Einstein's Views on Religion and Ethics

Continuing on the religious theme, came across an interesting write up on Wikipedia today, about Einstein's views on atheism and agnosticism. Old Alby labelled himself an agnostic, saying that "the problem involved is too vast for our limited minds". He firmly believed in ethics, saying "The most important human endeavour is the striving for morality in our actions...Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life...A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary." Apparently he didn't rate atheists: "I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth". Interesting!
I've been thinking lately that atheism, as the opposite of belief in God, is an act of belief in and of itself, believing in the non-existence of God. In the same way that an atheist would reject christianity's certainty that God exists, how can the atheist be certain that God does not exist? So where does that leave me? As an agnostic - I guess.

Book Review: The Life Of Pi

Book: The Life of Pi, Yann Martin.
Rating: Average. Won the Booker Prize in 2002 but I can't see what the fuss is about.
Review (Spoiler Alert): So this is the story of a religiously included Indian kid that gets lost at sea. It has a pretty religious bent, which maybe is why I didn't dig it. Upon reflection, one of the reasons I didn't really like it that much is one of the themes of the book. I just didn't quite buy it. The protagonist, Pi, might say well that's your choice, much the same way that you can choose whether or not to believe in God and the stories of the major religions. His choice to believe in God(s) and religion is based on the fact that viewing the world through the religious lens is a "better story" and makes life more pleasant, for Pi.  He makes the distinction between believing in the Bible/Qu'ran/Hindi texts literally, but rather chooses to believe in the moral themes and lessons they teach. 
Strangely relevant - if I'd been a little less cynical when reading this book, I probably would've enjoyed it more. Can the same be said about God and life? 
As far as the story goes it definitely wasn't a book that I couldn't put down, but I guess I have to give it points for being thought provoking. Big props for Sparknotes for breaking the themes down, I enjoyed reading the analysis after I finished - although I guess this is cheating in a way...

Goal Tracking - Oct '11 Status Report

Another belated entry, but better late than never...
Here's the wrap up from October:

• Writing: 24 Blog Entries - Amber. Couple of entries posted in Oct, bringing the grand total to 19. Admittedly they have been quite short and pretty lame, but points for trying.
• Reading: 24 Books - Red. Finished 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in October, so the running tally is now 7, a long way short of the yearly target. The book was pretty interesting in that it was the first one I've read that uses the style magical realism. I didn't love it, but it did have an interesting ending.
• Listening: 15 Gigs - Green. Pretty good month for music. Saw Bill and the Jerks, The Russ Walker Duo and the Feremones, bringing the total up to 11. Only 4 to go!
• Save: $$$ - Amber. Doing ok. Can do better though by setting myself a budget/and or giving myself an allowance, and saving the rest.
• Contribute: Red. Done NOTHING.
• Health and Fitness: Amber. October was pretty good, fair bit of running and yoga. 
• Work-Life Balance: Work Less - Amber. Did pretty well on the meditation, also only a few nights spent working late in the office. Headed up to Byron at the end of the month which did wonders for the mental fitness. 

So the exec summary: massively underperforming on the reading and contributing, however other areas are pretty good. Socially it was a good month, went to the Cox Plate with Foles and Syme which was a great day out. JD came home and caught up with him on a Saturday night which was cool, ended up back at mine with JD, Grundy and Foles just talking rubbish and reminiscing about old times. Good fun.

Gig Review: Byron Gigs

So went up to Byron for a bit over a week earlier this month. Had an awesome time, so much so that it was pretty depressing coming home. Headed up with Syme, and a few days in Chaz and Ash came up as well. On the first day we wrote a list of things to do, and going to see a few gigs made the cut. Being on holidays we pretty much went out every night, and the live music scene in Byron is pretty healthy, so managed to wrack up a few gigs during the week by just being out and about.
First up was the Russ Walker Duo at the Beach Hotel. Got a texty from Syme after my yoga class to head down to the Beach, he was there, three schooners in (despite it being only ten to five in the afternoon) and chilling out listening to a couple of dudes beatbox, sing and play acoustic guitar. Didn't know their name at the time, but when he started singing I thought the lead singer sounded like that kiwi dude that won australian idol. Didn't mention it, cos I thought it would sound too cliched. Anyway, just looked him up on google, turns out it's Stan Walkers brother. No fucking wonder they sounded similar. So me and Syme hung out for a few hours and watched them play, they were pretty good. Song selection wasn't fantastic, but it did win points for being a little unusual, they did a pretty cool mashup at the end. Would see them again.
A few days later on the Sunday, there was another gig at the Beach Hotel, this time it was The Pheromones. No idea what they were going to be like going into it, we got there and realised they were a bunch of ageing rockers. They played covers of classic 60's and 70's hits, music was pretty good, plus it was entertaining watching the old girls smash up the dance floor. They loved it. Didn't hang around too long.
Lastly on the Thursday night, after hitting various pubs, we stumbled across Kikuyu (http://kikuyu.bandcamp.com/) at The Rails. She does some really cool stuff with looping background beats that she seems to make up on the spot, using an italian combo organ, then sings along. Cool voice, cool sound. Would see her again for sure, and seeing that she's from Melbourne, will have to keep an eye out.
So we posted some solid numbers in Byron, adding another 3 gigs to the tally. Only 3 more to go!