Knowing and Thinking

Hi all,

Just watched the film 'The Book of Eli' on Sky Anytime (thank you Sky, and my Aunt for recommending for me to watch it), and I must say, what a superb film. For those of you that have watched it, you're probably guessing what the text in the following part of the blog will be about. To those who haven't, I suggest you watch it. Don't worry, it's not pro-Atheism. Kinda the opposite, really.

Imagine life without religion. What do you see? Do you see a world of people wasting away their lives as drug addicts? Do you see a world full of people who are confused? Do you see a world full of people who go out committing crimes without any remorse or reason? Or do you see a world where wars no longer exist? Do you see a world where everyone gets along? Do you see a world with more advanced technologies? Do you see a world where the human species is preserved?

Then a person comes along claiming to hear the voice of a greater being, and explains how everyone and everything was created. In a modern, educated society such as the one we live in now, we would of course dismiss this person as being disillusioned and quite frankly, a bit weird. From my own point of view, there must be something within this human's brain that has triggered such an enormous misconception of reality (but who are we to say that they're wrong); something physical and - if you like - material that has somehow manipulated the psyche of the person to make them truly think that they have heard the voice of something unexplainable. Perhaps this person suffers from an unfortunate mutation and has lost a portion of his rational self. Then again, perhaps this is evolution taking shape; perhaps this person has developed this from a gradual change in his gene pool through previous generations. I can't imagine this happening, as the only time I think this sort of event happens and makes an impact on society is where there is not enough understanding of the world we live in - at least not a common understanding. To say that a person educated at Oxford is more intelligent than a person with no education living on one of the islands in the South Pacific is extremely naive. To say they are more knowledgeable is less naive, but equally arrogant. Say if the religion which the Pacific islander believed in was real, and the Oxford graduate was an Atheist. Who's to say that the Islander isn't more knowledgeable than the graduate then?

Knowledge isn't about how much you know, but how much you THINK you know.

Had a good time at the pub just now with two of my close friends. We played pool for a good hour and a half. I used to play pool quite a bit with my uncles back when I was around 12, but haven't played as regularly since then. I had some REALLY lucky shots. Must be the childhood skills coming back to me, I dunno. André and Angelo play pool properly though; they think about how the ball bounces, and even down to the tactics on how the balls are laid out for breaking. That's how its meant to be played, unlike me who just puts it all down to lady luck.

Until next time.