Entries this day: UPS bible

UPS

9:41pm CDT Monday 16 October 2000

Yay!!! We just lost power in the house, but my computer stayed on no sweat!!! Wheeee!! The power was only off for about 45 seconds, and that certainly used to bug me when I'd have to run upstairs and turn off the computer just when a little storm blew through.

I have recently decided to get a PhD in Philosophy. I just decided this tonight after it's been brewing in my head for a while. Maybe I should start with some undergraduated philosophy classes. Wende has a book Classics of Western Philosophy; before I read it I'll philosophize my own rantings here online.. Write a State of my Philosophical Mind Address.

I'll start outlining it.

reality                                      
   are we watched			     
       information storage		     
					     
   are we judged			     
                                             
god                                          
                                             
nature of the universe                       
   really really big                         
      too big to waste                       
                                             
time                                         
   as we see it				     
   as god sees it			     
                                             
life                                         
   on earth                                  
       as humans                             
           most important thing in life      
                                             
           emotions are stored               
   on other planets                          
                                             
emotions                                     
   love                                      
                                             
relationships                                
                                             
evil                                         
   sin                                       
                                             
after life                                   

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bible

11:56pm CDT Monday 16 October 2000

So I was just reading Wende's NIV Student Bible. This is essentially my first time ever to read the bible at all. Ever. I started with Genesis.

Questions as I remember them (I didn't take notes)

• Where did Cain's wife come from?

• Why did God get so mad so quickly?

• Why didn't god like Cain's gift?

• How did a flood kill all the fish?

• How did an olive branch grow so quickly after the flood?

Mostly I'm anti impressed with how angry god became so quickly. I've heard that God is more spiteful in the Old Testament, and now I'm reading that for myself.

See, here's what I'm thinking:

Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Fine. God said don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Oh, that reminds me that just previously in the chapter (in the actual creation part) God apparently said man could eat of any of the trees.) Fine.

So Eve ate the apple. Adam ate the apple. (I'm skipping all the ridiculous *blame* part ("she made me do it!" "the snake made me do it!")) They ate the apple. Fine. Now suddenly God is pissed and said forever your lives will suck because you have made one error.

Think about this for a second. There has been one entity that told them what to do. Parents tell their kids what to do and kids don't do it. Kids forget, they test their boundaries, kids explore for themselves. How was it any different for Adam and Eve (kids) and God (parent)?? It wasn't.

Don't say, "but they disobeyed God. They had no frame of reference. Here's an example frame of reference: I can yell at a guy in the street and probably nothing will happen. I can yell at a cop in the street and probably get a line of questioning or worse. I can yell at the President and have Secret Service on my ass in two seconds flat. I can yell at the King of England in 16th century and lose my head over it.

See - there's a heirarchy. Adam and Eve didn't have that. They just had one level. So for god to pull out the big arsenal and say "gonna make you sweat" etc was just a big jerk thing to do.

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