Memory
July 13, 2009 at 11:44 pm | In Bible, Narcissism | 2 CommentsAs friends and identity theft fans will know, I recently turned 25, and I’ve discovered that getting older means that you start forgetting things.
My memory is, shall we say, not terribly selective with what it remembers. I remember things. Just the other night I was able to recount a story my flatmate’s fiancée told us that she (and the rest of us) had completely forgotten. If I know you (and if you’ve told me the approriate information!), I could probably tell you when your birthday was, if you have a driving licence, the names of at least four cities or football clubs in your country, the result of every football World Cup match since 1998 (Costa Rica 2 China 0 in 2002 wasn’t a great game), when we met, what we talked about and the eye colour of pretty much every girl I’ve had a crush on. I can even remember phone numbers of old friends I had in primary school! (To give you an indication of how old I’m talking about, the area code was 01247 and not 02891!)
It should be noted that I don’t try to remember these things. I just do, and sometimes people react negatively when I remember something about them (not necessarily a bad thing), but I promise you that it’s just because I’ve remembered and not for any nefarious purpose or because I somehow have some weird stalkerism about you!
But time takes its toll. I’ll probably remember these things my whole life, but now I’m struggling to remember more important things like getting milk and how much money I owe or am owed by my flatmates, or what I actually went in for when I went into the kitchen, or even if I meant to go into the kitchen in the first place!
Being able to remember stuff is, however, not especially useful unless you can somehow apply it, and I don’t just mean in pub quizzes. I got 100% in my driving theory test, so I obviously knew how to drive a car. But I failed my practical test seven times because I wasn’t able to apply properly what I knew to the rigorous testing in the driving test. Similarly, I know a lot about the Bible. But that’s absolutely no use unless I can apply what I read there to my own life. So it’s a gift, certainly, but it needs to be used well, and I guess the parable of the talents fits in here.
It’s late, so I’ll leave you with an extract from possibly my favourite Bible book, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 good advice here for the young, and the young at heart:
1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,“ I have no pleasure in them”:
2 While the sun and the light,
The moon and the stars,
Are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain;
3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
And the strong men bow down;
When the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look through the windows grow dim;
4 When the doors are shut in the streets,
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all the daughters of music are brought low.
5 Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;
When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets.
6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,[a]
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Remember what is important, while you still can!
100th post Narcissistic Extravaganza!
August 6, 2008 at 11:20 am | In Bible, Film, Music, Narcissism, TV, Travel, books | 4 CommentsNew format this time, instead of 100 arbitrary facts (I’m not that interesting) I present to you my top ten top ten lists. You can find other such posts here and here. This is a list of my favourites and may not be an indication of what is actually “best”. Booya.
List I: Top ten Bible books
I Ecclesiastes
II Gospel of John
III Revelation
IV Proverbs
V Genesis
VI Acts
VII Romans
VIII Ezekiel
IX Gospel of Luke
X Hebrews
List II: Top ten Non-religious books
XI L’étranger by Albert Camus
XII Lord of the Flies by William Golding
XIII La Peste by Albert Camus
XIV The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
XV Eureka! The Birth of Science by Andrew Gregory
XVI Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Snigh
XVII The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinnis
XVIII The Story of the World Cup by Brian Glanville
XIX Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
XX La Symphonie Pastorale by André Gide
List III: Top ten Movies
XXI Terminator 2: Judgement Day
XXII The Terminator
XXIII Serial Lover
XXIV Return of the Jedi
XXV A Beautiful Mind
XXVI Juno
XXVII The Dark Knight
XXVIII Batman Begins
XXIX Spiderman 2
XXX Casino Royale
List IV: Top ten TV shows
XXXI Doctor Who
XXXII Peep Show
XXXIII Torchwood
XXXIV Mock the Week
XXXV Have I Got News for You
XXXVI QI
XXXVII Match of the Day
XXXVIII Give My Head Peace (RIP)
XXXIX Futurama
XL Gavin and Stacey
List V: Top Ten Radio Shows
XLI I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue (RIP Humph)
XLII The Now Show
XLIII The News Quiz
XLIV The Chris Moyles Show
XLV Sport on Five
XLVI The Scott Mills Show
XLVII Mark and Lard (I know it’s not on anymore, but still)
XLVIII Fighting Talk
XLIX Stephen Nolan
L Richard Bacon
List VI: Top ten Pet Hates
LI People standing at pedestrian crossings and waiting, having not pressed the button
LII Cyclists going through red lights & riding on Jawbone Walk
LIII Smug Mac users & Apple fanboyism generally
LIV People saying “3AM in the morning” or “5PM in the afternoon”
LV “Apostrophe’s” or, worse, “comma,s” where they aren’t supposed to be
LVI Windows Vista
LVII James Allen on ITV F1 coverage
LVIII People who shout “Come on [insert British player here]” at Wimbledon
LIX The general attitude towards Mathematics these days
LX The obsession with celebrities
List VII: Top ten music artists
LXI Muse
LXII Green Day
LXIII REM
LXIV Ting Tings
LXV Manu Chao
LXVI Arctic Monkeys
LXVII Amy MacDonald
LXVIII Snow Patrol
LXIX Blink 182
LXX Bloc Party
List VIII: Top ten countries other than the UK & Ireland I might want to live in
LXXI Canada
LXXII Monaco
LXXIII Germany
LXXIV New Zealand
LXXV Australia
LXXVI France
LXXVII Denmark
LXXVIII South Korea
LXXIX Luxembourg
LXXX Switzerland
List IX: Top ten on my iTunes most played
LXXXI Still Alive by GlaDos (from the Portal soundtrack)
LXXXII Machines by Biffy Clyro
LXXXIII Pork and Beans by Weezer
LXXXIV Folding Stars by Biffy Clyro
LXXXV Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day
LXXXVI Great DJ by Ting Tings
LXXXVII Imitation of Life by REM
LXXXVIII Supernatural Superserious by REM
LXXXIX Mr Rock & Roll by Amy MacDonald
XC From Despair to Where by Manic Street Preachers
List X: Random Facts
XCI I once played a former Romanian Olympic Table Tennis player. Surprisingly, I lost
XCII I’m currently watching “This Morning” in KB House
XCIII I like Roman Numerals
XCIV I couldn’t tell you exactly how long I’ve been a Christian for
XCV I don’t like it when it’s hot
XCVI My favourite Ice cream flavour is Mint Choc Chip
XCVII I don’t take as many photos as I used to
XCVIII The best thing to put on toast is peanut butter
XCIX Maps are great and I could look at one for hours
… and finally…
C Writing lots of things like this is really hard!
Thanks for reading, I don’t think I’ll be doing another one of these again somehow, but you never know! Cheerio!
Is the Bible inerrant?
April 10, 2008 at 11:19 pm | In Bible | 1 CommentTags: Bible
Following on from a discussion today, I would very much like to know what you think the answer to this question is and why. I’m deliberately not going to voice my opinion so as not to influence any answers (that actually assumes I have any influence..) .
So in other words, do you think that the Bible’s writers made any errors (either factual, logical or perhaps not quite in line with what God might have wanted) while writing it?
Hopefully if I get a few responses I’ll summarise them later.
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