Previews of Coming Attractions

[vovat]

My dad's old printer, which is what I have hooked up to my computer, has stopped working. I hope I don't have to buy a new one. I don't really even know how much they usually cost. Probably cheaper than getting an old one fixed, but more than I can afford.

The Bullshit! episode about Alcoholics Anonymous made a point of explaining how the organization taught alcoholics not to take responsibility for their own actions, instead turning to a higher power (like Hebrew National hot dogs, I guess). Some people insisted that a "higher power" need not be a god, and could be a rock or a tree (one person's actual examples), which is pretty ridiculous. bethje had told me about the religious aspects of AA before, but I have to wonder how many people are aware of them. It isn't something I associated with AA in the past. I guess if I ever become an alcoholic, I'll have to find a different way to sober up.

Beth and I are going to the Monster-Mania Convention this weekend. It sounds like it should be fun. Expect some comments on the convention in the near future, as well as a review of Button-Bright of Oz. (I've made it through eighty out of 123 pages of Button-Bright, so I should be finished reading it pretty soon.)

Comments

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, P&T did talk about people being forced to attend meetings of a quasi-religious organization.

I'll probably expand upon my views on the atheism/agnosticism thing in a few days (my Oz book review will most likely come first), but I will say that I lean toward atheism, rather than theism. I guess the thing is that I don't actively believe, which I guess would make me an atheist by some standards. On the other hand, I don't really actively disbelieve, either. It just isn't all that relevant to my life.

And I don't know who the Brights are.

[revme.livejournal.com]

That'll be pretty interesting... I typically like those sorts of things.

As for the Brights; I don't remember a whole lot about them, but it's sort of a movement by Richard Dawkins and some other folks as sort of a new Religious Classification or whatever, for people who are skeptics/atheists who are really into science and things. And he called it The Brights. I think brights.org is their site. It's one of those things where I'd probably _be_ a Bright if I didn't think that, y'know, identifying as such was sorta vaguely lame for the whole "Smartypants Q. Sciencelover" thing mentioned above.