and yelled, “Jump, frog”. The frog jumped about 6 feet. He then cut off one of the frog’s legs and again yelled, “Jump, frog.” The frog jumped about 4 feet. He cut off another leg and yelled again. The frog jumped 2 feet. He cut off a third leg and yelled again. The frog jumped 1 foot.
He then cut off the frog’s last leg and yelled, “Jump, frog.” The frog didn’t move. He again yelled, “Jump frog.” Again the frog didn’t move. He yelled 3 more times. The frog didn’t move at all.
The scientist wrote in his notebook: “Frogs with no legs are deaf.”
...does anybody know of any Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and whatnot forums that are worth a visit?
I am unfriendly, if not downright hostile towards Christianity as an organized religion. As best as I can tell, this is predicated on a fear of mob mentality and the microcosm of religious online forums doesn’t give me any warm fuzzy feelings. It also doesn’t help that I often find myself at the other end of the spectrum when Christian churches enter the political fray.
For the purposes of this article, I’d like to limit myself to moral theology as I see it. Any claims regarding the moral superiority of Christianity fail for me due to three related and insurmountable problems, Hell, the problem of evil, and original sin.
It is understandable that a monotheistic religion might resort to a carrot and stick approach to recruit new adherents. However, the very concept of eternal punishment by an omnimax creator for finite and foreseen transgressions strikes me as immoral beyond belief and it compares to a system of formal logic that has both P and NOT P as axioms. Since there is no sin that we can commit without the at least tacit toleration of the purported creator, Hell is a ludicrous concept. In the words of somebody else, it seems designed to effect conversions for the sake of fire insurance.
The problem of evil is, well, another problem. To resolve the paradox with an omnimax creator, the cure tends to be worse than the disease. From my point of view, the obvious resolution is to reject the assumes attributes of the Christian god, but I have heard explanations ranging from “there is no evil” to “it serves a higher purpose”. All I can say is that there are forms of suffering that are completely unjustifiable by my own moral standards.
Finally, original sin… The concept that we are born with a blemish pre-attached to us instead of starting out neutral with our own path to make is not one that I hold in high regard. In fact, I summarily reject it.
Beyond a doubt, all that I’ve said can be countered from a dogmatic or doctrinal position and not to mention the proverbial apologists. However, I view Christianity as flawed by design and built on an unstable fundament. None of this is to say Christian morals, whatever they are, are necessarily all wrong. However, the net effect is that I question Christianity’s basis for morals.
I found this Slate article about the differences in email style between Europeans (specifically Germans) and Americans to be right on the money (hmmm ... Euro or dollar?):
The fact is, Europeans and Americans approach e-mail in a fundamentally different way. Here is the key point: For Europeans, e-mail has replaced the business letter. For Americans, it has replaced the telephone. That’s why we tend to unleash what e-mail consultant Tim Burress calls a “brain dump”: unloading the content of our cerebral cortex onto the screen and hitting the send button. “It makes Europeans go ballistic,” he says.
It’s not clear why European and American e-mail styles have evolved separately, but I suspect the reasons lie within deep cultural differences. Americans tend to be impulsive and crave instant gratification. So we send e-mails rapid-fire, and get antsy if we don’t receive a reply quickly. Europeans tend to be more methodical and plodding. They send (and reply to) e-mails only after great deliberation.
I was going to ask Elwed what he thinks about this, but it might take him a few days to get back to me. 
(Just kidding—Elwed is terribly Americanized when it comes to email. The question is whether he was that way before he met me ... I seem to recall his earlier emails to be more essay-like, but I could be blurring out some shorter ones.)
Any kids’ series created by Gene Simmons has GOT to be good:
Simmons, the cartoon’s creator and executive producer, said the idea sprang out of a conversation about career day at his son, Nick’s, school.
“So you had people coming in with scissors, you know, ‘my mom’s a hair stylist,’ or a toothbrush, ‘my dad’s a dentist,’ and my son came in with a poster of me spewing blood and spitting fire,” Simmons said.
That got him thinking about how kids just want to fit in, and led to a deal with Canadian entertainment company Nelvana.
Where do I sign up? This looks better than the Osbournes:
The show follows Willy Zilla, a 12-year-old who has just moved to a sleepy suburb and is going to school for the first time after years on the road with his dad, rock mega-star Rock Zilla. [...]
His family is pretty normal in a lot of ways—he’s got a loving mother and father and an older sister, Serenity, who insults him when she admits he exists at all.
But unlike most parents, Rock Zilla punctuates his parental advice with guitar solos and shouts of “Ahhh-oooooo!” and mom speaks in New Age cliches, and “of course nobody knows what the hell she’s talking about,” Simmons said.
Most families don’t have a giant, purple-and-green-striped Komodo dragon and a British roadie puttering around the house, either.
BTW, did anyone else see the TV movie Pop Rocks with Gary Cole? Hilarious.
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