In this video I answer a question from a viewer about the torment of despair and whether anihilation would be better than despair for all eternity. To do that, I also look at the related question of whether annihilation is even possible, given the immortality of the soul.
Category: Missing the Mark
How to Not Be Bored
In this video I talk about how to not get tired of things but to keep finding them interesting.
Snake Talk Episode 6: Aphrodite Update
In this episode I give an update on how she’s doing, including some lessons I’ve learned in keeping her, such as how I’ve trained her to recognize when it’s feeding time and how much she loves burrows in the substrate over hides above it.
The Problem of Evil: Depression
This video is a response to a question. Gadowscar asked, “[M]y question regarding the problem of evil would be triggered by my own personal experience and be fairly narrow, and be an inquiry into how God can allow for such rampant depression among society. I wholeheartedly believe God exists with my intellect, there’s no doubt in my mind that He exists. However, because I suffer with depression(to the point of being suicidal at times), I have difficulty on an emotional and spiritual level believing that God loves me. How would you answer this?”
Here’s my answer.
When a Contradiction is True
In this video I look at the times when an apparent contradiction is actually true, without it being a violation of the principle of non-contradiction (the key is in the word “apparent”). I take a look at two verses from the book of proverbs as an example that shows how this works (Proverbs 26:4 and Proverbs 26:5):
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
My Superdwarf Retic Eating Like a Green Tree Python
In this video I describe something interesting about how my superdwarf eats like a green tree python and also show video of the whole thing (with background music!).
Money: What Is It & Why Is It?
Money is an often misunderstood subject, especially because there are so many accidental things which grow up around it that are common and often mistaken for its substance. In this video I look at the history of how money develops as a medium for intermediating barter between people where only one person has something the other wants and how that develops into the sorts of monetary systems we have now. This also leads to what properties are essential to money and which are merely accidental, as well as what conditions are necessary for money to work and what conditions destroy money’s utility.
How To Not Be Afraid of the Dark
In this video I discuss how to not be afraid of the dark. Granted, most people watching it will already know, at least in a practical sense, but this video may help to explain it to others.
The Assumption That Physics Explains Everything Physical
In this video I talk about the assumption that physics explains everything physical—basically the idea that biology is applied chemistry, and chemistry is applied physics. I do not argue that physics is incomplete, I just point out that we have no reason to believe that physics (that is, that branch of science which studies matter at the lowest level) in fact does explain everything, because we can only study physics at extremely high energy levels and almost all of the interesting stuff happens at (comparatively) very low energy levels. If you were to study human beings by throwing them against a wall at 600 miles per hour, you would miss out on all sorts of interesting things that they do.
Request for Subjects
In this video, I put out a request for subjects. I have plenty of ideas of my own, but I’m also quite open to questions/requests/suggestions. I should note, here, that that goes for the blog as well as for my videos. I’ve got plenty of subjects to work on without requests, but would be very happy to take requests, too.
Detectives as Christ Figures in Mystery Stories
In this video I talk about the detective as a Christ figure in mystery stories. (I also talk about what Christ figures really are and how they’re not the absurd where’s waldo game sometimes played in high school English classes..)
Orion the BCL Boa Constrictor
In this video I talk about my BCL or Boa Constrictor Longicauda (or Peruvian longtail boa), Orion.
Does Suffering Make Great Art?
In this video I look at the question of whether suffering makes great art (spoiler: it can, but it’s not the best way).
Movies Are Intrinsically Misleading
In this video I talk about how movies are intrinsically misleading because what we see appears to be a single person but is actually the result of the work of many highly skilled people.
Snake Talk Episode 3: Superdwarf Reticulated Python Enclosure
In this episode I give a tour of the enclosure I have for my superdwarf reticulated python.
Jocks Vs. Nerds is Fiction
In this video I look at how jocks-vs-nerds is fiction—primarily a projection of insecure hollywood writers.