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Where Reason Ends and Faith Begins

7/29/2014

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I was really impressed with this article in the NYT.  Professor Luhrmann argues each person has a belief continuum, from what we absolutely never will believe to what we always believe (or even take for granted!).  He then says we all have a "boggle threshold," where any thing beyond this point on the belief spectrum is out of mind's bounds of comprehension.  Interestingly, he makes an excellent point that the more we define what we don't believe, the more we are open to possibly closer, less extreme beliefs.

Here is his conclusion, and the entire article is worth a quick read:
Gods are invisible, the future is inscrutable, and much of life is bushwhacking over uneven terrain. In the face of your own uncertainty, being precise about what you don’t believe in can shore up your confidence in what you do.
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Forts Into Fountains

9/10/2013

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Fort or Fount Drummondd?Fort Drummond... now Fount Drummond?
Near Niagara falls, there is a park where the Battle of Queenston Heights was fought.  It was the opening foray of the War of 1812, where American troops crossed the Niagara River and scaled these heights before becoming overwhelmed by the British and forced to surrender.

Fort Drummond, pictured above, was a circular earthworks wall built in 1814 by a British commander (of whom the Fort was named) and for two weeks was used by American Forces during the Battle of Chippewa.  The blue mushroom figure in the background is a fountain of some sort.

I found the whole scene hauntingly poetic... a deserted fort now a deserted fountain... the ghosts of soldiers huddled next to the walls where parents now watch their children play (when they're not on their iDevices!) ... the children, playing and splashing in the water as they dance on the graves of those who fought long ago.

Without getting into the politics of that war nearly 200 years ago, and as we follow the continued civil war in Syria, debating our own involvement, I pray for the day when all battlefields become beautiful like this one.

May swords be made into plowshares.  May forts be made into fountains.

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Energy Matters

3/25/2013

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Amidst the ongoing debate on the parameters and extent of the Second Amendment, there is some troubling news that the assault weapons banned (first passed in 1994 and allowed to expire in 2004) still does not have enough votes to make it to the floor of the Senate.  Furthermore, many gun makers are having trouble hiring enough people to manufacture the increase in demand for guns and ammunition.

It makes me think of a recent discussion I had with a friend about energy versus matter, flow versus stasis, wave versus particle.  The first is related in Einstein's famous equation:
Light, whose speed is the key factor in relating energy to matter in the equation above, can also be considered both as a wave and a particle.  So what first appears as a dichotomy is actually two states of similar source, or two sides of a coin, if you will.  

The question I have: which is more powerful?  Can energy/flow/waves ever stop matter/particle/bullets, a la Neo in The Matrix?


Granted, this was in a computer program and not in the "real life" sequence of the movie, but the guy does stop the sentinels somehow in "real life" at the end of Matrix:Reloaded!


Anyhow, I do wonder about the power of guns and how do we stop violence.  I would like to learn and train more in the nonviolent arts of Qigong andTai Chi, tapping into the energy source behind and in all matter we see and experience.  There's some pretty cool videos that show how powerful these guys can be!


Now isn't that cooler than bullets, if not the way out from violence?  Maybe we can't stop bullets physically once they're fired, but there's a lot of training we can do (and energy we can tap into!) before someone pulls the trigger.

May we beat swords into plowshares with our minds, hearts and hands.
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    Evans McGowan

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