Random month-end musings

A few thoughts as October ends.....

• A wise man today reminded me it's Reformation Day for the Lutheran Church. While Luther's 95 Theses have brought about many goods, the most impacting legacy is the fracturing of the Christian Church. As any good Bible Christian should know, Christ founded only 1 Church, not 500. While some may argue which is the True Faith, today should be more of a reminder that we all are seeking the Truth, even though our human condition may inhibit us from seeing it in full. We have been blinded in some ways by upbringing and the aesthetics of religion rather than looking into the theology and studying it for understanding. Let us work to change this.
• Why do I read more about Alex Rodriguez as a 3rd baseman signing rather than a shortstop signing? I think he's worth more at his natural position, and will be of more value there as well for whoever ponies up the ridiculous amount of dough he will ultimately get. While the White Sox could use him in this capacity, he is a long shot signing for purse pincher Jerry Reinsdorf. The Red Sox could sign him, solidifying their place as the "New Yankees" (especially if they resign Mike Lowell), but won't because Theo Epstein and Bill James are smarter than that to let Boras try to negotiate them like he did Tom Hicks. My wager is on the top free agent this year signing with...... whoever is stupid enough to pay him more than he made last year.
• The best player in MLS is not named Beckham, but Blanco. Watch tomorrow as he helps the Fire upend the top team in MLS, DC United, in the tournament for the MLS Cup.
  On another football note (soccer to my fellow Yanks on this side of the Atlantic), will anyone beat Arsenal this year? We'll find out this weekend when they face the famed club of Manchester United. Gunners Forever!
  

Being overwhelmed in the information age

It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much. - Yogi Berra

Chance
ESPN
Columbia
By the Numbers
rogerebert.com

And that's just a sampling of what I try to keep track of by reading them on a regular basis.

I keep finding that anytime I read something, there are 10 other things that I feel like I have to read in order to understand where this discovery, reference, or insight is coming from. It's enough to drive a man bonkers. And with my information appetite, it often does.

However, this chase for knowledge has left me wondering to what end does it go. Can a renaissance man exist in the age of Google? Can trying to know something about everything lead to knowing nothing about anything? In other words, can you try to make yourself so smart you just make yourself dumb?

While the advent of the blog has given millions a public voice they never had, there are times when it comes to be a disservice. To be honest, I have no clue how on earth scholars 2 centuries from now (provided the human race isn't consumed by the expansion of the Sun at that point in time) will be able to study this age like we were able to study early American history. There is just so much information to go through that it'll take years for something meaningful to define our society to be discovered from it.

At the present though, I believe all this information does need to humble us all to accept this fact: We may all know something about everything, but nobody knows everything about anything. If you think you do know everything about something, please feel free to say so. I have a bludgeon right here to knock some sense into and arrogance out of you.

So, why did some of us get like this? Let's look at the story of one Martin Luther, perhaps the patron saint of the blog. He sure had some ideas, and decided to list them on a piece of paper and post it for public viewing. Boy, he sure created quite a stir, the legacy of which is the numerous denominations of Christianity beyond the Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches. Were these multiple churches what Luther had in mind when he wrote his 95 theses? Most certainly not, but others felt embolden by his actions to speak out against the Catholic Church, and felt they could start their own church. Remarkable how one idea, whether confirmed right or wrong, can lead to such a fragmentation of society when reaction takes precedence over reason.