brentashley

Tim gives his viewpoint on goodness and faith.

Okay, but really that’s not even the point. The point in accepting His grace and having a relationship with Him is to be cleansed of sin, so not to be cut off from God for eternity.

If I’m going to be around for eternity, and God is going to cut me off from him for 99.99999…% of eternity based on my entirely humane and thoughtful paltry few years on this planet simply because I failed to forge a relationship with him and be understanding of his needs when he would only ever communicate with me indirectly through prophets or symbolically through deeds, I would think he’s not a very forgiving or understanding type of guy, and further that he was somewhat spiteful. I myself have salvaged very good friendships out of worse beginnings.

So, I’m gonna carry on being a good guy as usual and when I’m gone, if there’s an afterlife, I’ll deal with it. If not, I won’t have to. If I have to suffer for eternity without appeal, review or parole, I’ll be pretty disappointed in the afterlife justice system.

I’m starting to see the first wave of Remote Scripting queries from people who are finding that the lack of JVM is making their RS-enabled website problematic for XP users.

I preparation for increased interest, I’ve revamped my Remote Scripting Resources page.

All the CSS stuff was inspired by Eric Costello’s CSS Tutorials. Somebody should step right up and give that man a job before he gets snapped up. Pay him well, keep him happy. Such talent doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

Interesting treatise on the relevance of religion. (via camworld) Don’t let the title scare you off, it’s much less hyperbolic in the text.

Two points in it resonate with me. One is that religious belief is not a prerequisite for goodness. (I say ‘religious belief’ to separate the deity and faith element from the moral and ethical teachings that come from religion)

Morality and ethics are separate from religion, and while they can take shelter under its umbrella, they are neither tethered by nor bound to it in any way.

Another is that it’s far too easy to abdicate accountability for difficult-to-face issues to the catch-all “God’s will” bin.

The time has come for humanity to be accountable only for itself for each of us to be fully present in this life and to never be so cruel as to pass off personal responsibility for our actions on an invisible God.

When I make a moral decision, it’s my decision. While I may take input from any number of sources, human or divine, I make the decision and only I am accountable for it. Right now, in this life.

If I determine that an issue is beyond my understanding, I feel no compulsion to define it as understood by a higher power. It’s just a null, to be filled in if the understanding comes along.

Of course, as always, your mileage may vary. Any viewpoint is the right one if it allows you to feel right about yourself while allowing others to approach it their own way.

XP. What’s in it for me? I can think of many reasons NOT to move to XP, but no reasons in favour.

pros:

• groovy new skin

cons:

• Passport Integration
  Really, can any one honestly tell me there is any reason I should even consider installing XP after reading about these Passport Exploits?
• Messenger Integration
  don’t need it (I prefer to use Yahoo IM)
• Forced Registration
  don’t want it
• Licence Expiry / Lockout
  if I decide to stop paying, can I continue using it?
• Increased Dependence on MS Web Services
  what happens when they start charging 25 cents for every .NET diary lookup call?

I simply cannot believe what passes for English from some people. How many times a day do they have to see a word written out properly before they cease mispronouncing it?

So he axed me, why ditn’t I pay for the two expressos for he and I with my Interact?

Do they really not listen to what they are saying? Am I really being pedantic to expect better from people? Are these rhetorical questions starting to annoy you?