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Savings are yours if you're saved. Are you saved?

Illusion is Reality

His meritorious achievements are vast;
His wisdom is deep and sublime.
His light, with awe-inspiring glory,
Shakes the universe of a thousand million worlds.
I resolve to become a Buddha,
Equal in attainment to you, O holy king of the Dharma,
To save living beings from birth-and-death,
And to lead them all to emancipation.

Reality is an Illusion

It appears the stars are spinning through the night. There's nothing your senses can detect that says otherwise. You also know the sun moves, and have built a monument to showcase this movement - every Winter and Summer the sun will shine precisely so.

But this is all illusion.

It is we who are spinning, though you could never tell - do you feel like you're spinning at a thousand miles an hour?

So here's the amusing truth of it: You must have faith that science is true, or at least is the path of truth. That it is not the stars or sun spinning, but us, goes against your common sense. It goes against all intuition. It goes against our language - we say the sun rises and sets, when in truth it does no such thing. But you can't tell, you can't feel or see or hear the Earth whirling around in space.

And so you must have faith. In Science. Amen.

The power of barking

Or, another example: Since I acquired my magic tiger stopping rock, I've not been attacked once by a tiger. Faith! Praise Dog!

Wishes are hoarse

What we want and what we get are often far apart. Why? Many reasons, of course - like everything, since everything is connected to everything it gets complicated real quick - but perhaps prime among them are our delusions, about ourselves and our reality.

We might consider ourselves the wronged hero in a battle of epic proportions, when in fact we're just a shlub, making our way through this topsy turvey world one day at a time, like everyone else. So, here's a protip:  Scrutinize how much your beliefs are weighted by inner sanction, or actual, external fact. Challenge your own assumptions, about yourself. Science, in the personal.

Also:

Don't be crazy, in the "Sinners Gonna Burn in Hell" variety. There's better ways.

There's always better ways, and that is the path to our enlightenment.

Now What Atheists?

Stolen by atheists, no doubt. Since everyone knows atheists are inherently evil - how could they not be, denying the Lord? How can an atheist be moral without a God (via rich men in fancy clothes) to tell them what to do?

Hogwash, you might say. Well, consider this:

Case closed, right?

But seriously, a real question: How often do you see atheism actively expressed in a positive fashion in any form of mainstream media? Almost never it seems like.

I'm not an atheist by the way, but it's really just a semantical matter. For, what is God? What if our reality is a computer simulation - would the programmer of said simulation be God? What if our entire universe is but a bubble in a vast sea of another Universe - would a lifeform from that Universe be God? I could go on, but it's all sophistry. God as defined by our ancient ancestors - who knew little about the Universe - is supernatural, creator of ALL (including other Universes), and yet somehow strangely vested in judging everything we do and punishing those who stray from their murky, metaphorical instructions? I don't buy any of that whatsoever, and I'd be labeled an ATHEIST by any Holy Roller. So sure, I'm an atheist. Whatever, really.

And that's my position on God: Whatevs. I don't really care, in a metaphysical sense. I love myth more than most, and I can dig any cultural traditions that foster compassion and love, and if a religion can provide that, cool. But when instead religions prey on the weak and old and dull, enthralling them under spiritual yoke and threats of damnation, I say nay! I will stand against.

There's a war going on in America, in the Middle East, across the World in the name of religion, all supposedly about God. It would be laughable if not so tragic, for we are threatening our very sustainability on this planet by Science deniers. They would force myth on everyone instead of Science and education. And that must be fought, to the inch, for that way lies the DARK AGES, and I'm not down with that. Are you down with that?

What now religion?
What will you do when you have neither scripture nor science to back you up?

There is no Truth but what you make

Are you sure it's not? Do you yourself have a single iota of proof otherwise? No! You don't, and so who's to say it's not true? Oh sure, some "scientists" from LIBERAL UNIVERSITIES who hate FREEDOM and THE BIBLE. But they have a LIBERAL AGENDA and who can trust them? Not me, not the folks I know. So turtles it is, all the way down.

And this is true about most things - all things? You, a sentient human being, must agree to accept something as true. How you go about doing that is up to you, up to your close contacts, your culture, your age, your era, etc. Everything's a factor. For example, you personally have no experience of the Earth rotating. For everything you can tell with your senses, the sun and moon and stars above rotate around us. How could this not be? And thus to believe this is not so, that we do in fact rotate around the sun, you must ignore your own common sense and believe someone else. Belief.

We hear what we want to hear and see things through a prism named us. But this is all sophistry, is it not? Solipsism, the natural state of man. For perhaps that's true - nothing exists without us and our opinions.

We're left grasping in the dark, always. Perhaps we come closer to something like a real Truth, but who could ever be sure - this reality is vast beyond our comprehension. We stumble on, trying this and that, coming up with better tools for survival - and survival is the name of the game. Science is one of the greatest tools for our survival (and destruction), for ultimately it is an entire way of thinking - hypothesis, testing and experiment, re-hypothesize, test again, and keep on refining, asking why. Through this process, we evolve. But there's no end, and we must always be aware of the forces of ignorance.

Next time you hear the phrase "The God Particle", think of this. For there is no such particle.

New Year's Eve in the Dawn of Apocalypse

Happy New Years! One of my favorite holidays, tainted only by the fact it's based on a Christian calendar. But I can rise above that. Of all the holidays, people are most open and friendly on this night, willing to kiss strangers in the Common - when else does that happen? Mardi Gras in New Orleans, perhaps. The best night - Halloween might run some competition, but it gets a little too serious and demanding. New Year's is all about the part-aying. But don't drink and drive kids! Except on rural country roads, then it's cool.

And why not drink and drive? We've got less than a year left before the dreaded MAYAN APOCALYPSE! December 21, 2012, and the World ends, by some means which is not clear. But there's a cosmic alignment involved for sure. So feast and and be merry while ye can, for surely DOOM is nigh.

I'll admit I used to half believe in this Mayan Apocalypse bullshit - but it was a long time ago, 1998 or so, and I happened upon a Weekly World News article that was quite convincing. After further research, it seemed likely the world would end in 2012, due to a MAGNETIC POLAR SHIFT.  Because it's true, the magnetic poles on Earth do shift on semi-regular schedules, with North becoming South and South North. Think what that would do to our electronics were it to happen? Frazizzled.

There are lots of ways, in fact, our World (that being our human existence, and not the World itself) could easily end, tomorrow in fact. Herewith is REDSHIRTS TOP TEN APOCALYPSES (not in order):

1. Asteroid Impact. This is inevitable. It will happen at some point, the only question is when. Tomorrow? A million years? Sometime in between? Who knows. We might have years of warning, or, even with our awesome technology, a killer asteroid could sneak up on us unawares and be on our doorstep in days.
2. Super Volcano. Also inevitable. There are a dozen or so super volcanoes on Earth that when they explode, are powerful enough to darken the skies with ash for years. Can you imagine how tough it would be to live on this planet without sunlight for 10 years? We'd starve.
3. Nuclear War. The most likely doomsday scenario. All it takes is some dumb Repuglican with his/her finger on the button and we're all doomed.
4. Solar storm. Also inevitable. Our reliance on electronics would cripple most of so called "modern" society. If strong enough, could toast most living things.
5. Gamma Ray Burst. If a star of certain mass goes supernova and happens to have one of its poles pointed directly at us, we could be in the line of a sight of a high mass, super powerful gamma ray burst that would fry most life on Earth.
6. Global Warming. Happening right now. The real deal and we'll find out how well we can deal with Change - no thanks, once again, to Repuglicans, the crazy fucks.
7. Magnetic Polar Shift. Also inevitable. An event that would have zero impact on a tribe living in the Amazonian rainforest, but which would devastate "modern" society.
8. Ice Age. One of the consequences of global warming could be a new ice age, ironically. Snowball Earth would freeze most life to death.
9. Geologic Instability. Also inevitable. Imagine all the plates of Earth undergoing a vibratory effect that levels anything over 30 feet tall.
10. Super Virus. A bacteria that proves lethal to any human that comes into contact. Easily enough to conceive of, and gosh darn we've got people researching the subject worldwide.

Scared? You should be (but of course shouldn't be). Life is a tenuous proposition on this planet, and we could be shaken off like so much lice. And so, take nothing for granted! There is nothing permanent here at all, in the least bit. Every moment is a gift and you should treat it that way. Let us pray:

Dear ambiguous New Age God, give my Chakras the Crystaline Energy to survive the coming Tribulation.

I don't believe in a prophesied apocalypse at all anymore, in case you can't tell. I worship Science now and believe you me, it's the only Faith that delivers.

Alien Jesus N'gath'luxt for your Hlex'gnath

If we're lucky (unlucky) enough to discover advanced alien life, I wonder how christianity, and all religions, would take it? I can imagine there would quickly develop a myth that Jesus did indeed appear to the aliens - in their form - to save them from their own fall in the Garden of Nr'ex'lux-nagath. And then was crucified upon an alien cross on an alien Golgotha. Indeed, re-write the bible in alien terms and you've got your ends tied up, and are free to keep on Believin'. The discovery of alien life - even microbes - will do nothing to shake most people of their religion, as this belief is mostly immune to facts in the first place. Hence the word "belief".

At least - hopefully! - we'll get some good art of it. Though I've not seen much good religious art these days, or for the last 200 years or so. Seems as if the Muse has left it behind. Good for Her!

Hostage

Grimace wrote some checks he couldn't cash. This was the consequence. What will the Hamburglar do?

Give us the nuts or else! BOOM!

But seriously, each of us, all of us, are held hostage by the history of our tribe. We tell our stories to our children who tell them on to the grandkids, mutating along the way and this is our prison, a collection of half truths and lies.

Make no mistake - I intend to mock all religion equally, for there is no God, no Higher Being. There's just life, and death, and everything in between. I find joy in this, AND in mocking all religions as I see fit.

For this is my blog, "Redshirt's Lament".
And nothing is too dull for my wit.

Stained Glass Houses of the Holy

Why did thoust forsake thy flock, oh Gunslinger? Surely, a lifetime of car dealership commercials and mall appearances would have given you the glory you require - but now? Now, who will want you hawking their cheap wares, oh foul Betrayer? Thou turnover machine, lo! Cursed be thy name, wicked Favrererererer....

J/K Brett! Sure, you sold out, but it's a game, right? Just a game....

Verily, life is but a game.

Allah's got a turbine engine

And Mohammed was his Mechanic.

The Point

I realize all this science stuff ain't everyone's cup o' tea. "Boring!" You might say. "Bring on the pics of monkeys riding in kangaroo pouches", others might proclaim. And I agree with you all! To a point. This blog, however, is big, and all encompassing. There's really no limit to my interests - pray I don't bog down in financial derivative chat!

But, my point through this last series of posts is to really lay out a vision on Perspective. You'll note that Perspective is one of the main themes of this blog. It determines everything, since we are bound in a series of systems which by default sets certain perspectives on us - our senses. For example, we are evolved to see in a small sliver of the radioactive spectrum - what we call "visible light". But that's just the way it worked out. If things had gone differently, perhaps we could also see in infrared, or ultraviolet, or in radio waves. And if that were the case, you, me, and everything we humans have built would be dramatically different. Probably no humans, for example.

So, through these last series of posts, I have gone from the smallest of the small - the quark, and the theoretical particles that might make up quarks, and the theoretical strings that might make up these particles; through protons, atoms, molecules, chemical compounds, higher and higher up the chain of existence, of complexity, to life itself; and then onto the general environment we find ourselves - citizens of Sol, our Star, re-giver of all the energy we see around us. 

Then we moved on past our star to the galaxy of stars we live in, and the wonders/terrors present in neutron stars and black holes, and finally onto the idea of the Multiverse, or even a Multiverse of Multiverses, scales of existence beyond our ken, and our Barbie.

And through it all, I keep highlighting the idea of "phase changes", for the simple reason that there is no binary, no on/off switch for anything, but rather, everything exists in a continuing spectrum of existence, crossing dimensions, spacetime, cellular boundaries, you name it. Remember: E=MC2, and thus there is no dividing line between energy and matter, but simply phase transitions between different states of existence - like ice turning to water, turning to steam, turning back to water, turning back to ice, and so on. No energy is ever lost, nor created - just transformed.

This is the reality we find ourselves, trapped really. Except we have one thing that nothing else on Earth has: Minds that can reach outside our bodies, outside our senses, and transport ourselves to completely different realities. Einstein was daydreaming on a bus when he came up with his first major breakthrough, and all of his major breakthroughs happened quite quickly in the "miracle year" of 1905.  In that one year, Einstein re-wrote our entire Universe, and moved us from creatures largely determined by our senses, to creatures that now can look past our noses and perceive the true wonders of existence - like the Multiverse, for example. Yes, Einstein built on all the work from his predecessors, and he would not have been able to accomplish what he did without them, but his revelations were truly revolutionary. He in fact took us to another level of reality - a reality beyond our senses.


And that's where we are today, cautiously wading out into an unknown ocean that often seems counterintuitive - for example, time moves at different rates depending on your speed. Weird, huh? And now that we've entered this new reality, the revelations are unfolding with greater and greater speed - it's been said, for instance, that the past 20 years have been the golden age of astronomy, such as with the discovery of exoplanets, black holes, infant galaxies, etc. 


And it continues. For example, a current theory posits that everything you know, our very Universe and everything within it, is a hologram from a higher dimension. It could be true! And perhaps we'll find out soon enough.


Regardless, the vistas that are now revealed to us are so breathtaking, so enormously vast and mind boggling, that I approach it all with the sense of the mystic: These great mysteries can be understood, but it requires one to give one's self over to the idea that everything you think you know is not the full story. In fact, it's just the surface, and beneath that surface, wonders await. Wonders that make the miracles of the Bible seem as card tricks. It's your job to dig, and keep digging, always.


And this is where I am driving all of this: The merging of science and wonder, of knowledge and faith. Faith IS important, it's just almost always misused, corrupted, or otherwise an excuse to refute knowledge. But faith and knowledge are not incompatible. I approach the Universe with Faith, since for sure, I'll never understand more than an iota of it; but! I have faith there is a System, and that system CAN be understood. Eventually....


I also am inspired by how often scientific revelations accord with Buddhist philosophy. When I first heard the phrase "Form is emptiness, emptiness form", I took it from the nihilistic perspective - nothing matters, man!


But now I see precisely what it means: We are - Literally! - empty. Atoms are 98% emptiness. We never touch anything, ever (what we think of as touch, as solid, is really the electromagnetic fields of the atoms which compose us). The galaxy is vastly empty, yet filled with everything. But underneath everything is something else, and underneath that is something else, and so on - all the way down, all the way up. Again, nothing you know in this world is as it seems - it is in fact far more miraculous than anything we could ever dream of.


And yet, still, we suffer with our petty hates and biases, bogged down by our various ignorances, ignoring the miracle which is our very existence. It's sad.


But there's always hope. Through Preachin' the Word, of course, no matter how difficult it can be to get the point across.


And finally, I find all this stuff sexy as hell. These fine ladies no doubt agree:

Peace out, y'all. 

On the verge

This is beautiful Europa, moon of Jupiter, King of Planets. Like Enceladus, Europa's surface is frozen water ice, covering a deep liquid water ocean. However, unlike Enceladus, it does not appear to have any water volcanoes or other vents. No one knows for sure yet how thick this ice surface is - estimates range from a few miles to hundreds of miles. It's likely, in my opinion, that it's 9 miles thick. Approx.

I say this with confidence due to the discoloration on the surface - all that brown. What could that be? Once again, in my opinion - certainly not confirmed! - this is in fact life. 

Consider it for a moment, a "what if", if you will: What if you were looking at alien life on a foreign world, right here:

A close up of the surface - looks like veins, eh? And perhaps, metaphorically, it is, with life welling up from the ocean below and filling these cracks in the ice surface.

Again, this is only my thesis, but I am confident it will ultimately be proven correct (20 years from now?). And this is our next step, is it not? To join a solar system, a galaxy, a Universe of Life? To solve this grand mystery together?

Or to blast these aliens with the biggest lasers we can weild.

Regardless, consider it for a moment, evaluate what if this were true - this was actual, living Life, on Europa. What could be lurking in the warm ocean below?

And thus, we are on the verge of two momentous discoveries that when considered together will reveal a Universe teeming with Life: The first is the discovery of Earth-like planets around other stars, referenced below. The second, the discovery of alien (that is, of a 100% different genetic structure yet still "alive") life - even if it be rusty red microbes scraping a living on the underside of a giant Ice moon.


When I consider this, and all of the other wonders of our Reality that have been revealed to us via Science over the past 100 years, and the discoveries we are soon to make, I realize we are living in a golden age of human history, an epic moment of rapid evolution.  We are blessed to be living right now.

In my younger days, however, I thought the discovery of even microbial life on another planet would be enough to usher in a revolution in human kind. Alas, this past 20 years, 30 really, watching the Crazification of America, and thus the world, due to the evil workings of the vile Repuglicans and their enthralled minions, I've come to realize there is no fact that cannot be ignored, no Truth that cannot be denied. Indeed, it is entirely possible and perhaps even more likely to create a fantasy world, and live in that instead.

And so, sadly, for the majority perhaps, IF that were life in the surface ice of Europa, they'd shrug, if they even heard about it at all. I mean, is there really any lasting drama the 24-7 news entertainment industry can milk about this story? Nope. Any way to pin it negatively to Obama or the Democratic party or the Progressive mindset in general? Nope.

Thus, a blurb on page 11 of USA Today, then back to the latest Wingnut Poutrage.

On The Origin of Life

Since you yourself have admitted it is impossible to scientifically prove the origin of life, then the obvious conclusion is that, as we have been taught by our ancestors since the beginning of time, God created the World, the Universe, and Life, as written in the Good Book. To argue otherwise is to stubbornly cling to secular notions of nihilism and lies.

I must repeat that it is not impossible, just exceedingly unlikely due to the variety of ways life could have begun on Earth, and the enormous passage of time since that event. Just because one cannot find a needle in a haystack, my good friend, does not mean there is no needle.


I have discussed the various ways amino acids might join together and create complex proteins which in turn could create cellular-like structures that form membranes, and how DNA could arise from RNA, which in turn was created by the same complex protien structures. Given a multitude of environments, the right ingredients, and enough time, chance itself through the notion of mutation could have spawned a cell that was able to self-replicate, and thus become "alive". 


And do not discount the very real possibility that life in fact came from elsewhere in our solar system - Mars, for example - and seeded the early earth with basic life through asteroid exchange, which is a theory known as "Panspermia". I do believe in the next decade or 2 we will discover evidence of life or actual life outside of Earth, which greatly lends credence to this theory.

Blasphemy I say! Rubbish! 

To that I would ask: What is the greater blasphemy? To accept and participate in the very real efforts of science to understand our Universe or to deny actual evidence and believe in a myth, a set of stories, created by Man - of all creatures!? To deny our very nature is what I would call "blasphemy", if I were to even resort to such religiously loaded insults.






LAST WORD! w00f!

The Object of Worship is Irrelevant

This is the Hoba Meteorite in Namibia. It's estimated to weigh about 66 tons, and is the single largest known meteorite in the world. It was discovered by a farmer around 1915, was excavated, and sat in a field for a while. Only in 1987 did this theater get built to display it.

Which brings me to my point (maybe!). Worship, in one form or another. I recently heard a very interesting theory about humanity's invention of God, or the Afterlife. To wit: When whatever monkeyman got smart enough to conceive of his own mortality, this produced an existential/neurological crisis. If you think about it, this ability - to understand one's own mortality - is one of the key separations between humanity and all other animals. This understanding produced enormous anxiety and was probably, in the short term, highly detrimental to whomever conceived of it.

But quite quickly thereafter, another idea was conceived: The Eternal. Something that does not end, does not die. This conception was the antidote to the idea of one's own mortality - that it is possible to go on, forever. Soon enough this concept developed into all kinds of different forms - Gods, Heavens, Hells, etc. But the key, and they key to all worship, all spirituality, is the focus on the eternal. And this focus is essentially the brain's protection against the very real and tangible concept of death.

So, worship/spirituality = focus on the Eternal.


And to end, I give you, the Universe - all the eternities you could ever conceive of, and so much more. 


So while the specific object of worship is irrelevant (in that it could be anything as long as it evokes the Eternal), there's no doubt some objects of worship are more "worthy" than others. Christ on a Cross? Rather ludicrous. A meteorite? Getting closer!


If you're ever in Namibia, check it out!

Dark Matter

Most of the objects in this picture are galaxies (think about that for a bit). The gaseous, white ring you see here is indirect evidence of Dark Matter. Dark Matter is basically matter we think is there, that has a gravitational effect on surrounding "normal" matter, but it does not reflect photons, and thus is invisible to us."Normal" matter is drawn to large collections of Dark Matter - due to gravity - and thus the inference for the existence of dark matter.

For reference, I've posted this before, but here is what scientists think is the makeup of our Universe:

I'll leave the rather large issue of "Dark Energy" for another time (basically, energy we can infer yet cannot detect). But look - all of the "normal" matter we know - hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, anything and everything you see on Earth, in space, is "normal" matter, and yet, it only makes up less than 4% of our Universe. Think about that for a bit, especially in conjunction with the photo above.

Now, what does all this mean? Good question! What does anything mean? What I get from this is our reality, our very existence, is a grand mystery. We can nibble at the edges of this mystery, learning more and more, and yet the mystery is so grand, so large, so all encompassing it seems unlikely we will ever know but a glimmer of the Truth.

And this accords perfectly with a Buddhist outlook on life. That what we think is so real - your computer screen, for example - is nothing what you think it is. We are nothing what you think we are. We are so much more.

My task, as I am coming to realize it, is to spread this awareness. For it is powerful, and I believe can serve as the bridge from our past (tribal mythologies) to our future (universal citizens).

I hope you'll join me in this task. 

God Enough

If you think about the creation of the sun, fusion, the creation of the earth, the creation of life, molecular chemistry, biology, etc, etc..... we have all the wonder, all the mystery we'd ever need to satisfy that metaphysical itch which keeps the various sham religions of this world in business.


Worship the wonder of our existence. It's a miracle, really, and proof enough that God loves us, each and every one.

A New Hope (cont.)

There's about 16 ways I could go with this pic - it's rich. Ten space-internet credits to the person who can can guess what's coming next, based on this picture.


While you play that game, distracted (distraction is a mighty weapon), I will say Obama IS our only hope. If he can't pull us through this insanity, then we might very well be doomed - we might become the truly crazy religious dictatorship armed to the teeth, also with more nukes than anyone. How would you feel if Sarah Palin had the Button? 


Crazy periods come and go - they tend to burn out one way or another - so it is but a matter of time before some semblance of sanity is regained. The only question is, how much will we lose before we get there?


Tune in to find out. And maybe root for Barry to pull it through, for all of us, yeah?

When Dalai met Carl

And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

No but seriously, this is why the Dalai Lama in specific, and Buddhism in general, is mostly cool, and when The Mighty Lord Emperor Redshirt rises up and takes over this World, swiftly banning most religions, I think Buddhism will make the Do Not Cut List (DNCL), at least for a while. So you got that goin' for you, Buddhism.

No, wait, seriously. I kid, but that's all in good fun. But the Dalai Lama is really cool, and the Chinese are foolish not to deal with him. Here's a snippet from Carl Sagan's book "The Demon Haunted World":

In theological discussion with religious leaders, I often ask what their response would be if a central tenet of their faith were disproved by science. When I put this question to the Dalai Lama, he unhesitatingly replied as no conservative or fundamentalist religious leaders do: in such a case, he said, Tibetan Buddhism would have to change. Even, I asked, if it's a really central tenet, like (I searched for an example) reincarnation?
Even then, he answered.
However, he added with a twinkle, it's going to be hard to disprove reincarnation.
Plainly, the Dalai Lama is right. Religious doctrine that is insulated from disproof has little reason to worry about the advance of science. The grand idea, common to many faiths, of a Creator of the Universe is one such doctrine - difficult alike to demonstrate or dismiss.

So while Buddhism definitely operates as a Religion in many ways, with some of the negatives that comes with - I suppose (don't know really, as I have about zero experience with formalized Buddhist Religion and am assuming that any formal institution of men will have corruption within it), this attitude - dare I say it's scientific - is refreshing and healthy. Couple that with a consistent and good moral system lacking hypocrisy, and a lack of actual Gods (Big G) (gods [small g] in Hinduism and Buddhism are openly acknowledged for their symbolic values and abstractness, or so I have read), and I think this is close to as good as a "religious" system can get.

Personally, I would fuse a Sagan inspired Cosmology with the more practical aspects of Buddhism for a synthesis of science and meditation based "spiritual" practice. Also, martial arts.