About a month ago my friend and I were looking for a movie On Demand through my cable provider, Cox Communications. I came across a movie that seemed pretty interesting. I am an animal lover, so naturally a movie about dolphins was right up my alley. My friend, however, is not an animal lover. Around an hour-and-a-half later, both my friend and I were completely blown away by this low budget, fascinating, heart-wrenching movie.
My friend immediately went to their website, http://www.thecovemovie.com/, and began to look up information encompassing the practically unbelievable information that was brought to light in this amazingly tragic documentary. I decided that I should write a blog about the film as it was so moving that I would really love my friends and followers to see it.
Last night The Cove won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. This would be the crowning achievement for every typical group of filmmakers. It also added to the 46 earlier awards garnered by this illustrious movie making team. The difference in this group of activists is that the Academy Award win served only one purpose. It would allow them to further promote the films rudimentary request: Stop the Murder of Dolphins in Japan.
Every person who watched the Oscars could not help but see Ric O'Barry, the world renowned trainer of the 5 Flipper dolphins, hold up a sign that read "Text Dolphin to 44144." I grew up thinking that an activist was a nut, a member of PETA, and a card carrying psycho. After seeing this movie, I now realize that an activist is simply a person that doesn't watch a true story about murder and then just sit on the couch saying, "Wow," and going right back to mindlessly surfing the net. An activist is one who holds something dear, life in this case, and takes steps to fix the problem no matter how small the steps or how large the obstacle.
Ric O'Barry was not always an activist, but once he saw the most frequently used Flipper dolphin (Kathy) commit suicide in his arms, he realized what true pain the dolphin industry was causing these remarkably intelligent and social animals. Every one of you that read this blog need to go see or rent The Cove. If for nothing else than to test your immunity to any emotion or feelings. Even I teared up while watching it, and for those of you who know me, that is really saying something.
A really sad part of this whole thing is that the dolphin meat, which is eaten in many cases by unknowing Japanese people, is extremely high in Mercury. By that I mean to say that the level is 500 times higher than the level the World Health Organization recommends for eating. The people are merely poisoning themselves. And Mercury is deadly without question. All around the world animals that are widely considered sentient beings, which are fully self aware, are massacred. Watching whales being slaughtered in the Denmark constituent Faeroe Islands is completely unnerving. Whatever we can do to help this cause is an ethical duty. If you are not a person who is concerned with animal well-being and think they are here simply for man to eat, then the fact that this dolphin meat is poisoning humans should still be enough of a reason to get off your couch.
Sometimes it takes someone else taking action to get us out of our own tiny box. I hope that each of you will watch this movie and be moved enough to do something about it.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Delayed Blog
I want to let everyone know that my daughter and fiancee are in town, so it will be another week or so before I post my next blog. My next two blogs are already planned unless I receive an idea from one of my wonderful readers. I truly look forward to discussing the next couple of topics with all of you.
As a side note, we could get 3.5 feet of snow this week in D.C.! Not only is snow awesome, but it keeps the Federal Government from working (which means I have the day off).
See you in a week,
Kevin
As a side note, we could get 3.5 feet of snow this week in D.C.! Not only is snow awesome, but it keeps the Federal Government from working (which means I have the day off).
See you in a week,
Kevin
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Time: God's Science Project
Arguing Science and Faith, Reason and Religion, is probably the oldest task in philosophy. Since I am a Christian, I search for ways to reconcile differences between beliefs I was taught, and logical scientific observations. Why couldn't God have created the universe in a way that is scientifically sound? The first thing we have to realize to bring science and faith closer is that God is not bound by time. For further reference see any prophecy in the Bible.
God is not eternal as we understand it. He exists in a state outside of time. Imagine for a second a cup of water that you or I poured. As we look at it, we can see the top and the bottom. We can choose to put our finger as far into the glass as we desire. And we can look at it with naked eyes and see it as a whole, or with a microscope to see each molecule. Yet the glass is holding all of the water; It is confined to the cup. God's cup is our universe. And God's water is space-time.
Genesis 1: 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Thus we set our stage with Genesis 1:3. If God created the light, then God existed before light. Light must emanate from something, so he must have created a light source. The Big Bang theory is often criticized by Christians. They jeer scientists, guffawing after a dinner at Applebey's after church saying, “Yeah, God said it, and BANG! There it was!” Big deal goofus. I pose this question to you: If God said it and it happened, doesn't it seem obvious that you are merely agreeing with a Big Bang
God said "Let there be light," and that was the first drop of our universe starting to form the Glass of water in his hands. The Big Bang theory (which coincides with Creationist beliefs) is closely tied to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. By reversing the time line of the universe's creation using Einstein's theory, the origins of the universe trace back to an infinite amount of heat and mass. Something that is infinite must be supreme, and God is supreme. So take a chill pill.
Pay attention now; your blood pressure is about to rise. The universe, according to scripture, did not just pop into being as it is today. 13.7 billion years ago (to the nearest 10 -47th of a second) that we can retrace (yes, .1 with 47 zeros in between), the universe was spoken into existence (Big Bang) and it began emitting light. Then in the second half of verse four, he divided the light from the darkness. How does this prove that the universe was not created as it is now? Well since darkness can only exist when something impedes the light, God could not have made stars and opaque celestial bodies simultaneously. His creations over time spawned planets (Earth 4.7 ish billion years ago) and whatever else the celestial chain reaction caused when God divided the light from darkness.
In Verse 5 God called the light Day and the darkness Night. A way to count time was created. 2 Peter 3:8 says "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Some folks try to take this literally as 1 day = 1k years. The verse is simply trying to explain God is not concerned with time. What is a day? On Earth, 24 hours. On Jupiter it is 10 hours, and on Venus it is 243 days. Yes, days. So time is relative. Enter the Theory of Special Relativity.
According to the theory of Special Relativity, light and time are unified in the space-time continuum. This supports the argument that God created not only the universe, but time as well. Being their supreme creator, he is not bound by the universe nor time. We cannot see into the future because we can only see our drops of water: days and nights, minutes and seconds. But for God, time is nothing more than a Glass of water to put his finger in. He poured the water, he made the glass, and it grows ever bigger.
Yet more wood for the creationist fire is found in Einstein's theory. A particle with weight cannot travel faster than the speed of light. The faster something with mass gets, the harder it is to further increase its speed. Photons, however, travel at the speed of light because they have no mass. If they did not travel at the speed of light, they would have no energy, and therefore not exist. In order for God to exist apart from the universe and time, his makeup would have to be absent of mass and matter. This is supported by John 4: 24 which says “God is a spirit.” I am pretty sure that Spirits don't have mass or matter (unless you watch Ghost Hunters on TV).
God created the universe in steps, and is not bound by time. So there is absolutely no reason to bicker about how long it "took" him to create the universe. The question is not IF God has the power to create all of this in 7 days. The question is why would he? It is time to stop putting God's abilities in a week-long box. God called light forth and then created darkness and separated them. Separate actions. Moses this a day because it's something he could grasp. God is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and ending. There is no day to God. And when we move from this life and into eternal life, it will be outside of time. We will be looking back into a glass full of water.
God is not eternal as we understand it. He exists in a state outside of time. Imagine for a second a cup of water that you or I poured. As we look at it, we can see the top and the bottom. We can choose to put our finger as far into the glass as we desire. And we can look at it with naked eyes and see it as a whole, or with a microscope to see each molecule. Yet the glass is holding all of the water; It is confined to the cup. God's cup is our universe. And God's water is space-time.
Genesis 1: 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Thus we set our stage with Genesis 1:3. If God created the light, then God existed before light. Light must emanate from something, so he must have created a light source. The Big Bang theory is often criticized by Christians. They jeer scientists, guffawing after a dinner at Applebey's after church saying, “Yeah, God said it, and BANG! There it was!” Big deal goofus. I pose this question to you: If God said it and it happened, doesn't it seem obvious that you are merely agreeing with a Big Bang
God said "Let there be light," and that was the first drop of our universe starting to form the Glass of water in his hands. The Big Bang theory (which coincides with Creationist beliefs) is closely tied to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. By reversing the time line of the universe's creation using Einstein's theory, the origins of the universe trace back to an infinite amount of heat and mass. Something that is infinite must be supreme, and God is supreme. So take a chill pill.
Pay attention now; your blood pressure is about to rise. The universe, according to scripture, did not just pop into being as it is today. 13.7 billion years ago (to the nearest 10 -47th of a second) that we can retrace (yes, .1 with 47 zeros in between), the universe was spoken into existence (Big Bang) and it began emitting light. Then in the second half of verse four, he divided the light from the darkness. How does this prove that the universe was not created as it is now? Well since darkness can only exist when something impedes the light, God could not have made stars and opaque celestial bodies simultaneously. His creations over time spawned planets (Earth 4.7 ish billion years ago) and whatever else the celestial chain reaction caused when God divided the light from darkness.
In Verse 5 God called the light Day and the darkness Night. A way to count time was created. 2 Peter 3:8 says "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Some folks try to take this literally as 1 day = 1k years. The verse is simply trying to explain God is not concerned with time. What is a day? On Earth, 24 hours. On Jupiter it is 10 hours, and on Venus it is 243 days. Yes, days. So time is relative. Enter the Theory of Special Relativity.
According to the theory of Special Relativity, light and time are unified in the space-time continuum. This supports the argument that God created not only the universe, but time as well. Being their supreme creator, he is not bound by the universe nor time. We cannot see into the future because we can only see our drops of water: days and nights, minutes and seconds. But for God, time is nothing more than a Glass of water to put his finger in. He poured the water, he made the glass, and it grows ever bigger.
Yet more wood for the creationist fire is found in Einstein's theory. A particle with weight cannot travel faster than the speed of light. The faster something with mass gets, the harder it is to further increase its speed. Photons, however, travel at the speed of light because they have no mass. If they did not travel at the speed of light, they would have no energy, and therefore not exist. In order for God to exist apart from the universe and time, his makeup would have to be absent of mass and matter. This is supported by John 4: 24 which says “God is a spirit.” I am pretty sure that Spirits don't have mass or matter (unless you watch Ghost Hunters on TV).
God created the universe in steps, and is not bound by time. So there is absolutely no reason to bicker about how long it "took" him to create the universe. The question is not IF God has the power to create all of this in 7 days. The question is why would he? It is time to stop putting God's abilities in a week-long box. God called light forth and then created darkness and separated them. Separate actions. Moses this a day because it's something he could grasp. God is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and ending. There is no day to God. And when we move from this life and into eternal life, it will be outside of time. We will be looking back into a glass full of water.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Blatant Foreshadowing
I posted on Facebook last night that I hoped to have this blog started up today. Unfortunately, I am a bit of a perfectionist and found myself searching HTML codes so I could make the site what I really wanted it to be during the final three hours of last night and the previous 5 hours of being home. I also spent a large part of the time writing a description of my primary vision for this Blog. I will continue to perfect the site in order to make it more and more appealing, but I thought it only fair to toss in a preliminary taste of something that I plan to hit on at some point in a long and no doubt fun filled journey that will have us all mashing our heads together.
My first piece is a very short snippet of the forward for something I have begun to work on. It is provocative as promised, and I think through this first tiny article any readers will gain a firmer grasp on the types of ideas I am willing to research and flesh out. This is a site for cognizance. Not a site to be spoon fed. Ideas are very welcome, but expect them to be open to discussion via firing squad. Defend thoughts with ideas or research, but not with negative banter. Nobody knows everything, not even the Universe Expert.
Come on in, the water is warm...
Preface
The universe is an immense collection of logic. Which is not to say that the logic of the universe must incline itself toward the logic of mankind, rather that the factuality of the finite universe as we know it is not bound to the human imaginative capability. There is no thing truer than to say that many facets concerning the existence of God seem illogical. The human mind, however, in its finite state cannot be said to possess the capacity to grasp the logic of a being such as God Almighty. Hence we, as humanity, cannot make the ridiculous claim that God's infinite operation and capacity must be confined to a finite set of rules based on human understanding. I present these seemingly obvious few statements simply because many arguments throughout the religious world seek to incarcerate the power of God in the shackles of fathomable traits and perceived reality.
It is important to note that since I am a Christian, I obviously believe that God created the earth, and therefore both the physical and supernatural worlds as each currently exists in a very figurative sense. I will further delve into what I mean by figurative sense of time later in my writing, but the main idea that I wish to present to the world is that God--who cannot be proven to exist or not to exist--should he exist, does not depend on the human ability to prove his existence or non-existence. In other words, he does not need your or my approval or permission to exist. He is fully capable and holds the full right to exist whether we want him to, believe he does, or disavow his existence entirely.
Another thing that I should point out at the onset of this writing, however long and involved it may become, is that I do not seek to prove anyone or anything in specific right or wrong. There may be an intellectual coming-of-age of sorts in my own mind as I study and search for truths. My intent in plotting my journey, sharing my research and including my deductions is to show that the Christian must not necessarily be pitted against science as has been the common course since the "Dark Ages." The basis of my writing is to open doors to new idealogical principles that have never even been seriously discussed before due to Christian ideas being cast aside as naive, or scientists who were afraid of being called Bible Thumpers and losing professional credibility. I have nothing on either of these fronts to lose, and the world has everything to gain by setting a collision course to what I believe to be the truth: Science and God do not have to be enemies. They are, in fact, eternally intertwined.
My first piece is a very short snippet of the forward for something I have begun to work on. It is provocative as promised, and I think through this first tiny article any readers will gain a firmer grasp on the types of ideas I am willing to research and flesh out. This is a site for cognizance. Not a site to be spoon fed. Ideas are very welcome, but expect them to be open to discussion via firing squad. Defend thoughts with ideas or research, but not with negative banter. Nobody knows everything, not even the Universe Expert.
Come on in, the water is warm...
Preface
The universe is an immense collection of logic. Which is not to say that the logic of the universe must incline itself toward the logic of mankind, rather that the factuality of the finite universe as we know it is not bound to the human imaginative capability. There is no thing truer than to say that many facets concerning the existence of God seem illogical. The human mind, however, in its finite state cannot be said to possess the capacity to grasp the logic of a being such as God Almighty. Hence we, as humanity, cannot make the ridiculous claim that God's infinite operation and capacity must be confined to a finite set of rules based on human understanding. I present these seemingly obvious few statements simply because many arguments throughout the religious world seek to incarcerate the power of God in the shackles of fathomable traits and perceived reality.
It is important to note that since I am a Christian, I obviously believe that God created the earth, and therefore both the physical and supernatural worlds as each currently exists in a very figurative sense. I will further delve into what I mean by figurative sense of time later in my writing, but the main idea that I wish to present to the world is that God--who cannot be proven to exist or not to exist--should he exist, does not depend on the human ability to prove his existence or non-existence. In other words, he does not need your or my approval or permission to exist. He is fully capable and holds the full right to exist whether we want him to, believe he does, or disavow his existence entirely.
Another thing that I should point out at the onset of this writing, however long and involved it may become, is that I do not seek to prove anyone or anything in specific right or wrong. There may be an intellectual coming-of-age of sorts in my own mind as I study and search for truths. My intent in plotting my journey, sharing my research and including my deductions is to show that the Christian must not necessarily be pitted against science as has been the common course since the "Dark Ages." The basis of my writing is to open doors to new idealogical principles that have never even been seriously discussed before due to Christian ideas being cast aside as naive, or scientists who were afraid of being called Bible Thumpers and losing professional credibility. I have nothing on either of these fronts to lose, and the world has everything to gain by setting a collision course to what I believe to be the truth: Science and God do not have to be enemies. They are, in fact, eternally intertwined.
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