Moni -- nope, no cravings. Rather disappointing. I was hoping to convince my husband that I had a craving for some expensive ice cream, but... no such luck. I'm almost having the opposite -- chocolate no longer does anything for me. Quite disappointing. That's a major change in my life. (change it back!!!)
Fljotsdale -- like Yorick, I still find in a sense that if you have a design, there's a designer around somewhere. And I believe that everything has a design -- black holes, whatever -- but we haven't necessarily discovered it yet. I'm not sure that chaos really exists, or that it's just a word we use to define things we don't understand the design of yet. Yes, crystals and microbes and all have a design, yet can differ even so. But to me, the incredible intricacy and weaving together of this web just proves even more that there is a higher power at work, even if you want to call that higher power the Tao or Great Spirit or whatever.
You said something about the fact of not having a Creator helped you view better that it's our responsibility to clean up the messes we make of nature (at least that's how I interpret what you said). That's fine, and to some extent I agree if you are only going by the 18th or 19th century view of man being justified by the Bible to have dominion over all living things (by the historical view, I mean the prevailing view that justified a lot of destruction of farmland and abuse of animals -- rather similar to the less godly ideas of certain capitalists these days that the US needs more energy to support the population's decadent lifestyles so therefore let's drill the heck out of our national parks without thinking of the consequences or truly justifying our actions).(okay, off the soapbox).
I guess the way I view the situation is that Creator or not, I really don't think it's the Creator's responsibility to clean up our messes, and in a sense, we are purposefully being left in this position to teach us responsibility, like a bunch of children who've wrecked their playground. My other view here is that nature, by design, has a way of dealing with things -- like how there's a type of bacteria that eats up the oil in oil spills. Or like how a plague or an ice age can wipe a species out, yet enable another species to exist or flourish. There's a reason for everything, and perhaps one mighty purpose is that nothing lives forever, and it (life) wouldn't be any fun that way anyway.
Immortality is not an option, thank heavens. I talked to one lady today who said, "I'm only 83. That's still fairly young." Most of the more aged folks I've talked to are happy to be over 90 or 100 so long as they still feel good (bones aren't breaking, organs intact), but a lot of the rest of the population does not want to get that old, either for fear of physical failure or, like my grandmother, because all her friends and relatives her age had already died before her, and she had no one in that age group left. To some extent, that's another example of a design being present, and thereby, a designer.
I digress. Back to "The Yorick and Diogenes Show"!
Just kidding, guys -- love watching the dialogue here.
AliCat (P.S. I'm introverted and quiet in "real life"... can't tell, can ya?)