SO YOU ARE NOT VOTING

I posted this in October of 2020. I still believe it today, so I'll post it yet again:

I heard that someone said after the recent presidential debate, “I will not vote for either of them.” Why would you not want to place your influence behind the better of what seems to you two bad options? Why do you not want to influence the future in a way that, if not positive, at least is not so damaging? Not voting means you are allowing others, who like the one you most dislike, to have your vote.

You don’t like either candidate. You think one is directing your ship into the rocks while the other is directing your ship onto a sandy beach. But you will not do anything to avoid the rocks. In effect you are ignoring the destruction of your ship.

People died so you could vote the way you wanted. People died to protect you from those who would prevent you from voting. By not voting you shun thousands of people who have lived and died for you to have a safe place, a safe country, to live.

If you protest by not voting, who’s going to know about your protest? There is nothing to show for it. You could vote for an independent candidate if there was one running. I suppose your vote could be seen then. But realize an independent candidate will not win and you will have lost your influence

THE CARELESS INTERJECTION, “LIKE”

I recently saw a headline to an article that said: "Why Do We Say "Like," Like, All the Time?" I have not yet read the article, but I believe because it is a careless interjection as using “er” or “uh”.

Why do we people use this interjection? They might not have a firm idea of what they intended to say. They are not comfortable speaking in public. They have a low self-esteem. They are careless. They very much want to fit in with their peer group: all the others use "like" (like it's cool, the in thing). “Like if you want to fit in with us you must use the word, “like”.

It's a bad habit as feeling you have to start the answer to a question by starting the first sentence with the word "So, ".

FREE TO GO EITHER WAY

On this day the weather showed mostly clear skies. Clear, sunny, or rainy, God controls all. Happy or sad, God controls all. Whatever various people think, whatever they think there is, or is no God; God controls all.

God could have made you so that he controlled every one of your thoughts, but he did not. He gave you the option to believe in him, or not. He wanted your mind to be a free agent, even able to select the option of, “there is no God”. Moreover he gave you the option to switch your opinion. You can go from “there is no God’ to “there is a God” -- at any time.

But he did not leave us at loose ends. He gave us a book telling us his preference: the Bible.

“…[F]or he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” [Heb 11:6]. He cares that you believe the right way but lets you choose wrong. If he wanted machines, he would have made machines. But he wanted persons, like you.

UNAWARENESS

I see so many people unaware of their surroundings as they interact with their electronic devices. They look at them as they walk and do not see what is around them. They look at them when they are with other people in restaurants.

It is easy to be persuaded by them (the thing, not the nearby person). While involved they are not aware of their situation.
What is ahead of them?
What is behind them?
What is to the right of them?
What is to the left of them?
What is above them?
What is below them?
Are there any flowers, what color of flowers, what kind of flowers?
Are there any trees, what kind of trees, is it a healthy tree?
Is the retention pond full or drying up?

They are listening to music or a radio broadcast, or an audio blog. Are the people in it real or fictional? Is it possible they have an agenda? Is it possible you are listening to opinions and not facts?

If they were engaged in business would another place or time have been better? Would it be better to see them in real time, in real life, in real space?

We should be full of care about how and when we use our electronics.

THE AI GATEKEEPER

I became frustrated with trying to give information to a website. For many minutes (notice the word, “many”) I tried and waited for some sort of response. I tried my best to avoid the “Chat” option. After many minutes (notice the word, “many”) I finally pushed it. I was allowed to “chat” with a robot. The robot, after many minutes, allowed me to “chat” with a real human who could, and did, solve my issue. At least I guess it was a human.

I hate “Chat” sessions. Do you hate “Chat” sessions? You are not “chatting” with a person, you are interfacing with software on a machine. This software is otherwise known as “Artificial Intelligence”, or AI. There is no “intelligence” about it, though it is very much artificial. What was intelligent was the person or team of persons who wrote the software. These had to guess what questions you might ask and upon what various tracks the answers might lead. Once the software is devised, coded and loaded onto a machine the human intelligence is completed. There is no humanity left. There is only the software and the machine that contains it. You type to a machine which receives the electrical signals form the internet and processes them through the software to formulate an “answer”, untouched by human hands.

We are getting accustomed to being used by machines. We often do not think about it, we even want it in some cases. We need to be jealous of our humanity, or we may be imprisoned in a software/mechanical/electrical world.

ASSERTIONS

We must be careful to not blindly accept the assertions that are put forward in the material we read. I use the following sentences as an example:

"Gases like carbon dioxide and methane act like a blanket, heating up Earth in an unnatural and unprecedented way. The rapidly rising temperatures are directly connected to increased extreme weather events like severe storms, worsening wildfires, and devastating droughts."

This set of sentences came from Nick Paschal writing in “The Cool Down”. Lets look at some of the phrases:

“Gases like carbon dioxide and methane act like a blanket . . .” What other gases? Should we be frightened if there is a complex assortment of gases acting like a blanket? Humans and animals that breathe air output carbon dioxide every time they exhale. We, and they, can not stop exhaling. Plants need to take in carbon dioxide to live. Natural processes also output methane. Carbon dioxide and methane will not (and cannot) cease to exist and will continue to give us this “blanket”.

“. . . heating up Earth in an unnatural and unprecedented way.” There is nothing “unnatural” or “unprecedented” about these gases. Their chemical agency has not changed. They act as they always have acted since humans have learned to investigate them and their effects. In themselves they are not alarming.

“The rapidly rising temperatures. . . “ Really? How rapid, compared to what? Many scientists may not agree the temperatures are “rapidly” rising. There is currently dispute about this point. We can all agree we are not in an Ice Age. We all agree the Ice Age took place long ago. Climates have changed and will continue to change. Climate changed before there was any significant human activity.

“[T]emperatures are directly connected to increased extreme weather events . . .” No one likes severe storms, wildfires or devastating droughts. By their very nature they are severe, wild and devastating. They always have been. But which is increasing – the events, or our recording and reporting of them? The reporting of them and the varied interpretations of them certainly has increased. The outlets for our reporting have increased like Facebook, X, Twitter, and “The Cool Down”.

All of us should be careful of the assertions we read and hear and beware of the bias of the information. But we should also beware of our own blinders and earmuffs.

GREY OR NOT

It’s a grey day today. A painter would say that there are cool colors. Our thoughts can be like grey days. Sometimes ideas flow out of the head too fast to write them down. Other times there seems to be nothing of importance. Things seem to be too trivial, too insignificant to record. It is difficult to articulate insignificant thoughts. Are they worth the time and exercise?

What kind of grey day is this? It is not cold and it is not hot. It might rain, yet it might not. Many times in Florida grey days turn sunny whereas in Massachusetts they are apt to stay grey for a stretch of many days. Are we presently like Florida or Massachusetts?

Sometimes our minds are like Florida or like Massachusetts, some get sunny quickly, some stay grey for many days. But even if you live in Boston, Massachusetts or Regina, Saskatchewan, in your mind you can decide to have a Florida day. If you live in Quito, Ecuador you can have a Massachusetts day.

WHAT ARE WE SPEAKING?

The words that we speak can be helpful or hurtful. For example, it can be helpful when we speak uplifting words. Proverbs 20:3 says, “It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.” When we are speaking uplifting, constructive, and positive words, we are not fermenting strife in those we are addressing. For most of us, almost all the time, we are not hoping for strife. Although others may itch for a fight, that is not us, that is not who we are. Let malice reside in the hearts of them, not us.

Yet sometimes seeming too optimistic can misfire. Proverbs 25:20 says, “Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.” Singing songs to a heavy heart can cause a bad or harmful reaction. When one is sorrowful singing a happy song invites comparison which may make the hearer feel worse. He will compare his feelings with the happiness of the song which will make him notice even more the sadness of his own state. Likewise, singing a sad song is likely to make him feel worse. There are times when there should be no music.

Like Proverbs 25:25 says, “[As] cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” There is something refreshing about a faithful messenger and good news. So when we speak to a sad or heavy-hearted person, we must be careful. What is it we intend to say? Will it be like water or gasoline on a fire? Take time to think before you speak. Are you comforting, or standing alongside, or correcting wrong thinking? If you could imagine yourself in his shoes what would you want to hear?

TREASURE TAKES WORK

Proverbs 2:1,2
"My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; "

The action phrases: “receive”, “treasure up”, “making [the ear] attentive, and “inclining” seem to require work.

It takes continual effort to get knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. These things don't come easy, and they don't come quick. It takes work, it takes work every day. Receive, find value, listen up, and lean into wisdom. Apply, cry, lift your voice, seek, search.

When you search for silver and hidden treasure it is not done in five minutes of idle time before watching a video. To seek it you must decide where to go. You must decide to go there. You must inspect every rock formation. You must be diligent in research and then methodically and thoroughly comb the area, balancing your resources while doing it. It takes time and it takes resources. You must spend something.

So it is we have to spend something at God's word.

The application (one of them) of seeking understanding, knowledge, and wisdom is to know the right paths, the right way. Men and women, who are wicked, walk the wrong paths. The knowledge of the truth would have shown them the proper way.

How can one know which is wrong and which is right? Ask one who knows, read what he has written. Read the Bible and pray. You must ". . . receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; "

SOURCES

By looking at Genesis 1

I will make an observation: all things that appear to have a cause-and-effect may not have, or may not always have had, a cause-and-effect relationship. God first made the light, then he divided it from the darkness, then he named the darkness "night" and the light "day". Then the evening and the morning were the first day. It was after that (three days later, on the 4th day) that God created the lights, sun and moon, and attached them to the day/night cycle (to rule over the day and over the night).
-There was light without a source for it (sun, stars).
-There may have been day and night without the rotation of the earth.
-Things may become associated into cause and effect after they both are brought into existence,

There was light -- then there was sources for the light -- then the sources were made to rule over the light . Might there be other things that seem to be in a cause-and-effect relationship which really are not that way? Were energies made before the sources for them came into being? It is not possible for humans to create "energies" before we create the "sources". We always start from the source of the energy.

Does an idea come from a thought, or the thought from the idea?

The Holy Spirit comes from God but where does our human spirit come from? Does it come from the soul? Which came first the soul, or the spirit?

Does feeling produce a thought, or does thought produce a feeling, or can it happen either way?<