Aaron Gillespie

Column is…. GO:

 

Alright, so, another column inspired by an idea for a top five…

 

This time its content is not solely based on it, though. So I guess that’s a bonus for everybody who actually expects things out of my writing.

 

I get the feeling I should clarify on my last top 5:. I was not intending this to be some super-God-bash-fest like it kind of turned out to be. It would be helpful to understand where I was coming from if you understand my take on philosophy as of right now. Grab something to drink and maybe a light snack, this might take a little while.

 

There might be a God. I don’t believe there is enough evidence to prove anything either direction, I mean, there are great points from both sides of that debate. I’ve decided that there might be a God, but I personally don’t believe that God to be anything like any of the Gods that you’d read about in the Bible, the Quran, the Dead Sea Scrolls, any Hindu or Taoist texts, or anything else of that nature. I believe in a God much more similar to the God you’d read about if you read Dan Brown’s “Angels & Demons” (which is, by far, my favorite book, by the way). The God that takes no real “form” as we like to think of it. I like to think that, if you want to claim a God, I think the Universe is a pretty good candidate. Energy as a whole could be another good candidate. I don’t believe that there is a omnipotent, omniscient, and onmibenevolent being which is making conscious decisions to smite certain people and bless certain others. I think if such a being exists it wouldn’t let bad things happen to good people, and wouldn’t reward bad deeds (such as Jack the Ripper never getting caught, or any other unsolved crime). I believe that universe has a way of equaling itself out. Whether or not that be by some mystical force that has powers beyond my comprehension or just by coincidence is beyond me. It doesn’t really matter which way you look at it. I don’t believe that you will have an afterlife- which really give much more meaning to this life. I mean, why spend your life worried about the afterlife anyways? Do you have to have the threat of eternal damnation to make you live morally? I mean, what happened to not stealing, raping, and all that jazz just because you think it’s wrong as a whole. I don’t believe that God created man and especially didn’t create man in his image. God didn’t explicitly create anything we see. I think that if there is a God, he created the Laws of Nature, and some properties of math, and some other shit like that. Beyond that, man didn’t just magically appear on earth. God didn’t just snap his fingers and *poof* there’s Adam and Eve. I don’t believe that sex before marriage is truly unholy or a sin. I believe that rule was made up back before the ideas of safe sex and contraception were created as a scare-tactic to get people in a committed relationship before going there. Back before contraception, you had a pretty damn good chance of getting somebody pregnant if you two had sex, so therefore some sort of commitment was definitely required to every occasion. Now, that being said, I believe that sex is possibly the holiest of the holy. I mean, the coming together of two people in such a way can’t be anything less than divine (in the non-literal translation of the word). God wouldn’t create something so wonderful and personal that deals so directly with love and compassion if he didn’t want us to use it. Also, seeing that it does deal in with love and compassion, I believe that sex should be something that is only done when you genuinely care about the person… and always safely. Anyways, besides sex, there are a few other issues I have to say before I get off philosophy. I don’t believe that there has to be a “God” to give life meaning. Life is about learning, growing, sharing, having children, and building relationships. Most of all, I think life is about having a good time. I don’t personally feel like there has to be a God to justify my existence. I think that happiness alone is a good enough reason to be alive. God is real as a concept. I mean, just the fact that I talk about ‘God’ makes it a real idea, a real thing. Something that has caused millions of lives in religious wars and various “cleansings” of different regions is a force that has real power that has to be reckoned with. God is real in that he plays such a huge part of human nature- even if most everything we know about him is (in my opinion) a fabrication of humans of the past. The Bible is a good book that teaches a lot about morals and all that, but I don’t believe it to be “the word of God” or even remotely true in its entirety. All you have to do is read it to figure out what I’m talking about (a senior citizen built a massive ship and got two of every animal on it along with enough food, clean water, and other necessities to keep them all alive for 40 days and 40 nights… plus, nobody else just so happened to be living on a boat at the time? I mean, wouldn’t Pirates have survived? Or anybody who had a boat with a substantial amount of food? Anyways, this is just one example of many logically impossible things that happens in there).

 

So once again, I’m not Satan, nor do I worship him (or even believe in his existence). Plus, despite what many of those around me seem to think, I’m not ignorant. I’ve actually thought a lot about this stuff. Probably more than most people my age. I’ve settled on Pastafarianism. All hail the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his Noodly appendages!

RAmen.

 

Alright! Off of that shit! Let’s move on to something a little less… I don’t know… serious!

 

KU is awesome. Plain and simple. I mean, I get lonely a lot, but what do you expect? I suppose it’s getting better, too. I’ve met a lot of people I really like. Most of the guys on my floor are pretty damn cool. That’s why we call ourselves Seven Beta Seven. The Forority (fraternity & sorority- we have girls and guys in the group of people who like to hang out in the lobby at night) All of which is pretty much a running joke between the members of the Forority.

 

Who would think that an American Pop Culture class could be SOOO BORING.

 

Calculus is hard.

 

“Intro to Computing” looks like it might be okay, but the class itself has had a lot of managerial complications which have made it stumble out of the gates.

 

And, obviously, philosophy is awesome. Peter (my teacher) is hysterical and really knows how to make the subject-matter thought-provoking. I think he will get tired of me always putting in my opinion about everything whenever he calls on a class opinion, though. Plus the girl who sits next to me in class is pretty cute.

 

I think I’ll end on that.

 

Top 5: Famous Internet Videos that deal with dancing that you Should Watch

 

5. Daft Bodies

 

4. Numa Numa

 

 

3. The Evolution of Dance

 

2. Here it Goes Again

 

1. What can only really be described as something You will REALLY want to see…

Quotes:

“ In the beginning was the word, and the word was ‘ARRRGGGH! "
         - Piratey quote from the “Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” by Bobby Henderson -

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 5:28 pm and is filed under columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.