Lights, Camera, Rage: Klangstabil!
Current mood: mellow
Category: Music
Feeling somewhat mellow and introspective at the moment, I thought I'd change the profile song and introduce everyone to an amazing German band that I discovered a few weeks ago: Klangstabil.
Should we respect the "Freewill" trump card? Opinions welcome!
Current mood: busy
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Time for another question, but before I start, let me express my gratitude to everyone who commented on my previous blog (the three questions). It really helped and I am extremely grateful.
So, today, I have been pondering the following thoughts:
If morality is a code (or codes), personal, communal or societal, which moves one to act in accordance to said-code, can we deem God's lack of action: a) proof of his lack of morality, b) proof of inferior morality (by human standards) or c) complete subservience to freewill to the point that it contradicts his omnipotence?
I choose to omit d) proof of God's non-existence for obvious reasons.
Since God does nothing (and if he does, please prove it), how is what he's doing any different than a woman standing by a lake watching her child drowning whilst thinking "Gosh, if only someone would save my baby" over and over again whilst doing sod all?
Furthermore, is freewill even a factor here since we could ask if God is capable of superceding it as he obviously did in Exodus with the "hardening of the Pharaoh's heart"? I know it sounds oddly Epicurean, but does it have to be? Does the doctrine of freewill actually work here as a way of "explaining away" the problem or is it just a well rehearsed non sequitur?
In essence, let me put it this way:
A headmaster interviews a new candidate to fill a post in a junior school. The candidate presents himself well, his CV is in order, his responses are excellent. But upon reading the man's police record (a necessary step when working with children in many countries), the headmaster discovers that he is a multiple sex offender and molester of small children. The headmaster dismisses this and welcomes the new teacher. Weeks later, the police find the body of a young student in the pedophile's backyard and the headmaster is arrested and questioned. The charge is Criminal Negligence which lead to the death of a young boy. The headmaster responds that he was only allowing the pedophile to exert his "freewill".
The point is obvious: The headmaster is essentially using the EXACT same "explaining away" as apologists do to the Problem of Evil. But does it work and is Special Pleading therefore the ONLY defence by which God can (by analogy) do the same (allow murderers, rapists and Paris Hilton to walk the Earth unchallenged) and still get away with it?
This is a picture of yours truly being told of the differences between cases in German.
Anyway, I'm just logging on to check my email very quickly and much to my surprise, I have found over 20 emails from my friends and about 15 replies to my previous blog (which I will be reading in the next few minutes).
Thank you ever so much to everyone and may each and every one of you have a wonderful 2008, the Year of Reason. Unless you're a Mormon presidential candidates.
The book is going along quite nicely even if it has expanded beyond the originally planned 150 pages into a titan almost three times the size (or it will be when/if I ever finish it).
My life is very hectic but all is well. I've recently purchased a horribly expensive but amazingly comfortable new matress and bed, so whomever left me the comment "Get out of bed" (Yes, Patricia, I'm looking at you), you were probably right about that one.
Anyway, I'd better be off. But not without a gigantic cyberhug to all of you.
Keep kicking ass and chewing bubblegum, my cohorts!
I have a few "philosophical" questions I'd like to submit to my friends and regulars. I have an idea how this might go, but I'm open (eager, in fact) for input.
The first question is one I have already submitted but for which I received no feedback. This is a question of Trust. If you're a Theist (in particular a Jew or a Christian) I really want to hear from you.
Imagine a theistic universe akin to that of the Abrahamic hypothesis. How can we know for sure that what is deemed Good is in fact Good? If Good is defined by what a divinity tells us ("God says" or "the Bible says"), we trust this entity without judging whether it is good or not. If Good is not (defined this way), we basically find ourselves in a position where Good is defined by human understandings of the "Golden Rule / Human Contract". This latter option really does not require a god or gods to conclude it (as any humanist will tell you), but the former does. How can we therefore know for sure that what is good is in fact good and that a god is trustworthy? Or, if I'll allow myself to sound somewhat conspirational, how do we know that good isn't evil and that God isn't Satan?
The second question concerns Morality.
What are the characteristics of a "good" moral code? If we are to judge a Morality, by which tenets shall it be judged? How can we compare one morality against another (say, for instance, Muslim morality against the morality of the Church of Satan)? Should we? Are consistency, flexibility, openess to progress and new developments, intuitiveness and clarity, respect and non-judgementalism, universality and tolerance, as well as a need to lead to inclusion rather than exclusion important characters or can we create a longer or shorter list? Or do we judge someone's morality based upon what a sacred text states?
The third and last question is quite simply one of Altruism.
Can we truly differentiate the return of a mother into a burning house to save her child, trapped in the flames, from a similar return by a violinist to save his prized violin? If this example offends sensibilities or seems silly (even if it is realistic), we could substitute the violin for a loved pet or perhaps a unique copy of a Holy Text of your choice. In other words, if altruism is placing one's life at risk for the sake of something (else), can we be deemed altruistic when trying to save a non-human from certain destruction? Or does self-sacrifice only receive the sacrosanct title of Altruism when it is done for a member of the same species or even organic status? Despite other facets of altruism, could a major influence in someone's self-sacrifice be the individual's desire to not lose something that is central to their life?
Answers on a postcard, please, or alternately you could leave a comment. I'm very grateful for all responses. Many thanks!
Just dropping by to give everyone a little taste of Xmas with a "killer track" by that German industrial champion, the almighty (and quite likely omnipotent) Feindflug.
Crivens! It’s getting cold...
Current mood: busy
Category: Life
So here's another quick little update for those of you who doubted me when I stated I probably wouldn't update again until December...
Much of the same has hit the rather slow-moving fan. In fact, not much has happened in the grand scope of things. In fact, I'm still wearing the same slippers. But, on the plus side,...
- The Out-Of-Line festival was pretty amazing. Ok, I'm lying. The main band was awesome, the rest was reasonably crap or, at best, very predictable. The line up consisted of Ashbury Heights (think, well, no, don't... it was awful), Proceed (which was pretty tedious considering bands like this are a Euro a dozen), Spetsnaz (who really didn't impress me much) and Hocico (the reason I didn't shoot myself that evening). The highlight, from an ironic standpoint, of the night was 200 people jumping up and down like crazy to a song called "Apathy". On the plus side, Hocico is an amazing duo, filled with energy and truly are the best act I've seen live since... well, that's none of your business anyway. Gods from Mexico, I recommend them highly.
- Last week, we also went to another festival, this time featuring only 3 bands: Schallfaktor, Soman and Grendel. This was amazing, from start to finish, though in all honesty I would have to say "from the-time-we-arrived to finish" because of the "Baustelle" (roadwork). Sadly, we only caught the last song and a half of Schallfaktor, but even in this the band excelled and we were happy to be there. Soman was equally superlative in a sort of "Am I standing on a beach in Ibiza" kind of way. I wasn't sure what this was meant to be... dark electro or rave trance. Either way, I bounced, we bounced, it was wonderful. My back started to send me faxes informing me that it was slightly miffed. Then Grendel turned up and the fax machine got thrown out of the window. Very good. Very bloody good. Not "Hocico-good", but "glad I got stuck in a traffic jam for an hour" good. And of course we then went downstairs to one of the 3 other rooms and "got jiggy" on the floor for the next 2 hours before Steffi and I went home sweaty. T'was a'sum. My back took 4 days to recover, during which I was quite happily crippled and almost incapable of getting out of bed (I gots better). Later, I found a resignation letter written by my feet down one of my boots. Splitters!
- I am quickly running out of books. Seeing that I can't always have Amazon on speed-dial, I ventured down to the Velbert main library and requisitioned Animal Farm (the Orwell version, not the dodgy Danish banned one), a Clive Barker novel (whose title momentarily escapes me) and the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy omnibus. I'm almost done with them and am grateful that the Selfish Gene finally turned up or I'd have to read another Dan Brown book to take my mind off the lack of quality literature here. I'm amazed how much time I have now that I don't spend it in front of the PC. And I even have a Real Life. Astounding!
- My notes continue as I persevere in my daunting task of getting to grips with my book. A lot of thoughts come and go and my notebook looks bewildered and confused. I really need to run back to Belgium for a day trip to seize my Pocket PC. But I'm stuck with a point that I think is rather interesting:
Imagine a theistic universe akin to that of the Abrahamic hypothesis. How can we know for sure that what is deemed Good is in fact Good? If Good is defined by what a divinity tells us ("God says" or "the Bible says"), we trust this entity without judging whether it is good or not. If Good is not (defined this way), we basically find ourselves in a position where Good is defined by human understandings of the "Golden Rule / Human Contract". This latter option really does not require a god or gods to conclude it (as any humanist will tell you), but the former does. How can we therefore know for sure that what is good is in fact good and that a god is trustworthy? Or, if I'll allow myself to sound somewhat conspirational, how do we know that good isn't evil and that God isn't Satan?
Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. I hope that each and everyone of you is informing the World of the impending Mithrasmas and if I don't resurface until then, I wish you all a happy solstice!
Deutschland, first impressions
Current mood: busy
Category: Life
Well, boys and girls, it has been a while since I've even logged onto MySpace, let alone informed anyone of events in the past month. One of my last entries was to announce that I would be going to MaschinenFest in Mid-October, but that's pretty much the last item of information to come forth from my side of the Pond.
I am currently living in Velbert, not far away from Essen on the Western side of Germany. Here are a few things I have learnt in the past 4 weeks:
- Germans have a word for everything. I kid you not. What an Anglophile says in 5 words, a German can say in one. Zeitgeist and schadenfreude are two wonderful examples. But they have no German word for "computer". Weird.
- MaschinenFest is/was the most amazing music festival I have ever attended. I love AB Ovo, a French musical project that blends industrial with atmospheric and whose "Mouvement" album is superlative in every sense of the word. Also, it was also the most aggressive and musically-violent ever. Prior to this, I've seen some pretty hardcore bands, but they pale by comparison to the fury of a powernoise ensemble and associated crowd. It. Was. Amazing.
- I hate German keyboards. Not as much as French keyboards, but almost. They have to squeeze additional non-Anglo-saxon characters and therefore the letter Y has been relegated to where Z used to be, and vice-versa. I won't even mention symbols like *, ~ and @, characters that require at least two hands and four tentacles to use.
- I am living with a wonderful woman, Stephanie, with whom I am deeply in love. She is amazing.
- My sister is trying to screw me over and has recently decided to evict me from her apartment. This is no big deal other than the fact that much of my belongings still can be found there. My mother has promised me a compromise but I remain jaded. Needless to say, forgiven, but not forgotten, Caroline.
- Stephanie's youngest child has ADHD. It is tough to deal with and I often find myself lacking patience, but I think he'll make it to 18 without waking up eyebrowless or with his Playmobil pirate ship jammed up his ass. Live and let live. He's a good kid, but it's tough.
- Nazis still exist in Germany. They are called "Polizei" and are ruthless, corrupt and utterly anal-retentive. When I consider how close to The Netherlands I now live, I had assumed that the cops here would be quite liberal and pretty laid back. Big mistake. These guys (and butch ladies) are really fascists.
- The assumption that Germany has moved on from the old days of East and West Germany is ill-founded. For the most part, East Germany is a depleted (economically-speaking) region that costs West Germany much. That is not to say that this isn't a wonderful country, but I am baffled at the thought of people wanting to move here for social-factors. Germany does not appear that socially "superior", if you get my drift.
- Stephanie's eldest visited a "Bible Museum" last week. My German is terrible, but I was able to shred the booklet she brought back to pieces within 5 minutes. Germany is VERY religious and religious privileges abound in this country. There is MUCH work to be done here. Nietzsche would roll around in his grave if he knew what was happening here with the Evangelicals.
- I have given myself 2 years to learn German. By then, I want to be able to read Goethe.
- Germany is a highly musical nation. Essen, though bigger than Norwich in the UK, is a fairly small city by the standards of Hamburg and Berlin. But it's smallest industrial music clubs are on the same footing as Slimelight in London. There are so many Rivetheads, Industrial music fans and Goths here. It is amazing.
- I don't know how I got to miss them, but Steffi has introduced me to the band "Fields of the Nefilim". How did I miss that? Good stuff.
- People who drive BMWs, Mercedes-Benz and AUDIs in Germany are all assholes. There's no other way around it. It is a Brute Fact.
- My quest to complete my book continues, but in a different form. After almost 3 months of absence, I am now making countless notes on a good ol' fashioned notepad in preparation for the day when my computer will find its way to me.
- I will be moving to Bremen, in the North of Germany soon. A fresh start in a beautiful part of the World, with two cool kids and a woman I love. I won't bore you with the details, but life is looking Up.
- I still haven't found Jesus. Although I finally managed to complete The End of Faith. I know, Patricia, I've had it in my suitcase for ages but only now have I managed to finish it. It's a wonderful book that I recommend to everyone, theist and atheist alike.
- I also completed American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, yesterday and I am halfway through Neverwhere, by the same author. I am running out of books and will have to find an English-language bookstore here soon if this continues. If you haven't read American Gods, what are you waiting for?
- The weather here is appallingly like Britain's. The apartment block where I am currently living has a wonderful view, as it faces on the valley of Langeberg. The treeline in the morning, when it is sunny, is priceless (photos will follow in a few weeks). Walks in the forest and through the countryside are wonderful. When the weather holds. Days like today are, for lack of a better term, pure shit.
- Cats are crazy. I still think they are a waste of fur, though James (the kids' cat) thinks he is a dog. He followed Steffi and I for a 30 minute long walk and when I whistled and yelled "Here boy", he trotted up to us quite happily. Crazy animal. Right now, he's hissing at me. A few moments later, he'll be rubbing his head against my knee, begging for some Brie cheese. Stupid thing.
- Packard Bell / HP computers are shit.
Well, that pretty much sums it up. There is more, but I want to leave something for December.
Apologies to everyone. I know it has been ages since I have logged on. I still haven't checked email or comments. I'm not sure I will be able to do this today. But at least now you know that rumours of my demise have been, at best, premature.
Kind regards from Deutschland,
~Nils
Currently
reading
:
Neverwhere
By
Neil Gaiman
Release date: 02 November, 2000
Council of Europe firmly opposes creationism in school By Gilbert Reilhac Thu Oct 4, 2:06 PM ET
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Europe's main human rights body voted on Thursday to urge schools across the continent to firmly oppose the teaching of creationist and "intelligent design" views in their science classes.
The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution saying attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted "in forms of religious extremism" and amounted to a dangerous assault on science and human rights.
The text said European schools should "resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion." It said the "intelligent design" view defended by some United States conservatives was an updated version of creationism.
Creationism says God made the world in six days as depicted in the Bible. Intelligent design argues some life forms are too complex to have evolved according to Charles Darwin's theory and needed an unnamed higher intelligence to develop as they have.
Anne Brasseur, an Assembly member from Luxembourg who updated an earlier draft resolution, said the report showed how creationists -- most recently a shadowy Turkish Muslim writer Harun Yahya -- were trying to infiltrate European schools.
"The purpose of this report is to warn against the attempt to pass off a belief -- creationism -- as a science and to teach the theses of this belief in science classes," she said. "Its purpose is not to fight any belief."
The vote was due in June but was postponed because some members felt the original text amounted to an attack on religious belief. A few changes were made to spell out that it was not directed against religion.
The Council, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, oversees human rights standards in member states and enforces decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
The resolution, which passed 48 votes to 25 with 3 abstentions, is not binding on the Council's 47 member states but reflects widespread opposition among politicians to teaching creationism in science class.
Some conservatives in the United States, both religious and secular, have long opposed the teaching of evolution in public schools but U.S. courts have regularly barred them from teaching what they describe as religious views of creation.
Pressure to teach creationism is weaker in Europe, but has been mounting. An Assembly committee took up the issue because Harun Yahya has been sending his lavish Islamic creationist book "Atlas of Creation" to schools in several countries.
Supporters of intelligent design want it taught in science class alongside evolution. A U.S. court ruled this out in a landmark decision in 2005, dismissing it as "neo-creationism."
Nils marches onto Germany
Current mood: groggy
Category: Life
So, in his next step for complete World domination, Nils will be in Germany spending a grand industrial-music fuelled time in the area of Dusseldorf/Essen for the next 10 or so days. This will climax in the much awaited Maschinenfest on the 12th, 13th and 14th of this month. The habitual rounds of lesbian bukkake video tapes, hard drugs and loud thumping music will be indulged and stories may (or may not) be shared (at my discretion).
I will still be available on and off for the occasional chat and will hopefully keep everyone updated with pictures, amusing accounts of my f'ed up life and the odd glimpse into the twisted mind of Herr Nils, but probably won't be as active as I've been over the past 3-4 weeks.
Technical: How to link to MySpace blogs
Category: MySpace
Unfortunately, since I have been unable to fix my photo server, many of my past "tech support" blogs have found themselves unusable. A friend of mine has expressed interest in the following question:
How do you link in a blog or bulletin to someone else's blog?
So here is how:
Note: When I say "blog", I refer to a particular blog, i.e. article/essay, and not "oh, it's on my blog", i.e. a person's journal. In this example, I will use the blog entitled "Lights, Camera, Rage: Drown Transmission!"
Step 1:
Locate the blog. To do this, go to that person's profile page and click on the relevant "view more".
Step 2:
Once you've reached the chosen, individual blog, go into the address bar of your browser and copy and paste the address.
Step 3:
You're almost there. Go to the editor ("post new blog" or "post new bulletin") and use the appropriate HTML tag (the A and /A tags). Simply insert the address that you had copied from the previous step in between the "", write an appropriate subject/title in between the two tags and you're done.
Lights, Camera, Rage: Drown Transmission!
Current mood: hyper
Category: Music
Many thanks to Rotersand for keeping everyone entertained during my absence this past weekend. I'm also really glad that so many of you enjoyed their sound (yes, even well-affirmed, proud and devout metalheads who sent me moist and dripping "I love Rotersand" emails, you know who you are!). I'm really looking forward to seeing them in November (Waregem) and if any of you are planning on going to the Gothic Festival 2007, send me a quick mail and we'll figure something out. The line up is fantastic: SITD, Rotersand, Das Ich, Suicide Commando and others!
In the meantime, I just got a quick mail and AFR from Justin a.k.a. Drown Transmission. I really like his sound and style. I cannot believe this artist is unsigned. So, fuck it, Rotersand's coming down and Justin's own brand of industrial-metal is going to feature on my page for the next few days. Best of luck with the label-hunting, my new friend!
Ok boys and girls, this one's only for those of us with a very broad (and somewhat dark) sense of humour. If you are easily offended, please save me the agony of having to defend some of the stuff he says in here. It's dark humour.
mellow
busy
happy
groggy
hyper
amused
