Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year! And all that jazz.

It's been a stressing week here at home and I am ready for the new semester more than ever. I have two Anthropology classes lined up: Physical and Human Society. I have Ant of Human society with a visiting professor that I have heard great things about and Physical Anthropology with a professor that's been at the university for a long time and about with which I have previously spoke with and sat in on his lectures, so I'm super anxious to start those classes. Not to mention I get to finally get my hands wet in evolution, well, in a class anyhow. The lecture I sat in on with my soon to be Physical Ant professor had to do with an extraordinary transitional fossil which greatly intrigues me.

Anyhow, I've been pondering a lot lately about what makes something true or false. The beliefs people adopt by means of enculturation are given to be true outright, no matter how absurd. We are taught to believe things which gives the most logical answers to our questions, and most people, actually, a very large majority of the human population never questions such beleifs on any levels. That is, of coarse, what makes cultures and the process of enculturation so intriguing. We as humans usually learn things one way, and that one thing becomes truth, and through time and space results have become rather...imaginitive in many ways. But to a person who beleives such things and knows no other things in a certain respect, these become absolute truths.

The idea that a person will be sent to hell for not believing in one Christian belief or another becomes true to the person(s) that beleives it. In this way, we develop many of our own truths, and that's where it becomes complicated.

You see, it's very possible for a truth to be false, but a surviving method in enculturation only teaches absolutes. If something is right, or true, then on no level can it be wrong, or false.

However, such thinking will lead one to an extreme level of social darwinism, however, I am also only speaking in my experience, which is primarly lower middle to low class american enculturation. Which I can definetly say that the thought processes of social darwinists still exists in lower classes, which may very well be a distributing factor to why they're still is a lower class in a country that supposedly is "the land of opportunity."

But enough theorycrafting.

TLDR; I have a hard time staying on target.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

On the first day of Atheistmas, my true love gave to me...

So I'm back in the warm recesses of my hometown for Christmas Holiday break, and having a pretty good, boring time. I've managed to beat Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days and get some reading done. It's good to get away from campus, but things tend to get rather boring in my hometown.

Anyhow, I know I promised a quality post last Thursday, but some things came up and I had to leave earlier than expected, so my sincere apologies. I've had a lot on my mind recently and think some of those things will be really good posts. All I need to get before I make those posts though is a bible so I can accurately state my argument. Time on a computer here is...limited, so I may not be able to make that post before I get back on campus, but I'll try to nonetheless.

TLDR; ~Excuses on a BS tree~

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Busy busy busy

This past week has been super busy for me, so I apologize for my lack of posting. Finals week starts tomorrow and I was lucky enough to be able to take all my finals within 3 days, so Thursday I'll have a good post up here to read.

Right now however, I must get back to studying. But, as promised (even though it's a little late) here is my Anthropology Essay that I received a 92 on (which is good with this specific teacher as A's are hard to squeeze out of him I found out). It's on the Universality of the Incest Taboo, enjoy!

TLDR; Quality post on Thursday, and wish me luck on my finals!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Climategate? Orly?

Still busy studying for finals, but since I've had my head in my Geography book all day I figured why not share my thoughts on the whole AGW "conspiracy unveiled" emails.

In case you have no idea what it is I'm talking about, this video should explain the issue as well as the obvious debunking of it.



Now, it's probably not surprising that I believe this is a non-issue. It's simple quote mining by the normal people you'd expect to do so (Republicans) without said people having any since of knowledge on such a subject who run with whatever they find without checking their sources all for the sake of making themselves look like douche monkeys and inspiring posts like this.

Maybe it's my fault for falling for this trap (Admiral Ackbar, where are you when I need you?) but I felt like I needed to say at least something on this matter, and hey, the Earth and all it's troubles were on my mind.

What disappoints me the most over this whole "controversy" is that this is going to set Geologists back by hurting their credibility and thus keeping them from making improvements today for better living tomorrow. Think of all the money wasted on these networks as well that could have been used to make a difference. If anything, this is showing how little money grubbers care about the earth, as long as it hauls in ratings and gives large company owners another excuse to butcher forests, then everything's fine!

But everything is not fine. We're killing this earth and people on it for the sake of wealth. In the Amazon, America is taking forests for our own profit, then turn around and tell the native inhabitants not to harm the forest, thus keeping their culture from evolving while spouting hypocrisy. However there are fighters out there, but they're pushed to the side of making a difference for the 'Next Big Story' about how Global Warming is a fraud, pathetic.

I'll stop here before I start stepping on the feet of Freedom of Press.

TLDR;
Go plant a tree.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

A Few Things...

First and foremost, I've joined The Atheist Blogroll! You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

Secondly, sorry for my absence over the weekend, finals are fast approaching and I've been busy this weekend finishing revising my paper for Anthropology. I'll post it on here sometime in the following week if anyone would like to check it out.

Which brings me to my final point, as I said, finals are fast approaching, which makes me realize I might have picked a bad time to start a blog. Anyhow, I might not be able to post everyday like I would like too, and after finals I go on Holiday Break which means even less posting since I won't be taking my desktop with me home. But I will be posting some, so check back sometime for sure. Once next semester starts though, expect a LOT of posts.

TLDR; Atheist Blogroll FTW and expect absences.

Friday, December 4, 2009

About the Title...

So I have plenty on my mind I could write about, but instead of writing about any of that interesting stuff, I feel like saying a few words about the title I chose for this blog.
I realize it could probably come across as a religious title, that "Great Man" could mean 'God' and Genesis could be referring to the bible. Let me say that this is not the case. Strangely, I did not even think it could be taken that way when I made it, which may call for a name change, but I don't plan to do so as of yet.

Let me explain:
"Great Man" as I used in the title refers to one of my favorite Anthropological Theories, namely, The Great Man Theory. This Theory basically states that for a great change to happen in a large culture, or even all cultures, that one person (of either gender to be clear) would have to take some sort of action to start the cycle of change. If you have ever seen the movie Lady in the Water by M. Night Shyamalan, then you have seen a Hollywood representation of this theory.
I used Genesis in the way it is uncommonly known for, which is its definition, which simply means a beginning.
So, essentially my blogs name is "The Beginning of Someone Who Will Change the World." Which now that it's spelled out seems very pretentious and cocky of me. Do I think I am a "Great Man?" Not exactly, I hope to change the world someday, though I cannot and will not say I have it in me to change it as much as I believe it 'needs.' It's just a name I liked, it has that recurring consonant sound that does not make it being a long title too long to care to say, so that's why I went with it.

TLDR; The Title is not religious...and I bet M. Night Shyamalan took an Anthropology course sometime in his life.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Beginning has Nothing to do with the End

So I was talking on facebook today and a friend suggested a book for me to read. Well, that's all fine and good, and it seems like I would like it...but it got me thinking about the long line of books I've yet to read. I am also a pretty slow reader as well when it comes to certain books, like factual books, like the majority of which make up my list of books I need to read. Anyhow, because of this, I was trying to figure out which books I wanted to finish first, and which ones I could wait on. Then my mind wondered across a book that I've been putting off for a really long time...

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Now, I received this book as a gift from my former fiance's grandmother, back when I was a Christian. Back when I received it, I couldn't wait to tear into it, but, at the time, I still had a big list of books I had to read. So, in the meantime, I let my former fiance (at this time just my girlfriend) borrow it. I finally received it back about 2 years(!!!) later right as I was entering my freshmen year of college...this year. Now by this time, I had more or less become atheistic whether I was calling myself an atheist or not, so the book got put in the "later pile" for a lack of interest. Now, fast forward to today, I come across it again and whether I should read it. My thought process proceeded something like this:

Hmmm, it would be neat to read now that I wouldn't be mindlessly agreeing to every word. I could even get a laugh out of it and point out all of the mistakes and possible bigotry. Though should I really waste my time reading a book by a man so thoughtlessly controlled by false ideas in an attempt to twist words to make something undeniable?

Pretty normal thoughts I suppose given my current beliefs and the sources I have to thank for them (Namely PZ Myers). Though after this thought, I had a vague memory of when I was a Christian when a friend of mine suggested I read On the Origins of Species by Charles Darwin. It's been awhile, but I am pretty sure my thought process proceeded something like the following:

Evolution? Well, it would be helpful to know what atheists believe so that I may be able to refute it whenever dealing with one. Plus it might be pretty funny to see what nonsense they believe in. It's not like it would change my mind or anything. I believe in God and no theory would make me think otherwise.

See a pattern there? Now, predicting I have a pretty normal thought process given who I was and am at the given periods, I think the statement I'm about to make proves true for those who are religious and atheist.

We are all self-defeating in this aspect.

Common knowledge, no? What I meant by this is the notion of someone denying another belief because their current belief. Giving it no chance to prove or enlighten, no matter how convincing it is. Now, for those people who have doubts in their beliefs, that's whom such arguments for beliefs are for. Simply put, a Christian trying to argue convincing reasons for faith to a confident Atheist or an Atheist who shows the most convincing evidence for evolution to a confident Christian is just wasting their time.

Now is this to say that anyone whoever changes their beliefs were never confident with their past beliefs? Certainly not, not to begin with anyway. Whenever there is a beginning, there tends to be a great deal of simplicity that many people are content with. Now as time passes and such a person starts to learn more about said belief, I think that is when confidence either starts to fade or build more.

Now whether a person's confidence in such a belief fades or builds is entirely situational.

Now, by saying this, am I making the claim that I was not confident in myself being a Christian. Certainly, for if I was, I would still be a Christian! Now this did not always prove true, at one point, of course when things were 'simple' as it were, I was very confident in my belief. As time passed however, and I learned what it 'meant' to be a 'Christian,' that is when I started to realize, that for me, things didn't match up and that I had many problems with such a belief.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

TLDR; People set in their ways will stay in their ways.

EDIT: After thinking about this some more, and not feeling entirely confident about the statement(s) I made, I'll be doing a follow up post to this one and will post the link to such a post here.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Obama say what!?

So it's the day after, and everyone is talking about President Obama's choice to extend the war in Afghanistan. Okay, so I want the war to end as much as the next person, but I have to say, I understand and agree with his reasoning. And I think he'll be able to pull off his goal of ending the war within three months after the new year.

Why you ask?

Well, 30,000 troops is a big number. And sure, they will not be sent all at once...but regardless, it's still a F$%#ing zerging!

Though I guess only time will tell. Obama is surely not the democrat he claimed to be, but I am still holding out for him. Here's hoping he'll turn it around before people start protesting.

TLDR; Obama apparently plays starcraft.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A Long Time Coming

It feels good to finally have a place to let loose the crazy monsters in my head. Expect to see long, long, long posts containing just about anything, but mostly consisting of course material from my current classes and my take on it, or just whatever is on my mind.
If you want some info about me apart from what I've put up already, I'm a liberal free thinker (aka Atheist) who is a Freshmen at Eastern Kentucky University, majoring in Anthropology. I enjoy video games, reading, medical drama's, and long walks on the beach.
That's all I have for now, so until next time, cheers!

TLDR; I'll write stuff on here.