Sorry its true.. if you live long enough.. you are going to suffer pain, mental anguish and ultimately death. Its a fundamental and inescapable truth of life.. wouldn't you really like to know why and what is the very best thing you can possibly do about it?
The ultimate simple answer as to why this is true is the existence of 'evil' as defined previously.. and as indicated previously its not just 'out there'.. someone else's fault.. nature or God (as may be supposed in the case of Job - biblical character, first book I ever read in the bible). We'll come to Job later but of course you will be well aware of the saying "I am my own worst enemy". It has been stated often before and I for one quite emphatically know it to be true of myself. Easy to see that 'wars' like huge tidal waves sweep over large numbers of essentially innocent people.. arrive with the darkest of dread.. at short notice if any at all.. are monstrous 'evils' from which 'we' seem to learn nothing. They continue to occur with an ominous and depressing regularity.. they are about the closest we know to the absolute of anti-civil behavior.. but at least they have a cause outside of our personal responsibility. So when we say "not my fault" by the way what we are actually saying is "God - you can't blame me for that one".. Two important things about that.. First you are acknowledging God as the judge of both yourself and the evil.. Second it is not entirely true! Sorry about that.. a word about 'nature'.
The relevant text comes from.. Rom 8:20-22
"for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now"
That "now" means exactly that, now! It was and is still subjected to "groaning" because of us.. that is the state that all humanity got itself into.. and mostly is still in.. playing god.. instead of acknowledging the real one. There came a time when I had to accept.. I am the cause of evil.. and decide to stop playing God. Well if it was "by the will of him..." you can say God did it.. He brought the pain suffering and death.. CORRECT! But you must also include the "in hope"..
Result.. pain, suffering and death were necessary and actually the best he could do given the state we were in.. so totally disconnected from the truth about who we really are.. that's why the "in hope" above.. individually WE can do something about it.. there is HOPE..
Thursday, 18 June 2015
Monday, 2 February 2015
2.94 The Big Picture
So what of the 'agnostic'.. the "We don't know" club? What of the uneducated, ignorant, uninformed or misled? The short answer from me is I don't know.. But I would offer this 'health warning'.. your true motives and what you did with what you knew (truth) will bear heavier upon your life toward the end of it.. There are some things you do not want to have regrets about. The Bible has something very important to say about all that. I can only urge people to at least read it once in your life. Even Richard Dawkins says as much.
It is not my purpose to get 'religious' here.. I am simply stating what I have found to be most useful. For me its all about what is the most 'consistent' world view I can have that gives the highest degree of consistency across all the areas of my life.. intellectually, morally, physically and spiritually. Finding the answer to that was for me deeply fulfilling and gave real hope. There is something bigger about life and we can know it. Our universities and colleges excel at analysis but synthesis (putting it all together) is virtually missing. A group of academics I chanced to meet in a cafe, discussing tertiary education said "we are now incorporating 'ethics' into all courses".. I did not say it at the time but from what I have seen of it.. Its just "this is the law" then metaphorically speaking ruling a line "after that your on your own". This is completely inadequate for young people today.. Its vacuous and frankly dangerous particularly if they are repeatedly told they are "the most important person in the world" and at the same time just an animal.. go play god! That is an illegitimate 'freedom' we were not designed to have nor are we capable of controlling. What does the Bible say? "freedom is freedom to do what's right" by what standard? Well the rest of the book covers that.
The big picture of 'what's missing' is, I hope you can appreciate, not just applicable to science and education. Life is a whole journey and everyone's journey is different. Please value yourself carefully.. Do not entrust that to anyone else.. no matter how highly acclaimed.. they all have their own agenda and its likely not yours. Do your own research, ask questions and think critically.
From my journey I conclude, if I do not answer the question.. Who is God? I will never really be able to answer the question.. Who am I?
It is not my purpose to get 'religious' here.. I am simply stating what I have found to be most useful. For me its all about what is the most 'consistent' world view I can have that gives the highest degree of consistency across all the areas of my life.. intellectually, morally, physically and spiritually. Finding the answer to that was for me deeply fulfilling and gave real hope. There is something bigger about life and we can know it. Our universities and colleges excel at analysis but synthesis (putting it all together) is virtually missing. A group of academics I chanced to meet in a cafe, discussing tertiary education said "we are now incorporating 'ethics' into all courses".. I did not say it at the time but from what I have seen of it.. Its just "this is the law" then metaphorically speaking ruling a line "after that your on your own". This is completely inadequate for young people today.. Its vacuous and frankly dangerous particularly if they are repeatedly told they are "the most important person in the world" and at the same time just an animal.. go play god! That is an illegitimate 'freedom' we were not designed to have nor are we capable of controlling. What does the Bible say? "freedom is freedom to do what's right" by what standard? Well the rest of the book covers that.
The big picture of 'what's missing' is, I hope you can appreciate, not just applicable to science and education. Life is a whole journey and everyone's journey is different. Please value yourself carefully.. Do not entrust that to anyone else.. no matter how highly acclaimed.. they all have their own agenda and its likely not yours. Do your own research, ask questions and think critically.
From my journey I conclude, if I do not answer the question.. Who is God? I will never really be able to answer the question.. Who am I?
Friday, 30 January 2015
2.93 The Big Picture
Irwin Schrodinger summed up the ultimate conclusion of Atheistic thinking in his oft quoted little book from 1944.. What is Life.. "We are God"..! It demonstrates a couple of very fundamental things..
1. There is no world view we can take which actually removes God.. He just IS.. That person ends up in an un-winnable war with an immovable truth. "In the beginning God.." ends up being established as an irrefutable fact by the very process of argument designed to disprove it.
2. In embarking on this futile attempt to remove God from individual thought you end up with a far more sinister consequence. Even if that person does not believe "he is God".. they or any of their 'converts' to the idea who posses a power to do harm (weapon) run the considerable gauntlet of playing God over the vulnerable and defenceless.
You see its not just Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Milosevic etc.. who are 'evil' people. The weapon does not even have to be an Atomic Bomb, IED or AK47.. a box knife or even a position of temporal authority is sufficient. Evil is deep within me, you and everyone by simply choosing self as the ultimate authority for life and not the one who designed, planned and made it. Which is why he alone is the only legitimate authority.
Now this is the weird bit. It doesn't make any difference if the person with the weapon is an out an out theist.. shouting "God is great".. or a Priest of Holy Orders.. The act or threatened act of harm to the defenceless and vulnerable is a declaration.. "I am God".. Same meaning.. Playing God. I am not saying Atheists alone are evil.. just that Atheism is self defeating by failing to define and answer the real problem and religion has the same problem.. This 'evil' is a deeply rooted potential we all share.. the worst of the human weaknesses.
All of which points to the real necessity for an absolute morality.. We cannot be trusted to make it up.. we will fail and have done in the past. That's why the Bible has unique relevance and significance.
1. There is no world view we can take which actually removes God.. He just IS.. That person ends up in an un-winnable war with an immovable truth. "In the beginning God.." ends up being established as an irrefutable fact by the very process of argument designed to disprove it.
2. In embarking on this futile attempt to remove God from individual thought you end up with a far more sinister consequence. Even if that person does not believe "he is God".. they or any of their 'converts' to the idea who posses a power to do harm (weapon) run the considerable gauntlet of playing God over the vulnerable and defenceless.
You see its not just Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Milosevic etc.. who are 'evil' people. The weapon does not even have to be an Atomic Bomb, IED or AK47.. a box knife or even a position of temporal authority is sufficient. Evil is deep within me, you and everyone by simply choosing self as the ultimate authority for life and not the one who designed, planned and made it. Which is why he alone is the only legitimate authority.
Now this is the weird bit. It doesn't make any difference if the person with the weapon is an out an out theist.. shouting "God is great".. or a Priest of Holy Orders.. The act or threatened act of harm to the defenceless and vulnerable is a declaration.. "I am God".. Same meaning.. Playing God. I am not saying Atheists alone are evil.. just that Atheism is self defeating by failing to define and answer the real problem and religion has the same problem.. This 'evil' is a deeply rooted potential we all share.. the worst of the human weaknesses.
All of which points to the real necessity for an absolute morality.. We cannot be trusted to make it up.. we will fail and have done in the past. That's why the Bible has unique relevance and significance.
Thursday, 29 January 2015
2.92 The Big Picture
Now I am going to tell you a secret.. You have followed thus far and so I think earned your place in my innermost considerations. The secret is a secret because Daniel, an Israeli prophet in Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians July 10, 586 BC, was told to "close up these words and seal the book until the time of the end" Daniel 12:4.
In short God was going to bring on Israel an apparent great 'evil'.. but in fact it was ultimately for their 'good' and ultimately ours! Some wars have to happen! So what's the connection? Just hold on a bit.. First we have to clear the table of some irrelevant junk.
What is this "war on terror" we are in? If we define 'we' as the secular democratic 'free' West, primarily acknowledged at the national government level.. 'we' have a real problem. First its not a war in which the enemy can be decisively engaged.. Second the reason the enemy cannot be engaged is because 'they' and 'we' are not of the same kind.. Its not that we are not able to kill some of them or even kill some of their leaders.. they are not the source.. nor are the preachers of extremism.. nor are the populous who passively support the preachers.. nor are the 'holy books' which may be read to succour such dangerous ideas and no its not the ideas either!
In other words all the armoury at the disposal of modern western secular governments including education, freedom, human rights, high tech military hardware etc.. are ultimately useless. Why? Because we have not just left God out of our civilisation but encouraged ourselves to 'play god'.
There is no common 'battlefield' upon which western secularism and the spiritual powers of darkness can engage. By evading the 'truth' about life, 'we' have lost the capability to understand the deepest truth.. about ourselves.. our own 'evil'. So what is real 'evil'.. Playing God.. assuming his place and authority over the universe.
You may need to think about that..
In short God was going to bring on Israel an apparent great 'evil'.. but in fact it was ultimately for their 'good' and ultimately ours! Some wars have to happen! So what's the connection? Just hold on a bit.. First we have to clear the table of some irrelevant junk.
What is this "war on terror" we are in? If we define 'we' as the secular democratic 'free' West, primarily acknowledged at the national government level.. 'we' have a real problem. First its not a war in which the enemy can be decisively engaged.. Second the reason the enemy cannot be engaged is because 'they' and 'we' are not of the same kind.. Its not that we are not able to kill some of them or even kill some of their leaders.. they are not the source.. nor are the preachers of extremism.. nor are the populous who passively support the preachers.. nor are the 'holy books' which may be read to succour such dangerous ideas and no its not the ideas either!
In other words all the armoury at the disposal of modern western secular governments including education, freedom, human rights, high tech military hardware etc.. are ultimately useless. Why? Because we have not just left God out of our civilisation but encouraged ourselves to 'play god'.
There is no common 'battlefield' upon which western secularism and the spiritual powers of darkness can engage. By evading the 'truth' about life, 'we' have lost the capability to understand the deepest truth.. about ourselves.. our own 'evil'. So what is real 'evil'.. Playing God.. assuming his place and authority over the universe.
You may need to think about that..
2.91 The Big Picture
Twitter is very limited as to what you can say about anything complex or deep.. It is also subject to the ignorant rants and raves of the attention seekers.. I think I was having conversations at times with about 10 people at once, all slightly different!
Anyway today its the spiritual connection part of the big picture.. Clearly God is not going to be ignored.. he crops up in all discussions about the science of origins and features prominently in book titles.. Yes "God" sells.. Not to mention his book is the worlds best seller and has been for a very long time.
Terrorism based on religious extremism is now with us big time.. The local paper bill board read "Evil is Here". The use of the word 'evil' is most significant.. What does it mean? One tweeter said "opposite of good".. Well intuitively that seems ok but. What do we mean by "good"? You see they are both words of strictly human origin and deeply personal. They have no meaning in 'nature'.. Atoms know nothing of it but they are also foreign to the whole animal kingdom. They are one of the great boundary markers between human and animal. Good and evil are opposite ends of the spectrum of human self awareness and innate sense of justice. So where do we go to get an 'authoritative' definition?
Always begin with a clear understanding of the problem (that's engineering). The words 'good' and 'evil' are missing from science (like 'truth' is often missing from law). While the designers/providers of Zyklon B may be called 'evil' (Bruno Tesch was executed) what about the designers of the A-Bomb? No it was war you say and I would agree.. but is the atomic weapon an 'evil' we could do without.. probably.
The reason it is so difficult to define 'evil' is because it is, I submit a spiritual word. It can thus only be defined in a spiritual context. With that knowledge the connection with 'religious' extremism should start to come into focus.. Remember Zyklon B was principally used to exterminate Jews.. The only ethnic group of humans with a claim to be "Gods chosen people".
So 'evil' is another 'missing' word..
Anyway today its the spiritual connection part of the big picture.. Clearly God is not going to be ignored.. he crops up in all discussions about the science of origins and features prominently in book titles.. Yes "God" sells.. Not to mention his book is the worlds best seller and has been for a very long time.
Terrorism based on religious extremism is now with us big time.. The local paper bill board read "Evil is Here". The use of the word 'evil' is most significant.. What does it mean? One tweeter said "opposite of good".. Well intuitively that seems ok but. What do we mean by "good"? You see they are both words of strictly human origin and deeply personal. They have no meaning in 'nature'.. Atoms know nothing of it but they are also foreign to the whole animal kingdom. They are one of the great boundary markers between human and animal. Good and evil are opposite ends of the spectrum of human self awareness and innate sense of justice. So where do we go to get an 'authoritative' definition?
Always begin with a clear understanding of the problem (that's engineering). The words 'good' and 'evil' are missing from science (like 'truth' is often missing from law). While the designers/providers of Zyklon B may be called 'evil' (Bruno Tesch was executed) what about the designers of the A-Bomb? No it was war you say and I would agree.. but is the atomic weapon an 'evil' we could do without.. probably.
The reason it is so difficult to define 'evil' is because it is, I submit a spiritual word. It can thus only be defined in a spiritual context. With that knowledge the connection with 'religious' extremism should start to come into focus.. Remember Zyklon B was principally used to exterminate Jews.. The only ethnic group of humans with a claim to be "Gods chosen people".
So 'evil' is another 'missing' word..
Wednesday, 28 January 2015
2.9 The Big Picture
Still haven't finished the books, 'The Information'.. etc. Just had cataract surgery.. but I did have a long drawn out series of conversations on Twitter.. My handle @MikeBravoYanky lots of flack but over a 1000 page reviews of my blog.. with no substantive counter arguments to date.
However in the course of the discussion re 2nd Law of Thermodynamics 'SLOT' as I apply it to the creation of DNA.. I had a question about photosynthesis.. Actually a comment from one who said the SLOT does not apply to open systems such as life on earth. To which I replied "Show me one where it doesn't work".. To which they replied "Photosynthesis". Well to get an evolutionist reference (one of theirs) I had Brian Cox "Wonders of Life" on hand.. page 108 'The Origin of Life's Order'..
He states.. my words in [...]
"The" [SLOT] "which states that entropy (disorder) must always... stay constant or increase in any natural process, applies strictly to the whole Universe, and not just a part of the Universe, unless that part is totally isolated from everything else - which is in practice ... impossible."
So agreeing with my opponent.. BUT then he goes on to say..
"To be specific when we consider the thermodynamics of photosynthesis, we must consider both the incoming energy from the sun and the outgoing energy released as heat during the chemical reaction, as well as the carbon dioxide, water and glucose. If we do that, we will find the entropy of the whole system, including incoming photons (sun)... and all the outgoing photons (heat), will indeed rise."
So contrary to what he said.. the SLOT does apply to life subsystems like photosynthesis and can be demonstrated to do so!
Am I missing something here..
However in the course of the discussion re 2nd Law of Thermodynamics 'SLOT' as I apply it to the creation of DNA.. I had a question about photosynthesis.. Actually a comment from one who said the SLOT does not apply to open systems such as life on earth. To which I replied "Show me one where it doesn't work".. To which they replied "Photosynthesis". Well to get an evolutionist reference (one of theirs) I had Brian Cox "Wonders of Life" on hand.. page 108 'The Origin of Life's Order'..
He states.. my words in [...]
"The" [SLOT] "which states that entropy (disorder) must always... stay constant or increase in any natural process, applies strictly to the whole Universe, and not just a part of the Universe, unless that part is totally isolated from everything else - which is in practice ... impossible."
So agreeing with my opponent.. BUT then he goes on to say..
"To be specific when we consider the thermodynamics of photosynthesis, we must consider both the incoming energy from the sun and the outgoing energy released as heat during the chemical reaction, as well as the carbon dioxide, water and glucose. If we do that, we will find the entropy of the whole system, including incoming photons (sun)... and all the outgoing photons (heat), will indeed rise."
So contrary to what he said.. the SLOT does apply to life subsystems like photosynthesis and can be demonstrated to do so!
Am I missing something here..
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
2.8 The Big Picture
In Ch 8 - 'God in Retreat', p245 of Robert Winston's "the story of god" under "Creation: what, where and how?"..
"Did God do something unique - not merely make matter, but create 'something out of nothing'? Humans are capable of making things, but, according to Jewish tradition, only God can create. In Hebrew there are various verbs meaning to 'make', but in Genesis, one verb describes specifically what God did: bara - 'he created'."
Now it appears that Mr Winston is a 'practising' Jew or sufficiently so to be a 'member' of a synagog adhering to the rules of the sabbath. So in this part of the book 'God' gets capitalised. He actually means God.. and "bara" means create from nothing. Which all allows for 'God' to have the hypothetical role of fundamental originator of everything.. without too much controversy. Thus introducing Ralph Cudworth Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University.. as a "great hero of mine".. he says (p268)
"His contribution was to suggest that there was a plastic nature to the universe: God set things in motion, but thereafter the universe behaved according to its own laws. This view influenced Spinoza and the nineteenth-century philosophers, and in reality is not so very different from that held by many religious people today."
And so to quote Brian Cox "Wonders of Life" p9 Introduction..
"As someone who thinks about religion very little I reject the label atheist because defining me in terms of the things I don't believe would require an infinite list of nouns - I see no necessity contradiction between religion and science. By which I mean if I were a deist, I would claim no better example of the skill and ingenuity of The Creator than in the laws of nature that allowed for the magnificent story of the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and their overwhelmingly beautiful expression in our tree of life. I am not a deist... I simply don't know"
So there it is, the Jew and the none deist, in agreement with the atheist, telling everyone else what sort of 'god' you may have if you want to be in the club!
No wonder deists (majority of world population) have a problem..
"Did God do something unique - not merely make matter, but create 'something out of nothing'? Humans are capable of making things, but, according to Jewish tradition, only God can create. In Hebrew there are various verbs meaning to 'make', but in Genesis, one verb describes specifically what God did: bara - 'he created'."
Now it appears that Mr Winston is a 'practising' Jew or sufficiently so to be a 'member' of a synagog adhering to the rules of the sabbath. So in this part of the book 'God' gets capitalised. He actually means God.. and "bara" means create from nothing. Which all allows for 'God' to have the hypothetical role of fundamental originator of everything.. without too much controversy. Thus introducing Ralph Cudworth Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University.. as a "great hero of mine".. he says (p268)
"His contribution was to suggest that there was a plastic nature to the universe: God set things in motion, but thereafter the universe behaved according to its own laws. This view influenced Spinoza and the nineteenth-century philosophers, and in reality is not so very different from that held by many religious people today."
And so to quote Brian Cox "Wonders of Life" p9 Introduction..
"As someone who thinks about religion very little I reject the label atheist because defining me in terms of the things I don't believe would require an infinite list of nouns - I see no necessity contradiction between religion and science. By which I mean if I were a deist, I would claim no better example of the skill and ingenuity of The Creator than in the laws of nature that allowed for the magnificent story of the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and their overwhelmingly beautiful expression in our tree of life. I am not a deist... I simply don't know"
So there it is, the Jew and the none deist, in agreement with the atheist, telling everyone else what sort of 'god' you may have if you want to be in the club!
No wonder deists (majority of world population) have a problem..
2.7 The Big Picture
Just reading 'The Information" James Gleick, "the story of god" Robert Winston, "Darwin's Angel" John Cornwell and "Wonders of Life" Brian Cox.. That's a fair bit for me with a cataract operation due soon. I get very tired eyes etc.. However I simply have to get a couple of quotes out of my system..
You may recall my falsification of the algorithm of Evolution is a mathematical 'proof' the object of which is to discern 'truth'.. Ok Robert Winston "the story of god" p281.. (bold my emphasis)
"In the rarefied world of quantum physics, which investigates the properties of matter, researchers are continually confronted with findings that shake their conceptions of reality. Can you believe, for example, that it is possible for an object to be in two places at once? That a particle can can exist without having any mass itself but, at the same time, can give mass to other particles? That light can behave like a wave and also as a particle? I find these concepts hard to grapple with, but I am compelled to accept them because the maths they are based on works. It is the same maths that permits me to fly to Los Angeles, and to listen to my personal CD player. Science can involve an act of faith - but it is a faith that's qualified, a faith that rests upon certain other things that I know, rather than just believe, to be true."
Not only is the aim of the exercise 'truth'.. but a certain amount of 'faith' even 'belief' is involved and accepted.. All that is required is the maths to back it up.
I could give you a summary of the maths which permits Robert Winston to fly to Los Angeles.. but in this context I wish to point to what I did in 'The God Law', also possibly "shaking conception of reality" for some.. is also based on "known" and very well established maths and physics..
All the best for the new year..
You may recall my falsification of the algorithm of Evolution is a mathematical 'proof' the object of which is to discern 'truth'.. Ok Robert Winston "the story of god" p281.. (bold my emphasis)
"In the rarefied world of quantum physics, which investigates the properties of matter, researchers are continually confronted with findings that shake their conceptions of reality. Can you believe, for example, that it is possible for an object to be in two places at once? That a particle can can exist without having any mass itself but, at the same time, can give mass to other particles? That light can behave like a wave and also as a particle? I find these concepts hard to grapple with, but I am compelled to accept them because the maths they are based on works. It is the same maths that permits me to fly to Los Angeles, and to listen to my personal CD player. Science can involve an act of faith - but it is a faith that's qualified, a faith that rests upon certain other things that I know, rather than just believe, to be true."
Not only is the aim of the exercise 'truth'.. but a certain amount of 'faith' even 'belief' is involved and accepted.. All that is required is the maths to back it up.
I could give you a summary of the maths which permits Robert Winston to fly to Los Angeles.. but in this context I wish to point to what I did in 'The God Law', also possibly "shaking conception of reality" for some.. is also based on "known" and very well established maths and physics..
All the best for the new year..
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