Psychonaut Alexander Shulgin has died.
Kua hinga te tōtara o te wao nui o Tāne
Thank you and God bless you, Sasha.
Category Archives: Philosophy
Christians cant have tattoos!??? The history of militant atheists suppression of science for the sake of maintaining the Materialist world-view.
Harm minimisation vs. harm elimination
It’s important to say what you mean and mean what you say.
If you don’t say what you mean and mean what you say, you will likely be misunderstood.
The trouble is, even if you do say what you mean and mean what you say, you will still likely be misunderstood!
Sad but true.
It all goes back to the Babel incident recorded in the Book of Genesis.
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (NIV)
Later, much later … we have modern telecommunications technology. We have the Internet and language translators such as the Babelfish). Microsoft readies real-time language translator for Skype. Is anything we plan now possible for us?
No, it’s not. Our language is still confused! People can’t seem to speak clearly. Ambiguity is ubiquitous. Even if we do say what we mean and mean what we say … it takes two to tango. Communication is as much the listener’s responsibility as the speaker’s. People can’t seem to speak clearly, and they can’t seem to listen clearly either. They’ll hear you say what they thought you meant. Even before you said it.
Even if what you meant is what you said and what you said is what you meant, you will still likely be misunderstood!
Here’s a recent case study. It’s an edited snippet of a conversation I had on Facebook with a libertarian friend. (No prizes for guessing whom!)
Do you agree that a government should minimise the unjust harm the government actively inflicts on its own citizens? Yes or No?
No it must be absolutely eliminated…and it is *we the people* who do this…. not the government itself. *they dont make the rules. We do. They merely enforce the duties we delegate to them…. Government for the People… by the people.
Their Duty is to *uphold our rights*….. whether or not we Harm ourselves to a greater or lesser extent…. via ignorance or choice.
When you say Governments unjust harm should be ‘minimised’ rather than eliminated, you are saying that there is a tolerable level unjust harm that is allowable….
That’s not what I’m saying at all. Or is it?!
verb: minimise
reduce (something, especially something undesirable) to the smallest possible amount or degree.
To minimise harm is to reduce harm to the smallest possible amount or degree.
To eliminate harm is to reduce harm to zero.
To minimise harm or to eliminate harm completely? These come to the exact same thing if it turns out that the smallest possible amount of harm is zero! The question is, consistent with its ongoing role as a properly functioning proper government, what is the smallest possible amount of unjust harm the government can actively inflict on its own citizens? Is it, in fact, zero?
It’s not zero.
What is the proper function of a proper government? My friend says that government’s duty
is to *uphold our rights*
but what the hell does that even mean? Uphold? Wat.
According to my understanding of libertarianism, the government really has only two proper functions, viz., defence of the realm and administration of justice.
For defence of the realm, we have the Ministry of Defence … and (arguably) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (but not Trade).
For administration of justice, we have the Ministry of Justice … and the subsidiary Ministry of Police and Ministry of Corrections (so-called).
The police are there to apprehend those who infringe our rights. The prison system is there to punish the perpetrators, according to principles of justice. To “uphold” our rights is merely to apprehend those who infringe our rights and bring them to justice … after the fact. Strictly speaking, according to my libertarian philosophy, the police have no business preventing crime. That’s what private security companies are for.
Now, let’s consider the government’s proper function of administering justice. Because of the very nature of earthly justice systems, it turns out that the smallest possible amount of unjust harm a government may inflict on its own citizens is greater than zero.
Sad but true.
In administering justice, earthly justice systems are prone to two basic kinds of error. Punishing the innocent and letting the guilty walk free. These two errors are not independent.
We could eliminate the first kind of error—punishing the innocent—by letting everyone walk free. But that would be a cop-out. It would not be administering justice at all.
We could eliminate the second kind of error—letting the guilty walk free—by locking everyone up. But that would be to unjustly harm the innocent en masse. It would not be administering justice at all.
In practice, our justice system is heavily weighted towards avoiding the second kind of error. As a result, very few innocent people are ever sent to prison. As a result, very many guilty people walk free.
Governments harm people. Even proper libertarian governments. Unfortunately, there is a tolerable level of unjust harm that is allowable. It’s just a harsh fact of life but one that we must accept.
Space Truckin: Dead for 45 minutes.
From >>>Here<<<
A trucker in Ohio shocked hospital staff after coming back to life nearly an hour after he lost his pulse following a massive heart attack — but it’s what he claims to have seen during those tense moments that has him sure there’s an afterlife.
Brian Miller, 41, was opening the lid of a container when he knew something felt wrong — he immediately called 911 and told the operator, “I’m a truck driver and I think I’m having a heart attack.”
Sure enough, his main artery was completely blocked — causing what’s known as a “widow-maker” heart attack
He was rushed to a local hospital where doctors managed to revive him and clear the blockage, but after regaining consciousness and feeling the pain dissipate, he developed ventricular fibrillation, when the heart starts quivering wildly and is unable to pump blood.
“He had no heart rate, he had no blood pressure, he had no pulse,” said ICU nurse Emily Bishop. “I mean think about that.”
Doctor’s performed “strong, hard, fast CPR” and shocked Miller four times to try to revive him, but had no luck.
It was during that time that Miller said he slipped away into a celestial world, “The only thing I remember I started seeing the light, and started walking toward the light.”
He described walking down a flower-lined path into white light — until he came upon his step mother, who had died recently, “She was the most beautiful thing when I seen her, it was like the first day I met her, (she) looked so happy.”
Miller remembered, “She grabbed ahold of my arm and told me, ‘It’s not your time, you don’t need to be here, we’ve got to take you back you’ve got things to go and do.’”
After 45 minutes his pulse returned “out of nowhere,” Bishop said. ”His brain had no oxygen for 45 minutes, the fact that he’s up walking, talking, laughing, everything is amazing.”
Glad to be back amongst the living, Miller now says there is one thing he is sure of, “There is an afterlife and people need to believe in it, big time.”
********************
I read an article recently that suggested that as many as 20 million people had had Near Death Experiences, and that despite Materialist monists fervent denials, there has been accounts which have ‘independent’ corroboration, and also other interesting ‘anomalies’ such as blind people ‘Seeing things’… for which the term ‘Mindsight’ was coined.
These experiences suggest that consciousness, thought, memory, etc carry on after Zero brain activity…. which supports the Dualistic theory of Body and soul… thwarting Monism which insists all our personality and consciousness is generated by the brain.
I find the article is interesting because it articulates my own scepticism about Materialist scepticism for Spiritual realities.
The truckie story above is a classic example of *What really happens at death* … ALOT!…. which Materialists have to reduce down to illusion.
I actually have a Jewish friend who died in a Car crash… was dead for several hours… and revived.
She reported seeing Jesus (which was a surprise… being a Jew), and meeting her Gand Father who said Nanna will be ‘here soon’.
She reported all this to her parents, and within a few weeks… Nanna had passed away.
None of this is explicable via notions of ‘hallucinations of a dying brain… loss of oxygen, etc’… Monitors detect Zero brain activity, and when people temporarily black out from lack of Oxygen they experience confusion and or memory loss, not Lucidity of thought… not vivid memory… and their black outs are not *Life altering*…. *perspective Game changers*…. which is a very common result of Near death experiences.
Objectively speaking, these experiences ought not to be written off as delusion simply because they don’t fit well with the common assumptions of the Material paradigm.
The Free thinker will be open to consider greater possibilities…. even if the evidence demands a person to forsake their cherished assertions.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Read more….
Science goes Ga Ga! The Spirit Temple-Material Interface. The Human Brain.
The Folly of Scientism. Austin L. Hughes
Et tu Brute? What is Scientism: William Lane Craig
Monism: Evolutionary Psychology and the Death of Morality, Reason and Freewill.
What is real?
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (NIV)
In what sense is the world “real”? What are we asking, when we ask that question?
Anna Salamon doesn’t know. I don’t know. Perhaps Jordan Peterson knows.
I’m going to talk to you today about a different way of looking at what real is.
It’s not easy to figure out what real is because we don’t really have infinite knowledge and so we’re always making some sets of presuppositions about what’s most real.
It really matters what you assume is most real because you base the decisions that you make, that run the entire course of your life, on those assumptions, whether you recognise it or not. And if you get the assumptions wrong, or even if you leave them incomplete, you’re going to pay a big price for it.
See also The Naturalist and the Supernaturalist.
The Jaws of Hell. H R Giger
H R Giger has died… Aged 74.
By all accounts Giger was Possessed.
He gloried in Satanism and perversion.
His creations preyed on Humanity like Spiders eating flies.
He turned his God’given talents to Infernal ends.
Though he is Dead, his works will Go on Freaking the S#%t out of Generations to come, and inspiring other Devil worshippers, Nihilists, and Teens.
I dont know if it’s true or not yet I remember hearing a story once, that Giger sent some his works by plane for an exhibition to somewhere, yet they were stopped at the boarder by Customs officers concerned that they were photographs of Hell.
When I say ‘by all accounts’…. I simply mean that these are the impressions his art has left upon me… yet I cant deny that his works have always fascinated me from the first moment I saw them… I think it was in Playboy.
There is pleasure in sin.
His artwork appeals to all things Ungodly and Carnal which inhabits Human nature.
He capitalised upon our fear of the unknown.
Yet in the Final Judgement will he be Deemed to have been a ‘trend setter’ or the Ultimate follower and slave?
By this I mean that when I hear some Rap songs, or watch Family guy, or See my fellow Bloggers Death Metal Tube vids…. setting aside their obvious artistic talents… I get the intuitive insight that these artists are a sort of ‘Knee jerk reaction’ to an overbearing ‘Christian society’… and as being an actual selling of ones soul to everything which is Base in Human Nature… ie that far from being Leaders … with the masses following in their wake, these Modern Art forms are the ultimate surrender to the pop Trend existent in Humanity since Adam ate the Forbidden fruit….the desire to escape morality and plunge head long into the abyss.
They are the ultimate conformists.
I think they consistently demonstrate the Ultimate destination for a society in decline…. a society which has Utterly rejected Christian Cosmology… and represents a Climax…. a result far worse than Nihilism (which may be said to be represented by Abstract Impressionism)….
The ultimate end of this Decent is one step further… intentional Hell and depravity.
Pro-actively Malignant Soul rather than a more Neutral Nihilism and disorder are the ultimate embodiments of Atheism… the Ultimate Anti-Christianity.
Just how Unholy and Low can Humanity stoop?
So to my way of thinking these Artists represent a Free fall… not an Heroic assent.
Satanism is Trendy Cool these days.
I don’t expect my comments will be very popular with Giger’s Fans… the legions whom enjoy his depravity.
It feels kinda weird to be writing such a moralizing criticism, considering I enjoy his Art myself.
I am doing my best to try and understand how he fits into the grand scheme of things, and why his Bizarre Subject Matter has such appeal to Carnal souls.
Gigers Art… Like Seth MacFarlane’s Cartoons, Feed upon every vile lust and Mockery of Holiness, which dwell within us.
Their popularity is a testament to the extent of our social moral decay.
It bothers me that I enjoy them… It evidences my own spiritual condition.
I dont accept the excuses that entertaining ‘Art’, Acting, or Humour makes the Perverse and depraved acceptable.
Why do human beings find Circus Gladiators, or Feeding Christians to the Lions, Or Gore Movies ‘entertaining’???
Surely this Psyche is a testament to the truth of the Bible which say Humanity is a Fallen race of beings.
The biggest shock that guys like Giger, and Maynard James Keenan will get when they stand before God is how deceived they were about every thing they did.
They thought they were the embodiment of Freedom and innovation, when ultimately their works are a testament to their absolute slavery to sin.
May God have mercy upon his Soul… and mine.
Tim Wikiriwhi
Read more…
Poster child for Atheism…Hannibal Lecter.
Mankind is on the verge of creating Sentient artificial intelligence? BULLSHIT!
It amazes me just how ridiculous are the myths of Materialism!
That all life forms are the result of mindless accidents.
That ‘unguided’ evolution can change a worm into a human with the ‘magic wand’ of time.
Etc Etc.
And this fundamental superstition of Materialist Naturalism has multitudes of whacky spin-offs… one being that Human consciousness is simply a product of a complex arrangement of atoms.
Following this rationale we end up with Sci-fi movies like the Terminator, whereby Machines have become self aware and decide that Humanity needs to be eradicated.
Now while I like a good sci-fi movie, It is tragic that the computing scientific community have been making such bold claims that they are on the verge of creating Humanoid Artificial intelligence, and are proposing such absurd moral dilemmas as granting their created so-called smart machines ‘Rights’!
Check out this link >>>> ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is already here. But how will the singularity, or the point at which machines achieve sentience be received by humanity?
How they can say such things with a straight face…. and why legions of otherwise intelligent people actually believe these are serious Moral questions which are eminent is a testimony to just how unfathomably deep their faith in Materialism really is!
They seem to accept the Idea that consciousness is merely a product of material complexity as axiomatic… only questioned by religious nutters who cling to primitive notions of a Super-natural reality.
Forget the fact that the latest scientific discoveries in Physics actually proves that our universe is not absolute, but finite, and that therefore a more primary reality *must exist*, and from which our universe was caused.
And the latest discoveries in scientific understanding of the Brain is also rendering Atheist materialism more and more absurd…. and exploding any delusions that Humanity is about to create sentient computer-beings.
Read the following….
Human brain has more switches than all computers on Earth.
Researchers at Stanford develop a new imaging method that enables visualization in unprecedented detail of the myriad connections between nerve cells in the brain.
The human brain is truly awesome.
A typical, healthy one houses some 200 billion nerve cells, which are connected to one another via hundreds of trillions of synapses. Each synapse functions like a microprocessor, and tens of thousands of them can connect a single neuron to other nerve cells. In the cerebral cortex alone, there are roughly 125 trillion synapses, which is about how many stars fill 1,500 Milky Way galaxies.
These synapses are, of course, so tiny (less than a thousandth of a millimeter in diameter) that humans haven’t been able to see with great clarity what exactly they do and how, beyond knowing that their numbers vary over time. That is until now.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have spent the past few years engineering a new imaging model, which they call array tomography, in conjunction with novel computational software, to stitch together image slices into a three-dimensional image that can be rotated, penetrated and navigated. Their work appears in the journal Neuron this week.
To test their model, the team took tissue samples from a mouse whose brain had been bioengineered to make larger neurons in the cerebral cortex express a fluorescent protein (found in jellyfish), making them glow yellow-green. Because of this glow, the researchers were able to see synapses against the background of neurons.
They found that the brain’s complexity is beyond anything they’d imagined, almost to the point of being beyond belief, says Stephen Smith, a professor of molecular and cellular physiology and senior author of the paper describing the study:
One synapse, by itself, is more like a microprocessor–with both memory-storage and information-processing elements–than a mere on/off switch. In fact, one synapse may contain on the order of 1,000 molecular-scale switches. A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth.
Read more >>>Here<<<
You would think that this *unbelievable complexity* would be the Death Nell for Atheism and the theory of Evolution… yet of course it’s not because These superstitions are not Objectively held beliefs…. not founded at all upon science but upon the unfounded and now thoroughly archaic dogmas of Materialist Naturalism.
Thus they are impervious to such discoveries.
All their claims to being empirical and scientific being absolute Bunk…. a great lie designed to fool the masses into believing that Theism is anti-science.
Well The Brain is infinitely more complex than any AI experiments which are going on… to get anywhere near their goal would take all the computing power in all the world!
And even then you still have the problem of drawing consciousness out of a stone!
No own would suggest that the Internet is a conscious entity even though it is connected to hundreds of millions of computers… yet that is exactly what the Materialist dogma believes about consciousness…
To the Monist materialist Free will must be illusory… and that is their answer to every reality which does not fit into their Naturalistic Paradigm.
Thus they are trapped in prison of their own device.
They are so naive as to claim that belief in anything which stands outside the reaches of science is superstition, when in reality to be so gullible as to believe all reality must fall within the scope of science is childish in the extreme… it’s patent stupidity!
Thus the more I contemplate the ideas and beliefs on which atheism is founded the more I marvel at how silly it really is.
I know that really most people choose to be atheists because they absolutely hate the Idea that there might be a God who will one day judge them for how they lived their lives.
As A Bible believing Christian Science is my best friend!
It becomes easier to believe in God by the Day.
My explanatory power of my Dualistic Cosmology increases and is strengthened… The Gap of the Atheist is shrinking to an infinitesimal point.
The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God!
I wish I knew how to present these truths in a less confrontational manner.
I worry that instead of appreciating my honesty, many of my Atheist readers will harden their hearts… because they dont like being called Idiots.
The thing is that I sincerely seek to wake people up to the gigantic scam which has been perpetrated in the name of science and reason!
And that the most foolish thing to do is stubbornly maintain such a delusional belief system… out of sheer Vanity.
The Smartest thing to do is to abandon the lie and embrace the truth…. no matter how hard that is to do, no matter how your friends and family will react to your ‘conversion’.
Yes the world system is designed to persecute anyone brave enough to step out of line.
Yet let me tell you that following the truth is the most rewarding thing you can ever do!
The Truth is that Life does have Meaning, and value, and purpose!
There is Hope!
morality is Real!
etc etc.
And the Greatest truth of them all is that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, and that he has already provided the way to be saved and restored to fellowship with God our Father… and that Salvation is Free!
My testimony has been to set an example that Christianity is not a form of slavery… but liberation!
God does not want you to become a fake…
He wants you to be an honest and trusting person living under his grace.
Becoming a Christian is a walk with God in which you do transform… into a better and better *You*.
God created us all unique for his purposes.
He dose not want a bunch of card board cut-out Robots.
He wants you to reach your full potential and to ‘shine as a light in the darkness’…
Click>>> The Gospel of God’s Grace.
Tim Wikiriwhi
Protestant, 1611 King James Bible believer, Dispensationalist, Libertarian
Read More From Me…. Science goes Ga Ga! The Spirit Temple-Material Interface. The Human Brain.
Nyctophilia: Hiding in the Dark….
The Rusty Cage: Scientism…
Pasteur’s Law, Creation Science vs Nose Bone Atheism.
Monism: Evolutionary Psychology and the Death of Morality, Reason and Freewill.
Poster child for Atheism…Hannibal Lecter.
Biomimicry… Plagiarizing God’s designs.
The False Deity Called Evolution.
Planet of the Apes…whateva. 1Tim6vs20
Faith, Science, and Reason. The Pomposity of Atheism.
The Ludicrous Claims of Evolution! Why not ESP?
Russell’s Teapot really refutes Atheism not Theism!
Atheism has no basis for Rights… or Morals.
Wheels of Confusion
What is rationality? (Part 2)
What is rationality? The truth is, it’s something that most of us don’t actually have.
But we sure like to kid ourselves.
Here’s a quote I saw on Facebook from someone called Deidra Mae Ryan.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately that a lot of homosexuals and their supporters consistently state that God made them this way and that it isn’t a biblical or church issue its a human rights issue.
I keep coming back to the fact that if God had intended homosexuality to be natural then he would’ve made it possible for us to procreate without the need of the opposite sex AND then why did God only create 1 woman and 1 man in the beginning. Then there is the fact that God destroyed 2 major cities in part due to homosexuality, Sodom and Gomorrah. If God had intended for homosexuality to be part of our natural being then why destroy those cities?
Personally I believe people get so steeped in their sin that they have blinders on and refuse to see the truth. I see it over and over, not just with sexual sins. They don’t want to see and admit that they are wrong. What’s more, is that it’s our human nature to justify all our wrong choices, even if that means we make up our own truth…case in point – Homosexuals and their supporters coming up with every excuse in the book to justify the choice of homosexuality.
We all do it with our own individual sins.
Please note that this is not a judgement on homosexuals and homosexuality. I’m also not convinced that Ryan’s logic is sound. I post this for her conclusion, “I believe people get so steeped in their sin that they have blinders on and refuse to see the truth …” This is so very true.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. (KJV)
It’s also very true that people get so steeped in their own particular worldview and its presuppositions that they have blinders on and refuse to see the truth.
For a long time, I accepted the tenets of atheistic materialism. They seemed obviously true. And I rejected the tenets of Christianity. They seemed obviously false. And I had plenty of arguments with which to ably defend my worldview. But then I thought about what I was doing. Doing exactly that. Using rational argument to defend a worldview I already had. As opposed to putting all my presuppositions aside and taking all the arguments, both for and against theism, together and on their own merits, to see where they would lead (if, in fact, they lead anywhere).
[People] don’t want to see and admit that they are wrong. What’s more, is that it’s our human nature to justify all our wrong choices, even if that means we make up our own truth.
Man is not the rational animal. He’s the rationalising animal.
I acknowledge that I am generalising from my own intellectual habits to those of others, but I think that it’s legit to do so. I figure that other people have corrupt minds like mine.
I suggest that for the most part we all believe our own bullshit. Unashamedly.
I strive for intellectual honesty. I’ve recently reviewed many of the arguments for and against God’s existence, and tried to leave my ideological baggage at the door. I used to find the Design Argument unsatisfying inconclusive. Now I find it disconcertingly suggestive! I used to have serious doubts about God’s existence. Now I have serious doubts about his non-existence!
My Humean scepticism has stood me in good stead. I realise that man can truly know nothing based on reasoning from his limited sense data alone, unless he posits the existence of a guarantor, e.g., God. This was Descartes’ way out of radical scepticism. God’s existence is taken to be axiomatic. Yes, it’s a bootstrapping method of escape. But so are all the others, e.g., positing a uniform and self-sufficient Nature, which is one of the methodological axioms of science and a metaphysical axiom of scientism.
From the perspective of an atheistic materialistic worldview, the tenets of the atheistic materialistic worldview make sense. But from the perspective of a Christian worldview, the tenets of the Christian worldview make even more sense. But not, perhaps, until one has adopted that very perspective.
How’s that for a rationalisation of my religious conversion? 😉
See also What is rationality (Part 1)
Disasters waiting to happen #2
Say what you mean, and mean what you say. It’s good advice!
But there’s a problem, one which I addressed in a footnote to the post linked to above. We use words to say what we mean and mean what we say. The problem is that any given word can have more than one meaning or “sense”.
Consider the following three quotations about rights.
From the founder of Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham.
That which has no existence cannot be destroyed — that which cannot be destroyed cannot require anything to preserve it from destruction. Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense — nonsense upon stilts.
From blogger Mark Hubbard (channelling the inimitable Ayn Rand).
my thinking on children is they have no rights per se – don’t take that out of context – as they don’t have the experience or formed minds to exercise judgement.
From Thomas Jefferson, author of the American Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
The question is, are these three great thinkers actually (for the most part) disagreeing with each other? Or are they (for the most part) talking past each other? I think they’re talking past each other, because they’re not talking about the same thing.
There is a fix. We can talk about Benthamite rights, Randian rights and Jeffersonian rights, and avoid talking about rights sans qualification. But what a chore to have to do that!
Wouldn’t it be nice if words had univocal meanings? But they don’t. Ambiguity in language is a modern-day Tower of Babel.
I don’t know when ambiguity of meaning crept in to our language(s). But when it did, it was a disaster waiting to happen.