Reason to Live

Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.

That's how the album Collision by the David Crowder Band begins and I think it's true, in a sense. I think there could be a handful of objections that could be raised to it. However, I think most of them could be met and parried back if not disbanded forever. Here are some points that have come to mind from this quote.

Everyone wants to go to heaven

Well, if the alternative to heaven is a place that is so pitiful as a wrathful, burning, teeth gnashing hell then I would think that most definitely people would choose heaven over it, even if they had to put up with a God who they couldn't stand for all eternity.

The question of wanting hell becomes a little more interesting if you focus more on the separation from God. From a pluralistic view, consider a separation from the Ultimate Reality. When it comes down to brass tacks, we're talking about deluding one's self (or allowing one's self to be deluded) to the point where you cannot stand the idea of being in touch with what actually is.

Now, you might ask yourself, "Why would anyone want to do that?" You can offer plenty of positions on the subject, calling on an evil figure like Satan slowly whispering in your ear and turning you against the greater reality or maybe a genetic predisposition towards not being in touch with the reality that you've been constructed into. However it begins,  the final outcome comes down to personal choice and willpower. Some notions or feelings in the soul of the delusional man drives him to break with Ultimate Reality and pursue a darker path. He feels cheated by the other (or maybe simply another) and, so, decides to never again pursue the light. He stops focusing on his purpose and begins to pervert the idea into meaninglessness. Whatever the condition, whatever the circumstance, through a series of mistakes and missteps, some of which he has no control, the decision is made that the reality which exists is more unbearable than a reality that one can create for themselves. This brings me to my next point.

Nobody wants to die

This, of course, is difficult swallow either on a literal and metaphorical level because of the evidence to the contrary but, in what could be seen as a depressing and invigorating twist of fate, I would argue that it is true.

First, consider the literal version of Nobody wants to die and its stark contrast to the number of people who commit suicide in a year or become martyrs in their own right. The former, I would argue, isn't truly accurate to the intent of those who commit suicide. That is, those who want or do commit suicide don't kill themselves because they want to die but, rather, because they no longer want to live. Like the delusional man who has meandered his way towards meaninglessness, those who desire to commit suicide have followed that broad, self-destructive path to come to the conclusion that they want no part in what reality has to offer them.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have those who believe so strongly in the Ultimate Reality that they're willing to risk everything to defend the belief. Granted, I don't agree with some of the extremes that martyrs will go to, especially when it means killing others along with themselves, but, nonetheless, one could say that this is a case in which the person wants to die. Again, I would disagree. The point of self-sacrifice is not to die but, rather, to live on in a greater capacity, be it in the afterlife, in the hearts and minds of the generations to come, or some other goal that aligns itself with the Ultimate Reality.

From a metaphorical perspective, we have this idea of dying to yourself. Although I'm sure this probably isn't a strictly Christian idea, this idea of "taking up the cross and dying to yourself," I really feel no reservations in talking about it from the Christian perspective since that is my perspective.

In Luke 9:23-24, you'll find the verses that I'm referring to: "Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.'" Now, while I care a great deal about the final resting place of your soul, my point in mentioning this is not to speak of an eternity after the mortal coil has been shuffled off. Salvation is meant to be an ever-present experience that begins when a man dies to himself. When I consciously decide that there is no reason to live outside of  the Ultimate Reality, in that very moment, I cease to exist. That is, the man who lived for another reality that was not the Ultimate Reality is no more and, in his place, another man stands who, as he is aligned with that which will always be, can never be destroyed. How awesome is that? Everything is new again.

I hate to leave you with an anticlimactic ending to a blog post but I really must be getting to bed and, I'm afraid that, if I don't post this now, it will be lost to drafts forever. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed spewing it.

Schizophrenic Poetry

I find that I write the best poetry when I am near complete exhaustion.  I don't think that this is a rare phenomenon. My mental acuity is in a different frame of reference. The less hindered I am by my rationality, the easier it is for my expressive nature to overtake me. It's a little odd, to tell you the truth. I would never take drugs or anything similar to inhibit my reason solely for the purpose of creating works but, at the same time, there's an edge to my intellect. There's a set of clearly defined rules of what should and should not write about that my mind knows. For the most part, it's a good thing. When it comes to writing poetry, though, not so much.

A man is not one man. That is, he is a complex weaving of many men fighting for control of the consciousness of the man. There are extremes to this, of course. Some people actually do create multiple personalities to deal with this struggle. They feel that the war is too great inside them and so they split themselves in two, in three, in four, etc. The more fortunate among us are able to find a diplomatic solution to the matter.

I am a lover. I'm not talking about romantic love specifically but love of all kinds. I love people (it seems a bit unlikely, I know, but it's true). I love this Earth. I love to love others.

I am a sinner. I'm not here to confess all of the sins I've committed in my lifetime. If you've known me for any stretch of time, I've probably sinned against you. It always seems to be to the people that love me the most, which torments me constantly to think on.

I am a Christian. That has so many meanings to so many people so I may have to clarify it at some point in time but it should suffice for now to say that I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I am a skeptic. I don't know everything and I will freely admit that. There are times when I sink into severe doubt about my theological beliefs but that's not a bad thing. If God wanted blind faith, he wouldn't have given us free will, though, right? Agnosticism is the closest I could ever be able to get to atheism. After all that I've experienced in my life, there's no way that I could ever say, with any certainty, that there is no God or some other Ultimate Reality. With the way that God has lavished His love on me, I don't think I'll even get to the point of agnosticism.

Here we are. And by that, I mean, here I am: a synthesis of many antitheses. All the while, I need to be setting my soul free. Well, here goes nothing.

Down the Straight and Narrow

So I began this a few days ago and have been meaning to finish it but have been distracted by, you know, life and such.

The last post long and drawn out. Seemingly, it was also full of tangents as well but, let me assure you, it was all relevant information. And now, for some more random pieces of information.

A long time ago, before I was a member of a church in the area, I was going to Church 1 and speaking with the Pastor about the church's theology and structure, talking with him about every question I could think of, from baptism to ordination. Three things happened in the process:

1. The associate pastor asked me to be a Youth Counselor while I was visiting one time. You know how that turned out from my last post.
2. I was convinced that the church's theology had no faults that I could find and became a member (along with my wife)
3. I had the thought put in my head that I might want to be a pastor

That is a crazy idea I had not thought about at all.

I was raised Christian but when I was in high school, my family started to drift away from going to church. I felt something missing in my life at the time so I began looking for a church. Time and time again, I was sorely disappointed by the way I was treated as a teenager. No one took me seriously and why should they? The examples of Youth Groups around include kids who came, sang a lot, had fellowship time with each other (heaven forbid, teens would talk to adults), and never talked about deeper theological or spiritual topics. After a time, I became so frustrated that I crafted my own thoughts on how a church should be constructed.

Honestly, I was pretty naive. I tried starting it as a bible study with my friends and that just fell into bickering over the most pointless of arguments. That was a rough time for me, spiritually speaking. That's not to say that things have gotten easy but I have definitely learned some ways to cope (prayer of all sorts, typically).

At any rate, I moved here for grad school, as I mentioned before, and I decided to give a campus ministry a try. What I found was quite astounding. The moment I walked into the ministry, I knew that it was where I needed to be. My fellow students were friendly and engaging. There were small groups where we dug through some more penetrating theological issues. I loved it. My hope that Christianity could be a vibrant, communal faith was restored.

Fast forward, through my conversations with the Pastor, I learned that the doctrine and structure of his church was uncannily close to what I had envisioned. In fact, the ideas that I had had were already in practice and refined to a much more practical approach. Ideas I had not thought about were in place and oversights that I didn't see become obvious. I was truly impressed at the structure.

In one of the meetings, the idea of ordination came about and, I'm not quite sure how it got there, but a bug got into my ear, metaphorically speaking. I would have screamed bloody murder if that had literally happened. What would it like to be a pastor?

I mulled it over a bit, put it in the back of my mind, and went about life. Every once in a while, it would creep up again. I remember having a conversation with someone else who had mentioned that they thought I was going to go to become a pastor. I recall talking to the Youth Minister about how many people who become pastors find their way through Youth Ministry. There have been other conversations that I've had with my wife that have made me think about it.

Moreover, when I began teaching Sunday School, I realized how much I loved it. I know, it's not the same thing as being a pastor. There's a lot more to it than preparing a lesson for a (hopefully) captive audience but it really made come to grips with the idea that what I really want in life, more than anything else, is to help.

Deep down, I don't want glory or even to be remembered. That series of blog posts I did a while back about my assumptions truly reflects who I am as a person. Yes, I do have shallow desires. I would love to be remembered. It's a great feeling but it's not what I really want out of life. I want to be that tsunami for good, not just a drop in the ocean.

Anyway, now I'm starting to ramble. The biggest thing that I want to get off my chest is that I've been thinking about becoming a pastor. A lot. I've prayed about it. I've talked to a close friend or two. So far, nothing of consequence.

Again, I feel like I'm cutting this short because there's more that needs to be said. I will leave that for another post.

And the truth shall set you free!

I've been somewhat distant lately. I almost used the word "secretive" but it's not anything nearly that interesting. I've been struggling with a few things that I've needed to work out and am still working out as I write this. I'm fairly certain that I will offend most people that live in my area that have a faith connection with me. If you are one of those people, I expect that you will neither take this personally nor walk away from this post thinking that I have abandoned you. I am merely expressing thoughts and feelings that I've had lately and, no matter what it sounds like, I love you.

So, let me start at the beginning.

I moved to this area about four years ago for graduate school and, to make a long story short, I began dating the woman who would become my wife. While we were dating, we began looking for a church to go to. After going to a few of them, we found one that we really loved going to because of the music they have and the progressive theology they endorse. It's the church we were married in and the church in which I became a Youth Counselor and a Sunday School teacher.

Let me take a slight tangent here in our story to explain a little about how this came about. My wife and I were involved in a campus ministry (in fact, that's how we met). However, when I knew that, when I graduated, I couldn't stay a part of a campus ministry forever (unless I became a campus pastor or something along those lines). So, I began to pray about what ministry I should enter into next. Now, I could go on and on about the power of prayer but I'd rather not spend the time in this post about it so let me just say that the prayers were answered by an associate pastor approaching me one day and asking me if I wanted to be a part of the Youth Ministry. I was apprehensive at first but, knowing that God answers prayers in ways I don't understand, I eventually agreed to take it on.

There is no doubt in my mind that it was one of the best decisions of my life. Personally, I have grown so much as a leader, teacher, and Christian since I became a Youth Counselor that I will never fully know the extent to which my life has been changed by being a part of this group. On top of that, I gotten to effect the lives of quite a few teens (hopefully, to their betterment as well).

After a year and a half of being a Youth Counselor, I was asked if I wanted to take over leading Youth Sunday School. Again, I was apprehensive but, again, it was one of the best decisions of my life.

I'd love to say everything turned out to be roses and rainbows but, unfortunately, I don't live in fantasy-land. After a while, it became more evident to my wife and I that the progressive theology that we fell in love with did not have the depth and relational background that we needed in a church. We knew that God loved us, we heard it every week, but we didn't walk away from sermons feeling challenged and we didn't walk away from services feeling connected. Now, while the former is an area of contention for which I think the blame lies more squarely on the shoulders of the clergy whom have no intention of changing, the blame of the later is mitigated by the fact that my wife and I are not the primary audience being reached by the congregation. The primary focus of the church is, more so, for children and people with children, a spectrum my wife and I do not fall into.

After several painful conversations and sleepless nights, we decided that we needed to move on. We began attending the church that sponsors the campus ministry we were a part of. This meant that I gave up teaching Youth Sunday School (something that I have still not fully come to terms with yet) in exchange for closer relationships and challenging sermons. Also, they found out that I was a Youth Counselor and wanted me to help out with their Youth Ministry. Now, I was still doing Youth Ministry at the other church but I saw that the times didn't interfere with each other so I told them I would try it out.

A few weeks into the school year, the new Youth Ministry decided to change the meeting time to the same time as the old Youth Ministry. So, again, I needed to make a tough decision. In the end, I decided to stick with the old Youth Ministry, since I had more of my time invested in it and I believe more so in its guiding principles.

So, that's most of the background information.


Here's the thing: the two faith communities lack exactly what the other has, as far as I can tell. I would sum them up with the following Bible verses.

Church 1 is Micah 6:8 - He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Church 2 is Matthew 28:18 - 20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Church 1 is focused, very much so, on spreading God's love by acts of justice and kindness. For example, the Youth program does a mission trip every year to a place where the teens are shown how to help destitute people. Believe me, if you've never been on a mission trip before, I recommend that you do it at least once in your life. I've never felt better about a week's worth of work than when it's done out of charity for the less fortunate. Truly a humbling and inspiring experience.

Church 2 is focused, very much so, on spreading God's love by telling people the good news and building positive relationships. For example, the Youth program does a retreat every year to build relationships and reflect on the awesomeness of God. Again, I've been on retreats before and they've been eye-opening experiences into the core of my personal beliefs and convictions. Great experience.

Do you see the problem here? There's multiple ways to spread God's love.

The first approach is the Saint Francis of Assisi approach: "Preach the gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words." The way that it preaches the good news into people's lives is by taking a loving but hands-off approach to it. It's a selfless endeavor but too an extreme of almost not building relationships in the body of believers.

The second approach has it's benefits and faults as well. The way it preaches the good news into people's lives is by taking the direct route of building relationships with people so that they can know God better and more personally. It's a very spiritually-sound method of doing it but it can be, at times, somewhat self-serving since it focuses on building up the ranks of a church rather than truly helping those in need.

There's more that needs to be said here but this is long enough for the time being and I'll say the remainder in a different post. For now, I'll leave you to post your comments. I appreciate any that you may have.

Substance

I don't like politics. By I don't like politics, what I really mean, is I don't like the way people treat each other in the political sphere. One man or woman attacking another just so they can appear better. It detracts from the purpose of why politicians are there in the first place. It's not to be a good liar, though, granted, things that wouldn't get done with an honest person can get done with a liar. It's not to be seen as a great leader, though, again, great leaders can unify people and really get things done. It's to be seen as a willing servant for the greater good. A politician should speak to how he or she has and would spend their time helping the community and prove it with what they have already done. Arguments between two ideologies will happen but there's a reasonable and responsible way to have a conversation. A brawl of words should never appear on a political stage.

Unfortunately, that's too idealistic. Most people don't want to talk about what needs to happen or how we'll get there. Oh, no. They want to see politicians squirm and fight like a herd of demon-possessed pigs. They don't want facts, they want hyperbole and anecdotes.

This is true in a number of settings. Whenever I hear a sales pitch for a new product that my company is thinking about investing in or a company that we could be partnering with, it's the same thing. I'm given a handful of shallow facts while being whisked on a grand tour of "our product is so much better than the other guy's" and "how much better would your company be if you had this". Sadly, I know no other way that sales could work because the people making the decisions want to hear that they're going to make the right decision by using the widget because it's going to save the company so much money and the other guys' widget isn't nearly as shiny. Really? This is how we think?

What about when it comes to philosophy or theology?

I'm a fan of Socrates. The Socratic method is a wonderful tool that I believe many people could benefit from if they took the time to hold real conversations with other people about what things mean. However, as good old Uncle Ben says, with great power comes great responsibility. As the Apostle Paul wrote about numerous times in the New Testament, it's difficult to pull people away from arguing at length about the smallest of matters and, often times, becoming divisive over it. I mean, how many Christian denominations are there? How many of those denominations were formed because people couldn't agree on a theological matter that bore no significance on how people lived their life?

Here's what I'm getting at. I like to talk at the thousand foot level. I like to talk about random stories because they're quirky and, hopefully, interesting. There comes a point in time that we need to get down to brass tacks (whatever that means). I would describe myself first and foremost as a thinker. Only later, do I realize, I must also be a doer and that that which I think about, must have some relevance to what I do. Otherwise, what else is it other than empty talk.

I closed out the last post of my assumptions series last time and, while it began as a something that was highly abstract (I assume that reality exists), I tried to bring it to a logical conclusion that's practical and, I hope, motivational. I would strongly advise others out there to do the same. I know I don't have a lot of followers and I doubt that any one person has read all of my posts (other than me, of course) but I know for a fact that reading about how much some person deals with a specific situation has a narrow scope to which my life is effected. On the other hand, if someone posts about interesting stories and/or speaks in an abstract manner, I find it very difficult to have any real impact on my life.

In summary, we need facts to ground ourselves in our doing and hyperbole/anecdotes to help us move forward in our thinking. That, my friends, is substance.

Moderation

It's been too long but this will be my final post pertaining to assumptions I have made concerning existence. Don't worry, I will still post but it may be less focused. That's probably how you like it though so I'm sure you don't mind.

I don't normally drink beer but, when I do, I prefer Guinness. No offense to the most interesting man in the world and Dos Equis might be a great beer (I've never tried it) but I like to drink some that has a lot of good flavor to it. Much to the chagrin of the larger breweries (like Budweiser and, my hometown favorite, Miller), I don't like drinking beer that tastes like it's already been through someone's digestive track.

Why is one drink so much better than another? Personal preference, potentially but I think it has to do with content of the brew itself. There's going to be a certain percentage of the drink that's going to be water, hops (or maybe even rats though I find that hard to believe) along with other ingredients that make the beer distinct. However, for our purposes of simplicity and my points, let's focus on the water. In order to not immediately turn your blood immediately into alcohol or in order to appreciate the taste or maybe even in order to sell less product at a higher profit, brewers will add water. However, adding too much water will ultimately destroy the product. At some point, the beer tastes more like water than an alcoholic beverage or it won't fulfill the true intent, which, as everyone who's truthful with themselves, knows that it's to either take the edge off or go to the point of not feeling feelings (a state of being I do not recommend).

What am I getting at? Certainly not my preferences in alcoholic beverages. They can be good at times, don't get me wrong, but I really don't care that much at all about them. The point I'm driving at here is moderation. Yes, drinking in moderation and being responsible is important but it's also important, from the brewer's perspective, to be moderate with the amount of poison that's put in the brew by watering it down.

And now for something completely different and one of the two theses of this blog post:

You are a one-of-a-kind person but you are not, in any way, special in a general sense.

This is a concept that I believe, to the core of me, but wrestle with constantly as it applies to my own life. As I must, let me explain.

You are unique and you should never doubt that. However, so is everyone else. This is, all too often, taken to two extremes.

Extreme 1: Overdose - The philosophy of "if you aren't special at all, then your life doesn't matter" is a dangerous one. It leads to destructive behavior, both towards others as well as yourself. If life doesn't matter, then your actions don't matter and you can do whatever you want because, in the end, there's nothing to care about that isn't artificially constructed.

I take issue with Nihilism, if you couldn't tell but not on the logical arguments that it makes. It's quite difficult, if not impossible, to argue with nihilism based on arguments alone because, in the end, you can't prove anything from foundations. A foundation must lay upon some other foundation and I don't think it can be turtles all the way down. It's no way to live. Even if we cannot find some root to sprout from, we must grow our knowledge in some fashion, even if our seeds and soil are assumptions. However, let's not forget about the last people who attempted take fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Everyone needs to take precautions against being banished from the great Garden and be willing to sacrifice that Tree, if the need arises.

Extreme 2: Watered Down - I am a professed Christian. I may not have expressed that here and the fact that I'm taking about drinking may detract from your belief in that statement but, nevertheless, I stand by claim. I attend a church regularly and, last Sunday, my pastor spoke to the children about how each and everyone of them was special. He pointed to their fingerprints for evidence of that. He told them that God loved them and sent them on their way. He did the exact same thing today but with bubbles instead of fingerprints. This is what originally got me thinking about this part of the blog post. That and my increasing frustration with my pastor's theology but that's another story for another time. It adds greatly to my point.

I take issue with everyone being special because, if everyone is special, then no one is really special. I don't want to sound like a bitter old man (believe it or not, I'm still quite young) but special used to mean something. According to my definition of special, one must stand out. A red rose among a dozen white, a cygnet among ducklings, or a pacifist among warmongers, these are special. Individuals, as they are alive and walk among us, are not special in and of themselves.

Moderation: Ideal elixir - You have an opportunity here to be great. Don't mess it up. If you do, sure, there will be more opportunities to redeem yourself and leave an impression on those who go before you. That's ultimately what you want to do though, isn't it? If you believe there is nothing you can do to be special, you will do nothing to be special. If you believe there is nothing you can do to escape being special, you will do nothing to be special. The key here lies in a sermon that my pastor preached that I actually do agree with. That one is that you need to take action.

If you are to be remembered for generations to come, if you have any hope of immortality beyond the mortal coil you shuffle off, you must make efforts towards maximizing the measure your life has on the remainder of reality. Here in lies my final assumption in this series and my final these:

The best way to maximize the effect your life has on the remainder of the universe is to align your actions with reality.

I could go on a tangent about how Christianity is the way to go with this. I could tell you about how I believe that the will of God is the true reality but, if you really want my theological stance, write me a message in the comments and I'll shove religion down your throat as much as you'll let me. That's not my point here. My point is that you have to find something to believe and align yourself to the best of your abilities with it. If it's a divine father figure, then obey your parent as best as you can. If you believe that the ultimate reality is uncover all of the knowledge in the universe, then pursue it wholeheartedly.

In sum, don't drink. If you do, do it in moderation. Then again, as Petronius supposedly once said, "Everything in moderation, including moderation." With a name like Petronius, who can argue with him?

Speak Softly, Teddy

It's been well over a month since my last post. I hope you didn't miss me too much.

Have you thought much about this last assumption that I stated? In case you forgot:

The measure of the life of a man is equivalent to the power with which the components of his existence that he controls touches and effects the remainder of reality.

It's all about power. What does it mean to have power? What does it mean to wield power? Well, we may have been condition to believe a number of things. My guess is that the greater majority of people out there believe it to be primarily displayed through physical manifestations of power. Let's take a look at a few of these examples.

1. Individual Physical Might - Whether it's the ability to carry the largest stick or hit another entity the hardest, individual physical might is one of the most common manifestations of power. A number of our most distant relatives in the animal kingdom began out this way. Think of the ancient beasts of old: dinosaurs. Their dominion over the Earth wasn't challenged for quite some time. Their sheer size would certainly have been something to behold. At least, for those few moments before you began running in the other direction. They're gone. What's more is that the largest land carnivore in the world today is now the Polar Bear. Seriously? At least according to Wikipedia, it's true. Although I'm not going to formally state it, I think we could probably take a cue from nature, which has forced its largest predators to the outskirts of the world but that's neither here nor there.
   
2. Collective Physical Might - What's better than having the biggest stick? Having two large sticks and a friend to help you out. Not to be cliche but there is strength in numbers. Animals that live in collectives can be seen throughout nature. Beehives, wolf packs, schools of fish, flocks of geese, and so many other examples show how well things work when things work together. Nations and empires have been built upon the premise of collective physical might ruling with an iron fist over the masses. Countless millions have been conquered through these means. I would argue that this way of life will cause, at best, stagnation and, at worst, demise if it were not for another kind of power.
   
3. Knowledge - It's great to learn, cause knowledge is power! I love Saturday morning cartoons. Well, I used to. Now, they're way too involved. I remember when I could turn on the TV on Saturday morning, watch some Looney Tunes followed by Schoolhouse Rock and, hey, learning was fun! Conjunction Junction, what's your function? If you can't answer that question, you need to be schooled! How about this one: what's better than having two large sticks and a friend to help you out? In most circumstances, the answer would be having a gun. Even better, having two guns and a friend to help you out. Better technology leads to more efficient ways of killing things which, as we all know, leads to personal prosperity, right?

Whoa, what? Hold on a second here. Are we making a connection between power and the ability to make other things die? That seems a little backwards, don't you think? If we could find a way to optimize power as well as the other entities that witness our power, that would be the greatest power, wouldn't it? That's a nugget that I would like to plant into your mind but this brings up another assumption that I want to get out there.

Man seeks, and should seek, to predict how to maximize the measure of his life.

That seems like somewhat of an obvious statement to me but it's something that I want to make sure is understood. I won't go as far as to say that it is a "good" thing to seek to maximize the measure of one's life since it would bring up a debate on good vs evil (we'll save that for another time) but, as far as life pursuits are concerned, I feel that it's one that should rank above others. Call it foolish idealism or what you like but there's a certain purpose, a certain drive, that maximizing one's life gives to a man that, I would argue, is the best because if life is something to cherish deeply, then immortality is invaluable. I won't beat that point too much but let me tie it back into my previous points.

If we want to maximize the measure of our lives, we need to maximize the power with which the components that we control effect the remainder of existence. Destruction certainly will leave ripples but will it create the largest waves?

Think on it. With luck, I'll be back to discuss within a short while instead of a long one this time.