CHANGE IS AS CHANGE DOES

"The only constant in the universe is change" Heraclitus of Ephesus, 535 BC - 475 BC


Of all the classical Greek philosophers, I think Heraclitus had it right. His understanding of the duality of nature and the unity of opposites is the basis of a paradoxical form of expression called complementarity in quantum physics. Heraclitus' logic, because of the duality, is full of contradiction, and was eclipsed for the more "rationalist" philosophy and logic of Plato>Aristotle>Socrates. 


This, I believe, is where these foundations of Western thought have become outdated for our times. We have gone beyond this classic rationalism and Aristotelian system of logic. It has served us well until this millenium, but our ethics are becoming easily compromised, as is our digital desensitization to actual reality and compassion. Social media technology often makes it too easy not to give conscious consideration before sending or posting. People are currently trashing others lives with one click, or one tweet. Losing consciousness for conscience.

With quantum physics and mechanics being the current "new" science - contradictions are finding their way into the realm of scientific thinking, for example, research on black holes and antimatter. Looking at nature with respect to duality we can begin to make more sense in it. It is the divine paradox.
By a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocities of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us. -Edwin Markham
The Socratic Method got us here, but I think we are in need of something more in context for this 21st century. Many would not agree and think that staying as is-- in keeping with the current status quo, or even going backwards, is the best way forward.


I believe we are one big discovery away from science and  metaphysics combining forces. Could there be a 4th law of motion and a 5th fundamental force of nature on the cusp of discovery? Think superstring theory. If I understand it correctly, Einstein's theory of relativity would be brought into quantum physics and mechanics with regards to gravitational force, then we can explore in 10 dimensions instead of just our current 3. Funny thing is the Greeks, specifically the Atomists. already had this theorized 26 centuries ago. Difference now is that we can build super colliders, like the CERN and now ELENA in Switzerland and finally attempt to prove the theory. Will we finally add hadrons, muons, and antiprotons to the chart below? We better, and soon. We need to colonize a livable planet and we just recently found another candidate ("Tatooine-like" Kepler 16b), yet we still have not discovered the means to get there, or "they" haven't let us regular folk in on having that "Star Trek" capability yet.

Interaction	Current theory	Mediators	Relative strength[1]	Long-distance behavior	Range (m)
Strong	Quantum chromodynamics (QCD)	gluons	1038	1	10−15
Electromagnetic	Quantum electrodynamics (QED)	photons	1036		∞
Weak	Electroweak Theory	W and Z bosons	1025		10−18
Gravitation	General Relativity (GR)	gravitons (hypothetical)	1		∞

Throughout the history of the world there are always the doubters, the ones who resist progress, who use the word "impossible" and strive to keep the status quo intact, holding the line, and not venturing beyond it, (publicly at least). Up until the 19th century, research beyond Scripture was called heresy and the Church suppressed by force the ideas, discoveries and innovations of science and reason. 


The Scientific Revolution (although the term "science" was not used until a century later) began during the Renaissance in the mid-16th century with Copernicus and continued on with Brahe, Da Vinci, Galileo, and Kepler where reason began to shake off the constraints of religious superstition. 
"I do not feel obliged to believe the the same God who endowed us with Sense, Reason, and Intellect had also intended us to forego their use." -Galileo Galilei

The Church fought back to suppress these innovations with the Inquisition, but after the Protestant schism there was a revival of rationalism and science finally established its name with the game changing discoveries of Newton and the philosophy of Descartes. This in turn lead to the European Age of Enlightenment with Diderot, Kant, Locke, Voltaire Rousseau, Hume which inspired the American Age of Reason which gave us Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John and Abigail Adams -- who put reason and humanism as the basis of freedom and liberty for the basis of the American independence, hence the birth of our unprecedented democracy. The Church fought back with the "Great Awakening" and called this rationalist, humanist and deistic movement--atheism. These absolutists missed the point, and continue to miss the point. The point then, as it is now is about humans--humanitarianism.


An innovative idea, concept, or invention which is perceived as too dangerous, immoral, or against God is a knee jerk reaction for many human intellects to resist change, uphold the status quo and to keep comfortable with the familiar, especially if it's profitable. It is also just as natural for other humans to be inclined to question and explore the realm of possibilities which often become the ideas and technologies of the future. Both are necessary, but a balance of opposing principals, in my opinion-- is more benificial for progress.
"Far too many people believe in religion; only a handful believe in God." -Unknown

This struggle-- for some to hold back progress, while others venture forth across the proverbial line, is not only human nature but the mechanism of nature itself--all organisms attempt to achieve homeostasis while still striving to grow, colonize and thrive further. 

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
-Charles Darwin
We as organisms and animals are still bound to the laws of Nature's God, the Creator of the Universe. We will always fill the extreme niches, but I think we can temper this tendency for construction, polarization, then destruction. By balancing the ideas and actions of the extremes, and respecting the beliefs with philosophy and ethics, rather than hate and bigotry. We also need to eliminate the tendency for populations to consent to authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, dictatorship, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
“If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them. ” – Isaac Asimov
I wonder what great minds such as Da Vinci and Einstein would think about the struggles we currently have now. For a great nation as America to be flirting with another possible Great Depression, also born of the same brand of greed and arrogance of unregulated markets. Mix in a resurgence of religious fundamentalism which threatens to squelch the science which allow innovations that help us learn, grow and evolve technologically and philosophically, we restrict discovering the tools to help us survive the burden of an unsustainable future on an overpopulated planet.
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." 
Albert Einstein
We must take responsibility for our own failings and learn from history rather than to repeat the failed societal experiments of the Church, Napolean, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Kohmeini, Saddam Hussein and their tyrannical, despotic ilk.
Intolerance is born of fear, selfishness and greed. The extreme left is as guilty of this as the extreme right. We need a new balance, a strong middle. We need to be allowed to go forward without fear of dissent and heresy, for it is basically heretics many of us are being called, whether it be a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Marxist, Liberal or Republican doing the finger pointing and marginalizing.

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." - Benjamin Franklin

FACTS about Climate Change

"In the Arctic, temperature has increased at twice the rate as the rest of the globe, and could increase by another 8°C (14°F) by the end of this century. The warming atmosphere along with new weather pattern extremes is causing Arctic sea ice to melt at an alarming rate that suggests the Arctic will be ice-free by 2030. The impacts of dwindling ice cover in the Arctic are far-reaching, from species endangerment to enhanced global warming, to the weakening or shut-down of global ocean circulation." 

Read the rest of Weather Underground blog post "Ice, Ice Baby" by Angela Fritz, atmospheric scientist
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/angelafritz/comment.html?entrynum=11
















http://www.wunderground.com/blog/angelafritz/comment.html?entrynum=11

CELEBRATE AMERICAN SECULARISM

"It is time to revive the evocative and honorable freethinker, with its insistence that Americans think for themselves instead of relying on received opinion. The combination of free and thought embodies every ideal that secularists still hold out to a nation founded not on dreams of justice in heaven but on the best human hopes for a more just earth." Susan Jacoby

American secularism is the happy medium that affords everyone, no matter their beliefs, the liberty to live without fear of oppression or punishment in the pursuit of happiness. It is a middle ground between organized religion and it's opposite-atheism. Abraham Lincoln never went to church, but could quote Scripture. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin believed in Nature's God and free will of men, refuting the Episcopal/Anglican doctrines they were raised with, choosing reason over superstition, which is the basis of Deism. One can believe in God, without adherence to the dogma of a religion. 

“God so loved the world that he made up his mind to damn a large majority of the human race” Robert Green Ingersoll

History has shown and continues to show the failures of theocracies, and has now also shown failures at the other end of the spectrum. Karl Marx believed religion was the "opium of the people" and made this atheism a cornerstone of the Marxist, or Communist political philosophy. Religion is made illegal and replaced with the belief in the State. History now has shown how unsuccessful atheism is as an established "no-religion" with the apparent failure of Communism around the world. Historically so far, neither extreme has been successful, although the Chinese may say otherwise, democracy is on the rise with the increased capitalism there. The Chinese government now officially allows five religions: Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam, and Taoism.

It is logical and reasonable for all people to enjoy the liberty to think, believe and work as they wish within a framework which guarantees the same for every other human being with tolerance of all beliefs. Free speech guarantees the right to teach and to preach, so each of us can choose to believe, or not, and should afford each individual, including their children to make their own choices, then have tolerance or indifference for opposing views and opinions. 


I want to be optimistic that the majority of humans in this world exist in this middle ground. My take is the current polarization and partisanship in America is mostly the result of what Jacoby describes as "received opinion". Whomever yells the most and the loudest are the extremes of politics and religions, yet there is a silent majority people in general who are moderate in their beliefs, both politically and spiritually.

Moderates need to speak up! The middle ground is the higher ground. Centrists need to find a voice and be heard so the keening rhetoric and propaganda of the extremes does not tear us apart.

Democrats vs. Republicans.  Both are to blame. Both are guilty of of mortgaging the American Dream on a promise of prosperity for all by policies controlled by corporate interests. We exist in a corporate oligarchy controlled by that 1%, and both parties supplicate to their funding. One side thinks the government should help those less fortunate (example: Social Security), the other thinks if one cannot be fortunate by virtue of hard work, then too bad, the government should not help (unless it's Social Security). One side fears socialism, the other authoritarianism. I have to think the middle ground of logic and reason is where most people exist. I am a registered Independent and this middle ground is what I seek. Where is that candidate?

In the spirit of "made in America" celebrate American secularism. We should be proud of the legacy of our democracy. This is our middle ground people, and truly what our country is founded on--WE THE PEOPLE...liberty for all... the pursuit of happiness. This should be the basis a third party, the higher ground, the centrist and moderate "head" of reason and logic that sits between the bickering and grappling "hands" of the Left and Right. Call it Independent, call it Deism, call it Progressive, Humanist, but call it SOMETHING and soon!


"It is crucial for today's secularists to find a way to convey the passions of humanism...to move hearts as well as to change minds...American secularists have trouble deciding what to call themselves today, in part because the term has been so denigrated by the right and in part because identifying oneself as a secular humanist--unlike say calling oneself a Jew, a Catholic or a Baptist--has a vaguely bureaucratic ring." Susan Jacoby, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

THANKS, WALL STREET PROTESTORS

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." --Thomas Jefferson

PROGRESSIVISM AND HUMANISM ARE STILL DIRTY WORDS

I realize that Progressivism and Humanism are dirty words that reek of Socialism and Communism. Marxism FAILED with its philosophical (mainly Hegelian) strategies, but that does not mean the entire European Enlightenment has nothing to offer us now. There is so much more there that does not have to be translated into an ambition for collectivism and dialectical materialism.


Re-synthesize, re-analyze, and don't make the same mistakes or go down similar paths. We know now collectivism does not work, yet the opposite, individualism, promotes Social Darwinistic and fascist tendencies. Autonomy is the key to freedom, but we as a species, have issues balancing ethics with pure autonomy without becoming rascist and intolerant. 


This is why we need to explore and revisit the Enlightenment philosophers and more recent philosophies such as Objectivism, where Rand, Kant, Locke, Paine, Jefferson, Franklin and other freethinkers offered their innovative ideas and observations about equality, and what it is to be happily human. The European Enlightenment and American Age of Reason should not be passed over because Marx and Engels hi-jacked otherwise good philosophy for an ideology favored by meglomaniacs. They were only one interpretation. It's an example of not seeing a forest through one huge tree. We are past that tree and able to explore the forest again.


Basically, the first thing to unlearn is with regard to perfection. Perfection lies only in the moment and nothing remains perfect because Nature's law is about change and flux. If perfection continued past a moment, then time would stop and all would cease to exist, or at least become static, never to progress (or in entropy as dark matter). It would be like pressing the pause button, capturing a still frame. So Utopia can never exist, as Arthur C. Clarke so aptly portrayed in "Childhood's End".


The only perfection is God. That aspect will be discussed in future posts.

IS IT TIME FOR A THIRD PARTY? YES. THE REVIVAL OF DEISM AND HUMANISM.

This third party question has been my ponder all summer, the other night I happened to surf by CNN and they were on the topic on the feasability for a strong independent candidate to emerge in next year's presidential election. The opinion was how dysfunctional our 2-party dominated political system has become with all the partisanship, and the all or nothing thinking. Now I see Yahoo news picked up on the topic as well. So although I began this post last week, I was still editing, but the time is now to speak up and just post.


But running as an independent would not work, said CNN. Even if someone won the popular vote, then the ultimate decision is then thrown to Congress, and well, we can see where the dysfunction lies for such a possibility of giving the people who they really want. Remember the 2000 presidential election?


So I recently sent out and posted the survey "What, Do You Think?" (which can still be taken - just scroll down) with hope to get a general pulse of where people are with regard to politics, philosophy, and religion. My concern that the so-called "Generation Z", basically my generation's kids, now entering or just out of college, are feeling very disenfranchised--to the point of apathy. Many have thrown their hands up completely and don't vote at all. I'm trying to update political and religious philosophies for successive generations to relate to better in the context of our times. I'm concerned about the world they are inheriting from us. We need to evolve to the next level. We've reached a flashpoint and someone needs to provide a touchstone.


Why philosophy? Because what we have to work with - the legacy of Socrates, in my opinion, is outdated and out of context for our times. Our ethics (or an apparent lack thereof) reflect this centrifuge. One example, the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting recession is the culmination of decades of stale ethics of Western thought compromised by greed, and combined with a collective cop-out of personal responsibility, and this is where religion comes into Western thought in a rather negative way. When the achievements and failures of an individual are given to God's will, there seems to be a general lack of personal awareness of free will. The European Enlightenment with Spinoza, Locke, Kant, and our own homegrown Age of Reason thinkers such as Paine and Franklin needs to be revisited. I just took a big jump there, but I said this is being posted before being completely sussed out. There's so much research and reading to do...

Why religion? Because zealots and fundamental extremists here and abroad undermine any progressive thinking because of the literal interpretations of their respective doctrines. Groupthink abounds from propaganda because of fear and xenophobia. There is an invasive movement (yes, Bachmann, Perry and Palin are Christian Revisionists) to tear apart the US Constitution, which has effectively kept the church out of the state, outlined rights of its citizens, and created an unprecedented framework for the democratic free world for almost 250 years now. It is a secular document and why it works so well. Sure, democracy and capitalism are currently having some more growing up pains, but we must not let fear and propaganda rule us and change what this country was truly founded on.

By this blog, I will defend the U.S. Constitution against meddling Christian Revisionists and their totalitarian ambitions. Our Founding Fathers went to church and all (except one) were Christians, but there was another very popular philosophy at the time--Deism, inspired by the European Enlightenment which Thomas Paine called the "Age of Reason". Paine, the only one of our Founding Fathers with the balls to say he was NOT a Christian, but a Deist, was best buds with Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison. Jefferson and Franklin have been described as Christian Deists, whereas Adams and Madison still stuck to their Bibles, they were still fine with having the conversations and accepted the beliefs of their progressive peers. 

Diests are not athiests. Paine, Jefferson and Franklin, believed in Nature's God, which is how God was described in the Declaration of Independence with the full support of the many devoutly Christian majority of Founding Fathers. The Constitution was ratified with no mention of God whatsoever by very Christian statesmen, some of which were preachers, yet the secular humanist voice written into these documents is clear. 


I still constantly hear how this is a "Christian Nation", and it makes me cringe. How must that feel to every American who is Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or any other of the melting pot of religions and cultures that has made this country what it is--and allowed to freely thrive because of the tenents of the US Constitution. Our Founding Fathers were the foremost intellectuals of that very important time in American history. Of those whom hung out with Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin called themselves "free thinkers". 


Deism is the basis of my third party idea (of which I am still seeking a name and still working on the platform) and new philosophy for this millennium. It's about what is Human with a capital H. Deism, being a philosophy rather than a religion, can be combined with organized religions, and my hope is that it will be a moderating shift of perception of the literal images of the dogma or organized religions. For example, instead of an all seeing, omnipotent Creator hanging out in Heaven on some golden throne dishing out miracles and punishments, the shift of would be to God's creative mechanism--nature, but with a capital "N". Nature being the God's divine justice, we reap what we sow indeed, and Nature's Law is God's way of doling out the lessons. It is also science, biology, physics, and evolution is what drives it all. Yes, God created evolution as the creative force behind Nature.


One can be a Christian Deist, a Muslim Deist, a Buddhist Deist, Hindu Deist, Wiccan Deist, etc. but just being a Human of Earth is what really matters as the basis of the new Deism. It's fine to be a Deist and still go to church, to temple, to mosque, but with Deism the emphasis is on tolerance and reason with respect for Natural law, and to remember this is the same as God's Law. 


The fundamentalist extremes for all religious doctrines worldwide needs to be tempered with tolerance. Sure Nature can be extreme and there will always exist people who reflect that as well, but with Deism, we can attempt to keep a better balance, an equilibrium, a homeostasis. Progress will always be driven by what we learn from the extreme elements in societies and cultures which naturally exists - and they will rise and fall just as organisms in Nature over time. Deism can be the global philosophy which unites all doctrines. Natural law is the common thread of truth which connects us all together beyond and beneath religion and politics.


We need to be freethinkers this way.