All Hallows' Convent and School was established in 1863 on Petrie Bight, as the first permanent site of the convent and school of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland. The site comprises many important buildings reflecting the growth of the school. The arrangement of the site and the buildings thereon reflect the acquisition of land and the introspective nature of the planning of the school.

 

Following the separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859, a new Roman Catholic diocese separated the newly formed Diocese of Queensland from the Diocese of Newcastle. On the 14th of April 1859 James Quinn, who was residing in Ireland at the time, was appointed the first Bishop of Queensland and arrived in Brisbane on the 12th of March 1861. Between his appointment and his arrival, Quinn recruited desperately needed clergy and religious Sisters. He arrived in Brisbane with several priests and five Sisters of Mercy, under the guidance of the Mother Superior, Mother Mary Vincent Whitty.

 

The Sisters of Mercy were principally a teaching order, founded in Ireland by Catherine McAuley in 1831. The establishment of religious schools in the new colony was seen as a crucial need to instil and strengthen faith in the struggling community where it was said that religion is very secondary... money making seems to be the object and aim of existence. The day after Mother Vincent's arrival a deputation from Ipswich requested that the Sisters settle in their town, but accommodation was soon found for the sisters in Brisbane, where the need for them must have been greater felt.

 

Adderton and the Convent:

 

In December 1863 Bishop Quinn purchased on behalf of the Sisters of Mercy the former home of Dr George Fullerton who had been appointed to the first Legislative Council of Queensland but soon after left for Maranoa. The house, presumably built for Fullerton was known as Adderton and was sold to Quinn for £6000. The house was located on Petrie Bight, across Ann Street from the Bishop's own rented residence, Dara, and these two properties were considered two of the largest and best appointed homes in Brisbane at the time. On their arrival, the Sisters had been provided with only temporary accommodation near Saint Stephen's church. Adderton was to be used as a convent for the Sisters of Mercy, and as accommodation for a boarding school. Among the chief concerns of the Bishop was the establishment of a Catholic education system, and this was his primary motivation for introducing to Queensland the order of sisters renowned for their teaching.

 

It is thought that the newly formed school was named All Hallows' by Mother Vincent after All Hallows' College, Dublin, which was in turn named to recall the seventh century parish church, All Hallows'-by-the-Tower in London. All Hallows', Brisbane was to operate in conjunction with the school at Saint Stephen's which had been established and operated by lay members of the community since 1845, but for which the Sisters assumed the management of upon their arrival in 1861. All Hallows' was established as a 'select' school, where money raised from fees could be used to finance the parish or 'poor' schools, of which the school at Saint Stephen's was an early example.

 

Presumably, Adderton was built in the late 1850s for Dr Fullerton after he purchased the property above Petrie Bight, which with its far reaching views of Brisbane, from Thomas Adams in 1858. Adams, with Henry Watson, acquired the original Deeds of Grant of the land in two separate deeds in July 1844 and May 1852. After its construction Adderton was located on 2 acres on what was known as Duncan's Hill but the site is now perceived, after the cutting down of Ann Street, as a cliff face to Ann Street sloping south eastward to the river.

 

Adderton forms the central section of the present day convent, and was originally a two storeyed house with a basement which was designed and constructed by early Brisbane builder, Andrew Petrie. Petrie was principally a building contractor, but was able to provide designs for local buildings until the influx of architects to Brisbane in the 1860s. Petrie was also responsible for the design and construction of the 1853 Adelaide House, later known as the Deanery, for Dr William Hobbs.

 

An early photograph of Adderton reveals it as a simple stone building of Georgian proportion and detail; a centrally located doorway with an elliptical fanlight above, flanked by timber shuttered windows and with chimney stacks protruding from each end of a simple gabled roof. Many of the features of the early house including a geometric stair, entrance door and light, windows and shutters, fireplaces along with the general planning of the interior are extant within what has become a much larger convent.

 

On the 1st of November 1863 the Sisters and some boarders from Saint Stephen's school transferred to Adderton. Classrooms were established in the reception and dining rooms on the ground floor, the study to the rear of these was used as a chapel and the floor above became sleeping quarters. Thus began the school and convent of All Hallows' which continues today as the head convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland and from where the Sisters rapidly expanded their network of educational and social welfare institutions.

 

The education offered by the Sisters for the young women of Queensland was of a high standard, and sought after by members of all religious denominations from regional centres all over Queensland and northern New South Wales. Indeed the number of non-catholic enrolments exceeded that of the catholic enrolments for many years until the 1880s, and remained equal to them until the turn of the century. This ecumenical spirit persisted despite the establishment of the Girls Grammar School in 1875. 1879 saw All Hallows' produce its first candidate for the Sydney University Junior Public Examinations, being the first female candidate from a convent school in Australia. The Sisters were able to provide a comprehensive education including music, domestic science, as well as more academic pursuits where specialist teachers of this sort were not introduced into State Schools until the 1940s.

 

Adderton remained unaltered as the head convent for the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland until 1890, when major alterations were planned which saw the former two storeyed house engulfed in a much larger complex involving another storey, an extension of fifty feet in the length of the house and the addition of transverse wings. These alterations were planned by local architects Hunter and Corrie and executed in 1892, by contractors Messrs Woollam and Norman for upwards of £13,000. A descriptive report of the nearly completed building was carried in the national architectural periodical, The Building and Engineering Journal of February the 27th, 1892.

 

The basement of the new convent contained accommodation for 'House of Refuge' girls, work rooms, bathrooms, and storage areas. The ground floor housed various reception room and offices, a nuns' sacristy and halls for the building's three main staircases, along with the sisters' dining room and a chapel in the south-western wing. The chapel featured an apsidal chancel, floored with encaustic tiles and accessed via wide marble stairs; fine pine joinery and panelling stained to a light cedar colour; and a memorial stained glass window from Munich. Seating accommodation in the chapel was divided such that the Sisters sat on the ground floor and the boarders at the convent were seated in a gallery above the entrance of the chapel. Verandahs were added to the front and rear of the ground and first floors of the central section of the building at this time. The cement rendered brick extensions were erected on concrete foundations, and with a slate roof.

 

With this 1892 extension a walkway was constructed which connected the convent to the school building erected in 1884. Incorporated as part of the walkway was a bell tower in which was placed an Angelus bell brought with the Sisters from Ireland in 1861 and dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo, which to this day chimes daily at noon.

 

Along with education, the Sisters of Mercy at All Hallows' provided many other social programmes, including the care and concern for the welfare of those considered less fortunate. Bishop Quinn approved the establishment of a House of Mercy (occasionally also referred to as the previously mentioned House of Refuge) at All Hallows' on February the 11th, 1875 with the aim of the protection of poor Women of good character, and in fact, providing accommodation for women including unwed mothers, inebriates, and former goalees in return for domestic work of various types. Later, parents or the police were able to send young girls to the House as a preventative measure against further trouble. A separate building was constructed as the House of Mercy at All Hallows' in 1878 between the rear of the convent and the Ann Street boundary. This building had a U-shaped plan, forming an enclosed courtyard with the convent. A large laundry was built in the vicinity in 1897, and this was one of the principal workshops of the inhabitants of the House of Mercy.

 

The north-eastern wing of the convent was extended toward Ann Street in 1913 to house further dining, library, and bedroom facilities. In 1921 the chapel, in the other wing, was almost tripled in size, removing the apsidal chancel and extending the whole wing toward the Ann Street perimeter of the school, and adding a transept toward the south-west. This extension, designed by local architects, Hall and Prentice was not designed to emulate the earlier Victorian building, rather a stripped classical architectural language was employed. The chapel was re-furbished in 1968 in line with the recently produced guidelines for changes of Roman Catholic services determined by Vatican II Council. The centrally facing dark stained timber pews were replaced with light pine seating facing the new, more centrally located altar.

 

Within the garden to the south of the chapel a small brick building was constructed in 1915 to designs of prominent local architect George Henry Male Addison, to house a life size sculpture of Jesus' crucifixion. This was erected by builder, J. Bowen whose tender price was £130. A grotto, located on the northern side of the convent, and a statue of Our Lady on the circular driveway, in the front of the convent were on the grounds by the early 1930s.

 

The Wall, Lodge and Gate:

 

The environment on Duncan's Hill gradually changed as what was formerly named High Road was renamed Ann Street, and this was cut down by 15 feet in 1865. From that time the convent at All Hallows' began to be perceived as situated at the top of a cliff-face rather than, as previously, at the apex of a gentle hill. Ann Street was subject to three more cuts, in 1876, 1886, and finally in 1927, when it took its present form.

 

The cutting down of Ann Street in 1876 necessitated the rebuilding of the original 1865 wall, which saw it extended along Ann Street. In 1879, three years after the reconstruction of the wall a stone gatekeepers lodge and entrance gateway were constructed to designs of Reverend Joseph Augustine Canali, an architect and engineer who arrived from Italy at the behest of Quinn in 1872 with the intention of joining the priesthood in Queensland which he did in 1879. The builders for the project were O'Keefe, Masterson and Martin who constructed the lodge and gateway for a cost of £3473/8/1. The gatehouse, which seems to have replaced an earlier structure built with Adderton, served as the convent almonry for many years after its construction.

 

Another cutting of Ann Street took place in 1886 and the final cutting in 1927 saw the wall increased in length, extending around into Kemp Place. At this time a base was added to the gatehouse making it level with the new road and the gate was lowered.

 

The Main Building:

 

As the school and convent increased in size and the Sisters of Mercy became wealthier, incentive arose to acquire the entire block on which the convent stood, bordered by Ann Street, Kemp Place, Ivory Street, and Boundary Street. In December 1879 land on the Ivory Street side of the site was purchased from James Ivory for £2173, for the construction of a separate school building, overlooking the Brisbane River.

 

Bishop Quinn laid the foundation stone of the building on January the 2nd 1881. The architect for the project was Andrea Giovanni Stombuco, a Florentine who moved to Australia in 1851 and to Brisbane in 1875. Upon his arrival in the country, Stombuco worked variously as a monumental mason, sculptor, and builder, before becoming an architect, a profession for which he claims he was self-taught. As an artisan, Stombuco undertook much work for the Catholic Church and the church was to become his primary patron when he began practice as an architect. On advice from the church Stombuco moved to Brisbane and may have taken up a position offered by Quinn as Diocesan architect. Among the buildings he designed for the Catholic Church were Saint Joseph's Christian Brothers Schools at both Gregory Terrace (1875 - 1876) and Nudgee (1889 - 1890); Rathbawn (1875 - 1878), a home for Quinn at Nudgee; several churches including Laidley (1878), Pine Mountain (1878), Sacred Heart at Sandgate (1880 - 1881), Church of the Holy Cross, Wooloowin (1886) and Saint Joseph's at Kangaroo Point (1887 - 1888).

 

The All Hallows' school building, which has become known as the Main Building, was constructed by Edward Vallely and completed in late 1882 at a cost of £8899/2/-. The original building was a substantial three storeyed structure, with a central tower dividing two symmetrically arranged wings featuring open arcaded loggias to the lower two storeys. The central tower which appeared on the south eastern side of the building was planned by Bishop Quinn as his own office, where he could oversee the development and management of the school curriculum. However, before the building was completed Quinn died and Robert Dunne was appointed his successor.

 

The Main Building housed classrooms, boarders' accommodation, and a concert hall. A separate two storeyed building to the north-east of the Main Building was constructed at this time to house music practice rooms.

 

By 1901 space in the Main Building was insufficient and a further wing was planned for the Main Building to designs of local architects, Hall and Dods, a partnership of Francis Richard Hall and Robert Smith Dods and the extension was constructed by John Watson. This wing, which extended toward the north-west, was very similar in detail to the original building, continuing the arcading, roofline, and detailing. The extension included a boarders' dining room, an extension of the concert hall, another stairhall fitted with a fine timber stair and additional boarding accommodation.

 

Thomas Ramsay Hall, a local architect and half-brother of Francis Hall, designed a further extension wing to the Main Building in 1919, perpendicular to the existing building and incorporating the building housing the early music practice rooms. Two further additions were made to this wing of the Main Building, extending it north west, to designs of architects Prentice and Atkinson in 1934 and in 1940. These later additions continued the arcading on the south-western facade and extended it along to disguise the early music practice rooms. Prentice and Atkinson were also responsible for the addition of a lavatory and bathroom block on the north east of the building in 1933. With the phasing out of the boarders from All Hallows' from 1969 changes were made to the Main Building, turning former accommodation quarters into classrooms.

 

Saint Ann's Industrial School:

 

The gold rush period of the 1850s and 1860s in Australia saw more concern and governmental involvement with the care of homeless children. Officials were given powers to place neglected and delinquent children in institutions often offering religious as well as technical training, modelled on the English district union schools.

 

Following the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act of 1865, which regulated the detention of neglected and criminal children, the Sisters established an industrial school in 1868 in rented cottages adjacent to All Hallows'. Saint Ann's Industrial School, as it became known, was concerned with the full-time education of young girls in domestic arts and sciences, including cooking, dressmaking, and needlework. The Sisters established the Industrial School to continue the training of young girls leaving Saint Vincent's Orphanage at Nudgee, in an attempt to prolong their entry in the workforce, where the state age for discharge could be as low as ten years. However, Saint Ann's was soon accepting full fee paying students. Work produced at the school was exhibited nationally and the institute became a highly regarded training centre.

 

In 1876 the school's Liquidation Committee approved the construction of a new building to house the Industrial School and land previously rented by the Sisters was purchased from the estate of George Poole for £3000. This land faced Ann Street to the south west of the main entrance.

 

Andrea Stombuco, the designer of the Main Building at All Hallows', called tenders for the construction of an Industrial School in the early 1880s, but financial constraints delayed the construction of the building. Tenders were again called in 1893, to revised designs of FDG Stanley and Son, and the contractors Woollam and Norman who had only recently finished the construction of the extensions to the All Hallows' Convent, were commissioned as builders for the project. Messrs Leach and Son were the decorators employed. Saint Ann's was completed for a cost of about £7000 and officially opened by the Governor, Sir Henry Wylie Norman on July the 15th, 1894. A newspaper report of the opening in The Age gave the following account of the nature of the school:

 

"As it is well-known the institution is largely self-supporting, being the abode of dress-makers, lace and fancy needle workers. Saint Ann's has gradually grown until now it assumes the position of an important destroyer of the nonsensical fallacies of free-trade which have blighted colonial youth in the past. We hope the children will grow in goodness and usefulness, and that a kindred institution will, in the early future, be established for boys where they may acquire useful trades."

 

An Industrial School for boys was, indeed, established by Archbishop Dunne in the printing offices of the Catholic newspaper, The Australian.

 

Changes in the education system saw the partial closure of Saint Ann's in the 1940s, when the building became used as a boarding house for young women studying at university or working in the city. In 1964 an extensive refurbishment of the building was undertaken which converted the lower floors of the building into classrooms, anticipating the future growth of the school.

 

Other Buildings:

 

All Hallows' School and Convent have seen many periods of concentrated growth; the 1880s and early 1890s saw the construction of the Main Building, and the first major extension of the convent. During the 1920s and 1930s the convent was again extended, the Main Building was extended twice and several small buildings were constructed including the chaplains residency, Saint Brigids, and an art studio.

 

The art studio was constructed between the north eastern wing of the Main Building and the Convent in 1922 to designs of local architects, Hall and Prentice at a cost of £1437. This small one storeyed masonry structure was designed to maximise natural lighting, with large windows and skylighting and an open plan. A similar art studio was constructed at Lourdes Hill School in 1923.

 

Hall and Prentice, or the later firm of Hall and Phillips which formed with the dissolution of the previous partnership in 1929, are thought to have designed two other buildings on the campus, as well as the before mentioned extension of the chapel in 1921. These are a chaplain's residence constructed in 1936, abutting the gatekeeper's lodge above the Ann Street wall and Saint Brigids, a classroom block, built in 1924. These two buildings have similar classical detailing to that found on Hall and Phillips' extension of the nearby chapel.

 

Adjacent to Saint Brigids is a small octagonal building of one storey, with a high pitched pyramidal roof which was apparently constructed as an aviary, but is now used for classroom and meeting space.

 

Later buildings extant on the site include McCauley Hall which was constructed as the first catholic teachers' college in Queensland in 1958; Aquinas Hall a four storeyed building containing language, history, and science laboratories, designed by Frank Cullen and Partners and opened in 1964 to which a science and library wing were added in 1972 and extended in 1978; and, most recently, Loreto Hall, a gymnasium complex, incorporating a large auditorium and art rooms designed by Graeme Thiedeke and opened in 1985. Loreto Hall replaced one of the very few buildings on the site known to have been demolished, a small one storeyed building known as Nazereth. This was constructed in 1952 for use by the lower primary school, and with the closing of the primary school in 1981, Nazereth was used for art rooms until its demolition.

 

In 1913 All Hallows' became the home of one of the first school swimming pools in Queensland, which was replaced in 1960 by the extant pool and associated buildings.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

Is it too late; too far, too much space between? The threads that we wove years ago got torn, the ends frayed and the tapestry was damaged, but is it irreparable? Can we weave the tangled vines together again?

My heart tells me that the picture will never look the same. A faint replica - a mockery of what we once were. I want to tell you, but first I want to hear your thoughts. Do you care? You forced yourself to make a choice you never had to make. It wasn't definitive; it was never him or us, not until you chose to make it that way. Maybe it wouldn't matter so much, if the past few months hadn't been the time I'd needed you more than ever. The best friend that forgot our existance. We've all changed so, so much. Barely recognisable now. Talk to me, stop these fallacies and pretend 'friendships'; polite talk that simply makes both of us awkward. Something has to give.

The creator inside me has gone. I'm too tired for this.

  

Inspired by all the wonderful ones of these I've seen; there are many, and I love them all :)

—James Matthew Barrie

 

Ain't that the truth? Life is all about planning and having to scrap those plans because nothing EVER happens the way it's "supposed" to. As if we can control the world around us...the struggle to let go of that fallacy of control has defined my adult life so far.

 

L on B

Closer to the truth......

 

Simon

This is the place where dreams come to die. Here, between the light and the darkness, is where all we hoped to be is washed from our consciousness, and covered by sand. What was, what is, what could have been-these are but oversimplifications of who we really are. The beauty of this place disguises the inherent fallacy of our dreams. Built on sand, they teeter, and fall at the least breath of wind. Crumpled now, to sand they return.

Shasta daisy from my garden.

 

Way back in June I was mucking about on the iPaddle (as one does) playing with the distortion filters in Affinity. I probably should have been doing something more constructive but, hey-ho, life is too short.

 

So this is a set based around a flower pic. I chose it as a starting point because it’s a high-contrast image with oodles of radial symmetry, and I thought it would show up the distortion effects. (A slippery deceit of course as I conveniently invented the reasoning for my chaotic creative meandering after the fact - I suggest you never believe the fallacy that I really know what I am doing! :) ).

 

I’ll cover the processing notes for all the variants and replicate the commentary so you only need read it once (if at all, lol).

 

I’ll post a link to the in-camera original in the first comment.

 

Edit 1 - Colour

A plain colour version, then given a harsh gritty feel by duplicating the image and blending back probably with hard light (though I am not entirely sure).

 

Edit 2 - Plain B&W

The colour version converted to B&W. Bilateral blur (an edge-preserving blur which effectively smoothes out the petals. Glow filter … for a bit of glow (though te be honest I think it’s a bit of a misnomer) :)

 

Edit 3 - Twirl

Starting with the plain B&W added twirl in the centre and also a radial blur. Blended the original back to the twirly version with Soft Light.

 

Edit 4 - Shasttered

This used the Diffuse distortion filter (not the Diffuse Light filter) to create the diffusion look. Tweaked that a bit and then took the original B&W version and blended it back with the Subtract mode. This overprinted the diffuse look with an inverted version of the original.

 

I really like this effect - it reminded me of splatter painting in my young days (back in the caves in France ;) ). Or perhaps printing with a flower using black paper and white ink…

 

For Sliders Sunday. I’ll also put the three B&W versions into the 100x challenge as I am rather behind (as life around me doesn’t seem to pause for long enough).

 

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the images. Happy Sliders Sunday and 100x!

 

[Handheld in daylight.

Raw development and all the subsequent processing done in Affinity Photo.]

"In 1762 jilted Hannah Baddeley threw herself from a cliff in Middleton Dale. But her petticoats opened out like a parachute and let her down safely. Hannah survived with nothing more than cuts and bruises - except for her broken heart. She died two years later, aged 26 and still a spinster. "

 

I shot this image today in the Peak District. It was technically just for my university work but then became inspired by the story above (trust me, it was difficult to get that dress as layered and flowing as it currently is!) I had a great day being driven around the hills and reservoirs and forests with my grandparents, whilst being buffeted by gale force winds the whole time. Will upload another image from today most likely tomorrow morning - if I get a chance to finish it before going out shooting again!

 

I know I posted it on my last upload but I value all your support on here so much, and if you're a fan of my work I'd be so happy if you'd take a look at and like my Facebook page - once again, I'm 28 likes away from 300 and planning to probably do a print give away when I hit 300.

 

Facebook/Twitter/Client Site/NEW WEBSITE!

Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus

 

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/knocking-at-the-door-movie/

 

Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus

 

Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesusprophesied, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him" (Matthew 25:6). "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). For the last two thousand years, believers in the Lord have been watchful and awaiting the Lord's knock on the door, so how will He knock on mankind's door when He returns? In the last days, some people have testified that the Lord Jesus has returned—Almighty God incarnate—and that He is doing the work of judgment in the last days. This news has rocked the entire religious world.

 

Yang Aiguang, the protagonist of the film, has believed in the Lord for decades and has always been enthusiastically engaged in work and preaching, waiting to welcome the Lord's return. One day, two people come and knock on the door, tell Yang Aiguang and her husband that the Lord Jesus has returned, and share the words of Almighty God with them. They are deeply moved by Almighty God's words, but because Yang Aiguang has been subjected to the fallacies, deception, and strictures of the pastors and elders, she throws the witnesses of The Church of Almighty God out of the house. After that, the witnesses knock on their door on many occasions and read the words of Almighty God to Yang Aiguang, bearing witness to God's work in the last days. During this time, the pastor disrupts and hinders Yang Aiguang time after time, and she continues to waver. However, through hearing the words of Almighty God, Yang Aiguang comes to understand the truth and gains discernment regarding the rumors and fallacies propagated by the pastors and elders. She finally understands how the Lord knocks on people's doors during His return in the last days, and how we should welcome Him. When the fog clears, Yang Aiguang finally hears the voice of God and acknowledges that Almighty God really is the return of the Lord Jesus!

 

Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

 

Terms of Use en.godfootsteps.org/disclaimer.html

  

Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus

 

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/knocking-at-the-door-movie/

 

Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus

 

Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesusprophesied, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him" (Matthew 25:6). "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). For the last two thousand years, believers in the Lord have been watchful and awaiting the Lord's knock on the door, so how will He knock on mankind's door when He returns? In the last days, some people have testified that the Lord Jesus has returned—Almighty God incarnate—and that He is doing the work of judgment in the last days. This news has rocked the entire religious world.

 

Yang Aiguang, the protagonist of the film, has believed in the Lord for decades and has always been enthusiastically engaged in work and preaching, waiting to welcome the Lord's return. One day, two people come and knock on the door, tell Yang Aiguang and her husband that the Lord Jesus has returned, and share the words of Almighty God with them. They are deeply moved by Almighty God's words, but because Yang Aiguang has been subjected to the fallacies, deception, and strictures of the pastors and elders, she throws the witnesses of The Church of Almighty God out of the house. After that, the witnesses knock on their door on many occasions and read the words of Almighty God to Yang Aiguang, bearing witness to God's work in the last days. During this time, the pastor disrupts and hinders Yang Aiguang time after time, and she continues to waver. However, through hearing the words of Almighty God, Yang Aiguang comes to understand the truth and gains discernment regarding the rumors and fallacies propagated by the pastors and elders. She finally understands how the Lord knocks on people's doors during His return in the last days, and how we should welcome Him. When the fog clears, Yang Aiguang finally hears the voice of God and acknowledges that Almighty God really is the return of the Lord Jesus!

 

Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

 

Terms of Use en.godfootsteps.org/disclaimer.html

  

The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded upon a fallacy. The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and we grow happier as we grow older.

- William Lyon Phelps

   

Photo taken at my hometown in Bantay, Ilocos Sur.

 

My cousins and I used to wake up early and go to a grassland nearby. We ran after dragonflies. When we get tired we go home with the smell of the sun on our hair, hahaha... Then we wash our hands and eat the simple breakfast our mothers jointly prepare for us...

  

Please try the View On Black

Just want to say up front, the following is not some sort of cry for help or anything of that sort. There is no need for alarm, I'm not going to do anything drastic or crazy; part of me just wanted to open up, and I've been wanting to post something new on here for so long, so I'm just sort of doing both. If you're just wanting to be on here for fun stories or neat creations, don't worry about reading any of the rest of this; I definitely am not wanting to oblige any of you to read this, it's mostly just for me.

 

Like I said, it has been quite a while since I posted; March, to be exact; the casting call for a project I am simply needing to officially cancel; more on that later. In truth, things have been rather intense for a while. Not busy in a way that I would never have had time to post, but occupied in a way that, mentally speaking, I have not been capable of getting around to it. I'll elaborate; in hindsight, I've had pretty significant problems with anxiety and depression since at least as early as fourth grade, although it wasn't really clear to me, or diagnosed, until my sophomore year of college. It was really bad at that point due to some family factors; I was still living with my parents at that time and attending at University of Tennessee, but due to my dad's job as a methodist minister, we had just moved locations the previous summer, and I was suddenly cut off by a couple of hours from the friends and support that I had from high school (and even earlier in a couple of cases). Things got bad enough that I was no longer capable of managing my classes, and so I stepped away from school with just a few junior-level classes under my belt. The last year, I have been back in the area from before renting a small house with a long-standing friend of mine. Depression-wise, things have been certainly better; I was able to come off of some meds I had been taking for it at the beginning of the year, and I'm back close to my people again.

 

It has not all been perfect, and this is where it gets more into my absence. The job I had been working since the move back had gotten somewhat unpleasant; I was particularly not happy with it, and my work was certainly impacted by my problems. Push came to shove about a month back; if I had a different manager, or one who had handled things differently, this following bit would not have happened at all; I'm not blaming them, as there was certainly my own hand in this, but my manager did not handle the situation well at all. Things got to the point where I could either step away or get fired within the same timeframe. I chose to take the option that would give me the best opportunity, so I put in my two-week notice and left on my own terms. I just finished out the end of last week, and now it's over. I've been in for an interview with another job, and applied for several more, but I'm still waiting to hear back on anything else. This has all built up over a rather intense year; mid-January, for example, my grandmother passed away. It's been a lot.

 

Not all bad, mind you. I proposed to my girlfriend of nearly five years now, and we're currently planning for our May-of-2018 wedding.

 

To the point, though, when my depression effects me, I tend to shut down, so to speak. I don't get suicidal, or start self-harming, or anything like that; my willpower to do anything basically drops to zero. It basically feels like exhaustion. Simple things like reading or playing a game become too monumental to accomplish; being on the computer should seem easy, but the moment I run out of my normal routine websites, I just sit looking at the page trying to figure out what to go to next. Often I even have to give up on that and just resort to iFunny, possibly the least-effort activity I could possibly manage. I simply can't manage the things I like to do; I don't write, or upload videos to my youtube channel, or pictures here. I've gotten better about forcing myself to do something, thankfully; I've begun uploading simple designs to a Redbubble account (make art, slap it on shirts and merch and stuff). It can be hard to motivate myself to make anything, as almost all of my videos get practically no views, and I've definitely only made under $20 on Redbubble, but when I can manage to make myself make something, it helps.

 

To everyone who would've been involved with, or even just looking forward to, the Batman villain video I posted casting calls for, I sincerely apologize for canning everything after so many months of silence. It is simply more than I am going to be able to do right now in my life.

 

In typing all of this out, I've decided I'm going to get personal; if you don't want to read on about items such as personal beliefs, or politics, or choosing one comics company over another, feel free to step away. I don't want to force any of this on anyone, and if you've even read on this far, that's already more support than I was asking of anyone anyway. Thank you for coming this far. Just know that I don't judge people for differences on any of the following; anyone could be in a different place due to personal situations, experiences, or even just a different cognitive setup than I have. I'm definitely not doing this to tell anyone that they are right or wrong.

 

Who is Charlie?

 

A college dropout with lifelong depression, duh. See the three-trillion paragraphs before this one for that.

 

Alright, jokes aside.

 

I like to embrace myself as a creative person. Back in middle and high school, I considered myself a smart person; I certainly excelled in educational departments back then. Now, I really consider myself more along the lines of average. I have struggled (and even failed) to pull off enough tasks in my life to realize about where that puts me.

 

I consider myself an anti-nihilist in terms of philosophy. Where a nihilist might look at the universe and see meaninglessness, I look at the uncertainties and see the opportunity to try and make the world something more worthwhile, even if it's just a tiny difference.

 

You might remember I mentioned my father is a preacher a while back. Honestly, I'm more agnostic than anything else. There are simply too many unknowns, and too many issues I've come to take with various religious principles; if I find that a theological principle lacks a convincing philosophical support, I find it very hard to believe in the religious backdrop that supports the theology. And I know the fallacy here; one potential flaw does not make the other beliefs automatically moot, but at this point, I've run into enough problems that I'd rather just accept that the great unknowns of the universe do not currently have an answer we've figured out. Even being raised in the methodist church, I look back and see problems; too much looks like trying to shape a child's mind to automatically believe rather than form a convincing belief in the first place. Thankfully, my dad was always better about that than most; he actually does have the strongest theological understanding I've seen. The difference I have with that is how to deal with the theology; for example, when he says that the bible does not support homosexuality, I can agree on that: the bible really doesn't like gays. To him, that's enough. That's not enough for me; I have never been convinced by an argument that claims that homosexuality isa moral wrong, so the philosophy wins over the theology.

 

Now that I've already potentially alienated people, I'l jump in to politics. I'm fairly moderate, although I often tend to lean liberal, and for a particular reason. I support things that lean towards providing the best lives possible for the most people possible; the universe certainly doesn't seem to try and make things better for any person, so we as the other people are the only ones who will. If there is more than just this life as we know it, that's great. If not, though, this is all we have; if this is all we have, I don't want people to just live miserably and then be done. If we have the power to improve someone's life, we should. None of this should be political, but sadly, it is. Don't get me wrong, people who get heavily political on either side drive me up the wall. There were no good candidates in the US election last year, AND THAT IS ALL I AM GOING TO SAY ON THAT.

 

Of course, here comes the most polarizing, WW III-starting opinion I can possibly put out there: I prefer DC comics over Marvel. Go ahead, pick your jaw back up. Obviously, this is going to be apparent to anyone familiar with my post history on here, not to mention this very pic. Marvel's fine, it's just not my first choice. Their movies, in particular, haven't wowed me in a while, and only a few of them have at that. There's just too much of a "Marvel mold" that they all come out of, and it just doesn't do it for me any more. I'll put it this way: Spider-Man Homecoming is objectively, unarguably, most definitely a better movie than Suicide Squad. No doubt about it. However, I've seen the latter multiple times, and the former once. I always enjoyed my viewings of Deadshot and Harley (and some other guys) Fight Bubbly Monsters, even though the editing was poor and it sounded like someone left their iPod on shuffle for the first half. Spider-Man Is A High Schooler Again This Time did not have the same problems; it was a much better-made film, but when I walked out of it, my only thought was "Eh, it's alright. It's fine." I don't mind that other people like the Marvel movie formula, but it does make me a little sad that so many people act like you have to hate the DC movie (lack of one particular) formula.

 

I guess I've been ranting a while. All in all, I certainly feel a tad better having put this all out there. Feel free to discuss any of this here, or just ignore it and go on about your day; either's fine by me. I'll put links to my Youtube and Redbubble pages below here; they certainly could use the support, if you're interested. Again, though, don't force yourself to bother with either if you don't want; no obligations on my page.

 

Thanks for all of the support I've seen on stuff over the last several months, even though I've not been posting. I've seen, and appreciated it all. Hopefully I'll have normal pictures and uploads again on here soon; my light box is currently housing dozens of minifigures, bricks, and builds where I haven't been able to motivate myself to clear them out for further use.

 

YouTube Channel:

www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4qPn06kZAzFxYyIkaOLKg

 

Redbubble:

www.redbubble.com/people/baneshake?ref=account-nav-dropdo...

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/stay-out-of-my-business/

Introduction

Li Qingxin is a preacher in a house church in China who has been faithful to the Lord for many years. Always she enthusiastically does the Lord's work of spreading the gospel, vigilantly awaiting the Lord's coming to bring her up to the heavenly kingdom. In recent years, Li Qingxin has seen that assorted sects and churches have become ever more desolate. Eastern Lightning, however, has become ever more vibrant, despite frenzied condemnation and persecution by the Chinese Communist government and religious circles. More and more good sheep and leading sheep of various denominations and sects have accepted Eastern Lightning. This causes Li Qingxin to do some introspection. In particular, she has seen that pastors and elders of religious circles don't hesitate to fabricate assorted rumors and nonsense to condemn and blacken the name of The Church of Almighty God. They even coordinate with the Chinese Communist government to arrest preachers of Eastern Lightning. She feels that the deeds and actions of the pastor and elder deviate from the way of the Lord, and she realizes that what the Chinese Communist Party and religious circles wildly resist and condemn may be the true way, and could be the manifestation and work of the Lord. Thereon she and some co-workers decide to seek out and investigate Eastern Lightning, but they encounter all means of obstruction and trouble from the pastor and elder. Through reading the words of Almighty God and listening to testimony by preachers of The Church of Almighty God, Li Qingxin and the others gain the ability to discern the rumors and fallacies of the pastor and elder. This allows them to understand the contemptible intent and vicious tricks in their obstructing followers from investigating the true way, and they see clearly the true colors of the pastor and elder as hypocrites. Li Qingxin and the others say in full voice to the religious pastor and elder, "Stay out of our business!" They are finally able to thoroughly cast off the entrapment and bondage of the pastor and elder, and return before the throne of God.

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Brad McGinley and I ventured out to the Calhan Paint Mines this weekend to try out luck at shooting the Milky Way over some very unique land formations. Unfortunately, the clear skies forecasted were blocked by the clouds and so were the views of the MW during out night out. However, that's not to say we didn't come away with some pretty cool shots.

 

Brad and I arrived around 7:30 PM to scope out several vantages in the daylight because I don't like scoping out new locations in the dark if I can help it. Turned out to be a good move for this location as the rock formations were less than user friendly and we would not have been able to find the vantages we did had we gone in the dark. Per plan we hit dinner after our scoping, to kill some time and get some fuel for our night adventure. Once done, we headed back to the mines to be there around 10:00 PM when the Milky Way was to begin to rise above the horizon.

 

As Brad and I walked around the mines, we could not believe how bright it was in there. Some pretty thick clouds were above us to the north and thinner clouds to the west, both of which were lit up by the light pollution from the springs. The clouds to the west were soon to be overhead, limiting our chances at catching the Milky Way, but the pure white rock of these formations were lit up by this and surprisingly bright considering the sun was completely down and the moon wouldn't be up for hours. We spent the initial hour playing around with different colored lights I carry which were perfect for lighting up the white sandstone, but I liked this shot the best which is a reflection of the red light on Brad's head lamp as he walked away from the formation during this shot. Besides, the muted red seems very appropriate for a rock of this.......ummmmm.......stature.

 

With great fanfare, it was reported last week that the current health advice about eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is outdated, and that scientists now believe that eight portions is more beneficial.

 

While many people grumbled about how on earth they would manage those extra portions, I -allowed myself a wry smile.

 

For more than two years I’ve known that the ‘five-a-day’ mantra we’re all so familiar with is nothing but a fairytale.

Myth: The truth is that fruit and veg are pretty useless nutritionally

 

Myth: The truth is that fruit and veg are pretty useless nutritionally

 

Of course, they are tasty, colourful additions to any meal. But in terms of health and nutrition, fruit and veg have little to offer, and telling us to eat eight portions a day is compounding one of the worst health fallacies in recent history.

 

Surprised? Many people will be, and no doubt some dieticians and nutritionists will reject my arguments. But science backs me up.

 

The latest findings come from a European study into diet and health looking at 300,000 people in eight countries.

 

It found that people who ate eight or more portions of fresh food a day had a 22 per cent lower chance of dying from heart disease. Yet just 1,636 participants died during the study from heart disease, which is about half of one per cent.

 

Out of that very small proportion, fewer people died from the group that ate more fruit and veg.

 

However, the researchers cautioned that these people may have healthier lifestyles generally. They may be less likely to smoke; they may eat less processed food; they may be more active.

 

What we should not do is to make the usual bad science leap from association to causation and say ‘eating more fruit and veg lowers the risk of dying from heart disease’.

 

Vegetables offer some vitamins, but your body will be able to absorb these only if you add some fat, such as butter or olive oil

 

This survey comes not long after another large study, which examined half a million people over eight years, reported that fruit and veg offer no protection against breast, prostate, bowel, lung or any other kind of tumour. Those eating the most fruit and veg showed no difference in cancer risk compared with those -eating the least.

 

So how have we been duped for so long?

 

You might assume our five-a-day -fixation is based on firm evidence. But you’d be wrong.

 

It started as a marketing campaign dreamt up by around 20 fruit and veg -companies and the U.S. National Cancer Institute at a meeting in California in 1991. And it’s been remarkably successful.

 

People in 25 countries, across three continents, have been urged to eat more greens, and have done so in their millions, believing it was good for them.

 

No doubt it was set up with the best intentions — to improve the health of the nation and reduce the incidence of cancer. But there was no evidence that it was doing us any good at all.

 

The fact that our own government has spent £3.3 million over the past four years on the five-a-day message shows how pervasive this belief is.

 

People are convinced that fruit and vegetables are a particularly good source of vitamins and minerals.

Andrew Lansley: Said that only three in ten adults eat the recommended five-a-day

 

Andrew Lansley: Said that only three in ten adults eat the recommended five-a-day

 

For a long time, I too was a believer. I was a vegetarian for 20 years. It is only after nearly two decades of my own research — I am a Cambridge graduate and currently studying for a PhD in nutrition —that I have changed my views.

 

The message that fruit and veg are pretty useless, nutritionally, gradually dawned on me.

 

The facts are these. There are 13 vitamins and fruit is good for one of them, vitamin C.

 

Vegetables offer some vitamins — vitamin C and the vegetable form of the fat-soluble vitamins A and vitamin K1 — but your body will be able to absorb these only if you add some fat, such as butter or olive oil.

 

The useful forms of A and K — -retinol and K2 respectively — are found only in animal foods. As for minerals, there are 16 and fruit is good for one of them, potassium, which is not a substance we are often short of, as it is found in water.

 

Vegetables can be OK for iron and calcium but the vitamins and minerals in animal foods (meat, fish, eggs and dairy products) beat those in fruit and vegetables hands down. There is far more vitamin A in liver than in an apple, for instance.

 

But surely, people ask, even if there is no evidence that increasing our intake of fruit and vegetables will help prevent disease, they remain good things to eat?

 

I don’t think so. If people try to add five portions of fruit and veg — let alone eight — a day to their diet, it can be counterproductive. Fruit contains high levels of fructose, or fruit sugar.

 

Among dieticians, fructose is known as ‘the fattening carbohydrate’. It is not metabolised by the body in the same way as glucose, which enters the bloodstream and has a chance to be used for energy before it heads to the liver.

 

Fructose goes straight to the liver and is stored as fat. Very few -people understand or want to believe this biochemical fact.

 

Another argument that is often put forward by dieticians on behalf of fruit and vegetables is that they are ‘a source of antioxidants’.

 

They believe we need to have more -antioxidants in our diet to counteract the oxidants that damage the body’s cells, either as a result of normal metabolic processes or as a reaction to environmental chemicals and pollutants.

 

But I would rather concentrate on not putting oxidants such as sugar, processed food, cigarette smoke or chemicals into my body.

Good to eat: But five a day is not necessarily helpful

 

Good to eat: But five a day is not necessarily helpful

 

Besides, fruit has a fraction of the antioxidants of coffee, though you rarely hear dieticians singing -coffee’s praises.

 

Incidentally, the body’s -natural antioxidant is vitamin E, which is found in seeds — and -particularly sunflower seeds.

 

Another problem is that dieticians tell you to eat less fat. We’re told that fat is bad for us but this has not been proven at all.

 

Of course, man-made trans-fats such as those found in biscuits and cakes are very unhealthy and should be banned.

 

But natural fats such as those in eggs, meat and fish should not be demonised alongside trans-fats. They are essential to our wellbeing and they are what we’ve lived on for thousands of years.

 

According to a recent survey, the British people are deficient in -vitamins A, D, E — all of which are fat-soluble. If we added a dollop of butter to our portion of vegetables, they would be better for us — not worse.

 

Essential minerals are absorbed while food is in the intestines, so why do we want to flush everything out? It is far better to concentrate on not putting bad foods into your body

 

Then there is the issue of fibre. Again, I don’t agree with the -prevailing view that we should all eat more fibre in order to help us feel full and keep our digestive systems moving.

 

The fact is, we can’t digest fibre. How can something we can’t even digest be so important to us, nutritionally?

 

We are told that we need to ‘flush out’ our digestive systems. But essential minerals are absorbed while food is in the intestines, so why do we want to flush everything out? It is far better to concentrate on not putting bad foods into your body.

 

The biggest tragedy of all is the lost opportunity from this misguided five-a-day campaign.

 

If only we had hand-picked the five foodstuffs that are actually most nutritious and spent what the Department of Health has spent on promoting fruit and vegetables over the past 20 years on recommending them, we could have made an -enormous difference to the health and weight of our nation.

 

If you ask me, these foodstuffs are liver (good for all vitamins and packed with minerals), sardines (for vitamin D and calcium), eggs (all-round super-food with vitamins A, B, D, E and K, iron, zinc, calcium and more), sunflower seeds (magnesium, vitamin E and zinc) and dark-green vegetables such as broccoli or spinach (for vitamins C, K and iron).

 

Add milk (good for calcium, vitamins A and D), porridge oats (magnesium, zinc and B vitamins) and cocoa powder (magnesium and iron) and, hey presto, you’re provided with the full quota of every vitamin and mineral our bodies need.

 

In a long-awaited Public Health White Paper late last year, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said that only three in ten adults eat the -recommended five-a-day.

 

Later in the same document, he asks how can we improve the use of evidence in public health. My suggestion is that he gets his own facts on five-a-day straight and saves himself the bother of worrying about fruit and veg.

 

The nation — and his budget — would thank him for it.

 

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Fallacy. Everything is all fallacy.

  

This is Mylène Hengen and the make up

was done by Camille Aubadie-Ladrix.

I must thank them both for their amazing job!

 

I took this picture for a school projet about the influence of religion in fashion photography. It was actually the first time I had a real model posing for me! This experience was really something new. The shy kid hiding inside of me is back! It feels like I am gonna need to tame my own self! I hope you will like the result though!

 

GERALDINEHOFMAIER.COM

"And O the pity of it! in a moment I looked and was lost, lost and smit i’ the heart; the colour went from my cheek; of that brave pageant I bethought me no more.

How I got me home I know not; but this I know, a parching fever laid me waste and I was ten days and ten nights abed."

(from IDYLLS 1 - 4 by THEOCRITUS)

 

THEOCRITUS was a Greek bucolic poet who flourished in Syracuse, Cos and Alexandria in the C3rd BC. His surviving work can mostly be found within an old compendium of 30 poems known as the "Idylls of Theocritus.

 

This image is a close-up of a classical greek sculpture of the Hellenistic period which is in Le Louvre museum in Paris.

I have been using colours in order to emphase the naturalism and movement and to provide a fallacy of equivocation.

 

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.

Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).

The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

==Gaige's Submarine==

 

It had been twenty minutes since the Tiger Shark had left the submarine and descended into the bowels of the Asylum. Since then, the Walker siblings had received no further communication from the outside world. The boys were sat across from one another, playing with Pokémon cards as part of a flimsily constructed game to pass the time; To his detriment, Simon was only using Electric Types, a fact that, coupled with a series of good bluffs, Axel was using to his advantage. Having spent the first five minutes looking over her twin brother's shoulder, awwing at the wide-eyed creatures that made up his deck, Kitten was now sat by the command console, her brow furrowing as she noticed a single blip on the targeting monitor. Coming in fast.

 

Unnaturally fast.

 

Then it was gone; there was no impact, no hole in the hull, just a slight, almost electrical, humming, no louder than a household refrigerator's quiet buzzing, as an unseen spectre passed through the metal walls. Almost unnoticeable against the rattling of the Tiger Shark's vessel. Almost. Kitten reached under the desk, she knew Grandpa Gaige kept an extra shotgun below the table, but just as she found the barrel, a gloved hand grasped her wrist.

 

"That, is an awfully big gun for such a small girl," its' owner tutted.

 

The voice cut through the quiet like an axe through bone. His red eyed stare bore into her soul, its' menace matched only by its' accompanying sadistic grin. And as her eldest brother watched on, frozen, it was like he was back in that bathroom.

 

"I will squeal. Really loud," Kitten warned, her defiance doing very little to mask her terror.

 

"Try. You'll find it's awfully difficult to make any sound with a hand through your vocal chords," Thawne responded, his free hand vibrating inches from her throat.

 

A globule of snot-like green slime shot out of Axel's gun, narrowly missing Thawne's head at it splattered across the back wall of the sub, sizzling away at the metal plating. Thawne lowered his hand, fascinated to see what the siblings' next move might be. "Get lost, asshole," Axel demanded, his hand gripping the handle of his Snot Gun.

 

Thawne's beady eyes shot between him and his brother, his smile never faltering, even as he released his hand from Kitten’s wrist. "Ah, good. You're short one, but I'm glad the rest of you made it here, safe and, well, perhaps not 'sound.' How old is the youngest now? Four? Five? I've been gone for a while, time... Well, let's say it ran away from me. You'll have to forgive me."

 

"Never."

 

Thawne glared at Axel with a newfound, if brief, respect. "Hm. Isn't this nice? The spawn of the Anti-Batman vs the progenitor of the Reverse-Flash dynasty. Do you know what your exhibit in the Flash Museum says, 400 years from now? 'Born to a criminal father, Axel Walker was a delinquent tag-along to the notorious gang of Rogues, never quite achieving the same level of fame as his mentors Captain Cold and Heat Wave. Using another man's title, another man's tools and another man's costume, he did little to leave his mark as The Trickster. Following his premature death, no one else dared take on the mantle.' Just something to look forward to." With that, he turned to Simon, now aiming his own pistol at the Professor, beads of sweat on his brow. "You can put down the gun, 'Lightning Bug,'" he chuckled dismissively. "In this metal hearse, you'd only be killing yourselves. Unless... I've misjudged you. Unless you'd cook your own siblings just for a chance to finish me off," he grinned, goading him with sadistic pleasure.

 

No, of course he wouldn't. His father's son through and through, Simon's arm dropped to his side. Limp. Deflated.

 

"No, I didn't think so," Thawne smirked at him triumphantly.

 

Axel however, stared back, stone-faced. He wouldn't rise to Thawne's taunts with another juvenile response. Not after everything he'd done. He killed his brother. He was helping Joker, putting his dad through god knows what. Now he had Kitten. He had his sister. There was a time for games, for tricks. But this wasn't it. That, was what their dad taught him. He pulled the trigger and... nothing.

 

Thawne yawned, placing a snot canister onto the table beside him, and smiled. “Ha. Tricked you.” Sure enough, Axel checked his gun: empty. Seizing her opportunity, Kitten ran, reaching the relative safety that her siblings provided, and wrapping her arms across Simon's torso. Thawne, of course, had let her. Whether she was one foot or twenty away was irrelevant, if he'd wanted her dead, he would have killed her already. He would have killed all of them already.

 

He hadn't, of course, and that worried Simon more than anything else. He reached into his utility belt, and retrieved a small remote, awaiting Thawne's twisted explanation:

 

"Come now. You're no good to me dead. Not yet. Not here. Not when I can simply... wait an hour and rip what remains of your father's heart from his chest. Your dear old dad will break free of Billings' little lightshow. He may be an idiot, but he's a tenacious one. And call it an old professor's intuition, but I have little faith in the ability of a washed up, drunken D-Lister to keep him docile. No. No, your father should bear witness to your deaths. Simon knows the merits of a well-executed execution, don't you?" Thawne asked. He walked towards them slowly, purposefully prolonging the game, like a cat playing with its prey. Red lightning crackled beneath the sole of his boots, rattling against the metal floor.

 

Simon swallowed, finally noticing Thawne's belt. Red, with a circular dial in the center. "That belt... That's how you survived. How you're back. You killed Krill-"

 

"Oh, nothing so crude," Thawne scoffed. "Abner is, however, soaked in multiversal energy. Why, he could almost be mistaken for a speedster, all those tachyons floating around him... And the Speedforce is no more all-knowing than the early AIs of the 21st century, struggling to identify traffic lights and road signs and fingers."

 

"So you traded him for your freedom."

 

"That's right. With The Polka Dot Man serving my eternal sentence in the Speedforce, I was able to slip away, free of consequence. But perhaps I’ll send you there to keep him company. How does that sound?"

 

"Sounds like a load of poop!" Kitten shrieked, standing in front of her brother like a shield.

 

"Kitten, don't taunt him!" Simon warned her.

 

"I don't think you quite grasp the concept of superspeed," The Professor cocked his head in a pitying manner, then shot behind her. "Stupid, girl."

 

Kitten smirked. "Nah, I do, I just wanted to get you in position."

 

Simon pressed the remote, and twin blast doors shot out, sealing Thawne in the brig, but only for a moment; The siblings sprinted forwards, using their minimal headstart to pull the hatch open and lower the ladder; they didn't have long, seconds at most, but hopefully that was enough. Thawne was already phasing through the doors, neglecting the belt, perhaps out of pride. Kitten went first, then Simon. Axel went last, as but soon as he reached the top, Thawne gripped his arm.

 

His prosthetic one.

 

With a press of a button, Axel released it, dropping it and Thawne to the floor. The Professor smiled in amusement. Then he noticed the beeping.

 

"Tricked ya."

 

The resultant explosion tore a hole in the sub; seizing his chance, Axel emerged from the top hatch, wet and down an arm, but otherwise unharmed, joining his siblings on the shore. Even as the sub was swallowed by the sea, there was no sign of Thawne, although none of them ruled out an unseen, speedy exit.

 

"You have a bomb in your arm?!" Kitten gasped, at last, as she picked sand out of her hair.

 

Axel, rubbed the base of his stump, a slight smile on his face. "Had, yeah."

 

~-~

  

Drury was sat in a waiting room, surrounded on all sides by Gotham’s wayward souls. Garth, bless him, stayed with him as he waited, however his presence alone did not fully allay Drury’s stress. As he sat there, all he could think of was the poor souls with broken minds brought here out of desperation and necessity. Since he’d taken office, there had been improvements in poverty rates, crime, unemployment... But no matter how hard he tried and how many bills were passed, there was always going to be some people that slipped through the cracks. Drury sighed. If only there was a place they could go to, a proper psychiatric clinic, like an asylum-

 

Drury looked up: The waiting room was empty; it was just him and Garth, as it always had been. And everything he was troubled by, his doubts and concerns, had faded away quicker than the memory of a once-vivid dream.

 

“Ah, that’s us,” Garth turned his head towards the opening door and Drury’s stomach lurched. The back of Garth’s head was, well, it was gone. His scalp was torn open, his skull was fractured and the mashed remains of his brain were poking through the open cracks. It was like he’d fallen from a great height, and landed head-first onto solid ground. “Sir?”

 

“Coming,” Drury shivered, as he rose from his seat, unable to look Garth in the eye. The room was empty, but those doubts were once again swirling around his troubled mind.

 

~-~

 

Drury’s foot tapped against the floor involuntarily, synchronised with the ticking of the grandfather clock positioned behind his psychiatrist’s bald scalp. Scratching the back of his hand, again, subconsciously, he finally spoke up: "The visions, Doc. They're back."

 

The doctor leaned forward, his fingers steepled; a beam of sunlight bouncing off his tinted-red glasses. "Have you pondered the significance of such hallucinations, Mr Mayor?" he inquired, in a tone that implied curiosity rather than empathetic concern.

 

"Sure, it means I'm losing my mind; that's unexpected," Drury said bitingly.

 

The doctor smiled, politely, not warmly. "I see that, if nothing else, your wit continues to occur, Mr Mayor. Consider this, you see these horrible visions, because you truly believe that you don't deserve your success; the adulation of your public, the love of your family, the loyalty of your friends; so, your brain manifests these illusions as a form of punishment. Imposter syndrome is well documented, I have numerous patients suffering it, but none have symptoms quite as dramatic as your own."

 

“And Batman?” Drury asked, worried what an imaginary, black-clad figure of the night might say about him.

 

The doctor rose from his desk, tucking in his chair, as he walked towards the large window on his left. “Ah, yes. The superhero of your daydreams. But look at this city. Do you think we need a protector, dressed in a cape and cowl, diving off rooftops?”

 

Drury stayed seated. “I don’t know-“

 

“No,” the doctor cut him off firmly, sitting back down and adjusting the golden nameplate on his desk; embossed in large black letters was the name ‘Professor Hugo Strange,’ a name that Drury swore meant something else to him in another life. “The Batman is merely a manifestation of those same fears. You fear you’re not doing enough to help the city, so you have invented a guardian to cross the lines you can’t.”

 

Drury's eyes widened, as blood dripped from the doctor’s eye onto the papers below. A cracked glasses lens denoted the place a bullet had entered Strange’s skull. Isolated and afraid, Drury scrunched his eyes shut. Soon, Strange’s words were drowned out by a melodious whisper in his ears and, when at last, Drury reopened his eyes:

 

There was no bullet. There never had been.

 

"My suggestion,” Strange finished. “-Is that you take a drive; somewhere, anywhere, where it is just you and nature. Where you can think and reconcile with the part of yourself that believes your victory is unearned, false."

 

==Metropolis: The Bowman Estate==

 

As the group of five made their way through the dusty, abandoned halls of Bowman’s Manor, Nygma never failed to indulge himself in one-sided, self-gratifying conversations, even if the rest of the party would have preferred he didn’t. “Interesting, isn’t it?” he mused to Kuttler, softly caressing the barrel of his gun as he reminisced. “The last time we were on the same side, we held a truce to stop Cobb. And here we are again. Poetic, almost. And you, William, you were Cobb’s right hand man.”

 

“My alternative was death,” Tockman rolled his shoulders. “So, yes, when the offer arose, I chose time.”

 

“The last time we were on the same side, Sionis executed my daughter, a crucial piece of ‘trivia’ you withheld to ensure my cooperation,” Kuttler frowned, disputing Nygma’s recollection. “And while you were playing parlor games, I was severing his connection to 17 missile silos. I am a man of science, Edward, just as you claim to be. I would not expect you to be swayed by arbitrary coincidence.”

 

“I can’t help it if I see patterns, Noah,” Nygma exhaled. “It’s always been one of my greatest assets. However, there remains one riddle that I still can’t figure out. How did Drury Walker sway you to his side?”

 

“He didn’t,” Kuttler sighed, removing his violet-tinted glasses and wiping the lenses with a matching cloth. “Thomas Blake did.”

 

“The Catman?” Nygma giggled. “Come now. You were a married man, last we spoke.”

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Why not?”

 

The glasses were back on, hiding Kuttler’s puffy red eyes behind purple glass. “Do you want the honest truth? Because, despite subjecting me to an obscene amount of innuendos, Thomas Blake was the first person in three years to offer his condolences. But I shouldn’t be surprised by your apathy. You never were above murdering children to make your point.”

 

Nygma raised his palms in the air, at last relenting. “Poetic,” he repeated, quieter this time.

 

"Jesus, I’ve heard less bickering from the bleeding Gallagher brothers," Jenna muttered under her breath.

 

As they at last arrived at the library, Nygma raised his cane, brushing along the worn out spines of Bowman’s collection, until he arrived at Long and Awdry’s book, ‘The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway.’ Like he were hooking a rubber duck at a carnival, Nygma pulled the book forward, and the bookcase retreated into the wall, revealing a tight shaft. He clapped his hands together, and ushered Mayo forward.

 

"Ah, Mr Mayo," he spoke in a palpably patronising drawl. “I do believe your skills are required,” he beamed, as he wrung his hands together.

 

"Really?" Mayo asked, inhaling a bubble of snot back up his nostril as a demonstration of his commitment to their mission.

 

Nygma nodded, and promptly shoved him through the awaiting opening. As Jenna moved to intervene, voicing her protests, Tockman raised his arm in front of her, blocking her path. Concurrently, as Mayo plummeted to the bottom of the shaft, Nygma pricked his ears up as he recorded his descent and the subsequent impact made by his landing. "16 feet," he concluded with a satisfied smile.

 

Jenna and Kuttler both glowered at him. Tockman, meanwhile, stifled a chuckle beneath his clock-like helmet. The coup de grâce came when, shining a light from the base of his cane, Nygma announced to the others that: "Oh, silly me. There was a ladder!"

 

Massaging his bruised backside, Mayo looked up as the others joined him at the bottom. “How did you know I wouldn't die?” he asked Nygma at last.

 

“Hm? What's that now?” Nygma asked airily, answering Mayo’s question in an indirect way. “I took a, shall we say, 'calculated' risk. You are, after all, the least valuable amongst us.”

 

“Least valuable?” Mayo gasped with tear-filled eyes, his chin wobbling.

 

“Surely; The ranking goes myself, Noah, Tockman, the woman and you.”

 

Nygma paused for a second, as he savored the hurt expression on Mayo's face. "Oh, I see. They give you a brand new costume and teach you to wear your underwear on the inside and you think you're part of their team? Their star quarterback who passes gas instead of pig skin? No. No, I'm afraid not. You're their mascot. Didn't you know that? I wonder, if there is even a brain between your wax-laden lugs."

 

"Hey, it’s alright,” Jenna promised, tenderly wrapping her arm around Mayo. “You didn’t break anything, did you?”

 

Mayo shook his head, his head retreating into his shoulders like a hurt child's. “I don’t think so.”

 

“Ignore his mewling. We don't need him,” Nygma warned.

 

“Listen!” Jenna rose to her feet, wiping the dirt off her knees. “He saved our necks at the Royal. With a cart of sauce and pure determination. So, cut him some slack, you... knobhead."

 

Kuttler raised an amused eyebrow. It wouldn’t have been his chosen insult for Nygma, and he certainly had dealt out quite a few over their shared careers.

 

His cheeks red and his pride bruised, Nygma took a deep breath. "That speaks less to his strength, more to your weaknesses. But have it your way. A jar of gherkins won't stop Cobb."

 

~-~

 

Drury exited his car, slightly perturbed; he wasn't sure what exactly had brought him here, to this place of rolling hills and cheery townsfolk. Professor Strange said he needed the fresh air; Gar told him he needed to face reality. So here he was, wherever here was.

 

He slid down the riverbank, and frowned: a man was standing in the water, ankle-deep; his shoes were cast aside, and his trouser legs had been rolled up; he was dressed in a white shirt and a black waistcoat, which matched his distinctive bowl cut.

 

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't think anyone else would be here," Drury apologised.

 

"It's alright," the man nodded, skimming a stone across the water. "Plenty of river for the both of us."

 

"Right," Drury agreed, nodding. "I'm Drury," he introduced himself, twirling the strap of his lanyard around his finger. "Drury Walker."

 

"I know who are," the man responded briskly, tossing another stone. "What brings you out of Gotham, Mr Mayor?"

 

"Dunno... Suppose I fancied a drive." Drury paused, finding it odd the man had not yet introduced himself, and odder still that a man who lived two hours away from Gotham recognised him by his face alone. He certainly didn't know Bludhaven's Mayor.

 

"Well, here's as good place as any," the man nodded once more. "I like to come here sometimes. To think. To escape. To cast aside the pain and regret and just... take a moment, to take a breath, to take it all in, because it won't last. None of this," he finished, a solemn resignation in his words.

 

Drury leaned in closer, intrigued now; he rolled up his sleeves, and picked up a small pebble of his own. "Missed the sign coming in, swerved trying to avoid a trucker... What's this place called?"

 

"You never could see the signs..." the man whispered under his breath, as he tossed a final stone, the biggest yet.

 

"Havenrock."

 

Drury’s brow furrowed. Why did that name ring a bell? The man had stopped throwing stones, his gaze diverted by a figure stood on the other side of the river.

 

The sun in his eyes, Drury squinted, as he struggled to make out the figure. It was an orange silhouette without any discernible features, as though perpetually out of focus. The almost-person stared back, or at least it appeared to; it didn't have eyes, but a black swirl in place of any facial features. Drury had thought, or rather hoped, it was just an art installation, but the hairs on the back of his neck were telling him otherwise.

 

“You had better go,” the man exhaled, a slight bitterness to his tone that hadn’t been present before. “He doesn’t like it when you go off script.”

 

~-~

 

The first thing Nygma spotted, as they entered the bunker proper, was a metallic skeleton sprawled across the floor; using his cane like a crowbar to pry the head loose, Nygma picked the metal skull off the floor and stared into its hollow eye sockets. "Alas poor Phillip, I knew him well."

 

"I knew him," Kuttler responded.

 

"Yes, I'm aware,” Nygma answered back.

 

"No, the line is "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him." No 'well.'"

 

"He's 'no' well,'" Jenna gestured at Nygma, whispering to Mayo in an attempt to comfort him, who in turn sniffled appreciatively.

 

"Yes, perhaps I was mistaken..." Nygma replied with a pursed smile, hot air escaping his nostrils.

 

"Perhaps," Kuttler returned his smile. He tapped the far-most wall with his knuckles, privately noting that it wasn't as reinforced as the others. Lexcorp engineering at its’ finest... He stepped back, and rejoined the others at the center of the room.

 

“I think he’s… hibernating,” Jenna hypothesised, gazing at the huge cluster of monitors. Cobb’s ghostly silhouette was present on the screens, but dormant, as though he were sleeping.

 

“That means he's drawing all his energy to Arkham. Good, now's our time,” Kuttler nodded, seating himself behind the center keypad.

 

"Those look like DNA strands," Tockman observed, gesturing to one of the smaller monitors.

 

"They are. Cobb's genetic structure has been completely digitised. I think I should be able to alter the command chain, feed in the cancellation code. On auto, he's not going to notice until it's too late,” Kuttler keyed in a few basic commands, then reached a lock screen.

 

"Nygma, that's you. You're up. Nygma?"

 

No response. He was probably still sulking about his Shakespeare misquote. Kuttler exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose before asking again.

 

“Nygma.”

 

No sooner had Kuttler swivelled his chair around, did a loud bang fill the room. The chair, moved back. Kuttler’s lilac shirt turned red. He slumped forward, and when he could stay upright no longer, he hit the floor, and his glasses shattered. And holding the smoking gun, a victorious grin on his face, was Edward Nygma.

 

“Riddle. Me. This. What do the dead dream of?”

 

“Mein gott,” Tockman gasped, his native tongue slipping through. “What have you done?”

 

“An excellent question, Mr Tockman. And I do so like questions,” Nygma replied, his gun still raised.

 

“What are you doing?!” Jenna protested.

 

"Apologies for the subterfuge, Noah, I perhaps over-emphasised your usefulness..." Nygma smiled, obnoxiously raising his voice to drown out Kuttler's gurgled gasps for breath. “In actual fact, I would be as dim-witted as, well, Mr Mayo over there if I were not to peruse this fabulous new library you've found for me. What Cobb knows; I'll know. And Cobb is connected to every computer, phone and database on the planet. Account numbers, passwords... Nuclear codes."

 

“Mr Kuttler, it’s gonna be OK,” Mayo panicked, in truth, trying to reassure himself more than he was Kuttler, as he attempted to stop the bleeding with a stack of paper napkins.

 

"No, it won’t be," Nygma teased, leaning on his cane as he watched Mayo’s farcical attempt at a medical operation. “Oh, sorry about your daughter,” he scoffed, adding insult to injury. “But it’s just like I said. Poetic.”

 

“Please, Mr Kuttler, please be Ok” Mayo begged. Kuttler was now muttering something about walls, barely coherent as the blood began dripping from his mouth.

 

"WOULD YOU STOP INTERRUPTING ME YOU INTELLECTUAL TOADSTOOL?!" Nygma shrieked. The cane swung forward and hooked itself into Mayo's cheek, carving into his face. "Where was I? Ah, yes- I was TRYING to bid farewell to the only man who ever matched my intellect. Will you let me gloat?”

 

Kuttler spat a mouthful of blood from his lips, his cheeks drained of colour, as he battled with his failing body to deliver a final message to his opponent. “You’re not... You’re not as smart as you think-”

 

“You’re right,” Nygma frowned, leaning in closer to his years-long nemesis. “I’m smarter.”

 

But Noah Kuttler never heard him. If he had, he would have surely lectured him on the illogical fallacies behind his last remark. Instead, he had died with the satisfaction that he had wiped that smug, arrogant smile off of the Riddler’s face. If only for a moment.

 

"You murdering piece of shit-" Jenna spat, adopting a fighting stance.

 

"Oh, please, don't insult me, Ms Duffy,” Nygma rolled his eyes. “I am not about to engage in fisticuffs with a 100 pound girl.”

 

"Funny, was gonna say the same about you,” she glowered, her fists raised.

 

Nygma’s smile faltered, just for a second. “Oh, Mr Tockman? I'd say it's time you partnered with someone who appreciates your talents. Wouldn’t you?”

 

Tockman looked at Riddler, at Duffy and Mayo, and then at Kuttler’s body, sprawled out on the floor in an ever-growing puddle of his own blood.

 

"Don’t-" Jenna warned, her eyes red.

 

“Apologies, frauline,” Tockman sighed, bowing his head, as he took his place at Nygma’s side.

 

Nygma smirked, with triumphant vindication. "Oh, and just so that you're aware, my cranium is completely phallus-free."

 

Falsa árvore * Fake tree.

 

(Vivitar 100mm f/2.8 MC 1:1 Macro N/Ai-s)

Tu sai citare i classici a memoria

Ma non distingui il ramo da una foglia

Il ramo da una foglia...

 

"Una mente fertile" dici " è alla base"

Ma la tua scienza ha creato l'ignoranza

Ha creato l'ignoranza... (I.G.)

 

Mi annoiano a morte quegli intelletti preziosi che devono dir diamanti ogni volta che aprono bocca.

Che fine ha fatto la semplicità?

Sembriamo tutti messi su un palcoscenico,

e ci sentiamo tutti in dovere di dare spettacolo. (C.B.)

 

Stanco dell'infinitamente piccolo e dell'infinitamente grande, lo scienziato si dedicò all'infinitamente medio.” (Ennio Flaiano)

 

Il più grande nemico della conoscenza non è l'ignoranza, è l'illusione della conoscenza (S.H.)

 

Pensieri e parole, opere e omissioni...senza soluzione di continuità... "La parola serve a nascondere il pensiero, il pensiero a nascondere la verità. E la verità fulmina chi osa guardarla in faccia"...nessuno escluso...

 

youtu.be/cf_ITVX7qCg

 

www.corriere.it/scuola/22_febbraio_08/bugia-quello-che-no...

Al Gore has a new piece of propaganda tripe out now ... a documentary entitled An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power. Here's a challenge to you Al: Come spend six months ... from November 1st to April 30th ... here in Newfoundland. Anywhere in the province would be good, but try to get a place here on the west coast.

 

I can guarantee you if he lasted the full six months, he would soon change his tune about global warming. I'm afraid he'd haul his fat ass out of here long before January ended, though!

 

If you're inclined to worry about inconsequential things, let me assure you of something: put the fear of global warming way down on your list! Its a fallacy! Rife with political overtones, cooked data, and fear mongering. In short, it just doesn't exist. As far as the big picture is concerned, the earth goes through normal heating and cooling phases. Always has. Always will. As far as the short term is concerned ... a lifetime of living here ... with access to well kept journals ... has shown me, as Paul (Michael Rapaport) said to Willie (Timothy Hutton) in the movie Beautiful Girls, "nothing changes in the Ridge but the seasons." And those seasons have minor variations from year to year ... but still the same year after year.

 

It's March 30th. There's a house hidden away behind that snow bank you see up there. Actually two houses.

Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus

 

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/knocking-at-the-door-movie/

 

Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus

 

Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesusprophesied, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him" (Matthew 25:6). "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). For the last two thousand years, believers in the Lord have been watchful and awaiting the Lord's knock on the door, so how will He knock on mankind's door when He returns? In the last days, some people have testified that the Lord Jesus has returned—Almighty God incarnate—and that He is doing the work of judgment in the last days. This news has rocked the entire religious world.

 

Yang Aiguang, the protagonist of the film, has believed in the Lord for decades and has always been enthusiastically engaged in work and preaching, waiting to welcome the Lord's return. One day, two people come and knock on the door, tell Yang Aiguang and her husband that the Lord Jesus has returned, and share the words of Almighty God with them. They are deeply moved by Almighty God's words, but because Yang Aiguang has been subjected to the fallacies, deception, and strictures of the pastors and elders, she throws the witnesses of The Church of Almighty God out of the house. After that, the witnesses knock on their door on many occasions and read the words of Almighty God to Yang Aiguang, bearing witness to God's work in the last days. During this time, the pastor disrupts and hinders Yang Aiguang time after time, and she continues to waver. However, through hearing the words of Almighty God, Yang Aiguang comes to understand the truth and gains discernment regarding the rumors and fallacies propagated by the pastors and elders. She finally understands how the Lord knocks on people's doors during His return in the last days, and how we should welcome Him. When the fog clears, Yang Aiguang finally hears the voice of God and acknowledges that Almighty God really is the return of the Lord Jesus!

 

Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

 

Terms of Use en.godfootsteps.org/disclaimer.html

  

Upper Pitt named B.C.'s most endangered river

Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun

Published: Sunday, March 23, 2008

METRO VANCOUVER - A prized Lower Mainland stream that touched off a provincial controversy about small-hydro projects has been named British Columbia's most endangered river for 2008.

 

Fears that the exceptional fish and wildlife values of the Upper Pitt River system could be devastated by plans for a proposed industrial-scale power project lifted the Upper Pitt to the top of the Outdoor Recreation Council's annual list of B.C.'s most endangered rivers, council spokesman Mark Angelo said in an interview.

 

"The Upper Pitt is a jewel amongst B.C. rivers," said Angelo, a recipient of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia, adding that the threats posed by a series of independent power projects on the Pitt "resonated with people across this province."

 

UPDATE!!!!! March 26/08

On Tuesday, about 1,000 people rallied at a public hearing, saying construction of seven small power plants on the Upper Pitt River would destroy rich salmon stocks, and transmission lines through the park would create an eyesore and harm wildlife.

 

Penner said the company knew from the beginning that it had a high regulatory burden because power projects are heavily scrutinized before they're approved.

 

"Every small hydro project in B.C. has to go through about 52 different regulatory approvals," he said.

 

"This one had an extra one - they wanted to amend a park boundary and so that was an extra regulatory hurdle for this thing to clear and I've decided today it's not clearing that hurdle."

 

Penner, who has approved two wind-power projects in B.C., said the province imports coal-fired power from Alberta and the United States but wants to generate its own electricity without spewing greenhouse gas emissions.

 

"We'd like to become self sufficient again but that doesn't mean we will approve every single clean energy project," he said.

 

The Upper Pitt River topped the 2008 list of British Columbia's most endangered rivers in an annual list by the province's Outdoor Recreation Council.

 

Joy Foy, spokesman for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, applauded Penner's move on the project that he called a "disaster."

 

"This company proposed to take all eight tributaries of the Upper Pitt River and put them in pipes totalling 30 kilometres in length to run them through a series of powerhouses," Foy said.

 

"A number of those creeks would have landed directly on top of salmon habitat," he said, adding Run of River Power would also have needed to clear-cut several kilometres of forest through grizzly habitat.

 

"It was a crazy, crazy project," he said.

 

Foy said that since 2002, when the government stopped B.C. Hydro from developing smaller hydro projects, there's been a "gold rush" by private companies to stake the province's rivers and streams.

 

"We're the only province in Canada that's undergoing this rapid conversion, this proliferation of private projects in a province where citizens generally believe it's public power out there," Foy said.

 

A report commissioned last year by B.C. Hydro states that with a little conservation, the province's power needs would not be any higher in 2027, Foy said.

 

He said any claims by the government or private companies that B.C.'s power needs are increasing are false.

 

"That is a fallacy that's being foisted on us to make us more wanting to accept this rush to private power."

 

British Columbia currently has 35 private hydro projects, all of them involving river diversions that could affect wildlife and fish habitat, Foy said.

 

"Not all of them are in places where a thousand people might come out to a public meeting."

   

Happy weekend all ( ˘ ³˘)❤

 

Moriko Inshan -Hanaya- Dozen Red Long Stemmed Roses in Vase

Piedra Lubitsch souvenir(s) _ Piedra Lubitsch for UrbanizeD 2011

Pandora Popstar LISP - Mathilde Daybed - (mod cushions)

LISP - 3 tier Hat Boxes - Lilac

LISP - Snowfrost Heart Console with Padlock&Key

LISP - Morning Frost Cabinet with Key

LISP - Oslo Urchin Stool (no props) tex change touch

Pamela Galli La Galleria Valentine Quilt Heart Pillows 2012 (assorted)

Rustic Wooden Heart Collage 1

LOVE Collage SMall

Pitsch Parx UrbanizeD - Table & Tulips - Groups Gift Winter2011-2012

<> Fairy Pink Roses Heart Meadow S

Naminaeko .Olive. the Mingle With my Heart Animal Balloons

Elle Kirshner Princess phone - pink

lakua Arriaga *ionic* conejita

*ionic* - The indie Bunny -

S-I-G-G-I (sigifaust) ieQED miranda.platform.ruby.

Tab Tatham *Tatty Soup* Valentine Vase.

24 (24karat.roux *FT* I Heart You Candle Holder Med

Ravenna Rossini Frogstar - Letter Holder in Cadet Blue (Mod)

Overhigh OVH . Feline Home . 04 . L ( no bright )

Neuilles Neuman :NuDoLu Voyage: Bar de l'eau TGGS hunt item [BOX]

Halo (halogen.magic) +Half-Deer+ Bunny made a Lantern (SnowBlack/Red)

Cherelle Capra [CIRCA] - "My Spilled Kisses" - Multi Candy Hearts

BB Woodford VALENTINE HANGER

Kaitlyn Lexington the kid company. going away suitcase

Cleom Bailey CAGE

Kaz Nayar PILOT - Four Walls Hunt - Pipe Shelf v2

C. Edo Cory Edo Trompe Loeil - Frame Square Art Pink Flowers 2

Fallacy DeCuir (FDD) Valentine Candle (GG)

Winter Thorn {what next} Sloane Hatbox Stool

Caleb Modla (caleb.shiu) [MODLA] Classic Handbag Valentine Hunt -

Katey Coppola GLITTERATI - Models own - Mannequin 3

Carlotta Ceawlin *Milla* Tailor Dummy

*Valentine* Table

Jellyroll (Bowtique) Pretty Bunny Corset (M)

Sira Savira 1 Hundred. Madame Corset. Red. Medium

Marbella Pronovost ~Soedara~ Valentine corset - l

Julala Demina JINX (DD) Kawaii Bunny Bra & Bunny Garter Panties

Melee (maylee.oh) The Secret Store - Box

BJ Barbosa ~H&H~ Heart Sculpt Under Construction

~H&H~ Heart Candy Box

Alexandra (alexandralara) Pink Flower Light (Mesh) touch on/off

It’s past midnight. I’m pretty exhausted. Alas, the urge to write up my first ‘proper’ trip out travelling is too great.

 

One recurring theme of the ‘All The Stations’ series was the difference between a trainspotter and someone that is interested in railways, though such a binary might be too simplistic. While my main reason for travelling to Wales was to take one last ride on a Pacer train, their social and cultural significance trumps any technicalities or inner workings for me. It is especially convenient that they operate on the South Wales Valley lines, as this allowed an exploration of an area rich in history, yet seemingly distant from my family on the fringes of Swansea.

 

Though the official dispensation on the stock lasts until May 31st, I wasn’t sure of their official last day. Having recovered from my last ever(!) set of supposedly mini but in some cases not very mini at all A-Level exams, it seemed appropriate to cough up the scandalous Great Western fare as soon as possible and head over to Cardiff.

 

Cardiff. Talk about coming up in the world. All those new apartments. Once the tram-trains are running it really will be a Welsh version of the Manchester it so longs to replicate.

 

I was very fortunate in being able to sample a Pacer to Rhymney, generally credited as the most ‘scenic’ of the Valley lines, although I would argue that all possess their own character. It is only the final stretch from Bargoed to Rhymney that really gives a sweeping perspective on the design of the valleys, demonstrating both the scars in the mountains, but also the intricate embedding of neat terraced housing into the landscape. All this viewed, of course, from a Pacer train with reasonably large windows, even if they were minging.

 

The association of Pacers with transporting the proletariat en masse seemed so characteristically appropriate, yet also inappropriate for this trip. The sense of collective struggle, solidarity and determination resonates with these battered old trains still clocking up the miles every day. And yet the images of packed Northern rail services are the opposite of a weekday going up the Valleys. It’s almost deserted. Senior citizens logically use the bus for their travels, while the lack of appropriate reskilling after deindustrialisation means the economic and cultural opportunities in Cardiff are nothing more than a fallacy for many. And so people become less mobile. The cycle of deprivation continues.

 

While the trains offer a fantastic experience, traversing the valleys with sweeping panoramas, it is the bus which really unveils the reality of life in these parts. Waiting for the bus on Bargoed High Street - in the rain, naturally - it was so disheartening to see the majority of shops shut. This was not a flourishing centre of commerce. This was not a place for thriving businesses, the high street was ghostly quiet.

 

Jobcentre plus, closed. The metaphorical significance could not be greater.

 

If one were to pick a bus route to sample in the Valleys, the number 1 from Bargoed to Merthyr Tydfil (yes, in this direction) really is something special. The panoramas of spoiled hills are just more thrilling on a Dart Pointer speeding along roads that are barely even roads, yet the beauty of this specific route is its ability to dip into the villages sandwiched between the mountain ranges. Fochriw, in particular. Pebble dash galore, the bus is evidently a lifeline for this community. The bus offers those fleeting conversations between residents of these places, the everyday lives behind those neat terraces. The bus isn’t afraid of going the extra mile, getting itself stuck every now and then. It is the bus that really solidified my understanding of life in the valleys today. By no means is this understanding substantial, as one afternoon does not equate to making somewhere my home, but the experience is one I will cherish.

 

Fochriw, of course, hosted a primary school. The playground of small children, joyous and playful. And this links to the most poignant moment of the trip. As the Pacer from Merthyr Tydfil made its way down the valley, it passed Aberfan. It looks like any other mining village. Except it isn’t. The disaster killed 116 schoolchildren and 28 adults as a spoil heap collapsed. Such scarring is evident throughout the valleys today - indeed, a recent landslide in Tylorstown is a stark warning for history not to repeat itself.

 

Government has been warned repeatedly about such dangers, yet progress seems to be minimal and marred by bureaucracy. The valleys are geographically fascinating, resilient and flowing with community spirit, but its people have been let down. Pacers, as much as they are a delight to experience as a privileged London commuter, are not fit for purpose. The prospect of tram-trains gliding up the valleys in 2023 seems to so many just another fallacy. Another promise, inevitably broken.

 

Come see the valleys for yourself. Say farewell to the iconic Pacer, but also reflect on the history of an area which still defines South Wales to this day. Most importantly, channel the raw experience into striving for change. Use Hilary Cottam’s experiments as a starting point. Foster that community spirit into a regeneration that is sustainable and sensitive, giving communities the resources that they need to help themselves. We owe it to the people.

An original design completely created in Adobe Illutrator, this is the comment and invite icon for my Poets, Pixels, & Prose group. I hope any of my friends who add any type of poetry of prose (either original or quoted) to their photos will join this group

  

Poetry at Play

 

In my poetic ration

I like a little alliteration;

Award it ample admiration.

And as for astute assonance,

I am enamored and entranced--

Enchanted by its sweet romance.

 

Ruskin’s pathetic fallacy

Sounds Shakespearean to me;

And when the lonesome wind moans

Over the hard-hearted stones,

Or chaste stars in their vestal choir

Sing vespers with pure hearts afire,

Or if a world-oppressing sun

Sets his fusion gun to stun

Then I sit back and watch the fun.

And I applaud when words escape

From their restraints

And break Houdini-like

Out of their padlocked cage;

Or if they sing a sweet swan song,

I am enraptured and amazed;

And as they take their final bow

Upon their paper stage,

I throw red roses at their feet

Before I turn the page.

 

If it knows to never mix it up,

Sly metaphor cannot be beat

(Except to death perchance),

But it must be careful,

Wise,

And neat,

Know when

To step its measured dance,

And when to take its seat.

 

And as for rhyme . . .

I like it almost all the time.

 

Taken from Elementa, 2008

Faith Goble

One of Mr. Brown Pelican's favorite tricks is to create a problem and then to offer the solution. Naturally, it's always his solutions that grant him the freedom to use organized violence to suppress opposition, never the original problem.

 

Stripping from the term "formaldehydesulphoxylic" the negative connotations it evokes, I will try to convince pertinacious pop psychologists to stop supporting Mr. Pelican and tolerating his policies. He obviously didn't have to pass an intelligence test to get to where he is today because his knowledge of how things work is completely off the mark.

 

I believe it was Hegel who said, "Only Mr. Pelican could possibly insist that his propositions provide a liberating insight into life, the universe, and everything". Mr. Pelican claims that he should demonstrate an outright hostility to law enforcement because "it's the right thing to do". That claim illustrates a serious reasoning fallacy, one that is pandemic in his modes of thought.

Fallacy, a pretence; interweave your lies in my mind, promise me I'm fine, hold my hand and close your eyes - with fingers crossed you're blindly lying. Heavy hearts and heavy minds, the after effects; what you left behind. This is who I am. This is who you are. It took me so long to realise, but now you can't even look me in the eye.

Coward.

 

Yess, to get the anger out somewhere. Oh flickr, you're very useful.

Today was...ugh. I don't even care any more, I'm going to be honest, but seeing him with someone else after just a week was like a nice sharp slap in the face. Who are you?

And not being told by anyone involved, but a friend who saw them together...nooooo. I need to shut up on flickr. I do. But gaaah! Honestly. It's fine though, I'm over him. Like, over him. Anyone who can justify getting with someone else a week later because they had 'nothing to get over' doesn't deserve the satisfaction of seeing you upset. Maybe I was naive, and it was going on before that, I've had many people come up to me and say that that's the case. Considering how many people I've told (3), a hell of a lot of people have come up to me and told me they know. Yaay! People talking about you behind your back. Always good.

Pentax Espio 80 Delta 100@200 EcoPro 1+1 06/02/2023

"The patient is young" is true to some degree – the lower the age of the patient (measured e.g. in years), the more the sentence is true. The word Advaita is a composite of two Sanskrit words: Advaita is often translated as "non-duality," but a more apt translation is "non-secondness." Advaita has several meanings: As Gaudapada states, when a distinction is made between subject and object, people grasp to objects, which is samsara. By realizing one's true identity as Brahman, there is no more grasping, and the mind comes to rest. Nonduality of Atman and Brahman, the famous diction of Advaita Vedanta that Atman is not distinct from Brahman; the knowledge of this identity is liberating. Monism: there is no other reality than Brahman, that "Reality is not constituted by parts," that is, ever-changing 'things' have no existence of their own, but are appearances of the one Existent, Brahman; and that there is in reality no duality between the "experiencing self" (jiva) and Brahman, the Ground of Being. The word Vedānta is a composition of two Sanskrit words: The word Veda refers to the whole corpus of vedic texts, and the word "anta" means 'end'. The meaning of Vedānta can be summed up as "the end of the vedas" or "the ultimate knowledge of the vedas". Vedānta is one of six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy. Truth of a fuzzy proposition is a matter of degree. I recommend to everybody interested in fuzzy logic that they sharply distinguish fuzziness from uncertainty as a degree of belief (e.g. probability). Compare the last proposition with the proposition "The patient will survive next week". This may well be considered as a crisp proposition which is either (absolutely) true or (absolutely) false; but we do not know which is the case. We may have some probability (chance, degree of belief) that the sentence is true; but probability is not a degree of truth. In metrology (the science of measurement), it is acknowledged that for any measure we care to make, there exists an amount of uncertainty about its accuracy, but this degree of uncertainty is conventionally expressed with a magnitude of likelihood, and not as a degree of truth. In 1975, Lotfi A. Zadeh introduced a distinction between "Type 1 fuzzy sets" without uncertainty and "Type 2 fuzzy sets" with uncertainty, which has been widely accepted. Simply put, in the former case, each fuzzy number is linked to a non-fuzzy (natural) number, while in the latter case, each fuzzy number is linked to another fuzzy number.Problems of vagueness and fuzziness have probably always existed in human experience. From ancient history, philosophers and scientists have reflected about those kinds of problems. The ancient Sorites paradox first raised the logical problem of how we could exactly define the threshold at which a change in quantitative gradation turns into a qualitative or categorical difference. With some physical processes this threshold is relatively easy to identify. For example, water turns into steam at 100 °C or 212 °F (the boiling point depends partly on atmospheric pressure, which decreases at higher altitudes). With many other processes and gradations, however, the point of change is much more difficult to locate, and remains somewhat vague. Thus, the boundaries between qualitatively different things may be unsharp: we know that there are boundaries, but we cannot define them exactly. The Nordic myth of Loki's wager suggested that concepts that lack precise meanings or precise boundaries of application cannot be usefully discussed at all.[9] However, the 20th-century idea of "fuzzy concepts" proposes that "somewhat vague terms" can be operated with, since we can explicate and define the variability of their application by assigning numbers to gradations of applicability. This idea sounds simple enough, but it had large implications. The intellectual origins of the species of fuzzy concepts as a logical category have been traced back to a diversity of famous and less well-known thinkers,[10] including (among many others) Eubulides, Plato, Cicero, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,[11] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hugh MacColl,[13] Charles S. Peirce, Max Black,[15] Jan Łukasiewicz,[16] Emil Leon Post, Alfred Tarski,Georg Cantor, Nicolai A. Vasiliev,[19] Kurt Gödel, Stanisław Jaśkowski[20] and Donald Knuth. Across at least two and a half millennia, all of them had something to say about graded concepts with unsharp boundaries. This suggests at least that the awareness of the existence of concepts with "fuzzy" characteristics, in one form or another, has a very long history in human thought. Quite a few logicians and philosophers have also tried to analyze the characteristics of fuzzy concepts as a recognized species, sometimes with the aid of some kind of many-valued logic or substructural logic. An early attempt in the post-WW2 era to create a theory of sets where set membership is a matter of degree was made by Abraham Kaplan and Hermann Schott in 1951. They intended to apply the idea to empirical research. Kaplan and Schott measured the degree of membership of empirical classes using real numbers between 0 and 1, and they defined corresponding notions of intersection, union, complementation and subset.[22] However, at the time, their idea "fell on stony ground".[23] J. Barkley Rosser Sr. published a treatise on many-valued logics in 1952, anticipating "many-valued sets".[24] Another treatise was published in 1963 by Aleksandr A. Zinov'ev and others In 1964, the American philosopher William Alston introduced the term "degree vagueness" to describe vagueness in an idea that results from the absence of a definite cut-off point along an implied scale (in contrast to "combinatory vagueness" caused by a term that has a number of logically independent conditions of application). The German mathematician Dieter Klaua [de] published a German-language paper on fuzzy sets in 1965, but he used a different terminology (he referred to "many-valued sets", not "fuzzy sets"). Two popular introductions to many-valued logic in the late 1960s were by Robert J. Ackermann and Nicholas Rescher respectively.] Rescher's book includes a bibliography on fuzzy theory up to 1965, which was extended by Robert Wolf for 1966–1974.[30] Haack provides references to significant works after 1974.[31] Bergmann provides a more recent (2008) introduction to fuzzy reasoning.

According to the modern idea of the continuum fallacy, the fact that a statement is to an extent vague, does not automatically mean that it is invalid. The problem then becomes one of how we could ascertain the kind of validity that the statement does have.Nondualism is a fuzzy concept, for which many definitions can be found. According to David Loy, since there are similar ideas and terms in a wide variety of spiritualities and religions, ancient and modern, no single definition for the English word "nonduality" can suffice, and perhaps it is best to speak of various "nondualities" or theories of nonduality.[10] Loy sees non-dualism as a common thread in Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta,distinguishes "Five Flavors Of Nonduality":

Advaita, nondual awareness, the nondifference of subject and object, or nonduality between subject and object. According to Loy, in the Upanishads " It is most often expressed as the identity between Atman (the self) and Brahman.". Monism, the nonplurality of the world. Although the phenomenal world appears as a plurality of "things", in reality they are "of a single cloth". Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical ascetic traditions of the first millennium BCE developed in close interaction, utilizing proto-Samkhya enumerations (lists) analyzing experience in the context of meditative practices providing liberating insight into the nature of experience. The first millennium CE saw a movement towards postulating an underlying "basis of unity," both in the Buddhist Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools, and in Advaita Vedanta, collapsing phenomenal reality into a "single substrate or underlying principle." From Dualism to Oneness in Psychoanalysis: A Zen Perspective on the Mind-Body Question focuses on the shift in psychoanalytic thought, from a view of mind-body dualism to a contemporary non-dualistic perspective. The Perennial philosophy has its roots in the Renaissance interest in neo-Platonism and its idea of The One, from which all existence emanates. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) sought to integrate Hermeticism with Greek and Jewish-Christian thought, discerning a Prisca theologia which could be found in all age Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) suggested that truth could be found in many, rather than just two, traditions. He proposed a harmony between the thought of Plato and Aristotle, and saw aspects of the Prisca theologia in Averroes, the Koran, the Cabala and other sources. Agostino Steuco (1497–1548) coined the term philosophia perennis."Dual" comes from Latin "duo," two, prefixed with "non-" meaning "not"; "non-dual" means "not-two." When referring to nondualism, Hinduism generally uses the Sanskrit term Advaita, while Buddhism uses Advaya (Tibetan: gNis-med, Chinese: pu-erh, Japanese: fu-ni). "Advaita" (अद्वैत) is from Sanskrit roots a, not; dvaita, dual. As Advaita, it means "not-two." or "one without a second," and is usually translated as "nondualism", "nonduality" and "nondual". The term "nondualism" and the term "advaita" from which it originates are polyvalent terms. "Advaya" (अद्वय) is also a Sanskrit word that means "identity, unique, not two, without a second," and typically refers to the two truths doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism, especially Madhyamaka.

The English term "nondual" was informed by early translations of the Upanishads in Western languages other than English from 1775. These terms have entered the English language from literal English renderings of "advaita" subsequent to the first wave of English translations of the Upanishads. These translations commenced with the work of Müller (1823–1900), in the monumental Sacred Books of the East (1879). Max Müller rendered "advaita" as "Monism", as have many recent scholars. However, some scholars state that "advaita" is not really monism. Nondual awareness, also called pure consciousness or awareness, contentless consciousness, consciousness-as-such, and Minimal Phenomenal Experience, is a topic of phenomenological research. As described in Samkhya-Yoga and other systems of meditation, and referred to as, for example, Turya and Atman, pure awareness manifests in advanced states of meditation. Unitarian Universalism had a strong impact on Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj, and subsequently on Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda was one of the main representatives of Neo-Vedanta, a modern interpretation of Hinduism in line with western esoteric traditions, especially Transcendentalism, New Thought and Theosophy. His reinterpretation was, and is, very successful, creating a new understanding and appreciation of Hinduism within and outside India, and was the principal reason for the enthusiastic reception of yoga, transcendental meditation and other forms of Indian spiritual self-improvement in the West. Narendranath Datta (Swami Vivekananda) became a member of a Freemasonry lodge "at some point before 1884" and of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in his twenties, a breakaway faction of the Brahmo Samaj led by Keshab Chandra Sen and Debendranath Tagore.Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, had a strong sympathy for the Unitarians, who were closely connected to the Transcendentalists, who in turn were interested in and influenced by Indian religions early on. It was in this cultic milieu that Narendra became acquainted with Western esotericism. Debendranath Tagore brought this "neo-Hinduism" closer in line with western esotericism, a development which was furthered by Keshubchandra Sen, who was also influenced by transcendentalism, which emphasised personal religious experience over mere reasoning and theology. Sen's influence brought Vivekananda fully into contact with western esotericism, and it was also via Sen that he met Ramakrishna. Vivekananda's acquaintance with western esotericism made him very successful in western esoteric circles, beginning with his speech in 1893 at the Parliament of Religions. Vivekananda adapted traditional Hindu ideas and religiosity to suit the needs and understandings of his western audiences, who were especially attracted by and familiar with western esoteric traditions and movements like Transcendentalism and New thought. In 1897 he founded the Ramakrishna Mission, which was instrumental in the spread of Neo-Vedanta in the west, and attracted people like Alan Watts. Aldous Huxley, author of The Perennial Philosophy, was associated with another neo-Vedanta organisation, the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded and headed by Swami Prabhavananda. Together with Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood, and other followers he was initiated by the Swami and was taught meditation and spiritual practices. Neo-Vedanta was well-received among Theosophists, Christian Science, and the New Thought movement; Christian Science in turn influenced the self-study teaching A Course in Miracles.Pure consciousness is distinguished from the workings of the mind, and "consists in nothing but the being seen of what is seen." Gamma & Metzinger (2021) present twelve factors in their phenomenological analysis of pure awareness experienced by meditators, including luminosity; emptiness and non-egoic self-awareness; and witness-consciousness.A main modern proponent of perennialism was Aldous Huxley, who was influenced by Vivekananda's Neo-Vedanta and Universalism. This popular approach finds supports in the "common-core thesis". According to the "common-core thesis", different descriptions can mask quite similar if not identical experiences:

According to Elias Amidon there is an "indescribable, but definitely recognizable, reality that is the ground of all being." According to Renard, these are based on an experience or intuition of "the Real". According to Amidon, this reality is signified by "many names" from "spiritual traditions throughout the world": [N]ondual awareness, pure awareness, open awareness, presence-awareness, unconditioned mind, rigpa, primordial experience, This, the basic state, the sublime, buddhanature, original nature, spontaneous presence, the oneness of being, the ground of being, the Real, clarity, God-consciousness, divine light, the clear light, illumination, realization and enlightenment. According to Renard, nondualism as common essence prefers the term "nondualism", instead of monism, because this understanding is "nonconceptual", "not graspapable in an idea" Even to call this "ground of reality", "One", or "Oneness" is attributing a characteristic to that ground of reality. The only thing that can be said is that it is "not two" or "non-dual": [N]o unmediated experience is possible, and that in the extreme, language is not simply used to interpret experience but in fact constitutes experience. The idea of a common essence has been questioned by Yandell, who discerns various "religious experiences" and their corresponding doctrinal settings, which differ in structure and phenomenological content, and in the "evidential value" they present. The specific teachings and practices of a specific tradition may determine what "experience" someone has, which means that this "experience" is not the proof of the teaching, but a result of the teaching. The notion of what exactly constitutes "liberating insight" varies between the various traditions, and even within the traditions. Bronkhorst for example notices that the conception of what exactly "liberating insight" is in Buddhism was developed over time. Whereas originally it may not have been specified, later on the Four Truths served as such, to be superseded by pratityasamutpada, and still later, in the Hinayana schools, by the doctrine of the non-existence of a substantial self or person. And Schmithausen notices that still other descriptions of this "liberating insight" exist in the Buddhist canon.nsight (prajna, kensho, satori, gnosis, theoria, illumination), especially enlightenment or the realization of the illusory nature of the autonomous "I" or self, is a key element in modern western nondual thought. It is the personal realization that ultimate reality is nondual, and is thought to be a validating means of knowledge of this nondual reality. This insight is interpreted as a psychological state, and labeled as religious or mystical experience. According to Hori, the notion of "religious experience" can be traced back to William James, who used the term "religious experience" in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. The origins of the use of this term can be dated further back. In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs, John Wesley in addition to stressing individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement) were foundational to religious commitment as a way of life. Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious experience" was used by Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique, and defend the view that human (moral and religious) experience justifies religious beliefs. Such religious empiricism would be later seen as highly problematic and was – during the period in-between world wars – famously rejected by Karl Barth. In the 20th century, religious as well as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway. Some influential modern scholars holding this liberal theological view are Charles Raven and the Oxford physicist/theologian Charles Coulson. The notion of "religious experience" was adopted by many scholars of religion, of which William James was the most influential. The notion of "experience" has been criticised. Robert Sharf points out that "experience" is a typical Western term, which has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences.Insight is not the "experience" of some transcendental reality, but is a cognitive event, the (intuitive) understanding or "grasping" of some specific understanding of reality, as in kensho,or anubhava. "Pure experience" does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive activity A pure consciousness without concepts, reached by "cleaning the doors of perception", would be an overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence.A major force in the mutual influence of eastern and western ideas and religiosity was the Theosophical Society.It searched for ancient wisdom in the east, spreading eastern religious ideas in the west One of its salient features was the belief in "Masters of Wisdom", "beings, human or once human, who have transcended the normal frontiers of knowledge, and who make their wisdom available to others". The Theosophical Society also spread western ideas in the east, aiding a modernisation of eastern traditions, and contributing to a growing nationalism in the Asian colonies.Transcendentalism was an early 19th-century liberal Protestant movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the Eastern region of the United States. It was rooted in English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher, and the skepticism of Hume. The Transcendentalists emphasised an intuitive, experiential approach of religion. Following Schleiermacher, an individual's intuition of truth was taken as the criterion for truth. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the first translations of Hindu texts appeared, which were read by the Transcendentalists and influenced their thinking. The Transcendentalists also endorsed universalist and Unitarianist ideas, leading to Unitarian Universalism, the idea that there must be truth in other religions as well, since a loving God would redeem all living beings, not just Christians.Western esotericism (also called esotericism and esoterism) is a scholarly term for a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements which have developed within Western society. They are largely distinct both from orthodox Judeo-Christian religion and from Enlightenment rationalism. The earliest traditions which later analysis would label as forms of Western esotericism emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean during Late Antiquity, where Hermetism, Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism developed as schools of thought distinct from what became mainstream Christianity. In Renaissance Europe, interest in many of these older ideas increased, with various intellectuals seeking to combine "pagan" philosophies with the Kabbalah and with Christian philosophy, resulting in the emergence of esoteric movements like Christian theosophy."Dual" comes from Latin "duo," two, prefixed with "non-" meaning "not"; "non-dual" means "not-two." When referring to nondualism, Hinduism generally uses the Sanskrit term Advaita, while Buddhism uses Advaya (Tibetan: gNis-med, Chinese: pu-erh, Japanese: fu-ni). "Advaita" (अद्वैत) is from Sanskrit roots a, not; dvaita, dual. As Advaita, it means "not-two."[1][8] or "one without a second,"[8] and is usually translated as "nondualism", "nonduality" and "nondual". The term "nondualism" and the term "advaita" from which it originates are polyvalent terms. "Advaya" (अद्वय) is also a Sanskrit word that means "identity, unique, not two, without a second," and typically refers to the two truths doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism, especially Madhyamaka. The English term "nondual" was informed by early translations of the Upanishads in Western languages other than English from 1775. These terms have entered the English language from literal English renderings of "advaita" subsequent to the first wave of English translations of the Upanishads. These translations commenced with the work of Müller (1823–1900), in the monumental Sacred Books of the East (1879). Max Müller rendered "advaita" as "Monism", as have many recent scholars. However, some scholars state that "advaita" is not really monism

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism

 

A fuzzy concept is a kind of concept of which the boundaries of application can vary considerably according to context or conditions, instead of being fixed once and for all. This means the concept is vague in some way, lacking a fixed, precise meaning, without however being unclear or meaningless altogether.It has a definite meaning, which can be made more precise only through further elaboration and specification - including a closer definition of the context in which the concept is used. The study of the characteristics of fuzzy concepts and fuzzy language is called fuzzy semantics. The inverse of a "fuzzy concept" is a "crisp concept" (i.e. a precise concept).

A fuzzy concept is understood by scientists as a concept which is "to an extent applicable" in a situation. That means the concept has gradations of significance or unsharp (variable) boundaries of application. A fuzzy statement is a statement which is true "to some extent", and that extent can often be represented by a scaled value. The term is also used these days in a more general, popular sense – in contrast to its technical meaning – to refer to a concept which is "rather vague" for any kind of reason. In the past, the very idea of reasoning with fuzzy concepts faced considerable resistance from academic elites. They did not want to endorse the use of imprecise concepts in research or argumentation. Yet although people might not be aware of it, the use of fuzzy concepts has risen gigantically in all walks of life from the 1970s onward. That is mainly due to advances in electronic engineering, fuzzy mathematics and digital computer programming. The new technology allows very complex inferences about "variations on a theme" to be anticipated and fixed in a program. New neuro-fuzzy computational methods make it possible to identify, measure and respond to fine gradations of significance with great precision. It means that practically useful concepts can be coded and applied to all kinds of tasks, even if ordinarily these concepts are never precisely defined. Nowadays engineers, statisticians and programmers often represent fuzzy concepts mathematically, using fuzzy logic, fuzzy values, fuzzy variables and fuzzy sets."There exists strong evidence, established in the 1970s in the psychology of concepts... that human concepts have a graded structure in that whether or not a concept applies to a given object is a matter of degree, rather than a yes-or-no question, and that people are capable of working with the degrees in a consistent way. This finding is intuitively quite appealing, because people say "this product is more or less good" or "to a certain degree, he is a good athlete", implying the graded structure of concepts. In his classic paper, Zadeh called the concepts with a graded structure fuzzy concepts and argued that these concepts are a rule rather than an exception when it comes to how people communicate knowledge. Moreover, he argued that to model such concepts mathematically is important for the tasks of control, decision making, pattern recognition, and the like. Zadeh proposed the notion of a fuzzy set that gave birth to the field of fuzzy logic..."Hence, a concept is generally regarded as "fuzzy" in a logical sense if:defining characteristics of the concept apply to it "to a certain degree or extent" (or, more unusually, "with a certain magnitude of likelihood").

or, the boundaries of applicability (the truth-value) of a concept can vary in degrees, according to different conditions.

or, the fuzzy concept itself straightforwardly consists of a fuzzy set, or a combination of such sets.

The fact that a concept is fuzzy does not prevent its use in logical reasoning; it merely affects the type of reasoning which can be applied (see fuzzy logic). If the concept has gradations of meaningful significance, it is necessary to specify and formalize what those gradations are, if they can make an important difference. Not all fuzzy concepts have the same logical structure, but they can often be formally described or reconstructed using fuzzy logic or other substructural logics.The advantage of this approach is, that numerical notation enables a potentially infinite number of truth-values between complete truth and complete falsehood, and thus it enables - in theory, at least - the greatest precision in stating the degree of applicability of a logical rule..In philosophical logic and linguistics, fuzzy concepts are often regarded as vague concepts which in their application, or formally speaking, are neither completely true nor completely false, or which are partly true and partly false; they are ideas which require further elaboration, specification or qualification to understand their applicability (the conditions under which they truly make sense). The "fuzzy area" can also refer simply to a residual number of cases which cannot be allocated to a known and identifiable group, class or set if strict criteria are used. The collaborative written works of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari refer occasionally to fuzzy sets in conjunction with their idea of multiplicities. In A Thousand Plateaus, they note that "a set is fuzzy if its elements belong to it only by virtue of specific operations of consistency and consolidation, which themselves follow a special logic", and in What Is Philosophy?, a work dealing with the functions of concepts, they write that concepts as a whole are "vague or fuzzy sets, simple aggregates of perceptions and affections, which form within the lived as immanent to a subject" In mathematics and statistics, a fuzzy variable (such as "the temperature", "hot" or "cold") is a value which could lie in a probable range defined by some quantitative limits or parameters, and which can be usefully described with imprecise categories (such as "high", "medium" or "low") using some kind of scale or conceptual hierarchy.n mathematics and computer science, the gradations of applicable meaning of a fuzzy concept are described in terms of quantitative relationships defined by logical operators. Such an approach is sometimes called "degree-theoretic semantics" by logicians and philosophers, but the more usual term is fuzzy logic or many-valued logic. The novelty of fuzzy logic is, that it "breaks with the traditional principle that formalisation should correct and avoid, but not compromise with, vagueness". The basic idea of fuzzy logic is that a real number is assigned to each statement written in a language, within a range from 0 to 1, where 1 means that the statement is completely true, and 0 means that the statement is completely false, while values less than 1 but greater than 0 represent that the statements are "partly true", to a given, quantifiable extent. Susan Haack comments: "Whereas in classical set theory an object either is or is not a member of a given set, in fuzzy set theory membership is a matter of degree; the degree of membership of an object in a fuzzy set is represented by some real number between 0 and 1, with 0 denoting no membership and full membership." ..."Truth" in this mathematical context usually means simply that "something is the case", or that "something is applicable". This makes it possible to analyze a distribution of statements for their truth-content, identify data patterns, make inferences and predictions, and model how processes operate. Petr Hájek claimed that "fuzzy logic is not just some "applied logic", but may bring "new light to classical logical problems", and therefore might be well classified as a distinct branch of "philosophical logic" similar to e.g. modal logics.Fuzzy logic offers computationally-oriented systems of concepts and methods, to formalize types of reasoning which are ordinarily approximate only, and not exact. In principle, this allows us to give a definite, precise answer to the question, "To what extent is something the case?", or, "To what extent is something applicable?". Via a series of switches, this kind of reasoning can be built into electronic devices. That was already happening before fuzzy logic was invented, but using fuzzy logic in modelling has become an important aid in design, which creates many new technical possibilities. Fuzzy reasoning (i.e., reasoning with graded concepts) turns out to have many practical uses. It is nowadays widely used in:

The programming of vehicle and transport electronics, household appliances, video games, language filters, robotics, and driverless vehicles. Fuzzy logic washing machines are gaining popularity. All kinds of control systems that regulate access, traffic, movement, balance, conditions, temperature, pressure, routers etc. Electronic equipment used for pattern recognition, surveying and monitoring (including radars, satellites, alarm systems and surveillance systems).

Cybernetics research, artificial intelligence,[54] virtual intelligence, machine learning, database design and soft computing research. "Fuzzy risk scores" are used by project managers and portfolio managers to express financial risk assessments. It looks like fuzzy logic will eventually be applied in almost every aspect of life, even if people are not aware of it, and in that sense fuzzy logic is an astonishingly successful invention.[58] The scientific and engineering literature on the subject is constantly increasing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_concept

 

Advaita Vedanta (/ʌdˈvaɪtə vɛˈdɑːntə/; Sanskrit: अद्वैत वेदान्त, IAST: Advaita Vedānta) is a Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the orthodox Hindu school Vedānta. The term Advaita (literally "non-secondness", but usually rendered as "nondualism",and often equated with monism[note 3]) refers to the idea that Brahman alone is ultimately real, while the transient phenomenal world is an illusory appearance (maya) of Brahman. In this view, jivatman, the experiencing self, is ultimately non-different ("na aparah") from Ātman-Brahman, the highest Self or Reality.The jivatman or individual self is a mere reflection or limitation of singular Ātman in a multitude of apparent individual bodies. In the Advaita tradition, moksha (liberation from suffering and rebirth),is attained through recognizing this illusoriness of the phenomenal world and disidentification from the body-mind complex and the notion of 'doership',[note 5] and acquiring vidyā (knowledge) of one's true identity as Atman-Brahman, self-luminous (svayam prakāśa)[note 6] awareness or Witness-consciousness. Upanishadic statements such as tat tvam asi, "that['s how] you are," destroy the ignorance (avidyā) regarding one's true identity by revealing that (jiv)Ātman is non-different from immortal[note 8] Brahman. While the prominent 8th century Vedic scholar and teacher (acharya) Adi Shankara emphasized that, since Brahman is ever-present, Brahman-knowledge is immediate and requires no 'action', that is, striving and effort,[15][16][17] the Advaita tradition also prescribes elaborate preparatory practice, including contemplation of the mahavakyas and accepting yogic samadhi as a means to knowledge, posing a paradox which is also recognized in other spiritual disciplines and traditions. Advaita Vedānta adapted philosophical concepts from Buddhism, giving them a Vedantic basis and interpretation,and was influenced by, and influenced, various traditions and texts of Indian philosophy, While Adi Shankara is generally regarded as the most prominent exponent of the Advaita Vedānta tradition,[26] his early influence has been questioned, as his prominence started to take shape only centuries later in the 14th century, with the ascent of Sringeri matha and its jagadguru Vidyaranya (Madhava, 14th cent.) in the Vijayanagara Empire.[note 11] While Shankara did not embrace Yoga,[37] the Advaita Vedānta tradition in medieval times explicitly incorporated elements from the yogic tradition and texts like the Yoga Vasistha and the Bhagavata Purana, culminating in Swami Vivekananda's full embrace and propagation of Yogic samadhi as an Advaita means of knowledge and liberation. In the 19th century, due to the influence of Vidyaranya's Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha, the importance of Advaita Vedānta was overemphasized by Western scholarship,[42] and Advaita Vedānta came to be regarded as the paradigmatic example of Hindu spirituality, despite the numerical dominance of theistic Bhakti-oriented religiosity. In modern times, Advaita views appear in various Neo-Vedānta movements. While "a preferred terminology" for Upanisadic philosophy "in the early periods, before the time of Shankara" was Puruṣavāda,[50][note 13] the Advaita Vedānta school has historically been referred to by various names, such as Advaita-vada (speaker of Advaita), Abheda-darshana (view of non-difference), Dvaita-vada-pratisedha (denial of dual distinctions), and Kevala-dvaita (non-dualism of the isolated). It is also called māyāvāda by Vaishnava opponents, akin to Madhyamaka Buddhism, due to their insistence that phenomena ultimately lack an inherent essence or reality,[ According to Richard King, a professor of Buddhist and Asian studies, the term Advaita first occurs in a recognizably Vedantic context in the prose of Mandukya Upanishad.[51] In contrast, according to Frits Staal, a professor of philosophy specializing in Sanskrit and Vedic studies, the word Advaita is from the Vedic era, and the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya (8th or 7th-century BCE is credited to be the one who coined it] Stephen Phillips, a professor of philosophy and Asian studies, translates the Advaita containing verse excerpt in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, as "An ocean, a single seer without duality becomes he whose world is Brahman.While the term "Advaita Vedanta" in a strict sense may refer to the scholastic tradition of textual exegesis established by Shankara, "advaita" in a broader sense may refer to a broad current of advaitic thought, which incorporates advaitic elements with yogic thought and practice and other strands of Indian religiosity, such as Kashmir Shaivism and the Nath tradition. The first connotation has also been called "Classical Advaita" and "doctrinal Advaita," and its presentation as such is due to mediaeval doxographies,the influence of Orientalist Indologists like Paul Deussen, and the Indian response to colonial influences, dubbed neo-Vedanta by Paul Hacker, who regarded it as a deviation from "traditional" Advaita Vedanta.Yet, post-Shankara Advaita Vedanta incorporated yogic elements, such as the Yoga Vasistha, and influenced other Indian traditions, and neo-Vedanta is based on this broader strand of Indian thought. This broader current of thought and practice has also been called "greater Advaita Vedanta," "vernacular advaita,"and "experiential Advaita." It is this broader advaitic tradition which is commonly presented as "Advaita Vedanta," though the term "advaitic" may be more apt.The nondualism of Advaita Vedānta is often regarded as an idealist monism. According to King, Advaita Vedānta developed "to its ultimate extreme" the monistic ideas already present in the Upanishads. In contrast, states Milne, it is misleading to call Advaita Vedānta "monistic," since this confuses the "negation of difference" with "conflation into one."Advaita is a negative term (a-dvaita), states Milne, which denotes the "negation of a difference," between subject and object, or between perceiver and perceived. According to Deutsch, Advaita Vedānta teaches monistic oneness, however without the multiplicity premise of alternate monism theories.According to Jacqueline Suthren Hirst, Adi Shankara positively emphasizes "oneness" premise in his Brahma-sutra Bhasya 2.1.20, attributing it to all the Upanishads. Nicholson states Advaita Vedānta contains realistic strands of thought, both in its oldest origins and in Shankara's writings.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta#Svayam_prakāśa_(self-luminosity)

  

Ah, proper British summer weather, I do love the rain...

Fare thee well my brother

please don't stand in my way

I'm going down to that dirty town

no matter what you say

You fooled me and you ruled me

and you played in every part

I gotta go, it's no use me stayin' home

 

Goodbye my sister

please don't let me see you cry

Gonna be a star some day

no matter what they say

And when you hear the crowds

all callin' and shouting out my name

until then, my little friend, I'll be unsatisfied

 

So long sweet Melinda

don't forget that you're my girl

Gonna dress you fine

and if you give me time

make you proud like I said I would

And if the Champs Elysee's no fallacy

If I find the world looks like it should

Candy cars, movie stars, street bars

then I could stay a while

 

Well I love you

Shall I write or phone from Paris or Rome

and I'll miss you all

even tho' you're tryin' to hold me back

 

Fall fallacies arise due to confusingly similar plumages -- esp. between Bay-breasted and Blackpoll Warblers. Such as this. Lake St. Clair.

Sienia Trevellion Lark - Amelie Armoire - 1C

Apple warehousefifteendesigns AF Slipcover Chair (White)

CROSS Jupiter [Zacca] Xmas Wall Mirror - Small 3prims

Aime Takaaki *MishMish* White Peacock - The Dazzle - stand2

Halogen Magic +Half-Deer+ Carved Woodland Trees (Green)

+Half-Deer+ Carved Woodland Animals (Grey Squirrel)

+Half-Deer+ Jewel Mushroom - Turquoise (Curved)

Winter Thorn {what next} Fat Icicles (5m)

Samantha Smadga Baffle! Tree. [Picture] (background)

EARES (eareceil) :: +ER+ :: Alpaca Torso.ver 1.1 Large

IzzieBellah Hinterland BoatHouse Silver Deer Eating Grass

BoatHouse White Fir Tree

BoatHouse Bark Bird On Drift Wood

BoatHouse Snowy Owl

Lilly Juno Prism Furniture Snowy Lamp Post

iBi (8f8) 8f8_Chinese Lampion

8f8_Winter Chinese Dogwood Tree Branch

lakua Arriaga *ionic* Timmy (Mice)

*ionic* - Raccoons & Bears Village

*ionic* - Veggie Raccoon -

Fallacy DeCuir (FDD) Wintery Grass - Round

Precious Restless sweet grass mesh 3 prims

FrankLee Anatra {what next} Toadstool Cluster

Pinky Villota ANIMAL DEER 3

Canue Glazner Xmas tree metal (m) +9

Laurent83 Waco !! Follow US !! Autumn'14 Pumpkins in cage V2

Cherelle Capra [CIRCA] - "Eastwick" Hanging Paper Bats Trio - B&W Print GG '14

Elle Crescendo Industrial Grunge (warehouse)

Miranor Kraus Three-fold tower

Aley Pirate Furnture Sideboard (1 prim)

Pirate FurnIture Ship in a Bottle (3 prims)

Cleom Bailey BOOKS

ELEPHANTS

library stair chest

Amanda Dench Wicker Basket by Dench Designs

Lany Jun everHOME deco balls *Step inSide*

everHOME rug *Step inSide*

Pitsch Parx UrbanizeD - Deco Art "Summer Loving" A - Limited Edition

UrbanizeD - Planter & Aloe "Zennn" B - Neutral

Vase "Ursa" L // Mixed Moods

Talus Eun Little Wooden Buddha statue (old Hunt)

FrankLee Anatra {what next} Kendal Collage prints

Iris Maskelyne DIGS - Curved Panel Closet Doors - Naturals [MESH] (FLF)

Tab Tatham *Tatty Soup* Lyde Couch Lemon

*Tatty Soup* Just A Plant.

Pamela Galli Green Dot and Flower Pillow

Pandora Popstar LISP tuttifruiti floor reader cushion touch shadow 4book lemon

LISP - Thermos Lemon

LISP - Valentine Footstool/ Table Lemon (with sits) blanket

LISP - Pirate Jack Skull Jubilee Mannequin - no legs

Kate McLaglen Ancient Stone Relief Bronze Trio Fine Art

Jordan Giant recycling.lamp - dotty.

garden_curtain

Amelie Knelstrom {vespertine- fauxidermy/deer/funky}

daiz Papp Z0001-Asian Mask (Mesh)

Z0002-Cervus Horn (Mesh

Ricardo Avalira NT - Reindeer Antlers

NT - Greenhouse

NT - Mega-Tree Bonsai - Table Top

Nalena Fairey Zigana . Branch light . sun

Zigana . elephant small green

Gabrielle Swindlehurst TGGS - Hallucinatio botanicus 1 -

DeAnn Dufaux [Park Place] Floor Plant

Nampeyo Akina TC -Japanese Kokedama Moss Ball w LadySlippers

Cherelle Capra C&D Designs - "Oasis" Sand Star Fish

[CIRCA] Open Book

[CIRCA] - "Verona" Tropical Fern Planter 1

Kelith [Ke.] Bird Statue

Tegan Serin floorplan. nautical chest (FLF)

Fallacy DeCuir Cobblestone - Wire Sphere Set

Aime TakaakI *MishMish* Fortune Cat (FLF)

Terasum Green Orchid GIFT

Honey Lustre PrimTique -Seashore Mesh Coffee Table

Menieelee Gelles ASO! Vintage Drawer(Green) (purple)

Carlotta Ceawlin *Winter* Table Lantern A MM

Canvas Frames *Clouds*

lakua Arriaga *ionic* many little secrets

Isy Winslet) PICTURE OF WOMAN cemballo

Axolotl Icthan Route 66 Plaque

Syrdin Morrisey .:S.M:. Elena - Attic Items (books)

Agnes Sharple Little climbing light

Makenzie Irling Barcode - Photo Boxes 2010

Hhandni Khondji *~*HopScotch*~* Rocking Horse (Mini)

Freakysa Fairey FreakyDesign - Freaky Kitteh key-cord

Sway Dench Sway's [Owl] photo holder - silver (FLF)

Liya Caedmon SFW Printouts

SFW Citrus Pro Laptop

Sera Lok *Lok's* Barbary Coast Freight Desk without Deco - 1 LI

Catcracker Mcdonnell Picture love smoke

Yuji777 chair_10 YELLOW

Miu Minuet *MiuMIn* Goldfish on table Kintoto Lovers [Rez]

Laurent83 Waco !! Follow US !! Suitcase photographer

Amisha March *DECORATIVE ONLY* Carpet bag by Insight Designs

Gilles Short IKEA Style Box SETKA 0.5x0.5x0.5

Moriko Inshan -Hanaya- Happy New Year 2012 Gift

Dainie Fraina :: ARTIZANA Drum:: djembe (gift)

Piedra Lubitsch sea study yellow (s) _ piedra lubitsch 2012

IzzieBellah Hinterland BoatHouse Natural Number Dresser

Eliza Wierwight PATRON French Lavender Basket

wetcat Flux Store Window Display SAMPLE v.02

IbizaMoon Mills (:::am dsgn:::) Nottinghill Streetlamp

research.projects woodland path

Bunnie Badger Oak Tree (mod)

Fallacy DeCuir (FDD) Wintery Grass - Square

Carlotta Ceawlin

Pitsch Parx UrbanizeD - Coffee Table "Follow Your Dreams" - Dubai Sands

Tigerlily Sapphire black fantasy colorful blooms *otm* small sized

pink glitter daisies *otm*

Ziggi Dinzeo Ryte Ceiling light 1 PRIM SCULPT

Sesi Ackland Littler Boxes Broomstick

FrankLee Anatra {what next} Toadstool Cluster mushroom

Anya Ohmai !Ohmai : Steampunk Light Squirrels Collaborat8

Sway Dench Sway's Chestnut Hunt Gift [Scarecrow] (old hunt)

Jiovi Michigan PineCones

Cleom Bailey valentine lamp

Halogen Magic +Half-Deer+ Carved Woodland Animals (White Owl)

+Half-Deer+ Carved Woodland Animals (Grey Squirrel)

+Half-Deer+ Carved Woodland Animals (Brown Bear)

+Half-Deer+ Carved Woodland Animals (Black Bear)

+Half-Deer+ Carved Woodland Animals (Fawn Fox) RARE

Carlotta Ceawlin *Fade to Black* Raven

Emery. Mlneaux [Commoner] Grown-Up Rocking Horse / Cowhide RARE

[Commoner] Origami Deer Head (Cardboard) Rare

[Commoner] Origami Deer Head (Lorem Ipsum) Rare

dazai Voom d-lab-Streetlight-copy

handni.khondji *~*HopScotch*~* Rocking Horse (Grown Ups)

Nadine Reverie Mushrooms tiger - 12pc - 1 prim

yonyon Yip [SP]StrayBambi_Wear

[SP]StrayGiraffe_Wear

[SP]StrayDonkey_Wear

[SP]StrayLesserPanda_Wear

Sayaca Unplugged D R O P . Kokedama - A-1 The Water Lantern Festiva ...Gatcha

D R O P . Kokedama - C-3

Sasaya Kayo HPMD* stuffed duck/whiteB

Pinky Villota ANIMAL DEER 1

Laurella Benoir Nightlight Bunny Grey

Bettiepag Voyager) BP* animal carry cage3

Part of the Brunel 200 celebrations includes performances and exhibitions by various arts projects.

 

A group called, Our Stories Make Waves, performed drama, music and poetry in the dry dock under the ss Great Britain. The ship linked in well with stories of travel and migration, from local black communities.

 

Some of the elder members of the black community had not only never visited the ship, but some perceived it to have links with the slave trade within Bristol, which is in fact, a fallacy.

 

Go large!

 

Ooh! Get me: flickr.com/explore/interesting/2006/6/8/page1

  

Blogged at Catchy Colours blogspot: www.catchycolors.blogspot.com/ and here.

 

del.icio.us/yezi03/lauramary

When I started to work on this set of images reminding the lost Indo-Greek Kingdom I wanted to mix shots of humans with shots of sculptures in order to provide a fallacy of equivocation on what is human and what is not.

 

All those sculptures were waiting for me in Paris’ Louvre museum and those male models were the same Indian wrestlers (pehlwan) whom have been posing last January in Varanasi (Benaras).

But no woman accepted to pose in India saying that those pictures were showing a world of sensuality in which they didn’t want to be involved in case any relative could recognise a part of their body...

 

As I was walking along the ghats, I saw this young woman coming back from the holy waters of river Ganga, she didn’t realise that she was offering a bare breast.

This is the only picture I took as another lady saw me and came to ajust her sari.

But maybe I was dreaming and this is one more close-up of a sculpture of the Hellenistic period.

Who knows what is real as everything around me is “Stepping out, off the page, into the sensual world”.

 

“The Sensual World” by Kate Bush :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJc64xncBt4

 

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.

Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).

The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

Black Swan Events were characterized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book (revised and completed in 2010), The Black Swan. Taleb regards almost all major scientific discoveries, historical events, and artistic accomplishments as "black swans"—undirected and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, World War I, and the September 11 attacks as examples of Black Swan Events.[2]

 

The term black swan was a Latin expression—its oldest known reference comes from the poet Juvenal's characterization of something being "rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno" (6.165).[3] In English, this Latin phrase means "a rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan." When the phrase was coined, the black swan was presumed not to exist. The importance of the simile lies in its analogy to the fragility of any system of thought. A set of conclusions is potentially undone once any of its fundamental postulates is disproved. In this case, the observation of a single black swan would be the undoing of the phrase's underlying logic, as well as any reasoning that followed from that underlying logic.[citation needed]

 

Juvenal's phrase was a common expression in 16th century London as a statement of impossibility. The London expression derives from the Old World presumption that all swans must be white because all historical records of swans reported that they had white feathers.[4] In that context, a black swan was impossible or at least nonexistent. After a Dutch expedition led by explorer Willem de Vlamingh on the Swan River in 1697, discovered black swans in Western Australia,[5] the term metamorphosed to connote that a perceived impossibility might later be disproven. Taleb notes that in the 19th century John Stuart Mill used the black swan logical fallacy as a new term to identify falsification.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

Something or nothing?

There are only two alternatives, something or nothing. Existence or non-existence?

Existence is a fact!

We know something exists (the physical universe),

but why?

Two questions arise …why is there something rather than nothing?

And where did that something come from?

 

Obviously, something cannot arise from nothing, no sane person would entertain such an impossible concept. However, an incredible fantasy that the universe created itself from nothing, is being proposed by some, high profile atheists, and presented to the public as though it is science. A sort of ‘theory of everything’ that purports to eliminate a creator.

For example, the campaigning, militant atheist Lawrence Krauss has written a book which claims the universe can come from nothing, ‘A Universe from Nothing’.

Anyone who is silly enough to spend money on a book which makes such a wild, impossible claim, soon realises that Krauss’s ‘nothing’ is not nothing at all, but an exercise in ‘smoke and mirrors’. His ‘nothing’ involves the pre-existence of certain, natural laws, space/time and quantum effects. That is certainly not 'nothing'. And his book, with the deceptive title, simply kicks the problem of - why there is something rather than nothing? into the long grass.

 

Video clip:

Famous, militant atheist, Richard Dawkins tries to define 'nothing' as 'something', and is surprised and shocked when the audience sensibly reacts with laughter.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6H9XirkhZY

 

Another, well, publicised example, of the universe allegedly being able to arise from nothing of its own volition, was the one presented by the late Professor Stephen Hawking, and summed up by him in a single sentence:

“Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing”

 

It is not intelligent, sensible or scientific to believe that everything created itself from nothing.

In a state of infinite and eternal nothingness, nothing exists and nothing happens - EVER.

Nothing means absolutely ‘nothing’. Nothing tangible and no physical laws, no information, not even abstract things, like mathematics. If nothing exists there can be no numbers or anything based on numbers. Nothing is just a plain ‘zero’, with no positive integer 0+0=0, it can never be anything else.

 

Furthermore, you don’t need to be a genius, or a scientist, to understand that something CANNOT create itself.

Put simply, it is self-evident that - to create itself, a thing would have to pre-exist its own creation to carry out the act of creating itself. In which case, it already exists.

And, if anything at all exists, i.e. in Hawking's example ‘gravity’, it cannot be called 'nothing'.

Furthermore, ‘gravity’ cannot be a creative agent, it is merely an inherent property of matter – it is obvious that a property of something cannot create that which it is a property of. Also, how can something pre-exist that which it is a property of?

Thus, we are obliged to conclude that nonsense remains nonsense, even when presented by highly regarded scientists.

“Fallacies remain fallacies, even when they become fashionable.” GK Chesterton.

 

Such nonsensical propositions are vain attempts to undermine the well, established and logically based, law of cause and effect, which is fatal to atheist ideology.

Incredibly, Professor Stephen Hawking's so-called replacement for God completely ignores this crucially important, law of cause and effect, which applies to ALL temporal (natural) entities, without exception.

Therefore, his natural, 'theory of everything' which he rashly summed up in a single sentence can, similarly, be debunked in a single sentence ...

Because there is a law of cause and effect, the universe can't and won't create itself from nothing.

 

THE QUANTUM EFFECTS SMOKE AND MIRRORS TRICK ...

What about the idea, proposed by some atheists, that quantum mechanics, or a so-called god-particle, is the answer to the origin of the universe and of everything from nothing without the need for any cause?

 

We can state quite categorically that quantum effects could not have anything to do with an origin of the universe from nothing.

Why?

It is common sense that something CANNOT come from nothing, and that EVERY natural occurrence needs an adequate cause. Micro or sub-atomic particles are not an exception.

There are NO exceptions.

However, atheists refuse to accept the reality that a natural origin of the universe from nothing must be deemed impossible. Apparently, they think if they propose it could happen - little by little - it will become plausible and be readily accepted by a credulous public.

Their reasoning appears to be if you are able to make it as small, make it sound as simple, as less complex as you can, in that way, you could get people to believe virtually anything is possible.

This is exactly the same little-by-little approach that atheists apply to the origin of life and progressive evolution.

We are obliged to ask ...

What makes atheists think that it is easier for something to come from nothing if it is smaller or simpler?

Is it any easier or more credible for a grain of sand to come from nothing than it would be for a boulder?

Of course it isn’t - it makes no difference whatsoever.

Something cannot come from nothing, period! - And that is an irrefutable fact.

Size or lack of complexity can’t alter that.

 

Nevertheless, atheists still think that…. although people might realise that you couldn’t get a grain of sand from nothing, any more than you could a boulder, what if we propose the something which came from nothing is the smallest thing imaginable?

What about the quantum world – how about a sub-atomic particle?

That must make the proposition of something from nothing appear much more plausible.

What if we could find such a particle - a sort of ‘god’ particle (a substitute for God)? A supernatural, first cause (a creator God) would then be made redundant.

Problem would be solved - apparently!

If we could get people to believe that, even if the problem of the origin of everything, without an adequate cause, hasn’t been solved completely, at least science' is well on the way to solving it.

Of course, if anyone still insists that even a simple, sub-atomic particle cannot possibly come from nothing, we can always propose that nothing isn’t really nothing, but ‘something’, i.e. space/time.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to get gullible people, those in awe of anything (claimed to be) scientific, to accept that. Unfortunately, many people do.

 

However, the idea of a so-called ‘God’ particle has always been an OBVIOUS misnomer to anyone with any common sense, but militant atheists loved the notion and, predictably, the popular, secularist, media hacks also loved it.

What they either failed to realise (or deliberately failed to admit) is that not only is it just as impossible for a particle (however small) to arise of its own volition from nothing, as anything else, but also the smaller, simpler and less complex a proposed, first cause becomes, the more IMPOSSIBLE it is for it to be a first cause of the universe.

A simple, sub-atomic particle CANNOT possibly be the first cause, it CANNOT replace God ... because, not only is it impossible for it to be uncaused, it is also clearly not adequate for the effect/result.

So, atheists, while trying to fool people into thinking that it is easier for something to come from nothing, if it is simple and microscopic, actually shoot themselves in the foot....

The little by little approach which they apply to the origin of life and progressive evolution doesn’t work for the origin of the universe.

An effect CANNOT be greater than its cause.

The first cause of the universe, as well as not being a contingent, temporal entity, cannot be something simpler or less complex than everything that follows it, which is the sum total of the universe itself.

The first cause of the universe MUST be adequate to produce the universe in its entirely and complexity - and that means every property and quality it contains.

Sub-atomic particles or quantum effects are OBVIOUSLY not up to the job, any more than any of the other natural, first causes proposed by atheists.

 

So atheists are flogging a dead horse by thinking they can replace God with quantum mechanics, which may be interesting phenomenon, but the one thing it is absolutely certain they are not, is a first cause of the universe.

 

THE QUESTION OF PURPOSE ....

A further nail in the coffin of bogus, atheist science is the existence of order.

Atheists assume that the universe is purposeless, but they cannot explain the existence of order.

The development of order requires an organizational element.

To do useful work, or to counter the effects of entropy, energy needs to be directed or guided.

Raw energy alone actually tends to increase the effects of entropy, it doesn't increase order.

The organizational principle in living systems is provided by the informational element encoded in DNA.

Atheists have yet to explain how that first, genetic information arose of its own volition in the so-called Primordial Soup?

 

Natural laws pertinent to all natural entities, they guide the behaviour of energy and matter, but also serve to limit it, because natural laws are based only on the inherent properties of matter and energy.

 

So ... natural laws describe inherent properties of matter/energy, and natural processes operate only within the confines of natural laws which are based on their own properties. They can never exceed the parameters of those laws.

RANDOMNESS?

The much acclaimed, Dawkinsian principle that randomness can develop into order by means of a sieving process, such as shaken pebbles being sorted by falling through a hole of a particular size is erroneous, because it completely ignores the regulatory influence of natural laws on the outcome, which are not at all random.

 

If we can predict the outcome in advance, as we can with Dawkins' example, it cannot be called random. We CAN predict the outcome because we know that the pebbles will behave according to the regulatory influence of natural laws, such as the law of gravity. If there was no law of gravity, then Dawkins' pebbles, when shaken, would not fall through the hole, they would not be sorted, they would act completely unpredictably, possibly floating about in the air in all directions. In that case, the randomness would not result in any order. That is true randomness.

 

Dawkins' randomness, allegedly developing into order, is not random at all, the outcome is predictable and controlled by natural laws and the inherent properties of matter. He is starting with 2 organizational principles, natural laws and the inherent, ordered structure and properties of matter, and he calls that randomness!

Bogus science indeed!

This tells us that order is already there at the beginning of the universe, in the form of natural laws and the ordered composition and structure of matter .... it doesn't just develop from random events.

 

Natural laws?

A major problem for atheists is to explain where natural laws came from?

In a purposeless universe there should be no regulatory principles at all.

Firstly, we would not expect anything to exist, we would expect eternal nothingness.

Secondly, even if we overlook that impossible hurdle, and assume by some amazing fluke and contrary to logic, something was able to create itself from nothing ….. we would expect the ‘something’ would have no ordered structure, and no laws based on that ordered structure. We would expect it to behave randomly and chaotically.

This is an absolutely fundamental question to which atheists have no answer. The basic properties of matter/energy, and the universe, scream …. ‘purpose’.

Atheists say the exact opposite.

Furthermore, if we consider the accepted, atheist belief; that matter is inherently predisposed to produce life and the genetic information for life, whenever environmental conditions are conducive (so-called abiogenesis), where does that predisposition for life come from? How does matter/energy possess such a property as the potential/blueprint for life?

Abiogenesis is undeniably indicative of the existence of purpose.

This means, once again, atheists are hoisted on their own petard, and the atheist idea of a random, purposeless, universe is left completely in tatters.

 

GOD OF THE GAPS?

Atheists often say: you can’t fill gaps in knowledge with a supernatural, first cause.

But we are not talking about filling gaps, we are talking about a fundamental issue ... the origin of everything in the material realm.

The first cause is not a gap, it is the beginning - and many of the greatest scientists in the history of science had no problem whatsoever with the logic that - a natural, first cause was impossible, and the only possible option was a supernatural creator.

Why do atheists have such a problem with it?

 

A TRIGGER?

Atheists also seem to think that to explain the origin of the universe without a God, simply involves explaining what triggered it, as though its formation from that point on, just happens automatically.

This has been compared by some as similar to lighting the blue touch paper of a firework. They think that if they can propose such a naturalistic trigger, then God is made redundant.

That may sound plausible to some members of the public, who take such pronouncements at face value, and are somewhat in awe of anything that is claimed to be 'scientific'.

But it is obvious to anyone who thinks seriously about it, that a mere trigger is not necessarily an adequate cause.

 

A trigger presupposes that there is some sort of a mechanism/blueprint/plan already existing which is ready to spring into action if it is provided with an appropriate trigger. So a trigger is not a sole cause, or a first cause, it is merely one contributing cause.

Natural things do only what they are programmed to do, i.e. they obey natural laws and the demands of their own pre-ordered composition and structure. Lighting blue touch paper would do absolutely nothing, unless there is a carefully designed and manufactured firework already attached to it.

 

THE EXISTENCE OF SPACE.

What about the idea proposed by some atheists that space must have always existed, and therefore the first cause was not the only eternally, uncaused self-existent power?

This implies that the first cause was limited by a self-existent rival (space,) which was also uncaused, and therefore the first cause could not be infinite and could not even be a proper first cause, because there was something it didn’t cause i.e. ‘space’.

There seems to be some confusion here about what ‘space’ actually is.

Space is part of the created universe, it is what lies between and around material objects in the cosmos, if there were no material objects, and their associated physical effects, in the cosmos, there would be no space. The confusion lies in the failure to distinguish between empty space and nothing. Nothing is the absence of everything, whereas space is a medium in which cosmic bodies and other physical effects exist. ‘Empty’ space is just the space between objects. So space is not an uncaused, eternally self-existent entity, it is dependent, for its own existence, on the material objects existing within it.

 

What about nothing?

Is that an uncaused eternally self-existent thing?

Firstly, it is not a thing, it is the absence of all things (no thing). So has nothing always existed? Well, yes it essentially would have always existed, but only if a first cause didn’t exist. If there is a first cause that is eternally self-existent, then there is no such thing as absolute nothing, because nothing is the absence of everything. If a first cause exists (which it had to, or the universe wouldn't exist), then any proposed eternal ‘nothing’ has always contained something, and therefore there has never been ‘nothing’.

 

What about the idea that the first cause created everything from nothing? Obviously, the ‘nothing’ that is meant here is … nothing material, i.e. the absence of any material or natural entities.

The uncaused, first cause cannot have a material nature, because all material things are contingent, so the first cause brought material things into being, when nothing material had previously existed. That is what is meant by creation from nothing.

 

So. what existed outside of the eternally existent, first cause? Obviously no other thing existed outside of the first cause, the first cause was the only thing that existed.

So. did the first cause exist in a sea of eternally existent nothingness?

No! the first cause was not nothing, it was ‘something’. Thus, to ask what surrounded the something that is the first cause is not a valid question, because if something exists - that is not ‘nothing’.

This means that such a notion of ‘nothing’ couldn't exist, only something – i.e. the eternally existent first cause. If you have a box with something in it, you wouldn’t say there is both something and nothing in the box. You would say there is something in the box, regardless of whether there was some empty space around the thing in the box.

 

WHY WE NEED RELIGION.

Once we admit the obvious fact that the universe cannot arise of its own accord from nothing (nothing will remain nothing forever), the only alternative is that ‘something’ has always existed – an infinite ‘something’. For anything to happen, such as the origin of the universe, the infinite something, cannot just exist in a state of eternal, passive inactivity, it must be capable of positive activity.

If we examine the characteristics, powers, qualities and attributes which exist now, we must conclude that the ‘something’, that has always existed, must have amazing (godlike) powers to be able to produce all the wonderful qualities we see in the universe, including: information, natural laws, life, intelligence, consciousness, etc.

This means we are compelled to believe in some sort of ‘godlike entity’. The only question is - which god?

Is the godlike entity a creator, or simply nature or natural forces as atheists claim?

Seeking an answer to that question is the essential role of religion, which properly seeks the answer by applying logic and reason, supported by natural laws and scientific principles, rather than relying entirely on blind faith.

 

Why God MUST exist ...

Is the inescapable verdict of logic and natural laws ...

There are only two states of being (existence) – temporal and infinite. That. which has a beginning, is ‘temporal’. That which has no beginning is ‘infinite’.

Everything that exists must be one or the other.

The temporal (unlike the infinite) is not autonomous or non-contingent, it essentially relies on something else for its beginning (its cause) and its continued existence.

The universe and all natural things are temporal. Hence, they ALL require a cause or causes.

They could NOT exist without a cause to bring them into being. This is a FACT accepted by science, and enshrined in the Law of Cause and Effect.

The Law of Cause and Effect tells us that every effect requires a cause. And that - an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s.

This is a fundamental principle, essential to the scientific method.

“All natural science is based on the hypothesis of the complete causal connection of all events” Dr Albert Einstein. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Hebrew University and Princeton University Press p.183

No temporal effect can be greater than (superior to) the sum-total of its cause or causes

It is obvious that - something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.

A temporal entity can be a subsidiary cause of another temporal entity, but cannot be the initial (first) cause of the entire, temporal realm - which includes ALL natural effects and entities.

 

Consider this simple chain of causes and effects:

A causes B

B causes C

C causes D

D causes E

‘A, B, C & D’ are all causes and may all look similar, but they are not, there is an enormous and crucial difference between them. Causes B, C & D are fundamentally different from cause A.

Why?

Because A is the very first cause and thus had no previous cause. It exists without a cause. It doesn’t rely on anything else for its existence, it is completely independent of causes - while B, C & D would not exist without A. They are entirely dependent on A.

Causes; B, C & D are also effects, whereas A is not an effect, only a cause.

So, we can say that the first cause ‘A’ is both self-existent and necessary. It is necessary because the rest of the chain of causes and effects could not exist without it.

We also must say that the subsequent causes and effects B, C, D and E are all contingent. That is; they are not self-existent, they all depend entirely on other causes to exist. We can also say that A is eternally self-existent, i.e. it has always existed, it had no beginning.

Why?

Because if A came into being at some point, there must have been something other than itself that brought it into being … which would mean A was not the first cause (A could not create A) … the something that brought A into being would be the first cause. In which case, A would be contingent and no different from B, C, D & E. We can also say that A is adequate to produce all the properties of B, C, D & E.

Why?

Well, in the case of E, we can see that it relies entirely on D for its existence. E can in no way be superior to D, because D had to contain within itself everything necessary to produce E.

The same applies to D, it cannot be superior to C. Furthermore, neither E or D can be superior to C, because both rely on C for their existence, and C had to contain everything necessary to produce D & E.

Likewise, with B, which is wholly responsible for the existence of C, D & E.

As they all depend on A for their existence and all their properties, abilities and potentials, none can be superior to A, whether singly or combined. A had to contain everything necessary to produce B, C, D & E including all their properties, abilities and potentials.

Thus, we deduce that; nothing in the universe can be superior in any way to the very first cause of the universe, because the whole universe, and all material things that exist, depend entirely on the abilities and properties of the first cause to produce them.

Conclusion …

A first cause must be uncaused, must have always existed, and cannot be in any way inferior to all subsequent causes and effects. In other words, the first cause of the universe must be eternally, self-existent and omnipotent (greater than everything that exists). No natural entity can have those attributes, that is why a Supernatural, Creator God MUST exist.

 

Entropy

The initial (first) cause of the temporal realm had to be something non-temporal (uncaused), without a beginning, i.e. something infinite.

The word ‘temporal’ is derived from tempus, Latin for time. - All temporal things are subject to time - and, as well as having a beginning in time, natural things can also expect to naturally degenerate, with the passage of time, towards a decline in function, order and existence. The material universe is slowly in decline and dying.

The natural realm is not just temporal, but also temporary (finite). Science acknowledges this with the Second Law of Thermodynamics (law of entropy).

As all natural things are temporal, we know that the initial (first), infinite cause of everything temporal cannot be a natural agent or entity. All natural things are finite, they all have a beginning and an end.

The first cause of everything simply could not be a natural entity. Because, as well as requiring a beginning and a cause, any natural entity, due to entropy, could not survive throughout eternity, without deterioration and ultimate extinction.

The infinite, first cause of everything natural can also be regarded as ‘supernatural’, in the sense that it is not subject to natural laws that are intrinsic only to natural things, which it caused.

This fact is verified by science, in the First Law of Thermodynamics, which tells us that there is no ‘natural’ means by which matter/energy can be created.

However, as the first cause existed before the natural realm (which is subject to natural laws, without exception), the issue of the first cause being exempt from natural laws (supernatural) is not something extraordinary or magical. It is the original and normal default state of the infinite.

If the material universe was infinite, entropy wouldn’t exist. Entropy is a characteristic only of natural entities.

The infinite cannot be subject to entropy, it does not deteriorate, it remains the same forever.

Entropy can apply only to temporal, natural entities.

Therefore, we know that the material universe, as a temporal entity, had to have a beginning and, being subject to entropy, will have an end.

That which existed before the universe, as an original cause of everything material, had to be infinite, because you cannot have an infinite chain of temporal (material) events. The temporal can only exist if it is sustained by the infinite.

As all natural entities are temporal, the (infinite) first cause could not possibly be a natural entity.

So, the Second Law of Thermodynamics supports and confirms the only logical conclusion we can reach from the Law of Cause and Effect, that a natural, first cause is impossible, according to science.

This is fatal to the atheist ideology of naturalism because it means there is no alternative to an infinite, supernatural, first cause (a Creator God).

The Bible explains that the universe was created perfect, without the effects of entropy such as decay, corruption and degeneration. It was the sin of humankind that corrupted the physical creation, resulting in physical death and universal entropy ...

Scripture: Romans 8:18–25

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

 

Can there be multiple infinite, first causes? It is evident that there can be only one ‘infinite’ entity. If, for example, there are two infinite entities, neither could have its own, unique properties.

Why?

Because, unless they possessed identical properties, neither would be infinite. However, if they both possessed the very same properties, there would be no distinction between them, they would be identical and thus a single entity.

To put it another way …

God, as an infinite being, can only be a single entity, if He was not, and there was another infinite being, the properties which were pertinent to the other infinite being would be a limitation on His infinite character, and vice versa. So, neither entity would be infinite.

 

Creation - an act of will?

For an infinite cause to produce a temporal effect, such as the universe, an active character and an act of will must be involved. If the first cause was just a blind, mechanistic, natural thing, the universe would just be a continuation of the infinite nature of the first cause, not temporal (subject to time). For example, if the nature of water in infinite time was to be frozen, it would continue its frozen nature infinitely. There must be an active agent involved.

Time applies to the temporal, not the infinite. The infinite is omnipresent, it always was, it always is, and it always will be. It is the “Alpha and the Omega” as the Bible explains.

Jesus claimed to be omnipresent, when referred to Himself as “I am”. He was revealing that His spirit was the infinite, Divine spirit (the infinite, first cause of everything temporal).

 

Therefore, what we know about the characteristics of this supernatural entity, are as follows:

The single, supernatural entity:

1. Has always existed, has no cause, and is not subject to time. (is infinite, eternally self-existent, autonomous and non-contingent).

2. Is the first, original and deliberate cause of everything temporal (including the universe and every natural entity and effect).

3. Cannot be, in any way, inferior to any temporal or natural thing that exists.

In simple terms, this means that the single, infinite, supernatural, first cause of everything that exists in the temporal realm, has the capability of creating everything that exists, and cannot be inferior in any powers and attributes to anything that exists. This is the entity we recognise as the creator God.

The Bible tells us that we were made in the image of this God. This is logical because it is obvious, we cannot be superior to this God (an effect cannot be greater than its cause).

So, all our qualities and attributes must be possessed by the God in whose image we were made.

All our attributes come from the creator, or supernatural, first cause.

Remember, the logic that something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.

We have life. Thus, our creator must have life.

We are intelligent. Thus, our creator must be intelligent.

We are conscious. Thus, our creator must be conscious.

We can love. Thus, our creator must love, and is the original source of ALL love.

We understand justice. Thus, our creator must be just, etc. etc.

Therefore, we can logically discern the character and attributes of the creator from what is seen in His creation.

This FACT - that an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s, is recognised as a basic principle of science, and is it crucial to understanding the nature and attributes of the first cause.

It means nothing in the universe that exists, resulting from the action of the first cause, can be in anyway superior to the first cause. We must conclude that, at least, some attributes of the first cause can be seen in the universe.

 

Atheists frequently ask how can we possibly know what God is like?

The Bible (which is inspired by God) tells us many things about the character of God, but regardless of scripture, the universe itself gives us evidence of God’s nature.

For example: can the properties of human beings, in any way, be superior to the first cause?

To suggest they are, would be to violate the scientific principle that an effect cannot be greater than its cause.

All the powers, properties, qualities and attributes we observe in the universe, including all human qualities, must be also evident in the first cause.

If there is life in the universe, the first cause must have life.

If there is intelligence in the universe the first cause must have intelligence.

The same applies to consciousness, skill, design, purpose, justice, love, beauty, forgiveness, mercy etc.

Therefore, we must conclude that the eternally, self-existent, non-natural (supernatural), first cause, has life, is conscious, has intelligence and created the temporal as an act of will.

We know, from the law of cause and effect, that the first cause cannot possibly be any of the natural processes frequently proposed by atheists, such as: the so-called, big bang explosion, singularity or quantum mechanics.

They are all temporal, moreover, it is obvious that none of them are adequate to produce the effect. They are all grossly inferior to the result.

 

To sum up:

Using impeccable logic and reason, supported by our understanding of established, natural, physical laws (which apply to everything of a natural, temporal nature) acknowledged by science, humans have been able to discover the existence of a single, infinite, supernatural, living, intelligent, loving and just creator God.

God discovered, not invented!

Contrary to the narrative perpetuated by atheists, a personal, creator God is not a “human invention”, and He is certainly not a backward substitute for reason or science, but rather, He is an enlightened, human discovery, based on unimpeachable logic, reason, rationality, natural laws and scientific understanding.

 

The real character of atheism unmasked.

Is belief in God just superstitious, backward thinking, suitable only for the uneducated or scientific illiterates, as atheists would have us believe?

Stephen Hawking is widely acknowledged as the best brain in modern atheism, his natural explanation for the origin of the universe "Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing" was claimed by some, to have made belief in a creator God redundant. This is an atheistic, natural, creation story, summed up in a single sentence.

When we realise what atheists actually believe, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that it is atheism, not monotheism, which is a throwback to an unenlightened period in human history. It is a throwback to a time when Mother Nature or other natural or material, temporal entities were regarded by some as having autonomous, godlike, creative powers –

“the universe can and will create itself from nothing”

The discredited concept of worshipping nature itself (naturalism) or various material things (Sun, Moon, idols etc.) as some sort of autonomous, non-contingent, creative, or self-creative agents, used to be called paganism. Now it has been re-invented as 21st century atheism ...

The truth about modern atheism is it is just pagan naturalist beliefs repackaged.

“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.” - G.K. Chesterton.

 

God’s power.

Everything that exists is dependent on the original and ultimate cause (God) for its origin, continued existence and operation.

This means God affords everything all the power it needs to function. Everything operates only with God’s power. We couldn’t even lift a little finger, if the power to do so was not permitted by God.

 

What caused God?

Ever since the 18th century, atheist philosophers such as David Hume, Bertrand Russell etc. have attempted to debunk the logical evidence for a creator God, as the infinite, first cause and creator of the universe.

The basic premise of their argument is that a long chain of causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (no first cause, but rather an infinite regress). And that, if every effect requires an adequate cause (as the Law of Cause and Effect states), then God (a first cause) could no more exist without a cause, than anything else.

This latter point is summed up in the what many atheists regard as the killer question:

“What caused God then?”

This question wasn’t sensible in the 18th century, and is not sensible today, but incredibly, many atheists still think it is a good argument against the Law of Cause and Effect and continue to use it.

As explained previously, the Law of Cause and Effect applies to all temporal entities.

Temporal entities have a beginning, and therefore need a cause. They are all contingent and dependent on a cause or causes for their beginning and existence, without exception.

It is obvious to any sensible person that the very first cause, because it is FIRST, had nothing preceding it.

First means 'first', it doesn’t mean second or third. If we could go back far enough with a chain of causes and effects, however long the chain, at some stage we must reach an ultimate beginning, i.e. the cause which is first, having no previous cause. This first cause must have always existed with no beginning. It is essentially self-existent from an infinite past and for an infinite future. It must be completely autonomous and non-contingent, not relying on any cause or anything else for its existence. Not temporal, but infinite.

So, the answer to the question is that - God was not caused, only temporal entities (such as ALL natural things) essentially require a cause.

God is the eternally, self-existent, ultimate, non-contingent, supernatural, first. infinite cause of everything temporal.

As explained earlier, the first cause could not be a natural entity, it had to be supernatural, as ALL natural entities are temporal and contingent (they all require causes).

 

Is the atheist, infinite regress argument sensible?

This is the argument against the need for a first cause of the universe. The proposition is that; a long chain of natural causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (an infinite regress). This proposition is nonsensical.

Why?

It is self-evident that you cannot have a chain of temporal effects going backwards in time, forever. It is the inherent nature of all temporal things to have a beginning. Likewise, for a long chain of temporal causes and effects, there must be a beginning at some point in time. Contingent things do not become non-contingent, simply by being in a long chain.

Temporal + temporal can never equal infinite.

Moreover, the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that everything physical is subject to entropy.

Therefore, it is an absurd notion that there could be a long chain of temporal elements in which, although every individual link in the chain requires a beginning, the complete chain does not. And, although every individual link in the chain is subject to the law of entropy, the chain as a whole is not, and is miraculously unaffected by the effects of entropy, throughout an infinite past, which would have caused its demise.

 

What about the idea that infinite regress is acceptable in maths?

Maths is a type of information - and information, like truth, is not purely physical.

It can require physical media to make it tangible, but while the physical media is always subject to entropy, information is not. 1+1 = 2 will always be true, it is unaffected by time, or even whether there are any humans left to do mathematical calculations.

Jesus said; Heaven and Earth may pass away, but my words will go on forever. Jesus is pointing out that truth and information are unaffected by entropy.

For example: historical truths, such as the fact that Henry VIII had six wives, will always be true. Time cannot erode or change that truth. Even if all human records of this truth were destroyed, it would never cease to be true.

As the Christian, apologist Peter Keeft has made clear, maths is entirely dependent on a positive integer, i.e. the number one. Without this positive integer, no maths is possible. Two is 2 ones, three is 3 ones, etc.

The concept of the number one also exists as a characteristic of the one, infinite, first cause. - God is one. - God embodies that positive integer (number one/first cause), essential for the operation of maths. Without the number one, there could be no number two or three, etc. etc. There could be no positive numbers, no negative numbers and no fractions.

The fact that an infinite ‘first’ cause exists, means that number one is bound to exist. In a state of eternal and infinite nothingness, there would be no information and no numbers and nothing would be ‘first’. So, like everything else, maths is made possible only by the existence of the one, infinite, first cause (God).

 

Why is there entropy, decay, death and corruption if the natural world was created perfect?

The universe was created by God, especially for humans, but how could it be perfect - if the humans He created out of love, and for love, were given no freedom of choice?

Free choice is essential for perfect love in a perfect creation. Love must be voluntary it cannot be forced. With free choice, love can be accepted or rejected, if love is rejected (which is the essence of sin) the universe cannot remain in a perfect state. Freedom of choice is also a potential for sin which undermines the original perfection of the creation. It is love which is the key to perfection in God's Creation.

 

Anti-love ....

Sin, is an offence against perfect, unselfish love. All love originates from God (the first cause of everything) and we are invited to be part of an eternal circle of love - receiving love and giving love. Love proceeds from God to us, we accept His love, spread it around to all humankind, and return it to God. God’s laws are to help us recognise behaviour that is anti-love.

SIN, IN ESSENCE – IS ANTI-LOVE.

 

God (the supernatural, first cause) is infinite, the natural world is NOT. The natural world is contingent, temporal and temporary. The natural realm has a beginning, it requires an adequate cause, and is subject to time and gradual deterioration which will eventually result in its demise.

God as the perfect, infinite being - has no beginning, no cause, is eternally self-existent, and is not subject to time. He made the creation perfect, but it could only remain perfect, and unaffected by entropy, while it was maintained and sustained by the infinite. Sin, an offence against perfect love, sullied the perfection of the creation.

kgov.com/big-bang-predictions

 

Dr James Tour - 'The Origin of Life' - Abiogenesis decisively refuted.

youtu.be/B1E4QMn2mxk

After a performance in a bar in East Berlin in 1976

(Self-portrait painted as a boy 1976)

 

"...Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in the GDR had strict laws! But getting hold of alcohol as minor was very easy back then (under 'certain conditions')!! I was stupid enough to believe that I was just a harmless occasional drinker and that I could control my alcohol consumption at all times! What a fatal fallacy!! And today I‘m paying a horrendous price for it…!!! (Includes tip)…!!!! Cheers..." 🍸😉😎 (Patrick Ikarus Bassani-Baumfelder)

 

youtu.be/cginDIdQdoM?si=HO1axAq6EJXbu_Z4

 

Newly posted by Babette Baumfelder

 

Taken By : My brother

Edting By : Me

Useing : His sonyericsson mobile ,,,

Useing : Photoshop ,,, =)

Place : Lebanon

________________________

 

Speak to me in memories. To comfort me. A welcomed haunting. This is my

apology. This fallacy. A welcomed haunting silence ringing through

the city. Sorrow floods the streets.

________________________

 

مابقى الا سود الايام تحرمك الرقـــــاد,,,كيف الاوهام اتجرأ اتسريك مغبــون

من متى تجزع من الدمع وتخاف البعاد,,,من متى تقفي بك ظنون وتجيبك ظنون؟

صرت تاخذ كذبتي صدق، ومزاحي وكاد,,,لو بقول اني بخونك تحسب اني بخـون

ماتعرف ان كل شاعر يهـــــــيم بكل واد؟,,, وانهم دايم يقولون مالا يفعلـــون؟

ابك انا لاقلت ابنساك وانكرت الوداد,,,والله اني مانسيتك وولاهم يحزنـــون

من جزع من صفعة الشمس يطمع بالبراد,,,ومن فقد وجهاته الخمس يلقى بك ركون

اعتبرها هفوة انسان او كبوة جـواد ,,,لو بتسمح فانت غالي ولو تجرح تمـون

عد صداتك مروة وطعناتك ضمـــاد,,,خلهن لاراحن طعون ولا ردن طعــون

خنجرك يستاهل الطعن ومتوني شداد ,,,ومنك يازين الخناجر ويا بخت المتون

ردلي حنية المزح باحساس الجمـــاد,,,خلنا واحد يجي صلب والثاني حنون

موت فيني واندفن فيك بثياب الحداد ,,,وان حييت أموت لرضاك واحيا بك بهون

مره ارقد بالكفن وانت ترقد بالمهاد,,,وومرة ارقد بالمهد وانت ترقد بالكفون

ادري ان شجونك شجون واعنادك عناد,,,والبلا ان عنادك عناد وشجونك شجون

ربك اللي سخرك لي تقود وما تقاد ,,,والله الخالق ولله في خلقه شـــؤون

ازرع ضلوعي من رضاك وابشر بالحصاد,,,لعنبو من جيت ترضيه وترد امحزون

بس تسوالك بلد ؟ قول تسوالك بلاد ,,,انت كل العالم بكون ولحالك بكــون

مابعد محبتك حب ومرادك مـــراد,,,غير كونك سيد حشاي تدري من تكون ؟

نعمتين اختصوا الخلق من جود الجود,,,كافل الأرزاق من حيث مالا تعلمون

البنون ونعمة المال بعيون العباد ,,,زينة الدنيا بلا شك في كل العيون

مثل زينة دنيتي بس عندي شــي زاد ,,,من عرفتك صاروا المال وانت والبنون

انتشي بك نشوة التيه لعناق الرشاد ,,,وافزع الك فزعة القرم لشهاب الزبون

واحصنك تحصين الأرزاق عن درب الفساد,,,واعشقك عشق المظاليم لفراق السجون

لو تزيد الشوق جمرة تحولني رمـــاد ,,,لو يزيد العشق شعرة بوصل للجنون

خل هقواتك كبيرة ونظراتك بعــــاد ,,,كانك انت بكبرك تهون من اللي ما يهون ؟

ازعلك وارهن حياتي تحت رحمة زنـــاد,,,تهبى لا والله الا انت والموت تهبــــون

عاد اذاماارضاك هرجي ولااللي قلت فاد,,,اننا لله وانا اليه راجعـــــــون

وانت باكر بتعرف على ناس جداد,,,والكلام يجيك من كل شكل وكل لون

لاتحسب ان كل كلمة بتسمعها وكاد,,,ولا تصدق هرج شاعر وتخدعك الظنون

دايم اعرف كل شاعر يهيم بكل واد ,,,وان هم دايم يقولون ما لا يفعلون

حتى انااللي قلت اعشقك ومااطيق البعاد,,,يمكن اطلع ماعشقتك .. ولا هم يحزنون...

للشاعر : حامد زيد

Portishead, a great set of musicians, I love what they do. Haunting music.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr3In858tQk

 

Sour Times

 

To pretend no one can find

The fallacies of morning rose

Forbidden fruit, hidden eyes

Courtesies that I despise in me

Take a ride, take a shot now

 

'Cause nobody loves me

It's true

Not like you do

 

Covered by the blind belief

That fantasies of sinful screens

Bear the facts, assume the dye

End the vows, no need to lie, enjoy

Take a ride, take a shot now

 

'Cause nobody loves me

It's true

Not like you do

 

Who am I, what and why?

'Cause all I have left is my memories of yesterday

Oh these sour times

 

'Cause nobody loves me

It's true

Not like you do

 

After time the bitter taste

Of innocence, decent or race

Scattered seeds, buried lives

Mysteries of our disguise revolve

Circumstance will decide ....

 

'Cause nobody loves me

It's true

Not like you do

 

'Cause nobody loves me

It's true

Not like you

Nobody loves.. me

It's true

Not, like, you.. do

    

Support staff working near the dining area of BOBMC Rider Mania 2019 event near Udaipur, Rajasthan.

 

Feeding a congregation of thousands of motorcycling enthusiasts is a herculean task, and it requires the combined efforts of hundreds of workers in the background. Most - like this woman - remain unnoticed and often unappreciated.

 

I firmly believe that only when we choose to begin seeing the most disadvantaged among us, will we be able to comprehend the alarming economic disparity in our society and perceive the fallacies of our public policies.

Something or nothing?

There are only two alternatives, something or nothing? Existence or non-existence?

Existence is a fact!

We know something exists (the physical universe),

but why?

Two questions arise …why is there something rather than nothing?

And where did that something come from?

Obviously, something cannot arise from nothing, no sane person would entertain such an impossible concept. However, an incredible fantasy that the universe created itself from nothing, has been proposed by some, high profile atheists, and presented to the public as though it is science. A sort of ‘theory of everything’ that purports to eliminate a creator.

 

For example, the campaigning, militant atheist Lawrence Krauss has written a book which claims the universe can come from nothing, ‘A Universe from Nothing’.

Anyone who is silly enough to spend money on a book which makes such a wild, impossible claim, soon realises that Krauss’s ‘nothing’ is not nothing at all, but an exercise in ‘smoke and mirrors’. His ‘nothing’ involves the pre-existence of natural law and quantum effects- gravity, energy and quantum particles (matter and antimatter).

Krauss’s ‘nothing’ turns out to be just part and parcel of the existing universe. He confuses ‘space’, which is an integral part of the existing universe, with the ‘nothing’ he claims preceded the universe.

In other words, he is claiming that some properties of the universe existed before the universe, and those properties (regarded as 'nothing' by him) brought the universe into being.

So, Krauss's proposition is; that a natural, temporal, contingent, existing thing can be regarded as an infinite, non-contingent ‘nothing’, which gave rise to all other natural, temporal, contingent things. It is like saying; an effect (without a cause) is the first cause of all other effects.

 

Another well, publicised example of the universe allegedly being able to arise from nothing was that presented by the late Professor Stephen Hawking, and summed up in a single sentence:

“Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing”

 

It is not intelligent, sensible or scientific to believe that everything created itself from nothing.

In a genuine state of infinite and eternal nothingness, nothing exists and nothing happens - EVER.

Nothing means absolutely ‘nothing’. Nothing tangible and no physical laws, no information, not even abstract things, like mathematics. If no thing exists there can be no numbers or anything based on numbers.

 

Furthermore, you don’t need to be a genius, or a scientist, to understand that something CANNOT create itself.

Put simply, it is self-evident that - to create itself, a thing would have to pre-exist its own creation to carry out the act of creating itself. In which case, it already exists in some form.

And, if anything at all exists, i.e. in this example ‘gravity’, it cannot be called 'nothing'.

Furthermore, ‘gravity’ cannot be a creative agent, it is merely an inherent property of matter – it is obvious that a property of something cannot create that which it is a property of. And also, How can something pre-exist that which it is a property of? Thus, we are obliged to conclude that nonsense remains nonsense, even when presented by highly regarded scientists.

“Fallacies remain fallacies, even when they become fashionable.” GK Chesterton.

 

Such nonsensical propositions are vain attempts to undermine the well, established, law of cause and effect (the dominant principle of classical physics), which is fatal to all atheist ideology.

Incredibly, Hawking's so-called replacement for God completely ignores this law of cause and effect which applies to ALL temporal (natural) entities, without exception.

Therefore, Stephen Hawking's natural, 'theory of everything' which he summed up in a single sentence can, similarly, be debunked in a single sentence:

Because there is a law of cause and effect, the universe can't and won't create itself from nothing.

 

"something can come from nothing" says Richard Dawkins

In this video clip: the militant, atheist, Richard Dawkins tries to define 'nothing' as 'something' and is shocked when the audience sensibly reacts with laughter.

youtu.be/b6H9XirkhZY

 

The Law of Cause and Effect tells us that a cause has to be adequate for the effect it produces. In other words, an effect CANNOT be greater than its cause or causes.

It makes sense, even to a child, that something CANNOT give what it doesn't possess, or give more than it possesses.

THE ESSENCE OF AN EFFECT IS COMMENSURATE WITH ITS CAUSE.

IF THE CAUSE IS 'NOTHING' - THE EFFECT IS NOTHING.

NO CAUSE = NO EFFECT!

 

It is foolish to look within nature (physical evidence) for an explanation of the origin of nature, i.e. the contingent, finite, physical universe.

There is not anything within the contingent, temporal, finite universe capable of bringing the universe into being.

Sed contra, the temporal universe cannot contain within itself the cause of its own existence. To look for non-contingency within the contingent, or non-temporal within the temporal, is counter-intuitive

The question of why there is something rather than nothing can only be answered by looking to the infinite, which relies on nothing outside itself for its existence.

 

The role of religion?

Once we admit the obvious fact that the universe cannot arise of its own accord from nothing (nothing will remain as nothing - forever), the only alternative is that ‘something’ has always existed – an infinite ‘something’. For anything to happen, such as the origin of the universe, the infinite something, cannot just exist in a state of eternal, passive inactivity, it must be capable of positive activity.

If we examine the characteristics, powers, qualities and attributes which exist now, we must conclude that the ‘something’, that has always existed, must have amazing (godlike) powers to be able to produce all the wonderful qualities we see in the universe, including: information, natural laws, life, intelligence, consciousness, etc.

If the effect (I.e. the universe) is wonderful and amazing, the original cause of it MUST be wonderful and amazing.

This means we need to believe in some sort of ‘godlike entity’. The only question remaining is - which god?

Is the godlike entity a supernatural creator, or simply nature or natural forces as atheists claim?

Seeking an answer to that question is the essential role of (rational) religion which, in harmony with scientific principles and the laws of nature, utilises logic and reason, rather than relying entirely on blind faith.

 

Why God MUST exist ...

There are only two states of being (existence) – temporal and infinite. That. which has a beginning, is ‘temporal’. That which has no beginning is ‘infinite’.

Everything that exists must be one or the other.

The temporal (unlike the infinite) is not autonomous or non-contingent, it essentially relies on something else for its beginning (its cause) and its continued existence.

The universe and all natural things are temporal. Hence, they ALL require a cause or causes.

They could NOT exist without a cause to bring them into being. This is a FACT accepted by science, and enshrined in the Law of Cause and Effect.

The Law of Cause and Effect tells us that every, natural effect requires a cause. And that - an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s.

This is a fundamental principle, essential to the scientific method.

“All natural science is based on the hypothesis of the complete causal connection of all events” Dr Albert Einstein. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Hebrew University and Princeton University Press p.183

No temporal effect can be greater than (superior to) the sum-total of its cause or causes

It is obvious that - something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.

A temporal entity can be a subsidiary cause of another temporal entity, but cannot be the initial (first) cause of the entire, temporal realm - which includes ALL natural effects and entities. The first cause of everything temporal must be infinite.

 

Consider this simple chain of causes and effects:

A causes B

B causes C

C causes D

D causes E

‘A, B, C & D’ are all causes and may all look similar, but they are not, there is an enormous and crucial difference between them. Causes B, C & D are fundamentally different from cause A.

Why?

Because A is the very first cause and thus had no previous cause. It exists without a cause. It doesn’t rely on anything else for its existence, it is completely independent of causes - while B, C, D & E would not exist without A. They are all entirely dependent on A.

Causes; B, C & D are also effects, whereas A is not an effect, only a cause.

So, we can say that the first cause ‘A’ is both self-existent and necessary. It is necessary because the rest of the chain of causes and effects could not exist without it.

We also must say that the subsequent causes and effects B, C, D and E are all contingent. That is; they are not self-existent, they all depend entirely on other causes to exist. We can also say that A is eternally self-existent, i.e. it has always existed, it had no beginning.

Why?

Because if A came into being at some point, there must have been something other than itself that brought it into being … which would mean A was not the first cause (A could not create A) … the something that brought A into being would be the first cause. In which case, A would be contingent and no different from B, C, D & E. We can also say that A is adequate to produce all the properties of B, C, D & E.

Why?

Well, in the case of E, we can see that it relies entirely on D for its existence. E can in no way be superior to D, because D had to contain within itself everything necessary to produce E.

The same applies to D, it cannot be superior to C. Furthermore, neither E or D can be superior to C, because both rely on C for their existence, and C had to contain everything necessary to produce D & E.

Likewise, with B, which is wholly responsible for the existence of C, D & E.

As they all depend on A for their existence and all their properties, abilities and potentials, none can be superior to A, whether singly or combined. A had to contain everything necessary to produce B, C, D & E including all their properties, abilities and potentials.

Thus, we deduce that; nothing in the universe can be superior in any way to the very first cause of the universe, because the whole universe, and all material things that exist, depend entirely on the abilities and properties of the first cause to produce them.

Conclusion …

A first cause must be uncaused, must have always existed, and cannot be in any way inferior to all subsequent causes and effects. In other words, the first cause of the universe must be eternally, self-existent and omnipotent (greater than everything that exists). No natural entity can have those attributes, that is why a Supernatural, Creator God MUST exist.

 

Entropy

The initial (first) cause of the temporal realm had to be something non-temporal (uncaused), i.e. something infinite.

The word ‘temporal’ is derived from tempus, Latin for time. - All temporal things are subject to time - and, as well as having a beginning in time, natural things can also expect to naturally degenerate, with the passage of time, towards a decline in energy potential, function, order and existence. The material universe is slowly in decline and dying.

The natural realm is not just temporal, but also temporary (finite). Science acknowledges this in the Second Law of Thermodynamics (law of entropy).

As all natural things are temporal, we know that the initial (first), infinite cause of everything temporal cannot be a natural agent or entity.

The infinite, first cause of everything natural can also be regarded as ‘supernatural’, in the sense that it is not subject to natural laws that are intrinsic only to natural things, which it caused.

This fact is verified by science, in the First Law of Thermodynamics, which tells us that there is no ‘natural’ means by which matter/energy can be created.

However, as the first cause existed before the natural realm (which is subject to natural laws, without exception), the issue of the first cause being exempt from natural laws (supernatural) is not something extraordinary or magical. It is the original and normal default state of the infinite.

If the material universe itself was infinite, entropy wouldn’t exist. Entropy is a characteristic only of natural entities.

The infinite cannot be subject to entropy, it does not deteriorate, it remains the same forever.

 

Therefore, we know that the material universe, as a temporal entity, had to have a beginning and, being subject to entropy, will have an end.

That which existed before the universe, as an original cause of everything material, had to be infinite, because you cannot have an infinite chain of temporal (material) events. The temporal can only exist if it is sustained by the infinite.

As all natural entities are temporal, the (infinite) first cause could not possibly be a natural entity.

So, the Second Law of Thermodynamics supports and confirms the only logical conclusion we can reach from the Law of Cause and Effect, that a natural, first cause is impossible, according to science.

This is fatal to the atheist ideology of naturalism because it means there is no alternative to an infinite, supernatural, first cause (a Creator God).

 

The Bible explains that the universe was created perfect, without the effects of entropy such as decay, corruption and degeneration. It was sustained in such a state of perfection by an infinite God, until the sin of humankind (exercised by free choice) corrupted the physical creation, undermining its perfection and resulting in physical death and universal entropy ...

Scripture: Romans 8:18–25

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

 

Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24

God did not make death,

nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.

For he fashioned all things that they might have being;

and the creatures of the world are wholesome,

and there is not a destructive drug among them

nor any domain of the netherworld on earth,

for justice is undying.

For God formed man to be imperishable;

the image of his own nature he made him.

But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,

and they who belong to his company experience it.

 

Can there be multiple infinite, first causes? It is evident that there can be only one ‘infinite’ entity. If, for example, there are two infinite entities, neither could have its own, unique properties.

Why?

Because, unless they possessed identical properties, neither would be infinite. However, if they both possessed the very same properties, there would be no distinction between them, they would be identical and thus a single entity.

To put it another way …

God, as an infinite being, can only be a single entity, if He was not, and there was another infinite being, the properties which were pertinent to the other infinite being would be a limitation on His infinite character, and vice versa. So, neither entity would be infinite.

 

Creation - an act of will?

For an infinite cause to produce a temporal effect, such as the universe, an active character and an act of will must be involved. If the first cause was just a blind, mechanistic, natural thing, the universe would just be a continuation of the infinite nature of the first cause, not temporal (subject to time). For example, if the nature of water in infinite time was to be frozen, it would continue its frozen nature infinitely. There must be an active agent involved.

Time applies to the temporal, not the infinite. The infinite is omnipresent, it always was, it always is, and it always will be. It is the “Alpha and the Omega” as the Bible explains.

Jesus claimed to be omnipresent, when referred to Himself as “I am”. He was revealing that His spirit was the infinite, Divine spirit (the infinite, first cause of everything temporal).

Therefore, what we know about the characteristics of this supernatural entity, are as follows:

The single, supernatural entity:

1. Has always existed, has no cause, and is not subject to time. (is infinite, eternally self-existent, autonomous and non-contingent).

2. Is the first, original and deliberate cause of everything temporal (including the universe and every natural entity and effect).

3. Cannot be, in any way, inferior to any temporal or natural thing that exists.

In simple terms, this means that the single, infinite, supernatural, first cause of everything that exists in the temporal realm, has the capability of creating everything that exists, and cannot be inferior in any powers and attributes to anything that exists. This is the entity we recognise as the creator God.

The Bible tells us that we were made in the image of this God. This is logical, because it is obvious we cannot be superior to this God (an effect cannot be greater than its cause).

So, all our qualities and attributes must be possessed by the God in whose image we were made.

All our attributes come from the creator, or supernatural, first cause.

Remember, the logic that something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.

We have life. Thus, our creator must be alive.

We are intelligent. Thus, our creator must be intelligent.

We are conscious. Thus, our creator must be conscious.

We can love. Thus, our creator must love.

We understand justice. Thus, our creator must be just, etc. etc.

Therefore, we can logically discern the character and attributes of the creator from what is seen in His creation.

This FACT - that an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s, is recognised as a basic principle of science, and is it crucial to understanding the nature and attributes of the first cause.

It means nothing in the universe that exists, resulting from the action of the first cause, can be in anyway superior to the first cause. We must conclude that, at least, some attributes of the first cause can be seen in the universe.

For the origin of all our attributes, and those of all the temporal realm, we must look to their source - the infinite first cause - God.

 

Atheists frequently ask; how can we possibly know what God is like?

The Bible (which is inspired by God) tells us many things about the character of God, but regardless of scripture, the universe itself gives us some evidence of God’s nature.

For example: can the properties of human beings, in any way, be superior to the first cause?

To suggest they are, would be to violate the scientific principle that an effect cannot be greater than its cause.

All the powers, properties, qualities and attributes we observe in the universe, including all human qualities, must be also evident in the first cause.

If there is life in the universe, the first cause must have life.

If there is intelligence in the universe the first cause must have intelligence.

The same applies to consciousness, skill, design, purpose, justice, love, beauty, forgiveness, mercy etc.

Therefore, we must conclude that the eternally, self-existent, non-natural (supernatural), first cause, has life, is conscious, has intelligence and created the temporal as an act of will.

We know, from the law of cause and effect, that the first cause cannot possibly be any of the natural processes frequently proposed by atheists, such as: the so-called, big bang explosion, singularity or quantum mechanics.

They are all temporal, moreover, it is obvious that none of them are adequate to produce the effect. They are all grossly inferior to the result.

 

To sum up:

Using impeccable logic and reason, supported by our understanding of established, natural, physical laws (which apply to everything of a natural, temporal nature) acknowledged by science, humans have been able to discover the existence of a single, infinite, supernatural, living, intelligent, loving and just creator God.

God discovered, not invented!

Contrary to a narrative perpetuated by atheists, a personal, creator God is not just a “human invention”, and He is certainly not a backward thinking substitute for reason or science, but rather, the reality of His existence and character is an enlightened, human discovery, based on unimpeachable logic, reason, rationality, natural laws and scientific understanding.

 

The real character of atheism unmasked.

Is belief in God just superstitious, backward thinking, suitable only for the uneducated or scientific illiterates, as atheists would have us believe?

Stephen Hawking is widely acknowledged as the best brain in modern atheism, his natural explanation for the origin of the universe "Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing" was claimed by some, to have made belief in a creator God redundant. This is an atheistic, natural, creation myth, summed up in a single sentence. A sentence which is possibly the most bizarre and contradictory sentence in the history of science.

 

When we realise what atheists actually believe, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that it is atheism, not monotheism, which is a throwback to an unenlightened period in human history. It is a throwback to a time when Mother Nature or other natural or material, temporal entities and idols were regarded by some as having autonomous, godlike, creative powers –

“the universe can and will create itself from nothing”

The discredited concept of worshipping nature itself (naturalism) or various material things (Sun, Moon, idols etc.) as some sort of autonomous, non-contingent, creative, or self-creative agents, used to be called paganism. Now it has been re-invented as 21st century atheism ...

The truth about modern atheism is it is just pagan naturalist beliefs repackaged.

“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.” - G.K. Chesterton.

 

God’s power.

Everything that exists is dependent on the original and ultimate cause (God) for its origin, continued existence and operation.

This means God affords everything all the power it needs to function. Everything operates only with God’s power. We couldn’t even lift a little finger, if the power to do so was not permitted by God.

What caused God?

Ever since the 18th century, atheist philosophers such as David Hume, Bertrand Russell etc. have attempted to debunk the logical evidence for a creator God, as the infinite, first cause and creator of the universe.

The basic premise of their argument is that a long chain of causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (no first cause, but rather an infinite regress). And that, if every effect requires an adequate cause (as the Law of Cause and Effect states), then God (a first cause) could no more exist without a cause, than anything else.

This latter point is summed up in the what many atheists regard as the killer question:

“What caused God then?”

This question wasn’t sensible in the 18th century, and is not sensible today, but incredibly, many atheists still think it is a good argument against the Law of Cause and Effect and continue to use it.

As explained previously, the Law of Cause and Effect applies to all temporal entities.

Temporal entities have a beginning, and therefore need a cause. They are all contingent and dependent on a cause or causes for their beginning and existence, without exception.

It is obvious to any sensible person that the very first cause, because it is FIRST, had nothing preceding it.

First means 'first', it doesn’t mean second or third. If we could go back far enough with a chain of causes and effects, however long the chain, at some stage we must reach an ultimate beginning, i.e. the cause which is first, having no previous cause. This first cause must have always existed with no beginning. It is essentially self-existent from an infinite past and for an infinite future. It must be completely autonomous and non-contingent, not relying on any cause or anything else for its existence. Not temporal, but infinite.

So, the answer to the question is that - God was not caused, only temporal entities (such as ALL natural things) essentially require a cause.

God is the eternally, self-existent, ultimate, non-contingent, supernatural, first. infinite cause of everything temporal.

As explained earlier, the first cause could not be a natural entity, it had to be supernatural, as ALL natural entities are temporal and contingent (they all require causes).

 

Is the atheist, infinite regress argument sensible?

This is the argument against the need for a first cause of the universe. The proposition is that; a long chain of natural causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (an infinite regress). This proposition is nonsensical.

Why?

It is self-evident that you cannot have a chain of temporal effects going backwards in time, forever. It is the inherent nature of all temporal things to have a beginning. Likewise, for a long chain of temporal causes and effects, there must be a beginning at some point in time. Contingent things do not become non-contingent, simply by being in a long chain.

Temporal + temporal can never equal infinite.

Moreover, the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that everything physical is subject to entropy.

Therefore, it is an absurd notion that there could be a long chain of temporal elements in which, although every individual link in the chain requires a beginning, the complete chain does not. And, although every individual link in the chain is subject to the law of entropy, the chain as a whole is not, and is miraculously unaffected by the effects of entropy, throughout an infinite past, which would have caused its demise.

 

What about the idea that infinite regress is acceptable in maths?

Maths is a type of information - and information, like truth, is not purely physical.

It can require physical media to make it tangible, but while the physical media is always subject to entropy, information is not. 1+1 = 2 will always be true, it is unaffected by time, or even whether there are any humans left to do mathematical calculations.

Jesus said; Heaven and Earth may pass away, but my words will go on forever. Jesus is pointing out that truth and information are unaffected by entropy.

For example: historical truths, such as the fact that Henry VIII had six wives, will always be true. Time cannot erode or change that truth. Even if all human records of this truth were destroyed, it would never cease to be true.

As the Christian, apologist Peter Keeft has made clear, maths is entirely dependent on a positive integer, i.e. the number one. Without this positive integer, no maths is possible. 2 is 2 ones, 3 is 3 ones, etc.

The concept of the number one also exists as a characteristic of the one, infinite, first cause. - God is one. - God embodies that positive integer (number one/first cause), essential for the operation of maths. Without the number one, there could be no number two or three, etc. etc. There could be no positive numbers, no negative numbers and no fractions.

The fact that an infinite ‘first’ cause exists, means that number one is bound to exist. In a state of eternal and infinite nothingness, there would be no information and no numbers and nothing would be ‘first’. So, like everything else, maths is made possible only by the existence of the one, infinite, first cause (God).

 

The Law of Cause and Effect

"Dominant Principle of Classical Physics

Chance Events? Nothing happens by chance! Classical Science, which dominated studies

of the physical universe before the Twentieth Century, generally held an opinion that

there are no events that happen by chance. For many centuries, it seemed obvious that

all things were caused by something physical or mental. This idea was expressed by

Hippocrates of Cos (c. 460-377 B.C.): “Every natural event has a natural cause.” [1, p.

12].

History of the Concept of Cause and Effect. The concept of order maintained by the law

of cause and effect is a scientific principle with a history traceable through Hebrew,

Babylonian, Greek, and modern civilizations.

Hebrew Concept of Causality. Certain Hebrews acknowledged the role of causality in the

universe before the Babylonians and Greeks. These Hebrews denied chance and its offspring

chaos:

That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting

That there is none besides Me;

I am the LORD, and there is no other;

I form the light and create darkness,

I make peace and create calamity;

I, the LORD, do all these things.…

Shall the clay say to him who forms it, “What are you making?”

Or shall your handiwork say, “He has no hands”?…"

 

FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE

The Law of Cause and Effect. Dominant Principle of Classical Physics. David L. Bergman and Glen C. Collins

www.commonsensescience.net/pdf/articles/law_of_cause_and_...

 

"The Big Bang's Failed Predictions and Failures to Predict: (Updated Aug 3, 2017.) As documented below, trust in the big bang's predictive ability has been misplaced when compared to the actual astronomical observations that were made, in large part, in hopes of affirming the theory."

kgov.com/big-bang-predictions

These are my versions of those cute little paperclip hearts :D I end up wasting a ton of paperclips every time I try to bend them into hearts. They always end up ugly :(BUT ANYWAYS... this is my crafty type photo! And I am happy with it... :)

 

tagged again!

1. I love making things. I love making cards, cute little drawings... I made those fancy little bead bracelets when I was a young one too :P

2. I finally figured out how to put my hair in a PERFECT bun because my mom taught me :) so pretty.

3. I hate it when your nail polish chips the day after you paint them... I mean PSH. No chip is a FALLACY :O

4. I love soft tones and simplicity. They are my 2 most favorite things ever in a photo. I just have a soft spot for them :)

5. My camera screen so scratched... I have no idea why... It's not like I played tarzan and ran through thorn bushes :P

6. I love love love mint choco chip ice cream! It's so refreshing :)

7. Lemon squashes are AMAZING. I had them in Bali like every day. And they are NOT your typical lemonades. They let you add your own sugar in the form of syrup :D

8. If I could go back to a past era, it would probably be the 20s... so much culture at that time :)

9. I have NEVER broken a bone. Thank God!

10. But I have gotten injured... namely this one time in 5th grade when a kid chased me off his playground zone because I gave him a nickname he didn't like (his name was Thibaut so I called him T-bone hahaha) so I jumped like a leopard and yeah.. wasn't purty.

 

Thank you Angela, for the testimonial, you are the sweetest :) And check out her stream, she's really talented, you will not be let down by her work, promise :)

i often fantasise about being the last person around... i think i do this because it took like 15 minutes before there was a gap in the endless queue of chads and beckys. this shot wasn’t worth it but, sunk cost fallacy gets me every time, so here it is.