desperate for truth

this is a rant. this is only a rant. any and all offensive things that pour out of this author’s fingertips are unintentionally so and are probably due to the author’s irritable state over a falsehood that continually ends up in his inbox. do not take any claims the author may make in anger as authoritative or true until you yourself have investigated the issue for yourself.

you have been warned.

 

i can’t stand this anymore. i recieved my 100th email on the dangers of aspartame today. now, i’m not one for putting synthesized things into my body; i can barely stand taking pills of natural substances. but the issues this substance is raising due to alleged health issues is just out of hand. let me quote to you all the things aspartame has been accused of. multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus, tinnitus, fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss. that’s an incomplete list, i might add. i am totally tired of hearing about this crap. there’s no empirical evidence that i can find, though if you can, please submit it. there is reasonable evidence, but no empirical evidence. and in today’s society, that means jack squat. so, please hear me when i say this, and understand there is the utmost respect for you for standing up for what you believe in. but if you don’t have any evidence that a scientist could take and retest with the same results,

shut the hell up. no one wants to listen to you if you don’t have evidence, at least, not in the world of science and research.

please know, i am not asking you to stop thinking about it or investigating it. far from it, i want you to know the truth as much as i want to know the truth. but please, don’t make assertations without giving me evidence. thank you.

knowledge

what is the nature of knowledge, beyond what our friends Descartes and Locke say? i think, therefore i am. i experience, therefore i am. empiricism vs rationalism. science vs. religion. what is the basis of knowledge? how do we know something? do we think it? do we experience it? how is it done?

Descartes, for the most part, believes in rationalism. rationalism says that everything that can be known can be deduced and reasoned out, no experience necessary. this is the view that Plato took, along with the neoplatonists. rationalism is difficult to force into faith, because rationalism states “assume nothing and go from there” and religion says “assume God and go from there.” in it’s purest, it’s nothing more than skepticism. however, Descartes wishes to step away from skepticism and move towards a theory of knowledge that doesn’t involve the words “i don’t know.”
others, mostly british philosophers, forwarded the view of empiricism. empiricism states that nothing can be known that is not first experienced. rationally, this seems true, because we cannot concieve of that which we have had no experience. even one of the forefathers of rationalism stated that “we are all mere empirics in three fourths of our actions.” we cannot know anything externally without some sensory experience of an object. in Descartes’ wax argument, he deduced the “substance” and “qualities,” but not without using the senses. the wax was solid, fragrant, and square. heat it up, and it was liquid, odorless, and blob-y. but, he posited, it was still wax. thus, the substance and the qualities. applying this to the mind and the body, the qualities and the substance, he created a philosophical dualism, known as a Cartesian dualism.

so, our modern lines of thought are lined up thusly: everything that can be known that is external must be reasonable. if something is unreasonable, then it is probably a deception of the senses (the skeptic’s argument.) everything that is known that is external must be experienced, thus, empirical evidence. it is a blend of both Cartesian rationalism and empiricism that is predominant in our lines of scientific enquiry. using these two methods, we have deduced and observed a great many indisputable truths, and numerous more disputable ones.

applied to religion, this line of scientific enquiry is not often seen. there is a great amount of fear of science, due to theories posited by the great minds of the past that contradict and seemingly defeat Christianity and the church. so, we recluse away from scientific knowledge and gravitate naturally towards the ego-building theology. instead of taking on the challenge of rationally proving that the Bible is the only sacred text, that Christ is the only son, or avatar, of God, and that God even exists, we simply study those things that are uncertain. we leave to faith what could be made certain. we back away from contradictions, even deny their existance, instead of using the very methods proposed to us to make things certain. we know there are atoms, we know that the galaxy is hundreds of millions of light years across, that it’s 93 million miles to the sun, that light takes 8 minutes to get from the sun to here, and yet we cannot prove the existance of our God beyond “just have faith,” because we are perhaps too scared to take a risk.

René Descartes, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Bertrand Russell, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, all of these and more, knew that to think and be wrong was acceptable. if you mess up in your thoughts, or use faulty logic, it’s not the end of the world. start over, and keep trying. but think! because, as it was posited long ago, i say again:

cogito ergo sum: “i think, therefore i am.”

weight loss is hard…

ok, so i’ve been trying to lose weight. and i’ve been fairly successful so far. but i wanted to write about the journey. something to do, i guess.

so, about 6 months ago, i was a fat kid. or guy. i don’t dare call myself “man” yet, i have not yet attained that title. but nevertheless, i was too large. i lost my job and my “school” pulled a few fast ones and basically destroyed my morale. so i plummeted into a depression. well, i do one thing VERY well when i’m depressed, and that is “eat.” and so eat i did. at the apex of my depression, i topped my weight out at 240 lbs. and a 40 inch waist, and i was even squeezing into my pants, refusing to believe that i might be close to 42”.

i hit a point where i was like: “fuck it.” not to be intentionally vulgar, but that was the reaction i had. i looked into the mirror and what i saw scared me. i couldn’t believe that i looked like a whale. but it wasn’t that that shocked and scared me. it was what i saw when i looked into my eyes. or, rather, how i couldn’t bear to look myself in the eye. i forced myself to look into my eyes in the looking glass, and i saw the carefree, funny, charming, witty individual, the one who looks remarkably like Jimmy Stewart in his prime. yes, that young guy was in there waiting to be freed. so, i said the two infamous words. “fuck it.” and so, i spent some money on exercise equipment and i did something i’ve never done before. i followed through on a plan.

the plan was so simple that it seemed like it would never work. reduce my calorie intake by around 50%, and start working out. my diet was already balanced concerning protein, carbs and fats, because of my south beach diet habits. i remember thinking, “this is it?” it was a “friggin’ duh” moment for me. i had thought it was so difficult, but this guide made it sound easy. and, like any good fat guy, i did what was required of me. i bought the lowest calorie foods i could get my hands on. i found 5 calorie butter. 100 calorie everything, from pudding to chips to COOKIES. oh yes, i was in heaven. with 300 calories a meal, 500 at dinner, and a 100 calorie snack? ah, i learned quickly how to deal. and the pounds started coming off, about 5 lbs a week.

before you yell at me, i want to stress: i know this is not the optimal rate for losing weight. too fast. but i am an impatient man. and an educated one. i didn’t know that muscle loss accounts for much beyond two pounds a week. so i just dieted, and stalled for three weeks. after that, i kept up intense workouts to keep my muscles strong and mass-y. and it’s been working. each week, i measure a loss of 5 lbs, mostly fat loss.

right now, i’m at about 205. and i plan on going further down. 170 or so is my goal for now. my waist, according to my handy-dandy article, should be around 30”. but my heart is going to be the size of texas.

maybe later i’ll post pictures for you.