I feel happy about myself and life. It doesn't make me superior or want to put down others. It's too bad if you see it that way.
Maybe you read my post out of context. My other posts should show my line of reasoning. I was quickly hammering down alot of them, so every post is pretty rough and can be a bit direct.
If this rings true in your ears, you should really check out an Art of Living course (check the link my.sig). It might seem a bit different than any other course first, but that's on purpose, and the people are full of love:-)
Ok, so we have "thrown away the banana", and that is the reason we have depression/cancer/stress/suicides (I could not disagree more strongly with this conclusion, but for the sake of argument let's suppose this is true). Tell me, was there ever a time that humans did, in fact, have the complete "banana" (and not just the skin)? At what point in history did humans, armed with the full/True banana, act differently than they do now? How long did this period last? Which societies were involved?
How many of your neighbours do you know? 1? 2?
How many do neighbours do you think your parents knew?
Etc... etc... We're losing contact with eachother.
I'm not into the blame-game. What use is the blame anyways. There's a reason people over-eat, there's a reason they feel inferior, there's a reason their parents force-fed them as a child, there's an endless cycle of reasons. This is called karma, the never ending caroussel in the world of "because"s.
The ancient Vedas in India speaks of a time when people where flying in "vehicles" and generally had a good time, until it all went bananas;) But my guess is that each period has its problems. Let me explain it in this way why I think so:
See, let's see what problems WE have in our lives first. Maybe a car-loan which is a bit taxing, or a girlfriend broke up. How about never having time to study because of lack of commitment. Anything can be blown out of proportion and leave us disheartened.
Now, let's travel to Africa, where people are regarded poorer. However, people there are smiling more, laughing more and general more chatty and inviting. They know their neighbours, indeed, they depend on eachother and even though life can be hard sometimes and death not far away, they're not depressed and not afraid to dance in the streets if they feel like. And most important of all: They have ALL the time in the world!
Who is most rich?
What is happiness?
I don't have all the answers, and even if I did I wouldn't give them out just like that. Why are you asking me instead of investigating it yourself. I don't care about convincing anybody, because that means they don't think for themselves.
This is why arguments are endless cycles of silly talk. You don't come to the truth, only circle around it and sooner or later you arrive where you started, empty handed and more drained.
See, if I convince you of something, instead of you finding out for yourself, you'll just accept that and leave it with that. That's not my point here. My point is that we should work to enliven the human values in society and live happy lives, and I would think that's in the best interest of all. That requires some effort, but believe me, once you start, "heaven on earth" is not just something in the future. Your body can make life pretty pleasant for you here and now while you help other people.
Oh yes, I know you will "debunk" the "flying vehicles" in the Vedas. It goes against current dogma of this world, so it must be attacked. However, I'm just referring to texts which anybody can read for themselves, and not just accept my words blindly. I'm recalling "missiles of great destruction" is used alot too.
However, they don't mention any "suicide bombers".. Battles were fought with high honor.
So I guess that means life with religion is like a chocolate covered banana? If that's the case, then I can see how they can get so many people to swallow the phallicy--erm, I mean fallacy--that is religion.
People need spirituality, since that is in their very nature. It is a basic urge to come back to God, Nirvana or whatever you want to call it. A feeling of loss and something to be found. That is why people are doing all these crazy stuff to "find God". Even accepting dogma as truth, just because they hope to get a scrap of it.
People are different. Some people couldn't care less. I'm talking about those who seek, and ache to find their way. They need to be guided, thus religion should NOT be thrown away, but converted to spirituality, which is free of dogma, indoctrination, intolerance and over-organization.
Yes, it definately has to be a chocolate-covered banana;-) The chocolate is called a lie. It tastes sweet, but does harm to the body.
I believe "spiritual" has more with "common sense" (which doesn't seem so common after all!) than what else you said. Spirituality has nothing to do with dogma, theology or organization. It is directly and intimate to every human being as their PERSONAL experience here on earth in a body (isn't it surreal how we have a "life" here lasting 50-80 years?). Nobody can tell your spirituality, because it is yours alone. Even if you want to deny it, go ahead!;-)
But somebody who has never experienced spirituality can only repeat the faults in religion, but it doesn't make it any more true. Garbage you throw out, you don't hold on to it.
Please read my post about banana and skin, and maybe you will see what I'm trying to say in such novice words.
77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
So basically, there's no difference between God, us and the rest of the world. If it looks like that, it's just our shadow.
I think realizing that is our highest attainment, but you don't just realize it with your brain but as a direct experience - what is called Enlightenment.
No, I'm not a big fan of ID or Creationism either, but I believe consciousness and spirit is over matter: We are not humans having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings have a human experience.
So for me it is a Big Mind.. A Very mysterious one.
Being able to gauge the quality of information so that Sally, Vishnu, and every other kid in the world knows that someone is full of crap... dude that would be "the killer app".
Maybe the time has come for everybody to gauge that for themselves?
For a European watching CNN, that channel is spreading paranoia, fear and US-government centric worldview. This is because in Europe, we get a bit different News.
What is right and wrong? None of the existing solutions in any country is unbiased either.
For me, what is spiritual, is at least on the right track. There is a set of common human values that we need to nurture and cultivate. That can never go wrong. Positivity and constructive reporting and actions. However, the minds are hooked on negativity, so that is what is currently selling unfortunately.
The problem I have is with fundamentalists who believe Science is opposed to Religion, then try to dress up Religion in Science's clothing in order to depose it.
You can say the same about fundamentalist Science, or whatever you call it when people use science as a power-tool for their world-view. It has as little to do with Science as it has with Religion.
Instead of throwing dirt back- and forth, we can live a spiritual life and investigate more and more of the truth, and in the process inspire others to do the same.
I'm afraid that arguing about who did what is counter-productive to that. It is especially counter-productive to brand every Religion or Science as hogwash or something similar. Instead we should focus on the positive and cherish each others ways. Especially when there are "terrorists" about.
Maybe there's something to learn from it too. I always look for the positive, even if who I'm learning from is allegedly an utter criminal.
Sometimes when I read Slashdot, I get the impression most posts is about how Religion should be abolished. This is sad, because it is missing the point. People are arguing about such superficial things, like wether you believe one theory or the other is what matters. Or like if you just abolish Religion, all of humanity will suddenly become enlightened. Far from it, alot of wisdom has come through Religion into this world.
This is not something handed to me without doubts and critical observation. This is in my own words how I view the universe. So "I know" it this way.
However you know your universe is your business.
What we need is to cherish different worldviews, because without them the world would be poorer. Also, it is good to investigate what you already don't know for yourself.
I am not suggesting that your beliefs are wrong or invalid. I suggest that we speaking about them, that you delineate belief from knowledge, without implying that one is inferior to the other. In fact, one can say that knowledge is inferior because it is composed of possibly flawed conclusions drawn from a limited number of observations, whereas beliefs (and Faith) are pure, perfect, universal, and irrefutable. So keep your superior beliefs out of inferior Science (and vice versa).
Nice way of putting it. I haven't thought about it that way, but somehow I "know" it is true just by reading your words;*)
However, there is no reason to call anything inferior or superior. Of course, direct experience is king;), but spirituality and science can and should co-exist hand-in-hand. The problems arises from dogma and indoctrination.
This point is especially valid when discussing ID, because Christian Fundamentalists want their beliefs taught as knowledge in Science classes.
I feel this is more a political matter (ie. power struggle) than anything to do with science and spirituality. However, there needs to be a class that teaches all world religions, so that the awareness and acceptance of other beliefs can grow stronger in the world. ID-theories from all around the world could be put in there..
You are confusing dogma, spirituality and science.
You see, religion is like a banana. It tastes good and does good. Our western modern society is actually based on this banana. However, in time people have thrown the banana and kept the skin. This has been an awful waste, because the skin is not edible and gives a stomach ache. But this makes people hold on to the skin even more, because now they've lost the banana! They even start arguing what part of the skin is "the best"..
Basically, "the skin" is symbols, traditions, flags, icons, etc. It's just a wrapping paper. You unwrap the package, and then throw away the wrapping, not the other way around.
Spirituality is what this banana consists of. It is based on direct experience. Everybody has some spirituality, even if it's just to accept that they have a daily life where they go to work and party on weekends. You cannot argue against somebody's direct experience..
Science is trying to make everybody agree on the same reality. Sadly however, in the process, science has thrown away much of the banana-core too, confusing it for the skin..
Basically, our whole "modern" society has thrown away the banana. The result is higher rates of depression, cancer, stress, suicides, etc. This is because of lack of spirituality and roots in this world. A feeling of alienation and that we don't belong here.
So you see, I accept both spirituality and science as complentary, thus my world is bigger than if I had just accepted one or the other.
What is needed at this time, is to globalize spirituality. Find a set of human values we all agree on and nurture and cultivate that, and cherish each other's different worldviews. Otherwise, the negative trends will just become worse.
The real wonder here is that the puddle woke up. I think it is the same with us humans. Never stop wondering about it.
If you don't believe anybody or anything, how can you believe your own words.. Then there is no progress, for you cannot progress without any faith. No hard-core sceptic has ever invented anything.
Why use the word 'know' when the word 'believe' would work? You do not have knowledge of this Big Mind, hence you do not 'know' that it exists. Did you chose to use the word 'know' because you feel that it is more emphatic or well respected than the word 'believe'? You are free to hold a belief stronger than you hold a piece of knowledge.
You have a mind, yes? It is real to you. It makes you observe, act, reflect and regret;-)
How about your cells, do they have a mind? In a way, they must have, because without them you have no body. 0+0 would always equal 0 in any other case.
What makes up your body-mind is thus the cells of your body AND their organisation.
Likewise, it is with the entire universe. With an organisation on this scale, anything else is really absurd. It is maybe a different mind than we're used to relate to on a human scale. However, I believe this because it is both logical and can unify the universe in one big swoop. There are tons of information in this area for those who are interested.
This Big Mind, is not an old man with beard sitting on a cloud..
However, for one who have no faith in this, it is impossible to even get into it, because this is a world-view. There's no point in arguing about definitions.
For somebody who has studied what has been recorded in the ancient Vedas of India, it makes perfect sense:-) But to move somewhere, you need faith, not blind faith, indoctrination or dogma, but just faith enough to put energy into it.
You see, when I stop discussing this here. You have two choices: Disregarding this entire thing, or investigate for yourself, not accepting MY words for this.. I'm here just to point the direction, not put concepts into minds or convince anyone. If I do that, I have failed. What use is teaching anybody, if they don't investigate and think for themselves?
A classical book about this is "The Tao of Physics" by Fridtjof Cappa. This book from many decades highlights the similarities between quotes from quantum physics and eastern mystics, and is still astounding, for those who still has capacity to become astounded;-)
As science progress, I believe;-) that more and more of the mystic wisdom will be directly proven. For example, take the entangled particles that are sent to the "edges" of the universe. This correlates directly with mystics claims of the entire universe being connected. Everything is inter-connected, yet up until Einstein and Bohr, people mostly believed in the Clock Work universe.
Well, I hope I have inspired for some investigation. Just be wary of shady internet-sites and New Agers flying up in the sky waiting to be taken up by UFOs;*)
I think this is called the Anthropocentric Principle. It is definitely not proof of a "Big Mind behind it all". Of course the existence of such a thing can hardly be disproved.
If you prove or disprove something, you stop wondering about it. Your progress is halted. The trick is to keep wondering and go further.
Suppose we prove God's existence here and now, by a simple scientific method nobody can dispute and everybody test for themselves. Then what? What has that amounted to? It won't help this world one iota. The arguing and bombings will continue as before, maybe even worse.
You can live life based on God's existence, and in the very process you will create God within yourself. Wether you believe God is a bearded man up in the sky or a universal principle, doesn't matter. Arguing is only for people who cannot tolerate other opinions. In the process, you miss the other perspective and lose respect for others. Arguing about God, you make him a Thing. That misses the point entirely!
What matters is how you live life. Is it a struggle, or is it something beautiful and simple? The human values are the same for every religion and culture. We should nurture and cultivate them, in order to solve our differences and generally be more happy. It is really very simple knowledge, which the world is in need for at this time.
You're entitled to your own opinion and world-view, just as you are entitled to deny everything that is not proven. Personally I think you're missing out, but that's your choice of consciousness..
What are the chances for life to live on this earth? If it were too cool, or too warm, all species would be extinct. A little closer- or farther from the sun, *poof*. A little more of this gas, or that, or different weights in the forces. This goes all through the atmosphere, ozone layer, green house effect, water-bed streams down to the tiniest organisms like bacteria, molecules, atomic-forces, quantuum states whisking in- and out of existance.. It is GRAND and then we haven't even begun to look towards the stars, bending of space-time and gravity yet!
Everything is playing a role in a big play. Intelligent design? I don't know anything about that, I just know that there is a Big Mind behind it all. I don't pretend to know how it functions or expect certain things out of it. Especially: it's not just human, so how can we expect to understand it.. Then what's the point arguing about it? Like ants arguing about the demi-god roaming around the garden making large craters.. In fact, I know NOTHING about it, but I know it's there.
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein
If you go searching for diversity, you'll never run out of it in this universe. Likewise, if you search for unity, everything is in concerted unity. This is a mysterious place..
The Art of Living courses have strong scientific findings for curing depression among other illnesses. Especially the breathing technique "Sudarshan Kriya" has been studied alot in research, with positive results in independent studies.
These courses are held world-wide to fix stress and other modern-world related syndromes. We're just not living life as it's meant to - to be fun - to be a piece of art to admire, that's why our bodies develop all these sickness. To make us come back to ourselves, unless we ignore it too late.
With the medicines and food available to us now, we should be MORE healthy than ever. However, people are falling into a trap, which luckily is easy to come out of.
Well, it has helped me alot, so give it a go today.
While actively monitoring is always preferred, not everybody has the luxury of time to sit in front of the server monitoring every minor detail. Especially on projects for humanitarian organisations you do on your spare time. To be honest, some automation SHOULD be implemented, because a human is simply not a robot and will tire over time. The purpose of computing is exactly that - to alleviate humans of doing boring tasks.
I set up my scripts so I am emailed ONLY on new activity not seen before. So I find ways to silence minor attacks/alerts which does not interest me in conjunction with finding automatic ways to react on attempts.
I can recommend this setup:
Snort (Network packet sniffer) Enough is said about this. Absolutely needed, but useless without intervention. Oinkmaster is nice to use for automatic downloading of new rules.
Narc Firewall Perl script for iptables/ipchains. Fast and easy to set up, however any decent firewall will do. Narc allows for user-customization/hacking, which is a plus for those who wants to learn ipchains/iptables and do more advanced stuff than a GUI can offer. I like to fiddle with the rules myself for outgoing packets, which very few firewalls supports. It's nice to know your computer is not sending out traffic you don't know what is. By blocking everything outgoing by default, I will catch stuff in the logs and adjust the rules when I know what it is (not recommended while in production).
BlockIt (Perl script for reactive firewalling) Blocks hosts temporarily and permanently based on SSH-logs, snort-alerts and firewall-logs. Nice and easy to extend even if you don't know perl, but have patience to test alot. The maintainer is cool about accepting patches. Yes, you need a list of hosts to never block, and yes a dedicated cracker can spoof IP addresses to DOS you. However, I'll deal with that when somebody does just that. It depends how important your service is I guess.
Samhain (Rootkit and file change detection) I set up Samhain to email me of EVERY change in the root filesystem. However, I run Samhain with the silent option just after every upgrade at night. So upgrades are done automatically and silently without alerting me (Debian Stable - Sarge).
chkrootkit (Another rootkit checker)
It's in the Debian-tree. Can't hurt to use more than one checker. This one is less spammy than Samhain and checks for other kinds of signatures in the system.
This might seem much, but I consider it a bare minimum for an install I'm not going to watch over continuously. Running Linux doesn't make you secure, and even with all this, I know I'm still vulnerable to:
A) Crackers hacking over time. Little by little they may do a portscan and find out enough to do a:
B) Full-scale successful attack. Reactive firewalls just won't stop it, and then you're cracked.
C) DOS. Automatic blocking based on IP and DSL-connection is just not enough to stop DOS and DDOS.
However, with a hardware firewall in front, I feel a bit more secure..;*) All emails to root is forwarded to my email-account, cron-jobs and all, and believe me, with the pruning-job done, hardly any email is sent. Days can go without any emails, oh wait, maybe..... *shiver*
One interesting project is a firewall based on snort: Hogwash. The project is in need of maintainers though. However the idea is cool: To block based on snort-alerts in real-time. This can actually be useful to block intrusions before they can do harm other than DDOSing. I for one will accept the increase in latency if it means my network is that much more secure. I really hope this one will take off one day.
The only solution is heightening the awareness and consciousness of Everyone. Any other battleplan, is only a temporary solution. You can start today by following the link in my.sig.
Slashdot Mirror
I feel happy about myself and life. It doesn't make me superior or want to put down others. It's too bad if you see it that way.
:-)
Maybe you read my post out of context. My other posts should show my line of reasoning. I was quickly hammering down alot of them, so every post is pretty rough and can be a bit direct.
My hope is that at least one person likes them
Thank you!
.sig). It might seem a bit different than any other course first, but that's on purpose, and the people are full of love :-)
If this rings true in your ears, you should really check out an Art of Living course (check the link my
What I meant is that a response to that is covered in my other posts. I've posted pretty much on this already ;*)
Read my other posts. If you want proof, you're not gettin' any. ;-)
Ok, so we have "thrown away the banana", and that is the reason we have depression/cancer/stress/suicides (I could not disagree more strongly with this conclusion, but for the sake of argument let's suppose this is true). Tell me, was there ever a time that humans did, in fact, have the complete "banana" (and not just the skin)? At what point in history did humans, armed with the full/True banana, act differently than they do now? How long did this period last? Which societies were involved?
;) But my guess is that each period has its problems. Let me explain it in this way why I think so:
How many of your neighbours do you know? 1? 2?
How many do neighbours do you think your parents knew?
Etc... etc... We're losing contact with eachother.
I'm not into the blame-game. What use is the blame anyways. There's a reason people over-eat, there's a reason they feel inferior, there's a reason their parents force-fed them as a child, there's an endless cycle of reasons. This is called karma, the never ending caroussel in the world of "because"s.
The ancient Vedas in India speaks of a time when people where flying in "vehicles" and generally had a good time, until it all went bananas
See, let's see what problems WE have in our lives first. Maybe a car-loan which is a bit taxing, or a girlfriend broke up. How about never having time to study because of lack of commitment. Anything can be blown out of proportion and leave us disheartened.
Now, let's travel to Africa, where people are regarded poorer. However, people there are smiling more, laughing more and general more chatty and inviting. They know their neighbours, indeed, they depend on eachother and even though life can be hard sometimes and death not far away, they're not depressed and not afraid to dance in the streets if they feel like. And most important of all: They have ALL the time in the world!
Who is most rich?
What is happiness?
I don't have all the answers, and even if I did I wouldn't give them out just like that. Why are you asking me instead of investigating it yourself. I don't care about convincing anybody, because that means they don't think for themselves.
This is why arguments are endless cycles of silly talk. You don't come to the truth, only circle around it and sooner or later you arrive where you started, empty handed and more drained.
See, if I convince you of something, instead of you finding out for yourself, you'll just accept that and leave it with that. That's not my point here. My point is that we should work to enliven the human values in society and live happy lives, and I would think that's in the best interest of all. That requires some effort, but believe me, once you start, "heaven on earth" is not just something in the future. Your body can make life pretty pleasant for you here and now while you help other people.
Oh yes, I know you will "debunk" the "flying vehicles" in the Vedas. It goes against current dogma of this world, so it must be attacked. However, I'm just referring to texts which anybody can read for themselves, and not just accept my words blindly. I'm recalling "missiles of great destruction" is used alot too.
However, they don't mention any "suicide bombers".. Battles were fought with high honor.
So I guess that means life with religion is like a chocolate covered banana? If that's the case, then I can see how they can get so many people to swallow the phallicy--erm, I mean fallacy--that is religion.
;-) The chocolate is called a lie. It tastes sweet, but does harm to the body.
People need spirituality, since that is in their very nature. It is a basic urge to come back to God, Nirvana or whatever you want to call it. A feeling of loss and something to be found. That is why people are doing all these crazy stuff to "find God". Even accepting dogma as truth, just because they hope to get a scrap of it.
People are different. Some people couldn't care less. I'm talking about those who seek, and ache to find their way. They need to be guided, thus religion should NOT be thrown away, but converted to spirituality, which is free of dogma, indoctrination, intolerance and over-organization.
Yes, it definately has to be a chocolate-covered banana
spiritual != doctrine
;-)
These two words are mutually exclusive.
I believe "spiritual" has more with "common sense" (which doesn't seem so common after all!) than what else you said. Spirituality has nothing to do with dogma, theology or organization. It is directly and intimate to every human being as their PERSONAL experience here on earth in a body (isn't it surreal how we have a "life" here lasting 50-80 years?). Nobody can tell your spirituality, because it is yours alone. Even if you want to deny it, go ahead!
But somebody who has never experienced spirituality can only repeat the faults in religion, but it doesn't make it any more true. Garbage you throw out, you don't hold on to it.
Please read my post about banana and skin, and maybe you will see what I'm trying to say in such novice words.
Beautiful!
:-)
I don't know why the light should illumine the wall. It is enough to be with what is for me. The light is just a bonus because I have a choice
From the Gospel of Thomas:
77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
So basically, there's no difference between God, us and the rest of the world. If it looks like that, it's just our shadow.
I think realizing that is our highest attainment, but you don't just realize it with your brain but as a direct experience - what is called Enlightenment.
No, I'm not a big fan of ID or Creationism either, but I believe consciousness and spirit is over matter: We are not humans having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings have a human experience.
So for me it is a Big Mind.. A Very mysterious one.
Being able to gauge the quality of information so that Sally, Vishnu, and every other kid in the world knows that someone is full of crap... dude that would be "the killer app".
Maybe the time has come for everybody to gauge that for themselves?
For a European watching CNN, that channel is spreading paranoia, fear and US-government centric worldview. This is because in Europe, we get a bit different News.
What is right and wrong? None of the existing solutions in any country is unbiased either.
For me, what is spiritual, is at least on the right track. There is a set of common human values that we need to nurture and cultivate. That can never go wrong. Positivity and constructive reporting and actions. However, the minds are hooked on negativity, so that is what is currently selling unfortunately.
The problem I have is with fundamentalists who believe Science is opposed to Religion, then try to dress up Religion in Science's clothing in order to depose it.
You can say the same about fundamentalist Science, or whatever you call it when people use science as a power-tool for their world-view. It has as little to do with Science as it has with Religion.
Instead of throwing dirt back- and forth, we can live a spiritual life and investigate more and more of the truth, and in the process inspire others to do the same.
I'm afraid that arguing about who did what is counter-productive to that. It is especially counter-productive to brand every Religion or Science as hogwash or something similar. Instead we should focus on the positive and cherish each others ways. Especially when there are "terrorists" about.
Maybe there's something to learn from it too. I always look for the positive, even if who I'm learning from is allegedly an utter criminal.
Sometimes when I read Slashdot, I get the impression most posts is about how Religion should be abolished. This is sad, because it is missing the point. People are arguing about such superficial things, like wether you believe one theory or the other is what matters. Or like if you just abolish Religion, all of humanity will suddenly become enlightened. Far from it, alot of wisdom has come through Religion into this world.
He obviously invented the internet so that we may argue about religion.
;*)
Yes, for those who care to argue for too long
More seriously, internet is great for dispelling dogma, myths and confusion.
This is not something handed to me without doubts and critical observation. This is in my own words how I view the universe. So "I know" it this way.
However you know your universe is your business.
What we need is to cherish different worldviews, because without them the world would be poorer. Also, it is good to investigate what you already don't know for yourself.
I am not suggesting that your beliefs are wrong or invalid. I suggest that we speaking about them, that you delineate belief from knowledge, without implying that one is inferior to the other. In fact, one can say that knowledge is inferior because it is composed of possibly flawed conclusions drawn from a limited number of observations, whereas beliefs (and Faith) are pure, perfect, universal, and irrefutable. So keep your superior beliefs out of inferior Science (and vice versa).
;*)
;), but spirituality and science can and should co-exist hand-in-hand. The problems arises from dogma and indoctrination.
Nice way of putting it. I haven't thought about it that way, but somehow I "know" it is true just by reading your words
However, there is no reason to call anything inferior or superior. Of course, direct experience is king
This point is especially valid when discussing ID, because Christian Fundamentalists want their beliefs taught as knowledge in Science classes.
I feel this is more a political matter (ie. power struggle) than anything to do with science and spirituality. However, there needs to be a class that teaches all world religions, so that the awareness and acceptance of other beliefs can grow stronger in the world. ID-theories from all around the world could be put in there..
You are confusing dogma, spirituality and science.
You see, religion is like a banana. It tastes good and does good. Our western modern society is actually based on this banana. However, in time people have thrown the banana and kept the skin. This has been an awful waste, because the skin is not edible and gives a stomach ache. But this makes people hold on to the skin even more, because now they've lost the banana! They even start arguing what part of the skin is "the best"..
Basically, "the skin" is symbols, traditions, flags, icons, etc. It's just a wrapping paper. You unwrap the package, and then throw away the wrapping, not the other way around.
Spirituality is what this banana consists of. It is based on direct experience. Everybody has some spirituality, even if it's just to accept that they have a daily life where they go to work and party on weekends. You cannot argue against somebody's direct experience..
Science is trying to make everybody agree on the same reality. Sadly however, in the process, science has thrown away much of the banana-core too, confusing it for the skin..
Basically, our whole "modern" society has thrown away the banana. The result is higher rates of depression, cancer, stress, suicides, etc. This is because of lack of spirituality and roots in this world. A feeling of alienation and that we don't belong here.
So you see, I accept both spirituality and science as complentary, thus my world is bigger than if I had just accepted one or the other.
What is needed at this time, is to globalize spirituality. Find a set of human values we all agree on and nurture and cultivate that, and cherish each other's different worldviews. Otherwise, the negative trends will just become worse.
The real wonder here is that the puddle woke up. I think it is the same with us humans. Never stop wondering about it.
If you don't believe anybody or anything, how can you believe your own words.. Then there is no progress, for you cannot progress without any faith. No hard-core sceptic has ever invented anything.
I put faith in what makes me happy.
I wasn't trying to make an argument. Sorry if it looked like I was trying to prove something.
Read my post again, and then take a walk in the woods.
Somebody once said something to this effect: The world is not in lack of wonders, but the lack of wonder.
Why use the word 'know' when the word 'believe' would work? You do not have knowledge of this Big Mind, hence you do not 'know' that it exists. Did you chose to use the word 'know' because you feel that it is more emphatic or well respected than the word 'believe'? You are free to hold a belief stronger than you hold a piece of knowledge.
;-)
:-) But to move somewhere, you need faith, not blind faith, indoctrination or dogma, but just faith enough to put energy into it.
;-)
;-) that more and more of the mystic wisdom will be directly proven. For example, take the entangled particles that are sent to the "edges" of the universe. This correlates directly with mystics claims of the entire universe being connected. Everything is inter-connected, yet up until Einstein and Bohr, people mostly believed in the Clock Work universe.
;*)
You have a mind, yes? It is real to you. It makes you observe, act, reflect and regret
How about your cells, do they have a mind? In a way, they must have, because without them you have no body. 0+0 would always equal 0 in any other case.
What makes up your body-mind is thus the cells of your body AND their organisation.
Likewise, it is with the entire universe. With an organisation on this scale, anything else is really absurd. It is maybe a different mind than we're used to relate to on a human scale. However, I believe this because it is both logical and can unify the universe in one big swoop. There are tons of information in this area for those who are interested.
This Big Mind, is not an old man with beard sitting on a cloud..
However, for one who have no faith in this, it is impossible to even get into it, because this is a world-view. There's no point in arguing about definitions.
For somebody who has studied what has been recorded in the ancient Vedas of India, it makes perfect sense
You see, when I stop discussing this here. You have two choices: Disregarding this entire thing, or investigate for yourself, not accepting MY words for this.. I'm here just to point the direction, not put concepts into minds or convince anyone. If I do that, I have failed. What use is teaching anybody, if they don't investigate and think for themselves?
A classical book about this is "The Tao of Physics" by Fridtjof Cappa. This book from many decades highlights the similarities between quotes from quantum physics and eastern mystics, and is still astounding, for those who still has capacity to become astounded
As science progress, I believe
Well, I hope I have inspired for some investigation. Just be wary of shady internet-sites and New Agers flying up in the sky waiting to be taken up by UFOs
I think this is called the Anthropocentric Principle. It is definitely not proof of a "Big Mind behind it all". Of course the existence of such a thing can hardly be disproved.
If you prove or disprove something, you stop wondering about it. Your progress is halted. The trick is to keep wondering and go further.
Suppose we prove God's existence here and now, by a simple scientific method nobody can dispute and everybody test for themselves. Then what? What has that amounted to? It won't help this world one iota. The arguing and bombings will continue as before, maybe even worse.
You can live life based on God's existence, and in the very process you will create God within yourself. Wether you believe God is a bearded man up in the sky or a universal principle, doesn't matter. Arguing is only for people who cannot tolerate other opinions. In the process, you miss the other perspective and lose respect for others. Arguing about God, you make him a Thing. That misses the point entirely!
What matters is how you live life. Is it a struggle, or is it something beautiful and simple? The human values are the same for every religion and culture. We should nurture and cultivate them, in order to solve our differences and generally be more happy. It is really very simple knowledge, which the world is in need for at this time.
Ahh, the incontrovertible "I just know" argument.
The very process
of proving beauty
is ugly.
You're entitled to your own opinion and world-view, just as you are entitled to deny everything that is not proven. Personally I think you're missing out, but that's your choice of consciousness..
What are the chances for life to live on this earth? If it were too cool, or too warm, all species would be extinct. A little closer- or farther from the sun, *poof*. A little more of this gas, or that, or different weights in the forces. This goes all through the atmosphere, ozone layer, green house effect, water-bed streams down to the tiniest organisms like bacteria, molecules, atomic-forces, quantuum states whisking in- and out of existance.. It is GRAND and then we haven't even begun to look towards the stars, bending of space-time and gravity yet!
Everything is playing a role in a big play. Intelligent design? I don't know anything about that, I just know that there is a Big Mind behind it all. I don't pretend to know how it functions or expect certain things out of it. Especially: it's not just human, so how can we expect to understand it.. Then what's the point arguing about it? Like ants arguing about the demi-god roaming around the garden making large craters.. In fact, I know NOTHING about it, but I know it's there.
Existence is a fact, but LIVING is an Art.
Life is beautiful this way!
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty."
- Albert Einstein
If you go searching for diversity, you'll never run out of it in this universe. Likewise, if you search for unity, everything is in concerted unity. This is a mysterious place..
PLUG MODE ON
The Art of Living courses have strong scientific findings for curing depression among other illnesses. Especially the breathing technique "Sudarshan Kriya" has been studied alot in research, with positive results in independent studies.
These courses are held world-wide to fix stress and other modern-world related syndromes. We're just not living life as it's meant to - to be fun - to be a piece of art to admire, that's why our bodies develop all these sickness. To make us come back to ourselves, unless we ignore it too late.
With the medicines and food available to us now, we should be MORE healthy than ever. However, people are falling into a trap, which luckily is easy to come out of.
Well, it has helped me alot, so give it a go today.
PLUG MODE OFF
I set up my scripts so I am emailed ONLY on new activity not seen before. So I find ways to silence minor attacks/alerts which does not interest me in conjunction with finding automatic ways to react on attempts.
I can recommend this setup:
Enough is said about this. Absolutely needed, but useless without intervention. Oinkmaster is nice to use for automatic downloading of new rules.
Perl script for iptables/ipchains. Fast and easy to set up, however any decent firewall will do. Narc allows for user-customization/hacking, which is a plus for those who wants to learn ipchains/iptables and do more advanced stuff than a GUI can offer. I like to fiddle with the rules myself for outgoing packets, which very few firewalls supports. It's nice to know your computer is not sending out traffic you don't know what is. By blocking everything outgoing by default, I will catch stuff in the logs and adjust the rules when I know what it is (not recommended while in production).
Blocks hosts temporarily and permanently based on SSH-logs, snort-alerts and firewall-logs. Nice and easy to extend even if you don't know perl, but have patience to test alot. The maintainer is cool about accepting patches. Yes, you need a list of hosts to never block, and yes a dedicated cracker can spoof IP addresses to DOS you. However, I'll deal with that when somebody does just that. It depends how important your service is I guess.
I set up Samhain to email me of EVERY change in the root filesystem. However, I run Samhain with the silent option just after every upgrade at night. So upgrades are done automatically and silently without alerting me (Debian Stable - Sarge).
It's in the Debian-tree. Can't hurt to use more than one checker. This one is less spammy than Samhain and checks for other kinds of signatures in the system.
This might seem much, but I consider it a bare minimum for an install I'm not going to watch over continuously. Running Linux doesn't make you secure, and even with all this, I know I'm still vulnerable to:
A) Crackers hacking over time. Little by little they may do a portscan and find out enough to do a:
B) Full-scale successful attack. Reactive firewalls just won't stop it, and then you're cracked.
C) DOS. Automatic blocking based on IP and DSL-connection is just not enough to stop DOS and DDOS.
However, with a hardware firewall in front, I feel a bit more secure..
One interesting project is a firewall based on snort: Hogwash. The project is in need of maintainers though. However the idea is cool: To block based on snort-alerts in real-time. This can actually be useful to block intrusions before they can do harm other than DDOSing. I for one will accept the increase in latency if it means my network is that much more secure. I really hope this one will take off one day.
The only solution is heightening the awareness and consciousness of Everyone. Any other battleplan, is only a temporary solution. You can start today by following the link in my .sig.
How do you get a patent on importing a comma delimited file?
You apply for a software patent..
Yes, it's very easy. And Stupid.
Dunno where you got that idea, the people I know and associate with are more united than they've ever been :) (that is, us)
;*)
What about those you don't associate with?