Letting Go

Hello again. I have decided to cut back on my work with Oakbox Productions and have been focusing on my 'normal' job and spending time with the family doing family things. This gives me lots of time to think, time that was wrapped up in programming and system design is now available for contemplation and reverie.

And I keep coming back to the whole God issue. Many of the books mentioned in my last post talk at length about the inconsistencies in the bible. So, I thought it would be a good idea for me to look them up for myself. It seemed silly to take the word of atheists on faith. Ha!

My first hurdle was something simple and obvious, the genealogy of Jesus. There's not a lot that can go wrong there, right? I mean, this is central to Christianity as a whole. If your deity does not have the proper bloodline, then everything else fails. And it did.

Fail, I mean.

Matthew's genealogy:
abraham, isaac, jacob, judah, perez, hezron, aram, aminadab, nahshon, salmon, boaz, obed, jesse, david, solomon, rehoboam, abijah, asa, jehoshaphat, joram, uzziah, jotham, ahaz, hezekiah, manaseh, amon, josiah, jeconiah (coniah jehoiachin, shealtiel, zerubbabel, abiud, eliakim, azor, sadoc, achim, eliud, eleazar, matthan, jacob, joseph

Luke's genealogy:
abraham, isaac, jacob, judah, perez, hezron, arni, admin, aminadab, nahshon, salmon, boaz, obed, jesse, david, nathan, mattatha, menna, melea, eliakim, jonam, joseph, judah, simeon, levi, matthat, jorim, eliezer, jesus, er, elmadam, cosam, addi, melchi, neri, shealtiel, zerubbabel, rhesa, joanan, joda, josech, semein, mattathias, maath, naggai, esli, nahum, amos, mattathias, joseph, jannai, melchi, levi, matthat, heli, joseph

They agree on the first 6, the last 1, and there are a few other random matches interspersed in there.

Okay, some Googling led me to several common explanations for the discrepancies. Among these the Catholic explanation was quite entertaining: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06410a.htm

There are, in fact, lots of theories. But they are all crap unsatisfying. This is fundamental. There isn't an end-run around this issue. Hell, it's the very beginning of the new testament of a book that is supposedly infallible and perfect in every way. This doesn't even start the laundry list of other errors, contradictions, and outright falsehoods. This is just the most obvious one I thought I should check first.

So what now? What do atheists DO with themselves?

I'm not going to hell

It all started when I was in college. Exactly when is hard to pin down, a general push toward critical and logical thinking (I have a degree in Electronic Engineering) and a general increase in the number and types of view points I was exposed to. An argument with a Baptist Minister involving my girlfriend was also a contributing factor. But somewhere in that time period, I began to have doubts.

Not serious doubts, nothing that would lead to damnation and a rejection of the faith in which I was raised. Just a . . . cooling. A recognition that some things just did not add up. A recognition of the fact that I was no longer hot for Jesus. A new appreciation for the humor of the 'fish' christian symbol with legs attached.

When I moved out on my own and to another city, I had too much time on my hands and a friend in the book distribution business. She gave me some really good books to read, and I read them. Elaine Pagels 'Gnostic Gospels' was one that still really stands out for me. At that time, Christianity was something that I had temporarily set aside, a well-worn coat that I assumed would be put back on at a later date. Reading that book opened up a whole new universe. Sunday school is not the place to learn that the early Christian church was really just one big argument (or one hundred little ones). Seeing that (and some other reading on church history) really undermined my faith.

The whole protestant reformation was kicked off by a man that enjoyed burning people at the stake. Is this a faith, a religion worthy of adulation? I had been told 'Jesus is Love'. I was told this many times. I was told this so many times that it was a while before I could actually SEE what the man had said. There was not a lot of love there. If what I was basing my belief on was a book put together out of self interest, a dubious historical personage, and a lot of creative wish thinking and the words of power hungry ignorant savages, what was there to have faith in? Where was the truth?

During this time, I poked around other religions, a little self study in comparative religion. Taoism was nice, the Pooh version of it anyway. I also got into some psychology texts and some pseudo science fads held my attention for a while (Carlos Castaneda, anyone? A little Celestine Prophecy to tide you over?) All of this study gave me a headache and serious doubts about objective reality and my own existence, not just the faith of my childhood. That was taking things too far, so I stopped. Then I met my wife and, for a long time, had more important things to focus on.

About 2 weeks ago, I read Christopher Hitchens' "God is Not Great", followed quickly by Sam Harris "Letter to a Christian Nation" and "End of Faith", then Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion". And now . . .

NOW, I can honestly say that I am not going to hell. I am not, and you aren't either.

On the independence of Kosovo (orig 18-feb-2008)

A part of your country declaring independence just for funsies is illegal. Many lands have had lot's of wars over this very issue. The American Civil war comes to mind. There have also been wars where the secessionists have succeeded, the American revolutionary war also comes to mind. (this is a bit US centric, but I actually attended school there and read books about US history, so deal with it)

So, secession is a great wrong that must be fought against and a great virtue to shake off the chains of a corrupt government. Isn't that nice? Everybody is right and wrong at the same time. So, I started thinking about it, what tilts secession in one direction or another, what makes it a virtue or an evil?

The answer, when you think about it, is 'Whoever wins gets to decide.' It is just that simple. Declare your independence, get enough allies or some really good representatives talking up your side of the situation to foreign governments (PR is always an essential element of the revolution) and win the war. Tada! It was a glorious revolution. In the alternative, you keep those crazy bastards from stealing a chunk of your land and weakening your country and, Presto! It was a sad page in your nations history that everyone is trying to forget about now.

Countries with secessionist movements in their borders (Spain and Russia, just two totally random examples) are very much against Kosovo's indepdence. They say that Kosovo will set a precedence for their own separatists. Most nations recognize the basic truth in the paragraph before this one: whoever wins gets to write the history.

I think Kosovo will keep its independence, no matter how much some countries pound their chests. Serbia is guilty, as a nation, of attempted genocide and horrific attrocities against their own countrymen. They lost the moral high ground, and, in my opinion, the right to stop Kosovo from seeking its own destiny.

Peak Oil, Airships, and Helium (orig 01-jan-2008)

America is squandering what will, in the near future, be an important national asset.

Some Facts:

• The world is running out of oil. There is a lot of talk and hope for the future of alternative fuels. These alternatives will, with care and attention, lessen the blow, but they will never match the current energy wealth that we all enjoy today.



• Airships (or dirigibles or Zeppelins) have always enjoyed a fringe enthusiasm. Many companies over the last 60 years have tried to bring back (actually, the height of the 'Zeppelin age' wasn't all that high) airships as a viable alternative to fixed wing aircraft. Slashdot article or this Popular Mechanics article for a little light reading on the future and this Wikipedia article about it's past.



• The United States has the largest reserve of Helium in the world. An increase in demand for lighter than air vehicles means that this helium will become more important, even vital, to our future. And they are wasting it.



• When you read the article above, you will see that most helium comes from natural gas wells. And who is ramping up to be the world's largest producer of natural gas? Why, Russia of course. But I haven't seen any evidence that they are trying to collect this strategically vital resource.



• An American company recently developed a technology that I think will put airship usage over the top. Thin film flexible solar cells could provide an additional power reserve for airships (I do not think that you could fly SOLELY using solar energy, at least fast enough to be useful). But if you could save up to 30% of your fuel costs during daylight operation, that's a bargain!

Taken together, what does this all mean?

Airships ARE the future. They are fast, consume less oil than fixed wing aircraft, have massive lifting capabilities, are quiet, and require less real estate than fixed wing aircraft airports. Airships are not as fast as jets, but I think if the choice was between a 9 hour jet flight cramped up like a sardine, or a 2 day flight in relative comfort (think a long train journey with sleeping berths) it would be a close run thing. If the 2 day flight was 1/5th the cost of the jet? No contest. The jet would lose out for the same reason that the Concorde lost. If taking an extra day of travel time means saving 2 or 3 thousand dollars, I'll take the extra day.

I've only seen a little bit of this (see the HAA design in the Popular Science article in the fact section), but the design doesn't seem to take it far enough. Imagine if the total upper surface of a 120 meter airship was covered in thin film flexible solar cells. You could slap an electrical power assist on the airship's engines to increase your fuel savings. As a bonus, when not in flight you would have a large solar array plugged into your power grid whenever an airship came to town.

Hydrogen as a lifting gas is not a good idea, it is a big reason why the Hindenburg went up in flames. The designers KNEW this was a problem. The Hindenburg (and its sister ship the Graaf Zeppelin) were both designed to use Helium as a lifting gas. Unfortunately for the Germans, the only big reserve of helium in the world was owned by the United States, and they weren't sharing. When airships become important, even vital to world transportation, the USA was poised to be in control of the most vital component, the helium gas that makes it all possible. Unfortunately, they are letting it hiss away, (see facts section). So, whoever has access to the most natural gas wells, and acts NOW to start capturing 'new' helium will have a tremendous advantage in the near future. If you have the helium, you get to say who flies and who doesn't, isn't that nice?

Recommendations / Predictions

The United States should immediately redirect its efforts toward increasing its strategic reserve of Helium and should designate it as a strategic asset. That means you get selfish about what you have and greedy for what you can buy from others.

Russia, and other oil and gas producing nations, should start collecting and storing the helium that they are currently (probably) just letting escape into the atmosphere where it is very difficult to recover. The United States will:

1. charge obscene amounts of money for helium that they control


2. give preferential treatment to their own civilian and military uses, perhaps to the point of attempting to establish a monopoly on air travel


3. as the oil gets used up, our last chance to recover helium in usable quantities disappears with it

Airships will not catch on with the public for another 5 to 10 years. Steadily increasing oil prices (and consequently, the rising cost of airline travel) will make airships not only attractive financially, but also aesthetically. It will take one of the major aerospace companies taking an interest in passenger service airships before this moves forward. The smaller companies that spring up and quickly die do not have enough depth to deal with the myriad infrastructure issues that airships will need to have addressed.

Airships will bring back a more genteel mode of travel (slower, but more comfortable). Think about what this will mean culturally to the west. Fedex and UPS slow down, flying away for a long weekend becomes prohibitively expensive, airship-ports can be placed closer to population centers because of reduced noise/pollution/runway space, etc etc. There is a lot to consider.

Can intelligence be learned?

I just finished reading an article in the Scientific American How to raise smart kids. I have a kid, and I am trying to raise him, so I thought a little extra reading on my part would be a good idea. The article bascially says that effort is more important than innate ability. I have a lot of innate ability, and as I was reading the article I kept thinking that, "yes, that's exactly what happened to me." I breezed through high school, all 16 of them, with no problems or even much of a challenge. When I started college, my lazy, 'it will just come to me' mode of operation hit a brick wall. Unfortunately, by that time I didn't know how to study. American high school does not teach you how to learn, it teaches you how to obey and fit in. Obediance and fitting in are not exactly the kind of life skills you need to excel. The most important indicator of future success is your level of persistence.

The article gave some concrete evidence that effort is very important (usually even more important than innate skill). It also gives some specific examples on how to talk to your child so that you don't screw them up. I recommend it.

My office from space

I thought you might like to see my office building. I am on the top floor in the north corner. Sweet. Here is the link to Google Maps.

Website for my father

I was talking with my dad on the phone a week ago and he mentioned
that he was thinking about setting up a web site for his paving
company in Northeast Tennessee. This was a bit of a shocker for me
because I should have done this about. . . oh, 6 years ago! So, you
can see my father's web site here: href="http://www.stillpaving.com"
TITLE="http://www.stillpaving.com">http://www.stillpaving.com.


I thought the play on words was nice for the URL :)