So, thanks for joining me as I embark upon my first serious attempt at writing a blog, if you have seen my profile you will know, by now, that I am an atheist registered nurse, with an interest in philosophy and secular spirituality.
For my first post, and by way of an introduction, I have chosen to share with you how I got here, and I promise to try not to get too metaphysical, though I must point out that my emphasis is on the word “try”.
My path to this point is, in my opinion, quite interesting.
A work colleague, who is a Bulgarian physiotherapist, with an interest in buddhism and philosophy, mentioned Robert Anton Wilson to me during one of our many chats about life, the universe and everything. I researched his work, and watched a few relevant you tube videos and discovered that a lot of his views, were not only very interesting, but we’re also very much in line with my current world view. As part of my research I came across the 23 enigma which :-
” refers to the belief that most incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some modification of the number 23, or a number related to the number 23″.
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This seemed bizarre to me and was in total opposition to my atheistic perspective, I was at a loss to assimilate the knowledge that Wilson, who was also an atheist, was so taken with this concept.
As I researched further I became aware that
“As with most numerogical claims, the [23] enigma can be viewed as an example of apophenia, selection bias and confirmation bias. In interviews, Wilson acknowledged the self-fulfilling nature of the enigma, implying that the real value of the Laws of Fives and Twenty-threes lies in their demonstration of the mind’s power to perceive “truth” in nearly anything.
http://thebibleofmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/23-enigma.html
That was it I was hooked, I changed my twitter tag to @23enigma and started to search for “23 lists”, whenever the fancy took me. It was during one of these searches that I discovered the University of Edinburgh’s 23 Things for Digital Knowledge web page, which is a self-directed course, run by their Information Services Group. As I had been considering the possibility of writing a blog for quite some time, I signed up, hoping to gain the necessary knowledge, support and confidence to start blogging and to become more digitally aware and present. This blog has been written as part of the requirement for “thing 2”, what do you think ?
There is a second requirement, the brief of which states :-
were you aware of the University’s Social Media Guidelines for Staff and Researchers or the student Social Media Student Handbook? What do you think of the guidelines/handbook?
http://www.23things.ed.ac.uk/week-1/#introduction
The 23 Enigma 