Going back to Colorado

Well in about 8 hours my mom and I will drive to Breckenridge CO. I look forward to getting away and breathing the thin mountain air. I also look forward to getting lots of reading done. Hopefully I'll have many insightful comments and posts after getting back from CO.

Cell phone

So, I have caved into pressure and now own a cell phone.

Did I sell out?

Sleeping Schedule

This week I've been trying to alter my body's clock - by getting up every morning at 9:30am. So far I have been able to get up at 9:30am every morning, but I just feel out of sync. I've been getting up, previously before I began to alter my schedule, at 11:30am to 1pm. So this is a significant change for me - but nonetheless one that I needed to make.

I'm off to go read now... hopefully I'll stay awake *crosses fingers*

Who is richer?

I'm meeting (at least supposed to meet) some guys tonight for our discussion group concerning intelligent design. I need to read two articles that we are discussing tonight so I really shouldn't be procrastinating and writing on my blog, but oh well...

I just finished watching season 3 of Smallville and I have just recently watched Batman Begins. Now, here is a question: who is richer Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor?

I think the answer is Lex Luthor and here is why. Bruce Wayne is not concerned with accumulating wealth, all Bruce Wayne needs money for is to continue to fund the projects and weapons development along with research for Batman. So insofar as Bruce Wayne needs money to help him fight crime, that is what he needs to accumulate wealth for. Whereas Lex Luthor is attempting to take over the world. The means by which he is attempting to take over the world involves monetary gain. So, Lex Luthor needs all the money and power that he can get and control - he is seeking to gain an infinite amount of wealth and power. This is why I believe Lex Luthor is richer than Bruce Wayne. Lex Luthor may not be as smart as Bruce Wayne but he is able to spend all of his time and resources accumulating wealth, while Bruce Wayne spends a majority of his time and resources fighting crime.

Posterior Analytics

This summer I have been attending a reading group for Aristotle's Posterior Anaylytics. The Posterior Analytics along with the Prior Analytics deal with formal logic. Since I am interested in logic I decided to make attending the reading group a priority of my summer. Aristotle is very difficult to understand so it is good to slowly read through the Posterior Analytics - but here is the catch - the reading group is reading through the Greek text of the Posterior Analytics. Nonetheless, reading a challenging philosophical text along with working through some Greek is helpful for me and good for me.

This is why our country is in trouble

The seriousness of traditional churches scared many parishioners away, Osteen said, but the warm hug delivered by megachurches like his is bringing them back.

One time I was praying at this big event here in town and there were several other ministers there with me and the man that went right before me--He is a very well respected leader in the community and a very fine gentleman. But, he prayed about the most depressing prayer that I think I have ever heard. He said, 'God, you know how unworthy I am to even stand up here before you. God, you know what a wretched sinner I am. I don't deserve your goodness--and God how could you even use anybody like me?' On and on--man by the time he got finished I felt like I needed to go repent. I felt like I was about that tall. I just wanted to hang my head in shame. So let me ask you, how can we expect God's blessings? How can we expect His goodness if we go around feeling wrong about ourselves? I wanted to ask him afterwards, 'Did you really mean what you prayed?' You said you were 'Weak. You were defeated. You were an old sinner. You were unworthy.' Listen, I'm not going to declare that kind of junk over my life!...Well, you say, 'Joel, we are just all old sinners saved by grace.' No, the truth is we were old sinners--but when we came to Christ we are not sinners anymore. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God...Sure, we may sin every once in awhile. You may make some mistakes--but that doesn't make you a sinner. You've got the very nature of God on the inside of you.

(Joel Osteen, "Receiving God's Mercy," Tape #262. Daystar Television, April 17, 2005)

So, Christians no longer sin once they are Christians? That is news to me, I think it's news to Paul also. What about Romans 7? So is Joel Osteen a better Christian than Paul?

Is Anakin Skywaker Darth Vader (Part 2)

After careful consideration I have decided that 'Anakin Skywalker' is a rigid designator. This means that regardless of who Anakin Skywalker is, he is identical with himself, and the term 'Anakin Skywalker' refers to Anakin Skywalker. Now, it's possible that Anakin Skywalker could have been called 'Jim Jones' but Anakin Skywalker would still have all the properties of Anakin Skywalker, even if he were named 'Jim Jones'. This is what a rigid designator is, it is a name that refers to an object itself, but a rigid designator is not a description of the object. If we try to describe Anakin Skywalker as the person who became Darth Vader, it is possible that Anakin Skywalker never turned to the dark side, so that would be a incorrect description of Anakin Skywalker. Or if we said that Anakin Skywalker is the father of Luke Skywalker it is possible for Luke to have never been born so this would be an incorrect description if Luke were never born. Thus, a rigid designator is not a description, it is a term that picks out an object. 'Anakin Skywalker' (picks out) refers to Anakin Skywalker and the term 'Anakin Skywalker' does not have any descriptive content.

Now if two different rigid designators refer to the same object then the rigid designators are identical. Here is an example: Mark Twain is identical with Samuel Clemons. Two objects are identical if they share all of the same properties. Here is the problem with Anakin Skywalker being identical with Darth Vader. It is not a necessary property of Anakin Skywalker to have turned to the dark side of the force. Yet, by definition Darth Vader is a sith and all sith necessarily have turned to the dark side of the force. So, Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker do not share all the same necessary properties. Using the dark side of the force is a contingent property of Anakin Skywalker. It appears that 'Anakin Skywalker' is a rigid designator, but 'Darth Vader' is not.

I propose that 'Darth Vader' is a partially descriptive desginator. 'Darth' implies that something is a sith lord. So, this is how Darth Vader can be identical with Anakin Skywalker because 'Darth Vader' is not a rigid designator but a partially descriptive designator.

Reading

So, I have gotten a lot of reading done today - hooray for me!!!

Quizz

Well, I'm not sure what to think about the quiz results:

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 89% Reformed Evangelical 75% Fundamentalist 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 61% Emergent/Postmodern 54% Roman Catholic 39% Classical Liberal 36% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% Modern Liberal 11% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Quitter

So, for a long time I've been playing an online text-based game: ogame.org.

I've finally quit, which is good b/c ogame is very addicting. Hopefully I'll have more time to blog again which is very important. I feel free now that I've given my accounts away. One account I was ranked #208 and the other account I was ranked #103. I can't remember how many people played but in both universes there were over 8,000 people. Perhaps both universes had over 9, 000 people (each universe). So, I was ranked pretty high, the people that now have my former *sniff* accounts are very happy. AND, I'm happy too, cuz I don't have to worry about getting fleet crashed or raided anymore, that is now someone elses concern. WOO-HOO!!!

Not paying attention

So obviously by the lack of comments on my blog not many people have visited it in the last month.

I kinda feel outta sync right now. My fiance has moved to the same area as me and now I'm having to adjust to a different schedule than the one that I've had for the past 5 years.

I'll post some thoughts on philosophy/theology in a couple of days *crosses fingers*