John Lennox provides a fascinating talk about the universe and it’s origins with respect to biblical literature and the naturalistic worldview. This talk is excellently titled the seven days that divide the world. This is in reference to the six day creation. There is always more to discover in the text than you think upon face value and those willing to give it true time and reflection can see a whole new world opening up to them especially if they can understand the Hebrew and the Greek. It is simply a myth that science and religion cannot coexist. It’s unfair and dogmatic on both sides to say this. Science cannot teach us the why answers. We have spirituality and religion for the why answers or we have no reason at all. To put it simply naturalism is in contrast with free will and ultimate purpose. It is a denial of absolute truths yet it pleads itself as one. It’s contradictory in nature. I think logically Atheism is contradictory as well.
Why no one believes in naturalism:
The ontological argument for god:
Logically agnosticism is the best stance to take upon first reexamination. Yet, I dare say when Lennox brings up the fact that we could see a word written in the sand and think it is a sign of intelligent life why than would we look at the human genome with it’s now 3 billion letters and somehow we don’t see intelligent life there? There are enough letters spread out through the dna to write War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 300,000 times! Check out the first 1000 letters on the first chromosome here.
To me it is necessary to have a healthy reexamination of my thought constructs, presuppositions, beliefs etc… Where do they come from? Do I still agree? How do they make me feel? Are they really logical? Why?
I watched this debate and Richard Dawkins quotes Peter Atkins with regard to the fact that science cannot answer the why question saying, “the why question is just a silly question.”
I cannot wrap my head around that myself. It seems people are always wanting to know why with regard to nearly every aspect of their lives and somehow the question of ‘why we are here’ is a silly question!?!
I find that to be an absolutely horrible and dehumanizing statement. Which is to say if one really looks at all the underlying ‘data’ of the materialist/naturalist movement it’s statement of reason is that there is none. This is an entirely illogical construct as how could we reason at all if life itself had none? What would make something reasonable? All things become neutral ground. I recommend you watch this debate it has multiple proponents for both sides of the argument it is rather lengthy but I love a good debate and this one is awesome.
I think a foundation in philosophy is invaluable. I agree with Socrates that the unexamined life is not one worth living. Not that the life itself is worthless but it one I would not want to live.
I’m just gonna say something that been bothering me. All this talk of unity and oneness is great and all but let’s really think about something. If we all do opt to become so one with each other during this lifetime we will lose a lot of richness that diversity has to offer. As variety is the spice of life I think it is wonderful that we have different ideals and I think the very notion to want to stomp anyone’s believes out or to quiet them is a form of fascism.
In American we have a lot of idiots but we have a lot of smart people too. Part of the awesomeness of American is the fact that we have so much variety. Yes, it’s annoying sometimes to listen to people whine but think for a second wouldn’t you rather hear someone arguing a point and having a healthy debate on any number of topics than everyone having a singular view? I mean what good really is a singular view? How does anyone come to progress? It is always the hermit that brings forth great progress. “Insecure societies are the most intolerant of hermits.”-Alan Watts “Hermits have no peer pressure.”-Steven Wright
Differences of culture, languages, history, philosophy, art, and so on are what make life so sublime. It’s better to be different and have respect and love for the differences than to be one with a stale familiarity that just won’t go away. One the topic of whining I think this is an issue all its own. People are so afraid of being offended or being offensive they rarely speak what they truly mean.
Political correctness is a control mechanism. I think it does more harm than good. I think people learn from true opposition and the mistakes they make. People now are so afraid of making mistakes. I say get out there. Get your feed dirty. “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” – Helen Keller Don’t do what everyone else tells you to do, forget what is fashionable, politically correct, intellectual, and forget labels all together. “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” - Anonymous
We’ve got Atheist complaining religion is the problem when historically both have presented us with serious issues. I think that collectivism is the most dangerous of things when it decides that it’s view is the right view. No one knows without a shadow of a doubt what the right view is. There is far more beauty and sublimity in the experience and in the struggle than in merely following the ideals of some crowd or culture you don’t truly understand.
Out of all the literary movements the Romantics had it right. Life is about the experience, the ride. There are moments of despair and excruciating pain but there are also moments of absolute ecstasy and joy. “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have the facts of life!” Modernity and post-modernity in its most current form are stupid.
Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion.-Gustave Flaubert.
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain’t nothin’ can beat teamwork. Edward Abbey
Neither allow the individual any means by which to justify himself for there are no solid foundations.
Modernity says there is no ideal. Yet there remains an ideal within each individual and the individuals needs and desires he has a right to understand and peruse regardless of how it may make others feel. As long as violence or oppression isn’t used the view is perfectly solid and true for each individual.
Post-modernism is simply too young and too stupid to define itself right now and perhaps it could become intelligent if it would manifest itself in such a way that recognizes the importance of the individual and that the ultimate truth both lives within the individual and beyond the individual beyond what is conceivable completely that absolute connected nothingness that contains everything that abstract concept of the highest consciousness.
But screw pop culture, it raises up people to the likes of idolization with nothing to offer other than the clothes they wear or the songs someone else wrote for them to sing or what they ate for dinner. Why do we care? “Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you.” -Unknown
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”-Dr. Seuss
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”-Audrey Hepburn
“If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.”—Bob Dylan
Now true talent that is something to admire especially those that aren’t afraid to show the struggle they had to overcome to get there. Yet, today our heroes are not great for the most part they are people whom rarely posses any actual talent whom just present themselves well.
Screw public relations with their constant propaganda and ridiculous slogans trying to distance us farther from the real issues at hand. Screw the mainstream media, the federal government, and the federal banking systems, screw the war on drugs! Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.-P. J. O’Rourke
These systems don’t represent us. They are not for us. They are not by us!
“You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. You, who have lost the concept of the difference, you who claim that fear and joy are incentives of equal power—and secretly add that fear is the more ‘practical’—you do not wish to live, and only fear of death still holds you to the existence you have damned.”-Ayn Rand
Why is America great? We freely express my thoughts. Why is American getting worse? Because no one cares anymore. People are too wrapped up in their own lives or the lives of those on television. The real world is out there and the real person is you and those sitting next to you. Everyone on this earth is special in their own way. Everyone has something to offer the world. “One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.” – John Stuart Mill
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.” ~J.K. Rowling
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”– Mark Twain
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau
“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”-Aristotle
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
This independence was important because it was the freedom from political and religious oppression. The individual, each individual, is the most important aspect of the universe. It’s a paradox but it is true much as faith in itself is a paradox. The universe comes to understand itself wholly through the subjective expression and subjective experience of the individual. The people have given there minds to a few men thinking they know better than us. No one knows what is better for you but you and perhaps your god.
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.-Jesus Christ
The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him. -Gustave Flaubert
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”-Soren Kierkegaard.
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”-Confucius
“The present age is one of understanding, of reflection, devoid of passion, an age which flies into enthusiasm for a momentonly to decline back into indolence. Not even a suicide does away with himself out of desperation, he considers the act so long and so deliberately, that he kills himself with thinking—one could barely call it suicide since it is thinking which takes his life. He does not kill himself with deliberation but rather kills himself because of deliberation. Therefore, one can not really prosecute this generation, for its art, its understanding, its virtuosity and good sense lies in reaching a judgement or a decision, not in taking action.” -Read the rest here http://cliffarnold.com/thepresentage.pdf
The above was written by Soren Kierkegaard in the 19th century and sadly this is becoming even more true today. There are still two types of intellectuals:those that go along with the herd and those that digress. It has always been this way. Noam Chomsky talked about how in America we tend to side with the digressers when they are in another culture and within our own country we tend to side with the main argument. This is quite absolutely true of mainstream society in American.
It is the fact that the majority of American’s have a true forgetting of their past, no memory of their history, not for that of all mankind, not for their country, and not for themselves. Everything is fly by night reflection and yet never actually addresses the real, important, and underlying issues. People today are trained to think in a certain fashion. What Chomsky has stated the public relations committee refer to as ‘manufacturing consent’.
It’s a terrible fact that no one truly seems to take a stand for anything anymore. Everyone just merely talks about it. Even I don’t know what a person can really do anymore. If a person does try and get something done that may oppose the current system, they are either hushed or their credibility is tarnished. This is happening in almost every institution. Yet, the common mass does not know, nor do they care, their minds are filled with popular culture; which has no importance or barring within the realm of reality, not even in the physical, whatsoever. The contradiction between the materialist worldview and the virtual reality within the television and video games is hilarious to say the least.
“A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.”-Soren Kierkegaard
I’m truly fascinated with the prophetic messages and warnings that many great minds gave centuries ago and you can find them all throughout history. Once again at their time they are seen as ridiculous and then later people realize their importance and their truth. It’s also funny to note that even “Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.” Chomsky also says that historically the digressing intellectual was the prophet of old.
I feel like the debate has always been what is truly good and what is truly bad for man. Men come and go with different ideologies. The best of them I have found is existentialism because it understands that the sole purpose of existence is up to the individual. Within existentialism you have the theological in Kierkegaard and the atheist in Nietzsche to very different viewpoint but both understanding the necessity of the individual and the subjective experience.
Kierkegaard said that you cannot have faith without doubt because if you did not have down one would have solid evidence and thus it could no longer be faith. He argued the dangerous of blind faith. He would be the utmost interesting person to debate the new atheist today.
Nietzsche exclaimed that, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
Killing all the ideals. Those words resulting in the very culture we have today. One running rapid with people whom have ideals but cannot express for which they really come. They deny the supernatural even though the very denial of the supernatural renders every bit of their life meaningless and their very thought constructs and emotions being nothing more than biologically and chemical reactions adapted byproducts of an evolutionary process that one man Charles Darwin postulated. Yet, his theory makes absolutely no sense of the true origin of that first single celled organism and in fact has no idea how it could have become manifest out of the inorganic material.
The Atheist Scientist of today assert two different explanations for how that inorganic material created the first organic single celled organism. 1) We were seeded here by some other highly evolved species, Aliens. or 2) The cell piggybacked on crystals. I have no idea how the second even counts as a hypothesis because the chances of that are very very slim. Even still the very fact that they are happier to give the creation of earth’s creatures up to some aliens or some crystals is quite humorous but they sure won’t give it to a God that just doesn’t coincide with their agenda.
And Flaubert warned of the stupidity of modernity and by God was he right!
And Post modernity is far stranger and maybe stupider than even modernity as it refuses any solidify position as to what it is to be a post modernist because to define it would be to defile it.
It seems to me to be more and more ridiculous circular logic that gives no grounds for truly settling on a position or coming to a solid understanding of anyone else. No one can come to a proper conclusion. There is no longer a proper way to determine if any work or deed is good or bad because they cannot tell you by which means to arrive at its definition.
To me the simple truth is this: if you get rid of the idea of supernaturalism and only adhere to naturalism you are limiting your ability towards any ultimate understanding. You are rendering your even your strongest emotions nothing more than biological and chemical reactions and thus feeling extremely happy or extremely sad aren’t really here nor there. No life or death matters. However, if you can keep the idea of supernaturalism there begins to be a much bigger picture of which to look at and much more details to pick through. Consciousness first and foremost to be studied can open a whole new world of dialog. And see that in naturalism things like love would not exist.
This last two are lengthy but all of the videos within this post are very important because there is a certain, if researched undeniable leadership propagating certain thought patterns and belief systems. They intend have intended throughout history to try and halt a true progress of all mankind and manifest a faulty one that falls in the leadership of a few and allows for great loss and suffering for many whether that loss be a life, a job, true education, or simply a hushed voice. The truly intellectual - those who can think for themselves and are willing to hear and learn the voice of others, have a great responsibility to keep the dialog open for progress for the world over.
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-My child will know and study Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. -My child will know and study linguistics, etymology, ontology, philosophy, history, science and mythology. -My child will understand the philosophy of language, the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of science. -My child will study all religious texts. My child will be encouraged towards faith provided through skeptical rationalism. My child will know and obey the commandments while in my house. -My child will be able to assess the meaning beyond the surface, understanding the necessity of layers, and the underlying wisdom beneath. -Creativity and individual spiritualism and importance will be based on their studies and personal understanding will be encouraged. -My child will be embraced with patience and love and motivated by intellect and intuition equally. -My child will be encouraged creatively first and foremost yet, will understand the necessity to understand certain languages, histories, and philosophies. -My child will be encouraged towards the Socratic method of dialog. My child when the age of influence begins to become that of peers more heavily than that of mine and my husbands will be told the truth about sex and drugs. -My child will be able to converse with me openly about anything and will have no fear of topic. My child will be taught that compassion and love for oneself and all others is of the utmost importance in life. -My child will be strong willed in his convictions and will not be afraid of being opposed for he will know that opposition is a key towards understanding life. He will accept opposition and will both teach and learn from it. -My child will have respect for himself and all others. He will respect those who lack understanding and will lead them into light, if and only if they ask. He will not be a tyrant. He will be a force of compassion and love. -My child will understand the importance of the subjective experience with respect to the objective reality. -My child will understand the preciousness of each individual and their individual path.
[video]
A dogma is a belief system. Science will attempt to tell you that they are not dogmatic however why is it that the truly intellectual inquiry of the nature of consciousness is not readily being studied through out the sciences? Because the intellectual inquiry on the study of the nature of consciousness would result in I am very sure almost endless results as the consciousness is the very thing studying the consciousness and furthermore they are steadfastly holding onto the materialistic worldview which is nothing but circular logic that is a means to no end.
Likewise the materialistic worldview says that all that exists is matter and matter is unconscious but if that were so how does the consciousness arise out of the unconscious matter? It cannot and does not. The general scientific community does not desire to study the true nature of consciousness because it renders much of the foundations of the way the world is perceived today absolutely ridiculous. They want you to believe that all that exist is the physical yet there is much proof within your own mind that directly contradicts this.
The mere fact that nothing can be defined without its relation to something else qualifies that everything is connected thus the supposed unconscious with the conscious. But if they were to say that everything is connected through the consciousness and therefore they cannot define the consciousness because it is that very that we are. Why is it that science isn’t studying the very essence of what we are? Consciousness.
There are a number of brave souls within the scientific community who have spoke out about the dogmatic system by which much of the scientific research is conducted and in their studies find that consciousness is really what needs more inquiry especially with the connectedness we have to one another and the world and the rest of the universe. As we are made up of the very elements that were present within the big bang theory and our make up is directly matched with that of the explosion or beginning of the universe thus it must be said that we are all interconnected with consciousness which cannot be explained and by its very nature consciousness of the individual observer of data has been proven through out history to alter the overall results of the experiment. What does that mean? It means that what a person believes or thinks or presupposes about a certain set of data within an experiment will in all actuality render a unique result.
The scientist who views the world as merely material will bring forth only material results. The scientists who trust that the consciousness is something more than a mere byproduct of the material will render different results and in all frankness, a more honest, result because it is self evident that consciousness exists if it does not then none of us really exist and we are merely delusional to believe that we do exist. So do we exist? Do we have consciousness?
Science cannot truly answer these things with infallibly empirical data most especially cannot if it presupposes the fact that we are all merely material, the consciousness must then be a misconception to them. Yet, it is not. They believe we exist and that we have consciousness. The dogmatic system within the sciences presupposes logic and rational. It presupposes that the universe is both knowable and rational in nature.
It attempts to explain how everything is because of material data that could have actually been different at the time it was new/younger/birthed or alive verses the subjective view of it now. It presupposes that there is uniformity through out time and space but none of these things can be scientifically proven. It cannot be scientifically proven that nothing within the any religious text has not in fact taken place by the mere examination of fossil elements that could be vastly different in their new/younger/birthed or within their living state. Science cannot explain science. It can only attain what the supposed and agreed upon historical and scientific facts.
No one though should trust the idea of the miraculous without having their own experience of such. Yet, if the miraculous is experienced the scientific community for the most part denies this and thus renders all of life meaningless. The meaninglessness of life is something most humans never think about. There is great reason for the fact that the underlying dogma within the scientific community is material and thus renders life meaningless.
Why is this so? It is so because as of this time nearly every system in which we are predisposed to by our economic, cultural, political, historical, scientific, educational and even religious institutions today promote a certain worldview. This means that the people who are the decision makers for the most part about what information is factual and what information is not factual ie. what is true and what is not true is decided upon by a select group of people through out. They control the information that we the people receive.
In doing so they control our perception of the world because if we do not believe what it is they are telling us then we are either crazy or stupid. However, a person is truly not conscious of their very reality, nature, or essence if they are not allowed to think freely within themselves.
Furthermore, the scientific material worldview renders life meaningless and really nonexistent in the sense that we have consciousness. Also the culture of today is the desire for absolute freedom. But absolute freedom is not without the consequence of a meaningless existence.
How can this be? Most people become so busy simply working or entertaining themselves that they do not stop to think what is the reason for all of this. Why go to work? Why get an education? Why do anything if in the end you are nothing but material? Why do you have a sense that any of your decisions make a difference?
Many of you here will say that you live to be free. You want that absolute freedom. For one to say they want absolute freedom we are really saying we should be ruled by nothing. This means nothing stands in our way. We deny all absolute truths and thus all truth is subjective. Yet, if all truth is in actuality subjective where does the doctrine for the pushing of that morality of subjective truth come from? Meaning if someone says to you that all truth is subjective and tells you to not try and ‘convert’ them to any other philosophical belief because they profess in the subjectivity of truth, where do they attain the notion that all truth is subjective?
Most great thinkers like Tolstoy, Camus, Aldous Huxley, and many other realized that to obtain the absolute freedom it would mean to recognize the utter meaninglessness of life.
Albert Camus said, “We modern people believe in absolute freedom. Many of us don’t believe in God at all. Many of us don’t believe in a God that you can know. Therefore, we believe in no God or no God you can really know because we believe in freedom. If there was a God we could know, who told us how we had to live, and who gave us the rules, and the regulations, well, then we wouldn’t be free but because we believe in freedom and because we don’t believe in the traditional view of God…we are free. But if we are free we are all like Sisyphus.”
The dogmatic system that has been in place within the scientific community for the most part abandons certain scientific and philosophical inquiry for their material basis because it does not want man to stop and think of the meaning of their lives. It simply feeds them the meaning via all the systems which propagate similar ideologies. Has it not ever occurred to you that a scientific fact nevertheless is for the most part nothing more than a theory. Some of these theories do not even have truly observable phenomena. Which by definition non-observable phenomena what Kant called the noumenal was a place for intuition and faith. Faith! What science as a faith?
Yes, it requires just as much faith as most any religion. Here is an example much like this one by Stephan J. Gould, a late professor at Harvard said, “We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar anatomy that could transform into legs and for terrestrial creatures; and we are here because comets struck the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, giving mammals a chance they would not of otherwise, have had available to them and therefore; thank you’re lucky stars, in a literal sense, because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; we are here because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago has managed to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a “higher” answer but none exists. This explanation though superficially troubling, if not terrifying, is ultimately liberating and exhilarating. We cannot read the meaning of life passively in the facts of nature. We must construct these answers ourselves, from our own wisdom and ethical sense. There is no other way.” Has he not said liberating, meaning freeing. Yet, he adheres to the idea that we must construct these answers ourselves from our own wisdom and ethical sense. But how can anyone define the ethical or wisdom at all if there is no meaning and no absolute?
Aldous Huxley was by far the most honest about the true efforts and underlying agenda within of the idea of absolute freedom and meaninglessness saying, “I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently I assumed it had none, and was able without much difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with academics; the philosopher the philosopher who finds no meaning in this world is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he should not personally do as he or she wants to do or why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way they find most advantageous to themselves. For myself the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument for liberation, sexual, and political.”
If you do no believe this is an agenda of terrible consequences of course you are up to your interpretation. It is free to oppose as any thought should be. Yet, I beg you heed these wise words by Dorthy Sayers, “In this world, there is a view that’s called total tolerance, but in hell it is called despair. It is the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, enjoys nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing. Why? Because there is nothing for which it could die for.”
Meaning that all our efforts eventually turn into dust and nothingness. Alan Watts has the greatest explanation for that which seems to be the true essence our consciousness and our true reality (perhaps) And the truth is that the nothingness is not in reality absence of anything it is the unity of everything. We perceive it as nothingness because within our consciousness is the nothingness and with which we have nothing to compare it to.
But the idea that life is truly meaningless cannot be lived because it creates confusion and collision between the different faculties of the consciousness. You have a corrosion of the psychological, of the emotional, of the philosophical. The best explanation for this are the following:
What is this plague, this germ which, like the tubercle bacillus, lurks within, waiting for the victim’s strength to sink below a certain level so that it may strike? It is not a new organism. It ravages were predicted by certain seers of the nineteenth century. Melville and Hawthorne, Nietzsche and Marx, Dostoievsky and Kafka all saw it coming in one form or another. Its actual appearances have been described in some detail by contemporary poets and painters, playwrights and novelists. There were and are a few theologians at work on the bacterium, but for the most part of examination and analysis are taking place in the secular laboratories. The germ has a very simple name: meaninglessness. And the conditions under which is strikes are well known: when one raises or is confronted by the ultimate questions about live, about the purpose and meaning of existence, and discovers that there are no answers; no answers, that is, that can be believed. Life seems pointless and empty, rather cruel and even a little mad. [William Graham Cole The Restless Quest of Modern Man (New York: Oxford UP, 1966) p. 7]
As well as this magnificent quotation; “The new rebel in our time is a skeptic and will not entirely trust anything, and therefore he has no loyalty, and he can’t even be a revolutionary. The fact that he doubts everything, and he must doubt everything, bars his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciations implies a moral doctrine, and you can’t believe in moral doctrine if all things are meaningless. The modern revolutionary doubts not only the institution that he denounces but the doctrine of moral truth by which he denounces it. As a politician he will cry out that war is a waste of life yet, as a philosopher he has to admit that all life is a waste of time. In short, the modern revolutionary, being an infinite skeptic, which he must be, is always engaged in undermining his own mind. In his books on politics he attacks persons for trampling on morality, but in his books on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on persons. Therefore the modern rebel has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt by rebelling against everything, he has lost he right to rebel against anything.”
“There is a kind of thought that stops thought and that is the only kind of thought that ought to be stopped.” -G.K. Chesterton
Sartre famously said, “It is forbidden to forbid.” But this is circular logic because even that is a method of forbidding!
And even still from another viewpoint of the dangers of the adoption of the need for absolute freedom rendering meaninglessness is given by C.S. Lewis in which he states, “If there is no answers, if there is no creator, if there is nothing that is really true, when you are in love you must remember that only a psychopharmalogical reaction in your brain is happening. There is no such thing as love. You may enjoy music but you have to realize it is only a biological reaction; beauty and ugliness, cruelty and compassion are totally subjective, not real, all in your brain synapses. You may still, in the lowest sense, have a ‘good time’; but just as far in as it becomes a very good time, just in so far, as it ever threatens to push you out of cold sensuality and into real warmth and enthusiasm, and joy,you will be forced to feel the hopeless disharmony between your own emotions and the very universe you really live in.”
Much of these quotations have been taking from the following video. I am not promoting Christianity. I am promoting intellectual inquiry. I am promoting that people read the bible and leave the interpretation up to the individual instead of simply placing judgement out of this you have heard about it. I would also encourage all of you to question why the system in itself as become so dogmatic. All parts of the whole are dogmatic towards the direction of meaningless. If it so that we do not take the time to search within ourselves for the true meaning? Perhaps! I encourage you to read every philosophical, spiritual, religious, and scientific text you can find. It is only upon true self meditation and inquiry that we really find ourselves and our meaning. I will tell you one belief of which I am very dogmatic about and that is the belief in compassion and love. I truly believe that if everyone loved one another as they loved themselves the power of love would conquer us all. But remember if it is simply all meaningless for your desire of absolute freedom even love and compassion are merely up to subjective interpretation.
For more on the subject of meaning and meaningless check this page out! http://www.existential-therapy.com/Special_Topics/Meaning.htm
This blog is intended to demonstrate the impact music has on society. When I think of the artist that have had the greatest impact on society as a whole there are four artist that come to mind. They are Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Bob Marley and Michael Jackson. Each of the individuals even those within the band have greatly increased the feeling of prosperity within us all. The feeling of oneness and collectedness throughout all of life. This is a message that must be heeded. It is the only message we should be subjecting ourselves to in a time where the world seems as if it is falling apart.
The earth itself is a wondrous and beautiful thing. It is teaming with life. It is plentiful in its nourishment for all of life. We have been suck in system of separation. One in which we constantly compare ourselves to others. Many of us look towards celebrities in whatever field for guidance. The truth is they are people just like everyone else. They too have ups and downs and while it may seem their life is easier than yours, it may not be so. Each person is given the circumstances they can overcome. The truth is that love is the answer. If you can be aware of love and cherish it both within yourself and for all the rest of life you will know peace. Jimi Hendrix once said that “when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace”. This is absolutely true. “Imagine all the people living for today.”
Now is the time to recognize your own gifts and talents. Now is the time to be thankful for the things you have instead of hoping for something gained. Now is the time to make precious each and every moment for it is just that. Michael Jackson said, “in a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe.”
Each of these particular artist were truly a voice for the people. They were not concerned with the material possessions or wealth. They knew that true wealth was within the hearts and minds of men; within shared conversation, within shared wisdom, and simply within sharing. They used their fame as a catalyst for enlightenment and understanding to demonstrate the goodness in the world, in love, that is free to anyone whom seeks it and especially to anyone who shares it. The examples of them pressing this message of hope is endless but I have picked a few examples for you all to reflect on. So many of us place great blame upon ourselves and others but we can truly only grow when we as a whole stop being victims and decide to become creators. Manifesting our own destiny.
Let It Be by The Beatles is a great song for reflection and meditation. “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be”
All You Need Is Love by The Beatles is obvious and brilliant anthem for this critical time. It speaks of all aspects of life and explains the answer is simple, “all you need is love.”
And as individuals The Beatles continued to promote this same message of love each in their own way. With John we most typically think of Imagine because it is such an eloquent and magical gem that grows evermore inspiring with each year.
Because the system sucks and feeds us nothing but lies
Because we want love and peace here on earth!
“All things must pass” there is no use in worrying in what is gone, be strong and be happy for what you have but all things must pass. Let life flow, let it roll. “within you or without you”.
Because everyone loves “silly loves songs”
and Because “in love our problems disappear but all in all we soon discover that one and one is all we long to hear!”
Ringo Starr gives us a recipe for success: “You got to love everything breath you breathe. Look at the sky and believe.”
And because “every soul has a secret give it away or keep it but yesterday is gone so tell me why you carry the weight of the world?”
Because the truth and all the answers are “blowin’ in the wind”.
The nasty truth of the “masters of war” Who are the cowards through out history. “We just want you to know we can see through your mask.”
And ongoing into the darker side of our history as a people - these masters - these leaders, DO NOT REALLY CARE ABOUT US!
And because we have no one to blame but ourselves. Like Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see in the world.” Michael says, “starting with the man in the mirror, make that change.”
Because deep, deep, down within each of us is the desire for that ONE LOVE. “Let’s get together and feel alright.”
And because it is time for the whole world, all of humanity to be redeemed. “Won’t you help to sing these songs of freedom, cause all I ever have redemption songs. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy, ‘Cause none of them can stop the time. How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look”?
All of the artist in this post had a dream of living in peace. They did not concern themselves with material goods. They wanted truth, justice, peace, and love. This is music that is good for the soul. It enriches and transforms the listener. Look not on others to be your guide, be your own guide. Be the light! Be the change! Shine bright and love even when it is hard because that is when the power of love is needed the most.
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Timmy turner’s dad is so hardcore
(Source: facebook.com)
(via shatteredfragileglasses)
Male feminists
Why the fuck doesn’t this have eight million notes? Get it together, tumblr.
Signal Boost!!!
(via minxymadison)
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Life can be cruel or life can be kind. It will give you some of each from time to time. I often try and remain in the light. But I am drawn by both the dark and the light. It seems the absolute apex of each are conceivable within me, within each of us. I try not to speak about the things I loathe about myself or my life or others because it doesn’t do much good to make the negativity become stronger with the words. Yet, when it rains it pours and in truth life is not so much about what is happening to you and more about how you let it affect you. There are times when a person feels so absolutely beaten down by the world, by life, by everything that they can hardly see circumstances changing for the better and can only contemplate that ending it all would be the only true solution to suffice. There is much debate within myself as to whether it is ultimately the most selfish thing a person can do or perhaps the least selfish especially when you factor in the exponential growth in our population as a species.
My perception of the world, as with anyone else, has obviously been altered by time and experience. When I was a child I thought everything was big and everything was possible and magic at that. I believed love would save everyone and I believed in peace and compassion. Those things still matter to me and there is a part of me, the part driven by the light that still believes that and burns with brilliant bright white hot desire to achieve them. But the darker side of me wants to reminisce over the pain, the suffering, the struggle, the loss, the guilt, the shame, and the abuse I have endured. It wants me to remember how unhappy I am with the majority of my time. How unsatisfied, ashamed, and disappointed I have become with myself and it pushes me towards the end. Yet, thankfully though I still have a spark of the light always that keeps me hungry for more.
I don’t think anything in our lives ever gets easier and perhaps even for a while things become harder until eventually we just understand better how to deal with situations. Experience the greatest teacher it’s excellent for creating understanding and reactionary patterns to situations. So nothing really becomes easier, one simply becomes more aware of the proper handling of things.
Sometimes it takes people years, decades, and even entire lifetimes to learn a single lesson. But we can hope that eventually they will reach an understanding. I am the type of person doomed (at least for the most part) to learn the “hard way”. I often wish I could break myself of this.
I also wish I could break myself of my over-analysis of everything, my procrastination, my obvious pride issues, and my self-loathing wallowing. I’m an advocate for change. It’s the only way to mold yourself into a new shape, shade, hue. Experience and alterations to the inner psyche as a result of them is one of the only, if only, sure fire ways to create progress.
It is very true that if you can change your thoughts you can change your life and it does seem like such a trivial slogan type motivational effort but there is great truth to it. Our thoughts are who we are. What we think about ourselves, we become. It’s why you cannot let the dark win.
I know that I must learn from my experience and I know that I must change the way I am currently seeing my situation. If I don’t like it here so much and all I want to do is leave then I need to do that. I have spent nearly the last three years in Salem trying to get on my feet. Trying to pay off debts and save money in the process and for a while I was too giving of my time and money and I finally learned that lesson the “hard way”. After that the bills just became so high that I wasn’t really saving anything even when I did try. So I had to stop paying. Now I barely have over a hundred dollars in my possession after nearly three months of work at the Shitbrickhouse. It was a horrid affair that job but I believe we have to do things we do not so much want or like to do to become or to do the things we want. It took me a while to finally realize that to be a hard fact of life.
This town has lost it’s final light for me. I see no reason to stay. Everything I have tried to build for myself here always crumbles and that’s okay because in all honesty I’m not supposed to be here. I didn’t belong here even when I was a kid I knew I was destined for different things. I never thought I would return here. Yet, I have, time and time again, repeatedly for almost five years now. The topsy-turvy trial and error system I have established within this town is surely going to kill me.
And honestly it isn’t really that life is crueler or kinder to any lot of people. Life is what you make it. It isn’t really fair or unfair. It is chance. I think every good and bad will and can eventually balance out. They need each other to exist in this reality. We only know one because of the other.
My life has been one of extreme highs and lows but it wouldn’t matter what was happening to me for it to seem that way to me. I am just that way. I am exceptionally light and I am exceptionally dark. I relate to and understand only the truth in the essence of the extremeness of each because I am so extraordinarily both.
I am idealistic and nostalgic. I believe in the power of hope, faith, and love. I believe that good thoughts create good words and good deeds which create a chain reaction of good surrounding. I enjoy reminiscing over times that have passed me by and people whom I may never see again but will always remain alive in my heart. I am also analytical, cynical, and skeptical. I am a seeker of truth. I will go over how something could have been, how I could have made a different choice and all the what if’s in the world but not a single second of those thoughts really matter because the past is just that. Gone. Driven far enough away out of reach, passed us on the highway of life with its many curves, speed bumps, and potholes and its many hills and twists, and turns. Life is simply a ride of chance.
Whether things are predestined or chance anyway we are here in the now and that’s what matters and to focus on what could have been or what can be is only good if you can be content to change the very moment you are breathing in and exhale into the next.
Changes for the better can and must occur in my life and soon but I must create them. I can no longer idly stand by and contemplate all the things or ways I am currently doing wrong. I must just halt that process and make room for the right. Make room for the good, the better and the best.
I know I am a person with many strengths and also many weaknesses. I am honestly fairly aware of both spectrums of myself. I try to be aware and try and build my life and choices around them. I know that security and structure are what I most need in my life right now and while I may be provided a house right now, this is not the structure or security that I need any longer. I have to make change by simply doing. The thoughts and the writings reiterating them will do nothing if I do nothing.
And that’s life for you. If you don’t like something change it. Change how you feel about it. Do something. Yes it is easier said than done but it must be done or no progress or growth can commence.
It’s bizarre though how I somehow believe being from Salem is a gift all its own. The people and friends I have come to know and love from this town are truly inspirational, enriching, intelligent, creative, and funny. But on the other side of things this town is full of a wickedness as well. It is a place much like a black hole dying to ingest you and forever refrain from your release.
Yet, growing up here and being so deeply culturally repressed like most of the Midwest creates a very special breed of person. It either breeds more pathetic drones who blindly do as simple is and “always will be” and just lap up the milk of the mundane or it creates a particular artistic mind and intellect unique because of the unusually perceptive nature they have for seeing things as they are rather than as they are told. It’s a brilliant skepticism and intrigue for the exteriors of the small town. And the small town is full of gossip, hatred, betrayal, lies, and even much more ghastly things but it is also full of certain examples of true neighborliness born out of true concern, again we and all things have both light and dark.
When I think about the fact of the human psyche having such great light and darkness within themselves I am reminded of Brand New’s album “The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me” and it may be just that simple, that we have given names, faces, and personalities to our dual nature, to our light (God) and to our dark (Satan). Yet, it could also be that they are true creatures watching above and below us but my intellect tells me otherwise.
We are nothing more than a manifestation of our own thoughts and that is why if we want to change ourselves, our lives, the world; we must first change our thoughts. And so I try to focus on the light even when it’s raining cats and dogs and it seems nothing but the shadow of the sun is in sight. I believe in the power of positivity as well as negativity.
With everything that has happened over the past five years I have honestly learned a lot. I have learned how to better deal with death and grief. I have learned how to let go. I have learned that being alone really isn’t the worst possible outcome. I have learned that sometimes the best way to forgive someone is to stop all contact and just live and let live. I have learned that some people can’t and don’t want to be saved. I have learned that it’s not my job to save them. I have learned that anything worthwhile takes time. Trust is fragile, earned, and absolutely everything. I have learned that all people no matter the culture, age, race, etc. their deepest motivations are all the same, which are of understanding, acceptance, and love.
It isn’t just the mere fact that we as individuals have so many problems but as a whole species we are suffering and leaving disaster in our wake as we overpopulate the planet that is slowly becoming hotter and more polluted. I feel so selfish sometimes when I think about my problems compared to the rest of the worlds, how someone else always has it better and worse than I do. The scattered stands of life’s struggle surrounding us we must still embrace the light.
We must build an economy based on our deepest motivations. People only really desire wealth and power because they have no idea how to gain those things in the absence of either or both. Doctors should be doctors because they are driven with passion to cure the sick not cash out on their illness. Bankers should invest because they believe in something not because the economy is based on debt for debt. Teachers should be teachers because they desire to help others learn. The pharmaceutical companies should embrace cures rather than prescriptions to merely dull the side effects so they can make bank off the world’s diseases. Your job should be your passion. Everyone has talents and efforts they can utilize and put forth for the betterment of the whole. Dream this dream for me.
People should care less about appearance and more about character. People should seek to understand instead of judge, “because everyone is fighting a hard battle”. People should embrace change and do the most with what’s available to them. We should be grateful for the moments, the people, and the things we do have instead of pondering and wishing on the moments, people, and things we don’t. Dream this dream for me too.
I feel like for the most part people are both very selfish and selfless. They can be either. We can choose which path to take. There are moments where in all honesty it is better to be selfish and then of course there are numerous reasons to invoke the other. We are duality. We exist in a realm of duality. We must always attempt to keep them in balance.
There was much more personal account of my life addressed in the previous version of the above text but I have removed them because I don’t really care to share and I honestly don’t know what’s driving me to write all this as if I have things figured out. I don’t. Everyday is a struggle. I still try and maintain a positive outlook. Today I filled out my fafsa again. I don’t think I can survive another year just hopelessly searching for the right job when none of them will ever be the right job. I need an education. I feel like I cannot function at my true potential unless I get one. Another part of me thinks what a load of bullshit that is. Why should I put myself in deeper debt in the hope that upon my returning to school things will be different, that my perception has changed, that I won’t feel like just another loose strand in the system, another drone.
I see so many things in life that I enjoy that I just want to eat and drink up. So many things inspire me but at the very same time so many things entangle me in some sort of mixture of despair and madness. I don’t know sometimes I feel far too idealistic for this reality. Funny thing is it’s also my idealism that keeps me alive and believing that change is possible. I think its the prospect of change that keeps us going and also at other times leaves us shaking. We become so comfortable with certain habits, people, things, and the mere notion that something could alter that in even the slightest way can become so horrifying. In contrast for someone in my position when I feel at some instances that I am merely coasting along through this existence, change is all I can hope for. And the question of what if’s and what is and what does any of this mean? If it means anything. What is it to have meaning? Do lives have meaning? Sometimes I see these words and these questions and I just think well we’ve pretty much just put everything into nice little categories called words. Stuff and things. What’s the difference? How different the world would seem without language, without time. The concept of time is so ridiculous to me. It should merely consist of two instance (alive, dead) but we are observers and we study the stars and the seasons and the movement of the earth around the sun and we say this is day, and this that follows is night.
No wait, that was God. God said let there be light and there was light. And he called the light day and the darkness he called night.
Why did God who was infinite, omnipresent, and just absolute everything feel the need to name anything? If we are created? Why! If not, where does that leave us? In one great big adventure. But I feel like we could have had it so much better had society never happened. I see the benefits but sometimes I just want to crawl back in the womb. That’s a disorder. I’m not sure which but I know it is. I love my mom she’s a real nice lady. She’s smart and pretty too. But she’s put me through a lot of hardship but she also waited on me hand and foot for a good portion of my life. She did suffer through labor for me and then sat in a hospital chair for nearly the first year of my life. All alone at just 22. When I think about how I would reaction in that situation, how on earth I would be able to be responsible for another life when I’m still two years later feeling like a child myself. The older I become the more courageous it seems to me. I look back at my own life in retrospect and think geeze how did she do it. How did she raise two girls on her own, until I was nine and Courtney six. I find it so astonishingly perplexing and inspiring that truly the mere fact that there was ever one person in this world that would have taken the chance that she did on me, well then I might as well keep going. I might as well make the most out of this existence. Whether there is no meaning even at the end of all things.
The human connection (it’s pretty much the same thing as the rainbow connection only flesh colored), is ultimately all we really know. In so many ways the connection that I am most familiar with would be greatly broken if we didn’t have language. I’m sure there would be other means of communication. I think that’s really what is it. Even today in our postmodern hypercritical society we still want our damned ideas out there so bad. So much so that we will go as far as to write nasty things about others just to get our opinion out, in the hopes that somebody, anybody will bite. Well I say chew on this; even in all of my cynicism and skepticism (which I do have a lot of) I never try to gain pleasure out of the misfortune or pain of other. To me that is the most inhuman action one can do. For me, we as humans are really all there is and we may only get this life so why would you try to give somebody more grief than they have already given themselves?
And if I know anything about cynics, they are the one’s that need lovin’ the most!
Peace out ladies and gentlemen of the visible world I hope you enjoyed my transparency.