Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Help, My Brain Vomited On My Computer!


iHola, mi amigos! I've decided to throw something a little different at you this month. This post has two sections. The first is a list of my random thoughts consisting of philosophy, religion, and silliness. The second is a collection of some memorable quotes I've jotted down from my favorite books. I don't have any real agenda here other than entertainment and thought provocation. But then again, I suppose that's always been my agenda.

Random Thoughts

An omnipotent God could have created the world 6 trillion years ago, 6 thousand years ago, or 6 seconds ago, and still make it look the same to us. The question among Christians shouldn't be when the universe was created, but why.

In writing, description shouldn't be used to fill in the gaps of the readers' imagination, but to paint a picture they can imagine.

We see youth 3 times in life: As a child, as a parent, and as a grandparent. How does this affect our outlook on life?

With obvious exceptions, most people tend to smile, laugh, and play with babies. Does this false representation of universal kindness have any affect on development?

I believe Jesus was fully man and, as such, was tempted by all of mankind’s temptations, but He could also raise the dead and cast out demons. He knew He was God. It must have been comforting for Jesus to know all of His beliefs were correct.

At His last trial, the Jews believed Jesus was a prophet, but not God. If His motives were selfish, why would He never deny His Deity when it was the only thing keeping all the Jews from believing His teachings?

Learn what the TRUE character of a person is, not the caricature you have formed in your mind for them. Then, you will cease being let down and learn to love the person for "who they are."

God says, “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. (Rev. 3:16). It’s hard to believe that God would punish sincere Atheists, who have put so much serious thought into the all-important subject. I can think of two alternatives off hand: 1) those who claim the title of Atheist do so not with true belief but with a selfish motive (i.e. revenge, power, attention, freedom from responsibility) or 2) the Christians in the said Atheist’s life have failed in their duty to properly present Christianity to a lost soul.

Vampires prefer AB+ blood.  Proof: Four different men transfused Lucy Westenra (Dracula’s favorite restaurant) without ill effect. (Dracula, p. 164)

Some Memorable Quotes:

"Just always be waiting for me, and then some night you will hear me crowing."
-Peter Pan

The trees are not tall or luxuriant, but they are somber, adding an air of severity to the scene
-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

"My good friend, if, when we were once out of this fight, we could escape old age and death henceforward and forever, I should neither press forward myself nor bid you do so, but death in ten thousand shapes hangs ever over our heads, and no man can elude him. Therefore, let us go forward and either win glory for ourselves or yield it to another."
-Sarpedon, The Iliad

"Now you must cast aside your laziness, for he who rests on down or under covers cannot come to fame; and he who spends his life without renown leaves such a vestige of himself on earth as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water. Therefore, get up; defeat your breathlessness with spirit that can win all battles if the body's heaviness does not deter it."
-Virgil, Dante's Inferno

"You never know what will happen next, when once you get mixed up with wizards and their friends."
-Rover, Roverandom

"I wonder what future generations will say about us. My grandparents suffered through the Depression, World War II, then came home to build the greatest middle class in human history. Lord knows they weren't perfect, but they sure came closest to the American dream. Then my parents' generation came along and [screwed] it all up--the baby boomers, the "me" generation. And then you got us. Yeah, we stopped the zombie menace, but we're the ones who let it become a menace in the first place. At least we're cleaning up our own mess, and maybe that's the best epitaph to hope for. 'Generation Z, they cleaned up their own mess.'"
-Mrs. Miller, World War Z

"You know the first step to being a successful, loving couple? Not getting in each other's way. You'd be amazed how many people don't understand that."
-Pearl, Year of the Black Rainbow

"To stay awake all night adds a day to your life."
-Stilgar, Children of Dune

"Body and brain, [White Fang's] was a more perfected mechanism. Not that he was to be praised for it. Nature had more generous to him than to the average animal, that was all."
-London, White Fang

"When you are a writer and a speaker, sometimes people think you have your crap together"
-Miller, Blue Like Jazz

"The idea that creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time."
-King, On Writing

And that started in me...the passion for the Occult. Not everyone has this disease; those who have will know what I mean...It is a spiritual lust; and like the lust of the body it has the fatal power of making everything else in the world seem uninteresting while it lasts.
-Lewis, Surprised by Joy

Rulers must somehow nerve their subjects to defend them or at least to prepare for their defense. Where sentiment of patriotism has been destroyed this can be done only by presenting every international conflict in a purely ethical light. If people will spend neither sweat nor blood for "their country" they must be made to feel that they are spending them for justice, or civilization, or humanity... If our country's cause is a cause of God, wars must be wars of annihilation.
-Lewis, The Four Loves