Religious Declaration

After reading an article a little while ago about an Agnostic-Humanist married to a Roman-Catholic I got to thinking "What is an Agnostic-Humanist?"

Now recently I have been referring to myself as an Agnostic but I was not entirely sure of what the definition of one was. I just assumed I did (and I was mostly right as it turned out). And I could assume what a Humanist was (but I was pretty wrong on that one). So I wondered, what am I really? Well after some research it turns out that there is a variety of Agnostics (of course) and I am in essence what is called a Strong Agnostic which believes "that it is impossible for humans to know whether or not any deities exist." This strengthens my belief that I have always viewed Agnosticism as the great indecisive category, the maybe-maybe not of the religious world. I have always felt that people are entitled to their own beliefs but any of that stuff always falls short for me. I believe what i can see and test. Anything outside of that I can't prove it doesn't exist so I leave it open for interpretation.

But I am also a Humanist it seems. Humanism is the belief in morals and other such stuff that religion can teach you just without the religion. I for one have always been in the camp that you don't need religion to be a good person (i.e. not all atheists are bad). Morals and ethics stem from a belief in good and bad, something that is in human nature, not a book (i.e. killing is bad, obviously, you don't need divine inspiration to figure that out).

So in essence I am a: Strong Agnostic Humanist.

2009 Personal Goals - August Update

7 Months

1. Finish the first draft of my fiction novel.
Start of 2009 - I have the first 1/3rd of the book written
February 1st - Nothing more written
March 1st - Nothing more written
April 1st - Nothing more written
May 1st - Nothing
June 1st - Nothing
July 1st - Still Nothing
August 1st - Notta

2. Drop my weight to 167lbs.
Start of 2009 - I started the year at ~185
February 1st - ~180
March 1st - 175.2
April 1st - 172.2
May 1st - 172.2 (somehow again)
June 1st - 171.0 (Finally something)
July 1st - 172.2 (I bet the scale likes me at this)
August 1st - 171.2 (Yea, back down a little)

3. Pay off all my credit cards.
Start of 2009 - I started the year with 5 credit cards with balances and one relative we owed money to.
February 1st - Payed back the relative. Still 5 cards with balances.
March 1st - Payed off 1 card. 4 cards with balances.
April 1st - Payed off another card. Currently 3 cards with balances.
May 1st - Payed off one more. Down to 2 cards with balances. 1 with 0% APR until 2011 though so that one may be waiting a while.
June 1st - Still 2 cards to pay off
July 1st - Still 2 cards to pay off
August 1st - Still 2 cards to pay off

Other achievements of note.
School prep is still going pretty much on schedule. I start at the end of the month. Loans have pretty much been set and I have an office and a TA position. I can get my student ID on the 11th. So I am pretty excited.
I also finished fixing the sprinkler system which was a big job I was worried about. I replaced 3 out of the 4 valves, the timer, and 10/13 sprinkler heads, cut-off one sprinkler completely (it was outside the fence) and added a new one.
Training for the triathlon goes eh but it is in 6 weeks, so I best get on that. On a bright note I believe I have all the equipment that I need.