Complete Introductions Collection 4
by Ben Huot
October 31, 2019
First Things
For More Information
For more books and information, visit me on the web at
http://benjamin-newton.com/
Feel free to send me e-mail regarding the books and website at mailto:ben@benjamin-newton.com
I even enjoy constructive criticism
License
This entire PDF is licensed together under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License as a whole, and nothing is to be separated, added on to, or modified in any manner.
Clarification on what no derivatives means:
No changes may be made in any way including but not limited to: the material content and design must be copied as a whole (everything contained in this pdf file)
- with nothing added
- without anything taken away
must be kept in its original form with no additions or subtractions to
- file formats
- HTML and CSS code
- PDF files
- graphics and movies
- sounds, music, and spoken word
- interactivity and flash
- file and directory structure
- filenames and directory names
- links
- distribution method
True Emptiness, An Epic Poem
1
A dam bigger than a city
A truck that costs more
Than a house
An helicopter that destroys
Before it can be seen
A device that reaches
To the other side of the world
Such are the modern marvels
We depend upon everyday
What does it mean
To be a master of nature
Is it ok that our will is realized
At the expense
Of every other living thing
Do we understand
That we live so extravagantly
That the future will live
In a hell on earth
2
Does it matter more
If you convince others
To serve God
Or is it better
To love God’s creation
Is it better
To have a relationship
With God based on the Bible
Or is it better
To show your faith
Through sacrifice
Is it greater faith
To be born again
Or to be the descendant
Of hundreds of generations of Christians
Does one new believer matter more
Than what the entire rest of the believing world does
Or is it better to save
As many as possible
3
In a world where reason
Attempts to disprove God
Why do we cling so closely
To these same thinkers
When the first thing you do
Is to serve God
Is this better than
Constantly hearing God talk to you
Does it really matter
Whether you can prove God exists
Would it change the heart
Of even a single person
Sometimes learning to be persuasive
Is a losing proposition
Sometimes it is better
To be a fool
Than to be wise
Would you rather
Listen to a scholar
Or the writer
Of a popular song
Who do people respect more
Our leaders or our entertainers
Which will have more impact
Giving another billion dollars to God
Or living an honest
And kind life
If salvation cannot be earned
Why do we think God cares
What we accomplish
In this life
When everything talking about God
Is for sale
Who do you think gets the credit
The writer or His creator
4
When you think in the timespan
Of human history
Do you dare think God favors
One nation over another
When we think of the faith
Of the apostles, prophets, and patriarchs
Do we see any parallels
In our world today
Do you think that God
Would accept the idea
Of the ends justifying the means
Or that things should be done
For the greater good
If everything in the Bible
Is so clear
Why does Christ
Speak in riddles (parables)
If God wanted us
To know the future
Then why did He speak
To the prophets
In metaphors
If God does not delight
In great shows
Of wealth and power
And cares more
About the poor and needy
What would He think
Of our popular culture
5
A few hundred years from now
There is a good chance
There will be no record of us
It is likely
There are some technological capabilities
We will lose in the future
That we currently have
It is almost certain
That we will experience
What we think
Is the apocalypse
In this timeframe
But we still have no idea
When Christ will return
We may have rid the world
Of many diseases and fed billions
But we all still die
In a short frame of time
Would it make sense to focus
On saving people
From this world
Or the next
If you do not believe
In an afterlife
Do you also
Not believe in death
6
It does not matter
What we think or want
Things do and will happen
That are unbelievable
And we may discover
Our own part in it later
But suffering does not disprove God
As the Bible
Promises many things
No one else does
But not suffering
Is not one of them
The Bible predicts the future
Will continue to be unjust
Job wrestled with God
As Israel did later
Over God’s will versus his will
The one thing
We know for certain about history
Is God’s will is always done
Even when we think
We can do better
And think He is dead and gone
The eons of time roll over
To another calendaring system
But nothing really changes
You can fight all the evil
In the world
Until you are dead
But people will still suffer
And your life will still be empty
7
It would be better
For us to escape
With our own lives
Than to try to save everyone else
We worry about
Everyone else’s life
We cannot fix
But we can fix our own
In spiritual terms
We all can pray
And we all can be forgiven
But we are not responsible
For other people
We are responsible
For what we do as individuals
Look towards a spiritual way of thinking
Where making a choice
Is more important
Than achieving something
Seeing yourself in relation to God
Is the key to wisdom
If nothing else
The biggest thing
Life should teach is humility
We today think
We can fix everything
And many times
Make things worse
In the process
Do not worry about fixing
Worry about breaking others
There is one thing
You can take to Heaven
Who you really are
And always were
Your non-physical aspects
Like feelings and consciousness
Most importantly
You can take your relationship with God
For all eternity
Seek not science
To understand the world
Seek instead the humility
To understand God
Philosophy Poetry
Internet Nostalgia
Things were simpler
When I was young
People had computers then too
But the Internet was different
A big part of computers then
Was about writing and publishing
It was much more academic
And it only appealed to a few
Now computers have become too common
Everyone wants to embrace
Their lack of self control
Their lack of culture
Their lack of manners
Their lack of social awareness
Their lack of common sense
When a society no longer
Cares enough to be polite
When it thinks it needs
Violence to express itself
When it is cool to steal
When it is cool to stalk and bully
And when it is cool to disrespect others
We all lose out
When has it happened that
So few people now have respect for each other
They embrace their inner criminal and vigilante
There is a proper time and place for anything
But there are limits to even that
How do we start to build respect again
How do we create a better community
We blame the machines
But the machines aren’t what created this problem
A certain cheapness and oversimplification in spirit
A certain intensification of what makes us mad
Who really gains from this behavior and atmosphere
Politicians and the media have a responsibility
To raise the level of the discussion
From out of the gutter
Instead, they are the biggest cause
It is good to disagree with the direction society is going in
But not agree on how to fix it
But some types of behavior
Just make others dig in their heels
The maturity of opinion leaders
Has reached an all-time low
The Church is often looked on to bring back morality
But there is no acceptance of God
In the way anyone is acting
Why should we expect God to fix our problems
We need top start learning to be kind and disciplined in our speech
Maybe we need to pay someone to clean up our speech
Like we pay people to clean dog poop and the broken glass
That we litter the streets with
It is nice to have free things
And freedom to express yourself
Maybe we should talk less about politics for a while
And study a little bit more about history and religion
It is in our hearts that the rot has started
And we will only dig out
With great pain and effort
Maybe we just have too much power
Maybe we need a good reason
To broadcast our ideas
And maybe not allow everyone
To leave comments on every news item
When people cannot look themselves in the mirror
While they cannot stop taking picture of themselves
We might begin to wonder
If we should try to do something different
Until then I encourage people to boycott these angry voices
And stop feeding the negativity
Maybe if we all stop responding
They will realize that those kind of comments
Are not appropriate
Better yet don’t even visit these publications
Until they get their houses in order
Easy Come, Easy Go
Kingdoms come and go
Empires, Democracies and One World Systems
The land is all there is
That is still the same
A few hundred years later
Your grandkids will awake to another world
Your legacy is in what remains after our society passes
And everything we are is broke down into dust and soil
Since we live in a disposable society
Even our great inventions are disposable
Our leftovers are just rotting garbage
And huge amounts of rusting gadgets
Everything we produce will turn to dust
And our petty squabbles over who to lead us
Will be long forgotten and meaningless
With every step towards greater surveillance and control
We hasten the dissolution of this world system
The modern world will not last long in memory
As our achievements are all on paper or in computer parts
We cannot even run our current system without both paper and software
How do you think America will be a relevant concept
At the end of your grandchildren’s lives
When people describe our current technology
Children will think we are talking in riddles or fairy tales
How ridiculous is it for us to fight
To merely survive in books, buildings, and software
What really survives is not ideas
But the land, the people, and our God
Is it moral to champion the comfort of a million of our countrymen
Or to save the land for the next thousand years
We often think in absolute terms of the world to be
We assume current technology or that no one survives
We think we are just beginning to live
With what we currently are inventing
What we don’t even think of is that this society
Was likely thought of before and planned
And most technology we have now has been reinvented many times
We are not unique in wanting this kind of society
People all throughout history fought much harder for much less
Who would reject a society that provides too much for its people
When we talk about the long term survival of the planet
We think in terms of people
But people are the source of all these problems
There will be time when we can accept
Living without electricity and modern plumbing
Most people believe the world cannot exist without these 2 things
The thing is that few people might live
If we hold onto these 2 things for too long
The problem with human solutions
Is that we were designed to be in symbiosis with God
Separation from God is the true source of our problems
To fix the scale of these problems we need God’s help
Until we as a society can agree to give up control to God
We are just chasing our tails
Real Love
To most people today
Romantic love is the highest bar
So do today’s prophets
And artists and singers
Preach this message
That sex is love
But there is so much more to romance
And a romantic worldview
Sexual love is seen as the holy grail of faith
It is todays standard way to find joy in life
Does it take less faith
To believe in a loving God
Than to believe that fate will deliver
Faith that it will bring true love
Faith that the love you find in another
Will make yourself happy
That the love will be based on honesty
That the lover will be faithful
That the love will be enough
To survive the storms of life
Can another person make you happy
Can a person alone satisfy you
How can someone that doesn’t know you completely
Give you all that you need
How can a person that does know you perfectly
Accept you for who you are
It is truly a greater thing
To believe in love
Than to believe in God
It takes a greater leap of reason
To finding real peace
In the arms of another person
Truly it is great falling in love
But what is it to those who cannot
Those who are too old, ugly, or picky
To those who no one can love
Because they have so many problems
To those who never meet the right person
To those who cannot afford to wait that long
Romantic love is for the few
Can you really be true to another forever
Can they even to the end of this life
God accepts all and is always faithful
Not only can God truly love us
He does so while knowing who we truly are
He can do this because of who He is
Both Creator and Savior
Only He can bring the peace
That is absent in people
The joy of knowing the God of the universe
Cares about even us little peons
That He became one of us
And showed us how to truly love one another
He knew this was necessary
Before He even created us
Why He loves us is a mystery
But it is the most real love we will ever experience
It is the most genuine acceptance
Of who we really are
We associate love with sex today
But romance is really much more
Romance is not just sex
Anymore than God is just human
She is The Only One
Can a person be too kind?
Can a person be truly good?
Dropped straight from Heaven
Like an angel walking among us
Wise as a prophet in Scripture
Sharp in mind and soul as a diamond
The best human counselor
The softest heart and strongest mind
Spontaneous in spirit and subtle in decision-making
Of the highest order of service and sincerity
She becomes brighter each day
And stands out more at night
Even if she now walks a little slower
And is a little less steady in stride
She is more careful with others feelings
And more gentle in words
She has fought the good fight with pain and illness
With honor and distinction
With each decision her family grows closer
Her only critic is herself
Always a Mary at heart
But a Martha in action
She has the inner strength
To make mountains move
She is faithful and true
Her candle never grows dim
Her faith is like a lighthouse
She is always ready to see the Lord
She is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount
Her life is a beatitude
Conversations with God
I cannot stop talking
Of what the joy of the Lord brings
I cannot speak enough
Of what God has done for me
Each day I hear His voice
Each night He hears mine
I do not stop to pray
Because I never stop my conversation
With my Creator and Redeemer
In each frustration I experience
He guides me through the thorns
When I struggle as the sea does against the sand
He stands watch over me without ever blinking
There are times when doubt fills my mind and heart
Sometimes I can barely see as the glory of God blinds me
I constantly need to stretch my mind to wrap my head
Around what He reveals to me
I fight to get the words out before I forget them forever
For some thoughts of God there are no words
Language can only take you so far
The Bible keeps being written a new each reading
On the hearts of His people
Who can really understand what God says
Who can truly master the word of God
We cannot understand the mind of God
Anymore than we can be perfect morally
How difficult it is to conceive of God’s point of view
Even when we praise Him
We are just saying what is true
Just as God cannot swear on anything higher than Himself
So our worship is merely a restatement
Of what everyone already knows is both truth and fact
When we turn our face from God
We act out in sin
We understand why we need to fear God
When we ask to be forgiven
We cannot truly understand why He chooses to do so
Sin and evil are a mystery to many
But I think God’s mercy is harder to explain
But God can only be approached with an appropriate attitude
With honesty and sincerity is where the conversation must start
Just as God always accepts us unconditionally
We must never disown Him
We blame God for evil
But who are we to criticize God
He is blameless but we are not
When we accept we need Him
But He does not need us
Our journey of faith has truly started
Until we die we cannot estimate how strong God is
And how weak we are
But faith is not about knowledge
Faith is about worship and acceptance of our reality
Faith is about accepting how much we need God
Faith is about hating evil
But not evil-doers
Faith is an expression of loyalty and respect
But also love and gratitude
Faith is how we understand God
As there are no words that can truly bring us close to Him
As living through a problem too big for us to solve
To bring us victory over things we know not how to fight
Just as the laws of physics need to happen for the universe to exist
So must God be worshipped
Worthy Goals
If our goal is to be unique
Why don’t we do what is right
If our goal is to improve ourselves
Why don’t we appreciate what we have
If our goal is to live long
Why don’t we worship God
If our goal is to please ourselves
Why don’t we live a life of service
If our goal is to fight for a cause
Why don’t we heal their wounds
If we want unity in our country
Why don’t we raise our children better
If we want to save the environment
Why don’t we take the vows of a monk
If we want to be a great leader
Why don’t we work in factory
If we want to serve our country
Why don’t we join the Peace Corps
If we want to travel the world
Why don’t we meet everyone in our own town
If we want to think different
Why don’t we study religion
Him and Us
In a snap of His fingers
We break into musical worship
As He nods slightly
Time is born
He shrugs His shoulders
And we are given free choice
He shuffles his feet slightly
A new artistic movement arises
He scratches the back of His head
An new technological revolution occurs
He raises an eyebrow
And a new people group is formed
He stretches His hands
And a major war stops
We unite together to stop evil
We fall on our faces
We create the greatest technology ever
We almost blow ourselves up
We find a way to prevent bad things from happening
We end up creating a new form of crime
We make conflict impossible
We create an oppressive police state
Trust and Faith
What does it mean to trust God
When our world has shown us we cannot trust it
We can trust God because He is consistent
We can trust He will keep His promises
We can trust He will always be there
We can trust He has the power and will to save us
We can trust that He loves us unconditionally
Is it rational
Does it matter
We learn from a young age
Not to trust anyone completely
And for those who miss this
We learn the lesson later on
Trust in anything
Is a new thing to our culture
Imagine someone really caring
Plus being truly capable of following through
The modern world makes little sense
But our God is full of surprises
Even in a world full of darkness
We have seen a great light
We learn each day that there is still purpose
In an absurd world
From the center of justice and academics
We get such strange advice
From those who speak and write for a living
We get confusion and division
Our culture sees religion as a force of division and violence
But maybe the true source of this come from within us
Maybe religion will bring both purpose and joy
That will bring peace to our land
We seek freedom from violence
And are afraid of losing this freedom
Maybe we expect too much out of other people
What if the only way for us to experience true happiness
Means realizing we exist in connection to each other and God
To be human is to be in a symbiotic relationship with God
And at peace with both the natural and supernatural worlds
Freedom from fear is great but community is too
Being free comes with responsibility
Freedom is exercised in the choices we make
How can our freedom be useful
If we don’t use it to help others
What can we do with our freedom
If we are not part of a family
What is the purpose of our freedom
If we do not have our Creator to serve
When we refuse to be at peace with God
Because we no longer trust Him
Are we not just deciding to deceive ourselves
Our enemy is really our own bad choices
We need to accept responsibility
For our relationship with God
He has done everything to gain our trust
We need to just accept that He is not like us
Essays
On Originality
What we often consider creative or original usually comes from another culture or time in history. The modern world of ideas is a productive of the Enlightenment and Protestantism which are entirely European ideas. The idea of how we want to organize ourselves and what we value in America these days comes from the belief that we will always win and things we always get better for us.
Ours is a culture of a one world empire. We are having a vast explosion in the amount of creative output. We have unimagined wealth in terms of energy and technology. Other times in history they would call this magic. But everything goes in cycles, everything has a counter, and nothing is really original. One of the big themes of history is the mobile “barbarians” defeating the fat and lazy empire.
One of the basic tenants of our society in America today is the importance of information and the speed at which it is spreads. Nobody trusts anybody today so we want to know everything about everyone. Most people see this through themes of our culture and see the problem as being the other major political party.
But there are bigger forces at work, occurring over a much larger period of time: economics, technology, and weather. Most of the world is now looking for a job because we no longer have a growth in sales of luxury goods. People have bought all they need decades ago and all they want now. Growth does not happen forever and we have reached the peak of our planet’s resources.
We have a hard time accepting the way the world works as we do not study world history or world religions. Terrorism is the counter to a society based on information. It is the old idea not fighting the superior enemy on his own terms. Terrorism will not go away precisely because it bothers us so much and is so effective.
The great strength of using terrorism is that it is cheap and easy and hard to suppress. Terrorism is hard to suppress because the terrorists are not an organization or even a network but are united by a grass roots movement based on an idea. Terrorism allows those resisting the one world police state publicity, money, and the opportunity to fight us directly. In the process, it weakens us by getting us to pay for the terrorism through oil sales, bleeding us dry in the amount of money we spend to suppress terrorism, and terrorism helps encourage more terrorism because we report on it.
We do not need better ideas or more innovation. What we need to do is focus as individuals on things we can change like our own lives. We need to accept God’s help so that we might live in symbiosis with God as He intended. We might not be able to be richer or more powerful than other countries forever, but we can become more moral.
Hard Work Ethics
Christianity can be summed up simply, but in practice it is hard work. There are no simple answers on how to live your life. Jesus' parables describe it perfectly as do Paul's letters to the churches. The biggest problem in people's lives is sin. Sin causes all suffering. Christians are called to improve themselves by eliminating sin in their lives.
This sounds simple but is not easy. It takes hard work, determination, and persistence. God wants us to fully commit to following Him. He will provide all that is needed, but on the other hand we must put all our effort in as well. We need to prove how important God is in our lives by our choices over time.
I think some Christians often seek to do more and more things to do express their love of Christ, but it is always dicey when spreading the Gospel. People today can get offended very easily and throw you into a simple camp. I think the hardest things for many Christians is that faith takes time and you cannot do it all in one sitting.
One of the biggest problems I see with keeping the faith is keeping busy doing anything productive. The rest of Christianity is mostly devotional practices, learning more about God, and finding some sort of relationships with Christians and non-Christians.
But when it comes to making great changes in lives, the only real life you are responsible for and have the full power to change is your own. Maybe some people don't need God's help as much as they are better people. I cannot relate and many people now cannot relate either.
When I hear these Christians talk, I just get discouraged and frustrated. Maybe some people don't need God as much. Maybe some people are better than us. If you are one of these people, then you are probably happy with the status quo.
When we think of dedicated Christians, we often think of people who live according to a set of strict rules and pray all day. Many of us need to work and most of our work frankly destroys the world or makes it worse in general.
We need to find a way to change things in a way that works against this in our spare time.
That takes up most of people's time. For those without work because of disability, old age, or circumstance, I recommend finding something like a job to do. That has helped me out tremendously. Much of our lives now revolve around technology and this is a reality of the kind of world we chose to create (and one of the few things we have in common).
We have been living for a long time and maybe not too much longer in the apocalypse. Our environment is transforming into what is known as hell or the underworld. Much of this drive comes from people who claim they speak for the Church. The modern world is Mystery Babylon.
This did not begin with computers but with modern business. We focused selling luxury products to such an extent that we can make luxury products so cheaply that we make products mostly only sold to emperors in the past. Our economy drives our morality in America.
Most of the world spends most their time looking for work, working, or in some sort of institution, refugee camp, or homeless. Only the very poor or very rich end up not working, which is becoming most of the population, worldwide and in America.
The Gospel has been spread very well, as more of the world is Christian, than every before and Christianity has only been accessible, to most of the world, for only 100 years. When we think of the problems America has with the rest of the world, the problems are basically opposites.
The United States, although deeply in debt and socially weak in many ways, is wealthier, better armed militarily, and demographically very well off compared to the rest of the world. When people do not want to go to America or are not actively trying to destroy us, we will no longer be the undefeatable world empire. Until then, we are not united ideologically, but no one else can take us down.
We make the claims every other big world empire does. We are trying to improve the world so just do as we do and everything will be better for you. We do this while ignoring our wealth and our control over the world and the things we do to keep it that way.
We are not a Christian nation and we are not blessed. We are materially very well off because of geography and historical decisions we and others made. We are basically the by product of another empire and the previous population ended up dying off conveniently. Our government has always been self serving and very corrupt from the beginning and is founded on pagan, not Christian views of the world.
The few freedoms we did have at one time came from a government who left you alone as long as you conformed so much that you really didn't have any freedom. The government is very supportive of religion in general as long as they support the status quo. The moment the church challenges anything that is inconvenient (costs money or challenges their ideology) for the state, they find a creative way to make them ineffective or just slaughter them.
The reason why we can say these things is because it makes no difference financially or ideologically. The ideology is set by advertising, the media, and the school system and our ethos is whatever is easiest. Christianity is not the easiest way to live (if done correctly) and so it is falling out of favor in America (not worldwide).
If you want to know what to do to improve people's live in America, look to the problems royalty had in the past and factor in computers.
Why Glory Goes to God
Some people may misunderstand my interest in what is called epistemology and mysticism, known in Christian theology as special revelation. I know that many people have different beliefs, for different reasons, but my framework for theology, philosophy, psychology, and everything else comes fundamentally from the Bible. If it is clear in the Bible, I believe it. The Bible always supersedes anything that I write which conflicts with it. I am not writing about nor do I advocate revelation or mystical experience outside of a direct, obvious, and clear interpretation of what the Christian Bible teaches.
Some examples of what I support include broadening our understanding of the world beyond just reason and facts. This only includes Biblically based revelations in areas like rituals, worship, and prayer. The only deity I serve is the God of the Christian Bible (also known as the one all-powerful creator God, who came to Earth as Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Gospels and the Apostle Paul’s Letters, to the early churches and has 3 aspects as we do, body, mind, and spirit, so God has God the Father as His Mind, Christ as His Body, and the Holy Spirit as His Spirit).
Christianity is not just some kind of add-on to my philosophy, but the very nature of salvation by our repentance and God’s grace is the basis of all my writing. This was made possible by God coming to earth as a person while remaining God, living a perfect life, and dying on the cross. In the process He took our judgement for our sins upon Himself, and defeating death and the underworld. He did all this that we might avoid that underworld ourselves and live forever in paradise with God.
The reason for thinking beyond just reason is that the definition of faith is believing in something you cannot fully prove rationally. This naturally conflicts with a purely academic, rational, empirical, and clinical view of reality. I believe that God speaks in many forms, to many different people, in different ways. This includes the celebration and study of a wide variety of endeavors like the arts, academics, history, traditions of other cultures, and the science and technology.
Both salvation and living your faith are difficult. In addition to that salvation is simple and straightforward conceptually. It is in living your faith that things get very complicated very fast. Yes, we should have a direct experience with Christ, but there is more to Christianity than jargon, cliches, technical terms, mainstream values, American politics, and contemporary culture.
I think, as we, as Christians, know the truth, studying other histories, languages, cultures, philosophies, and religions should not be a problem. In fact, this is very important to do so as we believe ours to be the only true faith and want to convince others with different beliefs and backgrounds of the same. As with anything else, there are limits to interfaith studies. Christ is a jealous God and no other lifeforms should be worshiped, prayed to, or rituals performed for by Christians.
Essential to Christianity is this one all powerful God, who has truly earned our praise many times over. He created everything that exists, could exist, or will exist. This includes creating us out of nothing. He is perfectly good, He is merciful when we are bad, He eternally suffers for us on the cross in His body Christ, He created heaven for us, and He forgives us for everything we have done (with the single requirement that we humble ourselves before Him).
No other lifeform can has done any of this, can do any of this, nor claims to do any of it. If we think something that is smarter or more technologically advanced than us, we should remember that God is infinitely greater than it and it should worship Him as well (as it was also created by God). A good example of this is that when an artist creates a work of art, a programmer creates software, and a builder makes a house, who gets credit? The creator or the created? Everything other than the Christian God was created directly or indirectly by Him and by that fact alone they are required to worship Him and do His will.
The real good news is not only is God all powerful and perfectly good, but He is merciful to us, even though we do some very bad things. He made the bar very low for us, as He has done 99% of the work to secure our place in paradise and be in communion with Him. All we have to do is that last less than 1% of the work and accept His offer and agree to follow Him. Ultimately everyone does His will, whether they realize it or not. Take His offer and make full use of it, by letting Him change who you are. This is a wise thing to do, because He both created us and lived as one of us, so He really does know best and much more than we ever will about living.
There are many reason for rejecting God, that usually can be summarized in an individual person's name. Don’t reject God and make your life worse just because you had a bad experience previously. This is where prejudices come from. Accept God for who He is, not because someone else hurt you. They were certainly not following God when that happened. If you are basing your decision on someone else’s bad experience, this is called here-say. Is it not worth deciding for yourself based on your own experiences?
Christianity makes sense, because God’s creations, including us, were designed to be in constant connection with Him. Nobility, monarchs, and even emperors submitted themselves before God. There is no shame in it. God wants to take away your shame, by forgiving you.
Accept the reality of who you are, in relation to God. He will then empower you and give you joy and peace. He offers paradise, if only you would accept His offer of grace. This grace is free for you but costly for God.
Education and Morality
Why do we try so hard to explain things that are of no consequence? Why do we spend so much time and money on studying things like space travel or theoretical physics? Some things cost so much money and are such long shots that they will never be able to pay for themselves.
It is a combination of our poor understanding of science plus a romantic obsession with one person or one action saving the whole country or whole planet. This is a kind of magical thinking just because we want something to happen or it worked in the past we expect it to happen (again).
I remember as a child being told that black holes are impossible and do not exist. Several decades later it has been decided that black hole are at the center of most galaxies, they are critical in the formation of the building blocks of life, possibly form the basis of the structure of the entire universe, the big bang started out as a kind of black hole, tiny black holes appear and disappear instantly, and now some think that the “missing” planet to explain the orbits of the outer planets and ice belt is actually a black hole the physical size of a baseball or basketball.
Maybe after being so blindsided so many times we may decide that we need to learn more about science and math as we know little about them so that we are easily impressed or fooled by people explaining them. Our whole approach to entertainment and news is to shock people and deliver information not understood well even by the journalist reporting it.
We could have a society that values things of greater consequence and longevity like art and religion, but rather what we treat as magic we have deemed more important than morality or education. We have a society that is run by what we would call in the past peasants and yet we wonder why we make such stupid decisions. At the same time, we have the “power” of what royalty had in the past and so suffer from many of the same problems.
This combination of high technology with a lack of education and no respect for education is hiding us down a dangerous road. We are basically handing over control to the criminals and hostile foreign governments as we fail to grasp even the basic concepts of how we choose to run our society. There is no shame in not understanding the technical details of everything, but if you let someone else run everything for you and not keep a watch on it yourself, you are extremely foolish. If you did that with a business, your managers would gradually get you to sign over your entire company to them.
Another problem we keep beating our heads against is morality. We need to find some dominant belief system to run the country by. The constitution is just not enough to make decisions based on it alone. We should always allow minority religions to run their own parallel system of family law for additional religious based offenses.
We also would be wise to organize ourselves geographically by belief systems. This would be an individuals decision alone and would not be based on genetics or background. Many people may think this unAmerican, but this is already an established way of doing things for the Native Americans and many have recognized that there are different regions of the US that have very different ideas on politics, like the idea of red and blue states.
There needs to be one set of clear laws in a given country that cover basic morality needed for the country to run, and if that basic level cannot be agreed upon, maybe the nation needs to split up. This ties very closely with white collar crimes vs. violent crimes where hackers get away with doing things online is politically acceptable that would be illegal if done offline.
We need to come to an agreement on whether the Internet should be treated as the real world. If we do not consider it the real world, we need to roll back to when it was just used for academic purposes, and effectively undo decades of work on our entire country’s and businesses’ infrastructure. Since real money is sent across the Internet and real goods are exchanged for it, we need to see what happens online to be as significant as what happens in our physical communities.
If we cannot get this under control, we are going to gradually undo our entire civilization. If this is not addressed soon, America and the entire world system will become irrelevant. We will have undone the basic ideas of civilization. A society without laws is no good to anyone, even the criminals. When everything breaks down, everyone loses.
Starting Point
Getting Ready for Living on Your Own
Caveats
- for those in Pacific Northwest
- who ride the bus for primary transportation
- who pay for cleaning
- who do not cook
General
- sturdy plastic boxes of all types and sizes
- gloves of all types
- backpacks
- reusable shopping bags
Major Investment
- Laptop
- Extra Computer with Different OS like iPad or Chromebook
- safety deposit box
- ergonomic chair and table
- good mattress
- rubber mattress cover
- microwave
Electronics
- cell phone
- camera
- miniature speakers and headphones
- cases for all electronics
- blank DVD+R disks
- paper DVD cases
- cords of all types
- batteries of all types
- 3rd party router/modem
- black and white laser printer
- extra unwrapped flash drives
- external solid state drives
- battery power pack
Medical
- multiple types over counter pain medicine
- gummy antacid
- chapstick
- blister kit
- aloe vera gel
- walking cane
- sunscreen
- pill splitter
- prescribed medicine
- fiber suppliment
- cough drops
- ice packs
Hygiene
- electric toothbrush with extra heads
- toothpaste
- floss sticks
- comb and brush
- shower curtain
- non-slip shower mat
- non-slip shower surface
- toilet paper
- bar soap
- dishwashing soap
- nail clippers
- ball toilet plunger
- electric beard trimer
- shower caddy
Cleaning
- air filter
- giant electric fan
- broom and dustpan
- clothes baskets
- laundry detergent
- chemical free cloth to clean electronics screens
- trash bags
- trash can
Clothes
- waterproof breathable coat
- waterproof breathable shoes
- waterproof pants
- wading boots
- extra belts
Bedding
- pillows
- sleeping wedge
- alarm clock
- printed Bible
Tools
- pens and paper
- scissors
- defogging protective classes
- breathing mask
- duct tape
- hammer
- tape measure
- Philips and standard screwdrivers
- needle nose pliers
- imperial and metric ratchet set
- paper shredder
- magnifying glass
- step up ladder
- wind up emergency radio
Kitchen
- measuring spoons
- manual timer
- sponges
- manual can opener
- plastic forks and spoons
- plastic cups
- paper bowls
- salt
- oven mit
- steel cutting glove
- cutting board
- gallon of water
On You
- paper money
- coins
- wallet
- ID
- watch
- keys
Central Place for Important Papers
- rental lease agreement
- bills
- taxes
- contacts
- passwords
- instructions for electronics