Monday, May 29, 2023

This Memorial Day I would like to honor my Friend, Mike who died in 2011

Though he didn't die in the Viet Nam War I think his PTSD slowly killed him over the years and he finally died in 2011 and was buried with military honors near Bakersfield, California where he died.

I met Mike in 1958 when I was 10 years old and I gave him my newspaper route and trained him to deliver my route as my parents said I had to stop doing this. 2 years later I saw him again after we moved and we both were attending Woodrow Wilson Junior High School together. We went through 3 years there together as friends and then 2 years of high School At Glendale High School (where John Wayne also attended) before I went away for a year to a private school to graduate as a senior in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Then we both attended Glendale Community college. But, because of the Viet Nam war he chose to become a jet engine technician so he wouldn't be drafted into the army and sent to the front lines to die. 

So, instead of being drafted into the Army to die on the front lines he joined the Air Force and was sent to Thailand to work on jet engines on B-52's and Figher jets that were used in Viet Nam. However, we didn't find each other again until our 40s because I moved, my parents moved and his mother moved all to different cities, so we couldn't really find each other after the war was over and he returned home. I found him through looking up for an email address on Yahoo.com This is how I found him then. But, I believe he still lived to around 63 years old before he died. We took a trip to Yosemite National park like we had with his family in 1963 which was an amazing experience back then. We hiked up as far as Vernal Falls once again like we had as 15 year olds in 1963.

So, I would like to honor my friend Mike who died in 2011 partly from what happened to him during the Viet Nam War regarding long term PTSD from what he went through overseas and coming back was likely pretty bad for him too.

 

 

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Religions don't stand up to philosophical inquiry

However, religions maybe were never supposed to stand up to philosophical inquiry in the first place.

Why do religions exist really? To keep people from offing themselves like a chain reaction of deaths after something bad happens. It's a way to keep children from killing themselves when mothers, fathers, sisters or brothers or friends die unexpectedly.

However, what is philosophical inquiry?

Philosophical inquiry is like asking: "Why is the sky blue?" And for a long time no one could answer this question which answer is that "The sky is only blue because of the atmosphere here on earth through which the light of the sun travels. If you go out past the atmosphere into Space you might say the sky is black or dark blue with stars in it and galaxies in it. Because it is ONLY blue here on earth during daylight when you can see past the clouds."

So, religions are to reassure people and to keep them alive and to keep them from killing other members of their own religion or group of people or tribe.

Whereas Philosophical inquiry is to actually find out the truth of things beyond reassuring people that everything is going to be all right.

So, religion was never about truth really. It was always about reassuring people so that they could stay alive no matter what happened in their lives.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Every potential Plato is us

 This is what the author of the book in the last article was saying. He believes that computer devices (so far) are allowing more and more people to become philosophical and having the time to think about things and to become wise. For example, during the 17th and 18th and 19th centuries often the scientists of England were all Landed Lords. In some ways this same thing is happening because of labor saving devices allowing more and more people to be able to contemplate and think and to become wise and not be so busy struggling and dying that wisdom cannot flourish in their lives.

So, from this point of view (at least up until now) Labor saving or computerized devices are actually allowing more and more people to become Plato or Plato like and from Philosophy comes Truth and Science both of all kinds.

Where did all the sciences actually come from over time? Philosophy and philosophic questions.

By God's Grace

Posted by at No comments:

Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic Book by Simon Winchester

I saw this man Mr. Winchester being interviewed on Fahreed Zacharia's Sunday CNN show and realized this concept is an important one for people to try to understand.

begin quote from:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=knowing+what+we+know

Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
Book by Simon Winchester
Knowing What We Know is a historical tour de force of knowledge and the dissemination of knowledge. He outlines our collective knowledge from civilization's ...
Rating: 4.2 · ‎19 reviews · ‎$27.81 (typically $33.09) · ‎Free delivery · ‎30-day returns · ‎In stock
Knowing What We Know is a historical tour de force of knowledge and the dissemination of knowledge. He outlines our collective knowledge from civilization's ...
Rating: 4.2 · ‎19 reviews · ‎$16.99 · ‎30-day returns · ‎In stock
Apr 26, 2023 — What Do You Know? In his latest work, Simon Winchester devotes his anecdotal powers to why, how and how often we know what we do.
Apr 23, 2023 — As expected, the book is named Knowing What We Know and it is a wonderful walk through the major people, places, and events of human history. To ...
Rating: 4 · ‎98 votes
A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in ...
$16.99 to $31.20 · ‎In stock
Apr 25, 2023 — Prolific historian Winchester brings his insatiable curiosity to a wide-ranging examination of how humans have acquired, retained, and passed on ...
Simon Winchester | Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge. Author Events. Author Events. 19.1K subscribers. Subscribe.
YouTube · Author Events · 1 month ago
May 4, 2023 — 'Knowing What We Know' explores the evolution of knowledge from oral storytelling to digital media to artificial intelligence.
May 5, 2023 — Historians are more interested in its circulation and application. In “Knowing What We Know,” Simon Winchester dispenses with the technicalities ...
May 16, 2023 — Studded with strange and fascinating details, Knowing What We Know is a deep dive into learning and the human mind.
Rating: 5 · ‎Review by HistoryNerdsUnited
Book preview
65/624 pages available
Did you like this book?
“A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . . ... Google Books
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

It's raining north of San Francisco and it could rain as far south as Big Sur

I was very surprised when I looked at the local Weather radar for California and the U.S. just now to see that it was raining just north of the Golden Gate Bridge near San Francisco and also rain clouds were coming on shore further south too. This is very very unusual weather for California in that we almost never get rain (at least along the coast after April) and now it soon will be June so this is almost unheard of completely. I was also surprised at the big Tornado that hit Wyoming yesterday too which is also very unusual. However, there is very unusual weather all over the planet which likely will get even more unusual over the months and years to come. I'm glad I live on the coast so at least we won't cook in the heat this summer. Instead the temperatures are so cold we need to have the central heating on both day and night to some degree, even though I have it off now and windows open to let in some fresh air even though it's only 55 degrees out right now at 2:30 pm Sunday the day before Memorial Day.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

The Contemplative Life

Some people are okay with thinking and meditating a lot in nature and others are not. This is likely also true when it comes to retirement which can be very contemplative too.

I found that in nature I found peace, especially in the wilderness. City life mostly made me feel somewhat insane because of it's nonsensical intensity. I'm a very logical reasonable person and when I saw how crazy most people were living in the city I moved to the wilderness first in 1980. I even moved further out into the wilderness than the little city of Mt. Shasta to 2 1/2 acres of land where we home schooled our children from 1980 to 1985. 

During this time I found that I regained what most people have lost living in civilization, A Center based upon Nature and a more Contemplative life.

I had found God originally in Yosemite National park in 1963 when I was 15 years old. In fact, my present wife and I got married there in 1995 because she also had a come to God experience in Yosemite when she was 15 even though she is much younger than I am.

Around 1980 I discovered what is called: "The Leisure to Practice" which means that you have time in your life to pray literally 24 hours a day. So, I began to pray for this around 1980 when my son was about 6 years old until 1998 when I got a heart virus and had to retire. So, this is how God answered my prayer for "The Leisure to Practice".

So, when I first got sick with the heart virus the angels surrounded me and I thought i was dying and that they were there to come get me. But, instead they said: "You Are NOT Going to die! Your Life will get better now!" They repeated this over and over again until every cell in my body believed them. Though my mind was not sure like human minds often are every cell in my body listened to the angels and so I lived through all that without panicking (which usually kills most people with a heart virus by the way).

So, 9 months later God had given me "The Leisure to practice" in fact I was forced into this new life I had prayed for because I believe God needed me to be here to pray all the time for others and for all life on earth.

This sort of life is very very powerful in a God way and in an angel way because you have the freedom to think what God actually wants you to think and to do what God actually wants you to do 24 hours a day.

It is a very different kind of life than most people live.

By God's Grace

Posted by at No comments:

Does the Caspian Sea have Salt Water?

begin quote from:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=does+the+caspian+sea+have+salt+water 

The Caspian Sea also shows varying levels of salinity. Overall, it is about one-third as salty as the ocean. The water is saltiest in the south and freshest in the north. Roughly 130 rivers feed the giant lake, and nearly all of them enter from the north or west.Mar 29, 2013
Ice on the Caspian Sea
Ice on the Caspian Sea
Ice on the Caspian Sea
About featured snippets
Why does Caspian Sea have salt water?
As a result of tectonic processes of the Alps formation there was a gradual separation of the Paratethys from the Mediterranean Sea. As a result of negative freshwater balance the water in the Caspian depression evaporated with continuous (some time) inflow of salt water from the ocean.

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)