Dear ANU

Here's my recent e-mail to ANU:

Dear Australian National University Scholarships Office,

I have been perusing my options for universities to study at for next year and have been quite tempted by the courses and level of quality services that your education facility provides. It has come to my attention that I may wish to attend your university, so I thought that it may be polite to offer my services and presence for next year. In exchange for my attending your university for my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, I offer my acceptance of any form of scholarship that you are willing to bestow upon myself.

My services to the university will include postgraduate research in the areas of philosophy and mathematics, the promise of work of a very high standard and a future commitment to ANU. In the fields of logic, number theory (including the Riemann Hypothesis) and epistemology, I am willing to attribute all findings to the universities own research teams.

Please do read my offer with utter openness of mind and depth of thought, as my services will not be available for too long a period.

Yours sincerely,

Christopher R. McMaster

Don't Bother

Existence is futile. The universal nature of things is as follows: the universe is not deterministic, but is [instead] absurd. It can be reduced to no absolute and as such, it can be reduced to nothing comprehensible. As all absurdity is, the universe is to be disagreed with. It is known that there exists a ‘space-time continuum’. This continuum must be ignored in all its deterministic qualities. Time is subjective and we should ignore its presence. We can learn nothing from the past, just as we cannot predict the future. Release all rationalistic thoughts. We can sense what is here and now and this is all the knowledge that is needed and is obtained for a meaningful existence. Existence is in the self and the self is in existence. Consequences are false- ethical questions; created in the past and left in the past.

Intrinsically flawed are those who search for meaning in life, for "love" is "hate" when "love" and "hate" are merely words. All acts warrant success, virtue and truth. That which is true and great is merely that which is.

Life and death are inherently illogical concepts, for now is all that matters. Remember not those from the past, as they will not remember you; but instead live to please the greatest entity there is: you.

Religion: The Baseball Bat Analogy

I've been contemplating an analogy for the destructive power of religion. My analogy runs a little like this: Religion is like a baseball bat, put it in the hand of a baseballer and it is useful and helps the possessor through some tough situations, but give it to the reckless few and it is quite a dangerous weapon. My analogy relates to the teaching of religion, religious rights and apparent "truths" to the blind and ignorant follower. In the hands of such a person, no thought is used and the religion is accepted as truth and all knowledge of tolerance ceases- morbidity follows. The person becomes aware of their newfound sense of apparent "power"; religion is a weapon.

Now, give religion to a whimsical, wise and thoughtful person, allow them to retain their sense of tolerance, equality and an inherent sense that they are merely human- religion can be a source of strong moral and faithful conviction. Religion can be freeing to those who use it wisely.

So, would you agree with this? Does this apply to all religions? Is the war in Iraq a product of the manipulation of Christians and Muslims both of the ignorant batter in nature?

I would say "Yes" to all the above.

The war in Iraq is fueled to the religiously ignorant from both sides. George W. Bush is no Christian, but he plays up to them to win the support of the American majority: the ignorant, conservative Christians. Over in Iraq, it merely takes this group to rile up their Islamic counterparts.

Post any thoughts by following the link to the right or by merely clicking here

Delusions are catching like the common cold

People are being struck down with 'routine' cases of maniacal delusions. There are people in schools, churches and public places in general, being struck down by what now seems to be 'common' deluded tendencies and actions. Just this day I witnessed no less than 5 deluded people in a common place of schooling! I'll post more about this on the weekend, but for now; a warning: Stay sane and think logically!

Cartesian Dualism for Rocks

Is there a distinction between the modes of the mind and body of an igneous rock? I'd like some answers. It seems apparent however, that the mind and body of an igneous rock, are as one corporeal mode, occuring through entirely naturalistic causes.

This is an interesting thought, but one question more interesting is whether rocks have free-will, or do they have predetermined destinies? I'm currently tending towards a Calvinistic view with regards to inanimate objects.

Ever wondered how Plato's The Republic, would have turned out if Socrates had have been a 4 foot tall Panda Bear? I'm thinking it would have been a little different--- and rather hard to translate.
Edit: I've recently realised that having Socrates as a 4 foot tall Panda Bear would produce some logistical problems in ancient Greece, considering the climate and lack of cold water fish. It also may merely not have worked, considering that Socrates did have a speaking role

New Zealand Politics

I was informed recently of a group in New Zealand, rallying against the government in what they believe to be 'immoral decisions'. Let's begin by saying that the New Zealand government, is the most democratic government in the world- they have referendums! It is these referendums that this group is fighting against.
Now, I call myself a Christian, but so do the members of this group. I will not be associated with such a fascist group of political neophytes with objective ethics that scream "truth" and shut down any whimper of tolerance. Hypocrites.

Death and/or Taxes

Death and/or Taxes

Death and/or taxes’, that’s the latest craze according to à la mode tax accountant Frank Walsh. “The post-modern era of erratic movements and elegant hand waving has been succeeded by the pre-post-post-modern fad of death and/or taxes”, Frank told a man purchasing a tyre from K-mart yesterday evening, “it’s all the rage in this neo-platonic society of the future, for one to ‘drop dead and cough up’, or merely do one of the previous without having to perform the other action”. Frank, who spotted the rising trend in the summer of 1994, informed the woman standing next to the man buying the tyre that she ought to purchase herself “a casket or a tax book”, in preparing for what he calls, “the Die and/or Can’t afford to buy” revolution.

Walsh is not the only high profile taxation officer predicting this somewhat dramatic shift in the preferred metaphysical basis of populism. Bob Lough and his taxation team at Unemployed Accountants International, have been training a budgerigar from ‘Tim’s Pets and Pet Accessories’, to formulate an algorithm to predict the popular trends in the main stream senile culture- including lawyers and dentists. This budgerigar has predicted an identical trend to that of Frank Walsh’s, which indicates the truth in this seemingly sensible prediction.

Another side to this new to be fashionable trend, is the methods in which one performs these soon-to-be popular acts. Just how does one die fashionably? To answer this, one must curtail their activities and get themselves along to the trendiest crematorium in town. Here it is found that the stars are all dieing with no grace- hair in a mess, nose closer to one’s ear than to one’s mouth, teeth intertwined and most importantly; drugged up. So, now we know the fashionable death, how about the fashionable tax form?

“For a modish tax return, use an outrageously coloured pen, such as red or green, or even a combination of both”, Frank claimed, “and make sure you write down only that which you can know a priori”. This last statement is where the heated debates are concentrated. Can one really be hip, if they only choose to disclose information that one knows a priori? Was Descartes cool in his time- yes, he was. In fact, after Cartesian Dualism took off amongst secular markets, Descartes was admired as a pop-culture icon. On the other hand, when we look at those who tended towards empiricism such as Locke and Hume, we find a boring group, bumbling and unpopular in the eye of the fashionable crowd. It’s hip to be analytic.

The trend of the future; we can know today. Let the trend be your friend- die and/or pay your tax, but do it the fashionable way.