What is morality, love, will and consciousness,and how are they all related? I'll tell you.
Everything is made of atoms, so why wouldn't we have their attributes? After all, whatever something is made of, it has the attributes of that substance.
Why is there evolution? What causes it? As it happens, a very simple law of physics
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, isn't it?
What's the problem with police, and how do we solve it?
For years I have wondered why music could give us emotions. It's like a language. When I hear music quite often it seems to me like the instruments are talking to each other in a language we can't understand in the way we understand words,
The simulation hypothesis.
This is, in fact, the first time in history we actually can create a real democracy, run by all of us.
You only have to decide which style you want to live in: Georgian? Edwardian? Rococo? Victorian? French Empire? American Federal? Eastlake? Louis the 14, 15, or 16th? You name it, it’s out there.
The mind from the duelist camp is the soul, or somehow part of it, and this is how we have free will.
Nature is mechanical and machine like. Humans are machine like, as are brains. Is that true?
Forget gravitons. Forget a unified field theory. Einstein’s GR fits perfectly with QM without the need for a graviton.
For years now we’ve heard about pirates and the money Sony, the movie makers, and even TV stations like HBO etc lose to it. But hold on a minute.
Our recent historic election has a lot of people scratching their heads wondering why we got the result we did.
then comes the idea that the bible lines up with the findings of modern science. That’s what I’m here to explore. Can it be true?
What is god? To most people it is a conscious super being; perfect, omnipotent, immortal, the creator of the universe, always having existed, uncreated. Have I left anything out?
Ah, Newtonian physics. Energy is work. Not a thing. That’s a reasonable classical definition which in the macro world is a very usable model of energy, so we use it when appropriate.
How to Rejuvenate Democracy Democracy is defined as government by the people. Each of us has a right to participate in the way our government governs. In the current form of democracy we enjoy in the West, we participate by electing...
All beliefs are potentially dangerous. Strange idea? Certainly not what most people are led to believe, as it were. But obvious if one thinks about it.
Thou shalt not kill. Probably one of the greatest moral directives ever thought of by mankind; but utterly impossible to adhere to.
Descartes told us that we cannot know about anything unless we experience it . Therefore some things like perfection cannot be part of man kind’s natural knowledge of the world because we cannot experience it. Hence god must have put these idea into us himself, so we know him.
Theists often tell atheists that they have rejected god and hurt his feelings, thus we deserve hell; as one of the prerequisites to get to heaven is a belief of the existence of god and accepting Jesus as your Savior.
We in the west love democracy, and rightly so. It represents freedom and justice and a say in how we are governed. How much of each of those things we get is another matter.
Logic is simply a tool of thought. The average person doesn’t necessarily understand what formal logic or informal logic is, but there is little doubt that they use some every day in making choices and in deciding what is real or fake, rational or irrational.
The point is that while I have heard everything else about attack ads, what I have not heard is that they are clearly bullying tactics.
Most people you ask will tell you they believe there is an afterlife of some sort. Almost every religion suggests it or promises it in some way. No one can tell us whether it is true or not.
So in effect you are constantly reincarnating over your entire life. It is not the reincarnation some might like to think of, but never the less it fits the bill.
But now you have both entered the world of anti-religion due to the stupidity and ignorance you see in the fundamentalist US and elsewhere. While you both do amazingly well in the debates I have seen recently, I have a few friendly, though unsolicited, pointers for you.
Understanding what a model is is perhaps one of the most important things to understand about how the human mind makes sense of the world.
Most people are absolutely certain they have a soul. Yet no one has ever seen one or been able to give real evidence they exist. Like so many things they are something we assume, believe, or take o faith. I can’t do that.
Unification is an inevitable outcome. It is inevitable due to financial considerations alone. And that’s the danger.
I wasn't always an atheist. I was brought up Catholic like most kids where I lived. I believed that there was a god. After all, everyone around you believes. They can't all be delusional, can they?
As much as the Christians go around telling us all that we are to repent so we can be saved, exactly what we are to be saved from is complicated.
It appears that Confucius was confused about wants and needs. He asked: “Why is there so often such a big difference between want and need?” For such a wise man Confusions should have understood that perhaps he was framing the question wrong....
Multiculturalism has never been fully accepted as a good thing by many. In the USA the ideal has always been a melting pot where all that come to American shores to make a new home leave their old life and culture behind and embrace the American way...
Christianity is hard to pin down because there are so many varieties of it. I have often said that each individual claiming to be Christian has their own version and thereby their own religion.
I remember as a child in the 1950s and early 1960s we had a black and white TV set and an antenna on our roof.
I am writing this on Dec 20 2012 at 11:41 eastern time. We are, of course, waiting for the end of the world on the 21st of Dec, which is in about 20 minutes. But it probably won’t end at midnight so I will likely have time to finish this before...
String theory has taken many forms over the years. All of them were built on work Heisenberg originated in 1943. S matrix theory did not stand for string theory at the time. Heisenberg had realized that neutrons and protons were probably not point...
The short answer seems to be: Nothing. It fits together pretty well as an explanation of how we all got here. But the bone I have to pick is about the way we talk about it and teach it. Something is not right and it leads people to all kinds of wild ideas and beliefs.
There's a big problem with a few logical sayings. For example, there is an exception to every rule. Most people would think of the rules they can recall to see if it is true before deciding it probably is, even if there's no way of knowing whether it really is. It sounds legit, right?
in the beginning we are stuck with a universe that has no interactions going on between particles. But as it cools, small perturbations enter the scene and the Higgs field changes from potential to actuality and gives mass to everything.
I love windows 7. It’s the best OS Microsoft has ever come up with. Yes, Microsoft is the company so many love to hate, but it must be said that it brought us into the computer age kicking and screaming. It was and still is number one for the PC.
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein The question often comes up about how we can keep kids interested in science? After all, as taught in school it is often very boring, dry, stuff. ...
In 1949 John Von Neumann postulated and lectured about a future where computer programs would be designed to self replicate. Later on proponents of terra forming other worlds envisioned machines that could build other machines with programs that could create new programs and optimize their own....
The idea of being able to predict the future is very attractive. If we could do it accurately we could be wealthy beyond our dreams, or perhaps we could avoid some tragedy or trouble we are going to run into
Einstein realized that gravity was a problem in a static universe. He calculated that if the universe was static gravity would have pulled all the matter in the universe together long ago.
What in the world are we going to do with our economic system? It’s obviously flawed. But who knows how to fix it or how to change it? Is the capitalist system sustainable? Not as it is. We can see that clearly, can’t we? What’s the alternative? Is this the best there is?
I usually stay away from writing about abortion because it is a very hot button topic. We all have our opinions and seldom do I see a lot of logic in debates about it.
What are rights? For all that is said about them what they are and how we get them is hotly debated in some philosophical circles. Some tell us that rights cannot be given; only recognized. But is that true? Where or how do we get them?
No more secrets? Neuroscience is rather new and a lot of the brains functions are now known. But one of the pioneers of the field has been on its cutting edge almost since the beginning. Doctor Michael A. Persinger is a cognitive neuroscientist...
The early twentieth century took us out of the idea of thinking we could know everything due the fact that cause and effect rule the world with law and order.
The one thing that we have discovered in recent years that has opened up science and our understanding of the world is that mathematics is not just an invention of mankind. It is not just a construct of convenience as so many philosophers have suggested. Mathematics is built into every aspect of...
Philosophy was a form of science and contributed to science throughout the ages. But now Hawking and others tell us philosophy is dead. What do they mean?
The history of science is most interesting. There has of course been an interest in how the world works since the beginning of our species, no doubt. The Sumerians, the oldest known western civilization had already developed mathematics. A version...
The big question about the origins of life is: how does inanimate matter become biological? It's an unanswered question so far. But I think we can begin to get a handle on how the process works if not yet the exact mechanism. At the origins...
Is there a tree of life? Most people have the impression that all the life on this planet originated from a single event. The idea being that all biology has DNA, so it all had to come from a single source.
The idea of a multi universe system is interesting and complex. The problem is that it is not falsifiable so all hypothesis or claims along these lines are purely speculative in nature.
Many will argue that belief in a god is beneficial to society even if there is no god. The reason being that if one believes a god or judge is watching them and has the power to punish them they will refrain from committing crimes.
For some reason, strange as it may seem, some people think that nothing is something. This idea presents itself constantly in debates about how the universe was formed.
Life is an interesting subject. Particularly the origins of life. Being an atheist I often hear the idea that life cannot come from non-life.
Most people will tell you energy is just the capacity a system has to do work. That’s a rather poor overall definition because for there to be work, something has to be doing it.
There is no reason to think a state of nothing is more natural a state than there being something. Besides which if there ever a time there was nothing at all, there would still be nothing at all. You can’t get something from nothing.
Love is one of the most talked about emotions in the world. We write songs and stories about it. But few will tell you they know what it is. We can describe it in a hundred different ways, and most cultures have their own ideas about it.
Mankind lives by laws and seeks justice. A lot of the morality we find in the bible has made its way into our laws, or was created and put in to the bible because it solves human problems. We know that to kill each other is wrong. We know that...
While this is mainly about the art of debate in religious vs atheist forums, it is also about debate in general. What passes for debate on religious vs atheist forms is not very productive by and large for getting anything solved. But these forums...
I have often mentioned the cruelty of the Judaic-Christian God. Let’s examine that claim from the beginning: It is said that when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, God told them that they could have anything they wanted, but that they...
Christians constantly tell us we must believe in god on faith. Those of us who do not believe in god are told that no amount of proof would be good enough for us even if god were to try to give us some. We would reject god even if he showed us his...
Where does one begin writing about the Jews and their history? It would be nice to get factual data on when the events of the bible took place.
The importance of venting a drainage system, the consequences of not doing so, and how to fix it, as well as the differences between a dry and wet vent.
In writing this I was asked a question that I want to answer because it is really the point of what it means to be a warrior. The question was about why I advocate logic when the traditional masters all recommend doing away with thought/ego...
What is the real self and does that idea have any real meaning? When I was a kid my aunt found out that I had done something she did not approve of. She said to me: “That’s not you.” I hear people say this from time to time and it always...
Self realization means finding the inner or true self. To do this we have remove aspects of us that prevent us from coming to the true self. So naturally it is thought that we need to remove the untrue parts of ourselves, or the illusionary self. ...
“The sect of Beguines, who call themselves "poor brothers" and say they observe and profess the third rule of Saint Francis, sprang up recently in the provinces of Provence and Narbonne. Their erroneous opinions began to be exposed around the year...
Truth is independent of the observer. This is a criterion for truth which has been around for a long time. But some philosophies include conditions in the definition. They say absolute truth is independent of the observer and independent of conditions.
So the first thing we have to know if we are going to use logic and reason as our guide to understanding is: Is there such a thing as reality? Is there such a thing as fact? I’ve done a lot of writing on this subject before. The first Hub I wrote...
I usually write on more mundane subjects like reality and consciousness. But I used to make candles for a living and had my own business for almost ten years.
The scientific method stresses this idea: Assume nothing. Same as what many Native and Eastern philosophies stress. Observe and gather information. The scientific method tells us to make observation, do experiments, and test and modify hypotheses....
If everything is in your head then it is all just parlour tricks of the mind. I could eventually put down astral projection to the mind alone. When you feel that just knowing, you really don’t know any more than you did before you entered the state. But it is very blissful and peaceful. Almost as...
In meditation it is important to clear the mind but remain aware. You can end up falling asleep if you don’t remain aware. So there is a division or so it seems between consciousness and awareness. Awareness can mean watchful or wary, which is...
Ego is thought of by many as just the negatively selfish aspects of our character. The idea is that there is a place of selflessness where one can be egoless and still survive as an individual. These people are blissed out apparently. Their message...
The pattern I described in which we educate the instinctive through thought to give us new ability is the same process we go through in all things we want to make a part of us. This is an interesting realization. When we humans know about...
The natural man has given control back to the body. U. G says doing this gives the body back amazing self healing processes that were blocked by the brain instead of being initiated by the brain. This is an enlightenment of the body. In the end that...
The word ego in Latin means: I myself. Freud used the terms id ego and superego eventually, but he began with the words: "It", "I" and "the I above the I". In Freud’s world the it is a set of unconscious needs or trends. We now often call it the...
The first stage of enlightenment is to clear your mind of all the demons you have created and those created for you. You must practice being a moral human being. Do your best. Try to do no intentional harm etc. Through the five Toltec points of...
Zen Buddhism tells stories to illustrate life and cut through the complexities. It shows one how to resolve paradox. As way to enlightenment it is very valuable. Here is a story that illustrates the road to enlightenment. When a person is first...
Judgment is another problem in enlightenment. We have to judge every day of our lives, don’t we?
Enlightenment is a word that evokes mystery and secret knowledge. But truth be told there is no secret knowledge. The world is laid out in front of you on a silver platter. All you have to do is recognize the patterns of existence and understand them.
Most of us are taught that Incest is a sin. That god outlawed it. But the fact is, I cannot find a single passages which backs up this belief.
I want to point out to you perhaps one of the most revealing and blatant contradictions of the Bible. It has to do with the lineage of Jesus. Matthew must have felt that it was important for the integrity of the prophecies of old, that Jesus be born from the house of David. This text chronicles...
The Tower Of Babel is an interesting story. It too is a story straight out of Babylonian/Sumerian myth, and it too was usurped by the Jews when they wrote their Bible.
Original Sin Original sin is a misunderstanding that arises from mankind’s need to explain the apparent cruelty of our god. Our inherent desire to "know" led us to realize that the suffering in the world could not be explained solely through...
What is worship? Let's begin by asking a very simple question: What does an omnipotent being need with worshipers? This question is usually answered by the faithful by saying that: "It is not god that needs worship from us; rather it is we who...
Webster’s defines heresy as: "A religious or Ideological belief opposed to orthodoxy." The common idea is that heretics are fallen Catholics, and this true, but it was not always the case. In fact, the meaning of `heretic' is: Free thinker. It...
Will the real god please stand up. Where did the idea of the one god originate? Obviously it was a transition from many gods with one leader or supreme god, to one supreme god with angels. We attribute the Jews with the first monotheistic...
In many shamanistic traditions the warrior is not like a soldier at all. What is meant by the word warrior is one who is impeccable. Samurai warriors strived for a perfection of self and of spirit not just of their ability to fight. The Buddhist monks who invented many of the martial arts were...
So as I said in part one, if you self publish no one is going to proof read your work or edit it for you. So it is obvious that you have to check and recheck your spelling and grammar.
How to self publish. Part 1 The traditional rout Most writers write with the intention of someday publishing some of their work as a book. But even if we do finally get that first novel written, trying to find a publisher is hell. Unless you...
Entropy has often been explained in terms of the disorder of a system. This is not correct. That is to say, terms that science uses like disorder and chaos have two meanings.
Moses is perhaps the most interesting characters in the history of Judaism because he really is a messiah to his people and yet is never really seen as one. He is also one of the most unsung conquering generals in history. To me he ranks up there...
“Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”Spiritual practices, including...
It is interesting to look at how others see us. While doing a search for Pantheist web sites on the net, I ran across the Vatican’s own definition and rebuttal to Pantheism.
Disclaimer: I wrote this right after Waco. Don’t take me to task for my thoughts some 12 or more years ago. Well you can if you like. I don’t mind. Just don’t expect me to defend it word for word. Most of the sentiments still hold true. But...
Perfection can mean many different things to different people. We bandy the word about like there is a definitive of perfection, but there is not.
The feminist movement has made a lot of inroads in the last century, but it is difficult to fight literally centuries of being considered inferior and even evil by men in society. It is even harder to fight the religions that foster and resign as holy that very concept.
There are a lot of reasons to think that the god of the Jews and the god of Christianity and Islam is actually what people have come to call the devil, ruler and creator of the earth.
The bible tells us the story of Noah and the flood. It tells us first that the daughters of man looked good to some of the sons of god, and that they went down and mated with them.
Enoch is the seventh generation from Adam. He is the father of Methuselah who has a son named Lamech, who is the father of Noah.
“Thou arisest beauteous in the horizon of heaven, O living Aten, beginner of life when thou didst shine forth in the eastern horizon, and didst fill every land with thy beauty Thou art comely, great, sparkling, and high above every land,...
n this article I would like to address the issue of the flood narrative from three different perspectives. There are actually three distinct versions of the story. The first was told by the Sumerians, the second appears in Babylonian literature in the epic of Gilgamesh. And the third is the Jewish...
When people think of Cannibalism they have a number of reactions. Most of us feel disgust. But we also experience fear and dread. Humanity today and in the past simply doesn't like the idea of being killed and eaten. Of course who could blame us?
Rome often had several emperors at a time. Each had a family army and territory. While they worked together they often worked against each other vying for power.
nteraction of wills causes conflict and competition. It causes relationships to be formed and wars to be waged. What is amazing is how this dynamic is present at every layer of life. You can go back as far as the atom to see it. And perhaps that is where it is shown most clearly. We find this very...
The Old Testament is about the law. The New Testament by contrast is about the life and death of Jesus. As with the Old Testament I want to explore some of the influences that went into creating the New Testament and find out who the early...
Does prayer work? You might be surprised to find an atheist saying: yes, it may. But not because we are speaking to an omnipotent being who gives us our wish like some glorified genie. Prayer is an inner dialogue directly associated with will. We...
In this one phrase we are supposed to get the basis for our moral treatment of each other. In fact, it is a basis for human rights. It’s a powerful message. But most Christians believe it is something said originally by Jesus. This is not the case. Every religion in the world has a similar rule,...
Is it true that there are places in the US where you can live your entire life without knowing atheists? Being a Canadian that comes as a real shock to me. It’s almost unfathomable.
Atheism means “without theism.” I’ll explain that in detail a little later. There have always been atheists, but until the last century we were not allowed to officially exist. Heretics were not looked upon kindly by anyone. Consequently we were numbered as very few.
A lot of theists do not think an atheist can understand religious experience, which is why they cannot understand the religious mindset.
t seems the problem a lot of people have with evolution is that they wonder why humans are the only animal that can use logic and reason to the extent that we do. Why we think about the world in probably a very different way than other life on earth.
People who doubt that the universe could spring up from natural processes rather than a god often ask how happenstance could produce a creative creature like mankind as if the process of existence is all an accident.
Continued from part one: I can see God giving a message to one man (though why a God would not simply go to those he wants to destroy and tell them so if he wants to warn them up ahead, I don't know) But how can a man be expected to give a...
Satan is an interesting subject because, for all the talk about what he has supposedly done, there is very little told about him in the Old Testament. Very few stories deal with him specifically. There is also very little mention of what he has done that could be considered evil, though he is...
“When you know nothing, trees are just trees and mountains are just mountains. When you begin to learn, trees are no longer trees and mountains no longer mountains. But when you have come to know, trees are trees and mountains are mountains. “
Well, if we take it to mean that everything is perfect for all things then it would mean everything’s needs are met and there is no conflict. That is the limit to perfection. When all your needs are met and there is nothing you can do or think of that would make anything better; when there is...
To understand the present day Christian bible it is essential to understand the politics, cultures and mergers that formed it. In this hub I will be dealing with the origins of the Old Testament.
The only way Jesus could have sacrificed anything was if he was just a man with an idea he was willing to die for. But Christians won’t accept that even though no other rational conclusion can be drawn.
There have been many definitions and types of Pantheism throughout history. But all the theistic versions have been, or are being, reclassified as Panentheism through the World Pantheist Movement, and Pantheists and Panentheists themselves.
I would like to put Pantheism into Christian terms so that Christians and other theists might be able to understand it better. But to that end, please understand that I am talking metaphorically in many instances.
Pantheism is not just substituting the word god for the word universe. We are not trying to say that the word “everything” should now be changed to the word god. Some people have actually suggested that what we mean is in essence exactly that. That would be silly.
By most definitions religion is set of beliefs about the universe and humanities place in it. It is about the origins of mankind and the meaning of life. It is the study of the mechanics of existence and how it all works.
My ontological argument is not from perfection as Anselm, and Descartes was. My argument is from the the perspective of existence and it is much simpler to follow.
Pantheism comes in several forms. Some are more theistic than others. But the original Pantheism had one basic but strict tenet. “There is nothing but god.”
There is no such thing as a selfless act. Humans always do things for a reason, and it is usually thought of by definition as being a subjective reason. We get something out of it.
One of the best tools I have come across is a lack of belief. Isn’t that just the opposite of what every religion tells us? We are told from a very young age to value faith and belief; and here I am telling you belief is all a crock.
What is will? This is perhaps one of the most fascinating questions to ask, and it leads to all kinds of other questions. Again, what we are usually told about will it is a crock. For instance, we are told that we have free will. It seems obvious to anyone.
To make something a reality one has to translate desire into action. Not just any action either. If we really want to accomplish anything we have to turn desire into actions which might bring it about.