Posts Tagged ‘Nature’
Beautiful minds; two further reflections.
Further to the guest post from Patrice Ayme, an introduction to John Hurlburt.
I wrote on the 2nd May that an unintended consequence of my beautiful minds articles about Hugh Everett and Stephen Hawking was a recognition that the need for ‘beautiful’ thinking is more important than ever before. I wrote,
The French philosopher Voltaire was reputed to have said, “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.” In these days where ‘spin’ and ‘counter-spin’, to put it kindly, are so widely used, and millions live in a culture where our societies’ communication outlets compete for the maximum provocation (sorry audience!) it is challenging, to say the least, to think independently.
But of course as you, dear reader, will instantly acknowledge, these are just THE times when independent thinking is so, so important. Thus I want to acknowledge two completely different and totally disconnected people who set such wonderful examples of the power of a beautiful mind.
Unlike Patrice Ayme whom neither do I know nor have I met (Patrice Ayme is a pseudonym), today’s guest post is from someone that lives here in Payson and whom I have met on numerous occasions. What John writes about couldn’t be more different to Patrice’s article but that isn’t the point. Well, to be honest, that is the point! It goes towards underlining my proposition that these are times where we need a huge variety of thinkers who can be honest about their approach to life, and not hostage to any particular ‘group think’.
John’s essay is entitled, What’s for Dinner?
What’s for Dinner?
Ancient man had a legitimate fear about being gobbled up for dinner by a ravenous beast. The vestigial fear remains in spite of the reality that mankind has become a ravenous beast which is gobbling up nature for dinner. It’s interesting to note that although God and Nature can get along without earth or man, man and earth could not and would not exist without God and Nature. After all, God is Nature.
We get careless when we don’t stop to think about what we are, where we are and who we are. We don’t have to make a choice between God and money. We can invest in the business of God which includes education, formation, transformation and the well being of the earth which sustain us all.
Walking the way we talk means having the courage of our convictions. What can we do that is possible, plausible, practical and probable to protect ourselves and our descendents from the results of ravaging mother earth for personal profit?
Wisdom is neither an individual conclusion nor an opinion. We live in a world that is financially dominated by economic interests which are gambling with humanity’s future. It’s time to end the game. We grow best when we live and learn together in harmony with God, nature and each other. Saving the Earth from which we come and which sustains all planetary life is called conservation. That’s as conservative as life gets.
There is a fraction of our population which prefers fear, hate and ignorance to faith, love and our common well-being; both as a nation and as a world. What does this say about the United States of America? Well, for one thing, it says that we’re hell bent toward our own destruction and can’t get our act together because of the influences of money, power and tribalism.
The facts of nature can not be ignored indefinitely. While our nation becomes divided and we continue to face economic collapse four years after a journey to the brink of a world economic abyss, the environment which is our source, our natural birthright and our home continues to be stolen from us by those who seek personal gain and aggrandizement.
Let’s go back to the beginning and keep it simple. We hold these truths to be self evident.
1. The bible tells us the same thing as all sacred scriptures; love God and each other.
2. We are a country that is chartered as one nation under God. The powers of our government come from “We the people”.
3. Economics: a pump won’t work when the well runs dry.
These fundamental truths of faith, humanity, economics and the American vision transcend petty bickering and are ignored at our common peril. Considering recent world events, it would seem that we have a window of opportunity to refocus our priorities. We pray for God’s guidance.
An old lamplighter
Amen to that!
So two wonderful examples that illustrate the power of beautiful minds and how, in my opinion, we need the minds of Ayme, Hurlburt and countless others to pick our way out of this self-defeating mess that we are all in and lead us to a true long-term sustainable future for the Planet Earth and all of God’s creatures for whom this is the only home we will ever have.
I wrote on the 2nd May of the French philosopher Voltaire who was reputed to have said, “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.” Let me end with a quote from President Abraham Lincoln, “All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.“
Think!
The Third Eye
A guest post from John Hurlburt.
Our living garden planet.
When we’re in love with God, the cosmos, our living garden planet and the steadily growing conscious interconnection between those who understand and serve, we live in awe and wonder and realize a peaceful natural serenity in the midst of our daily concerns and responsibilities.
As our world, our environment and our culture appear to be unraveling, it becomes increasingly necessary for human beings to slow down to re-energize. It’s clear that our species has recently lost spectacularly to natural forces in the Gulf of Mexico and Japan. It’s no coincidence that it’s our technology which continues to reveal the fundamental weakness of human ego. It’s more than a metaphor that our individual and species arrogance is our Achilles heel.
There are many people who fail to perceive, understand and appreciate parallel realities from a rational, sensory and unified perspective by learning to see through a mystical third eye. Mysticism may be misunderstood as simply thinking outside of the box. Forget about the box. Let go of self-centered fears. Become aware of being unaware. Nurture capabilities to perceive non-locally and act locally. What’s happening worldwide comes with the territory. We are each responsible for our collective destiny
Meditation reflects that imagination and creativity are necessary to invent and utilize tools. Creativity did not begin with humans and is not exclusive to humans. God’s nature precedes emerging technology. Morality derives from our common need for species unity.
The message is that God doesn’t care about money and the sky is no longer a human limit. The fact remains that except for occasional astronauts we all continue to live on the same planet. Those who understand need no explanation.
There is a need for productive use of intelligence and technology at our natural frontiers. We need to refuel world economies with clean energy visions that provide solutions for our present local planetary emergency.
We may choose to implement the changes necessary to avoid impending local ecosphere, cultural and technological meltdowns while preparing for a migration to the stars.
Unification is a common goal. Leaving the nest of our garden planet is a partial unifying solution for the problems of our exponentially expanding species. An alternative is that our obsession with the symbol of money will have the same dire consequences for those who are obsessed as for those whom are oppressed.
Please love God, maintain an even strain, follow your bliss, continue to learn, share and serve our common purpose under God, proceed as the way opens, cross the next bridge as we come to it, enjoy the journey and stay in touch.
Gratefully,
From an old lamplighter!
Today’s No-Brainer
Bottled water …..
… in developed countries is not only an insanity but also an obscenity.
- It is no healthier than tapwater. If it
were essential to health then how come we oldies survived before? Logically, the Human Race should have died out. - It tastes no different, unless you buy it fizzy – but you could add your own fizz at home.
- It costs VASTLY more than tapwater.
- It is VASTLY more profitable to producers than gasoline for oil companies.
- It is VASTLY more expensive to produce – around 1500 times more than an equivalent quantity of tap water.
- Its transportation produces significant amounts of harmful emissions.
- It is VASTLY wasteful; water is scarce, yet it takes 7 litres of water to make a 1 litre bottle plus the contents.
- It leads to VASTLY-INCREASED pollution. ‘see “Giant Rubbish Dump Accumulating in the Pacific“
- It soaks up resources that could be better used, including to save lives of people dying from lack of or dirty water.
In short, it is absolute folly. What on earth is there going for it? At the same time, it is big business and very popular? Why?
- Are people ignorant about all the above? That’s quite worrying …. not much future with so much ignorance about.
- Are people paranoid about what comes out of their taps? Oh dear - paranoia is not good for us.
- Do people place their vanity and status-image before the above-mentioned points? Hmmmm …..
- Are many people just suckers for slick advertising? I guess the answer to that one is a straight “Yes”.
- Have millions of people no common-sense and/or social conscience? Oh dear, this time it’s a clear “No”.
This is pretty!
Bottled water is nonsense, except of course where there is no alternative.
If rich, fat Westerners really like bottled water they could export it to developing countries where millions die through lack of or poisoned/polluted water every year while at the same time pouring funds into building water infrastructure for these very same people.
Yes, I know the industry provides jobs, but so did making nerve-gas for the Nazis.
The point is, we should direct our energy and money into things which are not totally unnecessary and destructive. I’m not a great fan of the “nanny-state”, but in some areas – and this is one – the government should be taking a more forceful lead. Help us kick our silly, selfish, faddish and destructive addiction to bottled water.
Some excellent links on this topic:
- Water Calculator - New American Dream website
- It says it all …….. Read and truly get the message
- [And see an earlier Post on Learning from Dogs, Ed.]
By Chris Snuggs
Science is Us (2)
Amazing Statistics
The expression “mind-boggling” seems most appropriate here.
After reading my book, “The Ascent of Science“, referred to yesterday, I gathered together just a few of the randomly-miscellaneous statistics which most struck me. No doubt there are plenty more! PLEASE SEND ME YOUR MOST AMAZING NATURAL STATISTICS!
We are carbon-based creatures. EVERY SINGLE CARBON ATOM in our bodies
was created in a supernova explosion of a giant star. We are truly “Children of the Stars”.
The “Nature” of our world and existence is indeed almost unbelievable.
MOLECULES: They are extremely small: a teaspoonful of water contains about 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules. If everyone on the planet set out to count these molecules one per second it would take over ONE MILLION YEARS.
- A molecule of hydrogen in a steel cylinder travels at about 3,800 mph.
- Molecules NEVER stop moving. A molecule in the air makes 6,000 MILLION collisions with other molecules PER SECOND.
- The above two facts explain why the progress of molecules through space is extremely slow unless assisted by an external force (e.g. the wind)
- Every second, your skin is subject to bombardment by 2*10 to the power 24 (200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) blows from molecules in the air.
ELECTRONS: When you switch on a light bulb, approximately 3*10 to the power 19 (30 million million million) electrons flow through your lamp EVERY SECOND
THE ATOM
NOT drawn in "real" proportions
- A man is about 10 BILLION times larger than an oxygen atom. If an atom were the size of a golf ball then a man would stretch from earth to the moon.
- A teaspoonful of solid nuclei of atoms would weigh about 500 million tons.
- The nucleus of a typical atom contains about 99.8% of the total mass of the atom.
- The diameter of an atom is about 100,000 times the diameter of the central nucleus.
- Most of an atom is empty space. Imagine a sphere of FIVE MILES to represent an atom. The nucleus on the same scale would be the size of a tennis ball.
- Most of your body is empty space …..
- A black hole is supposed to consist entirely of material from the nucleus; all the “empty space” has been stripped away. A black hole of the mass of the earth would be ONE CENTIMETER in diameter.
COLLAPSED STARS
- There is believed to be a black hole at the centre of our galaxy with the mass of ONE MILLION times that of our Sun.
- A pulsar or neutron star is a collapsed star that spins on its axis up to three or four thousand times per second.
- A pulsar is ONE HUNDRED TIMES DENSER than a white dwarf, which is what our Sun will become once its nuclear fuel has been used up.
- Pulsars sometimes send out gigantic amounts of visible light, equivalent to many times the total light emitted by the Milky Way.
- A tablespoon of material from a neutron star would weigh about 3 BILLION TONS.
THE HUMAN EAR
- can distinguish around 400,000 different sounds.
- can detect sounds so quiet that the vibratory movement induced in the eardrum is not much more than the width of a calcium atom.
By Chris Snuggs
