18 June 2007

God in Statistics

Growing up, and well into my teenage years, I always assumed atheists were the majority in America. My schools always seemed, to me, to have more atheists than anything. Most of the adults I met seemed indifferent, probably agnostic by definition. Most seemed to scoff or shrug at religion. Yet whenever the students were polled, Christianity and Catholicism came out on top. I wondered if I just wasn't seeing them, or if atheists were lying when polled.

When I questioned people, it seemed to be a matter of pressure. When confronted with religious subject matter, people would endure it with visible displeasure or disinterest. Yet when it came down to reading 'Do you believe in God?' dramatically before them in black and white, they marked affirmatively, 'just to be on the safe side'.

My mother was always one of these people. In conversation with a familiar person, she would say that she did not believe in her Protestant upbringing; yet in facing an unfamiliar person or a known Christian, it was always 'Of course I believe in God!' in fear of being seen as a 'bad person'.

Lovely.

I have found this to be true of many people up to now, and today, on the Internet, it holds true. Does it not seem to you that most of the people you encounter online are agnostic/atheistic, whether they describe themselves as such or not? Either disbelieving, doubtful, or indifferent. One seems to have to search specifically for religious websites and forums to find a place where they are the majority.

03 June 2007

We Have Weather, Again?

Massachusetts has been amazingly devoid of storms for the past several years. I remember absolutely immense storms of awesomely dark clouds and lightning so rapid it seemed to nearly produce a steady daylight. I remember a tornado that picked up the tipis of a local campground and dropped them in a parking lot near the city hall. But the weather over the past several years has been comparatively disappointing.

But in the last two weeks we have had three impressive storms and one (though very unnecessary, I think) tornado warning. I spent a great deal of time out in the torrential rain today. I have missed wet Summers.

02 June 2007

Four More Years! Four More Years!

Yeah, like Hell.

Our search for a home on hold, Delanie and I seem to have loosely agreed on staying here indefinitely. I am at once excited and dubious. It is good to be settled together in any manner, and I am often proud of Massachusetts, but I am not for one moment looking forward to another strangling Winter.

It can be beautiful, romantic, and inspiring, but the toll on food coupled with the ridiculously irrelevant employment opportunities is simply not worth the climatic variety or the pride of living in the most liberal state.

The company in Carlsbad which I flew to Las Vegas in 2005 for an interview with, and which I have been so persistently seeking employment at, has recently cut most of their number, letting them go with a basic 'You're all fired,' in a parking lot, leaving only dozens out of hundreds.

I suppose that I can now thank the immensely late taxi service -- which caused me to miss the interview -- for allowing me to avoid such a crushing blow.

Nonetheless, I still have to make it to Minnesota as promised to Erick, or back to California as sworn to myself. Yet the present consists of a stifling state of affairs. Being the only two non-smoking, non-drinking, well-nourished, healthy humans in a county of shambling, overweight, zombified, straw-haired, fish-eyed alcoholics and heroin addicts is taxing on a couple's sense of external comaraderie, I think.

The condominium unit in Westfield sold for $140,000. With my share, I have, thus far, bought seaweed. It beats living on royalties from 2002-2004. I would like an arrangement like that again, but the industry seems to have gone bonkers (obviously, because it's not doing what I want).

In any case, we are planning a camping excursion to the nearby Prospect Mountain for the week surrounding my birthday. Delanie means to enjoy rummaging through the mining scraps for shiny booty, while I mean to enjoy being at least eighty feet away from ridiculous people at any given time, and together we mean to enjoy the latter with duality.

I have only ever camped in months of Spring and Autumn, never in the heat August. I look forward to it.