Love is my Religion
I meditate daily. Mercy, acceptance and understanding are my mantras. Harmony is my goal. Love is my religion. My personal philosophy is an amalgamation of bits and pieces from here and there. With Southern Baptist roots and a Zen Buddhist core. I don’t believe that there is only one path to salvation or becoming one with God. When I refer to God my idea of God is not the Christian mythological God, or the giant white bearded father sitting on a golden throne in the sky. My idea of God is closer to the Hindu belief in the ultimate reality, the source of all creation, or movens non motus – the mover that is not moved. Basically, we live in the universe of cause and effect. Meaning, everything that exists is created or caused by something. Ergo, if you go back far enough, the ultimate cause of all that exists is the movens non motus, or God. Furthermore, I believe that is all there is, God and the universe. I reject the idea of hell and that true heaven is God, or being one with God. I believe that God is the true reality of the eternal ideas of truth, justice, beauty, compassion, mercy and grace. The idea of hell, where our souls are condemned to an eternity of pain and suffering is contradictory to the nature of God. There are no evil men, just evil acts. We are all essentially good, and all have potential for evil. We have all strayed from the path of righteousness, and that is why Jesus’ teachings are those of forgiveness and mercy. Why would someone teach that just to burn those who are sick or strayed from the path? That would be hypocrisy of the ultimate degree. If God were to accept all those that pass from this earth, sick or healthy, is an act of true unconditional love and mercy. That is not to say we should be free to do as we please, we should all strive to be good, responsible people. We are all connected; we are all children of God. We should strive to help and ease the suffering of our brother; we should love our fellow man. That is why I meditate on the words of mercy, acceptance and understanding. These are integral parts of love. You cannot have love without them.
I believe in mercy. Mercy is forgiveness; it is compassion for all living things, which is ultimately respect for life. I’ve taken lives before and understand now that it is the most grievous of crimes and that there is always another way. One should always avoid taking the life of another being. Even if I were to be wronged, I hope that I am strong enough to forgive.
Growing up as an only child to a single parent I had a lot of anger and resentment, especially towards male authoritative figures. I naively thought that swallowing my anger and passing it off as me being above anger was a falsehood. As I grew older and experienced more I learned that anger is a part of who we are. Denying my anger is like denying my skin, so I learned to accept this fact and am closer to peace and harmony. I also learned to be accepting of all people and beliefs. I don’t have to necessarily agree with them, but I will respect their beliefs barring that they don’t oppose to a person’s right to life, self-determination or freedom of choice. Acceptance leads to understanding, understanding eliminates the unknown, therefore abolishing fear.
Fear is the root to many of the world’s woes. Fear of the unknown leads to prejudice, violence and many of the other maladies that plague us. When somebody challenges our beliefs, we are quick to react with violence and retaliation. We react this way not because we are so sure of our faith, but quite the opposite. It is because we are unsure. We are unsure because we don’t know for certain, which is why we should forgive those who wronged us. We don’t know. We don’t know why a person did what they did, where they came from and what led them down this path. We need to understand that they are another human being and a mirror until ourselves and a reflection of the soul. It is because we are all connected. Each one of us interacting and reacting to each other. Each collision of souls sets off a chain of possibilities, forever altering the course of our reality. We move and dance in time, each piece a gear reacting in harmony in the great machine. We move to rhythm, the heartbeat as the primary sound of the womb. Sound is merely vibration, and vibration in theory is key to energy, which is the core to life. All matter holds some form of energy and therefore all matter possess some form of life. Life is the essence of the divine, God is in everything and everything is in God. We are all connected. We are different because of natural law; diversity is the key to preservation of life. Once we understand that our differences are a necessity, while we are all the same, we will be one step closer to understanding and therefore one step closer to peace, one step closer to harmony.
We live in a universe that relies on a balance between its dualistic natures. Like the Tao, I attempt to find harmony in everything. I agree with Confucius and his idea of the noble man. We live in a world of societies and civilizations and therefore there should be an order to such. But these societies and civilizations exist within nature and therefore are subject to natural law. I believe the idea of civilization can exist harmoniously within the laws of nature but man’s hubris and avarice cause us to trample on these laws and throw our world into disharmony.
Ultimately, what all of this boils down to is love. Love of self, love for your fellow man, love for the world and love for God. My philosophy is simple, be a good person, treat others with respect, have forgiveness in your heart, keep an open mind and listen to what people have to say. The secrets of the universe aren’t secrets if you just open your eyes and simply wake up.
Ima Manic
I meditate daily. Mercy, acceptance and understanding are my mantras. Harmony is my goal. Love is my religion. My personal philosophy is an amalgamation of bits and pieces from here and there. With Southern Baptist roots and a Zen Buddhist core. I don’t believe that there is only one path to salvation or becoming one with God. When I refer to God my idea of God is not the Christian mythological God, or the giant white bearded father sitting on a golden throne in the sky. My idea of God is closer to the Hindu belief in the ultimate reality, the source of all creation, or movens non motus – the mover that is not moved. Basically, we live in the universe of cause and effect. Meaning, everything that exists is created or caused by something. Ergo, if you go back far enough, the ultimate cause of all that exists is the movens non motus, or God. Furthermore, I believe that is all there is, God and the universe. I reject the idea of hell and that true heaven is God, or being one with God. I believe that God is the true reality of the eternal ideas of truth, justice, beauty, compassion, mercy and grace. The idea of hell, where our souls are condemned to an eternity of pain and suffering is contradictory to the nature of God. There are no evil men, just evil acts. We are all essentially good, and all have potential for evil. We have all strayed from the path of righteousness, and that is why Jesus’ teachings are those of forgiveness and mercy. Why would someone teach that just to burn those who are sick or strayed from the path? That would be hypocrisy of the ultimate degree. If God were to accept all those that pass from this earth, sick or healthy, is an act of true unconditional love and mercy. That is not to say we should be free to do as we please, we should all strive to be good, responsible people. We are all connected; we are all children of God. We should strive to help and ease the suffering of our brother; we should love our fellow man. That is why I meditate on the words of mercy, acceptance and understanding. These are integral parts of love. You cannot have love without them.
I believe in mercy. Mercy is forgiveness; it is compassion for all living things, which is ultimately respect for life. I’ve taken lives before and understand now that it is the most grievous of crimes and that there is always another way. One should always avoid taking the life of another being. Even if I were to be wronged, I hope that I am strong enough to forgive.
Growing up as an only child to a single parent I had a lot of anger and resentment, especially towards male authoritative figures. I naively thought that swallowing my anger and passing it off as me being above anger was a falsehood. As I grew older and experienced more I learned that anger is a part of who we are. Denying my anger is like denying my skin, so I learned to accept this fact and am closer to peace and harmony. I also learned to be accepting of all people and beliefs. I don’t have to necessarily agree with them, but I will respect their beliefs barring that they don’t oppose to a person’s right to life, self-determination or freedom of choice. Acceptance leads to understanding, understanding eliminates the unknown, therefore abolishing fear.
Fear is the root to many of the world’s woes. Fear of the unknown leads to prejudice, violence and many of the other maladies that plague us. When somebody challenges our beliefs, we are quick to react with violence and retaliation. We react this way not because we are so sure of our faith, but quite the opposite. It is because we are unsure. We are unsure because we don’t know for certain, which is why we should forgive those who wronged us. We don’t know. We don’t know why a person did what they did, where they came from and what led them down this path. We need to understand that they are another human being and a mirror until ourselves and a reflection of the soul. It is because we are all connected. Each one of us interacting and reacting to each other. Each collision of souls sets off a chain of possibilities, forever altering the course of our reality. We move and dance in time, each piece a gear reacting in harmony in the great machine. We move to rhythm, the heartbeat as the primary sound of the womb. Sound is merely vibration, and vibration in theory is key to energy, which is the core to life. All matter holds some form of energy and therefore all matter possess some form of life. Life is the essence of the divine, God is in everything and everything is in God. We are all connected. We are different because of natural law; diversity is the key to preservation of life. Once we understand that our differences are a necessity, while we are all the same, we will be one step closer to understanding and therefore one step closer to peace, one step closer to harmony.
We live in a universe that relies on a balance between its dualistic natures. Like the Tao, I attempt to find harmony in everything. I agree with Confucius and his idea of the noble man. We live in a world of societies and civilizations and therefore there should be an order to such. But these societies and civilizations exist within nature and therefore are subject to natural law. I believe the idea of civilization can exist harmoniously within the laws of nature but man’s hubris and avarice cause us to trample on these laws and throw our world into disharmony.
Ultimately, what all of this boils down to is love. Love of self, love for your fellow man, love for the world and love for God. My philosophy is simple, be a good person, treat others with respect, have forgiveness in your heart, keep an open mind and listen to what people have to say. The secrets of the universe aren’t secrets if you just open your eyes and simply wake up.
Ima Manic
Abstract
Using the existential philosophies of J.P. Sartre, M. Heidegger, and G. Marcel, within an atheistic framework, I posit that man’s underlying reason for continuing existence in the face of certain oblivion, is love. I have researched and analyzed many of the existential philosophies, and chose to place them in an atheistic framework because metaphysical ideas, like God, can neither be proven or disproven. The atheistic framework also allows for the argument to be more objective in nature and forces the point to be argued instead of falling on the “God’s will” defense. I argue that in an atheistic existence, man continues to strive for existence because of love, which supersedes basic desire.
The Absurdity of Man’s Existence
In an atheistic framework or reality where the idea of god does not exist, the universe and man’s existence occurs through mere happenstance. That is not to say that it just appeared, but if we were to use the “big bang theory” and the theory of evolution, there is no purpose for man’s existence. A better way to put it is Sartre’s (1946) theory of “Existence Proceeds Essence”: where in a god-free world, everything has a purpose before it comes to existence. (I.e. a car was an idea in someone’s mind, designed with the purpose of transportation. That “purpose of design” is the car’s essence. The person then took this idea and made the car or brought it into existence. Hence its essence preceded existence.) Now man or mankind is the only exception to this rule, whereas, if there were no god to design us, with a purpose in mind, mans existence has proceeded his essence. Therefore it is up to man to create his purpose. This is evident in our search, from youth to adulthood, to figure out “Who we are?” “Where we are going in life?” “What do we want to do with our existence?” This “soul searching” is man’s way of finding his own purpose or essence.
In all of the philosophical ponderings and wonderment, there is one general, absolute fact. All men are mortal, and therefore, we are all going to die. There are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts” about it, as C. Palahniuk (1999) wrote in Fight Club “…on a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” This fact is not only applicable to man, but it also applies to all of creation. Our universe, full of its galaxies, solar-systems, and planets, is finite and contingent, which means it too will come to an end. Even as we speak, stars are winking out of existence, carrying along with them planets, moons, and possibly civilizations that have come
and gone a thousand times over. The realization of standing on the brink of this impending doom is what Heidegger (1943) calls “Angst” or dread.
This nihilation or slow unraveling of all there is, in a god-less world, is our birthright, in that, it is the only thing promised to us in our existence. This fact can lead to angst. This feeling of dread is most evident in the clinical diagnosis of depression, which brings up the questions: “Why continue at all?” “ Why keep going, knowing, that it’s all going to end in the long run and nothing we do really matters on the macroscopic level of the universe?” Like the myth of Sisyphus*, Why do we keep pushing our proverbial rocks? In a god -free world, where there is no promise of heaven or hell, “what keeps us going?” The answer to these questions, ultimately, as Marcel states is fidelity. Merriam-Webster defines fidelity as: “the quality or state of being faithful or implies strict and continuing faithfulness to an obligation, trust, or duty.” To Marcel it is this idea of fidelity, this giving of yourself or binding yourself to something beyond yourself. More to the core of it, the fidelity he speaks of ultimately is love. Love is the driving force for man to continue existence, especially in the face of certain oblivion. The Beatles (1967) had it right, “All you need is love.”
Love
Love is the reason for man’s continual existence. Let us be clear, when I refer to love, I am not simply referring solely to the love between person and person, but also to the love of an idea like truth, justice, freedom, beauty, etc.. Love is the experience of unlimited value or worth in a being, be it a person or idea. The true measure of love is not what a man lives for, but what he is willing to die for. It is man’s natural instinct, as it is with all animals, to preserve one’s life. What compels a person to go against their very nature to sacrifice something so dear, especially? for an abstract idea like that of truth or freedom? The answer is love.
Love is the manifestation of man’s need to transcend beyond self-centered needs. It is the losing of the “self” through the union or bonding with something we find more dear or value more than our very own lives. The losing of self is not the total abolishment of who I am, but more of a creation of a new being in which I/other have united. A good example of the losing of self in union can be found in the words of the first person plural perspective. Words like “we” or “us” meaning not just you/ not just me. In this union of both entities, you get another collective entity. Love is a bond that is different from a physical bond, in that on the physical level, when things unite either one or both things are destroyed, as in things like absorption or synthesis. Whereas, love is on a spiritual level and the bond is more or a communion or enhancement of the two, while preserving their integrity.
It is these kind of bonds that mankind strives to achieve. That is to say, when I form a bond with someone, no matter the level of bonding, it is also saying that I identify myself with that person. When that person is successful or happy, I share in their joy. Furthermore, when that person is unhappy or abusing themselves through drugs, for example, I too, am hurt or pained. The ability to identify myself with another being allows me feel compassion towards them, even if I have never met them. Another example of this, is when you see atrocities on T.V. going on continents away, when we feel for those people, it is because we can identify, on some level with them and are empathetic to their suffering. Conversely, when we are indifferent to these atrocities or even a movie, it is because we cannot identify with them.
Counter
One may ask, “Why is man compelled to love or better yet feel the need for something transcendent?” Sartre argues that while man creates his own meaning or purpose, he still needs others to validate his existence. Sartre says,”…in creating the man we want to be, there is not a single one of our acts which does not at the same time create an image of man we think he ought to be.” That means what we as men choose for ourselves, we choose for all of mankind. Take the idea of freedom for example. When man chooses to be free, he must chose freedom for everyone, because if he were not to, who would be there to guarantee his own freedom. No man is an island. Marcel implies in his arguments that while we are free to create the person who we want to be, it is not solely up to us or that our freedom to create ourselves is limited.
The reality of the matter is that there are certain basic, undeniable facts about who we are that play a role in our self realization. Marcel (1948) wrote, ”to deny in a more aggressive fashion the existence of any sort of natural world, of anything that is inherited by us, or more profoundly, of reality itself, that reality which is conferred upon us or in which we participate, and which gives us greater impetus, the deeper we penetrate into it.” .What all of this means is that our genes, environment, era we are born into have an effect on who we are, especially the people who are in our lives. Once again, other people give our lives validity and this is enacted through our bonds to them, therefore, we need go beyond ourselves or transcend or self centered needs to form these unions. Mind you these unions do not have to be deep like that of marriage or even friendships. A union can be something as simple as working with someone on a project or getting directs from someone in the street. But, all in all, these unions are important and a necessity for life.
Now, you may say, “Love is all fine and dandy if you are a hippy, but, what about those people whose reasons for living are things like greed, lust, or power?” My answer is: what are these things, but love of money, sex, and dominion. As I stated earlier, “love is the experience of unlimited value or worth in a being. Love does not have to be positive in nature, it simply is a reflection of nature. It is thing that is neither good, nor evil, it simply is. It can be beneficial and hazardous, like the Sun or the Ocean. My argument is not that man’s ultimate goal or reason for living is to be happily married with children and a white picket fence. No, the point of my argument is that love, in the purest sense, is why men continue to live, knowing very well, that they are going to eventually die. I mean, why any of us would keep on living, with a world full of suffering and angst, for no rhyme or reason.
Another argument would be “If there is a God, why can’t man’s reason for continual existence, be God, or God and love?” This is reason why I chose to put this argument in an atheistic framework is to argue that in the face of certain doom and in a world of suffering, man still has a reason “to be”, he has a reason to keep existing in this world. According to Nietzsche, Christianity makes men weak. I concur with him to a point, in that Christianity is kind of a philosophical crutch. That being God is the ultimate reason for everything. If something good happens it’s because God has blessed them, if something bad happens he is punishing them or testing their faith. Also, there is the issue of heaven and hell. That being men do not always do good, purely for good sake. Men do good, because if they are wicked or evil, they are to be punished eternally for their sins, or the reverse, they will be eternally rewarded. It is this fundamental reward/punishment system that sets Christians up to be viewed as kind of weak-willed children and puts all the responsibility on God. That is not to say all Christian are trying to buy their way into heaven and or avoid hell, because that is not the case at all, in fact I would like to believe that there are a good amount of Christians who do good for the sake of doing good. But, for the sake of the argument, with need to do away with ulterior motives because we cannot objectively argue why people would continue to live in a world of suffering with a reward punishment system in place. But, it can also be argued that Christians keep going because of love and the bond they feel with God. Albeit, death is not exactly certain in the Christian faith, it is merely a doorway to the afterlife.
So whether you are a Christian, atheist, or power hungry CEO of a mega corporation, we are all driven by our indelible bonds to the things that we find most dear to keep pushing our rocks, knowing it’s going to end one day. Love is a very strong thing, it is the one source of so much pain and suffering, yet the same source of hope and joy and true happiness even in the state of suffering. It is this thing we call love that compel us to go beyond our ego, to rise above our base needs and give up the very thing that we should logically, value the most. Love allows us to stand at the brink of oblivion and smile. We smile because we know that during our brief existence in our world, we made a difference. We made a difference because we affected someone somewhere in our lives therefore making our existence valid. What we do does echo throughout eternity. It’s like Huey Lewis said, “it don’t take money, it don’t take fame, you don’t need a credit card to ride this train, it’s strong and it’s sudden and it’s cruel sometimes, but it might just save your life. That’s the power of love.”
Using the existential philosophies of J.P. Sartre, M. Heidegger, and G. Marcel, within an atheistic framework, I posit that man’s underlying reason for continuing existence in the face of certain oblivion, is love. I have researched and analyzed many of the existential philosophies, and chose to place them in an atheistic framework because metaphysical ideas, like God, can neither be proven or disproven. The atheistic framework also allows for the argument to be more objective in nature and forces the point to be argued instead of falling on the “God’s will” defense. I argue that in an atheistic existence, man continues to strive for existence because of love, which supersedes basic desire.
The Absurdity of Man’s Existence
In an atheistic framework or reality where the idea of god does not exist, the universe and man’s existence occurs through mere happenstance. That is not to say that it just appeared, but if we were to use the “big bang theory” and the theory of evolution, there is no purpose for man’s existence. A better way to put it is Sartre’s (1946) theory of “Existence Proceeds Essence”: where in a god-free world, everything has a purpose before it comes to existence. (I.e. a car was an idea in someone’s mind, designed with the purpose of transportation. That “purpose of design” is the car’s essence. The person then took this idea and made the car or brought it into existence. Hence its essence preceded existence.) Now man or mankind is the only exception to this rule, whereas, if there were no god to design us, with a purpose in mind, mans existence has proceeded his essence. Therefore it is up to man to create his purpose. This is evident in our search, from youth to adulthood, to figure out “Who we are?” “Where we are going in life?” “What do we want to do with our existence?” This “soul searching” is man’s way of finding his own purpose or essence.
In all of the philosophical ponderings and wonderment, there is one general, absolute fact. All men are mortal, and therefore, we are all going to die. There are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts” about it, as C. Palahniuk (1999) wrote in Fight Club “…on a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” This fact is not only applicable to man, but it also applies to all of creation. Our universe, full of its galaxies, solar-systems, and planets, is finite and contingent, which means it too will come to an end. Even as we speak, stars are winking out of existence, carrying along with them planets, moons, and possibly civilizations that have come
and gone a thousand times over. The realization of standing on the brink of this impending doom is what Heidegger (1943) calls “Angst” or dread.
This nihilation or slow unraveling of all there is, in a god-less world, is our birthright, in that, it is the only thing promised to us in our existence. This fact can lead to angst. This feeling of dread is most evident in the clinical diagnosis of depression, which brings up the questions: “Why continue at all?” “ Why keep going, knowing, that it’s all going to end in the long run and nothing we do really matters on the macroscopic level of the universe?” Like the myth of Sisyphus*, Why do we keep pushing our proverbial rocks? In a god -free world, where there is no promise of heaven or hell, “what keeps us going?” The answer to these questions, ultimately, as Marcel states is fidelity. Merriam-Webster defines fidelity as: “the quality or state of being faithful or implies strict and continuing faithfulness to an obligation, trust, or duty.” To Marcel it is this idea of fidelity, this giving of yourself or binding yourself to something beyond yourself. More to the core of it, the fidelity he speaks of ultimately is love. Love is the driving force for man to continue existence, especially in the face of certain oblivion. The Beatles (1967) had it right, “All you need is love.”
Love
Love is the reason for man’s continual existence. Let us be clear, when I refer to love, I am not simply referring solely to the love between person and person, but also to the love of an idea like truth, justice, freedom, beauty, etc.. Love is the experience of unlimited value or worth in a being, be it a person or idea. The true measure of love is not what a man lives for, but what he is willing to die for. It is man’s natural instinct, as it is with all animals, to preserve one’s life. What compels a person to go against their very nature to sacrifice something so dear, especially? for an abstract idea like that of truth or freedom? The answer is love.
Love is the manifestation of man’s need to transcend beyond self-centered needs. It is the losing of the “self” through the union or bonding with something we find more dear or value more than our very own lives. The losing of self is not the total abolishment of who I am, but more of a creation of a new being in which I/other have united. A good example of the losing of self in union can be found in the words of the first person plural perspective. Words like “we” or “us” meaning not just you/ not just me. In this union of both entities, you get another collective entity. Love is a bond that is different from a physical bond, in that on the physical level, when things unite either one or both things are destroyed, as in things like absorption or synthesis. Whereas, love is on a spiritual level and the bond is more or a communion or enhancement of the two, while preserving their integrity.
It is these kind of bonds that mankind strives to achieve. That is to say, when I form a bond with someone, no matter the level of bonding, it is also saying that I identify myself with that person. When that person is successful or happy, I share in their joy. Furthermore, when that person is unhappy or abusing themselves through drugs, for example, I too, am hurt or pained. The ability to identify myself with another being allows me feel compassion towards them, even if I have never met them. Another example of this, is when you see atrocities on T.V. going on continents away, when we feel for those people, it is because we can identify, on some level with them and are empathetic to their suffering. Conversely, when we are indifferent to these atrocities or even a movie, it is because we cannot identify with them.
Counter
One may ask, “Why is man compelled to love or better yet feel the need for something transcendent?” Sartre argues that while man creates his own meaning or purpose, he still needs others to validate his existence. Sartre says,”…in creating the man we want to be, there is not a single one of our acts which does not at the same time create an image of man we think he ought to be.” That means what we as men choose for ourselves, we choose for all of mankind. Take the idea of freedom for example. When man chooses to be free, he must chose freedom for everyone, because if he were not to, who would be there to guarantee his own freedom. No man is an island. Marcel implies in his arguments that while we are free to create the person who we want to be, it is not solely up to us or that our freedom to create ourselves is limited.
The reality of the matter is that there are certain basic, undeniable facts about who we are that play a role in our self realization. Marcel (1948) wrote, ”to deny in a more aggressive fashion the existence of any sort of natural world, of anything that is inherited by us, or more profoundly, of reality itself, that reality which is conferred upon us or in which we participate, and which gives us greater impetus, the deeper we penetrate into it.” .What all of this means is that our genes, environment, era we are born into have an effect on who we are, especially the people who are in our lives. Once again, other people give our lives validity and this is enacted through our bonds to them, therefore, we need go beyond ourselves or transcend or self centered needs to form these unions. Mind you these unions do not have to be deep like that of marriage or even friendships. A union can be something as simple as working with someone on a project or getting directs from someone in the street. But, all in all, these unions are important and a necessity for life.
Now, you may say, “Love is all fine and dandy if you are a hippy, but, what about those people whose reasons for living are things like greed, lust, or power?” My answer is: what are these things, but love of money, sex, and dominion. As I stated earlier, “love is the experience of unlimited value or worth in a being. Love does not have to be positive in nature, it simply is a reflection of nature. It is thing that is neither good, nor evil, it simply is. It can be beneficial and hazardous, like the Sun or the Ocean. My argument is not that man’s ultimate goal or reason for living is to be happily married with children and a white picket fence. No, the point of my argument is that love, in the purest sense, is why men continue to live, knowing very well, that they are going to eventually die. I mean, why any of us would keep on living, with a world full of suffering and angst, for no rhyme or reason.
Another argument would be “If there is a God, why can’t man’s reason for continual existence, be God, or God and love?” This is reason why I chose to put this argument in an atheistic framework is to argue that in the face of certain doom and in a world of suffering, man still has a reason “to be”, he has a reason to keep existing in this world. According to Nietzsche, Christianity makes men weak. I concur with him to a point, in that Christianity is kind of a philosophical crutch. That being God is the ultimate reason for everything. If something good happens it’s because God has blessed them, if something bad happens he is punishing them or testing their faith. Also, there is the issue of heaven and hell. That being men do not always do good, purely for good sake. Men do good, because if they are wicked or evil, they are to be punished eternally for their sins, or the reverse, they will be eternally rewarded. It is this fundamental reward/punishment system that sets Christians up to be viewed as kind of weak-willed children and puts all the responsibility on God. That is not to say all Christian are trying to buy their way into heaven and or avoid hell, because that is not the case at all, in fact I would like to believe that there are a good amount of Christians who do good for the sake of doing good. But, for the sake of the argument, with need to do away with ulterior motives because we cannot objectively argue why people would continue to live in a world of suffering with a reward punishment system in place. But, it can also be argued that Christians keep going because of love and the bond they feel with God. Albeit, death is not exactly certain in the Christian faith, it is merely a doorway to the afterlife.
So whether you are a Christian, atheist, or power hungry CEO of a mega corporation, we are all driven by our indelible bonds to the things that we find most dear to keep pushing our rocks, knowing it’s going to end one day. Love is a very strong thing, it is the one source of so much pain and suffering, yet the same source of hope and joy and true happiness even in the state of suffering. It is this thing we call love that compel us to go beyond our ego, to rise above our base needs and give up the very thing that we should logically, value the most. Love allows us to stand at the brink of oblivion and smile. We smile because we know that during our brief existence in our world, we made a difference. We made a difference because we affected someone somewhere in our lives therefore making our existence valid. What we do does echo throughout eternity. It’s like Huey Lewis said, “it don’t take money, it don’t take fame, you don’t need a credit card to ride this train, it’s strong and it’s sudden and it’s cruel sometimes, but it might just save your life. That’s the power of love.”
Milwaukee.
Ah...Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is like your mom's hot friend who took adavantage of you when you were 15; It's dirty and wrong, but, has one hell of a happy ending. And every time you think about it, you shake your head; but, smile a deep, knowing smile. I'm going to miss you "uncle" Ken. But, I still have Milwaukee.
Ah...Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is like your mom's hot friend who took adavantage of you when you were 15; It's dirty and wrong, but, has one hell of a happy ending. And every time you think about it, you shake your head; but, smile a deep, knowing smile. I'm going to miss you "uncle" Ken. But, I still have Milwaukee.
I know now, I was meant to be a Villain. Heroes are suckers and pawns. Villains get shit done. Fools, thwart me if you can, but like the waves upons the rocky shore, crash upon me and become broken!!! Hahahahaahahaaaaa!!!!!!
Life...
Life is very much like and ice cream cone. It is delicious and sweet and can some times hurt like a bitch. There are some unfortunate few who lick their and it falls into the gutter shortly there after; and their are some who savor it slowly, lick by lick. Sometimes, we don't always get the flavors we truly desire or can afford more than one scoop. But, it is still a wonderful thing and should be enjoyed to it's fullest; down to the very last melted drop.
Life is very much like and ice cream cone. It is delicious and sweet and can some times hurt like a bitch. There are some unfortunate few who lick their and it falls into the gutter shortly there after; and their are some who savor it slowly, lick by lick. Sometimes, we don't always get the flavors we truly desire or can afford more than one scoop. But, it is still a wonderful thing and should be enjoyed to it's fullest; down to the very last melted drop.
Well, we're all moved in. which sucked so much ass. And I'm finally onine, just in time to see, i missed the Comet get together. which is kinda funny cause i was there 4 days before that getting an early celebration on the last year of my twenties. There was booze and tomato soup and ho-ho cake. God likes me.
Well, just about done moving to a decent 1 brm apt, w/ my lady...on the 3 floor. my veals are killing me. I feel ike they got worked on my a singapore prison guard. 
Went and saw the HUSH SOUND play at the Eagles Ballroom. They rocked as always, but the venue did not. Th sound quality sucked sooo much ass, not to include the sea of teenie-bopper hipsters there to see panic at the disco 
. But, all in all, it was cool seeing Greta. We go to hang with the band on their bus after the show w/ the dudes from Phantom Planet (who are also nice) albeit I'm am not a fan of the O.C. so, eh. We topped the evening off with shakes and pizza from "The Shuttle".
. But, all in all, it was cool seeing Greta. We go to hang with the band on their bus after the show w/ the dudes from Phantom Planet (who are also nice) albeit I'm am not a fan of the O.C. so, eh. We topped the evening off with shakes and pizza from "The Shuttle". 
