Of stuff, nonsense and other things...

Time for another set of disconnected, incoherent rantings from yours truly. Here goes...

First up - I always thought that people as dumb as Joey(from Friends) could not exist. Was proved wrong yesterday. Apparently people can be that dumb, at least in some areas of their lives. Ironically, Joey himself revealed my sister's mathematical dumbness to me...A dramatic reenactment of the scene follows:

(Sis and I just finish watching Friends. Conversation begins - the subject being - you guessed it - Friends.)

Sis: Remember what Joey said to Phoebe's brother a few episodes ago?

Me(quoting Joey): "You're 28, she's 44. When you're 56...she's gonna be 88!"

(Aside: Joey is trying to convince Phoebe's brother not to marry a woman 16 years older than him...In the process, he displays mathematical stupidity...)

Sis: That's wrong - what he said was, "When you're 36, she's gonna be 88."

Me: What? But that kills most of the joke then!
(Getting an idea of what's going on...)
Me: Hang on - just what do you think is funny about that statement?

Sis: He tries to figure out their ages and does it wrong! It's funny!

Me: Yes, but he doubles their ages - that's why it's so funny!

Sis: No, if he doubled their ages then he would get it right. That's why it's 36, not 56.

Me(laughing helplessly on the sofa): !!!!

So there you are. Some of my friends have heard me complain about my sister's lack of mathematical skills, but they never seemed to believe me. Here's the proof...11 years of studying Maths and this is what she thinks. No wonder I contemplate suicide whenever her Maths exams come around - guess who has to teach?

Moving on...A couple of days ago I was pondering the religious mindset. People with a strong belief in religion seem to think that there's some kind of cosmic balance, and that Nature is essentially good, but will respond terribly to the "crimes" of humanity, punishing the wrongdoers with terrifying fury.

*ANTI-RELIGION RANT BEGINS*

Let's take a look at last December's tsunami. Dozens of religious leaders and theologians worldwide showed themselves to be consummate idiots when asked about the tsunami. The majority of them said something about "divine retribution" and "punishment for our sins", or words to that effect.

WTF?! We're supposed to believe that a bunch of unfortunate tourists, fishermen, and villagers died horribly as a result of divine retribution? Or that this divine fury chose to kill several innocent children, orphan even more, and lay waste to the homes and livelihoods of people who have no inkling of why they were 'punished' so brutally?

Apparently, no one had the nerve to go up to one of these dumb believers and say, "There's a little Thai girl whose entire family was killed in the tsunami. Her village was completely wiped out. In one stroke, she has been orphaned and rendered homeless. And she hasn't even learned to speak yet. She has no sins to speak of. Why did this happen to her?"

God moves in mysterious ways? Oh please...God, please repeat after me, "You do not punish the sinless, and you don't punish a person for someone else's sins."

Pretty elementary concepts of justice. You'd think a perfect being would have figured it out by now...

So what's my answer? Why did the poor Thai girl have to suffer?

Chance. Wrong place, wrong time. That's all there is to it. Bad things happen, but not necessarily to bad people...they're just random events. Nature is blind. She blunders along, with nary a thought for the creatures that suffer and die in the process.

Just take a look at natural history. Thousands(probably hundreds of thousands, but I'm no biologist) of species have been wiped out over the 4 billion years of Earth's history. The only reason is that they failed to survive as things changed. For most of their lives they were locked in a struggle against the elements and each other, competing for food and room to reproduce. Cruel, painful, and seemingly pointless...

So the ones who survived were the real badasses - the ones tough enough to take whatever conditions came their way. The ones right at the top - the predators - they survived because they could kick butt.

And eventually, from a long line of such hardy survivors, came an ape who decided that standing on two legs was where the action was, and the trees weren't that much fun after all.

This chap and his relatives still weren't human. The first human came a little later, when one of these apes looked around him, realized that things really sucked, and yelled "It's not fair!" and set out to do something about it.

And from the loins of this band of discontents came the deadliest predator in the history of the planet - the human. The other creatures only had claws, teeth and speed. What we had were brains(and as Sagar pointed out, spears) and an insane wish to make things fair and just, even though they weren't.

So remember this - whenever someone complains that people are trying to impose their will upon nature, take a moment to think about the difference between nature and human will. Eventual death after a painful struggle to survive - or a driving desire for fairness and justice, an unwillingness to submit and the power to do better.

Take your pick. I chose long ago.