This video requires a bit more explanation than most.

Since I Vlog on YouTube, naturally I keep track of what other "YouTubers" are doing. I need to know what works, what's being done, and what's not being done. In addition, on YouTube you can post comments and video replies to videos. The video replies can be especially useful, as by posting a reply on a popular channel you can attract traffic to your channel. (In theory at least.)

This video is my first such reply, though it didn't come about the way I planned it.

I certainly hadn't planned on posting such a heavy, potentially controversial post as my first video reply. It also wasn't a convenient time for me to do this right now, as I was already scheduled to do Vlog Episode 26: La Festa Italiana. You'll notice I'm wearing the same shirt in both videos.

How this came about is I watched a video by Phil Defranco.Phil Defranco is one of the top YouTubers going. He videos are usually funny, informative, very opinionated, sometimes shocking and often off color. He regularly get over a million views, and he posts at least eight videos a week.

All that having been said, he's a risky choice as far as my first Vlog response. There is much I disagree with in his videos, and where he's trying to get a rise out of people, I'm just trying to promote my business.

The video I replied to is from his personal channel, where he tries to do less of a show, and more of a pure Vlog--at least in format. In it he discusses among other things, religion and some bad experiences he's had--including being almost force to convert to another religion by a babysitter. You can view his video below, but again it's not for kids or even necessarily for work:

This video struck me as expressing some genuine feelings that I think are really common, and I honestly felt I could be a conduit for a positive message here. I'm not under the impression that I can change the world here, but I figured there would be a steady stream of negative responses. I figured if I had the words and technology available to offset some of that, then I had an obligation to do so.

So, I gave it a shot:

I'm not sure how effective I was. I don't claim to be a theologian. I wasn't trying to convert anyone--I didn't feel like that was called for in this particular situation. All I wanted to get across was the fact that people don't need to give up on religion because of a bad experience. Just like you can't give up on eating because of a bad meal, or on working because of a bad job, you have to keep trying to develop that part of your life.

Sometimes a bad experience can be helpful. Sometimes it's not obvious that a certain action or statement is hurtful. Having experienced the pain, you've actually become a better person since you won't make the same mistake. (Of course you can add it as another arrow in your quiver if you like hurting people, but then it's your decision to become someone worse.)

He also makes reference to Steven Hawking's denial of God--particularly in another video posted the same day. Though I do not claim Hawkingesqe technical knowledge, I do have enough to approach that issue. It's a non-starter. The most Hawking can truly say is that there's nothing in Physics that proves there is a God. He can't claim to have proven there is no God--come to think of it, it is logically impossible to prove a negative the last time I checked.

The irony is, the last time I read anything by Hawking he supported the view of a closed universe--the dimensions wrap around on themselves. This leaves one to question what's on the other side. I have a romantic image of the entire universe sitting like a Globe on God's desk. Grant you it would be a globe in somewhere between 10 and 26 dimensions depending on the math, but I also imagine God has a pretty wild office.

At any rate, the most ironic thing of all is I posted the video, but it hasn't appeared as a comment yet. Apparently some channels require that comments are approved before being shown. Obviously the amount of people who will see it drops off the latter the comment is listed. (And of course, it might never be posted.) I still don't consider it a waste, because it is available on my channel, and you never know who you could be helping out.

The only real disappointment is I'm getting very few hits on my Festa video, which turned out great in my own humble opinion. It only got two hours as the main channel video, and I wonder if that has affected how many people will see it.

Ah well; if the video serves it's purpose even once, then it will have been more than worth it.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. --Albert Einstein

- Vincent Shuta