Stumbling Toward God

wishing for more information is not an effective way to solve a puzzle.

imagine creating a puzzle in which two major options are given, one of which is true and the other is false. You are allowed to do as much research as you want to on either one of the options or in comparing the two options with each other. Use outside sources, do experiments, discuss with others, anything you wish. Now imagine that after 2000 years of research and reason in which the sum of human knowledge increases more than fifty fold from the time the puzzle was presented to the present, it is just as hard to choose one over the other on the basis of reason and direct experience. I imagine there is no amount of light that can be shed on this question that will make it more clear.

The point is to choose and to stand by your choice for as long as it seems like a good choice.

Take Saul. He chose to persecute christians with such ferocity and dedication that he caught the attention of the divine and was recruited to the other side. He had a fierce dedication to do right, and when it was pointed out to him that he was not doing right, he immediately changed tactics. It did not matter if he was doing right. What made him righteous was that he chose to do right and continued to choose to do right when his errors were pointed out to him.

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and what if...
i wasn't here
if the voices in your head could give you an answer
what would the angels look like and what could they possibly do?
it always strikes me that when i feel like i need a hand up no one is around, and when i'm on my feet everyone has a hand to offer.
first this made me really bitter
then i realized i was a pain in the ass to help up...

have you ever tried to look at the white of a page you are reading, focus on the background instead of the forground, sometimes i feel like that is what it is like... to find the good... to find a way out... to construct a new understanding...

but, it is much easier to slip back, to the forground, to the novel, easier to read then to sit with myself...

yeah angels could come, and rub my shoulders, that would be fantastic!
 

>The point is to choose and to stand by your choice for as long as it seems like a good choice.

What if it only seems like a good choice for an hour? Or even a day? And then after another day it seems like a good choice again? But not that day in between?

And am I to assume that your name is the roman numeral 3? 'Cause I haven't read any Anthony in at least 12 years.

Anyway, on to my real point. I don't know exactly know how it works, but iTunes thinks that I would enjoy the following songs:

1. Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
2. Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child
3. Even If I Wanted To -Jason Alderan
4. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
5. Cannonball - Damien Rice
6. Lover I Don't Have to Love - Bright Eyes
7. I Ain't Saying My Goodbye's - Tom Vek
8. Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock - MC Lars
9. If God Will Send His Angels - U2
10. No Shame - Jeff Bates

So, I haven't heard of most of those artists... (and what's up with Destiny's Child?!) But that's beside the point. Do you see the kind of thing I'm dealing with here?
 

If it only seems like a good idea for an hour, than presumably you are making very good progress, because it has been replaced by a better idea. No doubt there are times when the only thing one can do is go back to the drawing board. There is something to be said for doing the absolute that you can with what you have to work with at the time. Certainly, if you don't chase it, it won't reach out and bite you.

And hey, good job, that symbol is a reference from piers anthony. One of those fun books, I can't remember which one, but fun concept.

Perhaps the good people at itunes just can't concieve of a person who doesn't like at least one destiny's child song... I do believe it is that kind of world.

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Look, forget about Destiny's Child. It should come as no great shock to my loyal readers that I like U2. However, judging from the other selections on the list, it was somewhat of a victory for iTunes to figure that out. But given that, what are the odds that they would choose that particular song... the same one that I quoted only two days before? It's not one of U2's better known hits. In fact, it's 106th on their list of most downloaded U2 songs. So why that one?! Let's further assume that they would only recommend singles, which narrows the field to about forty some U2 songs... but even then why would they recommend one from almost 10 years ago instead of something from the latest album? Besides, I never limited myself to only quoting singles, so the odds of choosing the same song go way back up again. (By the way, I've gone back to iTunes since then, and there was a whole new list with no U2 at all, which only adds to the randomness.)

Is it really just coincidence? The whole thing seems really improbable. What then? Am I to take it as a sign from God? Is there supposed to be some meaning in it? I am spiritually starving and this is the crumb I get thrown? What am I supposed to do with that?
 

From what I know about Omens, the good ones are patterns that are multilayered and inescapably point back to a single message. It's only the one coincidence that catches your attention. Digging reveals the deliberateness and/or specifics of the message.

Looking for how the itunes search engine works, I came up with this random post on someone elses blog. check out the first comment in relation to the blogger's entry.
http://michaeljhoward.blogspot.com/2006/01/itunes-recommendations.html

Song 3 entitled "even if I wanted to" on your itunes list is so obscure that it does not appear to exist at all on google or the CD Database

and the lyrics for cannonball seem roughly appropriate:

Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt
Still a little hard to say what's going on

Still a little bit of your ghost your witness
Still a little BIT of your face I haven't kissed
You step a little closer EACH DAY
Still I can't SAY what's going on

Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannonball

Still a little bit of your song in my ear
Still a little bit of your words I long to hear
You step a little closer TO ME
So close that I can't see what's going on

Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to lie
Life taught me to die
So it's not hard to fall
When you float like a cannon

Stones taught me to fly
Love taught me to cry
So come on courage!
Teach me to be shy
'Cause it's not hard to fall
And I don't WANNA scare her
It's not hard to fall
And I don't wanna lose
It's not hard to grow
When you know that you just don't know

All in all, a pretty weak case for a pattern. For an entity that parts the waters of a sea that is more than 100 miles across so that a nation can cross, or raises the dead to send a message, I would guess... probably not an omen of god
 

"It should come as no great shock to my loyal readers that I like U2." almost made me pee my pants, soooh funny

so... god is reinforcing your interpretation of the world through u2 songs?

anomo.- from the other blog site, that shit was funny

i think these number deductions on the probability of the u2 song are searching. so what!

the cannon ball lyrics are surprisingly applicable to your current predicament you ask me.

i don't know it could be a 'tim sized' omen, i mean you are not the chosen people or the only real son
 

The relevant probability is not the chance that iTunes would pick that song. Its the chance that *something* happens which you would take to be a 'sign from God' if it happened. And, depending on how many things you are likely to take as amazing coincidences and how many things you are aware of each day, that number is probably fairly high.

that something improbable will occur prompting people to say "isn't that improbable" is actually quite probable. So color me skeptical. But of course it could still be a sign from god even if it isn't improbable. i think thats more a question of what you are going to do with the significance you find in it (i.e. does it have any practicable use).

anil