Rising Son

When is the End of the World

I'm watching this television program on History Channel right now about the end of the world.

It's centered around the year 2012 doomsday prophecy. They've spent considerable amount of time describing a woman named "Sybil" who during the Roman era before Christ, predicted that the world would end around this time.

You know how it is. Back in the late 1990s, all the major media channels made a big deal about Nostradamus and his prediction that in the year 2000 the world would end. I remember even Pat Robertson saying that it was true. Then, it never happened.

So Nostradamus is out, and now Sybil is in.

I saw a website that predicted the Apocalypse, or "the Rapture" would begin in August of 2007. And this website even quoted Pat Robertson that this is when it would happen. Well, so far, Pat Robertson is still here on Earth, so I guess he was wrong.

Here's what I believe.

First, the world won't end, at least not for another few billion years. When we talk about "the end of the world", we're talking about a massive loss of humanity. Otherwise, there's nothing Mankind can do to physically end the world.

Second, as it stands right now, the world continues to add more people than it takes away. If we keep on adding more people, then certainly there will come a time when there are SO many people on this planet, that we'll become vulnerable to pandemics. The Earth can only produce so much fresh water, so much food, and so much oxygen. Eventually these commodities will become so valuable, that it will be the cause of great war. Anybody can predict this. Whether or not it happens on 2012, I doubt it.

Third, a doomsday means different things to different people. If you're an Iraqi, then sure enough, the world did in fact end as you knew it. But it just changed, that's all. If another country were to invade the United States, and actually occupy it, then Christians here might claim that the Apocalypse started.

Fourth, this talk of global warming as an indication that the end of the world is coming is baloney. The Earth has been going through cycles of warming and cooling for a million years. That's how much of our geography was created, by ice sheets growing and receding. This isn't the end of the world, this is just Nature doing what it has always done.

As far as these soothsayers like Nostradamus and Sybil, they're just people who rolled the dice and came up lucky. For every prophet who predicted that the world will end in 2012, there were a 1,000 others who predicted a different year. I mean, how many fortune tellers has this world produced? If you consider that Humanity will indeed experience disaster over the centuries, then sure enough at least of few of those soothsayers will get a lucky roll of the dice.

Labels: Religion

Posted: Monday, October 08, 2007
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My Mother's Getting a Divorce

My mom is pursuing a divorce from her husband, this is her second husband, and now her second divorce.

I came from her first marriage, BTW.

So basically, I'm losing a step-father. Yet, I don't feel like I'm losing anything. While he was my step-father, he never really bonded with me. I don't necessarily blame that on him. The reason why is because when my mom married him, my real dad would visit me every now and then, and we'd spend a weekend together. I think my step-dad didn't want to take his place out of respect.

I don't know when my mom's second marriage fell apart, but it fell apart a long time ago. They were married on February 12, 1976. I was there for the ceremony.

I think the death-knell of their marriage came when they moved from California to Colorado. At that point, my step-father lost all of his friends. When they were still in California, he had several friends from work, and from his old days in the Navy, coming over to visit, or they'd hang out at some bar.

But after moving to Colorado, he had to start all over again with making new friends. Except, he didn't make any new friends. I tend to think it's because he lost his social skills by that time. As he grew older, he just wasn't that spry, fun-loving guy he used to be.

So without friends, he became angry. And the more angry, the less social he became.

I guess I look at myself as I get older. Lisa and I are not the passionate, cute, and amorous couple we used to be. Lisa's declining health makes things difficult, and the flame just burns more slowly for us.

I hope our marriage lasts as long as we both shall live. We still manage to have lots of friends, and we make it a point to visit them and attend parties, and get togethers. Our friends is probably the biggest reason why we haven't yet moved out of Menifee.

Labels: Divorce

Posted: Tuesday, October 02, 2007
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I Hate Emergency Rooms

Lisa and I spent most of the night last night in an emergency room.

She was fine yesterday morning, until about half-way through dialysis. Then her temperature went way up. The nurses at the dialysis did nothing for her. Then she came back home. And complained for the next couple of hours.

This high temperature has been plaguing her for the past few days. She had seen a doctor a few days ago, when it started. He prescribed antibiotics. But she stopped taking them after she started feeling better. And then, of course, it flared back up.

So I asked her if she had taken antibiotics. She said, "just now". So I said, "then drink some water", and "get some sleep". But all she was complain about feeling hot. So, I reminded her again what to do, and went back to my office. Then she starts yelling, and beckons me to come downstairs to her. So I go downstairs, and asked, "what?". She says, "come on, we're going to the hospital".

Then I started arguing with her. I told her there's no reason to do the ER just for a temperature. How many hundreds of times have I ran a temperature, and went to the ER? None! Moms, Dads, Grandmas, doctors, always tell you to just drink some fluids, take some Tylenol, and get some rest. In this case, she even had antibiotics! But no. She has to go the ER for her temperature! So, I got angry.

So she starts walking out the front door, and I started following her. We drove to the ER, and sat there for 3 1/2 hours until they finally called her in. Then she laid on a bed for another 2 hours until I got pissed off, that I left her there and went home.

When I got home, I started feeling sorry for her and angry at myself. So, I picked up her favorite blanket, and drove back to the hospital. She said a doctor finally saw her and gave her a boost of the same antibiotic she was on. Now, she was just laying there waiting to hear further word.

So, I stayed there another 2 hours until the doctor came back and said she could go home. The doctor said that she had a urinary tract infection, and to keep on taking the same antibiotics.

So basically, the doctor did little more than just give her some more of the same antibiotic she was on, and then tell us to do what I had told her to do originally. She spent nearly 9 hours there just to hear that.

We didn't get home until 4:30am. We went straight to bed, and I woke up around 10:30am. Then I get a call from my accountant that my appointment with her was at 10:00am this morning. So I basically blew that too.

Labels: Hospitals

Posted: Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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My Own Religion

I'm not religious in the sense that I don't follow any of the established faiths.

My mother and father were not religious. As far as I know, my grandparents were not religious either, except for my mother's mother, who was a Bhuddist.

But I do have my own religious beliefs.

I call it "religion" because that's essentially what any belief is, as long as you practice what you believe.

I believe there is an afterlife. I say this because I don't believe that life is just DNA and cellular structures. Life is a force. It's what makes our souls. If you believe in souls, then you probably believe that souls are separate from bodies.

I don't necessarily believe that souls go to Heaven or Hell. I'm not sure what happens to our souls when our bodies die. I don't have a belief for that one.

I believe that if anyone judges us, it's ourselves. We know what's right and wrong, based on our interpretation of what the public thinks. If the public says that homosexuality is immoral, then anyone doing it would have it weigh on their minds to some degree or another. Except today, the public thinks differently about homosexuality than 50 years ago. So, people judge themselves much differently today than long ago.

If there is something that's making you feel guilty, or just bearing down on your conscience, it's going to make you do things. It might make you tell lies, or hide the truth, act defensive, or avoid something altogether.

I tend to believe that when you die, the things that weigh on your conscience, and to what degree they weigh, influences what happens to your soul. It's kinda like God judging you, except you're judging yourself. I think that's where the Catholic "confession" comes from. If you confess your sins, you're saved. In my case, it's more about clearing your conscience.

So throughout life, I try to keep my conscience clear. You can see the parallels of that with Christianity. I grew up in a Christian society, though I am not Christian. But you could say that I've been influenced.

I get a big laugh out of the "big bang" theorists. There are people who call themselves "scientists", who claim that the Universe was created from a "Big Bang". And from that, stars and planets formed, and from the stardust, and the radiant gases, came life. Except this hasn't actually been proven yet.

I mean, no one has actually recorded the Big Bang on video, or in photos. They haven't recorded it in any form at all. In fact, there isn't even conclusive evidence. There is only evidence that suggests it. So then, why is the "Big Bang" considered to be science? Why isn't a religion?

In fact, the Big Bang theory is actually that, a religion. It's a belief, designed to explain where we all came from. Is that really what religions are, theories to explain where we came from?

And the Big Bang theory has its wackos who stand up on pulpits and preach the gospel, that we're all just cellular bodies, made up of gases, and that any talk of Christianity is unconstitutional. Yeah well, they sound just like the preachers and the priests, who spout out their gospel too.

You see, it's all a fucking religion. Whether God created the Universe, or whether the Big Bang created the Universe, it's all beliefs, with no proof, designed to explain where we came from.

Therefore, since we don't know where we came from, and we don't know where we're going, we might as well just follow that old phrase, "Do unto others, as others would do unto you". And, pack a gun just in case.