Online Debates are Fun

Recently I have been using my lunch breaks to engage in a lively theological debate on an online forum. It has been a lot of fun to see people passionately defending their beliefs in a non-violent way.

What I have discovered is this: I am really very proud to be Mormon. Tremendously proud, actually. As I have listened to people explain their beliefs about God, all I can think to myself is "Man, I am glad that I don't have to believe that about God."

For instance, there are people who believe that God 'picks' his chosen people, and that those people are pretty much destined to be saved, no matter what they do. These people tend to be good people because they are destined to be good people, and not because they choose to. Well, I have a lot of problems with this line of thinking, but if you want to read my entries, which get rather long, you can find the discussion under this link (but it might be a private discussion, in which case you will have to join Facebook.

I am so happy to be a member of a faith that helps me to see God as fair, loving and considerate. As a father who is concerned not only with our happiness, but with our growth and our potential as well. A father who wants his kids to grow up to be the very best and most they can be, instead of wanting us to grow up to become just a horde of adoring angels.

I love the church. I know that it is true. I am thankful to my Father in Heaven for personally answering my questions about the church, for helping me with my confusions, and for guiding us all through our trials. I am grateful for modern prophets who do not attempt to predict the future, but rather do the much more difficult task of guiding the present.

God is great. Mormonism rocks.

Just a Gripe

Gripe 'O the Day: People who do not think about the words they say/write. This is one of my permanent pet peeves, and I bumped into it today. I was reading a classified ad, and the person posting the ad said, literally "A cool new website pacifically made for dog and puppy owners!" Pacifically? As in related to or resembling the Pacific ocean? I can only assume she means specifically but there is no way to be sure. Then again, the site could have been made by the Pacific ocean itself, in which case her statement is completely correct, but somehow I question the likelihood of that scenario.

I am not suggesting that everyone who speaks English be an expert at the language. I just want people to start thinking before they talk/write. If you say something, make sure it makes sense! For instance, the statement "I could care less" said in the context of 'I don't care' DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!!!! If you do not care, then you could NOT care less. Saying "I could care less" implies that you do, in fact, care. This is a basic logical mistake that countless hordes of people make all the time. Why? Because they do not think about what they are saying.

Another one of these that bugs me is when people use the phrase 'never the less' in the wrong context, like this: 'John wanted coffee. Never the less, he got some on his way to work.' Incorrect. Nevertheless is used correctly only when indicating overcoming or disregarding resistance, such as 'John wanted coffee, but there was a dragon in the coffee shop. Nevertheless, John walked in to get his coffee anyway, and was roasted like a Luau Pig.' See the difference?

One that I run into frequently is the misuse of 'in spite of.' The definition of spite is action done specifically to harm or annoy/inconvenience another person. The meaning has changed to also mean against the wishes of another person. However, saying something like 'In spite of the weather, we had a picknic anyway' does not make sense to me. Really? The weather? We are spiting the weather, which has no will, no self, no real identity? Is that even possible? Doesn't compute in my mind.

There are tons of these mistakes, and I could go on forever about them. It is when I come across one like 'pacifically' that I fear our educational system is creating testers aplenty, but not so many thinkers. In my field we call it metacognition. The ability to think about your own thoughts and actions in a somewhat objective way. It is a sign of maturity and intelligence. There was once a time when our ability to self-edit was highly esteemed. It seems that esteem is falling away. More pacifically, people just don't seem to care about being logical when they speak. And why should we be, when we can text things like 'c u l8r' or 'myob, lol' and get a point across?

Say Hello to Duke

The newest addition to the Roberts' family is Duke, our new Jeep Patriot. It took us a long time to figure out what kind of car we wanted, and we looked at just about every different kind of car you can imagine, but we finally found one that had what we were looking for: 4X4, roomy, good warranty, good MPG, decent power, and some storage room. The Jeep has all those things.

We (I) named him Duke after the G.I. Joe commando, which I thought was fitting for a Jeep. The Patriot is not quite so sleek and myserious as Snake-Eyes, nor as butch and brainless as Sgt. Slaughter, so Duke seemed a good middle-ground fit.

So now Sweets (our Honda Accord) has a boyfriend. Once we can park them both in a garage together, we are hoping for a little harvest of 4X4 Honda ATVs.

Siiiick

I am sick. It is a funny kind of sick, too. I can tell you precisely when I got sick, and what I was doing. A flash-bulb kind of sick.

I was playing World of Warcraft around 10:30 at night. One swallow: fine. Next swallow: scratchy. Third swallow: belt-sander-in-my-neck. My reaction: What is going on here? My neck stiffened up, my knees and thighs started aching, and I got an instantaneous headache. I stood up, shuffled in to where my wife was watching TV, and said to her, in a little pathetic voice: 'I just got sick. I am going to bed.'

Well, that was the beginning of what is now a 5 day bout of some kind of flu/cold/infection/nastiness. The symptoms keep changing. Sore throat went away to make room for annoying cough. Cough vacated for post-nasal drip. Drip faded away and was upstaged by phlegmy cough, which has stayed on, but is now accompanied by runny nose and shakiness.

Pretty much everyone in the office is sick, and I have not been able to force myself into seclusion, so I have likely made everyone around me sick (sorry in advance, Will, but maybe this way you can finally take some time off. . .)

As diseases go, it is not bad. No boils or lesions, no weeping sores or anything like that. It is highly unlikely that I will even die or be otherwise inconvenienced by it. It is annoying, however, and it will not go away.

Being sick so that you can miss school on test day: cool. Being sick so you cannot really enjoy a wonderful autumn afternoon: not so much.