2012

The Long Count Calendar of the Mayan civilisation suggests that the end of time may occur on the 21st of December 2012. In spite of a lack of scientific measuring instruments by the Mayans in their studies of the movements of the stars from which this foresight is based, they had noted a one-degree shift in that movement through lifetimes of observations.

I would be sceptical of any doomsday prophecy, even this made by people whose civilisation began in 2000BC, if it were not for the fact that the year 2012 coincides with the scientifically-based prediction that sunspots (causing sun flares) will reach its highest point of development on that same year. We are going to get fried.

Knowing this, we should think that perhaps our lives would be of better use in helping others and making the world a little more bearable to live in.

2012: Science or Superstition
The Maya Civilisation

 

The Negative Zone

Have you ever had a string of bad luck and wondered what it was you’ve done to incur the anger of the gods, or asked yourself, why me? I consider myself a rational person, and I know that problems do not happen by themselves. But this has happened to me countless times, and I have wondered if witches do exist who cast bad spells out of spite or jealousy.

I was watching a documentary on French television the other day about a small village on the western coast of France. In this village, the inhabitants believe in the existence of the unknown.

When a bad spell is cast by the Unknown, the person or the place is in what they called the Negative Zone. The person or the place is exorcised of this spell through some incantations which sound like Christian prayers. These incantations must be a plea to stop from being the object of a Spirit’s mad desires. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the bad luck disappears.

If the first dimension is life and the second dimension, death, then a “third dimension” must exist–a space where “spirits” live and who have the power to change the course of events in people’s lives according to their whims. But whatever it is, this negative zone and the unknown… what I really would like to know is: Why?

 

The Waking Life

What is reality? What separates the dream state and the waking state? When does awareness step in? You sweat and wake from a nightmare. It seemed real. You are happy, and ask yourself if you’re dreaming. Who determines reality?

(More than a discussion of reality, philosophical views are expressed in its different perspectives).

 

Create Your Own Reality

The reality you want to achieve is all a matter of quantum physics. Or is it the power of positive thinking?

see also: Quantum Physics: The Double-Slit Experiment

 

End Timers: Provoking the Fulfilment of the Prophecies in the Book of Revelations

American evangelical Christians are dangerously becoming the catalyst in bringing about the end of the world. They are setting the stage for war that will, according to their belief, bring about the coming of Jesus Christ. At this end of the world scenario, they will be whisked to heaven and those left behind will experience famines, disasters, violence, brutality and death.

It is this being “whisked into heaven” — the Rapture, that they are looking forward to. And for those who have been left behind, they must withdraw from society and live in seclusion in a certain place in order to survive the Tribulation.

These End Timers are a Doomsday cult, pure and simple. They stifle positive and constructive solutions to the world’s problems. People who follow this cult are a pathetic lot because as they wait for the end of the world, they have no motivation to improve their own lives.

The End Timers are no laughing matter nor can they be ignored. They have such a strong political hold of the strongest military nation in the world, that they in fact, might just succeed in precipitating the end of the world.

Based on Tony Robinson’s documentary video report: The Doomsday Code
Debates and Controversies: The Doomsday Code

 

I think, therefore I am

Arlene was having trouble with her homework in philosophy class. “We’re studying Descartes,” she said. “He starts out with cogito, ergo sum — I think, therefore I am — and ends up proving the existence of God.”

“Impossible!” I said, without stopping to think that I was doubting the great Descartes. It was a reaction I learnt from my father: Have no respect whatsoever for authority. Instead, look at what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, “Is it reasonable?”

I said, “How can you deduce one from the other?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Well, let’s look it over,” I said. “What’s the argument?” So we look it over, and we see that Descartes’ statement, cogito, ergo sum, is supposed to mean that there is one thing that cannot be doubted — doubt itself. “Why doesn’t he just say it straight?” I complained. “He just means that he has one fact that he knows.”

Then he goes on and says things like, “I can only imagine imperfect thoughts, but imperfect can only be understood as referent to the perfect. Hence the perfect must exist somewhere.” He’s working his way towards God now.

“Not at all!” I say. “In science you can talk about relative degrees of approximation without having a perfect theory.”

“What Do You Care What Other People Think?” by Richard P. Feynman, Bantam Books © 1988

 

The Razor’s Edge

“Two years!” cried Isabel. “What did you do for all that time?”

“The holy man taught me many things,” replied Larry. “I thought about life. I learnt to be calm and to empty my mind of all unhappiness. I was glad to be with this man.”

Gray looked rather uncomfortable. He did not understand Larry. Isabel, too, was surprised by his answer.

“You gave this man two years of your life. What did he give you?”

“Peace,” said Larry with a smile… “[These holy men] believe that life has no beginning and no end. When we die, our life passes into another body. We live another life, but we do not remember what happened to us before.”

… “But now you are in France. What made you leave India? Did the holy man die?”

“No, but something happened to me… These holy men tell us that some people can become completely happy. This happiness is like a light or a fire that fills their whole mind. When that happens, these people do not return to life when they die. They [become] drops of water that [are] part of the sea for ever.”

“Did this happen to you?” I asked him. Larry looked up at me and he laughed quietly.

… When I think about Larry, I remember a saying from the East: The path of true happiness is difficult to follow. It is as difficult as walking on the edge of a razor.

——–

“The Razor’s Edge” by W. Somerset Maugham, 1944

 

On the Patient Endurance of Human Trials and Suffering

   [The new religion] sees evidence in the moral history of the human race that a loving God rules the universe. Trust in this supreme rule is genuine consolation and support under many human trials and sufferings.

Nevertheless, although brave and patient endurance of evils is always admirable, and generally happier than timid or impatient conduct under suffering or wrong, it must be admitted that endurance or constancy is not consolation, and that there are many physical and mental disabilities and injuries for which there is no consolation in a literal sense.

Human skill may mitigate or palliate some of them, human sympathy and kindness may make them more bearable, but neither religion nor philosophy offers any complete consolation for them, or ever has.

The Religion of the Future by Charles W. Eliot
(Harvard University President; lecture delivered at the Harvard Summer School of Theology, July 22, 1909)