Doug started a blog!

I was thinking about beliefs and religion the other day.

TRUTH

Truth is what actually is, the way things really are. Truth is independent of knowledge, belief, awareness, ideology, and so on. Truth Is.

REALITY

Reality is a subset of Truth. Reality is the world we exist in, where we spend our everyday lives. There might be more to Truth than just Reality, but there is certainly not more to Reality than Truth.

PERCEIVED REALITY

Perceived Reality is the part of Reality we're aware of. We perceive it through our senses. It is not the same as Reality because our senses are limited in time, space, and capability, they're error-prone, and they're imprecise. Perceived Reality is not a subset of Reality, because sometimes we perceive things that are not real, due to our faulty senses and our misinterpretation of what we've sensed.

BELIEF

Belief is what we think is Truth. People believe things. Some things that people believe are actually Truth. Other things are not. It's very difficult to tell the difference, because we base our beliefs on our Perceived Reality, which is two steps away from Truth.

IDEOLOGY

Ideology is a system of Beliefs, generally held in common by a group of people who agree to believe the same things. Religions are ideologies. Science, the belief system built upon the scientific method, is also an ideology. Many people don't think they have an ideology, but if they're not spending every moment of every day questioning what their senses are telling them, then they believe in some kind of perceived reality, and that counts as an ideology.

I think a lot of the problems people have occur when their ideology includes two beliefs: that their ideology is Truth, and that anyone who doesn't agree with their ideology must be converted or eliminated. The latter requires the former; no one would believe that they must forcibly convert non-believers if they're not sure of the truth of their own beliefs. Conversely, if you can accept that your own beliefs are based on a distorted and inaccurate perception of reality, and that the things you believe may not be Truth, then you'll be much more tolerant of the beliefs of others... they might have something to teach you, afterall.

Therefore, tolerance of others is the best policy; seek to understand their beliefs, so that you might find your way closer to Truth.

I'm on vacation this weekend... in theory.

I live in New Jersey, my mom lives in Brooklyn NY, and my brother lives in West Virginia. My mom and I have come down for the weekend to visit my brother, and also for my first chance to meet my new niece, and to get to know my nephew a bit better now that he's talking.

Here's the thing: every time I visit, my brother has a project for us to work on. First, we built a 1000 square foot deck around two sides of his house. The next several visits were spent renovating his basement: cleaning it, demolition, framing, electical, plumbing, ceiling installation, and installing bathroom and kitchen floors.

This time, I'm only here for a couple of days, so all we built was a new signpost for the end of his driveway, and a big wooden playset... you know, the kind with a platform five feet up, and ladders, and a slide.

I ache. Why can't I just visit and hang out? Before he moved to this house, all I had to do was some computer maintenance, and I was good for a week.

To be honest, he's come to my house for projects too. He helped build a very solid fence around my back yard, and he's on the hook for at least one week of basement renovation, if I make enough progress to reach a point where I really need his help.

Besides, I actually do enjoy this sort of work. I'm a creative person, and being creative with software can be rewarding, but no one really gets to see what I've created... even the few folks at work who review my code don't really experience it, and appreciate the effort, the way I do. But build a deck, a playset, or a basement, and everyone can appreciate that, and they can do so for many years.

I just hope I don't hurt my fingers to the point where I can't type anymore, like I did when wiring a hundred outlets in his basement.

So, I'm trying to get something real on my website, which I've had for a long time but it's been stagnant for years. I'm not sure what to use it for, so I thought I'd try a blog. Afterall, I think stuff, and people like me, so maybe they'd like to see what I think.

Probably not... but we'll see what happens. Worst case, I can always delete the blog and try something else.