Hurray!

      Mikey's coming to visit tonight! He'll stay with us tonight and go back home tomorrow night. I'm excited about getting to see him. We haven't had him since early January due to me being sick. My roomie will pick him up after work today. So I thought I'd better blog this morning since it's unlikely he will give me the time to do so tonight.
      I'm still working on my book. Chapter Nine remains a problem. It covers the transition from the old material to the new material. I think that I tried to stuff too much into it as it seems rushed and underdeveloped. I suspect I have two chapters there or even three. This week I will work on straightening it out and making the narrative flow. I've been doing a read-through and have found some minor plot problems as well as some useless and over-blown dialogue. I'm deleting and fixing. Nothing major so far. And I've been pleased overall with what's there. At least it doesn't make me cringe.
      Not much to tell you about my health. I'm doing better. I'm hoping for normalcy this week. My doctor has to make an appointment with a specialist for the lupus screening. I'll let you know about that when I know more. I have doubts that I have it, but maybe it's just that I don't want to have it. We'll see how it goes.
      I'm back on Weight Watchers again. I never really left it, but while I was sick, I ate what I could keep down and didn't worry about the diet points. Because I had such a reduced appetite, I didn't gain anything and even lost a couple more pounds, but now that I'm feeling better, I can feel old habits creeping back. I've worked too hard to lose this weight to gain it back. And I want to lose 60 more pounds by year's end. That's probably more than I can or even should in that amount of time, but that's the goal.
      I got outside in the sun and was able to take a few photos yesterday. I'll be sharing them and hope to have more as spring finally takes hold here.
      Trixie's been cleaning her house. Wish I could get her to clean mine. It needs dusting, vacuuming and general all-around decluttering. I have too many books. Way too many. But I don't want to give them up. Is there a 12 step program for bookaholics?
      Speaking of books, my local library had their used book sale this weekend. Thousands of books for 50 cents to $2. I always feel sort of funny about buying used books. It doesn't bother me to buy the older ones, the ones no longer in print or ones that I would never buy new anyway, but when I see a new book from an author I like, it gives me pause. I know they don't get any money from my purchase of their works, and I wonder how I would feel to have my book sold on an used book table.
      The local bookstore has a remainder table where you can pick up new books for pennies on the dollar. I think that it would hard to see your book there. But then I think, hey, at least if I saw a book of mine on the remainder table, I would have been published.
      Crystal, who home-schools her son, is tackling evolution. Her son, a creationist, wants to learn more about it. I confess that, despite my varied and avid scientific interests, I have no interest in the theory of evolution. I read articles about it in the various science magazines, and it seems they're always trumpeting some new "important" discovery. I always wonder, Important to who? Looking around in the world, I can't see that evolutionary theory has done much improve mankind. It doesn't seem to help cure disease or grow more food or much of anything other than keep a few scientists employed and keep their grant money flowing. Perhaps I'm missing the big picture.
      Many people like to use the theory of evolution as a way to say there is no God. I've always found that argument to be intellectually insipid. You can't use science to solve spiritual questions just as you can't use religion to solve scientific questions. Religion and science address different concerns. Religion looks for the infinite and unknowable while science looks for the finite and knowable. Mixing the two simply means you don't much about either.
      Let me confess to something: I have a prejudice against atheists. I play chess online a lot. We chat during the game a bit, some more than others. It's a way of learning about your opponent, of gauging what he or she will do in a game based on what they tell you about their lives. The other day, I was playing a young man, who -- having read my profile -- decided to rattle me by talking about his belief that there were no God. What he didn't understand was that as soon as he said it, I thought, "Ah, not very bright." I checkmated him shortly thereafter. (Having said that, I fully expect to lose every game from now on to smart atheists.)
      Why do I think that atheists are not bright? Because they have no evidence to support their claim. The most a scientist can say and be precise is that, since he or she can recognize no evidence that God exists (and yes, I see my religious readers jumping up and down now, but bear with me) then the question is unanswered. Saying you're an agnostic, that at least I can respect as intellectually sound.
      The reason I thought my religious readers would be jumping up and down is that they want to address the evidence question. And many of them would doubtless point out the existence of the universe itself, flowers, animals, humans, etc. as evidence of God's existence. I accept those also, but realize that leads to questions of "intelligent design" and "directed evolution." Someone else can debate those. The most compelling evidence for me is spiritual evidence, not physical evidence. Physical evidence can always be explained away; spirtual evidence cannot be.
      And what do I consider spiritual evidence? Not miracles or visions, although I believe they happen. My evidence is something more personal. I know God exists because I can feel Him in my life. Naturally I lose my scientific readers at this point. They're shaking their heads in pity at my maudlin attempt to present feelings as evidence. I won't debate them on this as it would just waste our time, but I want to point something out. You can take a person and dissect them to his or her molecules. Take an electron microscope then and look further at our various particles, but you won't find a single bit of love or freedom or a hundred other things that we humans know are real and that we use to create our world and our lives. There is a point where science ends and God begins. To believe otherwise implies an arrogance unjustified by our knowledge.
      Well, I certainly didn't intend to discuss all this. This is what comes from blogging early in the morning. And now I must get ready for work. Y'all have a great day!