I was hesitant to go here so soon, but the growing pressure of my thoughts on religion must be bled off sooner than later. Please be forewarned that many of my views
conflict with "mainstream" religions, so if you are easily offended by
having your beliefs challenged, I suggest you proceed with caution.
Also, keep in mind that my goal is not to invalidate or change anyone's
beliefs (I think everyone is entitled to their own), rather to simply share mine. OK, honesty-check here, I admit I'd feel some satisfaction if you were to find logic, substance and purpose in what I write, and even gravitate towards understanding my universal point of view... but that's your choice, not mine. Just remember, if I didn't have some sort of motivation with this, I wouldn't be doing it, right??
I'm calling this Part 1 for several reasons. For one, I could write a novel on the topic, and perhaps I will. Second, I'm striving for a "soft start" on the topic, given its sensitive nature. Finally, I admit I suffer from a more than slightly meticulous writing style, and am spreading myself thin these days with a number of projects, so I should prepare you for my slow-as-molasses delivery with these posts. I'm working on that. Please just stick with me here, I think it will be worth your while.
Moving on... it's not just religion I want to talk about, but science - religion's nemesis - as way too many have come to think of it. I
don't think it has to be this way. This battle lies in many folks' perceived divergence between science and religion... but please understand, there is no divergence between science and God! For if God created
everything, that which science seeks to define, the two are very much on
the same team.
As I see it, the problem is we have too much "religion" - something created by
human culture (NOT God) - that makes a notable habit of defying the laws of
science and the Universe - laws that not only clearly exist and have been proven, but laws that could be advantageously viewed by all as the work of
God, or some "Higher Power", (or at the very least, laws that simply
explain "the way things are" in the eyes of an atheist). This human fault could even be seen as a sacrilege to God, but I'll get more into that later.
Personally, I don't claim a particular faith, and I think that's the way to go. But I will say that I believe in a Higher Power, something special, that we can only grasp slightly in our physical lives (if we are open to it), but also something that we will have no choice to experience when we die. Too many people wait till they're old to realize this. Why not realize it now, and do the right thing? Live the best life you can. You've been given these tools, and this purpose, from birth, so why not discard any bad things you've acquired and make the best of it. It's never to late to clean your plate.
I'll leave it at that for now, but much more to come. I didn't want to wait any longer to get this started.
My love to all.
................. just getting back to this, so bear with me. I recall working on a revised version of the above, but am not finding it. So, I'm deciding to keep this post as is, and in the course of future posts, will certainly cover whatever I thought I would have covered in a revised version. Hopefully I'm picking up some much needed momentum again in sharing my thoughts with this and many more things.
Please stick with me, and share with friends and family; I think what I have to say is pretty important, but again, I will say that's not entirely my call. In other words, stick with me here, read and process my words, and make your own decisions. That's all I can ask for.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Literary Perception
The reason for this second post is a direct result of my first one. To elaborate: I tend towards a technical writing style (I am an engineer, after all), and I have been criticized for this by some. Friends and foes alike have, on occasion, called me arrogant, self-righteous or egotistical upon hearing or reading my words. In fact, my own girlfriend had this perception upon reading my first post.
So, I feel it necessary to address this up front, to avoid turning away readers. Perhaps it's not so much the technical aspect that rubs some the wrong way, rather the intellectually confident tone I write in. In any case, I'm sorry, I can't help it. This is how I write, and these are my beliefs, based on my life experience thus far. Beliefs can always change, of course, which may even show up in the course of this blog. But living and writing in the present, I'm not going to preface my words with "I believe that..." or "It's my opinion that...", because that's already implied. It's my blog. There will likely be times when I get revved up to the point of being borderline-offensive, but I'm a passionate person. Please keep in mind that I understand and respect that everyone has different perceptions, beliefs and opinions. I'm not claiming mine are any more correct than yours, nor am I pushing them on anyone... and above all, I don't want to trample on anyone's precious beliefs, knowing how precious mine are to me.
As another example of "literary perception", I'm sure many of you have had the experience of a serious email conversation with a loved one, where things go unexpectedly awry when you're only trying to explain your side to create understanding and make things better. Sure, when you're emotional, words can come out horribly wrong, but even when that's not the case, without voice intonation and facial expression, things are easily misinterpreted. This is a new phenomenon in our world of electronic communication, and one to be reckoned before it happens, or afterward if it does happen.
All this said, I hope I have paved the way for my next post on a sensitive topic: religion.
So, I feel it necessary to address this up front, to avoid turning away readers. Perhaps it's not so much the technical aspect that rubs some the wrong way, rather the intellectually confident tone I write in. In any case, I'm sorry, I can't help it. This is how I write, and these are my beliefs, based on my life experience thus far. Beliefs can always change, of course, which may even show up in the course of this blog. But living and writing in the present, I'm not going to preface my words with "I believe that..." or "It's my opinion that...", because that's already implied. It's my blog. There will likely be times when I get revved up to the point of being borderline-offensive, but I'm a passionate person. Please keep in mind that I understand and respect that everyone has different perceptions, beliefs and opinions. I'm not claiming mine are any more correct than yours, nor am I pushing them on anyone... and above all, I don't want to trample on anyone's precious beliefs, knowing how precious mine are to me.
As another example of "literary perception", I'm sure many of you have had the experience of a serious email conversation with a loved one, where things go unexpectedly awry when you're only trying to explain your side to create understanding and make things better. Sure, when you're emotional, words can come out horribly wrong, but even when that's not the case, without voice intonation and facial expression, things are easily misinterpreted. This is a new phenomenon in our world of electronic communication, and one to be reckoned before it happens, or afterward if it does happen.
All this said, I hope I have paved the way for my next post on a sensitive topic: religion.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Welcome To My Universe
This blog has been approaching its boiling point inside me for a while, so I am pleased to say I'm finally making it happen. Consider this first post an introduction, to set the stage for future posts. I hope you find my thoughts and ideas refreshing and nourishing, and more importantly useful, in what I see as an increasingly complicated endeavor to shape a positive future for our existence.
First, let me inject a few necessary doses of "universal perspective"...
Think about ourselves. Think about your lifetime; next, think about the beginnings of our history books, the two-millenia-year-old writings of the Bible; think about the eons it must have taken for our intricately-designed human species to evolve from the first cells of life (as we define life here on Earth)... and compare those time frames to ETERNITY. Now think about the size of your home, and how far you stray from it on an average day; think about the farthest travel destinations you've reached, and consider the farthest destination a human being has reached (which would be our next-door neighbor, the Moon)... and compare those to the UNIVERSE. How often does the average person even think about the Universe, let alone anything beyond their immediate surroundings? Not often enough, but I'll get into that later. Anyway, as if you needed a reminder, the Universe is big. Really big. INFINITELY big - at least I believe so, until it can proven to have limits, but really, how could it? What would be beyond such limits? My point is, the scales of time and space (and the existence of other dimensions) are far beyond our comprehension, and we as individuals, or even as the human race, are nothing compared to everything.
To help back up this point, I'll cite an example of something astronomers at least claim to know, regarding the vastness of the Universe: according to an article I read recently, scientists recently discovered a massive reserve of water in a quasar 30 BILLION TRILLION miles away. Being this far from Earth, the quasar observed is actually the quasar that existed 12 BILLION years ago, since that's how long it has taken it's light to reach Earth... and light travels pretty darn fast! The amount of water discovered is estimated at 140 TRILLION times that of Earth, and 100,000 times the mass of the Sun. This water vapor covers an area hundreds of light-years across (a light-year is about 6 trillion miles). If you are beginning to feel small and insignificant, then good, that's my goal.
Sometimes a visual aid is more powerful (if you've gotten this far, this is a MUST SEE):
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html
Finally, one more dose of "universal perspective", with a grave twist: there exists a list of unavoidable catastrophic events that we face; events that could wipe us out in an instant, or over time. A cataclysmic celestial impact with Earth, or a detrimental chapter in the life of our aging, yet intensely powerful and precariously close "nuclear reactor" star, the Sun, are simply a matter of time (for example, read this: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/28jun_alienflare/). Saving the discussion of colonizing beyond Earth (in an effort to avoid potential extinction caused by such events) for another post, I'll say we've become fairly good at keeping watch over such threats, but so far our ability to mitigate them is questionable at best, as I would expect it to be for a while, if not for eternity. Some things are just not meant to be controlled... or even possible to control. For example, something tells me that if the Sun starts to slow-cook us to death (or vaporize us in an instant), blowing it up or somehow suppressing its frying capabilities are not options, as some of us might like to think. The purpose of these examples is to humble us back into our place, so as to honor, appreciate and support not just our existence, but the existence of everything, in a more realistic, responsible and successful manner. Such a mentality is also essential to getting the most out of this blog.
You may be sensing a negative tone (as you may in future posts), but in exchange for my apparent pessimism (or more accurately, realism), I promise to shed an optimistic light on things, and to offer what I think are potential solutions to some of the problems we face, as these are my primary motivations. Barring unavoidable events that could render us extinct, I think we'd all prefer to believe we possess the ability to secure a positive future, both as individuals and as a whole. It would therefore seem logical that we'd strive to share a reasonably common positive vision for humanity, and to plan and act accordingly, together, successfully. I used to believe this was possible; however, not only does human history tell us otherwise, but it has become increasingly apparent to me that such an endeavor is unrealistic and unnatural. It seems we have very little, if any, control over our destiny; rather, it is some Higher Power that has control over us, over everything... and for this power to work for us, we need to work with it. If we could somehow all agree and act on this concept, my original dream may yet be possible, but we obviously have a long way to go. I will for certain be discussing this in more detail in upcoming posts.
First, let me inject a few necessary doses of "universal perspective"...
Think about ourselves. Think about your lifetime; next, think about the beginnings of our history books, the two-millenia-year-old writings of the Bible; think about the eons it must have taken for our intricately-designed human species to evolve from the first cells of life (as we define life here on Earth)... and compare those time frames to ETERNITY. Now think about the size of your home, and how far you stray from it on an average day; think about the farthest travel destinations you've reached, and consider the farthest destination a human being has reached (which would be our next-door neighbor, the Moon)... and compare those to the UNIVERSE. How often does the average person even think about the Universe, let alone anything beyond their immediate surroundings? Not often enough, but I'll get into that later. Anyway, as if you needed a reminder, the Universe is big. Really big. INFINITELY big - at least I believe so, until it can proven to have limits, but really, how could it? What would be beyond such limits? My point is, the scales of time and space (and the existence of other dimensions) are far beyond our comprehension, and we as individuals, or even as the human race, are nothing compared to everything.
To help back up this point, I'll cite an example of something astronomers at least claim to know, regarding the vastness of the Universe: according to an article I read recently, scientists recently discovered a massive reserve of water in a quasar 30 BILLION TRILLION miles away. Being this far from Earth, the quasar observed is actually the quasar that existed 12 BILLION years ago, since that's how long it has taken it's light to reach Earth... and light travels pretty darn fast! The amount of water discovered is estimated at 140 TRILLION times that of Earth, and 100,000 times the mass of the Sun. This water vapor covers an area hundreds of light-years across (a light-year is about 6 trillion miles). If you are beginning to feel small and insignificant, then good, that's my goal.
Sometimes a visual aid is more powerful (if you've gotten this far, this is a MUST SEE):
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html
Finally, one more dose of "universal perspective", with a grave twist: there exists a list of unavoidable catastrophic events that we face; events that could wipe us out in an instant, or over time. A cataclysmic celestial impact with Earth, or a detrimental chapter in the life of our aging, yet intensely powerful and precariously close "nuclear reactor" star, the Sun, are simply a matter of time (for example, read this: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/28jun_alienflare/). Saving the discussion of colonizing beyond Earth (in an effort to avoid potential extinction caused by such events) for another post, I'll say we've become fairly good at keeping watch over such threats, but so far our ability to mitigate them is questionable at best, as I would expect it to be for a while, if not for eternity. Some things are just not meant to be controlled... or even possible to control. For example, something tells me that if the Sun starts to slow-cook us to death (or vaporize us in an instant), blowing it up or somehow suppressing its frying capabilities are not options, as some of us might like to think. The purpose of these examples is to humble us back into our place, so as to honor, appreciate and support not just our existence, but the existence of everything, in a more realistic, responsible and successful manner. Such a mentality is also essential to getting the most out of this blog.
You may be sensing a negative tone (as you may in future posts), but in exchange for my apparent pessimism (or more accurately, realism), I promise to shed an optimistic light on things, and to offer what I think are potential solutions to some of the problems we face, as these are my primary motivations. Barring unavoidable events that could render us extinct, I think we'd all prefer to believe we possess the ability to secure a positive future, both as individuals and as a whole. It would therefore seem logical that we'd strive to share a reasonably common positive vision for humanity, and to plan and act accordingly, together, successfully. I used to believe this was possible; however, not only does human history tell us otherwise, but it has become increasingly apparent to me that such an endeavor is unrealistic and unnatural. It seems we have very little, if any, control over our destiny; rather, it is some Higher Power that has control over us, over everything... and for this power to work for us, we need to work with it. If we could somehow all agree and act on this concept, my original dream may yet be possible, but we obviously have a long way to go. I will for certain be discussing this in more detail in upcoming posts.
For now, suffice to say I hope to open as many minds as possible to the intricate web of natural forces in our world - I mean, Universe - that I feel we should strive to better recognize, understand, learn from, concede to, embrace and work with, in order to maximize the quality of our existence, let alone preserve it. I'll cover a variety of topics, including nature and science, religion and spirituality, politics, business and economics, war and violence, technology, the media, sociology and psychology, to name a few. I will do my best, within the limits of human flaw, to write from a universal, unbiased, honest perspective. Please give me a respectful nudge if you feel I'm straying from that.
That's it for now, thanks for reading, and please stay tuned. I have so much to share, and not only look forward to sharing with you, but I want to hear from you. Remember, this blog is not about me, you, the human race, or our world... it's about the Universe. Be good, and enjoy the ride...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)