So 7 card's been very good to me.  I won $30 the first time I played, $4 the second time and $30 last night ($64 total with no losing sessions).  I initially played $.5/$1 which included TONS of donkeys playing which had no idea how to play and last night I moved to $1/$2 due to the antes ($.25 for both games - $.25 is high for the $.5 game).  The $1/$2 games (I played 2) seemed to have better players, but still not very good.  It was interesting to have to actually change my game to another level just jumping up to $1/$2, but it wasn't too difficult.  I just wish I had a tracker program for it. I might look into buying PT for 7 card depending on how much it costs.

Part of me wonders if my success is due to good cards - which I've received a few - but I also know that I'm VERY tight on my starting hands and when deciding when to continue past 4th street.  Also, when I get a decent hand, I bet it aggressively and typically get many callers and when I have a decent hand I usually go into the check/call mode.  I'm not sure any of the players caught on to that.  I tried to exploit my apparent tight image against a couple of decent players last night on one hand by turning up the heat when I turned an A on 4th, but one of them called to the river with a pair of Qs and I lost the hand.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.  Don't bluff at these levels!!

It's also nice how large the pots get with so many betting rounds.  Also, the thing I feared - the overload of information due to exposed cards - is no longer scary.  I find that I can remember exposed cards better than I'd have imagined and I seem to be able to use this info a lot better than the other players.

7 card's become my new obsession.  It's all I've been thinking about!  Of course, there are no real good books out there, which is unfortunate.  Then again, 7-card, so far, seems a lot easier to beat with limited knowledge (and poker familiarity through Hold'Em), than Hold'Em has been.

Merry Chucky Cheesemas

My daughter recently learned about words that rhyme and she’s been infatuated with it.  She’s constantly telling us that “three and tree rhyme!” along with tons of other words (some of which don’t rhyme at all!).

I live in an area that is very religious with Christ-related vanity plates and bumper stickers and people protesting the use of Happy Holidays rather than Merry Christmas.  At dinner last night, I asked my wife if she knew if my daughter’s preschool ever spoke about God or if anyone had.  She didn’t know, so she asked her.

“Emily, do you know who God is?”

“Who?”

“God.”

“Who’s Maude?!”

My wife then asked, “Do you know who Jesus is?”

“You know what?  Jesus and Chucky Cheese’s rhymes!”

Thank God she’s not being indoctrinated at this age!

Is evolution a sufficient explaination for the origins of life?

This is in response to a question asked by kbm in a previous comment.  He asked:

"Do you feel that naturalism and evolution provide a sufficent explanation for the origins of life and the universe? If so may I ask why?"

First, let me state that it is the responsibility of the person that alleges something to prove their allegation is true.  I could presumably allege that a green alien created the universe in an 'ant farm' (I'm not trying to be funny or insulting, just trying to prove a point).  It wouldn't be your responsibility to disprove my allegation, but my responsibility to prove my allegation.  This is the case with Intelligent Design (ID) and other forms of Creationism.

Let's think back to primitive man.  Primitive man learns that everything falls.  He could believe that the earth is a magnet for everything and that premise seems plausible.  Only when science developed the theory of gravity, did man truly learn the reason of the apparent attraction of objects to the Earth.  As such, science is in the process of discovering the laws of hte natural world and the reasons for why things are.  Science is a search for truth and is open to being reevaluated to correct itself.  In the beginning we didn't know hail - frozen chunks of ice - could fall during a warm day.  We could have attributed it to a god.  Science has discovered and explained this odd phenomenon.  Again, our ignorance to why hail would fall on a warm day doesn't mean that we should invent reasons why it falls - it just meant we didn't know at the time.

With that, do I feel that "naturalism and evolution provide a sufficent explanation for the origins of life and the universe?"  I don't think that our knowledge of evolution and the origins of life and the universe are developed enough to fully explain our origins and the origins of the universe.  We still have much to learn.  This is a common event in human existance.  I do not, however, feel the need to attribute the origins of life and the universe to an unknown, unseen supernatural force.  ID is a premise about the origins without any scientific backing or proof - it attempts to fill the gap of the unknown with an explaination that is unproven.  Also, by suggesting something created everything, we're left with the reiterative question, "What created that something?"

And there is evidence for an imperfect 'creator'.  Why do we have appendixes? Why aren't our eyes, ears, etc perfect? Why do certain creatures eat their young? Why do some creatures have unfunctioning body parts such as blind moles and fish?  There are many more, but I don't have them handy.

Lack of knowledge isn't an acceptable reason to attribute these things to gods or supernatural means. Lack of knowledge is the reason humans created thousands of religions and gods in the first place.  Just look at American Indian beliefs, Roman/Greek gods, etc.

When Atheists Attack!

A web friend of mine, Repairman_Jack, recently asked a pretty interesting and important question:

"My question still is: Why are you trying so hard to convince people that their beliefs are wrong?"

I responded in the previous post, but wanted to recreate that response as a separate post (with some additions):

I used to be in the mindset that people should believe hwatever they want as long as they aren't hurting other people, but I've come to the conclusion that an individual's belief in the Bible (or other superstitions) does hurt other people.  Belief in these things often takes people away from handling life situations in a way that will truly help and rather they put these things "up to God's will" and take a back seat approach and just pray about it.  They rely less on science and rational thought (though they accept scientific advances in medicine, etc typically) and trust mythical supernatural creatures instead.  The less rational and realistic society is, the worse we all are for it.

Look at Bush - he's trying to promote Intelligent Design, he uses Christian God references to justify America's actions (right or wrong, the actions shouldn't be justified by some mythical being that most of the world does not believe in and a religion and religious stance that's abhorred by a lot of the world). 

Then look to my child's upbringing.  If she wants to learn about people's beliefs in a god or other supernatural things when she has a rational mind, more power to her.  I will not subject her to different people's beliefs now when she readily believes in creatures like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, however.  Also indoctrination of these ideas at this young age (almost 4) is something that's tough to think through rationally later in life when she's capable of doing it.  (also think about the fact that most people born in Israel are Jews, Middle East are Arabs, US are Christians - it's not about rational thought but moreso indoctrination to these beliefs as a child).  Unfortunatly, however, I'm surrounded by many people who believe in a Christian god and who share these ideas with her now.  I don't want her mind polluted with superstition and myths at this young age.

And probably MOST importantly, my issue with the teaching of various religions and religious ideas to people is that people only hear part of the story.  I could teach the Bible (or any other religion) to people who are naive, desperate, searching, and convince them it is the 'truth' by showing parts of the texts and leaving out the obvious issues.  The Bible is full of contradictions, statements that are absolutely false (rabbits chew cud, etc) amoung other insanities.  My main request of any believer is to look past your preacher's pulpit for information on your religion.  If you look at information that is critical of your beliefs with an open mind, you will either:

  - Decide these issues are false and come away a stronger believer in your faith.
  - Decide your particular beliefs are false and not in line with God
  - Decide your beliefs are completely false and either suspend your belief in god and the supernatural or look for 'the truth'.

Any of these scenarios is a positive one.  Let's imagine that a particular Christian sect is the 'True Religion' and you were raised Jewish.  How would you find the True Religion if you never looked outside of your belief?  How could God be upset about a person validating his beliefs by looking elsewhere when so many people are following False Religions?  Yet so many preachers, etc condemn people from looking beyond what they're taught because they're afraid they may find the Truth.

For Christians, I can't recommend the newsletters on this page any more strongly.  They are by far the best writings on the errancy of the Bible that I have ever read.  You owe it to yourself and your faith to read these newsletters with an open mind.

http://members.aol.com/ckbloomfld/

In short, I definitely believe that people's belief in the supernatural is detrimental to the society because it affects politics, scientific knowledge and rational thought.  The mere fact that they trust their beliefs without any sort of question and especially in the face of credible evidence that their beliefs are wrong is a serious example of the problem.

And to those that think they know they are on the right path because they 'feel God/Jesus in their lives', I have something to share.  I was once a devout follower of Christianity before I started to explore the nagging questions I had about my faith.  While I was a believer, I felt God and felt incredible peace and an incredible presence in my life.  Since I've rejected God, I've felt the same way!  It's a feeling that all humans experience - it's just applied to a supernatural creature by some.  To me, I apply it to feeling amazing.