Body or soul?

 

Body or soul?

In a galaxy called The Milky Way, there is a bluish planet that the inhabitants call Earth in one of their languages. It is a water world populated by water and carbon creatures. The dominant species are Humans who falsely believe that they rule the world. They sort of do, to some degree. The truth is, they are able to destroy themselves, but not much else.

Humans are truly marvellous creations if they could act together and use the gifts instilled in them in creation, but we have one great enemy preventing us. It is ourselves. We realized our potential at the beginning of the agricultural revolution and were divided up to keep us in our place and not challenge God. We have been divided in many other ways since.

In Babylon, it was languages that blocked us from reaching God’s level and now it is politics, economic theories, and religions dividing us. The latest is beliefs in God versus believing that there is no God or supreme being. The biggest division amongst us is between humans who believe that we are physical beings and those who maintain that we are spiritual.

Now there is an additional dimension entering the fray. Over the last fifty years or so, we built machines that can rival our intellect. Artificial intelligence can physically mimic a human and do what we do with no understanding of the spiritual aspect. Machines are unable to believe, only to follow programming. Used as a tool they are incredibly efficient but they lack our greatest potential. Yet, there are already machines that can kill us without direct human instructions.

God as we know Him is a soul or a spirit who created us in His image. He didn’t make us only a spirit, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and other gobbledygook; nor a physical, limited being like the machines. We are both at the same time and space. The material part, the body, exists by using physical sensors that are not capable of sensing the soul.

Researchers embedded in a primitive tribe were amazed to see a young girl spending most of her time with an ancient grandmother and asked a wise elder why. The elder explained that the young child, just came from the spirit world so she felt a closeness to the old woman who is ready to go back to the spirit world. The belief in the existence of a soul is strong in humans and goes back thousands of years.

We will never know when it began, but all human groups have a belief in the existence of souls. It is not a wish to live forever, not believing in an imaginary Sky God, it is recognizing that something is there. It is not visible to any physical sense, but a soul can think and act, perhaps more powerfully than anything physical.

Many studies prove that all of our senses are regularly fooled. Ask any magician about it. Open a psychology textbook and view proof of how the eyes chose what to see or not. Our sense of time and speed is also all wrong. To be honest, we have a lot of evidence that what we call “the world” is not what we think it is. Old people told us over many generations that when we get old, we learn how much we don’t know. It’s true.

Opposing forces formed all of creation. You can’t paint light without black, there is no heat without cold, no life without death. The value of all that we desire is dictated by its scarcity. We derive pleasure from what is denied to others. A human always strives to tell others what to do and not allow others to tell us what to do. We often risk our lives for the “freedom” to do what we ourselves determined to be harmful to us. The police make a steady income by catching drivers acting dangerously.

Our opinions of what is dangerous change regularly. My mother, and all other mothers at the time, smoked during pregnancy and later while breastfeeding me. Now someone would call the police if a mother smoke with kids in the vehicle with all windows open. In France, smoking isn’t considered dangerous. We thrive on conflicts and preach peace.

The whole controversy about the existence of spirits or even the reality of material things could be only a question of human beliefs. Our latest research in quantum physics leaves the door open to human interpretation. Are we a physical form? Spiritual? Or none of the above. Were we just influenced by Christ telling us that material things are not valuable?

You must remember the parable about the guy who found a great pearl and sold all else to get it. That pearl was the discovery of the immaterial soul.

There is substantial power in being only a spirit like God himself, yet He created us a body and soul. Do we just go back to being a soul when the body dies? The all-knowing God must have had a reason to do what He did, and we are not even approaching his level of knowledge. Try to create a human or even a mouse and you will find out. He built a universe in which all things exist in balance with each other.

The first commandment is to love God with all your heart. In English, there is only one kind of love but there are many. The second is to never attempt to visualize the spirit we worship as God. I wonder why. Is it so we will know that a spirit is completely not material? Why is that important?

The knowledge creates the needed balance. God gave us that which he denied himself. The gift of being a soul with a physical, limited body. He did it because he loves us more than himself. He demands that we will love each other as he loves us for our benefit.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Hugging Grandma.

 

Hugging Grandma.

So many people now lament that they can’t hug their grandparents. Stories surface about old folks dying alone and care workers stretched to the limits unable to take care of them or even hold their hand while they die.  

I have a few older friends who need regular medical help to stay alive. They have done their share of work and were looking forward to the “golden years” when they would use their lifelong savings and enjoy life without a need to work. What they saved for is not what they have. A group of political “representatives” who use them for their advantage governs the worker’s savings and investments.

Most of my life I worked, studied and volunteered on top of it. My understanding was that we had a social contract. Wake up in the morning, make yourself useful, and look for ways to make yourself even more useful. People were ashamed if someone discovered that they were not contributing their share to the best of their ability. Work was honoured and laziness abhorred.

The problem we all faced was that most of us ended up doing things we didn’t feel very fulfilling. Our work was contributing to someone else’s wealth and doing more didn’t advance our personal well-being. A few did, but most didn’t. People became clock watchers and most looked forward to the weekend or the next holiday. Why are so many of us doing what we don’t like?

My group, which we can name the middle class, lived by a simple rule. You survive, save for retirement, build a good health care system, and provide education and work for those that will come after you. Our loyalty was to family, community, and country. The rest of the world only mattered as competition.

We are born helpless and start growing, learning about life by playing. School is considered “education” and after school comes “working.” We call God “father” indicating that we are children. Let’s assume that we are children and this whole life we are playing. The world is enormous and provides us with all that we need. The only way for some to not have enough is if others take more than their share.

Humans are social beings and soon after birth indoctrination to groups begins. Catholics baptize, Jews circumcise, and the child is initiated before it knows it. You learn your religious beliefs, your language that sets you in a nationality, your gender practices, and prejudices, and so on. Later you will join the class you belong to, intellectual, noble, or peasant as well as your race. The child learns to distinguish physical characteristics that set it apart from others. These are all learned behaviours.

When children are educated about their assigned groupings, they learn about traditions and other cultural aspects that set them apart from others. We all do this without ever realizing what we do. Soon we are willing to fight others and dominate them, viewing it as winning the competition.

The choice that we make is which game we are spending life playing, and is one game better than another. We all know what would happen if we left a group of pre-schoolers unsupervised in a nice new show home and came back in an hour. Play is great but must be regulated and safe. We supervise kids but neglect adults who are just larger kids.

We all know the feeling of joy that comes from winning. Here in Canada, most people have their favourite hockey team. People spend many hours of their lives being emotional about “their team.” The team has nothing to do with them aside from residing in their city. Most players are not local, the owners and shareholders could be from anywhere and wins or losses are mostly related to the amount of money spent on buying contracts of the best players of the time.

Loyalty to a group or a team is admired, and people see nothing wrong with competition. After all, competition is a driving force that advances humanity in all directions. We made some of the best discoveries during hard times like wars or lately even pandemics. However, it always leads us to rejoice at someone else’s loss and even deprive them of life’s necessities without feeling shame or remorse.

Since we are material beings, we must have some land from which we draw the resources needed for life directly or indirectly. As we go, we learn how to sustain more of us on less land, but competition leaves many without the necessary minimum. Even knowledge is rationed, hoping the less fortunate groups will contribute more to the leading few. This will lead us to disaster.

In my lifetime, I observed wars and analyzed the results. Mighty armies and powerful nations can destroy countries, cities, and infrastructure but not the human spirit. People will find ways to get other people back.

This leaves us with two options. Destroy the enemy and ourselves or abandon teams and other groups and figure out how to hug grandma and all humans. It is not hard.

There is enough “stuff” in the world to sustain all of us. In short, learn what the Daycare teacher told us when we were small. Play all the games but take turns and share. Remember that we are just big kids playing a game called life. We can easily make it a great game. Instead of a teacher, we can set ourselves a list of rules and follow them, adjusting when needed. The rest God, or whatever you call him, takes care of.

Just as we have laws setting the top speed limit, we can regulate how much each individual or group can hoard and share the rest. We can ensure that all people have what they need and let the top performers compete for what they want without keeping life’s necessities out of reach for the needy, and they will not need to fight.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment

Let’s make a bet.

 

Let’s make a bet.

I bet that in ten years this world will hardly be recognizable. If I would have slept since 1950 and woke up today, I wouldn’t know that it is the same world. Now things change a lot faster. All things have changed, but a bigger change is coming. Technology will grow by leaps and bounds and science will not be what it is. The tools that we use will allow us to have what a short time ago was considered a miracle. However, the real change will be humans themselves. We will either change into corpses or into a society involved in constructing its future. We worked ourselves into a corner and there is no way to go on without changing.

The world is getting smaller as the internet gets bigger. There are attempts to control the information flow, but they fail rapidly. No longer can only one group of people keep information locked up. Every person can obtain the knowledge of their choice and every person must make up their own mind.

Numerous groups are fighting to spread their messages and all claim that truth is on their side. Often people choose sides by supporting what will give them a material advantage but there is a new kind of people entering the fray. I see it clearly by just watching the news from around the world. In the age when religious affiliations are on a decline, young people are drawn towards universal morality that didn’t exist a short time ago. I see Black Lives Matter marches where white people are the majority, and campaigns against misuse of fossil energy dominated by western looking youths. Christian folks object to discrimination against Muslims. Young healthy folks are upset with the far-right forces panicking over their “right” to spread a pandemic that is destroying people and the economy. People make their own choices even without leadership. I wonder why.

We conducted a social experiment upon ourselves in the last quarter of the century and now the results are in.

After the second world war, people came back, and countries like ours absorbed them. In Canada, we even took in many people from other nationalities, some of who fought against us like Germans, Italians, Japanese, and many more. The country just finished a war and was deep in debt, but we prevailed. From 1945 to the early seventies, we had the best period in memory. All that count was growing. Better health care, education, unionized jobs, and productivity was rising while being tied into wages.

Around 1980 things changed, and it wasn’t because of immigration. People developed a new belief that some folks who do well should do even better and will share the results with the rest. Trickle-down economics. The belief translated into a major change in taxation, trade deals and contracts. Myriads of young folks tried to get ahead by working harder, getting educated, taking unreasonable risks and failed. Success was mostly not tied to personal merit but simply to the luck of the draw. It’s not what you know, but who you know.

In 2020 the world advanced, productivity improved, but most regular working people found themselves worst off than we were in the 1960s. Older folks like me can see that the earth itself is in danger, our kids can’t expect the social mobility that we had, and everyone is in debt. Poor folks both at home and abroad are merely trying to stay alive. It is at a critical level creating a dangerous situation. I feel that we have taken a wrong turn.

The memory of Peter Lougheed campaigning and winning our confidence is fresh in my mind. To be fiscally Conservative meant to use money responsibly and do as much as possible for the province with it.

Now I see politicians making impossible promises and lying under the same party name. The provincial tax didn’t go up but local taxes do. Why? Since the province cut most grants.

The few who prospered are trying hard to retain their entitlement and using shady methods to gain public support. There was the drive to blame Canadians of minority groups for our problems and lately a new campaign. This time it is seeding fears that our freedoms are threatened by attempts to save people from viral infection.

In 1940 London England came under heavy bombardments. Some wanted to capitulate as France did. One bomb fell on Buckingham Palace and the Brits changed on mass. Canadians, Australians, and Indians in turbans came to help and after great suffering that touched everyone, Great Britain won. This was no longer a good time to speak about surrendering.

As we see maps of Canada where it seems that Conservative provinces are leading in infection rates, people are waking up ready to fight and win the war against the virus. I keep a close eye on world news and read comments on the net. While some folks wish to give in, protect imaginary freedoms, and let the Coronavirus do what it will, others are resolved to fight and win.

In Toronto, the police had to protect the anti-maskers from enraged citizens. In the Western provinces, people are reporting businesses that don’t follow safety measures and BC set up roadblocks at the Alberta border. Canadians, like the Londoners eighty years ago, are fighting back and everyone can see who is winning. Those who lost confidence seeing their leaders vacationing abroad during shutdowns, now cheer when those who spread the disease are being fined and arrested. Even the excuse that Christ told them to disobey health regulations no longer works. He didn’t tell the same to other denominations.

Presently the majority is learning that no one is entitled to take advantage of them, use them and risk their lives. It’s happening on a small scale at home and internationally with entire countries. The internet information lines are humming. In ten years, we will see a world of awakened people who know how to secure their share of everything.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Freedom of speech test.

 

Freedom of speech test.

One thing I can say about myself with little doubt. I speak my mind openly. In Israel most people do and in Canada, there is more British influence. Perhaps we can summarize by saying people expect more diplomacy. The culture is more refined.

The cultural rules that guide communication should not be designed to make opinions vague, but perhaps soften the blow. Truth should be true, and the rest is a method of delivery. We don’t say to a person; you are a liar; we say what you told me is a bit disingenuous. However, all of us seem to be confused about freedom of speech and Human Rights.

At university, one professor used to tell a story. Apparently, a guest speaker that people didn’t like came to give a talk. Students locked up the exit doors where he was speaking and pulled the fire alarm. The prank ended up with ambulances delivering the injured and the police arresting the pranksters. The story was meant to teach us that there are limits to freedom of speech.

I have been getting messages from acquaintances for about a year now, trying to convince me that there is no threat from the COVID pandemic. Some even have a video with a fake archbishop and others show teams of white-gowned “doctors” awkwardly using medical terms saying that we are being fooled by a conspiracy theory about a virus. One person mixed up old statistics claiming that all the deaths in America are now being portrayed as COVID-related.

In the last couple of weeks, the campaign intensified. I am receiving a barrage of “evidence” from an old friend. A big factor in those is the hoax that they make the vaccines from aborted babies. I researched and followed up on some sources. Needless to say, it comes from old and proven Far Right organizations. The Americans have a few Far-Right outlets and we have our own far-right News that even the Tories don’t use. They are all complaining that their freedom of speech is being censored by Internet organizations. I am surprised that no one is suing them for the deaths resulting from their activity.

Why are the Far-Right or Alt-Right organizations making an effort and spending a lot of money to lead people to act dangerously? It’s easy to understand. The people who are now on top of the world are scared of the virus. Not because it kills, they got their shots, but because it is threatening their domination over other people.

COVID revealed to people that our economy could function differently than the way it does. Mainly it shows that our countries can survive without everyone working all of their free time or being constantly terrified of not having a job. The “bug” revealed that people will tell you to believe their stories instead of fighting for your life. Now we know that the economy can go on with a lot less make busy work. Mostly we need the essential workers. We can borrow money from our bank and payback with our work as long as nobody skims the profits. We can supply all that we need with a little trading on the side. The world would be better off. In the seventies, we planned to do it, but greed got in the way.

A year ago there was no vaccine and predictions floated that it will take 5 years to get one. The only defence was social isolation or we would end up like India is now. The President was telling people not to worry, and the USA topped the world in COVID deaths. Now we have vaccines and the people are being influenced not to use them. Noone is considering who and why is advocating the voluntary destruction of our society.

I don’t consider it Free Speech or a human rights issue. I have a copy of the Bill of Rights on my wall. It is all about improving our lives and protecting us. Nothing about disobeying the government’s health rules and risking lives.

I find it difficult to listen politely to my “friends” who in this case are trying to risk my life by telling me to listen to them instead of to my doctor. Will they pay for my funeral? We have a lot of funerals. Did they buy shares in the funeral industry?

All humans know that life as we know it ends with death. We try to stay alive as long as life is pleasant. Should I take the word of a “friend” and die or the other way. Should I be careful, use a vaccine and let nature or God deal with the virus as it always does.

My guess is, do what I can, trust our best minds, follow our government’s skimpy advice, and remain alive. I don’t need to sacrifice my life to keep the existing social order intact.

Consider the other option. If the pandemic is left unchecked, the hospitals will overflow with COVID cases. Our Canadian doctors will have to decide like the “selection” doctors did in the German concentration camps and treat only those who have the best chance to live for a year. People like me will not pass the test, and my doctor may have to let me go for lack of ICU beds. It may happen very soon. We have executed all the “selection” doctors after the war in 1945. Do we want to honour the wishes of the “freedom” fighters and not follow government directions for public safety?

I respect my friends, who circulate propaganda against what all the governments say is a serious threat. I don’t want to remove their RIGHT for free speech or their “RIGHT” not to wear a mask away. Yet, my right to live will be denied if their assumed constitutional freedom is allowed to win. If we end up like India, they and all those who support them will be responsible.

Remember. The numbers you see on your devices' screens and in News Papers are real people.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.