53 thoughts on “Random Thoughts”

  3. Done, but disappointingly a couple of questions were misleading and the survey did not include a comments section. I almost didn’t complete it. I don’t like being forced into an either/or corner when answering questions. Nothing is ever either/or.

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    1. Sure. I think Mak is just going to interpret this the way surveyors do and show the fallacy of them. It’s not a big official thing. Thanks friend

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      1. Worked a grueling 12 hour shift and 2 hour commute yesterday, so WP was definitely on the back-burner! I’ve read the post now and did a bit of digesting. See “The Idea of I AM” for additional comment.

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  4. Like S’T, I was not happy with the available answer options. None of the questions were upsetting, I was just unable to answer them truthfully, and I put that in the comment section which S’T unfortunately missed. I lied to get the survey done, because it was for a good cause, but that I had to lie to answer some “required” questions I found very upsetting.

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      1. As I said, I already told him. But no matter. I used to do surveys for companies like IPSOS, but they starting asking more and more black/white right/wrong questions until I had to stop. Especially when they started asking if cars and boats were sexy. If they want to screw a car go for it. I like my women sexy, but that is as far as I go.

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    2. I apologize rg for making you lie.
      I had thought of leaving the questions so one either answers or not & figured some of my religious friends would just pass even though the survey was anonymous

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      1. Hi Mak, It isn’t that the question had to be answered as much as not having the best options. True and false answers or yes/no answers are tricky if you do not ask a true or false question, or a yes/no question. I cannot remember the questions you asked, but some were worded to have a maybe answer which was not there. If you ask a “do you believe” question it cannot have only two answers. Believe is a variable word. Many surveys give only two options, but there are not only two states of belief. At minimum you would need yes, maybe, maybe not, no, options, but really speaking belief is not a one word answer, not for everyone.
        One question I had to lie to was: If you are religious… You set the condition that a non-religious person would skip thar question if they were not religious, but you demanded an answer. Being as I was not religious meant I did not have to answer. I wrote down something, but it did not answer your question, and it made me feel very uncomfortable. I take such questions very seriously, and I presumed you wanted serious answers. When writing your report, you will do good to mention this as a problem. Don’t hide it from your instructor as if it never happened. Admit it happened, and say you have to consider clearer questions, and clearer answer options. (Been there, done that!)
        Is there a reason you need 1000 responses to your survey? Did your instructor set that limit, or did you? This is an open survey, and as you said some people might not want to answer it. I only did because you wanted respondents. Under normal circumstances I would have stopped with the first question I couldn’t answer truthfully. I do not know how many completed surveys you are getting, but don’t admit defeat if you don’t get 1000. Give your results as you tally them, whether you get 25 responses or 25000 responses. Then give your reasoning as to why you had so few, or so many. Never just give the tallied responses without some kind of commentary, including whether it was as successful as you wanted it to be. What new understanding did you come to, or what things did you hope to learn but didn’t, and why you think you didn’t.
        I’m sorry if I am being presumptuous, but my first survey was a total failure, but I still got an A on it because I tore it apart, questions, available answers, and results. Show your instructor what you learned from the experience. Be truthful, but be complete. And tell me to shut up if you already know all this!

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        1. Hi rg

          One question I had to lie to was: If you are religious… You set the condition that a non-religious person would skip thar question if they were not religious, but you demanded an answer

          this was an oversight on my part. Mea culpa
          I am not doing this for school. I am working on a journal and your comments and observations are very welcome.
          A small sample will not tell me much about what I had in mind. 10o, 200 or more would begin to tell a story. So I will see what to do with what I got.

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  6. Done. Interesting questions. If Mak were able to get at least 3 – 4 million responses from around the entire globe, it would be VERY interesting to see the results of that! But alas… wishful thinking, huh?

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    2. Prof I like your thinking! 1mn would be awesome. That is if some fundamentalist Muslim or Christian do not find it in his/her head to look for me for suggesting their holy books are not entirely holy having their origin in human minds

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      1. Exactly. What I’m guessing would reveal itself after 1 – 4M responses from Christians, anything glaring it would be just how horribly disunited, opposed and conflicted, and confusing all their responses would be by comparison — across the vast spectrum! — for a supposedly One Faith, One Lord/Savior, One God, One set of Holy Scriptures, One Holy Spirit, One Church, one choice (John 14:6) for true everlasting Salvation! And yet for at least 2,000 years NONE of those characteristics have EVER manifested! Not freely. Maybe by force and coercion, i.e. Spanish Inquisition, but that’s fraudulent. Never has their multiple-Omnis God demonstrated his incomparable power, organization, or reliability, much less any obvious forethought!

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        1. Not to mention the land deal that never came through. The US in its evangelical ignorance has trumped to force that hand. Other than winning a few battles over some vagrants, their greatness is relegated to the mercy of the gentile Shepard, good ol USA.

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          1. Yes, I know Mak. I do understand the bigger complications of collecting that much data — you are certainly right! However, such a vast, wide ranging collection would glaringly demonstrate the exact opposite of Monism… the very premise Christianity and its adherents suppose exists with their ideology. If it were possible to collect 4M or more wouldn’t that be quite… TRUTHFUL? 😉

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  7. Done. I agree with Sha’Tara a comments section would have been nice. For instance, the question that included the clause: “Jesus never existed.” was ambiguous. Did it mean Jesus never existed as the son of God, or he never existed as a living, breathing human being? Nevertheless, it was kinda fun.

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          1. Man, when I was growing up in Tennessee, Alabama was a dirty word. Ha! And where am I now? Sigh. But I got tons of excuses. 🙂 My best is that I’m hard at work on my big ol novel! I’ve got it done, and now I’m on the final revision, rewrite and all that stuff. Next week I’m going to focus on working up my “Query letter” with which to snag an agent. Wish me luck on that one! I’m hoping to get back in sync with blogging. When? Soon, soon! 🙂

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            1. Well Paul, if you get your book booked, feel free to share your link here. I’ll be your first customer. Good luck these next few months.

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            3. Agents are VERY difficult to snag. So many only handle “known” authors. Don’t reject self-publishing. Yes, this means you must do all or most of the promotion. Even so, it gets your book “out there” and not just waiting in the wings of your computer. 🙂

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      1. Just for the record, I “believe” a man of Jewish descent, Jesus, did exist, preaching a failed apocalyptic vision. What happened between then and two thousand nineteen years later is Christianity. I have no doubt that whatever Jesus may have said or done has long been lost to the ages and Jesus the human has been effectively replaced by Jesus the myth.

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        1. While this sounds reasonable, in my view, it is to say our ancestors of 2000 years ago couldn’t make up stories so there must have been a real Jesus doing some preaching. From where I sit, I have no reason to believe there was such a personage. Made up in the same mold that Joseph Smith used to make Mormonism.

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    1. My goal was to get 1000 people to do the survey so you’d have at least that many comments to answer…hahaha. It think went pretty well.

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