Truth Logic Chapter 2

Degenerate truth is the idea that the truth exists in more than one state or form such that several different combinations of micro truths can lead to the same ultimate truth.  The micro truths can be considered relative truths.  Truth to one person is not necessarily the truth to another person.  This way each person can find and reach the ultimate truth by living according to their relative, personal truths.  This has potential if truth is a man made concept, but if truth is really ultimate reality, then it goes beyond man and exists regardless of what man considers it to be.  In this case only truth is truth, and relative, personal truths are just a false reality.  So then if we are all bound within our false realities, how can we ever see the truth?  How does one step out of their own world?  If I were looking for the ultimate reality, I would be looking for something that is based on a concept beyond mankind’s ability and natural desire.  The invented truths will be based on mankind’s understanding, experience, and desire, so we have to look for something outside of that.  An interesting thought about truth, is that it must be apparent if sought.  Ignorance and bias are blind to truth, but eventually truth is revealed to the earnest seeker.

Truth Logic Chapter 1

I will define truth to be the ultimate reality.  It exists outside of perception and influence.  It is, regardless of opinion and emotion.  Truth does not allow itself to be degenerate or in states of multiplicity.  Simply put, there can only be one truth.  Suppose there are two “potential” truths . . .  If they are not identical then they contain some disgreement.  At this point there are only two options.  Either one truth is correct, and the other is not, OR neither is correct.  By this process all “potential” truths can be negotiated until the point of saying there is no truth or there is one truth.  There is an issue with having no truth because if that is correct, then it becomes the one truth; however the one truth can not be the denial of its own existence, that would be a lie and the truth can not lie.  So I suppose the conclusion must be that there must be one truth.  Next chapter, expanding on the potential for degenerate truth and relative truth . . .

As I Sit …

. . . has come to mean a lot to me over the years.

. . . I remember how I used to help my dad out with household projects on the weekends.  There was always something, it seemed, that needed fixing.  At the time I remember feeling slightly robbed of my precious cartoon and video game time.  But as I sit and think, I also remember having many discussions – important ones – talks about the mysteries of the bible and the practicalities of life.  I also learned many lessons.  One of the biggest, perhaps most painful lessons I remember was this:  What I do will ALWAYS affect other people.  Sometimes it is as obvious as being reckless with someone’s belongings.  Sometimes it is ignorance of words or lack of appreciation.  Of course there are the good examples as well.  Going out of your way to make things easier for people.  Trying to focus on the person’s situation so that you can anticipate their needs.  The likeness of Christ is love, love that does not depend on the receiver.  Dads practice this love on their children.  I can not imagine the pain of Christ.  I can not yet imagine the pain of fatherhood, but because of the love of God the father, and the love of my father, I know that the pain must be nothing compared to the joys of having a healthy relationship.

. . . I realize that I have the opportunity to see things.  When I am doing, I have not time nor resources to notice other things.  When I sit, I can notice a fly on the wall, an intense conversation across the room, and sometimes if I sit quietly enough, I can see the glory of God.

. . . I am resting in Christ.  When I sit, I no longer support myself.  I am energized as my body rests.  I can be more relaxed as I sit, and being relaxed allows me to slow down my thoughts, filter out the extraneous stuff and really ponder the important things.  The couch has already been built and all I have to do is sit on it.  Christ is the eternal living sacrifice offered up to pay for humanities’ sin so that anyone who pursues a relationship with God may be able to have it through Jesus Christ.  Christ paid the price, and access has been granted, all I need do is rest in it.  Sitting in the grace of Jesus Christ, I am energized, no longer supporting myself, I am held by the power of Jesus Christ to overthrow sin.  When I am sitting I am vulnerable,  when I am vulnerable, there is room for God to do amazing things for His glory.  The root of my relationship with God begins . . . as I sit.

. . . here in The Barracks at Fort Special, where I currently live, I hear my roomate play the piano.  He plays songs about Jesus Christ and the things those who struggle to follow Him experience.  He sings too, and though he is not a professional vocalist, what I hear is beautiful.  “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord (Psalm something).”  It is beautiful because his heart is in it.  I join in spirit and sometimes song as well, and with one voice we communicate to our Lord and Saviour our love.  Sometimes if I close my eyes I see the Lord looking down and smiling, and if I really quiet my heart I feel the presence of the Holy Spirit . . . as I sit.

. . . I try to think of ways to have a sitting mindset all the time.  Afterall, the day to day of living often allows little time for actual sitting.  I hope I haven’t wasted this time . . . as I sit.

Bupkis

Recently a curiosity over the legitimacy of the word bupkis came up among my colleagues so I checked it out. The word bupkis or bupkiss, is a Yiddish slang expression that has something to do with beans. It comes from the word kozebupkes which actually means goat droppings. The Slavic root koz means goat and the diminutive of the Slavic root bob means beans. So the shape of the droppings and appearance brings us back to the Yiddish expression bupkis or bupkiss referring to beans. The word is defined to mean nothing, very little, zip, nil, worthless. This makes sense since beans are relatively worthless and common.

Usage in a sentence. I worked all day long and got bupkis for it. Have you ever heard the expression, “Thats just a hill of beans.” So there you have it, bupkis and beans.

On Predicting Lightning Strikes

Apparently UF and Florida Tech research has shown that lightning indeed produces x-rays. As lightning moves, it does so in 30 to 160 foot “steps” so to speak. The x-ray emissions seem to occur at the top of the step only millionths of a second apart from the actual event. At any rate, more expensive and sensitive detectors will be used in continuing research on the potential x-rays have to track and predict the movement of lightning. How about that folks. On a side note, the x-rays are a bit of a phenomenon themselves since the lightning, although 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun, is not, or should not be, able to provide the level of energy sufficient to produce x-rays. Now you may feel a little more or less intelligent then when you started reading this, in which case my job is done. Peace.

Young Death

For me death is not the scariest thing in the world, though it still ranks high on my list. People die daily, some of my friends could personally verify that, and not every death grips me emotionally, in fact most do not. The people closest to me naturally have the greatest emotional impact on me, in life and death, but the death I have the hardest time handling is young death. I was reminded of this when last week a little four year old girl, Grace Chen, died in a hospital hours after being found in the classroom of a burning day care center. Her family attends the same church I do, and though I was not close to the family, I know her face and remember seeing her. I have taught 1st through 3rd grade sunday school at church several times and thought, I would have had the opportunity to teach her in a couple of years, but it was not to be.

I thought about how much more I would have been affected if it was one of the kids in my sunday school class who one day no longer showed up. We teach these younger children about the way Christ lived His life on earth as an example for them to grow up in. We teach them about His sacrifice so that we may live eternally with God some day. We teach them so that they may know and grow to teach others. She was so young, I wonder how much a four year old knows about the gift of salvation and the meanings of sacrifice and love . . .

I prayed to God and asked Jesus to come into my heart and be with me when I was four years old . . . but what exactly did I understand? I was told that Jesus, God’s Son, came to earth and lived as a human, and died to save me. I was told that because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we were given the opportunity to be with God forever if we believed. I simply believed and wanted to accept the gift. Remembering my past encouraged me. I still wonder what the grand purpose of young death is. Perhaps for the sake of their friends and families, leading them closer to the knowledge and truth of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Apparently it has led me to this place just now.

I will admit I have shed a tear picturing the happy face of a little girl, who no longer is manifested in the physical. The temporal joy and happiness that a young child brings is tremendous, but I remember that the joy and happiness that Christ has brought is eternal, and therefore that much greater.

Thank You Lord for Your love and mercy, bring us closer to You through trying times, and may we glorify You in our reactions. Please comfort the Chen family and remind them of the grace You have poured out on them, including Grace Chen. Amen

about 3-d glasses

The magic of movies in 3d is mostly performed by the human eye.  Most people have two eyes roughly five centimeters apart horizontally and almost no vertical distance between them.  Each eye then sees a slightly different looking image.  Notice that if you hold your thumb in front of you and then close one eye and then switch to the other eye, you see two slightly different images of your thumb.  So at any rate, the brain takes the two images the eyes receive and manages to somehow calculate the 3 dimensionality of the image based on this horizontal difference between the two eyes, thus giving the average human decent depth perception.  How that works is something far more complicated than I can fathom.  Furthermore it is simply not understood yet.  So then someone figured out that depth perception is based on this horizontal difference in the images.  So someone thought that if two images were created from slightly different angles, and each eye were only allowed to see one of the images, then the brain would do its normal magical calculations and put the two images together creating a “false” depth perception.  So the rest is done with the glasses.

The two images can be created in red and blue, and then the glasses have two different lenses, one which filters only red and one that filters only blue allowing each eye to only see one image.  That is the old way, it limited the quality of color in the picture since it involves relying on the color of images to separate the images in the glasses.  The newer way is having the two images, assuming they are on a screen or projector, be polarized.  A quick bit on polarization.  Natural light is unpolarized meaning that the “waves” are oscillating in all directions, up and down, left and right, diagonally, and every way in between.  Polarized light is light that has a certain orientation, only up and down or only left and right or only diagonally etc.  So the two separate images are polarized differently.  One image is polarized vertically, and one horizontally.  Then the two lenses in the glasses are polarized also.  One only allows horizontal light to pass and the other only allows vertical light to pass.  Imagine trying to pass a horizontal bar through a vertical picket fence.  This is the basic visual example of light polarized horizontally trying to pass through a vertically polarized lens, it just will not go through.

So whether using polarized lenses and images or red/blue lenses and images, each eye only sees one image, and the images are from slightly different angles so the brain then brings the two images together and you perceive that the object is flying towards you or something nifty like that.

Ephesians 5:22 and why women don’t need to drive

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” KJV

“The wives! to your own husbands subject yourselves, as to the Lord,” YLT

“Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” ASV

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” NKJV

” You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord.” NLT

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” NIV

” Wives, {be subject} to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” NASB

Power to the man!! Right?

“Why don’t women need to drive? . . . Because there is no road between the bedroom and the kitchen.”

Power to the man!! Right?

In this seemingly male dominated society are women really viewed as inferior? I suppose it depends on who you ask.

Sometime shortly after “The Beginning,” God decided that Adam needed a suitable helper. Apparently none of the animals were capable of fulfilling this position so a woman was created from a part of the man Adam. The woman was made because it is not good for man to be alone and to be a suitable helper. I have wondered what would have happened if the woman was not made. Was Adam going to like single handedly populate the Earth? God seems to have liked the idea of being fruitful and multiplying. At any rate it ended up being man plus woman equals child.

So here comes the suitable helper about to talk to a sneaky serpent type creature . . I will go ahead and assume it was an amazingly beautiful creature with legs and stuff, the serpent type creature that is. I will also assume that the animals talk . . . and Eve falls for this ridiculous story about eating a forbidden fruit to become like God and sucks Adam into it WHAM! just like that. At this point the suitable helper was not being very helpful apparently . . . By the way, what was left to help Adam with after he finished naming all the animals? And where did this serpent fellow come from anyway, was he placed in the garden or did he find his way in?

I suppose it is not so important . . . The point is this: It seems like the first woman, Eve, really botched it up for mankind on Earth. Maybe thats why society at large seems to be so male dominated, maybe not. I suppose women could be treated as men, but I think most of them wouldn’t enjoy it very much. Usually when I try to joke with a girl like I do with a guy, someone gets upset, the girl, and I get in trouble (slapped, begrudged, lectured, ignored for an extended period of time, etc). Men and women are fundamentally different, they were created for different purposes are not the same. This does not mean that men and women are not equal though. In mathematics the word equal means that the value of two expressions is the same. (2 x 3 = 6) However six is not the same as 2 x 3. These expressions look different, and are made up of different components. One is more concise than the other, but they are equal, both achieving the same ultimate value. In the same way, as men and women we should strive for the same ultimate value, the value of a relationship with God through the saving blood of Jesus the Christ, God’s one and only begotten son. It seems God created Adam to have a relationship with and to be a steward over the earth. Eve was created because it was not good for Adam to be alone, a companion and suitable helper to share life with. (Note: it does not say suitable servant) Both have the ultimate responsibility to glorify God together and share the consequences each others actions to an extent, but also suffer individually distinct consequences since, after all, they are different people created for different roles.

That is not to say that the roles of men and women are completely distinct and clearly outlined. Some are. Men can not give birth, not yet anyway. They definitely were not meant to at any rate . . . Men can do dishes though . . . and laundry believe it or not! Actually it has been reported that there have been official sightings of women mowing lawns from time to time even. But in all seriousness though, the Bible seems to be pretty clear on the relationships between men and women in society.

Women are a precious gift and as a man striving to follow God it is your responsibility to treat them as such. As Christ-like people we are called to love one another as Christ has loved us. This means we are called to serve one another. Loving is serving. Ephesians 5:25 tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. GAVE HIMSELF FOR HER!

I don’t think there would be much of a submission issue if we focus on loving, that is, serving.

Submission can not be demanded or even requested by one who is focused on loving (serving). If something is expected in return it is not serving, it is simply a job. Jobs are for earning things, serving is for learning things. Learning things about yourself and your relationship with God and others.

At any rate, so what is the real reason why women do not need to drive? Because there should always be a gentleman offering. Unfortunately in this world the question must be phrased “Why shouldn’t women need to drive.”

Ephesians 5:28 “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.”

It might not be a horrible idea to extend that thought to brothers and sisters in Christ after all we are part of the same body and then to all people that they may know the grace of God.

read it, chew it, and then its up to you to swallow it or spit it out.