Despite my utter
antagonism towards all forms of
religion, I don't have hard time understanding them. Well, I think I don't, anyways. First, the
fate thing; even a
rabid atheist such as myself finds himself, from time to time, wondering about the strangest coincidences. Sure, I can tell myself
it's all chemistry and
statistics but, well, as
rational as that might be, it's not really very
compelling.
Then there's this love the neighbor / turn the other cheek / love thy enemy deal. I figured it was just a nice bit of pacifism designed to beat the prisoner's dilemma that, sometimes it seems, is the chief tragedy of all life. But, well, one night when I was in a slightly strange state of mind I gave it a shot. I don't remember if I've rambled to myself about it yet, but anyways, there was this guy whose stuff we tried to steal in my alternative life. He wasn't exactly happy about it, and I figured, let's play a fun joke on him, so I went to a locked room with my friend and summoned this guy in. The usual practise of killing people with minimum hassle is to summon them in locked rooms and kill, so understandably he was quite upset, but after he ran away a couple of times and we kept summoning him back until I had time to give him a present. It was really quite hilarious even if I couldn't see his face. Anyhow, the point is, he dropped his ignore (similar to IRC's equivalent) and now even resurrects me when I'm needing one. I found that even more amusing - I give him a present with almost no monetary value and a hug, and suddenly all is forgiven :)
Meanwhile on the other life, I think I'm going bald, much like that guy in node I can't remember. This is very distressing. I think I'll have to opt for finnish military service instead of civil service just so I'll have a legitimate reason to shave my head so my thinning hair isn't noticeable. Alternatively, I might dress as a bald monk for, well, "penkkarit". It would be very fitting, anyways - I could move around with bible in my pocket all day and occasionally stop, read it and mumble some prayers. Wouldn't be too different from what I'm doing now, anyways.