Logic

Two posts in one day... Ambitious? Or just abounding in free time currently? The latter is the more likely explanation for my overly thoughtfulness today. Logic is the flavor of the day (in my mind at least)...
The short story, "Love is a Fallacy" is quite possibly one of the most highly amusing short stories I have read. I believe that everyone should read it at least once; it is, like I said, a source of great entertainment, but also some lessons can be learned from it. Here's a link to the story for those who have the time and would like to read it: http://www1.asknlearn.com/ri_Ilearning/English/631/elang-ilearning/page3a.htm
I'll allow you to draw your own moral lessons from it if you so choose. My reason for including it in this blog is more as a foundation for what I want to talk about rather than the actual subject matter itself. A short summary of "Love is a Fallacy" might go something like this: A brilliant law student who is 100% logical sets his sights on obtaining an object of his desire- a girl. Sadly, this particular girl does not exactly meet up to certain of his standards in the intellectual arena. He undertakes to fix this problem by educating her; a course on logic is given in hopes of making her worthy of his greatness. In this case, success produces failure.
Now for my purpose. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am a sentimental being, not logically minded at all. I differ in many ways from the girl in the short story above, in fact I am really nothing like her except in one respect. I do not have a "logic-proof head" as she was described to possess, however, I am eager to learn as she was (well... not quite like she was, but eager nonetheless). I would really like to take a course in logic. I am not naturally logical in thought, but I can learn it and understand it. I admire people who are logical and have great respect for them. Many times I have wished that I was much more logical, practical, reasonable. But God had other designs in mind for this mind of mine. Now that I think about it, I'm actually quite glad that I'm not naturally logically minded; if I were I would be a completely different person and would be lacking quite a few of the characteristics that make me so uniquely me. However, I still would like to take a course on logic. Because as I said before, I can be taught logic, it just doesn't come naturally to me to think that way. When someone explains something to me logically, it makes sense to me, I just wouldn't have come up with it if left to my own devices.
So my question is, is it possible for someone to be taught to think logically? I could take a course on logic, and learn all the concepts of logic, but would it make me begin to think logically? Perhaps I'll look into finding a class on logic. Any suggestions on how to learn logical thinking would be greatly appreciated.

The Illogical Face of God

I hope my title has intrigued you. I have always believed that God has many different facets, many different dimensions. This morning I think I was made aware of yet another one of God's faces- his illogical one. Perhaps this does not strike you as particularly worth noting; God is infinitely wiser than humans, of course his reasoning and ways are "illogical" (or seemingly so) to us at times. But I'm not going to write about anything terribly philosophical or profound, mostly because it boggles my mind to attempt.
I suppose in times past I have been made aware of the fact that God's ways don't always make sense to me and may seem illogical by my reasoning, but I don't think I had ever thought to actually label God as illogical. That is, not until this morning.
For whatever reason, something triggered my mind to ponder dreams this morning. This topic is one frequented by my brain and I enjoy thinking about dreams. Why? I don't know. Perhaps because I'm not a terribly logical person and dreams are not logical. Maybe because dreams are often rather silly, or perhaps just because they are an amusing way to pass time. In any case, I was thinking about dreams this morning.
Did you know that when you sleep certain parts of your brain turn off? Well, I suppose turn off is not a completely accurate phrase to describe what happens. If when we went to sleep our brains shut off completely, our life span would be drastically smaller number than what it is currently. Thankfully, God anticipated this problem and engineered the brain to work accordingly (I'm very glad that God is the master engineer, and not I*). When you sleep all kinds of neurotransmitters are produced or inhibited to regulate your state of wakefulness, your vital signs, your muscle activity (or rather lack thereof), and many other things. But did you know that when you sleep there are certain areas of your brain that become inaccessible? Activity in those areas of your brain is blocked while you are asleep. One of those areas happens to be the portion of the brain where logic and reasoning take place. This is a very condensed and paraphrased explanation of why dreams are so bizarre. I apologize to those of you who have heard me explain this before, but it really fascinates me, and thus was bound to turn up on this blog page sooner or later.
So back to the illogicality of God. As I thought about dreams this morning, I began to think about the fact that God used dreams to communicate with people. The Bible gives several many accounts of when God has used dreams to communicate with people and show them the future- Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, and others. "How odd that God would use such an illogical medium of communication," I wondered to myself. And so, I have concluded that God has an illogical dimension. Not illogical because it doesn't make sense to me (good heavens, if that were the definition of illogical...) but illogical because he uses illogical means of communication sometimes.

*Just for your amusement and mine I have created a scenario as an addendum to this blog. It was a short mental picture which I have chosen to further develop.
Setting: Kristin is observing God create a living being. She often interjects her wonderings, and kindly, God explains.

God: This is the brain, this is going to make the whole thing work. It's a sort of "boss," it tells everything else how to work, what to do. It's very important. Without it, the rest of the body would stop working.
Kristin: Wow, that's awesome!
God: But it can't work all the time, it needs to rest sometimes too. So I need to make some way for it to take a break... Hmm.... Let's see...
Kristin: Can't you just make an off switch? You know, like with a light bulb?
God: I think that would be synonymous to a kill switch.
Kristin: Oh. Right. Scratch that idea.

A Word of Introduction

I've decided to create a page (says the 50 millionth new blogger); an outlet for the reverberating musings of an often befuddled and contemplative mind. So this is it. I have also decided that I will allow myself a few words of introduction, or perhaps I should say, explanation. Here they are.
First and foremost, I'd like to explain my choice of blog title. The title "Vivere vix Deus" means (as the blog description below it so kindly announces) to live for God. I chose this because I am a rather sentimental being; this particular phrase is the aim of Highland View Academy's senior class of 2004, of which I am a proud member, and thus have adopted it as my own. Besides that, it is indeed an aim truly worth striving for, and one that I hope to remind myself of often.
Whilst creating this page, I struggled (and in fact, almost did not create said page for the reason I'm about to mention) with trying to come up with some clever or meaningful blogspot address. You see, I am completely, helplessly, indecisive, which makes attempting to pick out a satisfying permanent address that will be both meaningful and some sort of reflection of myself quite challenging to say the least. However, triumph is only a matter of perseverance, and triumph I did (as evidenced by the existence of this page). My settling on "onlymymuse" is all thanks to my dear friend, Merriam-Webster dictionary. Several definitions given by the aforementioned friend are as follows- Main Entry: Function: noun: a state of deep thought or dreamy abstraction; Function: noun : a source of inspiration; especially : a guiding genius.

There you have it, the biography and exposition of my blog page. I hope you enjoy (or at least are amused by) my wonderings and thoughts as much as I enjoy writing them. Comments and thoughts are encouraged as they will provide more for my mind to ponder.