Tag: belief

AN AMERICAN SPRING

IRS targeting Conservatives
Benghazi – WH’s blatant lies to Congress and citizens of the USA
Government privacy and first amendment breach against AP and Fox News.
Now – PRISM – privacy breech of ALL US citizens going on since current administration

2 cents:

This from a Democratic president – the one who was to bring change. Guess what – he has – obliteration of the Bill of Rights and Constitutional protection for all US citizens.

Of course the dems are saying this is Bush’s fault but anyone with an ounce of common sense realizes that this is yet another attempt to side step responsibility and accountability. Again common sense would be that if it is Bush’s fault then you are admitting it is wrong so the solution is easy – shut it down. But instead the same dems including the WH say that this is being blown out of proportion, there is civil liberties protection built in, yadda yada, which then implies there is no fault to be found – which would then mean – following the WH and dems statements – that Bush did something good and right.

What the reality of the situation is – per the bill’s author – is that the current administration has overstepped the bill’s premise and design.

Limbaugh article – the coup in America

Trying to rein in dragnet of WH

Noonan article – IRS did it too well not to know what it was doing

Bush’s fault

Additional 2 cents:

What is needed in the USA is an AMERICAN SPRING. We need the citizens to storm the Capitol, White House and State Capitals across our nation and protest and push for the immediate withdrawal of all corrupt and unconstitutional legislatures & government officials which certainly includes the executive branch of the federal government and replace it with people who embrace the original intent of our founding documents and will guarantee in word and deed the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the USA.

WE NEED TO DO THIS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE TO ACT.

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information, ideas, thinking and the truth

I came across an interesting article this morning at the NYT titled The Elusive Big Idea. Some of the interesting, thought provoking quotes are:

“If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it’s not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don’t care as much about ideas as they did. In effect, we are living in an increasingly post-idea world — a world in which big, thought-provoking ideas that can’t instantly be monetized are of so little intrinsic value that fewer people are generating them and fewer outlets are disseminating them, the Internet notwithstanding.”

“It is no secret, especially here in America, that we live in a post-Enlightenment age in which rationality, science, evidence, logical argument and debate have lost the battle in many sectors, and perhaps even in society generally, to superstition, faith, opinion and orthodoxy. While we continue to make giant technological advances, we may be the first generation to have turned back the epochal clock — to have gone backward intellectually from advanced modes of thinking into old modes of belief. But post-Enlightenment and post-idea, while related, are not exactly the same.

Post-Enlightenment refers to a style of thinking that no longer deploys the techniques of rational thought. Post-idea refers to thinking that is no longer done, regardless of the style.”

“The real cause may be information itself. It may seem counterintuitive that at a time when we know more than we have ever known, we think about it less.

We live in the much vaunted Age of Information. Courtesy of the Internet, we seem to have immediate access to anything that anyone could ever want to know. We are certainly the most informed generation in history, at least quantitatively. There are trillions upon trillions of bytes out there in the ether — so much to gather and to think about.”

“In effect, we are living within the nimbus of an informational Gresham’s law in which trivial information pushes out significant information, but it is also an ideational Gresham’s law in which information, trivial or not, pushes out ideas.

We prefer knowing to thinking because knowing has more immediate value. It keeps us in the loop, keeps us connected to our friends and our cohort. Ideas are too airy, too impractical, too much work for too little reward. Few talk ideas. Everyone talks information, usually personal information. Where are you going? What are you doing? Whom are you seeing? These are today’s big questions.”

“The implications of a society that no longer thinks big are enormous. Ideas aren’t just intellectual playthings. They have practical effects.”

“No doubt there will be those who say that the big ideas have migrated to the marketplace, but there is a vast difference between profit-making inventions and intellectually challenging thoughts. Entrepreneurs have plenty of ideas, and some, like Steven P. Jobs of Apple, have come up with some brilliant ideas in the “inventional” sense of the word.

Still, while these ideas may change the way we live, they rarely transform the way we think. They are material, not ideational. It is thinkers who are in short supply, and the situation probably isn’t going to change anytime soon.

We have become information narcissists, so uninterested in anything outside ourselves and our friendship circles or in any tidbit we cannot share with those friends that if a Marx or a Nietzsche were suddenly to appear, blasting his ideas, no one would pay the slightest attention, certainly not the general media, which have learned to service our narcissism.

What the future portends is more and more information — Everests of it. There won’t be anything we won’t know. But there will be no one thinking about it.

Think about that.”

2 cents: While reading this article, two Bible verses came to mind.

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Daniel 12:4 KJV)

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away….Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.  

(2 Timothy 3:1-5, 7 KJV)

In the above quotes I underlined a few words and phrases.

I find myself struggling with information overload and a lot if not most of it, is usually of no real value. The concept of studying about a subject, pouring over it to learn, grasp and be a master of a subject has given way to typing into what you think is the most powerful search engine so as to give you the information you wanted before and simply bookmark it so if you need you can get to it. My bookmarkers are like my bookshelves in that they are buy genre but unlike my books a lot of them I have not read. They are saved in the event. The goal to increase my exposure and reach to information and data, yet little processing has occurred. What has ended up happening is exposure not saturation. Surface level not depth. If one does not have saturation and depth, then how can one speak or think and develop ideas? The result – instead – is opinion. Let’s be honest, we know the analogy about opinions. What makes one’s opinion of real value is that it is based on knowledge, understanding and experience.  

From an eternal perspective the verses point to the reality that though information increases, the people are further from the truth and understanding it. The majority of the human race that even believes in an afterlife and eternity has decided their opinion is what counts and if there is a supreme being then that being will have to take their opinion into account and that it will matter. But the truth is He will take it into account and its matter will be that it was incorrect and now the human being faces an eternity in a place that no person in their right mind would want to even spend a minute in it and yet they will now reside and endure life there forever.

John 8:32: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 14:6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 17:17: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

2Peter 2:2:  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

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“Coincidences”

Well-being, religion, philosophy, love, relationships, thinking, perception, or what about life, immortality, eternity, hope, fear? Some great things have been written about each of these so what could I actually add that would be of value? Something that isn’t redundant? Something that maybe connected dots? Or maybe identified what the dots were? What exactly is a dot? Does it need to be connected or can it thrive solo? Do all things need to be connected in order to thrive? What is the definition of thrive? How about the word “value” – who determines if “it” is valued or of value?

I appreciate the process of connecting dots and seeing the connections across a body of information. I don’t believe in the so-called meaningful coincidence since I believe that God is almighty and thereby there can be no coincidence. Does that make sense? Is the implication accurate and true? Does the removal of coincidence, significant or not, imply a fate for every being that is not based on the individual’s values, principles and freewill? If so then it cannot be accurate because God did not create certain individuals to be fodder in the lake of fire. I guess this would stumble into the idea of a permissive will of God which is real but does not rule out or against “coincidence” so this then is a question: Since God is almighty, is there such a “thing” in the realm & experiences of human beings as coincidence?

Dictionary.com defines coincidence as: “a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance;the condition or fact of coinciding. Coincide as 1. to occupy the same place in space, the same point or period in time, or the same relative position: The centers of concentric circles coincide. Our vacations coincided this year. 2. to correspond exactly, as in nature, character, etc.: His vocation coincides with his avocation. 3. to agree or concur, as in thought or opinion: Their opinions always coincide.”

I agree with definition but building on the coincidence definition I would state it as a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance that are of significance to the receiver/noticer. It’s those last eight words that are required for a meaningful coincidence to be such a thing which brings me back to the idea of is the striking occurrence of two or more events at one time an act or result of an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God, schemes of a lesser deity (ex. Satan), or simply and nothing more than chance?

Providence is defined by Dictionary.com as by as when considered by “God, especially when conceived as omnisciently directing the universe and the affairs of humankind with wise benevolence; a manifestation of divine care or direction.”

Could it be that what we consider as coincidence is actually the effective result of planning by God or lesser deity in all circumstances so that there is really no such thing as a coincidence? What we consider a coincidence is because we have not actively considered all possibilities nor set things into motion that would provide for the best conclusion which would be an end which is agreement with our will? Put another way, because we do not spend the time and resources to consider every action, inaction and event we will have the opportunity to encounter – PLUS – the inability to secretively/quietly influence others without them knowing they are being influenced– PLUS – the lack of thousands of years of experience with human beings on a personal level – PLUS – not knowing or understanding the history of every race or culture along with its dogma, religion and values – THEN – what we happen to notice as a coincidence is incorrectly identified as such and is really a logical and planned result of God or a lesser deity.

If the above is true, does it necessitate that all events/happenings we identify as coincidence are actually not of chance at all? God told Israel not to play games of chance because it approached upon His providence. If that is to be interpreted that all games of chance are not actually chance then I think it implies that coincidences are not by chance but are events that we perceive as chance occurrences only because of our lack of knowledge about events/happenings preceding the “coincidence”. Many of the games we label as chance are probably misidentified happenings of laws of action and reaction that we don’t have the knowledge to understand. For example, flipping of a coin – it is quite possible that what is involved is the playing out of an equation in which the weight and size of the coin, facing a certain way, flipped a specific number of times, in a specific rotation, in an environment of X temp and humidity will always result in a X finding (tails or heads). So the end result seems chance by us because we do not consider the variables or how to quantify them so they can be measured thereby telling the participant the sure end result. We could consider the same with rolling dice. Another good example is the difference from someone playing pool with skill and a novice. The end results can be predicted by the skilled player where the novice will surely just happen to get some balls into the pockets by “accident” = “chance”. The skilled player can call the pocket and even the rails and interaction with certain balls removing all “chance”.

So in the realm of what we perceive as coincidences what we are missing is knowledge/information and power/skill. So does this require that every action/event is the work of God or a lesser deity? I think that there are actually categories for these perceived coincidences. The trite superficial and of little or no importance is the result of actions and decisions that we and others involved made, preceding the perceived coincidence that led to a certain, ultimate event. Most if not all the human beings involved did not have the knowledge/information and power/skill to bring about the certain event’s logical, reasonable conclusion nor the ability to know what decisions/actions others made that led to the event taking place. This means that those who took notice of the event perceive it to be a coincidence but in reality it is not. This does not mean that the event happened by chance because once a person has knowledge/information and power/skill the end result is predictable & repeatable.

In the case of meaningful coincidences I believe that they are in fact the work of God &/or a lesser deity/s to bring about a certain end/event/happening and they are errantly perceived as meaningful coincidences by human beings.

This means that people are freewill beings and their steps are not made for them. There are scenarios, schemes and blueprints planned by God and lesser deities but these do not remove the freewill of the person to make choices and decisions and the resulting actions. So there can be a “fate” in the romantic idea of the subject but only if the person believes they have such a plan to follow and then exercise their freewill correctly so that they can achieve such fate.

I wonder if this means that if you are in the center of God’s will you will come across a much greater amount of so-called coincidences since you will be following His plan for your life? Which implies to me that the scarcity of so-called coincidences in one’s life is proof that many who call themselves Christian, religious or spiritual etc. – are really off track – doing what they want to do instead of following & obeying God. For myself I know that when (making the quote sign with my fingers) coincidences occur often I consider them proof of God being present and me aware of Him. This often results from answered prayers not something communicated to other people just between Him and I. This gives me more to think about…

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Predicament

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

“THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.”

I wish I was so eloquent so as to share with you/anyone my feelings and belief about our country, our government and our predicament. If I had the patience and time I would comb through my books and other texts to provide many quotes, examples for why I “feel” and “believe” what I do. I lack the patience to wait and prepare such a draft because I fear that by the time I actually completed the draft it would be too late.

One truth, I believe there is a time, a parcel of the future where once we reach it that it will indeed be too late. At this moment I believe we are quite close to that parcel.

Second truth, I believe that our country has been the victim of deliberate actions meant to undermine and ruin what the country was meant to be. It began in the days of the nation’s founding but gained traction in the early 1800s and ever since has quietly and destructively rolled onto its goals – sabotage.

Third truth, our nation has been and is being sabotaged. Sabotaged as defined in the Random House dictionary “1. any underhand interference with production, work, etc., in a plant, factory, etc., as by enemy agents during wartime or by employees during a trade dispute. 2. any undermining of a cause.“

Fourth truth, the vast majority of our country’s citizens do not know enough about what America was suppose to be and founded as to be aware of the acts of sabotage that have occurred and are occurring.

Fifth truth, as I see it, the only way our country can be saved and restored to what it was founded as and meant to be is by revolution. Revolution as defined in the Random House dictionary “an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.”

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