Things I forgot about, school, and critical thinking.

Yesterday I was heading back to the train for my lovely commute home when I remembered that there was going to be some politicos at Union Station: Chicago's illustrious mayor, Illinois' illustrious governor, and John Kerry. Needless to say, it was a media and police circus, including my favorite branch of the CPD, the bicycle patrol. I would admit to you at this time that I once signed up to take the CPD exam, specifically because I wanted to be a bicycle patrolman. I digress. I had questions that I wanted answers to which I could have posed to all three of them, in order: Why tear up Meigs field in the middle of the night? Why not move to Springfield? and Why are you against gay marriage? Given, the nicest question was to the governor(our only nickname for him is Blago, we're just not as hip as CA), followed by my loaded question to Kerry, and then my insinuation of a dictatorial regime to my own mayor(if you didn't hear about the Meigs Field fiasco, you can read about it here). I know y'all expected me to keep the gay marriage topic on top, but there's not much for me to debate with Kerry, except that I'll have a very hard time voting for him.

In other news, I started school last night. It's hard to get back into the routine when you've had some time off, but last night was fun. My Java class should be interesting. I've already done some self-study on Java, so I've got a head start, and it's something I want to learn to be good at, as that'll help me achieve my age-old dream of computer game developer.

Then came my Psych class. I won't harp on the fact that that was my major the first time I went through college, and that although I didn't actually achieve a degree from said first time through, and that it's asinine that I would have to take that(along with English tonight) because I've already had those classes. That's not the point. The point is, I'll get an easy, easy A from the class(barring showing up drunk every night for the next 15 weeks) and I like the teacher. He's animated, casual, and very straightforward. I like that in a teacher. We spent most of the class in a "getting to know you" type fashion. He has little note cards on each of us, where he asked us all kinds of optional but personal questions. I answered all of them but "what are you good at" because I didn't, and don't like to brag. Plus, I couldn't come up with anything wise-assed enough to write to indicate that if he really wanted to know, he could ask me personally. Now, of course, I realize I should have written "being a wise-ass." That would probably have gotten some remarks out of him. We'll find out next week.

One of the things he was going on about last night at the end of class was critical thinking. He was playing around with us, trying to get us to decide when he was telling the truth and when he was lieing. It was fun. The Beavis and Buttheads of the class got all huh-huh-y when he said words like scrotum and clitoris, which annoyed me(we're supposed to be adults). But at the very end, he asked the class if we believed in god. It seemed like everyone said yes, but I know there were more folks like me(who don't) in the room. He then said that he had no proof that god existed. He then said that non-believers also had no proof. Then, the thing that made me a little mad happened.

He said that there's this theory about the beginning of the universe, the Big Bang Theory, we've all encountered it before, so I'm not going to explain it again here. He spoke about how the earth's rotations on its axis and around the sun, and how it has never missed that 365.25 days to make its trip around the sun, and how the other planets do the same thing, without problems. He then said that there cannot be order from chaos without some intervention- and gave the example that if you throw a bunch of marbles on the floor, that they will not form a pattern(as in a solar system) without someone helping that change. He then said that that proves the existence of god, insinuating that that's how the solar system got the way it is.

It's a good argument, but still flawed. It's oversimplified. Gravity is what made the planets and the sun and the moons and all that stuff. Gravity is what keeps it turning, circling and churning through the cosmic dance. Does that make gravity god? I'll then go on to quote the Hitchhiker's Guide, where god says "I refuse to prove that I exist, for proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing." Thinking logically, well, proving to oneself that god exists is to prove its nonexistence. There's nothing like a catch-22, is there?