Greece: coming, going, gone?

It’s the conversation of the year: Greece is (almost) bankrupt. The (almost) part should have been (finally) a long time ago, but because of the support that´s been offered (financially), Greece is able to keep its head above waters. But is that fair? The money that’s being offered to Greece is earned by other citizens of Europe who’ve been working hard for that money. We (the citizens of Europe) have been – and are – paying for the comfort of Greece. Why should we not kick them out?

Yeah, why?

The major reason why the EU has decided to support Greece in its difficult times is because otherwise (supposedly) our bank system would collapse and, with it, the Euro. However, many doubt the theory simply because we’re losing a lot of money as it is. ‘Brinkmanship’ is the perfect term for what is happening right now: the practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome.

Greece has relied on a package of 110 billion Euros, or $152.6 billion, agreed to by its richer European neighbors in May 2010. The price was a series of austerity measures meant to cut its bloated deficit and restore investor confidence. It cut the pay of its public workers — a quarter of the work force —  by 10 percent but continued to miss deficit targets as its economy sank.

‘The cost of living is 30% lower compared to other European countries’ haunts most other European countries, as they try to rescue their neighbor.

So what are the consequences right now?

• The retirement age is being raised. (affects some EU countries)
• The rich are going to pay (even) more taxes.
• Money that is stored for pension, is gone. (affects some EU countries)
• The financial market and the banking systems are unstable. And don’t think Americans will be able to enjoy watching this horror movie from a safe distance across the pond. In our globalized world, all the big banks are connected.
• Europe is in violation of a European treaties: they forbid a teamed (financial) rescue operation. (This is solved by using different terms on paper)
• The euro zone countries are tight together, now more than ever.

What would be the (possible) consequences, should Greece default?

• The bank system in Greece will collapse. All banks will go insolvent.
• A number of French and German banks will make sufficient losses that they no longer meet regulatory capital adequacy requirements.
• The Greek government will nationalize every bank in Greece and forbid withdrawals from any Greek bank.
• Although there is no mechanism to ‘force’ a country to step out of the euro, it is likely that Greece will leave the euro zone.
• Currency devaluation will occur.

Mr. Ostwald notes, however, that the long-term outlook for the Euro might be more positive, with Greece out of the picture

• Investments into the Greek government will not be returned.
• A Greek default would prompt the rest of the euro area to come up with a plan for restructuring.
• Greece will re-denominate all of its debts into “New Drachmas” or whatever it calls the new currency.

If people just wake up one morning and the government has converted all deposits into drachma, which would still represent a default against the depositors, people who have loans from the banks will stop paying interest.

• ‘A Greek default would just be another hit to consumer and business confidence.’

Would it be better to kick Greece out of the euro?

There is a lot of arguing going on about whether it’d be better to let Greece solve its mess on its own or not. Especially those who have invested in Greece, are against this ‘solution’ (for obvious reasons). And it’s more dangerous now than ever, with all of the money that’s been given to Greece by the euro zone countries. However, “The sooner it happens, the better” has been used as a slogan much too often, to rule out the possibility of letting Greece go default. Perhaps it’s better to look at the arguments both parties give, to decide what your opinion is:

Greece should go default (= bankrupt)

• If Greece went bankrupt, it will clean up the system. And after some time, the Euro will be a very strong currency (once again).
• The move will demonstrate that Europe does not tolerate fiscally irresponsible countries.
• Greece will never repay its debts.
• The numerous aid plans, even if they have so far succeeded in avoiding default, failed to clear the long-term liabilities.

Greece should stay in the care of the euro zone countries

• If we let Greece go bankrupt, the euro will disappear. (theoretically)
• “The very principle of the European Union will be challenged”
• Unemployment will rise again.
• “What lies ahead is an economic and political crisis worse than that of 2008.”
• It will undermine the European banking system within days and increase the public debt of other European countries.

What I think

For me, it’s a pretty easy question. Greece has screwed up badly, living a luxurious life that was beyond their means. Now the rest of Europe is paying for this bullsh**. I think it’d be better indeed, if Greece would leave the euro and make use of a self-created currency. Then the euro could reorganize this mess and create a brighter looking future.

Religion – good or bad? (version 2.0)

Note! Before reading this, I would like to state that I do not mean this article to be insulting or offensive in any way, to anyone.

It brings millions of people one step closer to each other. Religion is probably the oldest tradition kept alive in this world. But why did we start believing?

Evidence has been found that suggests we had ‘some kind’ of a religion approximately 70.000 years BC. Religion used to be very different than it is today; in the ancient times, most religions were part of ‘animal worship’. Although no one can really be sure why and how humans came up with the idea of almighty entities and strange ritualistic procedures, there are several theories concerning the origin of religion. The most acceptable one, in my opinion, is ‘Old Religion’.

The ‘Old Religion’ (it doesn’t really have a particular name) is very similar to a lot of the Pagan traditions that are practiced on a grand scale these days. Like the religion’s name predicts, this religion was practiced (tens of-) thousands of years ago. Back in the days when we still relied on the hunt, we were in a very vulnerable place. If the hunt would not go well, famine would strike without mercy. Men decided they could not leave such a big responsibility up to fate: the ‘Horned God’ was born. The Horned God is considered to be the god of the Hunt. But why would men alone rule our destiny, after all: women were part of the community as well. And so the ‘Goddess of Fertility’ came to be, representing fertility and birth. Both were worshiped and offered sacrifices, in the hope that they would return auspicious influences. The Old Religion was practiced all over the world for thousands of years.

Up until…

With the arrival of Christianity, a lot changed in many parts of our world. People were converted – willingly or not – into Christians. Churches started to appear where the old, sacred temples and spaces used to be. The devil came into existence, bearing many similarities to the Horned God (horns, beastly aspects and sometimes a strong, muscled body). The Old Religion faded away into oblivion, and was never heard of again until 1951. The Christian religion started to grow and very quickly took over huge parts of the world. Unfortunately, the growth of a religion doesn’t always come with tea and biscuits. The original inhabitants of North America had to suffer most of all. Of course, that had more to do with disease and the conquers themselves, rather than the Christians and their religious movement.

Now, I can go over the hundreds and hundreds of religions that are out there, from the ‘Jedi Religion’ (yes, I’m talking Star Wars) to those who believe James Cameron wants to start a new religious movement, but that list is simply too long! We CAN however take a look at what the many, many religions have done to our society.

Wikipedia seems to think that religion bears many, many problems. On Wikipedia’s article about religion, there are sections about the ‘modern issues in religion’ and ‘religion and violence’. That doesn’t sound good at all.

Charles Selengut characterizes the phrase “religion and violence” as “jarring”, asserting that religion is thought to be opposed to violence and a force for peace and reconciliation. He acknowledges, however, that “the history and scriptures of the world’s religions tell stories of violence and war as they speak of peace and love.”.

When I look at how people take their religion to the extreme, I truly question whether religion should be allowed in today’s society at all. Many people speak of terrible hate towards others simply because of their (different) religious ideas and opinions.

Well known religions are Christianity, Judaism and the Islam. Eastern religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, are also widely popular. According to statistics:

Christianity – 1.9 – 2.1 billion 

Judaism - 13 million

Islam - 1.3 – 1.57 billion

buddhism - 500 milion – 1.5 billion

hinduism - 950 million – 1  billion

Notice how, unfortunately, Judaism has a very small amount of people left practicing it. It is truly remorseful.

One of the fastest growing groups of religion, is Mysticism/Paganism. ‘Paganism’ was considered to be any religion that is not Christian. In today’s society, Paganism means not Christian, Muslim or Jewish. This includes Wicca, Totemism, Druidism and Vodou (Voodoo). This type of religion is based upon many different beliefs, though most of them share a common idea: no one should be converted to the religion or in question, thus must find the religion on their own. But why is the 21st century society turning into a Pagan society?

Wicca comes across as an attractive religion because it portrays a strong moral code, promises peace and harmony with the universe and offers its followers the ability to tap into a supernatural source of power to be used for the benefit of mankind. It is a nature based religion and wiccans believe that they are tapping into an energy source that is naturally occurring in the world around us, and merely needs to be channelled in the right direction. This explains why it is said to be the fastest growing religion among high school and college students and why even many adults from all walks of life are now becoming involved with Wicca witchcraft.

So what about the hate?

Ever since year 1 (literally), the Christian society hated the Old Religion. This let to the insane Witch trials, which didn’t end until 1693. Today, such hate still exists. Even though England withdrew its law that prevented people from practicing Witchcraft, people are still afraid to come forward with their Pagan religion. This hate exists between practically every (major) religion. Most religious people think that their religion is the only way to ‘the divine’, thus some religious people become cocky and show great ego towards others. I hate that…

But we took it much further than name calling and looking dirty at each other. Practically every war is either religiously-based or at least has some religious elements. Terrorism is probably the best example of a religious war. And let’s consider the lives that would’ve been spared: the Holocaust and the Witch trials would’ve never taken place. And although many have died because of religion’s hunger for war, there are also a lot of lives that are being mistreated by it. What about the women who were (and in some places, still are) considered to be nothing more but incubators and house slaves? And what about homosexuals? Gypsies…?

Yes, religion has caused a lot of suffering and a lot of deaths. That’s one BIG con, so what are the pro’s?

Religion brings together large groups of people. Different skin colors, political opinions, hairstyles, languages: it doesn’t matter. It has taught people morals and values, and what it is like to believe in something – if not in yourself. Friendships were born amongst people who would’ve never considered being friends without their shared religion. People feel like a close family; they’re there for each other in times of need. Religion can make us consider our actions and prevent us from doing something bad. It can be the only thing that keeps us going.

Religion is something that goes above our imagination; the effect it has had, and still has, on our society. Maybe it’s a wonderful thing, maybe it is not. Maybe if it wasn’t for religion, our ancestors would’ve hanged themselves a long time ago. Then again: if it wasn’t for religion, maybe some of them would’ve lived a bit longer. Either way, religion will most likely never fade away entirely. It might change over time; some traditions will get lost and some traditions will be born. Either way, it is something that’ll still be there long after you and I are gone.

Ever wondered about the occult…?

Then visit my new blog! Here you can learn all there is to learn about the occult and the freaky. Do you actually know what Voodoo is all about, or if Witches really do curse their neighbours? Have you ever wondered if Harry Potter was onto something with his magic wand, and whether vampires really exist? I’ll discuss all of these topics, and more, on my new blog. Of course I will continue writing articles and posting them here.

http://occultistic.wordpress.com/

A (virgin) Pina Colada: DELICIOUS!

Hey guys!

Instead of sharing my useless thoughts with you, I  thought it would be fun to share something else with you: a GREAT smoothie recipe!
I dad found it in a magazine. A whole lost of smoothie recipes. He thought I’d be interested, because I’ve been making so many smoothies lately: he was right.
It’s not really a recipe for ‘Pina Colada’ by the way! It just tastes the same. I should know; I had about 5 of them back in Rome.

Required for one glass:

- 3 Passion fruits
- 200 g. ‘Pineapple’
- 100 ml. Coconut milk
- A blender (!)

Peal out the Passion fruits, into the blender, then throw in the Pineapple.
After you mixed the stuff, sieve out the liquid to remove any large pieces of fruit and to dilute the drink.
Then, throw in the Coconut milk. Blend it all together, and you got yourself a lovely Pina Colada!

The (virgin) part means it contains no alcohol, by the way!

Apologies for the weird photo effects by the way. Lately I’ve become interested in Analog photography. It looks so beautiful, I decided to start a project on it.

Afraid of the dark

I know that only a few days ago, I posted a blog about ‘The horrors of the night‘. A couple of nights later, I’m still very, very… scared.

I guess I’m scaring myself. If I hadn’t looked up several websites about horror movies and ‘The Exorcist’ today, I would probably be having a goodnight rest right now. Instead, I’m stuck here, writing about my fears. I even googled it: ‘afraid of horror movies’, hoping it would lead me to some tips on how to deal with my o-so vivid imagination! Unfortunately, it only led me to this blog. He’s EXACTLY like me! Minus the supernatural experiences, but still! And as I kept on wondering how many people are suffering from this kind of phobia, my search went on with my good friend Google. Turns out: LOTS of people suffer from being afraid of the dark! Understandably: with all the horror movies and criminals, who can trust a house in the dark?

Instead of dwelling upon the subject, I think I’d rather go searching for some answers. Some people come with a very easy-to-understand explanation about why we are so afraid of the dark. It’s very natural of course. Thousands to millions of years ago, we had to watch our backs 24/7 in the wild. With all the predators lying dormant, the Earth wasn’t a very safe place for us. ‘A couple of years later’ (AKA: now) we still experience the same fear of the unknown. Not knowing what is happening around us causes us to wonder and fear the worst.

As natural as it may be, experiencing sleepless nights of course isn’t! So how do we deal with this fear?

I know it might sound simple, and it certainly won’t work for me tonight, but try thinking about ‘happy’ things. You see, for those who have a pro-active imagination like me, will put everything in their lives, like mirrors and sounds, in the daylight of Horror. Thinking differently about your (nightly) life, let’s say in the daylight of a reality-soap, immediately changes your view on things. Especially the scary stuff!

Another thing I don’t understand, is that even with a great imagination, how can we seriously believe that demons and stuff are creeping into our rooms? Anyone with a good sense of reality knows that things like that don’t exist! And even with all the stories and legends, we still should keep our heads straight. Coming to think of it: have you ever heard of anyone getting killed in a mysterious, non-human way, in their own room? And was there evidence, too…?

It are basically our minds whom are screwing us. Even if we think we see something or hear something it’s all our imagination anyway. I DO believe in demons and spirits and ghosts and what else, but I also know that your mind can play with you whenever it wants to. That’s a little state of mind called ‘fear’. How to differentiate? If you’re in fear, it’s probably fake. If you’re not and you see something, it may not be…

I just wish there was some magic trick to turn ‘fear’ off. It would be very dangerous, I know. We wouldn’t think that riding a motorcycle without a helmet is deadly or entering a dark ally in the middle of the night is ‘unsettling’. It would however, allow some of us to get a little sleep, even after a classic horror movie!

Best advice? DON’T WATCH THEM! Don’t think about them, don’t google them, don’t search images about them, don’t talk about them, don’t let your friends get you to watch them! Believe me. It’ll save you SO much trouble.

Struggling with surreality

In life we learn that there are two kind of realities. The first one is the one we make for ourselves. We put our hopes, dreams and believes in it. The second one, is the one that’s tough. Finances, crimes, diseases and mistakes are what we find there. I already explained why the ‘real’ reality is a total and absolute fake. But what about the one, we create for ourselves?

Ever since ‘Avatar’ came into existence, the majority of the viewers struggled with short- and long time ‘life struggle’. The viewers of Avatar experienced a beautiful world, where everything in nature was in tune with one another. The forest produced awesome colors, the birds were a way to fly through the air and Eywa was a living deity. Stepping outside the cinemas, we all had to face the boring and gray world we live in. Over time, we all got used it to again. But some people, did not.

They got depressed, experiencing homesickness to a place they’d never been to before.

It’s not strange as to why people are finding it harder and harder to find the differences between reality and surreality: today’s technology does such a good job on mixing it all together. A perfect example is the movie ”Tron: Legacy’. The makers of the movie decided to up the level of mixture between reality and surreality.

The beginning of the movie, which takes place in the real world, is projected in 2D. When the son enters the digital world, full of ‘lightcycles’ (super modern motorcycles) and gigantic weird flying things, the images are converted to 3D. When both he and the ‘iso’ (isomorphic algorithm) enter the real world again, the images are once again shown in 2D.

Of course, the new 3D techniques contribute to the increasingly amount of people experiencing this problem. Though ’2012: the movie’ and ‘Inception’ were visually stunning, there’s absolutely no comparison between those movies and Avatar and Tron (for example).

So how do we deal with it? We can’t stop seeing those ‘life changing’ movies. And it’s not like you can avoid it anyway. People sometimes talk about a movie for months after it’s first debut. And would we even want to? They can be a real emotional thrill and an absolutely awesome experience. Why would we want to miss out on that?

They can be a great teacher as well. Avatar for example, can be a great way to learn that there’s a possibility of living in tune with nature. Tron simply taught me to love motorcycles that much more. I guess that some fantasies are hard to handle, because they seem so real to us. Bare in mind though, that each fantasy-like movie has core elements that exist in the real world as well. Some people just don’t know how beautiful our planet is. It might not lit up purple in the night, like in the movie ‘Avatar’, but nature is gorgeous enough without.

Gaming, for now, has little to no contribution to this struggle with surreality. In the future however, the real-feel of games will increase tremendously as well. The next generation gaming has already been produced. It’s called a ‘virtual reality’.

The idea is for the player to enter a ‘hamster ball’ and put on a visor. With the visor on, the player can truly ‘walk’ through this virtual world. Imagine yourself, walking upon Avatar’s ‘Pandora’. Wouldn’t that be great? But of course, people are going to get addicted to this way of gaming, in no time…

A solution to this kind of problem? I HAVE NO IDEA! I myself sometimes experience ‘the blues’ after watching a fantasy-rich movie. I just imagine myself riding a hardcore motorcycle whilst driving my moped…

The horrors of the night

We all remember our first horror movie. Our comparable experiences pretty much end right there. Some were horrified by the scenes they were exposed to, others had to laugh no sooner than the first couple of guts that were spilled. There are a couple of movies, however, no one will dare to laugh at.

I’m talking about one movie in particular: The Exorcist.

I must admit that I myself have not seen this movie. The reason why is pretty simple: I like to sleep at night!
I will also admit that I’m very easily scared. I’ve only seen a few horror’s in my 17 years of existence, and I had sleepless nights after watching every single one of them. The last horror movie my friends watched I didn’t even look at. I had my hat down my face during the entire movie (friday the 13th, I believe it was called).

I hear sounds in my room every night, because of my air conditioning. I get scared every time I have to brush my teeth in front of that giant mirror in the bathroom, hoping dear ‘Bloody Marry’ won’t come to visit me. And don’t get me started on Freddy Krueger and his lovely way of killing his victims in their dreams…

However this movie is a bit different. Even the most fanatic of the horror-fanatics had sleepless nights over this one. Not to mention the poor, innocent people who had puked, hyperventilated and in many cases: caught a serious trauma.

The movie evolves around a girl who gets possessed by the devil. It’s a very simple and commonly used idea, that up until ‘The Exorcist’ never really caught its audience. The movie was first presented in the cinema’s in 1973. Some people came running out of the cinemas screaming and crying. Like I said, it involved hyperventilating, puking, crying, sleep disorders, fear of the dark, fear of being alone, nightmares, etc.. No other movie had ever caused such serious symptoms.

This movie should not be confused with the movie ‘The exorcism of Emily Rose‘, though this movie laid down the foundation for ‘The Exorcist’. They’re related in some way. However ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’  is a – based on a true story – production. In this case, a Priest tells about how he allegedly performed an exorcism on a girl (Emily Rose), who died in the process. This movie too, caused many serious symptoms and traumas.

Now that I have told you what I really wanted of my chest, I suppose now I have to figure out why we dread these kind of movies and more to the point: why does this movie scare us more than the other ones do? In my article about fear and anger, I already explained our reasons for having these emotions and reactions. One of them was the fact that in order to avoid harm, we have to fear it. That way we know for sure we’ll avoid it. A very effective but troubling way of keeping ourselves save. I guess evolution didn’t take our hunger for scaring the bloody hell out of each other into account while making progress. The real reason behind how scary a movie is, depends on a few different factors. Our fantasy for example: the greater our fantasy, the better we are at placing certain horror-scenes into our lives. For example, my bathroom mirror…

Another factor is converting comforting facts into horror-facts.

A response in ‘Yahoo questions’. The question: How scary is The Exorcist, really?

The Exorcist, like many older horror movies (and a lot of modern Japanese horror movies) rely on thought provoking situations to elicit horror. Specifically in the exorcist most people find it scary because it takes a concept that is normally comforting or non-scary (church, priest, little girl, etc) and flips it.

So the movie has a reversed-morality kinda thing going on. To be honest, I’d never enter a church at night indeed…

Another factor is of course that little sentence that we don’t want to find on the cover of a horror movie: ‘Based on a true story‘. Back in the 90′s, it was what caused ‘The Blair Witch Project‘ to become one of the best classic horrors of all time. The story goes that a film was found underneath an old house. The film was recorded by three students, who apparently got lost in the woods. They were being haunted by an old folklore, stating that an evil witch haunted the forest. When one of the students goes missing, the couple that’s left behind completely lose their minds. They hear voices in the night, find limbs from their missing partner, etc..

The fact that this was supposedly a true recording with no edits, made it THAT much more scarier. About a year after it’s first debut, the true cast & crew of the movie came forward, stating that the movie (and the folklore) was an absolute fake.

Combining all of these factors ultimately decide whether we are scared of a movie or not. It certainly explains why some people love ‘Saw’ and hate ‘The Exorcist’. I myself will always be scared of EVERYTHING. The Grudge, Saw, Freddy, The Exorcist: I don’t care what movie it is. I have A LOT of fantasy, and thus I will always be scared.

I will probably never get to watch ‘The Exorcist’. But at least I’ll dream joyful, every night!!

Last day at school

I am relieved to tell you guys that tomorrow this school’s year ends!

And what a year it’s been! I met a lot of new people, which I think is one of the best advantages of high school. However, school’s a nasty pain in the a*s! Especially in the the last couple of weeks when you have to study like hell. Then there’s all the unfinished business that you haven’t completed this year, such as gym class (in my case). I’m following a pretty nasty educational program (physics, chemistry, etc.), but if I don’t make it to a complete for gym class, I’ll fail this year. Isn’t that ridiculous!?

I can pick three adults from the street, and I’d know for sure that at least two of them will tell me they hated high school! The insecurity, incredible differences in state of development between people, the constant need to stay up-to-date about cellphones/people/classes/tests/grades/et cetera. An absolute hell if you’d ask me…

   Could not agree more…

My addiction: Music

Quite some time ago, I decided it was time again for some new music, even though I had at least 6 gigabytes worth of musical data already. I downloaded lots of new bands, including Flyleaf, Evans Blue, Fuel, Ever Clear and later on Foo Fighters and Rise against (sure I’ve missed a few, though).

I confess: I’m addicted to music! It’s more of a drug to me then it is entertainment…

My music taste didn’t get shaped until I was in my 1st year of high school. Even though most of my friends listen to R&B and the top … charts, another friend of mine listens to Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. She’s awesome… Anyway, I laid down the foundation for my musical-taste then and there.
I started listening to a few of the most popular rock bands, like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin. I listened to them for months, day in – day out.

Then I got bored. I started taking in more & more music, and widened my taste. I developed a taste for spiritual music such as Enya, Lord of the Rings (soundtracks) and Avatar (soundtracks). I got HOOKED. Teachers started to get real angry about my earbud-abuse in class. I attracted an unfortunate disease called ‘Tinnitus’, which basically is a ringing in the ear. More on that later…

Today, I don’t go anywhere without my phone & earbuds. I need them as much as I need my underwear.
People ask me why I like music so much. I then ask them: ‘What do smokers say when you ask them why they like smoking?’.

I want to explain to you so desperately what I feel when I listen to my music, but you probably get the same (sort of?) kick when you listen to one of your top-artists! And ehh… If you don’t believe me being addicted to music, visit my Last FM profile. It updates whenever I listen to music. You can make your own profile as well. If you download the Last.FM ‘scrobbler’, it will put the music you listen to (through iTunes or Windows Media Player) on your very own Last.FM-page.
You can also download various apps on smartphones (iPhone, Android, etc.), so you can update your music page while listening to music on your phone. It’s a great way to view your music-usage!

Another great thing the Internet has brought us, are the ‘automated music recommendation services’.

Popular ones are Pandora Radio and Last.FM, but also Jango for example. These sites offer you the possibility of finding tons of new artists to your liking, by searching for an artist or song that are similar to the one you’ve typed in. I personally like Pandora Radio the best, though I have to go through hell just to make use of the service: Pandora Radio only accepts visitors from the U.S. If you’re from let’s say Europe, your I.P address will betray you and they will block you from their website. I just use a little program called ‘IE Privacy Keeper’. It hides your I.P address, so you can make use of any website you want to!

Now, let’s talk dangers… Music is great, but just like any drug, it comes with great dangers. Everyone knows you have to be very careful with your hearing.
Loud motorcycles, machinery at work and night clubs are devastating for your hearing. But there’s something that most people aren’t told about: Tinnitus.

Tinnitus is a disease, caused by a malfunctioning cilium. When those vibrating hairs within your ear are overrun by huge waves of sound (loud noises), they can bend or break. They then send false information to the brain, creating noises which aren’t really there. They vary from high pitched ringing-noises to low buzzing sounds. I urge you to be extremely careful with your hearing and music-usage: there’s no known cure for Tinnitus.

Dangerous or not, I’m in utter bliss with this drug!

Coincidence? I think not!

Sometimes in life, we come across weird moments. Moments in which something so coincidental happens, we’d almost think there’s an actual ‘grand plan’ in this messy universe, and that we all really do all have ‘destinies’. I my self am a true believer, like many others who share my faith. Things happen to me SO OFTEN, there’s simply no other explanation!
But what is this ‘grand plan’, and how exactly does it affect our lives? And if we really do have destinies, why are some people destined to die so early, or live in disease and poverty? And if this all is true; do we have free will?

A while ago I became interested in philosophy. It happened after I bought a book, named ‘Science for in bath, on the toilet or in bed’. Of course, this book doesn’t really have to do anything with philosophy. But after I found out there’s a similar book called ‘Philosophy for in bath, on the toilet or in bed’, I decided to order that one as well.

I read all about Plato, Pythagoras, Socrates and Augustinus and their interesting ideas about life – or how life should be.
But there’s a specific kind of philosophy called ‘Determinism’, that caught my interest.

Let Wikipedia clarify:

Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. The several versions of this thesis rest upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and events, asserting that these hold without exception.

 

This basically means that everything happens, as a consequence of some other event.
This is something that we Humans gave a name: fate.
To my surprise, this idea is being thoroughly investigated. Thousands of years ago, we started wondering if the universe is made out of random events and if the creation of our universe was random – or not. Those questions still exist today. Do we Humans exist for a reason? What are we living for? Is there really such an entity as god?

These questions are also called ‘The Grand Questions’, because they can define our reason for existing.
But how do you find out if this is really true, this ‘grand plan’? How do you investigate and proof? And how do we prevent ourselves seeing something that may not be real, and just our imagination? Maybe we should start with the smallest: us.

When we look back at our lives, it’s said that there should be seven big- or changing events. Events that caused the course of our lives – or us – to change (dramatically). Things like the deaths of our parents, the loss of a good friend or the betrayal of a husband or wife. Or maybe being turned to a religion, seeing beyond the physical plane or being abducted by aliens?
They say that if one believes, anything is possible. That was partially proved right when scientists found out that if you make a patient believe he’s taking a real medicine for his pain, though it’s a ‘fake pill’,  the patient’s pain still disappears. The same can  be true for believing in fate. How do we know we’re not just seeing what we want to see, but something that’s actually true?

That’s a big problem with this investigation. What else, it will affect our planet a tiny bit as well.

Think about how it would affect religion. Religious people believe that there’s a ‘god’ or some form of entity(-ies), controlling our universe. If this fate-stuff is proven real, it might be a new reason for people to join a religious community. Why? Structure requires intelligent thinking to create it. If our universe is made out of such a structure, who- or what created it?

Then there’s the ‘soul-searching‘ many people go through. When something happens to us, we try to reason it. ‘Have I done something wrong?’. ‘Why is all this happening to me?’. ‘Was this all my fault?’. If we know for sure that things happen for a reason, it could save us a whole deal of emotional baggage.

But it will also make a big change in our thinking and reasoning, should we believe fate is real.
Things like ‘It wasn’t really her/his fault, it HAD to happen to me’ and ‘My computer had a meltdown, but at least I got my homework done’.
It could change the way we look at life and death. But will it be for the better, or for the worse?

Anyway, the big question is Do we Humans have free will? The ongoing investigation will be completed in 2015. By then, there should be a definite answer to that question. And as for fate, it may remain a mystery for a long time to come.

Many scientists however, agree: the answer is no, we do not have free will. You could try to duel that answer, but think about this:
if we have free will, why have people murdered – in their sleep? Subconscious? Brain activity? Okay, but who controls those?

Coincidence?