"

[suspectclass]

Last night jabberwocki tried to tell me that God is a dolphin. Tonight she went with me to Big Food Sunday. The following things happened (I have given up paragraph form for an indefinite period):

We were honked and yelled at, then flipped off by a group of guys in a car. The real world descends upon my dyke-happy existence.

Upon arriving we were chided for walking and not calling for a ride. Only my chin and thighs were numb though, so I don't know what the problem was.

I ate four servings of pulled pork. I am in heaven.

bearsir gave me a shoulder rub

I was given one of the best compliments from a friend ever: "You're really good at picking out where the arguments are." This is more or less my goal in life, so it's good to know that I'm successful.

Related to the last point, I was instrumental in instigating a debate over the definition of "norm" v. "normal" which enveloped the entire room. Silence fell after I made my last point. If you've ever been to Big Food Sunday you know how unusual that is. It was lovely.

There were glow in the dark bugs. On underwear. On a person. Use your imagination.

I almost got a large man on my lap. damn.

The reigning elder butch congratulated me on my ownership of the term "dyke."

This didn't happen at BFS but still -- I dyed my hair so that at least for the time being it is once again dark brown. Not quite my color, but very nice.

It was wonderful, the food was fantastic, there was plenty of teasing, lots of smart and not too much competition for food. Lovely lovely lovely. Now I have to sleep it off. Call me in a month.

ps Just now someone called and I accidentally hung up on them when I dropped the phone. Ooops. This is what pork does to you! (at least if you eat 3 pounds of it in one sitting)

Comments

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

ahh but see, there's sunshine on the ocean. And there's bacteria so deep that they can't get sunlight. Bacteria seems to be the closest thing to a universal (at least on this planet) life-form. Birth, feeding, reproduction and death -- really, isn't that what it comes down to?

[jabberwocki.livejournal.com]

yes there is sunshine on ocean. which is why i agreed with your argument. don't "ahh but see" me.

bacteria use sunshine which is given off as a by-product, that would otherwise go spinning off into chaos. dolphins kill, bacteria use. any killing done is denying of that resource to other second-party creatures, not between sun and bacteria.

fossilized bacteria was found on an asteroid from mars. so it is a common denominator- perhaps even template for life. it's "what it comes down to," as you put. but is god what it comes down to?

why evolve? why not stick to the bare minimum? wouldn't that make sense? no, silly skeefe, equilibrium (in the static sense) is not built into the system. WHY NOT? What sort of a cruel thing is that to do?

it's cruel. which is why god is a killer and not a user. and hence dolphin, and not bacteria.

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

Interesting. It seems to me that the kill/use dichotomy isn't applicable here. Bacteria don't only live off of the sun, they also can be parasitic. Therefore they don't fit your argument. Also, doesn't killing encourage balance by preventing overpopulation? So is it truly cruel? Plus, is it cruel to kill for one's survival? Or are you saying that the overall system is cruel? I would argue rather that the overall system is neutral, favoring no sentiment or value. Therefore, the thing arguably least able to operate according to values would seem to be the pattern for -- which as I recall was the basis for choosing an animal to be God (for those of you just tuning in).

[jabberwocki.livejournal.com]

everything spins towards chaos. as the galaxies spin outwards from the big bang, and get farther away from eachother, and things cool down- everything progresses towards inevitable entropy.

everything will die. no rebirth.

natural? perhaps. but certainly not nice. mean, from a lifeform point of view. the overall system therefore is not neutral. And therefore your "down to" basics bacteria is the least qualified, as a lifeform that is closest to "favoring no sentiment or value."

(there are countless numbers of bacteria of different sorts- some parasitic yes and killing in the direct sense- but only some kinds. we're talking about the most benign sort.)

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

You are! I'm talking about all of them.

But okay, by neutral I mean without regard to any priority. There is no "good" or "bad" it's just the way things work. Meanness implies a certain amount of maliciousness not present in the laws of physics.

Perhaps I should be talking molocules, but then that's not even lifeforms, that's any existing material. ooooh.

[jabberwocki.livejournal.com]

ok. does god know everything? or did he just create everything?

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

Well see, I'm just taking issue with your statement that God must be a dolphin because dolphins always look like they're having fun. Really I don't think of God as being concrete, and therefore also don't thing of God as gendered. I see God as all-knowing, all-creating, life-sustaining and re-creating (resurrection). My bacteria argument is simply that if you're going to choose a criteria for an existing life form to be the image of God, "fun" is not what I would choose. Pervasive, or basic to existence makes more sense to me. I don't, however, think you can argue convincingly that either bacteria or dolphins are all-knowing.

[jabberwocki.livejournal.com]

don't preempt me, darlin'.

of course dolphins and bacteria (or any other lifeform) aren't all-knowing. (how did you infer that from my argument? the question was to clarify the premise.)

i ask because if god is all-knowing- he knew what he was creating, and what would happen to it after creation. if so he was doing so out of a tragedy/mean/sad sort of fun (boredom?).

basic does make sense, and he would make a fine set of bacteria. but there's definite direction to the universe and it ain't pretty- which is why bacteria is not the most fitting animal lifeform.

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

Is decay a direction? Most coceptions of divinity include the ideas of creation and destruction as working together. Destruction is often seen as a negative force, combatted by something else -- but it's also often seen as a part of the divine plan, even the divine will. Now, if a universe must have good and evil, and the creator is all-knowing and all creating, wouldn't that destructive force (entropy) be an aspect of the divine? You're arguing that it's the sole will of the divine -- there's nothing else there. Bacteria, and any life form excepting inherently sterile ones (such as mules) exemplify this duality. Death, even the large scale death of the universe isn't unique. Dolphins die, bacteria die. They also procreate. Perhaps the universe doesn't procreate, i'm not really sure. But you could argue that in creating itself then tending towards entropy it's experiencing on a massive scale what each life form experiences in a much shorter time.

[jabberwocki.livejournal.com]

that post didn't go anywhere within the framework of our discussion. nicely stated, but i think we're straying from the argument. nowhere do you state a difference between dolphins and bacteria (or debate previous ones mentioned)- you merely state that the universe is like a life form. and just back up that god could be compared to a lifeform. bacteria or dolphin.

so if i may:

so we have this foreordained dichotomy. a direction from birth to death.

(a) it is a basic thing. a simple story. to live and die. so god is a basic lifeform.
(b) the universe is a crazy place that lives and then dies. so god is not a basic lifeform.

i think the existence of the mule is a sad one, that is missing an important aspect- that of procreation. the universe dies, and with it, everything. (unless god decides to do another cruel experiment.) in this sense- god you are a fish-killer. i hope you had fun doing it, 'cause it's going to end. you know this.

a comforting thing to humans as they realize their mortality is religion and children. that something carries on. poor universe. you are a mule. too bad god is a dolphin, otherwise he might sympathize better.

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

And I'm spent.

to paraphrase Ennis,

[eveandodd.livejournal.com]

What if got *is* a parasite?

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

I'll call my previous thought "God is a rock"

God is an iiiiisland...doot doot doot