Buddhism

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Just think about it: WHAT IF?


How do we deal with the “WHAT IF’S” of life?

If I had turned right instead of left, I would have found the restaurant I sought.

If I had continued my due diligence and invested in company XYZ instead of ABC, I would have tripled my investment.

Everything would have turned out just right if I had just kept to the plan.

What if…

Those “what if’s” can drive us craze sometimes. But what about the “what if’s” we don’t even know exist? The ones we miss because things seem to be working out. We didn’t even know there was something less expensive but equal quality and functionality which would have worked better.

Sometimes we say: if I would have only known.

To deal with life to the best of our ability, we must ask ourselves the “what if” question. The more we do this, the better our life decisions will be. Too often, we don’t see what’s coming until it’s upon us. Then we stumble on and wish we had asked ourselves, what if?

Learning always to ask questions is generally learned over time. Not many people can say they just stumbled through life, and all is well. Maybe it started when you were a kid, touched something hot, and burned your finger. The next time you ask yourself, is it hot before you pick it up.

Sometimes the “what if’s” become subconscious thoughts that guide us along life’s path. Sometimes we have formed opinions and don’t want to ask questions.

So think about it. Don’t just take someone’s word about a subject. Instead, investigate it, and ask: “What if?”

What if I’m just part of the evolutionary train?

What if there is more to my life than the day-to-day grind?

What if God is real?

??WHAT IF??

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Part Two: Do we Avoid Questions on Faith


     When we’re confronted with something that questions what we believe, how do we react? Sometimes the questions are subconscious, sometimes a friend, or maybe something we see or read. Often we push the thought aside or let political correction (PC) filter into our thoughts toning down or completely stopping what we deep inside wanted to say. Being politically correct or practicing apologetic’s can gloss over an issue or a topic, causing you to miss a chance to make a difference. It often disappears as fast as it presented itself. Your chance to make an impact on yourself or others diminishes and disappears. However, taking a chance and opening up to questions will better prepare each of us. It’s part of being able to express one’s thoughts in a manner that can be understood even when the listener disagrees with you.

     One thing that is common among all people is that we acknowledge there is good and evil in this world. What is often missed is how we are born with this instinct, this internal understanding. Just as a newborn baby knows it must eat, it also knows its mother and shows love to her. You may have heard the term, “The love of a newborn.” Evolution would have us believe that this just happens over time after we are born. That we are nothing before our birth. Where do our instinct’s originate from?

     So I propose we accept a challenge. The name of this blog is called “The Think Tank.” Often I try to give examples but don’t always ask a question. So today I will make several statements and ask the question, “Where do you place your faith and why?” With an open mind, question yourself how you feel about my following statements.

  • I believe that God exists.
  • I believe that God created everything at the beginning of time.
  • I believe in micro-evolution, but totally disagree with macro-evolution.
  • I believe that it takes faith to believe in God.
  • I believe that it takes faith to believe that we just evolved.
  • I believe that the God of the Bible is the only God, the original God.
  • I believe that other beliefs have been defined/created by man for man’s purpose.
  • I believe that many want proof, scientific evidence that we were created by God before they will believe He is real.
  • I believe that those wanting this evidence fail to recognize that they have placed their faith in evolution, that God doesn’t exists, just as those that believe in God have placed their faith in Him and that He does exist.
  • I believe our men and women that explore each of our scientific fields and their statement, “That evolution is a ‘theory’ of how everything started.”

     I could continue telling you what I believe, going deeper into my journey of life, my investigation, but what should be important to each of us is the question of our faith. Where do we place it? It’s an important part of our life. Do we place it in God, some other god, or evolution/no god? To recognize and accept the fact that it takes faith is the first step to understanding who we are. When peeling back the layers, we need to push past the desires and influences of others. Taking up the quest to question your faith, to recognize you have placed it on something, to not let your current desires and what you want to believe as true sidetrack you, and you will be on the best journey of discovery you will ever take.

“Where do you place your faith and why?”

“My faith is in God”

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The Rope of “Political Correctness”


Have you ever tried to push a rope?

Have you ever tied something or even a friend to a rope and then attempt to push it in a given direction? I guess you would agree that it doesn’t work very well. However, if you pull on the rope, you at least have the chance of getting things moving in the direction you would like them to move.

A key question is:

Are you the puller of the rope or are you the one being pulled?

If you are the one being pulled, which in many cases we are all pulled from time to time, which direction are you being pulled? Are you aware of where you are headed? Do you know who you are being pulled along by? Have you peeled the layers back far enough to discover who or even why someone is pulling you?

In todays life in this country as well as many others around the world, people have been pulled in the direction of “Political Correctness” (i.e., PC). The “PC” movement is a force that is gaining momentum and goes unnoticed. It is as if it is pulling our rope and we don’t recognize that we are tied to it.

PC really is not the same thing as “Love for all.” PC keeps telling us that we should let everyone live and do as they desire. It is their choice. Live and let live. Stand to the side and say nothing. What they do won’t hurt me. We need to ask ourselves the question; But will it?

We can love someone, but do we let them jump off a cliff because they choose to do so just because it’s PC?

Now maybe everyone is not ready to jump off a cliff, but one can show love and compassion and still speak up on issues of life. It’s ok and correct to listen, to try to understand, to discuss and exchange ideas. It’s also ok to have an opinion and to speak up about it, to be heard by the minority or the majority.

Being PC should never stand in the way of doing what is right!

In the USA, 85% of the people believe in God. The people around the world that believe in God, or Allah or just in peace and the study of how to live in harmony accounts for a major amount of the worlds population. So why do we allow the “Political Correctness” to take over and pull our rope in it’s direction. It appears that small minority is in control and are changing our culture and directing what our future generations will become. All for what appears to make them feel good, that fits their agenda, their life style preferences, or their beliefs.

However, the minority has rights and should be heard. The majority also has rights and should be heard. Love and understanding should be embraced on both sides. Political Correctness should not play a role in shutting down one side or the other, even if both sides believe the other has it wrong. Peaceful protest should be allowed, however non-peaceful protest should be shunned by both side.

A question to ponder:

When will we drop the momentum of “Political Correctness” and allow love, understanding, compassion, and an openness to “Truth” to find its way back to the top?

If God is real, and I personally believe He is based on my discovery down both roads, then why should I not be taught about this in my schools today as a possibility? Schools are for learning. Just because you may not believe in God, does not mean that there is no possibly that He may exist. I would think that in either case, one would want to know both side, be allowed to make ones own decision, to be given all available information, and to make ones own discovery and choices.

It truly takes a level of faith either way. I just wanted to know as much as possible so I could place my faith where I believed it belonged and not be driven by the “PC” of this world. I want to speak up and not let “PC” get in the way of someone who should be given a chance to learn what I have learned. To gain the knowledge allowing them to make life decisions based on what they choose to believe, not on what someone else tells them to believe.

So ask yourself:

Will you listen and share?

Will you look for “Truth”? 

or

Will you stay in a comfort position remaining
“Politically Correct – PC”?

 

 

 

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Reflecting on Life


When I look back on my childhood, taking the time to evaluate my life, or maybe I should say the areas that I wrapped my arms around and embraced and those that I didn’t, it brings great joy and in some cases a level of sadness. Turning the clock back to my childhood, growing up on the farm during the 50’s and 60’s with little spare cash, just enough to get by with and sometimes not even that much, I had a good life that taught me more than I ever gave it credit for.

Graduating High School in 1968 while the Viet Nam war was in full swing, seeing many of my friends serving there and returning home not the same person, some in a box, some missing limbs, but mostly changed personalities due to the effects of the war, was a difficult time.

Getting married at age nineteen, building our first house at age twenty, becoming a father at age twenty-one, were huge steps in life for me.

The foundation learned as a youth growing up was never lost, only forgotten for many years. Saddened by so much I had witnessed as a youth and my mid-teenage years in the religious arena, set my life path in motion. Determination set in, a drive to enjoy life, to become financially sound, to take a stand against all that didn’t fit into my version of faith, all began while still in high school.

Working my way up the ranks of my first job, I worked hard. I took on two jobs in those early years trying to earn what I felt was required to be a good provider. Then becoming licensed in the electrical trade and eventually starting our own company my life was very busy. Between work, family and fun, I had my hands full. Then my eyes were opened to the rest of the world when I took a new job in 1986. Being able to travel to many parts of the world, I began to see and feel the effects that war really has. To be close to war, hearing how others dealt with war both old and new, grasping the many religious faiths and beliefs including those that have no belief in God, it kicked in motion my past and the emotions caused me to re-evaluate my understandings of life.

So what does this mean in the grander scheme of things? It shows that from childhood on, our lives and personalities are set in a direction and become altered as we continue to age, grasping new information, learning about others we cross paths with. The real question is; do we allow ourselves the freedom to open our mind and explore what we see and hear? Or do we remain set in our ways determined not to allow change? Do we even recognize that we are closed to anything that may disrupt our desires and beliefs in life?

For me, I spent the time to re-evaluate my past, examine what I had learned and experienced, and to wrap my arms around what I believe this life is all about. I worked hard to eliminate the mental blocks that so often accompanies our attempt to truly understand, disabling any rational outcome. What I found was that I could make a decision for myself, placing my faith in what I had come to understand. While it was influenced by many, it was in the end, my choice, my decision, my beliefs.

So there’s this lingering question

When was the time you slowed down long enough, shoved the distraction aside, threw out the external influences of those that educate with an agenda whether religious or non-religious or educational and dug deep enough that you allowed yourself the freedom to choose where you have placed your faith?

One of the biggest things I learned along this adventure is that it takes faith to believe in life, it takes faith to believe what it is all about. It takes faith to believe in God or to not believe in God. It takes faith to believe in the direction we choose for our lives.

Where is your faith placed?  

 

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No God? – God? – Allah? – What God?


I’m not a Theologian, Pastor, Rabi, Priest, an Iman or any form of religious leader including any form of leader in this world that believes there is no God. I’m just a regular person that does not let skin color, race or anything else enter into my ability to ask questions and think for myself.

The asking of challenging question can be a difficult task especially when we are asking ourselves. Many time we do not wish to hear anything outside of what we believe to be true. To truly understand we must open our minds if we truly desire the truth.

Please read on, give this some thought and you draw your own conclusions.

Is the God of the Muslim belief, is the God of Islam and the God of Christianity the God of the Bible the same God? There are many debates on this, but for just this instant let’s say they are.

If God is who He said He is and God sent or enlightened his Prophets to inform each of us how to live our life, then He cared for everything he created which includes all men, women, and children around the world. If Jesus said to love your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself and Muhammad said to kill everyone that does not believe as I do, then who do you want to believe?

Remember it takes “Faith” to believe either way.

So who do you want to believe? Where do you place your faith?

Do I believe the One that teaches love everything I have created including all men, women, and children – or – do I believe the one that teaches kill men, women, and children that don’t believe as I do?

This is a hard question for some to answer because of the abuse so many have encountered in their lives. However, does it makes any difference who you are, what country you live in, what color your skin is, or how you were raised. All abuse has been handed down by the “hand of man.” If you are a Christian or a Muslim, if you hand down cruelty and hatred, you are not doing what God wants you to do.

Only “WE” can make a difference. It starts as an individual then to our family then to our friends then to the rest of the world.

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Breaking it Down – “Evolution” or “God”


Did we Evolve? Who is God? Is He Real?

Great questions and worthy of investigation by everyone even if one doesn’t believe there is a God of any type. It’s always positive to explore open-mindedly something just for the sake of knowing if you’re right in the beliefs and understandings you currently hold.

Breaking it Down

  • If the world and everything we see, feel, hear, and smell happened by way of evolution then it all start “somehow” at “some time” in the past.
  • Something cannot be made out of absolutely nothing? I expect that human knowledge will tell us that we need something to start with.
  • If the evolutionary theory is actually how everything started, it needed something to begin with just to get started regardless of what took place that began the formation of everything.
  • Where did this come from? Just who or what could have provided these things?
  • To find out who or what could have done these things we should, I would think, go back as far in time as humanly possible.

Food for Thought

When the sciences are exploring and working to find the origin of time, when and how things originated, or how old things are, they go back as far as they can to identify the age and origination. With no documentation available that is dated millions or billions of years ago, it leads one to speculate. Experiments and testing must be done based on the assumption of what we believe things were like when it all began. However, something must have been in existence if we believe something cannot come from nothing. If we have any documentation, we should utilize it and prove or disprove its truth and not just say yes it is or no it isn’t.

Breaking it Down a Little More

  • The oldest book that ever was written was/is the Bible.
  • Who wrote it? It was written by man as all books are written by some man or woman. So human desires and human error can come into play.
  • If the oldest book that was ever written tells us that God created everything from the very beginning of time, then how do we know that the Bible is an authentic book inspired by God?

Food for Thought

If you were to read a novel or some story that has several books that tell the complete story, like a trilogy, would you read only the first book or first couple books and make up your own ending? Most of all, would you know the real outcome of the story? No, it would be your version of the ending.

Breaking it Down Again

  • If one should be of some faith that believes in God (i.e., Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc.), or even an atheist who believe in no god, then wouldn’t it be a good idea to read the entire book to see if there are truths written in it? Shouldn’t we want to check out every reference noted in the book exploring to see if it has the possibility to be factual? If we place our lives outcome in what we choose to put our faith in, and it does take faith to believe in God, some god or no god, then we should desire to know the truth and there is only one way to find it.

A little more Food for Thought

If one was to write a scientific paper on any topic in the science world, would you read only part of a book and complete your paper? Would you read the entire book and finish your paper? Would you research other writings on the subject and complete your paper? If your desire is to convince people from all walks of life to take what you have written as factual, then you need to address all possibilities showing that you have done research on each area.

So what is this all about?

If God is real and he started everything regardless of how it started, then there is only one God, the God that started it all regardless of what you call Him. If the Bible is truthful and it states, “In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth,” then science should always take this into consideration. If the Bible is real, regardless of the fact that it was written by the hands of humans, then one should utilize and research the complete story. We should look at everything that was written in the Bible hundreds and even thousands of years before it actually took place. One should not stop at the end of some chapter and write conclusions based on one’s own desired outcome.

My Conclusions

I believe that science works very hard and has so much to offer. I also believe that God is real and that there is only one God. I believe that if science would utilize what is written in the Bible as a possible foundation for how everything started, using all available technologies and findings, they will find that it offers an explanation that can be proven scientifically. I believe that man, religious man, and scientific man, has made many rules and regulations just to satisfy their desired outcome. The only reason I can comprehend is that they crave power and control over people. Maybe it’s just to add some level of comfort to themselves based on something that someone else has told them they were wrong about or something someone has told them they had to do, someone’s rules and regulation.

While I will not tell you what you should believe, I can tell you what I believe.

I believe that God is real, that there is only one God, that He created everything and that He made a very excellent place for each of us to live. I believe He created man and woman with a mind and gave us the ability to make decisions for ourselves. I believe that He never planned or wanted to be a dictator of how or where we place our faith. I believe that what is written in the Bible is truthful, factual, and it can be proven when one seriously looks at all of it. Everything that was predicted within the Bible, excluding the single last prediction, has been proven to have taken place including the story of Jesus. I believe that man has taken it upon himself to mess up this world for his own reasoning when it was so very simple right from the beginning. We were told to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. If we would just do this, we would not kill because we love our neighbor as ourself, regardless of where our neighbor lives. We would have no need for additional man-made rules because the ones we have been given are enough to make the world live in harmony with each other.

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Breaking it Down: if we could just…


If we would allow ourselves to step outside our current life, dropping for a moment our inner thoughts, forgetting what we have been taught in our schools, our homes and step back from any religious beliefs we have, opening our mind to all we see, what would we like the world to be like?

With everything that is happening around this world, many times in the name of God, or some god, or Allah, or in the name of progressive evolution, one should wonder why. Why does man take something so simple to grasp, add his desires and then drive his agenda?  What is it that makes man’s desire to do evil, to hate, to murder?

If you are a Christian, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Christian you are to love one another.

If you a Muslim, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Muslim you are to love one another.

If you acknowledge that God exist, then you should show love to everyone.

What makes man behave as he does? What makes humans make up their own rules just to satisfy man’s own desires?

One of the most basic needs in life is to be loved by a mother or father, a brother or sister, a son or a daughter, a friend or a foe. Yes, even our enemy. If we loved our enemies and we were loved by our enemies, we would no longer have enemies. It makes no difference where in this world you live or what your beliefs are. Love enables each of us to grasp our desired happiness and defeat evil, to stop doing evil, to stop being evil.

Coming back full circle, we step back into our world realizing that love is drastically missing in so many places. We recognize that some force is driving man away from this simple principle of life. Is it intellect and a belief man has evolved and that some levels of man are greater than others? Is it the man-made rules in some religious belief that pits one against another? Is it a form of arrogance, conceit, pride or superiority that separates one from another? Is it aggressiveness versus laziness? Is it an evil force driving the wedge of hate and deceit into our lives?

This is a question we should ask ourselves?

To be loved one must show love remembering that real love is unconditional and real love expects nothing in return. If your religious belief, which includes all religions, (i.e. Christian, Muslim/Islam, Atheist, Buddhism, etc.) includes evil, hate, murder, then maybe you should rethink your religious belief and take a stand for “Love your neighbor” and bring this world back to what it was designed to be from the beginning.