Gleeks take over the Emmys!

First of all Glee got jacked at the Emmy's. No offense to Modern Family, but Glee deserved the Emmy hands down. And they established that in the first 5 minutes of the show when they did their Glee inspired opening number... and it was a HIT!!

Nothing short of the most Inspiring animal EVER!!!

Book Covers

I'm not gonna lie... I do judge a book by its cover. Guilty as charged. I'd like to say that covers don't effect my decision, but they really do. I like books better if they have cool covers. You know, even the feel of the book effects my opinion of it. The material of the cover and the pages (I prefer the matte paperback covers over the shiny ones). The binding and the sound of the pages as you flip though the book. The crispness and cut of the pages. Yeah that all matters to me. I'll admit it... no shame here. Just the truth.

Of course, I'm not completely shallow, the story matters as well. But if that story is wrapped up in an aesthetically pleasing cover with nice crisp pages in a pretty font... so much better!

The Worst Insult Ever

Have you ever read 'I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell'? Well I haven't but I have heard a great deal about this book and I did read the customer reviews on the back cover of this book. They vary from talking about the author as a hero and saying that he is the most disgusting person alive. But one such quote caught my eye. It said something along the lines of ...

"I use to believe in God, but after reading this book I know He does not exist. Because no just and decent God would create a human being like you"

Wow. I mean ... WOW. Just let it sink in. I can think of no worse insult you can say about someone. My mere existence on this planet is valid proof for you that there isn't a God because I am such an abomination? Crap.

Usually when people change their mind about God or religion it is due to either obtaining new information about their religion, an alternate religion or science, or they go through some dramatic experience that effects their belief system. You know... something horrible happens in their life and they lose faith in God because God should have prevented it. Or even the opposite... a non-believer could experience something miraculous and see that as evidence of something greater... some supernatural entity that watches over us.

But never have I heard of the existence of a single human being causing the demise of one's faith. There is literally nothing worse you can say to someone other than "You are such a horrible example of a human being that I no longer believe in a God." Not I have lost my faith in humanity, which lets face it.. is a pretty fickle concept in many of our minds. There have been many moments in my life where I have lost and gained back my faith in humanity. Its a day by day theoretical battle. But I have lost faith in the possibility of a God? In the possibility of a supernatural force of good? In the possibility of a creator? Now that is a pretty intense insult.

All I have to say to the author of "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" is that this woman, who ever she may be, fully believed in a God whilst knowing of the existence of people such as Hitler, or Saddam Hussein or Stalin... people who have caused genocide and have gone down in history as some of the most evil human beings to ever exist. But still her faith remained intact. No, it wasn't them who made her question her beliefs. It wasn't them who shook the very foundation of her faith. It was YOU. You and your stupid book killed her belief in God. Now what do you have to say for yourself?!?

The eye

I was reading a book the other day that mentioned the eye as a prime example for how amazing and complex nature and biology are. It got me really thinking about this organ and I have to say, the eye is quite extraordinary and frankly a little weird. I mean it focuses according to distance, lets in different amounts of light, takes what is in front of us and shoots that information to the brain where we can register it and form an image. WHAT? Like really?...... weeeiiiirrrddd.

You can move your eye around in its socket to see in all different directions. You can see colors and details. You can see things close up and far away. Crazy pills! The human body is truly amazing, mind boggling... a perfect specimen in nature. Kinda makes me want to be a doctor just so I can study the body and know how everything works. So I can be like House... be able to hear symptoms and be like "oh this is what is wrong".

(side note: remember that human body exhibit... the one with the real human bodies showing all the intricate systems inside the body. The one where they removed everything from a body except the veins... in the tiny places it looked like netting so tiny I don't know how they achieved it. The one where they showed every organ, every muscle, every part of development... yeah that one. AMAZEBALLS!!!)

Review of Language of God by Francis S. Collins

Ok no offense to Francis S. Collins, but this book just isn't good. At least I was bored. Mostly because he didn't come up with anything new. I have read all this before and by more intuitive and enlightened authors such as Thomas Paine and C. S. Lewis. Even Dan Brown had a go around on Science and Faith coexisting harmoniously or even using science as evidence of a God in his book Angels and Demons. In fact the best parts of this books are quotes from other writers, of which there are many. His whole premiss for the existence of God is human's Moral Law. That section of the book was written like a high school paper on Lewis's books about moral law. It was like blah blah blah... Lewis quote... blah blah blah... Lewis quote... blah blah blah.

Not that I blame Collins. Lewis has a unique understanding of Christianity. One that is unparalleled by any other writer in my experience. He also is talented in explaining ideas, concepts, theories, questions, etc.... that have baffled all others, in a way that makes complete sense you then feel stupid to not have thought about it that way before.

My favorite Lewis quotes from Collin's book are:

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." - C. S. Lewis (referring to the universal longing for God among humans)

"But supposing God became a man- suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God's nature in one person- then that person could help us. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God. You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us; but God can do it only if He becomes man. Our attempts at this dying, just as our thinking can succeed only because it is a drop out of the ocean of His intelligence; but we cannot share God's dying unless God dies; and He cannot die except by being a man. That is the sense in which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself need not suffer at all" - C. S. Lewis (if you understand that your first go around I commend you)

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. he would either be a lunatic- on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg- or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

- C. S. Lewis