by Lifehouse
I can't be losing sleep over this, no I can't
And now I cannot stop pacing
Give me a few hours, I'll have all this sorted out
If my mind would just stop racing...
Cause I cannot stand still
I can't be this unsturdy
This cannot be happening
This is over my head, but underneath my feet
Cause by tomorrow morning I'll have this thing beat
And everything will be back to the way that it was
I wish that it was just that easy...
Cause I'm waiting for tonight
Then waiting for tomorrow
And I'm somewhere in between
What is real, and just a dream
What is real, and just a dream
What is real, and just a dream
Would you catch me if I fall out of what I fell in
Don't be surprised if I collapse down at your feet again.
I don't want to run away from this
I know that I just don't need this...
Cause I cannot stand still
I can't be this unsturdy
This cannot be happening
I'm waiting for tonight
Then waiting for tomorrow
And I'm somewhere in between
What is real, and just a dream
What is real, and just a dream
What is real, and just a dream...
Friday, October 12, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
My anti drug...
I was really jonesin' for a smoke yesterday... so I ran to Walgreens and grabbed whatever sounded appetizing, this is what I came up with :) At least I got vitamin water...
I may just get fat in my attempt to quit smoking...
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Midnight, Ethics
It's late and I should try to get some sleep, but my mind is racing. I have noticed lately that my mind is a bit foggy... Of course I assumed a part of is was psychosomatic, but I read somewhere today that it does happen to people giving up nicotine. Anyway, I had a moment of clarity tonight and so I thought I might take advantage of it while I can... in hopes of writing a few meaningful words.
I was listening to Ravi Zacharias today, a podcast of a Q & A forum done at Georgia Tech. One of the questions was from a fella who seemed to esteem Immanuel Kant highly... Ravi and this un named person discussed Kantian ethics.
Ravi believes that objective morality is dependent on the existence of an objective moral law giver... namely God... someone absolute. Consequently, he believes if God does not exist, morality is completely subjective... which many atheists, but not all hold to.
There are atheists who believe in objective morality...social contract is a common view...and one that owns many derivatives... unfortunately they cannot qualify this idea of objective morality to have any absolute meaning... beyond what is arbitrarily defined... For instance, one common idea is that objective morals need exist for the sake of community and/or the individual...unfortunately this assumes that the preservation of life is in fact good or right... again this would be arbitrary at best. but i digress...
I've read Kant, who interestingly enough was a theist. Kant spends volumes on attempting to explain the idea that morality can be rationally attained... apart from God... He believed that God had given man something in rationality so that objective morality could be arrived at intellectually.
In the aforementioned discussion, Ravi points out how Kant actually prefaced his second volume (pertaining to the issue of ethical theory) with the admission that Purpose of existence needed first be qualified, then an ethical system (be it arrived by pure rationalism) could result... this was new to me... so I found it quite fascinating.
Of course this discussion could get a whole lot more complicated if you add to it the view that some atheists hold...who proclaim meaning/purpose in life is self defined therefore a purely subjective endeavor.
So why is this all important? Well post modernism has created a culture that doesn't know how to begin to discuss moral theory... We have no real framework to work off of... Ravi says there are three key movements that have resulted: Secularization,
Pluralization, Privatization.
Secularization, meaning religious ideas are no longer viewed as socially relevant.
Pluralization, refers to our cultures view that the plethora of worldviews are equally true and... Privatization- the pursuit of truth being a purely independent venture. It's important to note that the three coexist and overlap...
In my opinion, the general population in America today somehow still seems to feed off of the german culprit born in the 18/1900's: Existentialism. If you truly dissect deep enough I am convinced you will find most people to abide by a system of ethics arrived at and reiterated by feelings. Essentially, people do what feels right...the misfortune comes when we realize that these feelings are deviant and quite often.
This is not to say doing what feels right is necessarily wrong... but it is prone to fallacy... and generally inconsistent. Our emotions are real and have their value...
but we should never have surrendered the ability to rationalize beyond them... And so I think Ravi's points are very well taken. In a secularized, pluralized culture where worldviews have become privatized to an extreme... we have lost the concept of truth...and therefore as a collective have given up the search...for how do you look for something that doesn't exist? More on this later...
Otherwise, I got a new book titled: "The Shape of the Good," by C. Stephen Layman. It is a book on Christian Ethical Theory... I will be interested to see what he says... Strangely enough it was recommended to me by an atheist who thought he presented a fair case of ethical theory...
I was listening to Ravi Zacharias today, a podcast of a Q & A forum done at Georgia Tech. One of the questions was from a fella who seemed to esteem Immanuel Kant highly... Ravi and this un named person discussed Kantian ethics.
Ravi believes that objective morality is dependent on the existence of an objective moral law giver... namely God... someone absolute. Consequently, he believes if God does not exist, morality is completely subjective... which many atheists, but not all hold to.
There are atheists who believe in objective morality...social contract is a common view...and one that owns many derivatives... unfortunately they cannot qualify this idea of objective morality to have any absolute meaning... beyond what is arbitrarily defined... For instance, one common idea is that objective morals need exist for the sake of community and/or the individual...unfortunately this assumes that the preservation of life is in fact good or right... again this would be arbitrary at best. but i digress...
I've read Kant, who interestingly enough was a theist. Kant spends volumes on attempting to explain the idea that morality can be rationally attained... apart from God... He believed that God had given man something in rationality so that objective morality could be arrived at intellectually.
In the aforementioned discussion, Ravi points out how Kant actually prefaced his second volume (pertaining to the issue of ethical theory) with the admission that Purpose of existence needed first be qualified, then an ethical system (be it arrived by pure rationalism) could result... this was new to me... so I found it quite fascinating.
Of course this discussion could get a whole lot more complicated if you add to it the view that some atheists hold...who proclaim meaning/purpose in life is self defined therefore a purely subjective endeavor.
So why is this all important? Well post modernism has created a culture that doesn't know how to begin to discuss moral theory... We have no real framework to work off of... Ravi says there are three key movements that have resulted: Secularization,
Pluralization, Privatization.
Secularization, meaning religious ideas are no longer viewed as socially relevant.
Pluralization, refers to our cultures view that the plethora of worldviews are equally true and... Privatization- the pursuit of truth being a purely independent venture. It's important to note that the three coexist and overlap...
In my opinion, the general population in America today somehow still seems to feed off of the german culprit born in the 18/1900's: Existentialism. If you truly dissect deep enough I am convinced you will find most people to abide by a system of ethics arrived at and reiterated by feelings. Essentially, people do what feels right...the misfortune comes when we realize that these feelings are deviant and quite often.
This is not to say doing what feels right is necessarily wrong... but it is prone to fallacy... and generally inconsistent. Our emotions are real and have their value...
but we should never have surrendered the ability to rationalize beyond them... And so I think Ravi's points are very well taken. In a secularized, pluralized culture where worldviews have become privatized to an extreme... we have lost the concept of truth...and therefore as a collective have given up the search...for how do you look for something that doesn't exist? More on this later...
Otherwise, I got a new book titled: "The Shape of the Good," by C. Stephen Layman. It is a book on Christian Ethical Theory... I will be interested to see what he says... Strangely enough it was recommended to me by an atheist who thought he presented a fair case of ethical theory...
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
unresolved
The last few weeks have run together in a blur... like a water colour painting...(at least under my direction) each day filled with strokes of runny hues... and so i feel as if i've lived through a lengthy week though it's in fact only tuesday. As strange as this might sound i feel a bit of pain creeping up with every day that ends...like i'm losing something i can't ever have back...
Nevertheless, it's my favorite moment of day, right now... to sit, still. it's quiet, tuesday's done..and twilight will soon be here and as swiftly be gone.
I feel excitement for the future... for the unknown... but an equal amount of sorrow for the past... that i can never regain. There is no re writing it... i must be ok with redemption. But I lost bits and pieces of myself along the way... some are good at forgetting what is behind... i have always struggled with that. i guess i just want to know that i have truly learned from it...so as not to repeat it's mistakes. my mistakes. at the same time there is something intrinsically tragic about life passing by... and all the countless moments that have gone... that have been reduced to imperfect memories... gone...gone with the wind.
I'm kicking a habit now that i have long held on to...although most days it feels like it's kicking me...
I keep hearing the word loneliness... several times yesterday...and a few times today from different people who have very independent struggles. today a 30 something young lady expressed how at the end of the day she feels so alone...despite her friends, her successful career, her dreams... it is truly inescapable... at times we can soothe it for the moment, at times we can paint over it with laughter... at times we can even convince ourselves it doesn't exist... but then again at times it waylays us all.
I am looking over the city as it dissipates into nothing more than silhouettes...under the dipping sun... it seems all so transient like it hardly exists at all... without the light all things are merely shadows...phantoms... matter taking up space. I can't help but wonder about all that is going on in every home, vehicle, single room apartment... hospital, airplane... where ever...is not this world filled with despair?
i say a general prayer for the broken tonight... for the lost... for the hopeless.
I wonder how Christ felt as he withdrew from the crowds...i can picture Him looking over the towns from a distance... I wonder what He felt...what words might be used to describe that. He was hope incarnate, the only solution...and yet He must have known that there were so many even He could not save...
It's nearly dark now... evening lamps have turned on throughout the plaza...and drivers have turned on their headlights to navigate through the darkly streets... but still i feel unresolved... and so i'll leave this blog in a similar state... without resolution...
Nevertheless, it's my favorite moment of day, right now... to sit, still. it's quiet, tuesday's done..and twilight will soon be here and as swiftly be gone.
I feel excitement for the future... for the unknown... but an equal amount of sorrow for the past... that i can never regain. There is no re writing it... i must be ok with redemption. But I lost bits and pieces of myself along the way... some are good at forgetting what is behind... i have always struggled with that. i guess i just want to know that i have truly learned from it...so as not to repeat it's mistakes. my mistakes. at the same time there is something intrinsically tragic about life passing by... and all the countless moments that have gone... that have been reduced to imperfect memories... gone...gone with the wind.
I'm kicking a habit now that i have long held on to...although most days it feels like it's kicking me...
I keep hearing the word loneliness... several times yesterday...and a few times today from different people who have very independent struggles. today a 30 something young lady expressed how at the end of the day she feels so alone...despite her friends, her successful career, her dreams... it is truly inescapable... at times we can soothe it for the moment, at times we can paint over it with laughter... at times we can even convince ourselves it doesn't exist... but then again at times it waylays us all.
I am looking over the city as it dissipates into nothing more than silhouettes...under the dipping sun... it seems all so transient like it hardly exists at all... without the light all things are merely shadows...phantoms... matter taking up space. I can't help but wonder about all that is going on in every home, vehicle, single room apartment... hospital, airplane... where ever...is not this world filled with despair?
i say a general prayer for the broken tonight... for the lost... for the hopeless.
I wonder how Christ felt as he withdrew from the crowds...i can picture Him looking over the towns from a distance... I wonder what He felt...what words might be used to describe that. He was hope incarnate, the only solution...and yet He must have known that there were so many even He could not save...
It's nearly dark now... evening lamps have turned on throughout the plaza...and drivers have turned on their headlights to navigate through the darkly streets... but still i feel unresolved... and so i'll leave this blog in a similar state... without resolution...
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Worth a smile.
On a lighter note, I hung out with my buddy Chris sunday night, whom I went to California with a few weeks ago. He gave me some pictures...we forgot the camera most of the trip but the day we went to Malibu it was in his hands...
It never fails, anytime I'm at the beach an old hairy man insists on wearing a speedo...that day of course was without exception... it's not enough to say that i'm bothered by it... it offends me.
So I filled my friends camera with these photos and Chris took them to Walgreens to get them developed and a cd made. :)
I guarantee his sexuality was questioned.
I had hoped to get these pictures sooner, so that I could include them in a blog about my trip... but it was just as good to get them tonight... for a moment I was back in southern california... cheers!
It never fails, anytime I'm at the beach an old hairy man insists on wearing a speedo...that day of course was without exception... it's not enough to say that i'm bothered by it... it offends me.
So I filled my friends camera with these photos and Chris took them to Walgreens to get them developed and a cd made. :)
I guarantee his sexuality was questioned.
I had hoped to get these pictures sooner, so that I could include them in a blog about my trip... but it was just as good to get them tonight... for a moment I was back in southern california... cheers!
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