Southern Baptist sides with Atheists on Evolution/Creation debate

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler agrees with Atheist that Evolution is inconsistent with belief in God

"Sometimes it takes an atheist to see the truth in a theological argument."

This happens all the time and its really sad to see. Militant Vocal Atheists like Richard Dawkins trumpet their assertion that acceptance of evolution destroys faith in the God of the Bible and Fundamentalists largely agree with them.

Its a really dumb position for a Christian to take. The argument is basically this.

Instead of seeing the atheist as drawing false implications(atheism) from a true set of facts( clear evidence for an ancient earth and common descent) Fundamentalists prefer rather to regard them as drawing a correct inference from a flase set of facts.

Its as if they are saying, "Gee, Mr. Dawkins et al, your logic is so air tight that if I were to accept evolution I would be forced to become an atheist like yourself."

So the response is to vehemently deny evolution in spite of the overwhelming evidence for it.(evidence from diverse fields, like the fossil record, biogeography and DNA that are united under the theory of evolution) and even to concoct evidence and create things like goofy pseudoscientific "Creation" Museums that portray "evidence" that the Earth is 6000 years old and that Dinosaurs and Humans were at one time contemporaries.

In the above article Mohler is is attacking, not atheists or atheism but rather a fellow Christian College professor by the name of Giberson. Giberson is performing the seemingly thankless task of trying to harmonize orthodox Christian theology and evolution.

I say "seemingly" thankless because I am sure many fairly intelligent scientifically semi-literate Christians are very thankful for it. I read one of his books "Saving Darwin" and I was very thankful for it.

He isn't getting any thanks from these self appointed gate keepers of the Christian Faith like Mohler and others that seem to enjoy putting these increasingly bizzare litmus tests out there for the true Christian Faith.

Do I really have to believe Dinosaurs once frolicked around with Adman and Eve in the Garden of Eden, in order for me to be a Christian? When did this happen? I thought the central doctrine of Christianity was redemption through the ressurected Christ?

What ever happened to C.S. Lewis "Mere Christianity"? Does it still exist. I think it does exist. In fact Mere Christianity is alive and well. I recently found out thast Francis Collins head of Human Genome Project converted to Christianity after reading C.S. Lewis' tome. Here is a quote from his interview in Salon.com:

So that one book totally changed your life?

Absolutely. It was as if he was reading my mind. As I read his arguments about the Moral Law -- the knowledge of right and wrong, which makes no sense from the perspective of basic evolution and biology but makes great sense as a signpost to God -- I began to realize the truth of what he was saying. Ultimately, I realized I couldn't go back to where I was. I could never again say atheism is the only logical choice for a scientifically trained person.

As far as harmonizing Christianity and evolution, Giberson admits he is no Theologian. Isn't that usually how it works though? God using ordinary people to do extrordinary tasks? Who else is strepping up to the plate? Are there any Brilliant Theologians out there stepping up to the plate?

Personally, though I think its a serious controversy I don't think its actually as monumental a task as its made out to be. To be a Christian is to be a Creationist by definition. If its true that God used evolution and large stretches of time to create life on Earth in all its diversity, rather than simply *poofing* everything into existence 6000 years ago in six literal 24 hour days-then such was the case when Jesus came to Earth. Such was the case when Paul wrote his epistles. Such was the case when Martin Luther kicked off the protestant Reformation.

Evolution is old news. Its been going on for Billions of years. Atheism is old news too. Psalm 53:1 "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. "

YEC

http://beyondcreationscience.com/index.php?pr=Read_Chapter_6

Bigfoot

Bigfoot is actually people, like you and I, only larger and smellier. They have hair not fur. Their bodies are actually covered in dreadlocks. They have really offensive body odor similar to many large fat people, only worse. Actually they may not be all that much smellier than regular people per se, its just that they are magnified in every aspect. Their feet are bigger they bodies are bigger, and so their stench is bigger. They often have algae growing in their dreadlocks.

They keep warm due to being so large. The matted hair doesn't really provide much insulation. They probably have excellent circulation also with many capilaries near the surface of their skin, especially in their feet, which are always bare.

Like I said they are people. They have a language they speak amongst themselves and very advanced brains like humans. One difference is that they are more in tune with their psychic abilities than most modern humans. That is how they stay hidden. Whenever they are spotted by humans it really freaks and stresses them out. They get emotional. They get really scared and send out really strong fear vibes that the humans that are looking at them pick up on and feel really scared too. This also makes them stink more because adrenaline causes a type of body odor. People that have been in combat are familiar with this smell.

They have very powerful auras and a very strong life force. They are stronger than humans in every way. They are stronger than any other animal in the forest also including grizzly bears.

Male Sasquatches can weigh over a thousand lbs. Vety few grizzlies get that large, the ones that do still shy away from them because Sasquatches match them in strengths and size but far surpass them in intelligence.

Sasquatches are people, but also animals. That is they have animal smarts. Humans, especially modern humans usually have really dim animal smarts. So in this regard Sasquatches are superior to humans in intelligence.

Things are looking kind of grim right now for Sasquatches. They live longer than humans (over a hundred years) but are very few in number. The sightings are actually the same few individuals being seen again and a again. In the last hundred years they have suffered massive habitat destruction.

They have a much healthier immune system than modern humans and also a much more powerful digestive system that allows them to eat more wild foods that modern humans would be unable to digest. They also hunt and eat deer and elk, and occasionally even live stock in remote areas, even roadkill.

If anyone is ever able to shoot and kill a bigfoot they will have a murder on their conscience. They are people.

However that is not likely to happen, as such a person stalking around the forest is unlikely to see one as they will be telegraphing themselves by putting out really negative vibes that the Sasquatches will pick up on.

Gentle nature loving hippy type people commonly see Sasquatch in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Most people that see one don't tell anyone.

Fellow Vagabonds

Christopher McCandless

Leo Tolstoy

Henry David Thoreau

William Hazlitt

Vagabond

What I am

Civilization as we know it began with the advent of...Fru fru dogs?

Check it out

A phylogeographic analysis of gene sequences important in determining body size in dogs, recently published in BMC Biology, traces the appearance of small body size to the Neolithic Middle East. This finding strengthens the association of this event with the development of sedentary societies, and perhaps even has implications for the inception of human social inequality.

The important thing to remember...

There is no "necessary evil" You absolutely do not have to do evil to other human beings in order to get by.

Every Negative Institution in the World is perpetuated on the reverse of the above premise.

It goes like this: "In order for us and our loved ones to live a good and comfortable life, most of the people in the world need to continue to get the shaft."

They think of it as a "dirty little secret" that "all grown ups know." The Power elite and their shills/Flunkeys/Minions are basically not only elitist but Malthusian and ultimately fatalistic.

In many cases they are right. People are often naive. People often do derive pleasure from products they buy, unaware that those products have come to them by the agency of exploitation and human misery.

But really it is possible to lead a good life without preying on others. That is a very important thing to remember. I am trying to make it one of my core values.

More on the minds of elites

Just to bring some things into focus. I believe that "The Power Elite" "The Oligarchs" "Aristocracy" are basically genetic psychopaths with High IQ's. How they have shaped themselves into a specific sub population of the human race over the centuries, could perhaps be replicated in some type of twisted scientific experiment conducted among prison populations.

Most prisoners are idiots. Literally. The mean IQ in any given prison population is around 60.

If you were to somehow glean from all the worlds Prisons a group of (psychopathic)individuals with high IQ's and breed them to equally psychopathic, grasping, socially climbing women, you would have the basic building blocks of a population very similar to the Global Elite.

There is one more selection criteria you would have to subject them to however. You would have to set up a series of tournaments involving the game Risk

The losers would be eliminated from the gene pool, i.e. killed, and the winners would be given massive amounts of wealth and power.

You would arrive at a group of formidable inbred psychopaths, capable of highly sophisticated strategic thinking. They would in a sense be almost robotic in the cold calculating nature of their minds, they might even seem to some to be almost alien or reptilian in some way, so bereft they would be of normal human sentiments and warmth.

Psychopaths are narcissistically egocentric and live in a dead, mechanical quasi solipsistic Universe. I say quasi, here, because the most intelligent psychopaths have advanced "theories of mind" that take into account the minds and motives of other human beings. They are not autistic.

According to this research:
Political Ponerology

Psychopaths may all be slightly below average in intelligence. I am not sure if I agree with that or not. In anycase, I believe high level psychopaths may have a knack for manipulating people more intelligent than they such as scientists, researchers, intelligence analysts and people in Think Tanks.

My Dilemma

I am a broke idiot nobody. Ironically, I understand politics. Most people don't. Most people are apparently dumber than I am. How can there be any hope in the World?

Couple ideas(why the situation may not be as bleak as I think):

I am a big Picture Thinker. Many people are specialists, who may actually have a high level of proficiency/competency in their sphere of influence. They are able to be happy, and fulfilled in their work and fairly well compensated while remaining woefully ignorant as to how the world actually works.

Also Perhaps knowing a lot actually makes it harder for me to make decisions. That could be part of my problem.

But anyway here it goes a short summary on the way the world works:

The World is ruled by a global Cabal of Oligarchs who control the world, Feudal style, through the Banking System. This system has many institutional antecedents, basically this is the structure of all Empires past and present. Its just that the present one has undergone some modifications.

Basically its become more or less invisible. Its based in the West among Western nations who believe they are democracies. So that is why its invisible.

Its not a Democratic Empire, rather it functions while being totally insulated from the democratic process.

The masses turn on the T.V, and see Barrack Obama addressing the nation and say "Ah, Look, The democratically elected leader of the Free World." and then they flip the channel to "Jersey Shore" and return to their stupefied, fast food induced waking slumber.

The thing is Barrack Obama has absolutely no power. He is a hired hand. A spokesperson. That's all. Barrack Obama probably knows this. In the past there have been presidents such as Richard Nixon, who were serious Narcissistic head cases. They deluded themselves into thinking they had power, even though they really didn't. But all the most recent Presidents starting with Ronald Reagan understood the limited scope of their power.

All Power rests in the Banks, the Corporations and the Military, in (roughly) that order. The Most powerful organizations are not Public Institutions but private ones.

Centuries ago, there were all these Warring Barbarians, building Kingdoms and fighting each other. Every once in a while A group of Barbarians would really get their shit together and take over a huge piece of land. Then they would have an Empire. Everyone had to pay taxes to them. Everyone knew it was because they just got their asses kicked by the barbarians. It was no secret. The idea was the barbarians could have killed everyone in the land if they had wanted to. But instead they decided to let everyone live. So the agreement was to pay these guys so they will be happy and not kill you.

Eventually these Barbarians became known as Royalty. Over the years, some people got pissed off about society being ordered in this way. Why should a parasitic upper class get fat off the labor of hard working peasants? So there would be revolutions.

Fast Forward a bunch of years past the industrial revolution etc. and you have The United States of America, being an "experiment in Democracy" We supposedly don't have Royalty but only democratically elected representative government with all these "checks and balances" blah blah blah.

really, what happened is these same Barbarians are running the show now. They just quietly took over, over the course of a few decades.

In a way you have to hand it to them. They are smart. You see, its not easy being a Barbarian. At least at one time it wasn't. It was a hard life for many years, always fighting and murdering, raping and pillaging. But over the years they have become much more genteel.

They built all these machines basically that do most of their work for them. One such machine is called "The Corporation" another machine is called "The Nation State" These machines function in such a way as to siphon wealth and power, away from the Earth and from the Common people to themselves.

All while making it look as though something else entirely was happening instead.

A lot of these Motherfuckers are actually the direct descendants of the Same Barbarians that ruled Europe during the middle ages. A lot have researchers have made some very fanciful speculations about this, saying that they are really space Aliens or Lizards, or fallen angels.

I tend to think that either there is nothing special in particular about these peoples DNA or else all it is is that they are a special sub population of the human race that has begun to diverge and evolve differently than the rest of the human population.

I think basically what you have are some criminally minded people, that are more intelligent and sophisticated than most criminals. I think it is due to a type of selection. For example, Greyhounds are a breed of dog that has been artificially selected over many generations to run fast.

Aristocrats are a population that has been in the game of power and political intrigue for as many generations as greyhounds have been chasing electric rabbits, and more.

They started out as a bunch of bearded, beer swilling, animal fur wearing, sword wielding pirates, and are now a group of very refined, wine tasting, seemingly effete sophisticates.

But scratch a little below the surface and the old barbarian blood shows itself, freely. Especially when you take into account all the murders and assassinations that follow them around like the wake from one of their billion dollar Yachts.

You see if it were easy to be an Oligarch everyone would be doing it! There are scores of thugs, lined up for miles ready to take their place should they fall.

They have been at it for a long time. They know how to play the game. They play it at a very high level and they play for keeps. This is why we have nuclear weapons. That is an invention that springs straight from the barbarian mind. "If we had wanted to we could have killed everybody. But we decided out of the goodness of our hearts, to let you live. So now you must pay us tribute."

That, my friend is the how the world works.

Another Corbett that kicks ass!

Global Warming scam: "the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist"

Basically this goes to show that there are people out there with integrity. But really its rare to find people like that. Most people are able to be bought off, and that's basically whats has happened to the scientific community in regards to the Global Warming Scam.

Hal Lewis: "My resignation from the American Phsyical Society

This reminds me of the book of Job, where it appears that Satan is actually working for God in order to test people's integrity.

My impression of the whole fisaco is this:

First of all, Academia itself is too much about brain washing and creating intellectual conformity. The Humanities especially is prone to that. Take that aspect away and virtually nothing remains. So over the years lots of people with true intellectual curiosity an integrity have gone into the Sciences.

But there has been a long ongoing program there as well for the Science departments to be bought out by the US military Industrial Complex.

"Global Warming" was thought up in some think tank somewhere and the Oligarchs, Power Elite, what have you, decided to promote it as pat of their agenda and so they poured trillions of dollars in Grant money for Scientists to find "the right things" and most of these fucking assholes went right along with it. So there you have it. Fuck Al Gore.

The Highjacking of the Environmantal Movement by Ologarchy

More from the Corbett Report

Your movement has been usurped by the very same financial interests you thought you were fighting against.

You have suspected as much for years.

You watched at first with hope and excitement as your movement, your cause, your message began to spread, as it was taken up by the media and given attention, as conferences were organized and as the ideas you had struggled so long and hard to be heard were talked about nationally. Then internationally.

You watched with growing unease as the message was simplified. First it became a slogan. Then it became a brand. Soon it was nothing more than a label and it became attached to products. The ideas you had once fought for were now being sold back to you. For profit.

Interesting Facebook discussion regarding "Anarcho-Primitivism as a "descriptive Philosophy" rather than "prescriptive"

Btw, the do see the irony in creating a Facebook page!

I guess that's how I feel about it only I would go a little deeper. That is I feel like a Hunter Gatherer trapped in Technological mass society. I have always felt that way from a young age.

But as far as blowing everything up so that everyone is forced to wear animal skins and hunt with spears again, I soon developed differences with Derrick Jensen et al on that point, while exploring these ideas on my blog.

As far as alternative solutions I got turned on to the writings of Buckminster Fuller at some point, also, I actually do like a lot of things about the whole "Green blah blah blah" movement, "sustainable development" etc. even though a lot of it is phony and has been hijacked by Corporate Capitalist marketing departments. Also it doesn't address a lot of systemic problems. Evenso its hard to criticize people for at least making an effort

But I just keep coming back, to feeling like a hunter gather and wanting to return to the wild while living in (and struggling to get by in) this modern world.

Tendency to go to extremes

I am known among family and friends for periodically risking my life in dangerous adventures. Often, I am asked why I do these things. I never can quite put it into words. For one thing, I never plan to risk my life I just like spending time alone outdoors and then...things happen. A few days ago, as I found myself doing a class 4 climb down a mountain, alone, off the trail, with no map and no climbing equipment, no real idea where I was (other than the fact that I was in the Sawtooth range of the Olympic National Forsest a days climb away from the Staircase Ranger Station)I decided to do some soul searching. How and why do I get into these situations?

How it Started

So, I had this idea, of visiting a wilderness area in solitude and spending time in meditation, communing with nature and with the divine. I wanted to fast for a day or two while I was there, so I didn't bring much food, I just brought a change of clothes, my journal, some Art supplies and my sketchpad. I put everything in my Backpack and rolled my summer sleeping bag inside my bivvy sack and secured it to my back pack.

So far so good, right? I mean not everyone's cup of tee to sleep alone out in the woods with no food, but its is a fairly safe thing for an eccentric nature lover to do.

I had found out on the internet that the nearest wilderness to Olympia WA is the Skokomish Wilderness area, just North of lake Cushman. So I printed off the Mapquest directions and biked out there... 40 miles...and the Mapquest drections weren't really specific, in terms of getting to the Wildrness area, but just got me to the nearest town which was Hoodsport. I left at 3 pm.

OK...Maybe this is where I start to diverge from most people. Perhaps most people wouldn't just head off on a 40 mile bike trip without a clear idea where they were going, knowing it will get dark soon and that will be out in the middle of nowhere. Did I mention I was totally broke?

But to me this isn't really a problem, because I have a Gortex bivvy sack, I don't need a motel room. I just need a quiet out of the way place to camp. I call it stealth camping. And although, I had never been there before I knew there would be woods to sleep in along the way.

So yeah, it got dark, but not until I was almost all the way there and then I snuck into a park, that was already closed for the season, and laid out my bivvy and spent the night. So that went well.

Would most people do that? I dunno, probably not. Most people are afraid of the dark, too, though. I am not. Technically it was illegal, but I don't find it unethical, since I didn't disturb anything or leave any trash around.

So that went without a hitch. I hadn't started fasting yet, but my snack supply was running low, but I did have a couple cans of sardines left and two cans of Vienna sausages.

The next day I found a Park that bordered the wilderness area. This is where a little more research would have come in handy. The Staircase National Park, did border the wilderness area, but there were no trails leading to it, it was on the other side of, basically some mountains. The way to access the wilderness was from the other side along the Hamma Hamma River, not from Lake Cushman.

Once again, what would a "normal" person do? Get discouraged and peddle back home? Go 10-15 miles back into town and get more information, and then come back?

To me those were not options I considered. I decided that the simplest solution would be to enter the wilderness by climbing the mountains. The only problem was, I had no maps.

Another, dilemma I encountered though was that according to my research on the internet, it was free to hike and Camp in the Skokomish Wildrness and required no permit. But, here in the Staircase there were fees and registration was required.

I had only 3 bucks on me. I needed more to camp over night.

Once again what would a normal person do? I am really trying to figure this out. Maybe never go to a strange place overnight with only three bucks on you? So then they wouldn't have gotten to this point. If they had, what would they do? Turn around and go back?

These options didn't occur to me. I decided instead to simply avoid the Ranger! I figure if I don't tell him I'm here, or where I am going, I don't have to pay him. It would have been nice to get some more info, but then he would ask me for my trail pass and I wouldn't have it and then I would get a ticket.

So trying to look casual, I strolled past the Ranger station, without registering, and making a quick glance, I noticed a sign: Ranger Out on Patrol. So I figured great, he's not here. So I walked up and got some free maps, that turned out to be totally inadequate.

I think its a conspiracy really. My theory is that Rangers don't really want people going into the Wildrness, so that is why these free maps are so sucky. The free map just showed some easy trails, the kind old people and small kids could walk safely on. It gave me only a Vague idea how to get over the mountains to the Wilderness area.

So I headed up the trail. I encountered a nice couple picking mushrooms, probably, illegally, BTW. Lots of fun harmless activities are against the law in These Parks I have found. I asked them how to get to the Skokomish wilderness Area. They hadn't heard of it. I asked about the Horse tracks. They said they Ranger had just gone up the trail with a team of 5 horses in tow, carrying square metal boxes. They said it looked like he would be up there for a while. They gave me some mushrooms and wished me luck.

So, here was the plan, Continue on the trail to Flap Jack Lakes, if I hear horses coming down the trail, assume its the Ranger, jump off the trail and hide in the woods and let him pass by, then I won't see him for the rest of the trip and won't have to worry about getting a ticket.

So that's what I did. It happened exactly like that. You see, I do plan. I am able to create contingency plans for worst case scenarios. I was prepared and my plan worked.

I heard horses, I jumped of the trail into some thick brush and the Ranger never knew I was there and went on by with his six horses. I was only four feet away. The funny thing is the lead horse knew. It balked and wouldn't go down the trail. The Ranger just assumed it was being difficult and coaxed it along saying "Come on, Let's go. Down the trail...That's it...down the trail." He didn't seem like such a bad guy I thought. But still in a way he was the enemy. He had a gun and a badge and represented authority, and I am a rebel. I am like a wild animal. I like to sleep in the woods, I like to pick berries and mushrooms and don't see any reason to have to explain my actions or ask permission, or pay tribute to, some man in a Uniform, carrying a gun. If I'm not hurting anyone than why should I?

So just up the trail, I find an unmarked side trail, leading up the side of the mountains. Aha! This must be the way to the Wilderness and its unmarked because they don't want anyone going up here, unless they knew about it ahead of time, like serious mountaineering type people.

So I ran up the switchbacks putting as much distance between me and the Ranger as I could. There was a Forest Fire here in 1985 that killed a lot of big trees, so there were lots of big trees across the trial. Still, I was able to clamber over them and the trail was fairly easy to follow, it just cut back and forth up the side of a mountain, the name of which, as yet unknown to me. I found out later, it was Mt Lincoln.

The Trail finally disappeared and I had to scramble for several hours through a morass of thick brush and fallen logs, My clothes became soaked and wet from dew and covered with soot from the burned trees. It was then that it occured to me that my peaceful commune in the Wilderness was not going as planned.

I think what it is is that I just have too much energy. This mountain presented itself to me and I just needed to climb it and come Hell or High water (literally) I just had to get to the top. I hadn't planned it, but there it was and I had to do it.

I got passed the burn and the thick brush, and it was a wonderful view. There was not a cloud in the Sky and all I could see around me from Horizon to Horizon were endless mountain peaks, some snow covered, some not. Seemingly endless wilderness. It was starting to get dark, so I made camp in a forested plateu, under a big dead tree.

So the next day, I reached the summit and came down a little ways over the other side. I realized then with my clear view, that the ridge was shaped like a 'y' and I was at the tail end of the 'y' so going down the other side of the mountain would not get me into the wilderness area! The wilderness are was inside the top part of the 'y' so I would either have to walk a long the ridge or descend into a valley and climb another mountain to get to it. This, I did not want to do. First off the ridge would be nearly impossible to traverse in that way and after a day and a half of climbing I did not feel like climbing down into a valley just to climb back up again, plus I knew it would take a lot of energy and I had no food left.

So, I started climbing down the mountain making my own trail. Fortunately there were lots of berries to eat. That is another thing about being "oh so prepared" like everyone else seems to be. Being unprepared really teaches you survival skills. If I had brought a bunch of food, would I have learned that I can sustain myself for a day just on berries? Would I have discovered three varieties of edible berries? No, I wouldn't have. I would have eaten a couple noticed how many berries were around and made a mental note that "if I had to" I could just about survive on these for a day. Then I would have had my sandwich or whatever.

But as it turned out, these berries were delicious! They were the best berries I have ever eaten and I filled up on them and they gave me enough energy to climb down the mountain over the next day and a half.

Here is where things got hairy though.

Here is the problem with seeking spontaneous adventure and not preparing beforehand: Sometimes all you discover are things like "This route doesn't work." Its like reinventing the wheel only worse because its more like reinventing a failed prototype of the wheel. That's something that is not as fun to learn as things like what its like to sustain yourself on nothing but wild berries for a day.

So as I descended the mountain, I learned that I wasn't going down a good route. I got a little concerned when I began to see too much sky between the trees, implying that what was in front of them was not more trees going down a steady slope but rather a big drop off over a sheer rock face. I found a crack going through this area that was a steep climb but doable. Then I came to what looked like a dead end. Above me was a steep climb that would lead back up to the top of the mountain again, below me was what appeared to be a 60 foot drop.

I wondered if this were the end. I seriously wondered if this is where I would die. For some reason it didn't immediately occur to me that I could climb back up. So determined was I to go forward.

But then after a short while I shook myself out of this melancholy state. Though there was no way to climb down with my bulky pack, without the pack it looked doable. So with that, I threw it down 60 feet and climbed down.

I felt like I passed some type of threshold. I could feel it in my body. I changed just a little bit. The key is not to worry about things out of my control, but to instead focus on what I am capable of, what I can do physically. I could feel in my body how it was possible for me to climb down. I admit I sometimes spend too much time "in my head" but these rocks were solid; tangible. I seemed to know instinctively how to climb down. I could trust my body.

After I made it down, I picked up my pack. I had blown out a clip and my sleeping bag precariously hung from the remaining strap. So I repacked it. I found out later that I had blown several art markers to bits.

I soon came to a stream and decided to follow it off of the mountain, it was soggy going, but went will until the creek turned into a series of steep water falls. So for the rest of the day I basically did a class three climb down boulders along this waterfall for 10 hours until it got dark. Then I spent the night on a relatively flat area, the size of a queen sized bed right by the falls. I slept well.

The next day I climbed down more class three waterfalls for about 4 hours and until What I found out was called "slate Creek" emptied back into the boundaries of the Staircase Recreation area. Then I walked out to where I had stashed my Bike and peddled the 40 miles home.

Conclusion:

I can't tempt fate forever, However part of my wants to continue to challenge myself. What I should do is acknowledge that I have a tendency to want to do extreme sports and go on far flung adventures. I need to joing a mountaineering club or get with other like minded folks and PLAN some adventures, that will be safer yet more extreme.

Flying Saucers and Vril Society Mediums

Maria Orsic

Snarling wolf

Interesting Characters

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Wikipedia:

Ranulph Fiennes

The Epitome of a British Gentleman Adventurer. He even almost got the role of playing James Bond. The real McCoy.

This is interesting to me basically because The guy is a Baron, distantly related to the Royal family and a real life adventurer. Once again these are the types of people behind The Environmental movement and population control.

Here is another guy cut from similar cloth:

David de Rothschild

Who owns the World?

Apparently the Queen of England At least 1/6 of it anyhow

Types of People behind the WWF and Environmental Movement in general

I was just looking at the page on the 1001 club again on the ISGP website. The 1001 Club is the elite inner circle of the WWF, composed of various Royals and elite billionaires. Most people aren't aware of this and think of the environmental movement as being led by a bunch of left wing hippies. So anyway, I was perusing through there and I saw some really haughty looking German dude with a hot looking wife and googled his name to see what they were up to these days. I wanted to see what info I could find to see what these people were like, to gain some insight into their motives. I found this link off of wikipedia:

Thurn und Taxis family

Pretty breath taking presentation. Analogy:

Wolves were recently reintroduced to Yellowstone. I mean, ten or so years ago. So since then the vegetation has really come back and everything is more in balance. The elk had become over populated and were overgrazing.

Do these royals and elite billionaires see themselves as the Wolves of the Earth? Population control is a top priority of these folks. Royalty goes back to Feudalism which is more or less about Lords living off of herds of domesticated humans working the land.

European Aristocrats have triditionally had large hunting preserves, which allowed wildlife to flourish while keeping the common people out. So it makes sense I guess that they would want to "Thin the herd" and that they would see themselves as having a right to do so.

The hard sell is getting the masses to think of the environmental movement as democratic and egalitarian, you know-something everyone should support. That is where documentarians like Matt Briggs come in.

Why I'm a Left Wing Climate Change Skeptic

Its probably Noam Chomsky's fault. I was reading one of his books earlier in the day that I viewed a showing of "Deep Green" at the Olympia Film Society. You see several years ago good ol' Noam helped me to understand Western Imperialism. The developing World is a basically a big colony to Western nations who continue to exploit their resources and politically oppress their citizens.

So When I watched this documentary and saw film Maker Matt Briggs constantly praising China on its environmental record and interviewing, rich White Capitalist after rich White capitalist including Neo con and PNAC member, and former CIA director Jim Woolsey, I became a bit skeptical.

Well, I'm actually skeptical by nature, its hard for me to view any type of media as anything other than propaganda. To me its all propaganda, weather left wing or right wing, everyone has a point of view and an agenda and everyone tends to skew the facts in favor of their argument.

So I started seeing some red flags.

First of all, it smacks of a Fire and Brimstone Evangelical Sermon.

We see Briggs walking around picking mushrooms, and noticing that the trees are dying,Why? He must get to the bottom of this mystery!so He read an enormous stack of books over three years and concludes basically that We are all dirty rotten sinners, in this case though the sin is not fornication and boozing, but greed and laziness. So we all need to take Briggs example and lead a life of hard work(gardening)austerity and self sacrifice (plus do a really expensive seeming overhaul of our homes) and fly right from here on out, otherwise....It will be literally Fire and Brimstone falling from the Sky, Hell on Earth. Armageddon.

Basically Fear Mongering. I am am skeptical of anyone trying to use fear tactics to get me on board with their agenda, especially and agenda such as this, which I happen to be behind 80% already anyway. Simply, because I think, recycling, eating locally grown organic food, conserving forests are simply good ideas that will create more beauty and harmony in the World. I don't need scare tactics to bully me into supporting these things. I am an anarchist. Anarchist aren't fond of getting beaten with Sticks (or whips as a European Politician Brigg's interviews advocates) Carrots are all you need with me. And what is the difference here between Briggs and a Pentecostal Preacher? In this case instead of Biblical Dogma, we have scientists. A New secular Priesthood? For all intents and purposes we have to take what they say on faith or "from authority", because the science is really complicated.

The proof is in the enormous Stack of Formidable looking books Briggs had to read. The implicit message is that he read them so we don't have to. He knows what he's talking about. Its a Given, Global Warming is here, it will soon destroy the Earth, that is a Fact. So no reason to mention specifics. Instead show cartoons.

The rest of the movie is about How (repressive)Governments and Large Corporations can (profitably) solve our ecological problems and also what we can do to our homes personally, if we are...basically... white and upper middle class.

There was a Q and A section at the end. I raised my two main objections, the first one being that I have been hearing that Sea Levels are going to rise and swallow our Coastal cities any day now....for over ten years.

He addresed that by basically saying that I am ignorant, which, could possibly be true, in this case. He wasn't totally rude about it but said he didn't have time to go into the science plus its all incontrovertible fact anyhow, that human caused global warning will soon violently destroy life on Earth if we don't drastically reduce our Carbon Emissions immediately. But He mentioned a fact I find interesting. that 97% of climate scientists are in agreement about Global Warming.

I find it interesting, because that would make it a type of orthodox belief. I am skeptical not of science, but Academic scientists, because they are human like anyone else, and they make up a type of elite opinion priesthood and also over the last 40 years or so they have been bought by big multinational corporations, that fund nearly all their research programs in academia, specifically in the sector of US military contractors.

So all that says to me is that they are saying what the US Military Industrial Complex is paying them to say, which is what their job is, which is why they bought them.

So why does the Establishment i,e. Western Dominated Global Capitalism want to promote an agenda of stopping Carbon emissions in the supposed interest of preventing "Climate Change?"

That formed the second part of my objection. My Theory is that its to prevent the Third World from developing by becoming Industrialized.

He totally balked at that, didn't address it until I pressed him on it. He then played lip service too it by saying he wished he had time to put it in the movie but couldn't because of space constraints but said there were lots of programs related to green development that help women.

It turns out that though, this is a nuanced position I had of being a Left Wing Climate Change Skeptic, one which no other audience member seemed to share, I am not alone in this. This is actually a position I share with at least some leaders in the developing world:


Saving the planet: imperialism in a green garb?

More from Deepak Lal quoted in the article:

Spiking the Road to Copenhagen

A study of the costs to the Indian poor of curbing carbon emissions has estimated that, over a 30-year time horizon, with a 10 per cent annual emission restriction the number of poor increases by 21 per cent, even in the short run, and by nearly 50 per cent for a 30 per cent annual emission reduction (Murthy, Panda, Parikh: ‘CO2 emission reduction strategies and economic development of India’, Margin, 2007). Those development economists and sundry celebrities, who on the one hand, want to see the end of world poverty and on the other, to curb Third World carbon emissions, should be ashamed of themselves for advocating the latter path which will make the former goal impossible to achieve.

It makes sense to me, that is a Green Agenda I can really see Imperialist elements in the Pentagon, CIA and the "Project for the New American Century" a la Jim Woolsey getting behind.

BTW, after the Q and A section, I told Briggs, for the most part I support the things he advocates like eating locally grown food, recycling, preserving forests and so forth, and that my main beef with the film is that its hard for me to see Former CIA directors being quoted without having a visceral reaction. Briggs told me he included Woolsey because he is a Republican and wanted to include an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. Woolsey is actually a Democrat, even though He was chosen to be a member of McCain's cabninet.

As far as Briggs goes, he seems like a nice enough guy, reminds me of Mr. Spock from Star Trek. He seems like the type of brainy guy, that has near super human self discipline, would never over eat, or waste money or do anything frivolous or what he felt to be illogical.

For what its worth, I don't believe him to be in cahoots with the CIA or the Pentagon. I think its most likely that like most people that spent a lot of time in Academia, he believes pretty much everything he reads from anyone he considers an authoritative academic expert. And they are all apparently in near lockstep on this climate change thing.

High level of Proficiency in Concept Design

I just happened upon this guy in the Concept Art forum:
Alex Oliver

This is the level of skill I am striving for.

That's my goal right now.

Then there is Miles Teves. Check out this sculpture:



This is a level of skill I can only dream of.

Extinction

So what is the point of becoming extinct anyway?

I mean everyone must die eventually. So if you extrapolate this in terms of the individual living not only one mortal lifespan of 70 years or so but hundreds or even thousands of incarnations, of this soul, or whatever it is, that passes from life to life, then it, too must eventually die.

So I suppose that makes sense, but why? Why become extinct rather than live forever?

You would have to come to the conclusion that the sin qua non of individual existence is only suffering and nothing else.

So then I guess you would have to conclude that the only way out is to become extinct and to cease to be an individual altogether.

You would have to have the distinct impression that there is nothing left to seek, nothing will give you joy or fulfillment.

Are you a Buddhist? Is this your position? That there is nothing in life that will satisfy you? That there is nothing to accomplish, nothing to experience, except complete annihilation?

I also understand that there is this underlying conviction of panpsychism, or whatever, the idea that we are all part of this eternal ground of being. So it would be a return to that.

But still “you” would no longer exist. You would be shapeless and formless and void.

Anyway, sometimes I feel Like I am anchored somehow to this still point. Like I am on a tether, I can’t get away, I can only go around and around in a circle and as I wind around and around the chord gets shorter and shorter until I am forced into it.

As far as running toward this experience, or patiently seeking it through extreme self discipline, I can’t imagine doing that.

Wanimal

Awesome, Transgressive, Provocative, profoundly talented artist:

Wanimal

How I've Changed. How I differ from a Fundamentalist

I don't believe everyone is going to hell unless they get "saved"
I don't believe in the Rapture or the End Times
I don't believe The Bible has all the answers to everything
I don't believe in a literal interpretation of the Creation Myth described in the First Chapters of Genesis.
Rather I believe in Evolution. I don't think there was a prefect creation and then a fall. I believe in progress. I believe things are getting better and that they were never perfect to begin with. I think Truth is provisional, that means its a work in progress and things that are true now may not be true in the future.

I don't believe in the idea of everything being part of "God's will" and already pre-ordained. I think there are real risks and dangers in life for Human beings here on Earth. There are real questions that have yet to be answered. There are things up for grabs. There is the potential for real failure.

I do believe in God, but I believe Human beings have the potential to be active co-creators with God. I believe we have an active rather than passive part to play. Rather than just passively obeying dogma written in ancient texts, I think my calling is to create and carve new paths, to explore the unknown, to take risks in my effort to make the world a better place.

I don't think it has all been written down ahead of time. I think I am at least partly making it up as I go along. I mean, I have certian gifts and potentials, but I need to act. I need to bring things into being myself, and not simply obey and follow a template that has already been created. I am a creator.

I do however feel I am not alone in the Universe. I do feel I have spiritual guidence at times, perhaps from angels.

I also have muses.

Some of my Muses probably would appear devilish to a fundamentalist. They did to me as a fundamentalist. I have had these muses for a long time.

Pro-evolution

I'm pro-evolution. Evolutionary changes is a gamble, though, so that is why there is conservatism. A lot of snarky Liberals that call themselves "Progressives" call everyone who disagrees with them "regressive" or better yet "regressivist" just to sound even more pointy headed and academic. That's silly. I mean say we all evolved from fish. Okay?

So our ancestors split off from fish and some of the fish stayed fish. So does that make all fish "Regressivist?" No. They are conservative. They are holding steady.

Conservatism is why there are still coelacanths around. Coelacanths are conservative.

Chimpanzees are conservative. We are descended from the progressives.

There is such a thing as "fundamentalism" and I would say that is regressive. Becauae it hearkens back to a fictitious "Golden Age" of the past, that never really existed.

It's dogmatic and sees all truth as having been revealed already and sees any divergence from that as sin and heresy. So, yeah, that's Regressivist. That's anti-evolutionary. Especially the Apocalyptic ones that look forward to Annihilation.

But possibly its good to have these Regressivist tendencies in Society for balance and to create a dialectic. Maybe its some type of catalyst. I dunno.

But anyway, I'm for evolution. I am for trying new things in order to improve things. I like new cutting edge ideas, heresies and transgressions. I like to be at the epicenter of what is going on in the World. that is why I prefer to live on the West Coast.

I have been conservative in the past. I have been a fundamentalist. I also think that ecologists are becoming increasingly more conservative. Maybe they will even become a new species of Fundamentalist eventually. Especially the radicals, Green anarchists etc.

Erotic Photographers I like

Jan Saudek

Ralph Gibson

Terry Richardson

Natacha Merritt

Richard Kern

Bob Carlos Clarke

Steve Diet Goedde

Craig Morey

Aging

Everyone seems to think I look young. I am 39, but people often think I look 10 years younger. I feel strong and healthy, I do seem to have some health problems that are long term, related to having insulin resistence and glucose intolerance, otherwise known as "syndrome x" or "pre-diabetes" I also suffer from IBS. I have always been slightly overweight,even as a child, except for brief periods while competing in sports and during basic training while in the Army.

I have always had good muscle tone and Physical strength and excellent cardiovascular endurance. Even though I do occassionally suffer from lower back pain. I am from pretty tough stock. My Dad's Mother is still going strong at 85, with no signs of dementia, and very active physically.

I am wondering what would happen if I were to overcome these health problems, lose 20 lbs and improve my digestion and reverse my Syndrom x problems.

Would I look and feel even younger? What would I do with all this health and vigor?

Here is an Interesting article

It implies giving up all animal protein and taking hormone supplements. I disagree with that. But it has some excellent info about how people age. I agree that sugar is really bad.

Ideally what I would like to do is achieve results from diet and excercize alone and skip taking suplements especially hormones.

James Clerk Maxwell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell

Portraits

Check this out: Travis Louie

and compare it to this portrait of Whitehead:

Why hot women often hook up with assholes

Here it is, dude. Its the same reason you might overeat, neglect going to the Gym, spend too much money, spend to much time playing video games, drink too much, smoke too many cigarettes. Its simply a bad habit. Its a self destructive tendency.

To a guy, sex is a goal to work toward. To an attractive woman its often simply something one gives into in a moment of weakness.

Assholes are out there, they aren't afraid to ask women out, and so they tap into this self destructive tendency in women. All this other stuff about Alpha males is all bullshit. Its simply a character weakness hot women often have. Hot looking women are human beings. All human beings have weaknesses.

As far as becoming an asshole as a strategy to get women, it may work. But ask yourself this: Do you really want to be a force in an attractive woman's life, that holds her back? Do you really want to be somebody's bad habit?

Ego article

contra "ego is Baaaaaaaad bad bad and needs to be overcome etc":

Ego Development

Here is another article I am reproducing here in its entirety as it relates to the ego in relation to the power chakra:

Accessing the Solar Plexus Chakra


May 22, 2010 Kaliah Amira

According to the ancient Indian Chakra system, the Solar Plexus Chakra, or Third Chakra is the energy centre related to personal power and self-esteem. Otherwise known as Manipura in Sanskrit, the Solar Plexus Chakra is considered the seat of the ego, developing during a person’s teenage years and ideally being anchored by their early twenties. Its location is believed to be directly below the sternum and over the stomach.

Medical intuitive, Caroline Myss calls the Solar Plexus Chakra the Personal Power Chakra and describes its purpose as assisting a person in further developing a sense of “self”, ego, and personality that is separate from that of their inherited identity. Where the Second, or Sacral Chakra is thought to be associated with how one relates to others and their immediate environment in terms of preferences and desires, the Third Chakra relates to how a person’s sense of inner power and self-esteem shapes, or indeed is shaped, by their external world.

Physical Aspects of the Solar Plexus Chakra

The Solar Plexus Chakra is believed to be associated with the stomach, pancreas, adrenals, upper intestines, gallbladder, liver, and the middle spine located behind the solar plexus.

Myss believes that illnesses originating in these areas are activated by issues related to self-responsibility, self-esteem, fear of rejection, and oversensitivity to criticism. She also believes that fears relating to physical appearance, such as obesity, baldness, and aging are associated with this chakra.

Characteristics of a Healthy Solar Plexus Chakra

When the third chakra is in balance, one is believed to display the qualities of self-esteem, self respect, self-discipline, proactive behaviour, and ambition. A person is able to handle a crisis and to take risks that allow for personal growth and expansion. According to Kabbalistic tradition, the sacred qualities of endurance and integrity are linked with the third chakra because these are believed to be the qualities a person needs to stand up as an individual. Myss believes these qualities become symbolically a person’s spiritual “legs”.

Spiritual Implications of a Dysfunctioning Solar Plexus Chakra

An unbalanced Solar Plexus Chakra results in a person displaying characteristics of low self-esteem and low self-worth. Their identity is anchored in the outside world and they work hard to gain the approval of others. Making decisions for themselves becomes impeded and they allow others to define who they are and what they need to do. They might diminish themselves in order to gain physical security.

Caroline Myss believes that people are not born with self-esteem but that it is a quality that must be earned as one lives life and faces challenges one at a time in the spiritual “classroom” that is physical reality. Thus one of the best ways to deal with dysfunctioning Solar Plexus energy is for a person to face challenges and in the process be forced to reassess their sense of power and self in relation to the external world to decide whether outside circumstances will have the power to affect how they feel within.

Maintaining Healthy Solar Plexus Chakra Functioning

Anodea Judith, author of “Eastern Body, Western Mind”, also believes that autonomy is the central issue relating to the Solar Plexus Chakra. Taking responsibility for one's actions, breaking away from the mother, father, group, or society, and being willing to individuate allow one to truly claim their power. In order for one to fully embody the spirit of the Third Chakra she believes one must be willing to risk disapproval from others for the integrity of one’s own truth.

Ambika Wauters, author of “The Book of Chakras”, describes the following steps as crucial to mastering the Third Chakra:

Continually affirming one’s worth and deservedness of the best life possible
Setting appropriate boundaries
Knowing that one’s sense of self is not a condition of what one has or does
Being willing to try new things to further the experience of self
Learning to cultivate one’s own friendship
Acknowledging that one is free to choose in any given situation
Trusting one’s gut instincts about people and places and acting in accordance with such internal guidance
Thus when a person is truly able to honour and respect themselves, has matured in their understanding of their inner nature, and has learnt to stand on their own and take care of themselves, they can be said to be fully embodying the spirit of the Solar Plexus Chakra.

© 2010 Kaliah Amira

Another great article related to chakras:

7 Chakras

The foundation of my philosophy.

So anyway, I think like three people read this blog. I've done nothing to market it to increase hits and not only that- I keep deleting it in fits of annoyance and frustration. I am a little obstreperous, I admit.

So anyway I think it all started with Jack London and the "call of the Wild" That book had a huge impression on me at a very impressionable time in my life. Another influential book was "One flew over the Cuckoo's nest" By Ken Kesey. I read these books as a child struggling to survive in public school, and not having things go very well, being diagnosed with ADD and being tested poked, prodded and examined by school psychologists.

There is a theme that ties these two books together. Both are very philosophical books. One interesting thing to note is that London was strongly influenced by Nietzsche. So I actually was influenced by Nietzsche as filtered through the mind of, the Autodidact, adventurer, former pirate cum socialist, Jack London.

Kesey's book was narrated by an Indian in a mental institution and was about an Freewheeling Irish gambler and bare knuckle brawler who was lobotomized, and basically destroyed by this thing called "the combine" which, I saw then even as a young child, represented Society. I got the concept that society is this big machine that demands submission and conformity and that it operates through violence.

So this idea was born into my young, mind, perhaps unconsciously at first, that I was in a sense a free and wild animal, fallen into the hands of a great machine that was seeking to mold in a way that it saw fit. I knew that if this machine were to be successful, part of me, the better part of me, would have to be killed or at least horribly maimed. It was a machine that was seeking to commit a horrible crime against me.

I also began to fantasize that I was really not a white kid but an indian. Perhaps my Dad planted that seed in my mind. He once mentioned to me that we had some Indian blood from way back. I fantasized that My soul was indian, I didn't put it in those exact words, but I imagined that somehow it had turned out that outwardly I was Caucasian but inwardly Native American.

Also at this time I developed a Messianic complex. I believed I was the second coming of Christ, only this time, instead of the Jews, I was coming to redeem the Indians. I felt that that was my mission in life.

These are ideas I had when I was between 10 to 12 years old.

So these were seeds planted deeply into my psyche. I also will add, however, that I don't believe myself to be a Tabula Rasa. Because first of all, if I were, I would have imbibed all the shit the Public school system was trying to feed me. I was a precocious child, I had a certian intellectual temperament, early on and these were a couple authors, whose writings deeply resonated with me. I found them to be kindred spirits.

As a child I was always drawn to exploring woods and swamps and catching turtles,frogs and cray fish and grass hoppers and other wild animal I was able to observe and examine. One summer I raised an orphaned rabbit and released it into the wild. I also loved dogs.

When I was a kid, in the late 70's early 80's there were no leash laws, or if they were they weren't strictly enforced, so there always seemed to be stray dogs around, not really strays, but peoples pets that were allowed to roam free. So I came into the habit of observing these dogs and imagining which ones would be best able to go North like Buck and eventually revert to the wild and become a wolf again. Most dogs I observed fell short in this regard.

I became fascinated by wolves and read everything on them I could find in my local and school libraries. I felt had a deeply spiritual connection with them.

I also at some early point in my childhood withdrew into my sketchbooks. I was constantly drawing. I never drew cars or battleships, but only wild animals, especially large predators, such as big cats, wolves, grizzly bears, etc. The people I portrayed were pirates, vikings, barbarians and as I reached puberty naked women with large breasts. Those were my chief areas of interest. I was never interested in anything related to machines or man made inventions. I also became fascinated, like many boys my Age with Conan the Barbarian as portrayed on cover Art by Frank Frazetta, though I never read the books themselves.

I should also mention one other book, "Early Man" by time life books. I was deeply effected by the artist portrayals of the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnon. They were beautiful relistic paintings, containing scenes of daily life with spectacular wild vistas containing large Megafauna of the Pleistocene. I believed that these paintings, stirred within my Fossil of Ancestral memories, from when I lived during those times.

Mouse Armor

Jeff DeBoer

Nati

Nati

Creepy dolls

I love these! Is that bad?

I found this artist in a book called "art that Creeps" But really these are not simply creepy. They are exquisitely beautiful and eerie and haunting and slightly unsettling. I love art like that.

Uncontacted Peeps

Uncontacted Peeps

My Favorite uncontacted Peeps The Sentinelese. They attack all outsiders, or Moon them or have public orgies in front of them, just to mess with their heads.

Unblinking realism

This is my philosophy. Few people can fucking handle it. Sucks for them.

Its an optimistic life affirming philosophy, however. It's also very pragmatic. It takes a philosophy of unblinking or "unflinching" realism, to actually diagnose real problems in the world. It also takes unblinking realism to devise and implement solutions.

People fall short of this by deluding themselves in various ways as a form of psychic self protection. Another defense mechanism is dogmatism or groupthink. The idea is to follow various systems of authority instead of seeking to find out the truth for oneself.

That's also known as "giving away ones power" The Stanley Milgram experiments have proven that people readily obey authority to the point of committing murder in order to lighten the burden of responsibility upon themselves.

The Philosophy of Unblinking Realism relinquishes no personal responsibility. To be a Human being is to discern the truth for oneself. Human beings also have free will. Paradoxically, we can therefore choose to give up our birthright of discerning the truth and therefore become something less than human.

The opposite of "unblinking realism" is to become a tool. A tool is an extension of another human being. To be utilitarian to anothers purpose.

That is not my goal.

The problem with "paths"

Life is a mystery to be solved. There is no path that you can follow that has been carved out by people who have gone before you. If there were a prescribed path you could follow in order to solve a mystery, it wouldn't be a mystery, because it would have already been solved.

I mean, I am not talking about people that are just dumb asses. Lots of things are a mystery to Dumb asses. I am talking about things that are a mystery to everyone. True Mysteries. No one knows the answer to these things. So no one can give you directions.

The only value I see organized religion as having is, for use in, lateral thinking. I am sure some atheistic types/Scientific Materialists would disagree. I think religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, even Christianity contain kernals of truth. I think you can combine these kernals, with information from scientific research and come up with solutions to problems.

This is not the purpose of "religious paths." These paths were created not to solve problems, but rather to obfuscate. They are not intended to enlighten people, but to pacify and infantilize them in order to render them harmless and ineffective.

Buddhism and Hinduism in its various forms, Christianity, are religions created by Priests. The Institution of the Priesthood has a long and nefarious history. Its from ancient caste systems, that have their origin in bloody conquest and slavery and oppression.

Civilizations, Empires are founded in order to serve the interests of Elites. Its not a conspiracy, its the structure of civilization, its just that this structure is protected with a veil of lies built up over thousands of years.

As Spiritual beings, people have a tendency towards spirituality. I would define Spirituality as a search into the mysteries and subtle energies of Life. Its an inquisitiveness. In the mass of humanity this represents a powerful form of energy. In its raw form Its just THERE. Its a force to be reckoned with. Like any untamed powerful force it has the potential to be destructive, especially to the powers that be and the status quo. Elites don't want revolution. No one with entrenched power wants revolutionary change.

So this is where the institution of the Priesthood comes in. Their job is to channel/shunt this energy into prescribed paths to render this energy safe and non-threatening to the established order and whenever possible, to serve its interests.

None of these paths are designed to solve problems or improve the plight of humanity. This is by DESIGN.

These priests however, are working with and shaping a real thing, a real energy. The language they use is not void of truth. Its not simply lie built upon lie. Its an architecture of lies constructed to render truth inconsequential. It involves misdirection.

In Organized Religion Life in the World is described as being altogether defective, based on nothing but suffering and ignorance. We must escape and withdraw from it, They preach, to obtain peace. No particular group of elites is responsible for causing opprression, life itself is oppression.

This is the essence of following a PATH.

Avatar and the Archimidean Point

Its been mentioned, that the success in battle of the Navi against the Technological invaders, was implausible at best. But why is that? First of all there some specific things like arrows penetrating what I would assume to be bulletproof glass. I mean maybe it wasn't inteneded to be bulletproof, but you would think that these aircraft should be able to sustain attacks from stone aged weapons.

But I think what people were getting at was the historical accounts of how stone age indigenous societies fared against invading technological societies.

The indiginous people seem to pretty much always lose. Here is what I think it is:

The biggest critique of Modern life has got to be the pervading sense of alienation. But its also a strength. It would seem to me that an indigenous society would be so connected to nature as to render it invisible, like a fish in water. I also sense that indigenous people would lack a certian degree of self awareness because of this. They would not have the ability to see outside themselves and their environment. Themselves and their environment would be too interconnected and would appear to be one and the same. There are very fuzzy borders in these cultures, like for example the borders between life and death, dreaming and wakefulness and even the sea and the sky. They think Magically.

It reminds me of the book "Flatland" where a 2 dimensional civilization encounters a Three dimensional one and are unable to concieve of it. That's the experience of Primitive hunter gatherer societies encountering technologically advanced societies.

Technological Society has a perspective of being outside nature, opposed to nature, seeking to conquer nature. There is this dichotomy. That is the reason why people are often so dissatisfied with modern life. But this does offer a type of Archimidean point with which to lift the World that Stone age people would lack, having no place to stand.

Having a place to stand outside of nature, however, is experienced as a loss. That's what causes this type of longing modern people have for cultures such as the fictional one portrayed in "Avatar"

Government as Organized Crime syndicate of Genetic Psychopaths

This is my theory of History basically:

The short version:

Criminal Gangs become States when they become powerful and Sophisticated enough. They engage in domestication/exploitation programs of the citizens/subjects while competing with other Criminal Gangs/States for power and resources. This process leads to fiercer and fiercer competition Externally among powers which selects for greater and greater sophistication. Internally, since states create a monopoly of violence, the citizenry becomes more and more compliant dependant and domesticated. If this pattern were to follow its logical conclusion, eventually one great state power will hold universal sway over a global society of compliant subjects. Criminal behavior will be euthenized out of the gene pool.

Long Version:

At one time, probably around 40,000 years ago, all humans were illiterate hunter gatherers. I say illiterate, but its not because they were stupid, its just that writing hadn't been invented. It was an oral culture. There were few artifacts, but socially they were quite sophisticated. Material culture by way of technology, was at a standstill, but socially they were arguably more advanced in many ways than modern humans. They enjoyed excellent health from their varied diet, had lots of time for liesure and were egalitarian.

These humans had advanced pre-frontal cortexes that allowed for empathy and social cohesion. There was no capital punishment. The most serious punishment for social deviants, such as people lacking empathy and respect for social mores, was banishment.

Psychopathic behavior has a strong genetic component related to the blunting of dopamine reception involving two specific allels: DRD4 and DRD2.

These genes are also related to "novelty seeking" ADHD and Psychopathic behavior. The DRD4 7R variant is associated with ADHD anf the DRD2 variant is related to Psychopathy/Anti-social Personality Disorder. But the interesting thing about both of these genes is that they effect the modulation of dopamine in the pre-frontal cortex.

The prefontal cortex that is one of the things differentiates humans from animals and took millions of years to evolve. Our Chimp like ancestor's brains lack this feature. Their social structure is thus less complex and more violent.

These genetic variants are known as "balanced polymorphisms" which means they exist in the human gene pool at a certain threshold level and have been subject to positive selection. What that basicaly means is that a certian number of psychopaths, and novelty seekers improves inclusive fitness in societies competing with each other.

In a way these two genetic polymorphisms take the basic design of the prefrontal cortex and modify it, almost in a way that makes it less advanced and more archaic. Its almost de-evolutionary. A Psychopath's brain is in a way more primitive.

In the scientific literature it has been documented that Psychopathy occurs in all societies and that in primitive societies such as the Inuit and the San Bushmen its controlled by banishment.

So picture Psychopaths being banished from egalitarian Societies of hunter gatherers, living in a virtually Edenic state of natural abundance. Where would they be banished to? To areas considered waste lands, possibly the Steppes of Central Asia/Eurasia.

Also its worth considering that these Hunter gathers were not so much free spirited hippies, as strict conformists obeying codes of conduct handed down generation after generation for thousands of years, so probably people considered too free wheeling and non-conformist were banished along with the psychopaths. Technological innovation was at a standstill lasting hundreds of thousands of years. Societal evolution was at a plateu.

So these genetic freaks, basically, banished to the Steppes, shook things up and created positive feedback loops, unsettling the equilibrium.

So what do you get when you create an outcaste society of Psychopaths and Creative people, living in Wastelands? You get a bunch of War like Nomads that are very creative in how they conduct war. You get the Indo Aryans, Mongolians, Huns, all these people that have invaded the "civilized world" in wave after wave throughout history and became violent Over lords. You Get Ghengis Khan basically.

Many Ghengis Khans living on the Steppes among other barbarians cancel each other out. But when they invade civilized societies and enslave peace loving people to work for them you get Empire.

The ruling Castes of all Empires have their origins in the Barbarians of the Steppes. Wave after wave after wave. Even when Ghengis Khan conquered China, all he did was wrest control of it from the Ruling Caste descendants of a previous wave of Mongolian barbarians.

The Nomadic Padstoralist lifestyle is centered around brigandry. Its an austere life, but not labor intensive, freeing up all males in society to focus on fighting. The nomadic lifestyle is a strategy against being conquered.

Midieval Kingdoms were basically coalitions of Barbarians that had become a warrior caste after conquering a civilized agricultural society. They enslaved serfs to farm the land and create wealth, while dedicating themselves to the Art of war. Competing Kingdoms created peer polity groups that fought against each other. This system selected for the Kingdoms that could most effectively organize themselves to win wars.

It was a battle to be at the "top of the Heap."

A note about hierarchy:

A heierarchically organized logical category runs top down from the most basic to the most specialized. That is also the case with Hierachical societies. The elite are the most basic cateory of person. There is a trick of words, caused by people seeing "elite" as being rare or special and "commoners" being...well commonplace. But actually Elites have the most generalized knowledge. Historically only slaves had specialized training. Elites had to know a little bit about very many things and know how to delegate. One trick of power is to divide and conquer. People with specialized training weren't allowd to compare notes. Only elites were allowed to connect the dots and see the big picture. A legacy of this can be seen today in th University system. Buckminster Fuller called attention to this fact in his "great Pirate Theory of History"

Elites are very Basic/Base people. There is a bit of a mirror image effect between elites and the criminal underclass of society. Elites and criminals have similar motivations and similar behavior, they differentiated only by scale and level of sophistication. See Alexander the Great and the Pirate

The difference in scale is achieved by the administrative skill involved in turning societies into machines designed to win wars. War machines. The most sophisticated War machine of all is the US military Industrial Complex.

This is a testable hypothesis. If my Theory of history is true than the United States should have the highest concentration of Psychopaths as well as creative non-conformist types. There should been a period in US history of self reliant autonamous "barbarians" living on a frontier, followed by a peroid of concentration of power by fewer and fewer "Gangs."

This appears to be the case. Frontier independance and Individualism has given way to Corporate Capitalism and War Profiteering and the Federal Reserve system. Americans have become more sedentary, settled and compliant for the most part, with deviancy, criminal behavior and psychopathy occuring most at the topmost and lowest eschelons of society.

Criminals, con artists, creative idealists, religious extremists flocked here to a wilderness far from the confines and comforts of civilization, creating a rich soup, in relative isolation, and then eventually came to conquer the known world.

Its a pattern that has been repeated throghout History.

How War will end

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.

-George Orwell 1984

It would be nice if I could flap my arms and fly like a bird, but since I obviously can't I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it. I must admit I have a similar attitude toward Peace Activists, although I admire their idealism because I think it springs from positive motivations.

I can get behind them a lot more than I can get behind the flag waving born again Christian conservative crowd, because they seem so obviously brain washed and ignorant. Better to be overly idealistic than simply stupid and brainwashed.

But, still it seems like an impossible dream to have nothing but peace in the World. It would seem to me like you would have to rewire basic human nature. To me war is just an extrapolation of basic human conflict on a massive scale.

In a world where people get in fist fights on the bus, how could we have a world without war? After all, even people in the higgest eschelons of power, are merely human.

However, I see a trend that Peace Activists maybe missing that is leading to less war and perhaps eventually it will be done away with forever.

I refer to the trend toward accumulation of power into a World Government. "The State" becoming more and more powerful, until there is no more war, only crime. Eventually, there will be no more soldiers, only policemen.

Concurrent with this trend is a program of human domestication that has been going on for 10,000 years. It won't so much be a boot stepping on a human face forever as a human face licking the boot, like a labrador retriever...forever. Eventually everyone will be citizens of the same powerful State. It will be a welfare state. Domestication is dependence and also specialization. So everyone will be a cog in the machine, and the misfits will be euthenized. Then there will be no war.

How to shoot fish in a barrel

Beyond the fact that these were all innocent civilians, it just strikes me how sophisticated the weaponry is. Or I guess, you could say its not sophisticated enough, or else they would have seen more clearly that the "AK-47's" and "RPG" the soldiers saw were actually cameras. But still its way more advanced than anything the insurgents have. So advanced and overwhelming as to create over-confidence to the point of cockiness. Massive overwhelming fire power at the push of a button, from a detached removed position in the sky.

Maybe we should be thankful that there aren't any wars going on where the great super powers are evenly matched. All modern wars seem to be turkey shoots in third world countries.

My opinion on this is pretty jaded. War is simply reality. I am not anti-war because I am not anti-reality. It is sickening though and there is little that I could call heroic going on over there. Its not a fair fight, but that's probably a blessing. Our mission is pretty unclear at best, sinister at worst.

How oil became a fossil

Cults

Judaism and the Occult

An interesting take on the occult from a Jewish Perspective.

Judaism and the Occult

I am wondering if certain aspects of Buddhism might be considered idolatrous according to this perspective. I hear Western Buddhists bragging about how "Buddhism is atheist" or that You can be a Atheist and be a Buddhist.

That was never a big selling point for me, when I was initially interested in it. Maybe that is why I like the Bhagavad Gita so much, because it basically comes down to Krishna worship vs. Buddhim's Nothingness.

No wonder Fascists like Eagles so much

This is a Cultural legacy IMO of the Original Barbarian rulers of the Old World. These are modern day Kyrgyz of Central Asia roaming the Steppes on Horseback hunting wolves with Golden Eagles.

They train these Egles to kill marmots, then small foxes, then full grown foxes, then wolf cubs and finally full grown wolves.

If that isn't a barbaric passtime what is? Its like the height of barbarism and refined skill. I mean what is more bad ass than that? Invading and conquering China, India and Europe I guess.From the Wikipedia Entry on Kyrgyz:

V.V. Bartold cites Chinese and Muslim sources of the 7th–12th centuries AD that describe the Kyrgyz as having red, sometimes blond hair, blue or green eyes, and white skin.[10] These features were markedly different from those of modern Kyrgyz, which led Ibn al-Muqaffa to suggest in the 8th century AD that the Kyrgyz were related to the Slavs.[10][11]

The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed by recent genetic studies.[12] Remarkably, 63% of modern Kyrgyz men share Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) with Tajiks (64%), Ukrainians (54%), Poles and Hungarians (~60%), and even Icelanders (25%). Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) is often believed to be a marker of the Proto-Indo-European language [13] speakers.

Because of the processes of migration, conquest, intermarriage, and assimilation, many of the Kyrgyz peoples that now inhabit Central and Southwest Asia are of mixed origins, often stemming from fragments of many different tribes, though they speak closely related languages.[8]

Before they became Muslim they proacticed Shamanism. I can see the Eagle playing a role similar to a powerful Totem, which as these Barbarians conquered people to the South East and West later became a symbol of the Imperium.

What is a Redneck?

Basically they are the descendants of the Scots Irish. Which appear to be the original blueprint of what Army Officers of the British Empire came to refer to as Martial Races

Here are some articles about this ethnic group and the significant inflence its had on American culture Wikipedia entry on the Scots Irish

Born Fighting. How the Scots Irish shaped America

These are the people who for the most part all supported the American Revolution, killed off the Indians and settled the Appalachians, and the Frontier, fought bravely in two world wars and worked as laborers in the industrial revolution.

Their ethnic character was shaped by living in a state of continual warfare in the border region of Scotland.

I would say most of them vote Republican today, the guy that wrote the book though is a democrat. They are Republican because they value individualism. Many today may be so called working class, but they are never going to become aligned with socialism, because they aren't collectivists.

Be that as it may there is a long history of the British manipulating these folks and maintaining the upper hand.

Arguably they are being manipulated even more today, because "The British" for all intents and Purposes have retaken America, through the Federal Reserve system, and the Corporate Capitalist Military Indistrial Complex.

18 year old Rednecks just love to join the fucking army and thus directly support the Empire their ancestors fought to become independant from.

Still though you gotta respect them for how they are able to survive. They are a hardy bunch.

Another interesting article: The Scotch Irish Vote