(no subject)

[which_chick]

Yesterday's news: Yield curve inverts. CNN Money has the story here.

Also, I played The Bible Game last night. It contains distressingly tiny amounts of actual Bible knowledge and is mostly composed of non-Bible challenge activities. The challenges are video-game-ish and I suck at them (example challenge: Outline blocks on Tower of Babel to make them crumble, kind of a tetris effect.) compared to the computer generated characters. The game show format is remarkable for the sole singular feature I found amusing as (forgive me) hell: The Wrath of God. Think Whammy in Wheel of Fortune, only you get a rain of frogs, a swarm of locusts, masses of flies, and so forth. Playing the game show (called "Do Unto Others") is like being a pharoah, almost. You see a lot of The Wrath of God in this game, to the point where I just started to laugh at the rains of frogs. I mean, they're totally random and there's nothing you can do about them. You didn't deserve them. I can understand dying in DDR if I fuck up enough. I can understand dying in, say, Quake II if I fail to account for the snipers. I can understand getting eaten by the ghosts in Pacman. However, my mental concept of video games does not allow for random fucking rains of frogs. It doesn't make narrative sense. Anyway, given the frequency with which this game employs The Wrath of God, it was clearly designed by someone who'd read his Jonathan Edwards.

Comments

[sara-merry99.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of Charles Manson's work--we're talking the murderer here, yes??

There are some very scary people who can make all sorts of things sound reasonable and right. Like the dude who's name I'm blanking on in Jonestown--Jim Jones? And those Heaven's Gate people, their guru was like that.

But then I think some people really *want* to believe *something*, anything--something firm and definite and more solid than "We can't really say anything that's at all accurate about God except that God Is". (Which is why I'm never going to have followers, I suppose.) And those people who want to have *someone* give them definite things to believe can wind out in harmless places like ashrams and monasteries, in annoying places like Fundamentalist prayer groups, and in dangerous places like holding a gun on someone who disagrees with them.

I agree with you that making someone happy all the time isn't necessarily the best thing for them--but I think you can get pretty far away from benevolence in letting people learn from their mistakes.

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

True. I won't let my kids do something that will kill them or maim them.

The thing is... just a thought... if this isn't the end all and be all life (though I live it like it is), then death is not the worst thing that can happen. Maybe. I don't know...

[sara-merry99.livejournal.com]

Even if this is the be-all end-all life, I don't think that death is the worst thing that can happen. I mean, "death before dishonour" is kind of trite sounding, but ... I think there's a point there.

Because life is about more than just living and staying alive--we're all going to die, there's no escaping that--so what you do with your life is what makes a difference. Whether you believe in heaven/hell, reincarnation, or oblivion, all you can control is how you live *now*. And living with honor and according to your principles is more important, maybe, than simply keeping alive.

Sorry, I'm being even less articulate than usual and I'm not sure I'm even *right*. But it feels right--I'd rather die with self-respect than live without it. But, of course, in the actual situation of choosing, who knows what I'd do.

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I know there are more important things out there. I know there are things I would die for. The spouse and the kinder being three of them.

But those are just words until something like that happens to come up. How do I know how I will act until the crunch comes (hopefully it will never come).

So while I agree that there are things worth living for, and things worth dying for, I'm also one of those obsessively picky people who can't generalize enough to say, "I would die to protect the constitution" or anything like that.

As Missus Pongo said in 101 Dalmations, "How can I depend on a thing that depends?"

[sara-merry99.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with you there--until the situation comes up (God forbid) then I can't say what I'd actually do.

I know what I wish I'd do. But *shrug*...

Honestly, I hope I never find out and I hope you never find out. :)