Face It

A few weeks ago I opened a Facebook account. Why? Because I'm about to move back to the States & want to re-connect with many of my friends that I came to know through-out my life. I'm amazed at & humbled by those whom I have found & who actually remembered me, then still wanted to add me to their list of friends.

Of course there is one fly in the ointment - the friend who is now a fundalmental creationist. His first remark on my Wall was:

"Hey Mike, glad you connected after all these years.....after reading your page I find we may have some spirited debates (or not) :) about spiritual things. I'm an ardent Christian creationist. Let the fun begin :))"

Now I'm sorry, I don't think it's fun to 'debate' an 'ardent' Christian - I'd rather bang my head against a brick wall. You can't reason with those that prefer blind faith over evidence. After a couple of tries on his part to suck me into a 'debate' I rather stridently told him:

"I'm not going to be drawn into a battle between faith & reason. I am using my FB profile to find old friends & catch up on their lives, to let them catch up on mine.

There are other pages for debating this. It's not going to happen here."


I truly get annoyed with the fundy Christians that want try to convert me. I grew up in a household with a father that was a Southern Baptist preacher. I can see both sides of the argument & I can't see any evidence for, or any reason to believe in a creator.

The Bowl of Contention

When my wife and I were still living together I had left the lid/seat up on the toilet 4 or 5 times in those 5 years. I would receive hours - sometimes days of verbal abuse over it. Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe in leaving them up and there is at least one good reason not to. Here are some reasons that come to my mind.

1. The next person using it might fall in.

2. According to feng shui
- you're flushing all your money away.

3. Millions of bacteria are spread by an aerosol effect.

Guess which one she chose to gone on about. Yep - #2 - I was causing us to lose money by some mystical bit of woo. Never mind the amount of money she wasted spent on magical crystals that were to bring us luck & wealth.

What is it I believe is the good reason? Well not #1 - anyone who sits down with out checking first can only blame themselves for the results. (Yes - I did that very thing just the other night)

Number 3 however is a very good reason - as putting the lid down limits the amount of contaminants spread by the aerosol effect. Think about it next time you put that toothbrush in your mouth. Please click on the title for a link to a NY Times article for more about this subject.

Now - if I could just get my flatmates to put the lid down........



Addendum: It appears my wife's view of feng shui toilet practice may be wrong, according to at least one site on this subject - the seat should be down, with the lid up.

To quote the feng shui hippo:

The Feng Shui of the Toilet Lid

The feng shui of toilets is very important, toilets are the gaping bowels of your lovely home.

Consider the Seat down, lid down toilet: the ancient art of Feng Shui teaches that a low seat means low energy, hence low qi. Not a happy feng shui toilet!

Seat down and lid up: the energy is rising! feng shui is rising...

Lid up and Seat up: happy feng shui - The wise should be wary of the lady of the house who counsels in favor of toilet seats in the down position! The Ancients have been leaving seats up for thousands of years!

Of course, woo is woo and neither one of these conflicting feng shui ideas are or can be scientifically proven, making them worthless. Just put the lid down and reduce the contamination - that has been researched and shows some validity. It isn't "lid up: the energy is rising! feng shui is rising..." but "lid up: the bacteria is rising! fecal matter is rising..."