Here are some thoughts of mine on the origins of the Universe, the Earth and the human race.

First, the Universe. I believe that which we know as the Universe has always been and will always be, in one form or another. It is, in my opinion, eternal and infinite. God didn't create it; it can't have been created as it has always existed. Some people believe that God existed before the Universe, existed before anything else. There was only God, who doesn't exist in space/time. So I guess they believe that there was no space/time before "the Creation", just a great void (and God). If you want to accept this, go ahead. I do not.

Next, the Earth. The Earth came about in the same way that all the planets did. Matter and energy were cast across the Universe by the Big Bang and formed into stars, planets and whatever else according to a set of rules that I do not pretend to fully understand. At this point it would be easy to say, "a super intelligent, all-powerful being was the cause of all this and brought order to the chaos." This would be God. The question would then be "how did God originate and what is God?" Some would give an answer such as, "God is eternal and is so complex and mysterious that we mere humans can never hope to understand him/her/it." In my opinion God is a creation of man in an attempt to explain the nature and origin of the Universe. I fail to see any benefit in replacing one mystery with another and in the absence of any evidence of this super being I choose to accept a Universe without a creator.

Finally then, the human race. What are we? Life in general is an amazing thing to contemplate; human life even more so. Why are we different? From where did we get this capacity for self-awareness and intelligent thought? Evolution attempts to explain this by saying that we are just the latest, most advanced example of a living organism. Primitive man was capable of intelligent thought (at least compared to lower forms of life) and had a measure of self-awareness (as do cats and dogs and monkeys and chimps and whales and dolphins and horses and cows, etc...), we are just the evolved to this point example of the species. What about life in general, though. How did that come about? Could it be that such a set of circumstances existed that it was inevitable? Why are we here? Perhaps there is no answer to that, we just are. You need your life to have meaning though. Well it does. It means something to you and to people around you to some degree. As far as it having some greater meaning I think you're out of luck. As for your eternal soul, I don't believe that such a thing exists. You and I are mortal and finite and, in the big picture, very insignificant. This, in my opinion, is the principle reason for the popularity of western religion; it tells you that you are significant and eternal and that your life has great meaning. Believe it if you like, and maybe respect the rights of others to not do so.

I don't know why but I'm half way pumped for the Bears and Panthers tomorrow (today). I'm actually going to set my alarm so I can watch the whole thing; they better not let me down. The Bears haven't been getting a lot of respect so far, perhaps rightly so, but that could all change with a win in this one. They both like to play the same style, run the ball and play defense; the difference could well be that the Panthers have a veteran QB and the Bears are playing a rookie. Both teams average 31 rushing attempts per game, however, the Bears gain 135.3 yds./game, 4.4 yds/carry (3rd in NFC), the Panthers average just 91.8 and 3.0 (12th). If the Bears can somewhat contain Steve Smith I think they win this game.

Just messing around with some stuff, don't bother reading this. 

I'm still trying to figure out what happened; I sure never saw it coming. Two weeks ago I predicted a Packer win at Cincinnati, last week I kept quiet but started expecting a win as soon as I heard Charlie Batch was going to start at QB for the Steelers but this week my only positive thought going in was that maybe it wouldn't be a blow-out.

So what happened? Well, for starters they didn't beat themselves. That's a good first step but is it enough to beat a first place team on the road in a dome? Are they better than the Falcons if they play their best game? I mean the Falcons didn't beat themselves either, did they? Two statistical indicators were positive, maybe that's the story. They had a 100 yard rusher (Samkon Gado) and their record when they have one of those in the last fifteen years is very good (don't know exactly what though). But the Falcons had even more yards rushing than the Packers. Hmm...
Well they won the turn-over battle three to one, a plus 2 differential is good for a win something like 75% of the time in the NFL, maybe that's the reason. Didn't hurt anyway.

One of the things that I did notice was their kick-off coverage was much improved; they actually stopped them short of the twenty at least twice. I guess the Pack won the field position battle. Add everything up and it's a win I guess. Plus Favre had a very good game in my opinion (and also Donald Driver). (And Antonio Chatman) And one last thing; not many penalties! One big one on Ahmad Carroll that I thought was a bad call until I saw the replay but otherwise a very clean game, O line was good, no hands to the face penalties on the secondary, that's the way it oughta be.

They have seven games left and right now every one looks winnable. Would that be the best turn-around ever or what? Course it'll never happen. Still, ya never know...

Pretty clean game tonight but he did say "...we've talked about how poorly the Steelers have been on defense..."

Pretty tame by his standards but it comes from trying to impress us with his vocabulary again and as always it blows up in his face. He's almost as much fun to listen to as George W.