I'd planned on blogging about the series finale of "Angel" in tonight's post, but that'll have to wait until next time. Also, I owe Estella five answers to her five questions, a la the ones here. While I'm at it, I'll dig up that question Dee asked a while ago, and maybe answer MF's too, though MF seems to be long gone. WHERE ARE YOU, MF? ;_; (more...)

So Tina over at fidlet.com has recently written a blog entry addressing the depiction of vampires in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". She writes:

It is repeatedly said in the show that vampires (and other demons) do NOT possess free will. Why is that? Well, it seems to be due to thier intrinsically evil natures. That is, humans have free will because they have a soul, which gives them a conscience: so they have something within them that pulls them towards the good; there is some motivation in them, intrinsically, to do the right thing. Vampires do not have this: there is nothing in them that motivates them to do what is right...

Yet, while the characters recognize that vampires don't have free will, they nonetheless seem to hold them morally responsible for their actions. Buffy has no problem killing creatures that simply cannot help doing what they do. But she will never kill a human being, on the grounds that they do have a soul (i.e., free will). This seems rather mysterious to me: so you willingly kill those that had no freedom to anything but evil, but will not kill those that freely do evil.

So being something of a Buffy "expert", I wrote up a comment to post over there. And then it ended up being so lengthy that I figured I'd just post it as a blog entry. Be warned, I'm kinda exhausted (it's past 5 AM...), so it's probably not the best example of my work, but it should make sense. So Tina, this one's for you. 🙂 (more...)

So it's up -- I had no idea how looooong it was turning out to be until I finished writing it and said, "Bloody hell, that's long!" So I posted it in my writings directory, since it's way too long to call a blog entry. Click here to open it up in another window and give it a read. Feel free to comment right here, though, assuming you have any comments. If you've got lengthier remarks to add, e-mail works too.

And if you read through the entire thing, treat yourself to a batch of Chocolate Chip Cheese Cookies, eh? 😉

About a month ago (only a month ago? seems like it's been at least two...), blogger pal Dawn Eden wrote that I am "very possibly the only true agnostic [she's] ever known." I wonder if some recent posts (though I guess they're not that much different from a couple of older ones) have made her question that statement.

Or maybe tonight's will, since today (yesterday) I spent a bit of time reading over some of the writings archived on Positive Atheism, and I confess that I found much that I agreed with. (more...)

Tonight's one of those nights on which I'd like to hang myself and talk to the jellyfish. One of those nights on which I'd just like to go to sleep, yes, and not wake up in the morning, or ever again. Tonight is filled with envy for the dead. (more...)