A proper beginning, I suppose, would be a definition of irony. 3 a (1) - incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result.
"In God We Trust" should be taken off of American money. I've witnessed fundamentalists become irate over the proposition like they had been assaulted but let me assure you that God, Trust, and Money do not mix and "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions." I'll try to explain this irony in a language the fundamentalist can understand.
In the West, some of us are taught near the beginning of our intellectual and spiritual development the 10 Commandments. The first, second, and third, are the most difficult to grasp, even into adulthood, and with these the irony rests.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Acceptance of contradictions to all three of these condition the progeny of these commandments to the evils they are meant to provide a weapon against the degradation of individual sovereignty.
Those who make unto themselves a crucifix or any other likeness found anywhere in any religion or any word of any language or any constellation to depict a "God" does contradict the 2nd commandment but these practices are viewed as a badge of courage and understanding to the faithful. If you can be brought to believe preposterous things without witnessing them, then you can be brought to witness preposterous things you don't believe in.
The love of money is the root of all evil yet the God we are to love with all our mind, heart, and soul's "name" is printed on all our money, and Trust. The same type of system, we call it Fractional Reserve, a usurious one, that various historical accounts consider a slow but sure form of social death. Ezekial 18:13 goes so far as to say the man who lends money at interest , is to be put to death. We could forego the death penalty today, but the dire warnings should be heard and acted upon.
"In God We Trust" should be taken off our money and in its stead be replaced with a warning that the allure of material possession and social position will rob all concerned of our true value in society. "In God We Trust" acts as a subterfuge to a usurious economic structure.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Our Answers Are Here Now And In A Variety
Imagine a 200 billion piece jigsaw puzzle. Every piece is cut roughly the same shape and represents a piece that every individual has responsibility for. The image that the puzzle becomes depends on the history and lives of the piece holders. Every piece fitting and relative to the whole within a border represents the Laws of Nature.
A reasonable approach to assembly may be to begin with the border pieces which are usually straight. With the border assembled, then separate pieces of like color and hue and begin to assemble those pieces by the fit and consistency of their design. You should have a few "colonies" of pieces after a while, that represent civilizations around the globe. As pieces keep being added, civilizations merge, one by one, and connect to the border revealing greater clarity of the big picture. That is unless a man-made disaster or natural disaster disturbs or sets back the process in which the image is subject to change. History has shown such disasters of both the man-made and natural. To quote Edmund Burke,
"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."
As a child, my parents attended a Church of Christ in Great Bridge, VA. I underwent questioning, by the pastor, before my baptism at the age of 8 in which I accepted Jesus as my personal lord and saviour. I later discovered it isn't that simple. I have a respect for the message Jesus is written to of gave the world. The "red words" of the Bible, in particular, have stuck with me throughout my studies and as an American, Judeo-Christian values have had an impact in my life. Let every one who can read this understand that a closer advancement to a "Kingdom of Heaven" is here.
I do not take Jesus' virgin birth literal truth. Figuratively, of course, Jesus was a Son of God very much like other cultures who give high titles to their great ones, an example would be, Siddhartha Gautama, who in Buddhism, is the greatest Buddha. Literally, however, I believe they are men with a mission. Like Newton is to Calculus, like Stephen Hawking is to theoretical physics, like Aristotle is to Logic. The mission being higher knowing, a path to righteousness, less suffering, etc. for posterity.
I think Jesus probably studied at the Library of Alexandria prior to his return to Judea; and, with an abundance of knowledge, Jesus had a few tricks up his sleeve and a philosophy to rival the priests of his homeland and a plan to claim the role of the prophesized messiah.
In my experience, people focus more on Jesus' divinity as God incarnate than the morals proposed by his teachings. The simplest rule is found in every respectable philosophy and religion: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
People quarrel over the mincing of words and translation . People fail to think of new ideas relative to old ideas. People think without the big picture in mind. People are ignorant to logical fallacies prevalent in modern discourse. People anthropomorphize undescribable things and irrational behaviors and place blame on the imagined entity rather than a reasonable causality. People justify exclusion to those who may not ascribe to their ways of thought or mysteries surrounding their great men and forsake much a greater good in doing so.
In 2013, we live in an era at peril to great man-made disaster. Human kind's potential for achievement is matched only by its mutually arising potential to destroy achievement. The capabilities of abundance of industry in our present day lies in the grasp of a monetary system that inhibits production capabilities, creates waste on a grand scale, and at its present state of misuse, creates social phenomena that puts us all at risk of repeated man-made suffering and disaster.
America, as the nation-child of what is called the Age of Enlightenment has a responsibility to the world, a responsibility that has been neglected and economically usurped by monetary corruption that has rooted itself deep into a motive for profit that justifies cyclical consumption, planned obsolescence, and multiple venues of abhorrent behaviour, across the board, for profit's sake.
As in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, the task is now at hand to harvest the history and available knowledge the sowers have planted, take an inventory of the Right and the Detrimental, destroy (but do not forget) the detrimental practices, and prepare the soil as best can be surmised for humankind's posterity of which there is a global common heritage.
Organizations like the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project are spreading awareness in very scholarly ways and propose models to achieve sustainability for the whole planet going into the future.
Behold! The Kingdom of God is within you.
Buddhism's Eightfold Path consists of eight distinct yet interconnected and integrated views or ways of actual personal existence.
From a Confucian perspective, one cannot live fully in the present without being fully responsible to the past, both in terms of paying respect to one's ancestors and making the best of what they have left behind.
Sethian Gnosticm and Platonic tradition state that salvation is self-actualized and is an ever-present possibility.
A reasonable approach to assembly may be to begin with the border pieces which are usually straight. With the border assembled, then separate pieces of like color and hue and begin to assemble those pieces by the fit and consistency of their design. You should have a few "colonies" of pieces after a while, that represent civilizations around the globe. As pieces keep being added, civilizations merge, one by one, and connect to the border revealing greater clarity of the big picture. That is unless a man-made disaster or natural disaster disturbs or sets back the process in which the image is subject to change. History has shown such disasters of both the man-made and natural. To quote Edmund Burke,
"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."
As a child, my parents attended a Church of Christ in Great Bridge, VA. I underwent questioning, by the pastor, before my baptism at the age of 8 in which I accepted Jesus as my personal lord and saviour. I later discovered it isn't that simple. I have a respect for the message Jesus is written to of gave the world. The "red words" of the Bible, in particular, have stuck with me throughout my studies and as an American, Judeo-Christian values have had an impact in my life. Let every one who can read this understand that a closer advancement to a "Kingdom of Heaven" is here.
I do not take Jesus' virgin birth literal truth. Figuratively, of course, Jesus was a Son of God very much like other cultures who give high titles to their great ones, an example would be, Siddhartha Gautama, who in Buddhism, is the greatest Buddha. Literally, however, I believe they are men with a mission. Like Newton is to Calculus, like Stephen Hawking is to theoretical physics, like Aristotle is to Logic. The mission being higher knowing, a path to righteousness, less suffering, etc. for posterity.
I think Jesus probably studied at the Library of Alexandria prior to his return to Judea; and, with an abundance of knowledge, Jesus had a few tricks up his sleeve and a philosophy to rival the priests of his homeland and a plan to claim the role of the prophesized messiah.
In my experience, people focus more on Jesus' divinity as God incarnate than the morals proposed by his teachings. The simplest rule is found in every respectable philosophy and religion: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
People quarrel over the mincing of words and translation . People fail to think of new ideas relative to old ideas. People think without the big picture in mind. People are ignorant to logical fallacies prevalent in modern discourse. People anthropomorphize undescribable things and irrational behaviors and place blame on the imagined entity rather than a reasonable causality. People justify exclusion to those who may not ascribe to their ways of thought or mysteries surrounding their great men and forsake much a greater good in doing so.
In 2013, we live in an era at peril to great man-made disaster. Human kind's potential for achievement is matched only by its mutually arising potential to destroy achievement. The capabilities of abundance of industry in our present day lies in the grasp of a monetary system that inhibits production capabilities, creates waste on a grand scale, and at its present state of misuse, creates social phenomena that puts us all at risk of repeated man-made suffering and disaster.
America, as the nation-child of what is called the Age of Enlightenment has a responsibility to the world, a responsibility that has been neglected and economically usurped by monetary corruption that has rooted itself deep into a motive for profit that justifies cyclical consumption, planned obsolescence, and multiple venues of abhorrent behaviour, across the board, for profit's sake.
As in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, the task is now at hand to harvest the history and available knowledge the sowers have planted, take an inventory of the Right and the Detrimental, destroy (but do not forget) the detrimental practices, and prepare the soil as best can be surmised for humankind's posterity of which there is a global common heritage.
Organizations like the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project are spreading awareness in very scholarly ways and propose models to achieve sustainability for the whole planet going into the future.
Behold! The Kingdom of God is within you.
Buddhism's Eightfold Path consists of eight distinct yet interconnected and integrated views or ways of actual personal existence.
From a Confucian perspective, one cannot live fully in the present without being fully responsible to the past, both in terms of paying respect to one's ancestors and making the best of what they have left behind.
Sethian Gnosticm and Platonic tradition state that salvation is self-actualized and is an ever-present possibility.
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