No classes today! Which means I basically got out of a hour lecture and a Physics II test, not as much as I would have hoped. It looks as thought we'll have classes tomorrow, judging by the radar image, but there's a chance that my Flight professor, who commutes from Massachusetts, might not be able to make it in. That means I won't have to hand in my rocket nozzle homework!

Back with a rant! I have a theory and it is this: people have no idea how to use the various homophones of "your". In the past week or so, I can't say that I've seen it used correctly by a single person on the Internet. Of course, the people who you'd expect to use it right do- news articles, the blogs I read, etc. I haven't seen anyone who is just an average Joe Internet denizen use it correctly! When you're supposed to use the contraction as a substitution for "you are," people use "your". When you're using it as a possessive pronoun, people use "you're". It never fails! I'm starting to get suspicious at this point that they're deliberately using the exact opposite of what is right 100% of the time...

YOU'RE AND YOUR

What the hell is up with people? As far as I've seen, most Christians who have access to the media have a serious bug up their butts with atheists. I can't help but think it has to do with the kind of negative connotation surrounding the term. I forget the comedian's name, but she does an act about atheism where she says she 'came out of the closet' to her mother about her atheism and here mother said "I can see you not believing in God, but being an atheist?!" Buddhists are atheistic and I don't see them getting bashed for it. Scientologists are atheistic as far as I can tell, and they only get bashed for the con-job of a religion they're running.

Case in point about how people take any opportunity they can to stab away:

Rod Liddle Gives Atheism A Kicking In Forthcoming Tv Show

Former Today editor Rod Liddle is set to launch a broadside against atheism in a programme for Channel 4 entitled The Trouble with Atheism – which will be broadcast on 18 December. Mr Liddle says he will demonstrate how similar atheism is to religion. A taste of his distaste can be sampled in the current issue of the Spectator, in which he interviews Richard Dawkins. He ends up saying that Dawkins believes as fervently in Darwin as he does that religion is untrue. Advance information suggests that this programme will be peddling the same tired and tiresome cliché beloved of those religionists who are most threatened by Dawkins’ unanswerable polemic The God Delusion. Namely, that non-belief is a belief.

Okay, so what are his opinions? Atheism is a religion, evolutionists have faith in the theory, same tired old arguments. Like Dawkins brings up in almost every lecture, TV appearance, and in The God Delusion- atheism does not require any more faith than not believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Zeus, or Thor. If you make up a fairy tale, not believing it does not constitute a separate belief system. Furthermore, the whole 'even atheists have faith' argument is getting old, even if this guy doesn't shovel it.

Here are the 'arguments' I've had used against me along those lines: everyone has faith in love, you have faith that science is correct, and (kind of going back to the first one) everyone has faith that their mother loves them. I hope this doesn't come off as special pleading, because I really think there are different circumstances. I don't think anyone who is not foolish has faith that they will find love in their lifetimes. I think they have hope, which is fine. Not faith. I believe that my mother loves me because she has shown it (and there's a general trend in humanity for mothers to love their children). I don't have faith that science is correct. First off, I've seen it work against decidedly non-scientific methods of reasoning. Second, science is built off of the idea of using evidence to prove (or, in more cases, disprove) theories. That is the exact opposite of faith.

Anyway, end of rant. I have a Calc final that I'm probably not going to do well enough on to pass the course because I'm a lazy, procrastinating idiot.

Day 11: The food has run out. The sherpas have died from the rabies they caught from the mountain goats. I am thinking about eating Bob, but I'm afraid he would taste like stale coffee and onions. We must make the push to the top, though. I cannot let the missile be launched.

I'm not really expecting this blog to go anywhere, but I'd feel guilty registering the name and not posting everything, so I'm giving it a shot! Anyway, I'm currently a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I am a liberal, godless infidel and proud of it! Heretoforth, this blog shall contain inane rants, useless information, and 5 pounds of delicious candy. Enjoy (if you're one of the unlucky few who stumble across this desolate outpost of the Internets)!