tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-211023822024-03-06T23:38:57.323-08:00Thoughts and theoriesThis is my page of rambling thought and ideas, know to my friends as the "Manifesto". Hope you enjoy and feel free to comment, critique, praise, question, debunk, or use freely. Anyone can comment just click on the link below each entry.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-92029260481636553582015-05-29T21:55:00.001-07:002015-05-30T20:37:30.912-07:00Delegated Democracy<div class="MsoNormal">
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Delegated democracy is an idea for a new form of government that looks
to realize the values and vision of past democratic models of government, yet
failed in their aspirations due to the fact that there was simply no way to
reasonably carry them out. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Democracy in America is a democratic republic and in such a
republic career politicians are born, political parties become entrenched and
gain enormous power, and corruption ensues as rich and powerful third party
organization are able to hold sway over the elected officials that act not in
accordance to the people’s wishes but instead against them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Delegated democracy can be enabled for the first time now
via a new technology called blockchain technology; the blockchain is famously
known use case Bitcoin, but actually has a wide range of applications, not just
revolutionizing money.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The power of the blockchain is that its ledger can show with
100% clarity who has done what and when.
For moving money, knowing these things is very important and thus the
growing popularity of Bitcoin, but when it comes to things like elections, it
is also very important to know who has done what and when. Elections right now are a cumbersome process
that needs A LOT of oversight, planning, and maintenance in their execution. But a blockchain can greatly reduce the
burden of instituting elections as well as highly streamline the process; that
basically a completely different kind of voting and therefore government can be
formed, one run far more efficiently and more openly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If you were to combine the Senate, the House of Republicans,
the US Constitution, and all the law books into one, that would be the
blockchain in a delegated democracy. No
more corruption in any of those positions, no more administration costs, no
more politicking at foundational levels.
Instead a platform can be made where the peoples will is recording in an
ongoing continual basis, updated in real time and reflected in real time. This can be done through delegated democracy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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People don’t want to vote in every election, and neither can
they spend all the time researching each issue fully even if they wanted, and
they definitely can’t take the time themselves to debate the crafting of each
law word for word. And so we live in an
imperfect system where people watch TV commercials or maybe a couple of debates
if that and then going off of that information elect officials that then make
all the decisions for the country. It is
frustrating because very rarely do said officials actually do what they say, so
at a fundamental level the system is not honest, but instead purposely misleads
people time after time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Delegated democracy can solve these problems by using a
blockchain to allow each and every person to vote on each and every issue brought
before their government. In a republic
these are issues that the elected officials would normally take care of. A delegated democracy is real democracy
because if a person does not want to vote on every single issue, they may
instead transfer their voting power to another trusted person they believe in
to vote for them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This allows for a completely new system to arise and that
instead of being a two party system, a 10,000 party system arises. Anybody can become a delegate and represent
their own party. And within a party
there can be 10,000 divisions. And in
this way each voter can find a delegate that will vote exactly the way they
would want them to vote on exactly each issue.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let us say a very population delegate arises to power in the
year 2040 name Ryan Paul, the son of Rand Paul and the grandson of Ron
Paul. Ryan Paul has veered quite a bit
from his father and grandfather’s position and in doing so as a delegate has
become quite popular and not just “the other guy”. And let’s say that I as a citizen really like
his platform, except one thing. I don’t
like his stance on business taxes.
Within the Ryan Paul party it will be pretty easy to find a delegate
that promises to always vote like Ryan Paul, except when it comes to business
taxes. And let’s say my wife really
likes Ryan Paul but doesn’t like his stance on women’s issues, so instead
within the Ryan Paul party she finds a delegate that will always vote with Ryan
Paul except on issues involving women, and so it goes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In this system, Ryan Paul is not a President, or a Governor,
or a Senator, but in some ways has taken over some of the most important duties
of these people. He would not get paid,
but when laws are introduced or updated, he could vote on them, but as a
delegate with a lot of supporters, his vote could hold considerable sway. This job
of course would be one that pays $0 a year, but people that transfer their
voting rights to him, could also make a small donation to help support him if
they so choose too. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This makes the Democratic Party very quickly turn into a
rainbow of sub-parties, as well as the Republican Party, and as well as the
Independent Party. And these rainbows
start to strongly overlap so that it is now difficult to tell just exactly what
the Democratic, Republican, or Independent Party is. Instead we are left with delegates that
express their party’s true values and stances on issues and vote in accordance
with them. And if any one delegate isn’t
upholding their platform and doing exactly what they say, they can be voted out
in real time at any time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In such a system delegates would get paid nothing, but would
be voting in accordance with their love for country, city, or state. Anyone citizen could become a delegate at any
time. In this way the people gain a much
more powerful say in just exactly what will and will not be done on each issue. And of course if a person wants to vote for
themselves on each issue that is fine too.
Delegate power could be transferred out or kept private at the city,
state, or national level depending on what a person’s interests are. <o:p></o:p></div>
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All voting or transferring of voting power to delegates can
be done very simply and easily at ones cell phone or home computer. And all votes are 100% transparent. They are all recorded on the blockchain and
fully auditable by anyone at any time. At
no point in time before now could this every have been achieved but blockchain
not only does this but does it easily. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This allows for a revolution. Once a person is in power they no longer have
2, 4, or 6 years to do as they like. If they
aren’t voting or doing work that the citizen likes, they can have their delegate
power revoked at any time. Competitors
will be very quick to point out if a person voted congruently with their
promises and if not alternative options will quickly arise and be only a 30
login and transfer away for the citizen.
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Furthermore, and very interestingly, not only can the block
chain server as a giant ledger of who did what and when, but it actually has
processing and execution power via a new technology called smart
contracts. Smart contracts allow for “if
this then that” style of programming execution of value. So if a vote is made to build a road and a
contractor is selected, then the blockchain can release funds to that
contractor and only that contractor. Or
if a new law is made banning a flying drones with HD x-technology cameras that
essentially allow any one person to see clearly what is happening inside of
another’s home at any time, then when a police officer finds a drone operator
breaking this law, then when the person is cited, there will be a new citation
with a set fine and punishment made in the blockchain that can be referenced
that links the operator and the citation and explains how the operator must
make amends. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Via delegated democracy on the blockchain and smart
contracts, a new kind of government can be formed and run much more efficiently
and with transparency. And when other
blockchain technologies are added such as blockchain based citizen registry
and/or land/property management, as well as handling the full process of
collecting taxes, government budgets, and paying out this money for services
and programs (again all via smart contracts with no overhead costs), then a new
vision of government can be formalized, one that comes much closer to upholding
the true realization of democracy, transparency, and efficiently run
government. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-59378035957815829962015-02-01T08:53:00.002-08:002015-02-01T08:53:27.347-08:00Thoughts on being a Prepper<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I doubt anybody needs to prep, but if a person has enough money and it makes them feel secure, it is okay. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got some of my ideas from living in Africa and thinking about the food aid that was given to the poor villagers in need. <span style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">I couldn't remember the exact proportions of food being handed out as emergency food aid in Africa so I found this qoute "</span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">Each family has received 50 kg of rice, 25 kg of beans and 10 litres of oil. This will help farmers bridge the gap until January, when they will be able to harvest from seed the ICRC has also distributed." The basic point was that when a person was starving in Africa, they dropped off a bag of rice and beans, and a bottle of oil. The qoute dosn't mention it but they also got a small bag of sugar. </span></span><br />
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin: -1px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin: -1px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I then calculated that calories per kilo. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 kilo of beans = 1300</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 kilo of rice = 1280</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin: -1px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1px;">
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<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 kilogram of coconut oil = 8600</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I reduced the amount of oil from 10 to 6 kilos because that was a lot of oil. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">64,000 calories from rice (50 kilos)</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">32,000 calories from beans (25 kilos)</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">51,000 calories from oil (6 kilos)</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">147,000 calories = 3 months (1630 calories per day)</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To buy the food would cost around this much giver or take. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 5-gallon buckets of rice $60</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 5-gallon buckets of beans $100</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 1.5 kilo buckets of coconut oil $100</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The buckets $50</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mylar bags for holding food and oxygen absorbers $20</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Total estimated cost: $330 per person, per 3 months. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The basic thing when trying to make a meal is that there is the right balance of carbs, protein, and fats. As long as somebody has those things that can eat the same thing day after day after day. Lots of people around the world subsist of of a single staple food that makes up the majority of their meals. Here a person has three!</span></div>
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<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/03/151932410/man-cannot-live-on-rice-and-beans-alone-but-many-do" href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/03/151932410/man-cannot-live-on-rice-and-beans-alone-but-many-do" style="color: #167efb;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/03/151932410/man-cannot-live-on-rice-and-beans-alone-but-many-do</span></a></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is of course really important to have a bunch of seeds in another bucket and also to have a book or printed up guide of how to forage for wild veggies. As the qoute I mentioned above also points out. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If a person wanted to really go all out, then add some more kinds of beans and/or lentils and add a bag of sugar, a huge tub of honey (doesn't go bad), powdered milk, salt and bullion. Gallon of distilled white vinegar, and huge tub of baking soda. Adding these things should still keep the price under $400 per person but really aren't necessary. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If stored correctly, such as in a cool dry place with no light, it should last a lifetime. The exception being the coconut oil for which one might want to replace every 10-15 years. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://readynutrition.com/resources/11-emergency-food-items-that-can-last-a-lifetime_20082013/" href="http://readynutrition.com/resources/11-emergency-food-items-that-can-last-a-lifetime_20082013/" style="color: #167efb;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://readynutrition.com/resources/11-emergency-food-items-that-can-last-a-lifetime_20082013/</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last thing is that assuming that somebody is in such a dire situation that one needs to eat this emergency food, we can assume that there also won't be any water, gas, or electricity being serviced to a person's house. Obviously, first and foremost before prepping food is making sure that there is a good source of water. This might mean finding a natural source of water like a sring or lake near by and having a means to purify the water, but also it is important to have a way to cook the food. At a minimum I would suggest a fuel effiecent camping style stove that burns wood $100-$200 but they problem with these types of stoves is that they literally send up a stream of smoke that drifts through the air and can attract unwanted attention from far away. A far better option is a solar oven. With a solar oven, a person doesn't have to collect firewood and there is no smoke and no smell. A solar oven also gets more than hot enough to cook rice and beans just using the suns natural energy. It even works on days that are a little cloudy for warming food. On a hot day with good sun, it can definitely boil the water that will later become drinking water. That will be another $300.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00286KQ1W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ponparide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00286KQ1W" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00286KQ1W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ponparide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00286KQ1W" style="color: #167efb;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00286KQ1W/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ponparide-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00286KQ1W</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the water filter, which is arguebly the most important thing on this list, I had something very simple like this in Africa. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.regenerativenutrition.com/water-filter---stand-alone-p-112.asp" href="http://www.regenerativenutrition.com/water-filter---stand-alone-p-112.asp" style="color: #167efb;" target="_blank">http://www.regenerativenutrition.com/water-filter---stand-alone-p-112.asp</a> This set-up was more than good enough to make dirty pond water drinkable. The process is easy, first boil the water for more than 5 minutes to sterilize the water, and then pour into this system and let gravity filter the water sparkling clean and potable. Many people will advocate complicated systems, but a very simple system like this with extra filters can be bought for under $150 and will clean enough water for a family of 4 for a year (I would say at that point might as well get some extra filters for some additionaly years too). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To get the ovens and water filter will add another $250 - $600 to the budget, which is a one time start up cost of course, but a minimum get the water filter. It is actually more important than the food in many ways. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I said, water is the most </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin-right: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And lastly, and I am kind of sad to say it, but if a person is going to go to all this trouble of buying this food and prepping it, one might as well get a shotgun and a whole bunch of shells too because there is a very good chance that a person will have to defend there food or be prepared to give it all away when people come looking for food which will be inevitable. Another nice thing to have would be one of those wind-up/solar radios that can listen to broadcasts from far away. </span></div>
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Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-31122667014643991982012-09-19T03:54:00.001-07:002012-09-19T03:55:21.434-07:00Matrix Revisted<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">The Matrix is a great movie. In the movie the Matrix, machines have enslaved the human race and use humans as an energy source. Most people watch this movie and think about how heartless and cruel the machines are to enslave humans as a mere food source. Yet, human beings enslave animals in an eerily similar manner as portrayed in the movie and humans use them as a food source thinking little if at all about the animal's lives. I wonder..... If the animals had the will, intelligence, and power to rebel as Neo and his friends did in the movie, would they? How would they feel about how they have been treated?</span>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-17723609875326751422012-07-17T05:12:00.001-07:002012-07-17T05:12:07.053-07:00Space, Time, and ConsciousnessI have been thinking about it and I think that there might be a flaw in the theory that reality is made up of 4 dimensions. These are normally thought of as length, width, depth, and time. I think there are only 3 dimensions though. These are space, time, and consciousness. <div>
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Furthermore, I think that space as we know it is fractured and has three qualities which are length, width, and depth. In fact, an alternate reality could in theory exist with only length and width, essentially making that reality's space defined by only two qualities. </div>
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I gather time can be thought of as having three qualities too, which are past, present, and future. Although this argument is far less reliable. In reality, the only real time is the present and it is not fractured into three separate aspects in the way space is (at least as it is understood today, if time travel turns out to be possible, then it would indeed be). </div>
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<div>
As far as consciousness goes, I am not sure if it is fractured or not, but I gather it has two different states. These are consciousness on and consciousness off. In theory I am not sure if it is anymore fractured than that. While I can speak less about consciousness as one of the three key dimensions of reality and don't understand how it exactly interacts with the other two, there are more than a little anecdotal evidence to support this. Mystics for past ages have asked questions like, "If a tree falls in the woods and nobody was there to see it, did it really fall?" If I were to answer the sage that asked this question and if consciousness was fractured into two different states of on and off, and there was no consciousness to observe the tree falling (even though I think there would be in a practical sense) than the answer would be "no" that indeed the tree really didn't fall. These questions run through many mystic traditions. I believe these leaders in their fields hit upon something that science is only beginning to point too. For instance, the two-slit experiment is a good example of how consciousness can effect particles and waves. It is hard to imagine, but I firmly believe data extrapolated from experiments like this one can help prove that consciousness is the third dimension. </div>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-87347534233170213542012-06-15T19:38:00.001-07:002012-06-15T19:38:37.987-07:00Apple iPhone 8 (Apple fan fiction)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Apple’s continued integration with Siri
continues. Lists of tasks that she does
for you includes: order pizza and Chinese food, alerts you about stock market
items, and reads your alerts and news to you in the morning after you wake as
well as reviewing your schedule and reminders for the day and week. Siri can also buy things for you and have
them delivered to your house from major online websites including Wal-Mart,
Target, E-bay, Amazon, and Best Buy (all of which will accept iMoney, which is
described below). Apple streamlines Siri
for iHome and iCar described below. Siri,
gets different names; now a person can choose from a list of about 50. iPhone 8 is always listening so a person
doesn’t have to press a button before talking to Siri. The new Siri(s) can be set only work with the
owner of the phone or other said people.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Apple further integrates iHome. A standalone unit called iHome has been
released; it is designed as a small central unit about the size of a mac
mini. It wirelessly connects with a
person’s phone’s or computer but also has speakers connected to it (many
different options of speakers available including wired and not wired, battery
powered and plug in) so that a person might be able to play music in any room
of the house. All can be controlled
easily with the app available for one’s computer or iphone. Also, iHome has recently added options for
lighting so that iHome can turn off any light in the house associated with
iHome. This is done through cheap inserts
that go in between a bulb and the wall mount that maintain a Bluetooth connection
to iHome, or through more expensive wall units.
Additionally, iHome has outlet adapters that can be used to control
other items too that go in between the wall outlet and plugin. iHome also has motion sensors that can be
added to it throughout the house. IHome
can make the lights and music follow you if you wish. IHome has even been able to connect to the
thermostat and control the temperature.
The idea is that iHome will know a person’s patterns, music, lights, and
temperature, so they can all be made into schedules on an iphone and also
activated via Siri. Therefore Siri can
turn off any iHome light, control the music, and in case you are coming home
early, you can tell Siri to turn on the air/heat for you so that when you get
home, so the house will be just like you like it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Apple has further integrated with car
companies to become the wireless key of your car, so now a person’s car will
unlock whenever a person sticks their hand on the car door and the car senses
the recognized iPhone is within range.
Many of the options that are mentioned in iHome carry over to iCar so
that what you were listening to at home will now be playing on the car. Also, Siri can be used to warm up the car in
the winter. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Apple releases iMoney which is similar to
Palpal, who is now one of its partners.
It is released as the main function of Passbook. It is similar to a prepaid bank account but
can be used to pay for things at any of the places that already accepts
Passbook. When a person wants to pay for
something, they simple just scan their phone. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">With the iPhone 8 the iPhone revolution
continues. The iPhone and Apple become
less of a phone and more of an ecosystem of a way of living. Some people now leave home with no wallet and
no keys, but only their iPhone in their pocket.
Because of the total package, Apple is able to solidly defend itself
against Android which doesn’t have as deep seamless integration. Android clearly sells more phones at cheaper
rates. Apple makes more money. </span></div>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-20239121665449041792012-06-09T04:34:00.001-07:002012-06-09T04:34:35.645-07:00Two Paths to Perfection<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There are two paths to perfection, maybe
more, but the two that I would like to examine today are what I like to refer
to as the BMW and race car paths. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In the first path, the BMW, the car is
fully loaded. It has all the options,
the best engine, best interior, and best exterior. It is the type of thing that once sat in and
drove restores one’s faith in humanity a little. One realizes that human beings are capable of
something worthy after all. Hahahaha. I liken the BMW lifestyle to the man or woman
that has everything. He or she is smart,
attractive, and healthy with an equally impressive spouse and children if so
desired to boot. This BMW person is rich, has a rewarding career in which they excel
at and are acknowledge by peers. They live in a nice house in a nice part of
the city belonging to some of the best social circles where their friends can’t
get enough of them. In short, they have
it all. They are living a perfect life
and are thus perfect. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The other type of person that reaches perfection
and maybe this is even a greater level of perfection than the BMW person is the
race car person. This person may or may
not be likeable, rich, or even smart except in one area. Just like a race car forgoes power seats,
air-con, a radio, even cruise control that can be found in the BMW, this person
might not have good social skills, their house might be a wreck, their finances
array, and even their health might suffer.
But just like a race car is built for one thing (that thing being speed)
and only one thing that it does perfectly, this person might have an area of
life that they excel at. In such a case,
this person might change the world. I am
thinking of an Albert Einstein who seemingly couldn’t even be bothered to comb
his hair but was constantly walking around while actually being somewhere deep
in his mind doing math. A Bill Gates or
Steve Jobs who many people say is a curse (and in many ways a blessing) to work
for, yet still they manage their businesses exceedingly well. These are the people that do one thing really
well while neglecting other areas of their life just as a race car neglects all
the options of the BMW so that it might be as fast as it can be. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Other people might try to describe their
lives with vehicles too. Maybe one
person is a mini-van as their life centers around their family, or a strong
working man might be symbolized as a heavy off-road 2-ton work truck, or a
small compact car as somebody who gets the best gas mileage and doesn’t
pollute, but I think generally the race car analogy does best to describe the
person that is specialized and their life is perfectly arranged around that one
thing to let them achieve it best or the BMW for the person that has gone after
it all. </span></div>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-75731172857751801482011-05-07T21:35:00.000-07:002011-05-07T21:36:14.808-07:00Get over the past, accept the moment, and don’t needlessly worry about the future.<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt">Try to just be in the moment, to allow yourself to enjoy this moment.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Allow yourself to get over and accept the past, and not let the future worry you so that you act in a way to sabotage this great time in your life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A very easy way to destroy a great moment is to try to force or wield your vision of the future on another in a selfish attempt to make this moment last longer.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Another easy way to destroy this great moment is to act in a self-destructive manner fulfilling a deep-seeded belief that you don’t really deserve to have a nice life.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Accept your past and this great moment, live in it, enjoy it, acting in a way that maintains your good standing, but also allowing others to have free will to be with you in their great moment.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In short, get over the past, accept the moment, and don’t needlessly worry about the future. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-28373448092379848472011-04-04T21:39:00.000-07:002011-04-04T21:40:14.799-07:00Truthfulness Language<p class="MsoNormal">In non-violent language a person works to say things that do not cause internal conflict.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Marshall Rosenberg has set forth many strategies to going about doing this in his works, but I would like to in addition talk about the possibility of adding a truthfulness component to non-violent language.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The practicality of such a way of speaking would mean serious changes to the grammar of the English language and therefore would make it not only awkward, but also alienating to some.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This would be counterproductive towards the original intent of creating peace.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Still though while the concept is not fit for this time, it needs to be explored and considered so that a complete system of peaceful language could one day be attained.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">As human beings communicate the listener is constantly hearing each new word, fitting it into context and constantly predicting what the next word or even sentence might be.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But in doing this, different possibilities arise, some of which are violent.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>One among many goals of a truthful language is to help curb this; that essentially by speaking in a truthful manner, a person might be qualifying sentences in a manner as to limit possible meanings, and therefore limit possible violent meanings. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The way this is done is by organizing the words in a sentence so that more important words come first, thereby restricting the meaning of the words that come after them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In doing this, the language also is more truthful.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Let’s look at the following common expression.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Example 1:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">A. Did you talk to your friend?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">B. I didn’t talk to my friend.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">In Example 1, the language is not truthful in many respects although this might be a very common thing to be heard and said.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here are some problems with the sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>First of all considering the question, for a person to be a friend it is assumed that the two people must have communicated.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So, immediately we know the question must not be taken literally and must be meant in context, but to understand a bit of language in context probably creates many different possibilities of meaning, some of which as I mentioned are violent.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>While one clear context might usually stand out as the clear meaning most of the time, it does not all of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Therefore, the question in this example would be much better qualified and could be taken much more literally by saying, “Today, did you talk to your friend?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now a literal yes or no answer may be given.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So by using the qualifying term of “today” the question now becomes more truthful and easier to answer. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The answer also needs to be qualified, although to a much greater extent.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The problems with the answer are many fold.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For instance, the sentence starts off with “I did……” But in the listeners mind at the point of hearing “I did” it would seem that the answer is going to be positive, only to quickly find out that it isn’t when the “n’t” is added negating the previous verb.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Furthermore, what if a third party enters the room after the question is ended but at the start of the answer and a person hears, “I didn’t talk”.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now the third party is hearing a person say they didn’t talk when they clearly are talking.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This again causes some confusion because the literal truthfulness of this statement is in question and it must now be taken in context.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To alleviate this, it would be better to qualify whom wasn’t talking before saying “not talking”, and before that to qualify the actors in the sentence to a certain time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This could be done in two ways by saying, “Today, my friend and I” or “My friend and I today.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But again for the sentence to be taken literally, then the negater should come before the verb and not after.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Therefore an acceptable truthful way to answer would be, “Today, my friend and I not talked.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">As one can see, this is seriously rearranging the grammar of the English language and would meet resistance if practiced on unknowing participants.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Still by setting a scene of actors, place, and time, and then going into actions that have taken place, a more truthful language that can be taken quite literally instead of contextually can be created and practiced ultimately causing less internal conflict and violence when trying to communicate.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-85757469170131152962010-09-29T16:38:00.001-07:002010-09-29T16:38:35.981-07:00thoughts on AfricaIt is the dirty windy season. The rainy season will come soon, and for a short while the land will be lush and green as the land comes to life once more. But right now it is dry and the wind pushes the grit into every little nook and cranny. Every time I got out of my house I need a shower when I come back. On the worst days, the sun is browned out by the dust. <br /><br />Today I walk outside of my house. I see little Thabo playing. He is maybe seven but looks five. His nose is running as usual and nobody is there to wipe it. Nobody is there to give him food. Nobody is there to take care of him or tell him what to do. He is playing with his favorite toy, an old can dug out of the garbage pile. He rolls it along with an unstretched hanger. It reminds me of a person walking a dog. I think, “There is dirty little Thabo again walking his can.” It is a seen I have seen a dozen times and will see a dozen more. It is his favorite, one, and only toy. Later, I would buy him more, not much, but something more than a can.<br /><br />That was almost eight years ago, and I wonder if he is alive today. Little Thabo would be a big Thabo now. I’m pretty sure he had HIV. He was always sick, as was his mother, and his father while being healthy, openly admitted his positive status. I wonder what happened to them. Did they make it? <br /><br />When will Africa be free of this terrible disease? When will the rich and plentiful of the world give a helping hand of kindness to the poor. No doubt America spends more on pet food than most poor countries spend on regular food and medicine and school combined. I want to help, I really do, but I do little. I gather most people think it would “be nice” to do something someday, and go about eating nice meals out and buying new clothes, while doing nothing for Africa. I say give to Africa, give generously and without want for a return. Let Africa grow in her own way, with her own culture, taking what she wants, and leaving the rest behind. It is too late for Asia. Asia who has lost her Eastern charm, gone to only be replaced by materialism, bustling cities, fast food, and boy bands. I say let unconquered Africa not be beaten into conforming to Western culture, but don’t let it wither either. Give medicine, technology, and other aid when needed and wanted, but let the rest of the great continent, the motherland of humanity, grow and awaken to a new course and path. And then maybe the motherland of humanity will help us all to be human someday!Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-4938879302684383522010-07-23T02:30:00.000-07:002010-07-23T02:31:19.625-07:00I prefer simple religionWhat is religion? People are making religions now as I write this. Religions have been around for thousands of years. And overtime they have changed, sometimes a little, but often dramatically. I gather that religions in the near future for some time will continue to evolve or be invented.<br /><br />I think religion can be as simple as trying to dissolve ego, not exert one’s will on others or oneself in areas they are hesitant, and showing compassion for others. Within a certain perspective what I am saying here is not too much different than what it says in the KJV Bible when it says, “You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.” I say this because if a person is loving God, then they are trying to live within God’s will and do God’s bidding. In doing so, one’s own will is dissolved, one’s own ego is not intrusive or destructive. To me, a sign of loving God is that one’s ego may be sturdy but not impeding, nor destructive towards themselves or others. <br /><br />And a sign of loving your neighbor is demonstrating compassion. The formula seems to be pretty simple. If a person is doing more for others than oneself, then they are compassionate. If on the other hand they are doing more for themselves than others, well then they are being selfish. Few people that I have ever met seem to demonstrate these signs and actions outside of their families. And while such religion might be practiced between, say for instance a mother and a son, isn’t the favor rarely returned? <br /><br />In the Christian quote above, it is followed by this, “Upon this all the law and the prophets are written.” The message as I understand it means that loving God and loving your neighbor is the foundation of all religion, all the true laws of religion, and all the givers and explainers of such laws. I have also heard it said that real Christianity hasn’t ever been practiced. If my assertion is right, and that loving God means dissolving ego and living in the will of God, and showing more compassion for others instead of selfishness, then really I wonder how many times in my life I have I actually seen real Christianity, especially beyond close members of a family? And unfortunately, I can’t even say that I have ever even come close myself.<br /><br />So what is real religion? I gather the explanation above is simple and good enough, and even fits on one paper. Even the quote from the Bible is small enough to be written on jewelry and carried with oneself at all times. Yet religions continue to grow, and change, in attempt to explain this message written above, or in many and maybe most cases to try to achieve some other goal. Religions often get multitudes of laws and customs, and modern day prophets have a multitude of teachings. Some of these get quite complex, and many of them for all their complexity might still be true and fair to the values of loving God and others. On the other hand, many might often drift or even purposely veer in their form into something that no longer practices a real and good religion.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-64858421474379934292008-11-18T01:38:00.001-08:002008-11-18T01:38:29.000-08:00Ride of LifeI was thinking about how I got to Korea. Sometimes I guess we all need the willingness to point ourselves in the direction of the unfamiliar, unknown, and possibly even unsafe. But still to look in that direction and take those first small steps that will inevitably lead us to hopping onto the "ride of life" that will lead us down a mysterious path, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad, but always with wonder. For me, it starts with something small like a "hello" to a stranger, a quick read of job advertisements on the net, or a "why not" to a friend proposing an idea off the top of his or her head, but soon I find myself across the city, state, or even world totally inundated with an unusual variety of sensations and experiences. It has not all been for the good and I have missed out on many things. Not watching my niece and nephew grow are at the top of my list, but Africa and Asia and all the other adventures in between have also made me richer in ways I did not know, or couldn't have known before. And for me, it all started with a willingness to look into a path of life that I either thought was ridiculous or strange, but to take a few steps anyway just to see where it led me.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-45238499080104542242008-02-15T19:11:00.000-08:002008-02-15T19:18:47.864-08:00Purpose of life through values. A secret of satisfaction.The question a person needs to ask himself or herself in an endeavor is, “Is this pursuit true to myself?” I am not the first to say this, but I would like to explain it in a bit of a different way than others have. Why is being true to oneself important? What even is oneself? I ask these questions because it makes things clearer. “Oneself,” for the purpose of this essay, is one’s values. First, a person through experience and reflection needs to figure out their values. Such values can be things like fame, riches, power, or other things like peace, adventure, and understanding. These values are not goals. Fame does not equal winning an Oscar. Riches do not equal a million dollars. Power does not equal being a Governor. Peace does not equal not having a fight with your spouse over dinner. Adventure does not equal going on a vacation to an exotic place. And lastly, understanding does not equal getting a Ph.D. All these things I have mentioned are goals. People often choose a path in life because it is inline with their values, but then set goals and loose track of their values and thus their purpose in the first place. To live with one’s values in mind is to have purpose in life. This brings satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment and even sometimes joy. To live for goals brings disappointment when they are not met and oddly even sometimes disappointment when they are met. Often a person gets into a trap of goals. Make one goal, feel good, so then make a bigger one. It is almost as if happiness will always be right around the corner, but never is.<br /><br />To be self-actualized is to know oneself. Part of this is to understand one’s values and to live by them instead of living by goals. If a person values joy, they can make someone else laugh by telling jokes. If a person values peace, they can learn how to negotiate between others. If a person values love, they can spread the gift of compassion to the world. What a person who values joy learns is that there are lots of ways to make people happy. A person can learn to tell jokes. If that doesn’t work, a person can take others to funny movies. If that doesn’t work, a person can try a new way, a new friend, a new place, until they have found a way live out and express their value. That is a beautiful thing about values. There are an infinite amount of possibilities. Where as with a goal, the possibilities get more narrow with more specific the goal. It is the opposite with values. The more values a person has, the more options a person has to fulfill some of the values and thus live with purpose.<br /><br />For example, a long time ago, I wanted to be a Psychologist. I thought it would be a great job because I could heal people. More specifically at the time it was to help people. Later on, when I learnt that one of my core values was to help people. I learnt there were now hundreds of jobs that before had turned me off, but now I realized would be great for me. I could be a doctor, nurse, teacher, aid worker, counselor, social worker or other such job. There were just so many ways I could do a job one on one with a person helping them. Now they all made sense.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-86005518978852694662008-01-31T10:11:00.000-08:002012-06-09T04:42:39.908-07:00Yes, No, and Off? (The Opposite of War is not Peace)Some people say that the world is “black or white” or that an answer is either “yes or no” but I disagree. Some say that the opposite of war is peace. But I say there is another opposite, which is cold war, which is actually opposed to both war and peace. Let me explain more.<br />
<br />
Here is an example. Look at a light bulb. It is either off or on, right? Well, for the most part, yes. But there is another option other than off (off=no) and on (on=yes). This option is, there is not light bulb in the socket to be engaged in the first place.<br />
<br />
The same goes for war, peace, and cold war. In war, people are openly engaged and fighting. In peace, people are openly engaged and being peaceful. In cold war, there just isn’t an open engagement, just like a light bulb that isn’t in a socket in the first place. A person might say this is a bad example and give all kinds of points of how in a cold war countries are subvertly engaged and really hurting each other, but that is besides the point, I am just trying to make a general point about life and not the fine subtleties of cold war.<br />
<br />
To me, what I am trying to say is that with any issue, with any question, the answer is not ever as simple as just yes or no. Sometimes the answer is one of absence of yes or no. For instance, a person might ask, “Are you a Republican or Democrat?” and then a person can say “Yes or No.” But a third option exists and that is one of non-engagement, or the answer of, “I am not registered to vote,” or maybe “I am Independent.”<br />
<br />
Really, when I was younger I use to think that many situations in life were either “yes or no” type of situations. Now I realize that everything is “yes, no, or not engaged.” And if I have not made things confusing already, there is one more thing that needs to be considered, which is “How much?” So for instance with a light bulb that is on, how much or how often is it on? Is it a 45 watt or 90 watt? Is it on everyday all the time, or only an hour a day? These are questions of intensity. If two countries are in peace, how peaceful are they? Do they trade a lot or a little? How long have they been trading? These are important “intensity” questions because they describe just how real and stable the peace really is. The likewise for war, “Are they killing a lot of men?” and/or “Have they been killing for a long time?” The same goes for the Republican or Democrat issue. Maybe a person is a Democrat and always votes. Maybe they vote Republican sometimes. Maybe they don’t ever vote. These are intensity issues and are also very important to consider above and beyond a simple yes or no perspective.<br />
<br />
Say another example could be that somebody owes you money. There are not just two options, but at least three broad options. The first is of befriending and charming them in hopes of winning them over to pay you back. There is another of scaring them and threatening violence so they will be forced to pay you back. The third option is to do neither and just wait hoping they will pay. While these options listed are not the total list, I gather most options can be labeled as either positive interactions, negative interactions, or non-interactions. And of course a person might try a combination and mis-match of these too, but at the root, there are really just the three options.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-15779558828024248812008-01-22T11:46:00.001-08:002008-01-22T11:46:44.644-08:00Welcome a Mexican.Sometimes I wonder about America, this country I love. There are so many great things here compared to other places, I won’t even go into them not because this blog will be more than long enough as it is, but one thing I have seen that I would like to talk about is something I see discussed more and more today. “Illegal immigration” is a topic that is all over the news these days and I often here people saying that all the Mexicans should go home, or that the US should be a better fence along the border. I can understand some of the points that these people are making. They are after all logical. It should seem that the US should keep tighter control on the borders, and if the US needs more immigrants, than let them come in legally with visas. In a perfect world, maybe this would be the answer. Instead, the US government blatantly and openly allows companies to employ illegal aliens to do work that for the most part most Americans don’t want to do. This is in effect “inviting” them to come here. <br /><br />These days there are more and more jobs that more established Americans who come from families who have lived in America for generations don’t want to do. A long time ago one’s grandfather might have been more than happy to be a factory worker, groundskeeper, or restaurant worker, but now more and more people are going to college and want service related jobs. This leaves a void in certain areas of employment markets that are currently being filled by undocumented immigrants.<br /><br />I gather what I am trying to say is that the system is imperfect, but what is bothering me, what I am writing this blog about is not an imperfect system; it is the people’s reaction to this system that saddens me so much. I look around and I see a great country, rich with natural resources and blessed with a solid system of education for almost all (albeit not always equal, but for those who try, and those that want it enough, it is possible for almost anyone to get a solid education, even a Ph.D. if one wants.) But what I hear is the people saying that all the Mexicans should go home. African Americans are afraid the Hispanics will edge them out as the largest minority and compete for resources. Caucasian Americans are afraid that Hispanics will just someday be a plain majority. The poor in all ethnicities are afraid that the Hispanics are taking away jobs from them. So many groups seem to be voicing opposition towards the undocumented aliens, and why? Greed.<br /><br />I said it. All of these groups are selfish. They have been given the grace of having been born in a prosperous country rich with opportunity for those who are willing to work for it and many if not most are doing okay. But instead of thinking of what they can share, give, and bless upon others, they think about what they might lose. I say so what if you lose a little, look how much the undocumented aliens have gained. They have earned 5-10 times the amount of money they could have back where they were raised. They are living with more amenities, and they buying better food and clothes. If America could welcome them, they could rejoice in this experience. Instead, they always fret and fear for the worst. But they send money home and their children go to better schools and the undocumented aliens continue to improve things here by doing work in America. This work they do, actually probably improves the economy. The Mexicans doing manual labor jobs frees up the job market for other Americans to do other things, like be nurses, doctors, and teachers. <br /><br />I wish in America, a country where all Americans with the exception of the true Americans, the Native Americans, have all descended from immigrants and mostly been able to prosper to greater wealth generation after generation would be more welcoming to this new wave of immigrants. I do not think, feel, or believe that they will take away from America, but time will show that they make it better. I feel like they will bring more diversity and through their strengths will make America even stronger. And I feel like it is time that these poor immigrants who risk life to come here to work an honest days work start to be treated with respect and welcomed for the benefits they bring and will continue to bring to this great country.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-51422366694392645372007-10-25T16:36:00.000-07:002007-10-25T16:41:54.713-07:00The Serenity Prayer ExaminedWhen I was in junior college ten years ago, I had the pleasure of taking a class with and occasionally talking with young man named John who lived the majority of his waking life out of a wheel chair. I was sad for him as I would see his mom drop and pick him up in a big green van that had a special wheel chair assist device on it. I had pity because he was crippled and he was not able to do many things that I could and would. “He couldn’t even pee by himself,” I thought as I would see a bag that I knew that was connected to a catheter.<br /><br />Sometimes I would talk with him and I know reflecting back that I talked with him with a your so sad tone and I am sure I was not the only one and I am sure it could be very irritating to cripples when they are talked down to in this manner. What I didn’t know is that at some point in our conversations he had sympathy towards me too.<br /><br />One day he blurted something out after I went on to make some comment like how good he was doing to be going to school. Out of nowhere he hit me with, “I get up in the morning just to get up.”<br /><br />What I didn’t know is that maybe John knew something about me. I hadn’t told him that I remember that my dad had just died, that I was coming off of a severe drug addiction, that I was still on probation and had been in a treatment facility for a year prior to this. I am sure he could tell something was wrong with me though. I am sure he could tell I was bothered, crazy, lost, and while I tried to show how healthy I was on the outside and that I had made huge improvements to be proud of no doubt, I was still very sick indeed.<br /><br />I asked, “What?”<br /><br />He said again but louder, “I get up in the morning just to get up. Do you even understand at all what I am talking about?” He was getting a bit agitated now in his questioning me.<br />I knew this was code to some extent and I tried to figure it out, saying, “I guess it means you have your day free to do what you want.”<br /><br />He said, “kind of,” and try as I may, I was never quite given the explanation of what it meant as the whole conversation grew a bit uncomfortable. A few years later, I was in the Peace Corps, living a comfortable and exciting life and many mornings, I would wake up in the morning just to wake up, which is something that I feel like for the most part only young children and the elderly ever do.<br /><br />Sometimes I wake up in the morning now that I am on vacation after I have been lying down and sleeping for ten hours (I sleep a lot). So for ten hours, I have not been bothering anyone else and nobody else has been bothering me. Literally, I have been at peace, a state of neutral, a state of not doing anything for ten hours. Nobody for the most part is directly harming or helping me and I the same to them. So when I wake up, if I wake up mad at someone, if I wake up loving someone, it is all in my head. It is a reality that I am making. Not only that, it is a reality I have chosen to create.<br /><br />In doing this, in creating such a reality, I am not living in the here and now, I am already off in some kind of drama in my head. But when I wake up and I don’t create a reality of drama for myself, I can wake up, to simply just wake up. Move and act to simply just move and act. Again, I think the very old and very young are very good at this very thing. So why is that?<br /><br />I would like to diverge for a minute to the serenity prayer, a prayer that time and time again has proven to be so wise and powerful in my life. It says, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” For children, it is so easy to do this because they cannot change anything really and haven’t been able to ever. This is one of the few things in life they know. While this wisdom on a child’s part might not be wisdom in the traditional sense as it is the fate they have fallen into, it is nonetheless a sort of wisdom all the same. For many children, it is quite simply, “I can’t change anything and I know it.” Other children, the ones that think they can change things often have such a harder time in life throwing tantrums, whining and crying for really in the end no change at all.<br /><br />Old people are similar in a way. They too cannot change much as most of their life has already been decided. They still can change some things though and so the elderly sit and wait patiently to change those things they can, accepting that almost everything else they cannot change.<br /><br />It is the rest of us, the middle grounders in life, those of us that are not too young or too elderly, off in the peace corps, or rolling around in chairs that have a hard time with this thing, this coming to terms with things out of our control, and striving to change the things we actually can, and having the intelligence to know the difference. It comes down to accepting our limitations and making the most of our abilities. Sounds simple but how confusing it actually gets along the way.<br /><br />The person that gets out of bed in the morning in the here and now is a person that has indeed accepted all of their limitations. This person has figured out for the most part what they cannot get away with in life and is okay with it. Such a person might not know all of their abilities though, they might know that they are capable of getting out of bed in the morning but they might not also know what else they can do. At least such a person is on the road to discover the possibilities of what can really be done and not bothered by what cannot be achieved.<br /><br />I guess another way of making this whole point is that it is good to know what oneself cannot do but even better to also know what a person can do too.<br /><br />And here in lies the secret in the end, the wisdom to know the difference. Just a few words in a sentence arranged in way that if said it would seem like a person was asking God for just the smallest of favors but in reality, these few words when realized show represent a person that is on their way to having their maximum potentiality fulfilled.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1165130107698136962006-12-02T23:13:00.000-08:002006-12-02T23:15:07.713-08:00The World is a COMMUNITY. We are all brothers and sisters.I realize my hands are very bloody. I can no longer ignore the plight of the third world human and their struggles. When they make the shirt I wear, or food I eat, we are then brothers and sisters. The world is a community. Before communities were on a village, city, and or maybe even a nation but these days with global communication and global trade, we are all neighbors. So when I buy goods that were produced by people who were are being taken advantage of, even to the point that they suffer and risk their own health and therefore lives, my hands are bloody. From the Mexican that tries to cross a desert so he can pick my bell peppers and tomatoes, to a garment worker in Nepal or Africa, to a factory worker in China making circuit breakers, they are all being taken advantage of. Why? So I can and others like me can have cheaper goods. If we refused to but such products then they would not be taken advantage of but we don’t. <br /><br />It is out of my weakness that my hands are bloody. If I was stronger and others were with me, we could say no. The corporate types exploit the weakness of the masses that are willing to buy and the weakness of the masses that feel like they have no other option but to work in a factory. But if we the consumers were not weak and demanded better working conditions for our brothers and sisters, they the corporate types would oblige us. The power ultimately rests not with the factory workers making the goods or the corporates who enable the process but with the buyer. <br /><br />Some argue that a life in the factory in which a person can work to buy some food and some medicine is better than a life in the village with little food or little medicine. This argument might be true but is still very flawed. This is like saying being half a slave is better than being completely a slave. Slavery is wrong in any amount and so is exploitation that takes place by the first world on the peasants. The only real solution is to allow the people from the countryside to have good jobs. That will only happen when the masses of consumers demand that their goods have been produced by people who have been fairly compensated. Yes, this would affect prices but I think not too much and I also believe that if consumers did demand better conditions for workers that such conditions would indeed arise.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1162741003006836162006-11-05T07:35:00.000-08:002006-11-08T21:47:41.783-08:00Soul, Body, Consciousness?<span style="font-weight:bold;">Question</span>: Does Soul encompass our body?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">My Answer</span>: I am a clear separationist, for the most part, when it comes to the nature of the soul and body. I think that they, for the most part, exist on completely different levels of reality but that thought is a kind of go between that can somewhat exist in both of these things. I never really was able to come out and believe soul was body because I come out of a "Course in Miracles" train of thought that says. 1) God = eternity and good. <br />2) Body = not eternity and not good. 3) Therefore Body does not equal God.<br /><br />Also, I believe and this is the real kicker that gets a lot of people, that God did not create us. I believe God created Adam and Eve, just like it says in the Bible, and that then Adam and Eve created other human beings as a curse put on them, as it says in the bible. Other humans were then a creation of the first humans, not a creation of God. Jesus to me was blessed by the divine hand and was in part created by God and so was Adam and Eve and therefore their bodies were divine too, the rest of us no. If God did create us, our bodies would be divine, like Jesus and Adam and Eve (or at least Adam and Eve before the expulsion out of Eden). So, I believe we are born "just people and only people" of and from our parents but that by faith in God and God's gift of grace, salvation, we can become more and our consciousness can become embodied in a soul and not only just in our body. And, or for the time while we are here and we are alive after we become saved, our consciousness can be embodied in our soul and our body.<br /><br />Hmmmm, hope that wasn't confusing. I have been through this and through this with other people, always to make them mad. This is just my opinion and how I make sense of it all. If it doesn't make sense to anyone else, that is okay with me, I am happy that others have their beliefs whatever they are and have found something to believe in. I am interested in hearing others arguments on this topic and or replies to my statements.<br /><br />Also I would like to note that I see it being more complicated though. I think that when a person becomes saved, the Holy Spirit becomes forever bonded with a qualified aspect of one's consciousness. Since that the consciousness is qualified, I believe one part is associated with body consciousness and one part with spiritual consciousness. I do believe it is possible for the spiritual consciousness to be becomes the primary consciousness and the entire consciousness but this takes ZEN like meditation and Mother Teresa like love. In doing so though, the body which is associated the holy consciousness can then also become a vessel for the Holy Spirit and thus holy. The problem is though when the meditation is broken, the times change and a body that is vulnerable to sin, (actually surrounded and inundated by it) falls back to a state of, well, the fallen.<br /><br />This is why I repeated the phrase "for the most part" at the beginning of my writing because I think for the most part people aren't walking around in full meditation and love. I do on occasion try to do this. For example when meeting people so I can make a good impression but it is considerable effort and I haven't been to a certified ZEN school been able to take one on one lessons with Mother Teresa on how to practice love.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1160668905314285692006-10-12T08:56:00.000-07:002006-10-12T09:03:39.953-07:00Root of All Evil ReviewRichard Dawkins wrote a genus book called “The Selfish Gene”. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfish_gene">click here for more info</a> I highly recommend anyone look at this book but it presents a heavy sided evolution explanation to the world but one that I feel is also very accurate. This book is wonderful like I said so I was interested in Dawkins other works. He has made a program called “Root of All Evil, The God Delusion”. I have viewed this program and would like to say the following in response to it.<br /><br />Please bear with me for this one long paragraph. The evidence is clear to me that faith in itself is not bad but is often interpreted and guided in misdirection by many that makes it dangerous. Faith and religion are often hand in hand in this world but are not the same thing. Religion has often made life worse for people, I agree with that. But is there a place for faith outside of religion? I think there is. In fact, I think it is the good that faith does that is actually what keeps religion going for all of religions bad things. If religion was as bad and misguided as presented by Root of all Evil then what really keeps religion going? It is an institution that would implode and could not keep itself going. But instead there is something that is good which involves faith and spirituality but religion has confused and abused these. A belief in science's methods is needed but for thousands of years the faithful have been believers in something greater than themselves. Are none of these people natural born scientist? Are they not able to methodologically have experiences in their life that affirms their faith or are they all truly blind and misguided? If only one of these billions of faithful is right in their beliefs, then there is something greater than a mere physical existence. I myself, a very scientific person have had experiences that seem to have no natural explanation. I don’t expect anyone to believe me if I told my stories but it took such powerful experience to believe in something greater than myself. Before my experiences, I was a firm atheist and it took only such experiences to make me faithful. I do say that I am not associated with any churches because I do feel like these are obviously corrupt at many obvious points by scientific means. I conclude how I start. That this by no means implies that I believe faith in itself is a bad thing, only when faith has been interpreted by others and guided in misdirection does it become dangerous.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1157261796803197232006-09-02T22:19:00.000-07:002006-09-02T22:36:36.866-07:00Law of AttractionJust saw a movie the other day called the "Law of Attraction". It is nice and is one of those power of positive thinking, manifest you destiny, you are what you think and believe kind of movies. I really believe in this kind of line of thought and highly reccomend other people to dig into it also. I personally like James Allen's book called "As a man thinketh" because it is one of the originals in this area but still a classic written over a hundred years ago and available for free on the internet at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4507 as well as many other places because its copyright has expired. It is only about fifteen to twenty pages and you could print it yourself and read it.<br /><br />I also really like Wayne Dyer and the "Power of Intention". His work has also been instrumental in this field.<br /><br />Lastly, I like Deepak Chopra's book "The Seven Spritual Laws of Success" the most. I thought it had the deepest understanding and the best metaphysical explaination of why positive thinking works.<br /><br />Good luck and good day.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1151165307511399452006-06-24T09:06:00.000-07:002006-06-24T09:08:27.526-07:00Why do people take an oath on a book against oaths?Here is a thought I have come across in my reflections from time to time. It is about taking oaths, making promises, vows, and swearing. It is right out of the Bible in Mathew Ch. 5, just a little after that Sermon on the Mount that says all the less advantaged people are going to have their rewards.<br /><br />5:33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 5:34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: 5:35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 5:36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 5:37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.<br /><br />And here is a little easier to read version for all the KJV impaired out there<br /><br /> 33"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.<br /><br />Some people might interpret this as to mean, when you promise, do not promise on anything at all but just say, “I am going to ______”. But I tend to focus on the part that says “Swear not at all”. To me, this means people should not really going around making “promises” to each other but clearly explain what is going on. Saying things like “I am doing _____ and I plan on doing ______.”<br /><br />The problem in life is like we do not have any power to even really change the color of our hair, we do not have any power to say what we will and will not do in the future. Things happen, life’s get changed, and promises that were made with full intention of being fulfilled are broken. Heart burn and stomach aches make us miss work and car wrecks and exploding buildings make us never come back. In a world of instability, you simply just can’t say “I promise to _____” and know for sure you can do really do it. <br /><br />Take one of the most famous promises in current culture, the wedding vow, for instance. There is a 50% divorce rate, which means a lot of people think they will be married for their whole life but instead don’t do everything they promised.<br /><br />Likewise, very commonly on TV you hear the whole phrase of “Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” on court TV shows. Isn’t this going completely against what the Bible says not to do? I find it so ironic that people swear on a book that specifically says “do not swear”. <br /><br />And how about all the fraternal organizations and secret societies, aren’t they for the most part suppose to have some kind of ritualized oath but at the same time claiming to be “Christian”?<br /><br />Anyway, there are a hundred other ways that people claiming to be Christian do act in ways that seem to be not “Christian” according to my intuition but I know I don’t know it all and so I don’t condemn anyone but at the same time I wanted to bring this up to see what anyone else thought about this.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1146157316820604452006-04-27T09:59:00.000-07:002006-04-27T10:03:36.556-07:00doing what I'm doing"People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing,<br />Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,<br />When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange,<br />Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game,<br /><br />People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away,<br />Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me,<br />When I tell that I'm doing Fine watching shadows on the wall,<br />Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?<br /><br />I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,<br />I really love to watch them roll,<br />No longer riding on the merry-go-round,<br />I just had to let it go . . ." -John Lennon-<br /><br /><br /><br />What a beautiful quote man, what a beautiful quote! Now there is a guy that is describing not getting caught up in other peoples' drama or other's expectations and impositions but lives life on his terms and decided to live it freely and peacefully. I got to respect that.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1143305853770984882006-03-25T08:56:00.000-08:002006-03-25T17:25:58.696-08:00My banner<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6142/2123/1600/log3a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6142/2123/320/log3a.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6142/2123/1600/logo.jpg"><br /></a>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1141503406533146962006-03-04T12:16:00.000-08:002006-03-04T12:16:46.553-08:00Interesting Definition for Spirituality<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;"><span style=""> Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things. This is true even when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is "spiritual" when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life.<br /><br /></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;font-family:Book Antiqua;" >From <i>"Spiritual, But Not Religious," </i><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;font-family:Book Antiqua;" >by Robert C. Fuller.</span><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);font-family:Book Antiqua;" ><br /></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);font-family:Book Antiqua;" ><b><i><br /></i></b></span></p>Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1141021421669676012006-02-26T22:21:00.001-08:002006-02-26T22:33:06.073-08:00He said, "My way is better than your way"Sometimes I wonder about the state of religion in the world and the people who try to prove it or disprove it. My buddy Nate was eating lunch with me the other day when he started talking about a book he had just recently come across in a bookstore. The author, a devout atheist had decided through logic he could disprove any person’s logic that there was a God and therefore disprove religion. This is wrong in so many ways. <br /><br />I can grant the author, whoever he is, that there are a lot of people in the world that believe in a religion and when asked why they believe, can’t give a good reason for their beliefs and that after a careful analysis of the argument, one can find flaws pretty easy. That does not mean a lot though. Did this author interview everyone? Did he even interview anyone with an in depth knowledge of religion? Actually, it does not matter. <br /><br />Confucius once said when asked about religion that he had not even mastered all the ways of Earth so why even consider Heaven. But since his day, we have come along way, I can order a pizza and have it delivered to my house, I can fly in an airplane in the clouds, I can even talk to people on the other side of the world. To a person like Confucius or one of his contemporaries, this all might seem god like and maybe means we should start to think about religion a little more but in reality we all know these are simple things. <br /><br />But for all we can do and have accomplished in the last few thousand years, we still have some very basic, let me say extremely extremely basic things we don’t know. We don’t know how big the universe is and in fact we are even not sure what it is made up. Sure, we got an idea, atoms or quarks or gluons but the theories about these are changing and will continue to dramatically change in the next few years. <br /><br />We don’t even know how people came to be, in Kansas where I live they are debating evolution verses creationism and that is a whole nother story but I am talking mainly about our DNA, is it mapped out yet? The scientist say it is but really only a few genes have been identified and linked to actual traits. There is still a long way to go to find out which gene where actually makes this or that happen. <br /><br />And the rough history of human development is still being mapped. We know that people came out of Africa, that people migrated here and there but the whole picture is still quite a bit unclear and is changing every day. Some interesting work is being done with the genographic project but its final results are still years away.<br /><br />So I can go on but I am not, my point being is, we as people still don’t know much more than Confucius. We are still discussing who we are and what the world is made up of. After we get these basics down, we will be able to devote more time to what we will be after this world and where the other world is and is made up of. Until then, of course some pseudo-intellectual is going to be able to disprove a faithful’s claim on divine knowledge but this does not mean such a person is entirely wrong.<br /><br />At the same time, who are these people going around, knocking on my door, telling me that they know for sure what the other world is about. I ask them how they know? They heard it from a girl, who heard it from a guy, who heard it from somebody else type of story does not fly with me. And at the same time really leaves openings for the atheist above to blow holes in their arguments.<br /><br />I do believe in something though but my experiences are all personal. I can witness to someone else, I can tell them all I have learnt and know but in the end all my knowledge and experience about religious experience is all subjective. It is hard for me to physically, tangibly, give anybody any kind of evidence in a spiritual world other than my word. Why? Because it is a spiritual world. If it was a part of this world the evidence would be obvious. The person I was trying to explain all this too could just see my evidence and be convinced but the spiritual world can’t by any methods be gathered into a jar and put on display for all to see in today’s times.<br /><br />The spiritual world is an “other” world, if it was a “here” world it would not be that big of a deal. So for each person to really know about the spiritual world, they just have to experience it, themselves. Seeing or experiencing is believing and it is that simple. So for me, I have a hard time trying to take some bodies word for something like religion when they can’t show it to me but they can’t show it to me because I don’t believe. It is a catch 22 that catches everyone at some point and for the atheist that writes his book, is ultimately his vindication. But I believe that this might not always be the case. How? Why? I am not sure but I hope for an easier answer and less controversy surrounding one of the big questions in life.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21102382.post-1139327684441880182006-02-07T07:53:00.000-08:002006-02-07T07:54:44.453-08:00salvation in five minutesI recommend believing in some kind of religion or path in life. I came to this realization after have a Near Death Experience when I was younger and was not a believer. I believe a person can believe in any one of the many and common religions out there that promote justice, unity, and harmony but with in that religion must fully believe that somehow, someway they are "destined for a good afterlife" . If a person does this even once in their life, I think at least a part of their spirit will be saved.Jeff McDonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04435417871477980255noreply@blogger.com4