Pontification, Pondering, and Some Things to Read

Hello,
I know I usually write about science. But today I spent a long lunch break discussing religion with one of my colleagues. And one reason she kept bringing up for her faith in God guiding her actions in life is the desire to work towards God's good, because what He considers good may not make sense to us flawed humans.



Now, first off I will say that whatever religious/spiritual beliefs I hold, I am not Christian, and the idea of turning myself over to the control of a higher being that I'm not sure exists seems ridiculous to me. But the idea of living a life designed to improve the 'good'ness of the world doesn't sound like a bad idea. Before I go on about 'good', I want to recommend lesswrong.com which has quite a number of well-written and interesting articles in their main Sequences section, a few of which discuss religion. That website is something I recommend reading if rationality and logic are topics you enjoy or mindsets you pursue.

Now, 'good', as I understand it, is generally an ill-defined opposite of 'evil'. But in general good is seen as productive, helpful, useful, pleasing, and/or morally correct. So living a life in which you do good, or living a good life, could mean many things, including just doing whatever you want all the time, as that would surely be pleasing, right? But some people look for a higher purpose, so following God, for instance, could lead you to a morally correct life. On the other hand, I always wonder how much people think about what they want out of life. Do you want money, health, happiness, to help others, to take over the world, to have a steady job? Do you have particular goals and plans for carrying them out? I personally think you're doing well in life if you're meeting your own goals for it. For instance, I want to learn all the math and physics I can get my hands on, eat healthy food, and become strong and fast, while being financially secure. What do you want to do?

While you're thinking, I have also recently come across stevepavlina.com, and some of his articles are very interesting. I personally love efficiency, and many of his articles on sleep and productivity intrigue me.