Top Blogs @ MindSay

There is something that strikes me here about some recent top blogs. I hope no one minds if I put in my two cents. If you do, feel free to stop here, and go back to your book and tea, or whatever else you may have been up to before you started. :)

Here I go!


Now as much as everyone likes to bash on Christianity’s shortcomings, I think the religion, or rather the philosophy behind the religion, needs a little standing up for. Because it’s not really the morals that are the problem.

Now, I know as soon as these words slip from my fingers and onto the screen, some of you are immediately looking for fault or for confirmation in everything I say next. Pretty please, with sugar on top, do me the personal favor of suspending your judgment till just the end of this page…

And here’s the disclaimer: I am not a Christian. While raised in a Christian household, I do not identify with the religion. The reason is mostly to keep from being associated with many of its “spokesmen”.

But.

 I am going to defend the idea, and I’ll tell you why.

A belief that stems from the Eastern religions (in fact, a rough interpretation of one of, if not the first line in the Tao Te Ching) is this: When you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.

It, the reason, the pathway, the guide to life, whatever you want to label it. Basically, those questions that religion was invented to answer.

It seems to me that what gets everyone fired up isn’t Christianity. The debates that are heated and personal are not the ones that center on the very principle philosophic beliefs behind whatever religion is being discussed. It’s argument over the presentation.

In one word: Proselytizing. In the case of Christianity, they call it Evangelism. Now, this is one of those ideas that sounds great… in theory. But in the rush to get out there and “spread the word”, people are missing something big.

Firstly, I don’t think that anyone wants to learn anything from someone if they found out that person was unqualified. Take a moment to explore an analogy with me.

Your Life = your house.
Religion = roofing your house.

There are a lot of different kinds of roofs, a variety of materials, methods to keep the elements out. Think tiles, tar, thatching, etc… Some work better in one condition than others, but generally they’re all there for the same thing.

No one just “knows” how to roof a house when they are born; most of the time, you need someone to give you a rough outline of what to do. Many people prefer having someone else build the roof for them, and use it without really knowing how it works. But for the most part, the general idea of what you are trying to accomplish is just common sense. Usually when someone sees a roof, they don’t ask, “Hey, what’s that for?”

It takes a lot of trial and error to get the technique down; some people have had a lot of this and can give you some ideas as to what has worked for them. But depending on whether or not they’re building the same kind of roof, even the most experienced person can give you the wrong information.

…Are you following? Because now we get to my point.

No one wants to learn how to roof a house form someone who is unqualified.
No one wants his or her house roofed by someone who is unqualified.

Because if you do, what do you get? A leaky roof. The roof doesn’t serve its purpose.

“Of course,” you say, “This is common sense.”

But how many people are out their who think they know what they are doing, but don’t? Like I said, even the most experienced person can give you the wrong information if you’re building different roofs. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, if you don’t mind the expression.

Which leads me to my own conclusion: those who don’t qualify should not be building roofs for other people, or teaching them how to build. Sharing ideas is one thing, but thinking you can single-handedly whip up the basis of their shelter just based of your personal experience is ludicrous, especially when you’ve never lived in their house.

So lets get out of this analogy and re-apply this to religion.

People almost always get touchy when they think a person is unqualified to be speaking about something, even though the person is adamant about their skills. This is where the issue comes from. It has NOTHING to do with whether or not the roofing method/religion is ‘correct’.

It brings me back to what I said in the beginning.

Who are most often the people who don’t know what they are doing? Who do I think is unqualified? The people who say they have it. The people who know, for sure, that what they have is the way. Because like I said, even the most experienced person can give the wrong advice.

Everyone’s house/life is different, and the wise person knows this. So instead of saying “THIS IS THE WAY, I’VE SEEN IT!” in my mind you’d be more likely to hear them say, “I can’t show you the way, but I can give you an idea based on what I've seen.”

I have no qualms with any religion. Whatever works is great. Christianity is no exception to this rule.

But I do have a problem with teaching done by unqualified people. And since no one lives the same life, yet the point of proselytizing is to convey that only one path is the correct path, I think the only person you're qualified to be proselytizing to is yourself. Share with me your experiences, your thoughts, your ideas. I can defend your right to ideas, even the ones I don't agree with. But don’t use your path as a yardstick against the path I or anyone else takes. Because in the end you just end up as the unqualified trying to teach.

And that’s not faith, it’s condescension.

Isn't 11 of the Top Blogs on the first page alone just a little much?

I love the top blogs page. Not because I sometimes manage to spark some  interest and end up there myself, but rather because it is a way that I can find blogs. It is probably one of the most interesting and important of the non-essential features of mindsay simply because, without things like "top blogs" it would be nearly impossible for some of us to find the blogs that others have found interesting. It is like word of mouth but more effective.

But enough with the showers of praise. Just like every good thing, there are ways to make them more useful. Here are some of the suggestions I've come up with:

The ability to re-rank the top blogs--

I recommend by votes and number of comments, perhaps even by title would be somewhat useful.  Sometimes the number of replies is a better judgment of "popularity" than the number of votes it receives.

II also think a feature similar to digg would be useful, but with (in my opinion) an improvement. You can not only vote up a blog, but you can also vote vote down. BUT the catch is this: whether or not you decide to vote it up or vote it down, it still counts as a vote if you order the Top Blogs by votes rather than it's position based on the total of votes up - votes down. (in other words, it could also be ranked as votes up + votes down).

 We all know that a system like Digg can be abused by groups of people who decide that a story isn't worth seeing. We also know that such groups exist here on mindsay, for better or worse (social environments breed these, of course). In this system, you have to consider than even if you give a blog a negative vote, it will still raise it's rank depending on how you order the top blogs. This system is much more realistic that Digg's system, because we all know that in real life, someone or something can be popular for bad reasons as well as good.

That is all I have. I know that no one asked, but I figured I'd write it while I thought about it. I like anything that makes it easier for me to find blogs, and for others to find mine.

I was cruising through the top blogs just now. I saw a funny reply. Person #1 was telling person #2 to delete their previous blog entry because someone might read it and take it as fact without reading the replies.

 

Yeah, because you've never posted something that wasn't true. Are you going to go back and delete your posts?

 

Why not just go ahead and delete your entire blog before someone thinks you're a friggin' moron?  

 

Ah, never mind. It's too late.

So I was playing around with my Mindsay account today and I found out something interesting. At the top is a toolbar, which I use to login and logout, nothing else. I decided to see what else was going on there and I saw something for "Top Blogs". On this site you can vote for anyone's blog post (not your own) if you think they are cool, noteworthy, intriguing, whatever. I have seen the vote button on other blogs but never used it as I didn' t know what it was for. Lo and behold, I was checking out the list of recently voted for blogs and I am in there!!!!

 

I guess people are stopping by and reading my blog, which is awesome enough, but now they actually voted for me as one of the top posts. It was for my post from yesterday, titled "Scent of a Man". I am gratified that others find my musings interesting enough that they would nominate me as one of the best. I feel validated. Like I am one giant parking ramp ticket and the Mindsay community just walloped me with a validation stamp. Affirmation is good. So thanks to the people who voted for me and for everyone who reads.