life

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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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“Part one: Is God Real?”


What do the numbers tell us?

     There are many references to population growth rates. Some show that the world population is growing faster today than in the past, but will slow as we move into the years ahead. Different countries have different rates. It can get confusing. However, the best over time average reference that I have found that fits the past growth rate is .456. The intent is to find approximately when the population on Earth first began.

     If we take into account today’s global population and utilize this growth rate, we find that approximately 4500 years ago there would have only been two people living. The Bible tells us that 4365 years ago that would have been eight. Noah, his wife and their three sons and their wives.

     The Bible tells us that the earth, at least what is important to mankind going back to Adam and Eve, is approximately 6021 years old. What happened to all the people that lived those first 1656 years?

     This brings up the question, what is wrong with the mathematical formula? However, science tells us it is correct based on all factors including wars and catastrophic events. Is our knowledge of the current global population wrong? I don’t think so.  

     Using this population growth formula that points back 4500 years, to the flood of Noah’s time, we should be able to assume that the Bible timeline is correct. Can you imagine, Noah must have been a visionary, or he was truly directed by God. Noah spent 100 years building that great big boat. The level of scorn and embarrassment he would have faced would have been immense. The Bible tells us that up until the flood, it had never rained, that the plants and trees were watered from below and from the dew above. So why build a boat that large, spend 100 years of your life doing it, and put up with the ridicule of those that watched if God didn’t direct you to build it? Was Noah crazy, or did he believe everything God told him?

     Some will tell us that this information was written by man and there is no way to prove the accuracy or authenticity of it. However, in research, we find that one of Noah’s sons, Shem, later to be called Melchizedek, was the High Priest to Abraham. Shem would have known not just Abraham, but Issac and Jacob and possibly Levi. Moses, the supposed author of Genesis, would have been well informed about all the events leading up to the flood as well as the events after.

     For one to discredit the biblical writings, it is important to utilize everything in our science tool bag, take into account what is written in the Bible, and then determine where to place our faith. The population numbers point toward a truthful Bible. So is God real? Science continues to find that something or someone started it all. Is God the one that science keeps pointing towards that started everything in motion?

Is God real? Where should one choose to place their faith?

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What are the Chances


     Just what are the odds of some event happening somewhere back in time setting in motion everything we see? The plants, animals, fish, birds and even the insects and of course us humans came from something or someplace. Something started it.

     The scientifically accepted law of probability which is called Borel’s law of probability, states that the odds of anything happening would have to be better than 1 out of 10 to the 50th power. That is a lot of zeros. However, one might think anything is possible if it is just one point below this. It is stated by some of the very influential evolutionist that for things to evolve from some random something happening would be most difficult. Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell stated the odds would be 1 in 10 to the 2,000,000 power. One now believing creationist – Dr. Harold Morowitz a biophysics from Yale – states the chances of evolution happening as we are taught in our schools is 1 chance out of 10 to the 340,000,000.

     Putting this in simple words. Based on scientific numbers, the odd’s of evolution happening all by itself, no help, no one starting it, is impossible based on the odds given by the scientific world.

The question we should ask is:

It’s not what started everything, it’s who started everything?

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Numbers, Numbers, Numbers


     When we look at numbers, we expect them to represent something that is factual, or in some cases prove something is incorrect. It could be the price, maybe the size, the quantity, a date or maybe a weight. How many times have we all looked at our weight and said, “something is wrong?” However, when math is correctly applied, numbers tell us something. It’s how we react to the result that is important.

     We would all agree that 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 10+10=20. We would say that 2+4+20=26. What would be the answer if we write 1+10×2=? Would the answer be 22 or 21? We always do the multiplication first then addition so the answer would be 21. But if it is solved in the order it is written, the order that it happened, how it is written down, it is 22.

     As long as we do our math the way we learned at school, the resulting answer is true. It is what we believe we understand that we should take a long hard look at. What if at the beginning of all time, before there was anything, our number 1 actually represented something less than 1 or possibly something just less than 2. Using today’s math to solve the science behind the beginning of everything, our results would be different today than what really happened in the beginning. The point is that we don’t know what things were like when it all began. Like how long was a day? A day could not exist until there was light and darkness. Generally, we take our best shot at it using today’s environment as the benchmark.

     We build math models and run experiments to prove that a math equation is correct. If the result fits the math model, then the math/theory is correct, based on performing the experiment under conditions as we understand them. In the area of dating methods, it isn’t which dating method we use, it’s the influential conditions during the formation of the item we are dating. The question we should be asking is; were the conditions on earth always like they are today? The sun is needed for radiation to take place. If conditions were different on earth or within earths general location in space, how would this affect these dating methods? While our method’s of dating things do work mathematically, they are based on the Sun’s influence as far as radiometric dating goes.

     So where are we going with this? If something is assumed, but not known, the number possibly rounded up or down before the calculation is done, then the outcome is not completely true. Just knowing the percent of error can make a big difference in how we comprehend what we see, how positive we feel about what we learn.

      Let’s look at time, which by the way is the fourth dimension. The first three in science are length, width, and height. Actually, science calls out up to ten dimensions as they strive to find answers to how everything began. We won’t go into them here, but if we were to take a look at String Theory, the Black Hole, and even the theory of Quantum Physics, we would find that these dimensions play a big role. Without time, nothing would be here, including each of us. We can dig deeper into this at a later date.

     The point behind this is that if we were not there in the beginning, then we don’t know, we just set up the criteria as best we can based on what we have learned. The solutions we search for are a theory just because we do not know what conditions were like, especially when we start out with the assumption that there was nothing to begin with. If there was something in the beginning, then where did it come from? The logical argument is; it was something or someone that started it all. Science tells us that we must have a logical solution. Just like in science where someone puts the experiment together and hits the start button. Maybe we should recognize that someone hit the start button that started it all, not something. If it was just something then it was there and how did it get there from nothing.

     In conclusion, the question; why does “science” continue to argue against creation, the information written in the Bible, the one by God. It really needs to be answered. What is the reasoning behind it, if it was really God who started it all? If it was God, then he has to be the Greatest Scientist of all time that we should be happy to take guidance from.

The key point to remember is:

It takes “Faith” to believe in evolution just like it takes “Faith” to believe in God. It’s where we choose to place our “Faith” that is important.

 

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Science and God – Compatible or Not?


       So much can be said on this topic. I also find many times it’s hard to find the truth. So often we feel we have spent serious time investigating and doing research, especially in the science world, and because of this, we have an opinion that we feel is factual. But is it? Most or at least many people believe that science if the process of proving something as true. When in reality, it is the process of proving a theory as false. If we explore what science really is, we can find the following written explanation.

  • The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.
  • All scientific knowledge is tentative and provisional, and nothing is final. There is no such thing as a final proven knowledge in The currently accepted theory of phenomenon is simply the best explanation for it among all available alternatives.

       The first observation we can make is that to study the systematic structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment, we are limited to what we have to work from. Our knowledge is based on what we learn from others, and also what we learn from our own efforts. It is based on what we have to start with or what we presuppose were the conditions. We have our earth which we can make determinations firsthand, the universe which we can make some determinations firsthand, but much of it is strictly a possible observation. Using the scientific word, a ‘Theory.’

       What could have been different back at the beginning of everything? If we really want to gain an understanding of this, we should take into account all information available to us. We also need to recognize observation number two above: ‘all scientific knowledge is tentative and provisional’

       If we take both observations into consideration, we could realize that when things all got their start, that everything was different than what we see and understand today. Some scientists tell us that everything started from nothing. However, I know of nothing observed coming from nothing. This leaves this as strictly a theory and should never be accepted as an absolute fact. We hear from the science world that a ‘Big Boom’ is responsible. There is the ‘String Theory’ and other theories that are based on something from nothing, but each needs something to be a viable theory. So where did this something come from?

       Maybe if we took into account what was told to us in the first few words of the Bible, we could find possible answers to many things observed. This would change how our dating of things found on earth are not correct. This is also supported by every scientific theory presented, that everything observed today was different in the past. Why would we use today’s atmospheric conditions to date things we assume are millions of years old. The conditions were different. If we utilize any of the aging processes, it is based on the half-year analogy, and this is based on conditions we observe today.

       The question I would propose to everyone is what is the motivation to exclude God as a possible creator, the one that set everything in motion? Sometimes I think that people are so detailed in their thinking that they accept only what they can see and understand. So many don’t like the idea of someone being greater than themselves. Therefore, the exploration of the idea/theory that God is real, utilizing science, is generally not put to the test, except by a few. However, to my knowledge science has never disproved a theory that God is the creator. In reality, the theory of the ‘Big Boom or String Theory,’ still requires that someone or something put these thing in motion.

       This leaves us at a point today that if you cannot disprove it, it should be observed as a fact until someone else can disprove it. This is my understanding of “Evolution’ and why it is believed by so many as the explanation to how everything began. But wait, if I cannot disprove evolution, and I cannot disprove God, then both are true. Maybe God did start everything and utilized forms of evolution over the years as part of His plan. My opinion is that God is the greatest Scientist of all time, and in so many ways, science continues to prove this. Because no one has seen God, and no one has observed the Big Bang happening all by itself. Then I believe that this drives the following conclusion. It takes faith to accept either. I guess it is a question of:

“Where do I place my Faith?”

Mine is in God!
Continue reading →

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What is “Truth”


     In the world of Science, Faith, and Religion, we can find ourselves facing the monumental task of determining what the real “Truth” is. To take a real objective view of the question, “what is the truth,” we need to identify what we understand each stands for.

Question one: What is Religion?

      It is the belief in God, a god, or in a group of gods. It is the organization of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship God, a god or group of gods. It is an interest, belief, or activity that is very important to a person or a group of people.

Question Two: What is Faith?

     It is a strong belief or Trust in someone or something. It is a belief in the existence of God or a strong religious feeling of our beliefs. It is a system of religious beliefs.

Question three: What is Science?

     It is knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observations. It is a particular area of study, such as biology, physics, chemistry, or any particular branch of science. It is a subject that is formally studied in school, college, and universities.

     Breaking down the key three elements that play such a significant role in who we are, what we become, how we believe, and how we react to situations in life, we find that they all cross what we might call “boundaries of life.” Science plays such a critical role in our lives. It has advanced the medical world to levels one sometimes stands in amazement of. The automation world, and most important to most of us, the communications world. The advancement of the phones, smartphones, computers, including the internet, has changed lives. We google a location and trust that we will arrive at that place if we follow the map provided. We choose to place our faith in that search we initiated. If you have had happened to you what I have, it has sometimes been misguided, and I ended up someplace different than planned. However, as these applications advance, they get better at guiding us where they believe you are planning to go based on what you were searching for.

     We have defined a simple way of how science and faith work together, but how does religion fit into this. If religion is a form of interest, belief, or activity that is important to us, then science and faith become a religion by definition. If one believes that a specific area of science is factual, or that a specific application is perfect, then by placing our faith in it, it becomes a form of religious belief. I’m not trying to push the envelope here, I’m just using how each of the three elements of life is defined.

     What is most interesting is that we have so many “Religious” beliefs in this world, it becomes hard to define which of them hold the “Truth.” We have so many advancements, findings (both supporting and negating), and discoveries in the science world, especially in the areas of who we are and how everything began, which of them do we hold as “Truth.” This put’s “Religion” as defined right in the middle. This brings us back to the question, what is “TRUTH?”

     Where do we place our faith? Is it in God, or some other defined definition of god, or in our science’s and how they are defined and taught? It takes faith to believe in God, or any god, just as it takes faith to believe in only what is proven by science.

     If we look at little deeper at science, we find that it is a process of defining a theory and then using scientific experimentation to prove the theory wrong. It is not an attempt to prove it correct. If it cannot be proven wrong, it can then be seen as true with no proof behind it until someone comes along and proves it wrong. Faith now becomes a strong ingredient in science. With “Faith” as an ingredient in science, it becomes a way of believing and becomes a “Religion.”

     What is more important, is the foundation of this short discussion. How do we know what to believe, where to place our faith, what religious belief we will follow? Just what is true, what can we hang our hat on, what can we stake our life’s beliefs on?

“What is Truth”

     I hope you will follow me down this road of discovery as we attempt to utilize science to evaluate and define who we are and how this all could have begun.

 

“To be continued.”

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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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Should we ask ourselves – Just What If?


What if? What if everyone that has ever lived in this world had never asked the question – what if? To just accept and never question should eliminate the required thinking part of our brains. We only would need enough brain that our body would function a little like how our heart works and we never have to tell it to beat, it just happens. But we can think if we choose too. The world is flat? But someone questioned that idea and guess what, it’s round. If one never questioned a thing, would there be any new inventions, cures for diseases, actually anything outside of what just happens on it’s own? So we could agree that using the word “IF” is an essential part of our life. It adds clarity to how we view thing, what we use, what we eat, and etc. So what if the world is not as you believe it is. Across this world we live in, we continue to see the evil that people do. Most of the time when someone does evil they truly believe the other deserves what they get. There is also good being done but we so often only hear about the bad on consistent basis. If you don’t ask or look for the good you generally never hear about it unless you stumble onto it. It make little difference what ethnic race you are, or if you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or someone that doesn’t believe in any god, evil affects us all. As this world we should all love spirals downward, it may just be the time to ask some important questions. Asking questions about why and then follow it up with the question “what if” could just possibly change the world we live in or at least how we view it. Here are some interesting life altering questions that maybe should be pondered.

  • What if evolution is real and no god exist? Would you say that nothing much else maters once you die? Of course most would want good things to happen but in the end, would it have any effect on the one doing the bad because he and/or she would just cease to exist. The end.
  • What if only good people that die come back as something or someone else? What is it that constitutes good? And if you are not good what happens to you? If you just cease to exist then again it has little consequence to the one that is not deemed good so they really wouldn’t care if they have no reason or desire to be good.
  • What if the god of Christianity is the real God?
  • What if the Devil is real?
  • What if there is a God of everything and a Devil trying to disrupt everything? This would explain why we have good and bad things happening no mater who is doing either.
  • What if the Bible is really full of nothing by facts?
  • What if the Islamic god of the Muslim Shiite is the real God?
  • What if the Islamic god of the Muslim Sunni is the real God?
  • What if the Sunni and Shiite God is real and it is the same God?
  • What if there is a good place and a bad place like heaven and hell we go to when we leave this world as we know it?
  • What if the Muslim god Allah is really God?
  • What if the god of Christianity and the god of Islam is truly the “God” the very “same God”?
  • What if God said “Thou shall not kill”?
  • What if we didn’t evolve and we were created by someone much bigger than we are.
  • What if God is real? Then maybe we should look up to Him and honor Him because He is far beyond our understanding and comprehension.

If God gave us the ability to make choices, He knew it could be a good choice or a bad choice. But if we didn’t have the ability to make choices, the life we live would be without purpose. If God likes us to make good choices then why do we kill in his name? Is killing a good choice in anybody’s name?

A lot of questions that so many just take for granted. But what if???? Are we ready for the decision that we have made??? Are we willing to stake it on anything other than our own personal investigation? Are we willing to take everything on what someone else tells us is the truth and never question what they say? Are we really ready for the real end result? Only one is true!

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Yielded…


The message in this post is full of passionate wisdom and worth our time to explore and ponder. Thank you Secret Angle.

The Abuse Expose' with Secret Angel

Yielded…
is a word that came to me…
meaning “let it all go”…
to be what God wants you to be.
No agenda…
not to have your own way…
but just to be obedient…
to do whatever He will say.

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