Each Other

If you love someone, and he/she ("they") loves you in return, then:

it is commonly said, they love each other.

This is intended to signify that each one loves the other one, BUT
you can take it literally to mean,
each one loves each other, which means EVERYBODY

Maybe all in all is all we really are.
And love of one is truly love of all.

If you take this to be a virtue, then maybe you should marry the person you detest the most.
Or, you can just love spiders or something.

Let it Grow

Listen to the thunder shout, "I AM" -Grateful Dead
I talk to the wind, the wind cannot hear -King Crimson
Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire -Jerry Lee Lewis

This (last) song is derived from a southern expression, which some Christians consider blasphemous, which refers to the moment the Holy Spirit manifested itself "as cloven tongues as of fire" and the Apostles spoke in tongues.

thunder, wind, and lightning is all very Godly (the face of God moved over the deep)
it feels better when you're bundled up inside, next to a fireplace or something.
I've been getting letters from Unicef, because I'm on their mailing list for giving some money once, and they say:

-this will be a bitterly cold winter for children in Afghanistan, where there is a resurgence of violence. THey need warm woolen blankets for bitter winter snows ($3 each).
-the 2010 Holiday Shopping List includes: polio immunizations, Oral Rehydration Salts to save the lives of children sturck by severe diarrheal dehydration, vaccinations against measles, tetanus, diphtheria, polio, whooping cough, and tuberculosis; water purification tablets, basic family water kits; micronutrient powder, high-protein biscuits especially designed for malnourished children, therapeutic milk; blankets, waterproof tarpaulins for emergency shelter, and sturdy tents for emergency shelters for families.

I've also heard
Gdradio.net also has an appeal by Michelle Obama to support the American red cross to assist with the effort in Haiti.

helping can be tax-deductible, of course.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's the link to the Yale opencourseware class entitled:
the psychology, biology, and politics of food

http://oyc.yale.edu/psychology/the-psychology-biology-and-politics-of-food

Empty

The Smashing Pumpkins say: "God is Empty, just like me"

To use an analogy from another band (the Grateful Dead), I'm a "box of rain"
I've got blood and guts and gristle and bone in there, along with a few items of idealogical content, such as

M.T. =empty or Margaret Teshara
During meditation, you can seek to be empty, just like Billy Corrigan
I'm a little teapot, short and stout, here is my handle here is my spout when you tip me over, tea comes out. something something something...

The vampires have bled us dry
The mosquitoes have sucked us empty
the leaches
Replenish and refuel and refill
the cup
the glass
runneth over
with more leftover to give to others

ah, bloody hell
bloody likely
carnivorous thirst
eat my body and drink my blood, this is the cup of the new and everlasting covenant...
said heyzeus, the L or D (life or death), christ (annointed with oil)
I'm sorry but transubstantiation is a joke
anyone with half a brain knows
a brain half-full, and half empty
a meathead, if you ceso

Indict Bush Now

1)George w. Bush is responsible for the deaths of more than a million people in Iraq
(and many more injuries)

and
2)for five million Iraqis who were driven from their homes and made into refugees
and
3)for the 45oo plus U.S. soldiers who lost their lives
and
4)for the tens of thousands more who became injured.
and
5)He lied to congress and the people.
6)He ordered warrantless wiretaps and spying on the american people
7)Defying the Geneva Conventions, he set up secret torture centers and prisons around the world.
8)He bankrupted the country by spending over a trillion dollars on the Iraq war.

that's the case, according to an email I got from indictbushnow.org, although I heard Dubya on TV, seeming kindly and good-natured, describing how he thinks the world is better off without Saddam in power, which is probably true. Who can say, really. I think the world is better off without Bush in power, I'll tell you that, though.

Nuclear Adoption

I AM...adopted
and it's all good

Speaking of Nuclear (from nuclear family), why can't Barack and Medvedev/Putin agree to eliminate each countries' nuclear stockpiles, instead of just reducing them and agreeing to inspections. It's just silly and stupid. We both have no intention of using them, so wtf??

Come on, fellas. Wake up.

Being and Nothingness

God on existentialism

I've read Sartre's Nausea and L'estranger (the stranger) by Albert Camus.

Time is eternal, going both forward and back, which makes us even less than blip in the history of the universe. I believe there was an eternity of time before the big bang, and there will be an eternity of time after all of us are dead. How can anything have meaning in a context like this?

And space... We are the smallest of small in an incomprehensible vast. The known universe is just speck in an even greater Vast.

We are just animals, the product of evolution, who arose from matter, and remain just matter, if you dare to see it that way. We have thumbs and brains and vocal chords that permit us a great culture, and we have books that create worlds for us, including religious works that tell us we are more special and unique than we really are. I believe we each have the same claim on life as an ant, or even a spider, however repulsive we may find them.

This could be interpreted as a free ticket to act any way you like...you only live once, and people are just like bugs, which we squash without compunction. I actually can't refute this. Only that love is purported to be omnipotent, and there's this concept of hell lurking out there as a potential eternally painful punishment. There are these pesky things called neurons, protecting our fragile bodies, that unfortunately give us pain upon injury. But no God would be that evil, of course. Neurons die at death, too. We just have to do unto others as we would have them do to us, unless other people would prefer it otherwise.
(that's my addendum to the golden rule)

Absurdity is in the bible. All is vanity (translated as frustration, futility, nonsense, or absurdity). Being good is supposed to be it's own reward. Why be good for heaven? You don't have a soul to go there, and your body will decay to dust, so it's just fodder for your imagination that I wouldn't give very much weight to, besides having something to wonder about and look forward to upon one's death.

Did you know that we are mostly empty space? 99.999999999999 % of us empty. that's point with twelve nines. We barely exist. So oblivion isn't really much difference from the current state of affairs. But that's not how we experience ourselves.

"Go out to love and serve the lord", as the priests say at the end of Catholic mass.
or
"You know what your problem is? You need to get more fun out of life", as Hannibal Lecter said in Silence of the Lambs.

I would point out that these are not incompatible. Go out to love and serve Hannibal Lector. (don't worry, he doesn't exist either)

:-)

My Boys

Marcel and Oliver, our French bulldogs

Ahimsa

It's a policy of non-violence to sentient beings

I heard in high school that plants can react to music. I'll have to research this. Are plants sentient? If so, then maybe I can still eat meat, which I really like. I mean, if whatever I eat is sentient, anyway, then it doesn't matter. Maybe eating is inherently bad on some level. Well, my body will be eaten, too (after I die). What goes around, comes around. Hate is like H ate. H is the eighth letter. God sums to 8 (764). So God ate. ate sums to 8, too (125). Why is the world so damned weird? There's obviously a lot going on under the surface of things, like words. To hate god, we eat him (in an act of reverence, perhaps, called communion, which also evokes cum union, or sex). Ah, nuts.

I guess I should stop killing bugs, too -like the Jains.
Maybe all matter itself is sentient. So do what thou wilt.
I don't think so, though. That would be too much pain.

Philosophy of Religion

I just read a lot of it (the link I provide on the right), and here's what I think:

let it be said that I am agnostic on both my own Godhood and the Godhood of any other, external, being or Being.

Agnostic (a, not. gnostic, knowing) means 3 things
1) that evidence both for or against the existence of God doesn't wash, or
2) the evidence can't be found/known,
3)or is equal -that is, balances- the evidence of Atheism with Theism.

I subscribe to #3. Arguments for both are equally convincing.

But I believe love exists.
I believe anyone can play the role
I believe in goodness (and the good book says only God is good)
I heard a physicist on TV say that it is possible to create a universe.

but there's a lot of other stuff that gets attributed to God, that I think is ridiculous: namely, the Omni's: omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence (in time/space), and omni-benevelence.
That seems to be basic to most people's conception; i.e. infinite power, knowledge, and love. I just picture God as being human with the maximum amount of power and influence to lead and change the world. The power to kill is omnipotence, and I'm not about that at all. We need to say God is omnipotent to intimidate the haters. We need to believe in infinite love to overcome adversity.

God is different things to different people. The definition may not even be clear to the people who believe in Him. The logic, I'm saying, can be fuzzy.

But I don't know. Maybe. Maybe anyone's conception is true. I don't know. Why not.

There's virtual reality and objective reality. An operative concept in your head is true for you, but may not be objectively there, in reality. In other words, it can be a delusion.

I agree with Freud that religion can be a response to feelings of helplessness and guilt. We need security and forgiveness. In the face of uncertainty, we resort to imploring a higher power for safety. And we fear death, so the prospect of heaven is a powerful pull. And it's a meme that has staying power, because people survive better in communities that help each other out.

I'm God because I want to instill a morality that will help a world mired in anger, hate, violence, war, disrespect for life, poverty, disease, and sadness. I want to be good. I want to make a difference. That about sums it up.

I'm pro-life, but I don't like it's affiliation with either the Republican party, or religions and religious belief. I'm a democrat, and prefer the secular point of view. But everyone needs love in their lives. That's religion. And 'Be Good' and 'Be nice to others' and 'love one another' and 'kindness is my religion.'

I have a presumption of atheism. I'm agnostic because you can never really know. And I'm a theist because I can embody God myself; i.e. step up and play the role. Be kind, compassionate, and loving. And I'm not alone. I think everybody claims their own authority for their moralities and preferences. People are their own Gods and they don't even know it.

I agree that it is more economical to postulate the existence of any number of finite beings than to postulate the existence of one infinite One. That sentence is taken straight out of the Improbability of God section. This is what I see- lots of individuals, with their own experiences and opinions. Richard Swinburne says that an infinite being is the most probable kind of being. I think this is laughably ludicrous. Does he have ANY idea what infinite means?? Remember what I called the 'jest'. Infinite space goes on FOREVER. It 's not clear what he could possibly signify by an 'infinite being'. I just say, yeah, whatever.

I've been atheist because of the problem of evil, in the past. But I can see the alternative; namely, that God gives us free will to choose evil, so that we can learn from our mistakes and become closer to God; i.e. become more loving. Slaves or automatons to a universal theistic morality wouldn't be much fun at all. (Being bad can be fun, too. Bad can be good, in a way, or sometimes.) We have long lives ahead of us and we need to keep things interesting. Actually, we have free will whether God gives it to us or not, but that's just a fun way of stating it. Fate exists, in that we all are destined to die. So live life how you want, you only live once.

Religion is fun. Clapping hands, dreaming up sermons, keeping the dark side in check. Let there be light!

Happiness Tip

Minimize the wandering of your mind

article link

:-)

Good Stuff

It's 'Adoption Month' !

Other good stuff is:

-the Fetzer institute, http://www.fetzer.org/

http://www.values.com/

-cnn's annual 'heroes'

I liked today's news of Barack and Michelle dancing with some Indian schoolchildren, too.

The Jewish Bible and Buddhist psychology

I just finished the Yale open-courseware class (which I have a link to on the right) on the Old Testament, taught by Christine Hayes.

I'm current, also, with the Psychology 107 (Buddhist psych) at Berkeley being taught this very semester by Eleanor H. Rosch (which you can link to through the 'cal' link on the right).

PLUS, I'm reading Middlemarch, by George Elliot, hailed by one reviewer on the cover as possibly the best book in the english language.

some info from the Buddhism lectures:
-there's a Buddhist bookstore in Berkeley on Channing and Fulton
-the hyper-sensitive (in terms of empathy) frequently withdraw, according to research by Nancy Eisenberg
plus,
-caregivers experience burnout, and
-psychologically, there's what is known as 'compassion fatigue'

There's the biblical maxim 'faith without works is dead'
(so maybe I'm not setting the best example)
It seems I, and many others, need the right kind of motivation to start, and continue, making the world a better place.

A book I read fairly recently was What is the What? about Sudan.
horrifying, edifying, and well-written.

There's a temptation for God to become an assassin of evil men, for surely
reality requires the stick as well as the carrot
to encourage moral behavior.

The rewards of compassion and kindness are the only legal way, of course.