LACKING VISION, NO DREAM

Well, not sure we have had one in recent times. When I was growing up, the American Dream was to have a house in the suburbs and a two car garage; a one car garage if you were blue collar; a house if at the bottom of blue collar; a meal if you were really poor. You were supposed to love your job, your family and you had to save to send your kids to college so they could one day get their house and two car garage. That was really about it. Oh, of course you went to church.

Hmmm, not really a great dream, is it? Americans have lost their vision and have no dream. We do not even seem to ask what we, as a people and a nation, want for our future. Instead, we are caught up in the mechanics of life and have lost the dream of life. The debate on gun control is not a vision, but rather a diversion from saying we want a society where we are safe from harm from one another. The debate over Social Security and Medicare/caid cuts does not say we want all to be able to have freedom to live a long healthy life. Those wanting to revise the tax code say nothing about what a tax system should be. The arguments over CO2 emissions does not say we want a pollution free environment. Our economic fiascoes say nothing about having sustainable economies in which all have free access to prosperity. The list goes on.

This problem is symptomatic of the loss of individual dreams and visions  which, taken together, create the national vision. Most just want to make it to the next day. Most pray they don't get sick or fired. Most would, indeed, sacrifice the environment for a job. Most hope their kids will hurry up and grow and move out.

Without a vision, a dream, a road map, there is no clear direction we, as individuals or the collective, wants to go. If you don't where you want to go, chances are you'll never get there. Battles in congress will continue to plague us because we are hung up on the mechanics of life. Wall Street will continue to rule our lives because we are afraid to reach for something different. Truly, there may be more than one road to reach a destination, but you have to know where you want to go. Until a destination is chosen, many will have us detour to places that simply make no sense, and that simply may be our downfall.

Don't let the bastards get you down!

 

I had a disheartening conversation with an acquaintance of mine a few days ago. Being well educated, she has followed the antics of the banks, the economic fiascoes, political idiocy in congress, the constant denial about climate change, Monsanto and the GMO conspiracy, and the general head in the sand affliction being experienced by so many.

She said, "I give up. I'm going to close my doors (I think she meant in her mind, not home) and just not listen anymore. There's nothing I can do anyway."

I told her that if she did that, then THEY win. They have beaten you into submission and that has been their plan all along. Like, "Your vote doesn't make a difference" as a tool to keep people from voting while they line up their faithful at the ballot boxes.

So, she may have just been having a bad day, but with all that is happening in the world, don't let the bastards get you down. THEIR hope is that as issues drag on and no actions are taken, people will forget about the problems and/or just give up in frustration, thereby, they keep control. This is not a time for indifference or complacency. I have heard others say that since nothing happened on 12/21/12, all of this Earth change must be a bunch of bunk. That is so far from the truth and so much is changing that if you are aware, it makes your head spin. But you see, THEY wanted people to believe that changes were going to be a ONE DAY event. And, since nothing happened, there are obviously no problems. That was their spin many have fallen prey to this lie.

Keep watching, stay alert, stay tuned, that big lady has not even begun to sing ... yet.

The least of my brethren

One cannot help but feel despair for the animal horrors we hear about in Africa. The slaughter of elephants and rhinos can't help but pull at the heart strings. Closer to home, shelters are overflowing as the burdens of economic shifts deter people from giving man's best friend all of the comforts and care they deserve.

If we look at this even closer, we can see that the way we treat our animal cousins reflects the way we have been treating each other. From human trafficking, senseless killings, and the far rights assertion that most of us are just dead weight on the government dole, it is clear that we lack what the term humanity should imply. And yet, where are the outcries? Where are the demonstrations against such wanton cruelties to ourselves and our fellow creatures? Sure, some things are being done, but given the magnitude of the escalating problem, one can only hope that many will join the soft chorus that calls for an end to the violence.

It was said, "What you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me." All of life is our brethren.

BLACK FRIDAY: ALL THAT'S WRONG

If you want to know why the world is in such a mess, just consider Black Friday. Have you ever heard a an ad like this:

We know it's the holidays and that you all would like to give gifts to loved ones and friends.  The look on a child's face on Christmas morning is priceless. However, please don't buy something that won't last. Don't buy clothing filled with toxic chemicals, or toys laced with lead paint. Just because something is 0.5 seconds faster than the item you already have doesn't mean it's better. Don't buy products that have contributed to global warming, rainforest destruction, or that has been made on the backs of slave labor. Buy natural, buy green. Our landfills are overflowing with the junk from past holidays. Find presents that will get your child to think, that will get them outside the home. And above all, try not to use credit cards. Those bills come due and at a high rate of interest. Can you afford it. Return to the joys of family and being together and not just the idea that you have to spend lots of money for items no one really needs or wants.

No, you will never see such an ad, at least not now. But let's face it, this constant pressure to spend, spend, spend, is not about the spirit of the holidays, it is about corporate profits. It is about rampant consumerism that is destroying the planet and wreaking personal economic havoc.

Give gifts that matter, that will last, that will change the direction of buying patterns forever. Just don't buy crap that does nothing but make the rich even richer. Support the small business that sells quality products. Support the craftsmen and women that put their heart and soul into the things they make.

Above, fill your holiday with gifts that you can't buy: LOVE, PEACE, AND LIGHT. Those are gifts that simply never end up in the trash heap.

IS IRAN PAYING HAMAS TO GET ISRAEL OFF THEIR BACKS?

We know that Hamas used Iranian rockets to strike Tel Aviv and that Iran is supplying arms to Islamic militants. Given that life is a low valued commodity in the Middle East, I believe that Iran is paying Hamas to strike Israel in order to give Iran more time to develop its nuclear capability, or, at least, to further delay any Israeli assault on the Iranian nuclear program. Whatever Israel has to use to defend itself will temporarily deplete some of its defensive munitions and may forestall any near term action against Iran.

It would also not be surprising that arms dealers are fueling the fires as they will gain massive profits from this conflict. Further, if a full blown war erupts, there will be a lot less attention on the global economic crisis, climate change and things like regulatory reforms. Yes, this is a conspiracy theory, but analyze the facts and decode for yourself.

RELIGION Vs. SCIENCE: THE DEBATE IS OVER?

Guest post!

 

Large swaths of Americans seem to have drastically different views of how humans came to be, according to a June 2012 Gallup poll.

Nearly half of America – 46 percent – agrees with the creationist view that humans are purely the product of God, absent of evolution, within the last 10,000 years. Fifteen percent believe humans evolved independent of God, while the rest believe humans evolved with god guiding the process (http://www.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx)

These millions of Americans are pitted on two sides of a conflict which has a solution, as described in my new book The Genesis One Code. As an engineering physicist, CEO of the aerospace company known for building the space station’s robotic arm and student of religion I looked for a precise, unequivocal answer. Not good just arguments which hard to prove, but mathematical precision.

 

The creation-evolution conflict is a recurring point of contention in the United States, from the presidential election to what should be taught in schools.

I show that the religious and scientific wisdoms are two sides of the same coin and can enlighten each other. The reason the debate developed in the first place is because the discoveries of modern science of an old Earth seemed to conflict with descriptions in the Bible of a universe created in 6 days, only thousands of years ago.

The reality is that the Bible and science agree on the timeline for the development of the universe and life on Earth. The Bible is a blue print for the creation. I found the “scale used in the blue print” within the texts, the factor that converts “Creation time” to years as we know them, as measured by scientists. When applied to calculating the age of the universe and life on Earth, the Bible consistently matches scientific estimates derived from the study of fossil timelines, the solar system and the cosmos.

What’s the scale factor?  One creation day is — 1,000 X 365 X 7,000 – years! When those numbers are multiplied, each creation day is an epoch of 2.56 billion years, Using the formula, the biblical age of the universe is 13.74 billion years. Scientific estimates put the universe’s age at 13.75 billion, plus or minus 0.13 billion. Another 18 events described in Genesis, from the age of the sun to when first life appeared, match the scientific dates precisely!

If the Bible and science agree on what happened and when it happened, do we really have a conflict? It is time to reexamine and bury the conflict between science and religion. In fact, the book shows that Genesis has answers to science’s three biggest unanswered questions.

By continuing this false dichotomy of religion vs. science, we are severely limiting progress and our potential as humans.

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Most of us have pondered our origins at some point in our lives. I am no different, except perhaps that I have both a strong scientific and a religious background.  Thus, when I ponder our origins I not only have to contend with two seemingly very different accounts of our universe; but with the knowledge that both are accurate, at least in terms of what happened and when it happened.  Christians are invited to see science as something that complements ones faith, not to see it as something that contradicts it.  Many Christians affirm God as the Creator and at the same time support the scientific study of creation. They recognize science as a legitimate interpretation of God’s natural world and affirm the validity of the claims of science in describing the natural world and in determining what is scientific. However they preclude science from making authoritative claims about theological issues.

I began my quest with knowledge gained from a basic religious upbringing and a high school science education. Both bodies of knowledge were fascinating, yet appeared incompatible. As I proceeded to obtain a scientific education, I initially came to think that science books answered everything. Yet, by my fourth year at university, some fundamental questions concerning our origins began to re-appear. In science texts, some answers were not available, some answers were strange, and some answers were so metaphysical they looked like religious answers. So, I went back to study religion to find deeper inner meaning. Answers began to appear.

So what did I find?  The Bible and science agree on what happened and when it happened with respect to the development of the universe and the appearance of life on earth.  Not just roughly but precisely.  That’s right! Very old religious documents contain what science has discovered in the past 50 years!

This was so exciting I decided to share my findings in a book,  The Genesis One Code was borne Canada’s leading newspaper describes the book as follows:

The book is engrossing. In it, Friedmann … is persuasive and devoid of insistence. In essence, he argues that, just as a blueprint provides a scale reference to the finished building, there is a mathematical scale that reconciles the events of Genesis to the findings of science.

About Daniel Friedmann

Daniel Friedmann is a student of the origin of the universe and life on earth both from the scientific and biblical perspectives. He is also a longtime student of religion and for the past 14 years has attended the Vancouver Kollel center for learning.  He is passionate about helping young adults put science and the Bible in correct context.Daniel Friedmann is currently CEO of Canada’s leading aerospace company which built the Canadarms, and is involved in space exploration and the Hubble telescope. He is a professional engineer and holds a master’s degree in engineering physics.The Genesis One Code is currently available onhttp://www.amazon.com/Genesis-One-Code-Daniel-Friedmann/dp/1935764276/ “>Amazon.com and at http://danielfriedmannbooks.com/.

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