Insightful? perhaps

Runner’s World – teen defies epilepsy

Posted in Insightful? perhaps, Serious, introspective, just a thought on August 10th, 2010 by admin – 3 Comments

In this month’s Runner’s World there were three articles that attracted my attention: Marathon Des Sables, It’s About Time and Human Race.

According to the contents page Human Race is about a teen who “defies epilepsy and dramatically improves his health through running.” According to the article Jaundré (our teen hero in this tale) used to suffer up to 14 epileptic fits a day, “despite heavy doses of anti-convulsive medication”. Since taking up running, he can go weeks without experiencing a seizure. “At most he has four seizures over a period of three months”.

Enter a heavy dose of cynicism from my side. I won’t deny that there are health benefits to exercise; I just need a little more than the anecdotal evidence of parents to believe that running decreases the number of seizures to such a degree. I want the opinion of five qualified medical doctors. I want to know if his diet has changed in anyway. I want to know if he’s switched drugs. I want bar graphs!  

Anyway, at least the parents aren’t advocating that others swap epileptic drugs for exercise. That my friends, smells a little too much like a certain Scientologist mocking a celebrity for “indulging” in anti-depressants. Postnatal depression is real, you fucktard!

What did however impress me about Jaundré Niemandt was the fact that he managed to complete a 10km race in 68 minutes. 68 minutes! Do you know how incredible that is? Seriously? Do you have any idea how hard I have to push myself in order to beat a time like that? Do you have any idea how many pep talks I have to give myself? It takes a lot of mental energy to force myself to continue at such a speed and here’s this boy who needs two people to hold his hands while running, and his kicking my ass. If that’s not inspiring, I’m not sure what is.

A simple kind of life – No doubt

Posted in Cazz, Insightful? perhaps, Serious, beauty, feelings, introspective, just a thought on July 20th, 2010 by admin – 11 Comments

On Sunday I was looking at babies.

In the whole history of Sid Kane, this is an unprecedented event. My usual stance of “Oh holy mother of fuck, why would anyone do THAT to their vagina” was replaced by looks of yearning, looks that has heretofore been reserved for hooker heels and men with really broad shoulders.

I’m talking about desire. For a baby. I Sid Kane, who previously duct taped a nappy to a kid’s ass and has often referred to kids as “rugrats”, am overcome with the sudden desire to have a little one.

 And all I wanted was the simple things

A simple kind of life

And all I needed was a simple man

So I could be a wife

It got so bad that while lounging at La Perla, I ignored any hot men in the near vicinity. Noting my fascination with the little buggers, Cazz finally commented, “You want a life altering experience? How about having one of those?”

Me: I did think about it but to be honest with you Cazz, I don’t think the parents would be too happy with me abducting their kids. Parents are kinda touchy that way.

I always thought I’d be a mom

Sometimes I wish for a mistake

The longer that I wait the more selfish that I get

You seem like you’d be a good dad

*Sigh*

I’m not quite sure what else to tell you guys. I guess I just don’t really want to tell you guys that for the longest time ever I’ve had this image in my head of me standing in front of my bedroom window, watching my husband and kids play soccer. Of course as the years have passed this vision has evolved to include me holding a camera, which has now become as much a part of me as my appendages.

Now all those simple things are simply too complicated for my life

How’d I get so faithful to my freedom?

A selfish kind of life

When all I ever wanted was the simple things

A simple kind of life

(Just reread this and can’t believe how girly and honest I am. And on a public forum no less. God I want to puke.)

The God delusion

Posted in Insightful? perhaps on February 20th, 2008 by admin – 12 Comments
I’m not sure how many of you have heard about the “God delusion”, but it’s a book written by Richard Dawkins. In the book Dawkins comes up with various reasons for why God doesn’t exist. Now I haven’t read the “God delusion” myself but I have read a 5 page article about the book in SL. Bet you’re all giggling now, thinking, “A 5 page article and an entire book on the subject don’t compare”. That you can not write a comprehensive piece based on a 5 page article. Probably not, but I’ll endeavour to anyway.

Advocates of religion argue that if there is no God why be good? It seems that we need some sort of divine surveillance to deter us from committing crimes. We are afraid of committing crimes because of the repercussions we will face in the after-life. Dawkins however argues that we don’t have to believe in God to be good. Even though scripture gives us moral guidelines on how to act in society, morality is however a universal human trait.

As humans we know that there are certain payoffs to treating your neighbour well. If you treat certain people well they are likely to be good to you as well. In caveman days this equates to you having a greater chance of survival, since you have people to help you hunt and protect you from various carnivores.

If atheists are inherently bad, then why are our prisons not filled with them? Well, it seems that back in the day morality might have been of the thought ‘How likely am I to get caught if I commit this sin’. It therefore made since to have a divine presence that could observe our every move. Now I’m sure all of you are thinking that there’s much more to morality than the ‘will I get caught’ ideology, but it has been proven that as soon as there is no surveillance than there is a major increase in crime.

Days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans widespread looting occurred. Starving people where not only stealing foodstuff but there were individuals that were stealing large screen television sets as well.

Dawkins also points out that 24 of the 29 US states with the highest theft rates are the ones run by the Republican Party, which is dominated by conservative Christians. The 12 states with the highest burglary rates and 17 of the 22 states with the highest murder rates are also Republican. The Bible Belt is actually the most dangerous part of USA to live in.

Another reason that we “invented” God is that we can not conceive of the idea that there is no after-life. If there is no after-life then our entire time spent on earth was a waste. Dawkins says that thanks to modern medicine we can spend approximately 80 years on earth. This time period is insignificant when you consider that God has and will be around for eternity. God is also a benevolent creature yet he only gives us humans, who are fallible, a nanosecond in which to prove ourselves.

It is also argued that God punishing us for billions of years for something we did in our 80 years on earth seems a bit ridiculous.

Another argument is that most religions have one prophet who started spreading the word. All these prophets (Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed) originated in the Middle East. All of these prophets arrived 200 000 years after our creation (date is based on carbon dating of Homo sapiens). It seems that God only wanted to save a few souls back then. Now however everyone’s souls need saving thanks to satellite television and the internet. Evangelists’ sermons can be viewed at the comfort of your home.

And the final argument is that we need God to explain away certain gaps in our knowledge. We have no idea how we were created. This gap might however be filled quite soon. With the advances in technology we might be able to recreate life in a laboratory. Then what? Well, God will then need to be used to explain away some other gap in our knowledge.

*The views expressed on this page are not the views of the author. I am simply conveying information. Do not shoot the messenger, although your opinions will be greatly appreciated.