What are the odds of that?

Today I found myself wondering that if something has a non-zero chance of occuring (eg: I win the lotto 100 times in a row), does that event become a certainty if it is attempted an infinite number of times?

I think it does actually (but I have been wrong before)

Well that got me thinking about the argument of the creationists that goes “the odds of this world just appearing by accident are so slim that it points to the hand of a designer/creator”. (Let’s no worry about the obvious question of who created the creator for now)

Well I think we all agree that the odds of this world happening the way it has are indeed very very very small. But … we know the odds of it happening are NOT zero! How come? Because it’s here!

Now we also don’t know how long this universe has been here. 15 billion years? Maybe. But what if it is infinite? That would mean there has been an infinite number of expansions and contractions. If infinite, it means this universe as we know it is no longer here by small small chance, but is here because it is an absolute certainty.

But then … I’ve been wrong before.

When relationships end

The value now so hard-won earned

Is in the lesson that was learned

We thank our teachers, through our tears

For through their love we see our fears

If we are married can we …

• Masturbate?
• Remain totally monogamous?
• Swing?
• Be vegetarian?
• Sunbathe naked?
• Gather at Stonehenge for the winter Solstice?
• … whatever you can dream up

It is unfortunate that most (rather lazily) let the notion of marriage define their relationship, rather than use their relationship to create their marriage. In fact, there are as many different “marriages” are there are couples.

Your marriage is whatever you and your partner declare it to be.

Yet you alone decide and declare Who You Really Are.

This is the delicious paradox of our existence, that we have no need of any other to Be Who We Really Are, yet need others in order to express Who We Really Are.

The tension between the Now and the Not Yet is sensed at all times.

What every gal needs to consider

So you’ve met Mr Great and settled in together. Wonderful!

And of course you expect him to be monogamous. (and fair enough too!)

But just realise the implications of what you are creating. You are saying to him that you are now the one and only woman on the face of the entire planet that he can kiss, touch, caress, shag, …  (you  get the idea).

You are actually placing an enormous responsibility on yourself.

Imagine if he needed a certain medication that he was unable to self-administer, and you were his nurse. He is now dependent on you. He has no choice in the matter.

If you demand or expect monogamy, you have limited his choices of sexual partner to exactly one! You!

I’ll say it again … You are actually placing an enormous responsibility on yourself.

It is my observation that many woman don’t get this. Don’t get it at all.

Yelling and screaming and kicking and spitting

Years ago when  did my counselling course, I learnt there was a school of thought that life is a series of grief processes, starting at birth with the sudden loss of the safety and comfort of our mothers’ womb.

When someone does any or all of the above, they are probably just expressing grief.

Even if it means taking one on the chin, it’s probably better to respond to their grief rather than how they are expressing it.

James was wrong

The book of James in the new testament is supposed to have been written by James, the brother of Jesus. James the Just (his nickname) stayed in Jerusalem with Peter during the early days, until the Romans decided to finally flatten the place.

James (or whoever the idiot was who wrote it) said “Resist the devil and he will flee”

This is just plain wrong. Completely wrong actually.

What a tragic waste of energy and effort and emotion I expended as a teenager all those years ago “resisting the devil” as he tempted me with such awful sin as sexual fantasies and the urge to masturbate. The more I prayed and fasted and resisted, the stronger the “devil” seemed to get!

The more you think about something, the more reality you give it and the more powerful it becomes.

James would have been far more help to everyone if he had written “Look the devil square in the eye and see him for what he really is”

I am so so so so glad to be free of Christianity and it’s awful teachings.

The $35 million dollar question

I recently asked a friend of mine what she would do if she won $35 million.

She listed off eight things.

All eight of those things were for other people.

Very cool.

The Sharemarket and Religion

Listening to the radio in the car this morning, I was struck by the similarities between the sharemarket and religion.

Both are governed by the fundamental human emotions of fear and greed.

If we think the stock will rise, greed kicks in and we rush to buy. When the prophets (analysts) predict impending doom, we sell in fear (and sometimes panic).

Religion appeals to our greed in promising eternal life to those who believe and act (and donate) as desired, and also to our fear should we not toe the party line, with threats of eternal damnation in a very unpleasant place (how’s that for the ultimate scare tactic!).

I must say that I’m so very very glad to be rid of the yoke of organised religion from my thinking, and am so very very glad  to have the simple freedom to decide Who I Really Am for no other reason than because That is Who I Wish To Be, and not because I am greedy for some prize or fearful of some punishment.

A first class enigma

For the greater part of human history, man has had no real idea at all how his body worked! The countless millions of chemical processes that occur every second in every cell in our bodies, the memory, imaging and reasoning abilities of our brains, the wonder of one strand of DNA that somehow contains enough information to build a complete human being!

Entire civilisations have been and gone – Incas, Mayans, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Vikings - yet none had even the most basic understanding of how their own bodies functioned. No idea how the body produced its own heat. No idea about blood circulation, respiration, digestion, or how their hearing or vision was possible. No idea at all of the vast complexity of the molecular makeup of their bodies.

How is it that our bodies have developed to such a high level of complexity, but our understanding has not?

How is it that a caveman groping around grunting and eating raw nuts is at the same time the most complex organic machine that we currently know of in the universe?

A winning plan!

Hey … I just had a really great idea to get people to join my club!

Tell them that if they DON”T join, something really really BAD will happen to them when they die!

but …

if they DO join, something really really GOOD will happen to them when then they die!

How about that folks?

(I should really patent this!)

PS: If you are wondering what sparked this off … just got a christian pamphlet in the letterbox today