Scripture & Chess Learning; Similar Intellectual Paradigms?

Scripture vs. Chess; Similar Intellectual Challenges?

Some have regarded chess as an intellectual activity rather than as a game. Others have compared learning the ways of chess to learning trails in a forest or to a mouse learning and memorizing its way through a maze. Intellectual activity that largely involves memorization of specific historically precedented patterns as a format for execution of new activity with judgment is common to all of the above, and it may be common to learning and memorizing scripture chapter and verse.

I would like to think that all of those fundamental Christians that memorize much of the Holy Bible have the kind of minds that would make them good chess players able to memorize chess openings, middle and end games by famous players of the past. Like those that devote themselves solely to reading the Book of God, those devoting themselves to learning solely the book of chess (the historical games and patterned evolution of chess) that end up at grandmaster depth follow a comparatively closed intellectual field with a specific finite or delimited content rather than an open book such that history reading presents that is far more challenging to even survey comprehensively much less memorize.

I have learned chess the past three years as well as theology the past two and have respect for those citizens that learn chess or scripture so well they can cite games or verses accurately from memory. While I am good at finding trails through forests and memorizing ways even where there is no trail, I have been reading the Bible since I learned how to read and simply haven't learned to learn by rote memorization. Instead I have learned to survey everything available so far as possible and learn how to recover data from given locations when necessary; that wouldn't impress the authoritative Bible quoting people nor win chess matches against those who have memorized 30 forms of the Sicilian defense or Queen's gambit.

I think there are several forms of intellectual activity today. Some forms are solely mental pursuit of abstract issues while some forms involve mental activity that has mental abstractions and concentration or application immediately to real-world problems.

It is this latter field that I will comment on presently. Consider the intellectual activity of a house repainter. His thought if painting alone may include the location of every component of the work such as location of materials around the work site. The work site if in a secluded rural area with the owner absent may be free from abstract potential social interference by others. Even a car horn or dog running into a 24' extension ladder with the painter atop may cause issues. The painter needs to consider many issues abstract and a priori before they occur. He is not just like a mono-dimensional athlete on a game field who is actually a simile for a mono-dimensional chess player playing a game board. The active painter may be intellectually applying a Kantian form of synthetic a priori judgment comprising potential rain showers, spacetime weather abstractions, paint drying conditions, drying times, pant materials as primary or final applications and drying times and locations simultaneously. The intellectual activity is applied through his command and control of his body; arms and hands that may apply 3000 brush strokes to a single small home in a custom job. Financial abstractions in negotiating in a disadvantaged state, social conditions of ambient cheap labor competition for painting labor wages etc. A self-employed independent painter not established as a licensed paint contractor is quite disadvantaged-even NPR has dissed them as the clan with rave demotic falsely, and has little economic security or continuity of employment from job to job. The work engages the mind synthetically however in mind-body behavior intensely with risk even of spraying bleach mist used to remove mildew into one's eyes or lungs.

Intellectual work in purely abstract pursuits like philosophy that has similarities to history reading in tremendous, almost bottomless depth also may have contiguous academic fields with abstractions such as classical and symbolic logic that retroactively may be applied to the field with transcending transformation. It is possible to learn classical and symbolic logic to a certain depth and then use that knowledge as a filter to analyze or critically evaluate historical and philosophical ideas for accuracy. Chess tends to lack any sort of depth in that regard, although there are some tools such as exploiting square colors with oppositely colored bishops and elements of positional chess play that make it an interesting and intellectually stimulating game.

Reading scripture alone generally-although few people today become literate reading just the Bible, brings one into a world and Universe of unlimited depth. Some may stay on the surface just learning and memorizing scripture, yet its depth calls one to think about the ways that similar verses relate and inform. The Bible student inevitably develops his or her own way of interpreting scripture and develops some theory about it-that is called a hermeneutic in Bible scholarship.

The Bible has more than 3000 years of history behind it unlike chess. So if one goes beyond reading just the Bible and learns about Bible composition history one may also learn about ancient Middle Eastern history. Plainly great Bible scholars and theologians that have gone before call one to look into their writings. Scholars today like Kenneth Gentry who has brought a new approach to end times studies in a field called eschatology answer questions that arise in the thought of anyone who has read and thought about the Bible books of Matthew, Peter and the Revelation of John of Patmos. This sort of intellectual activity has more challenges than chess and is an open intellectual field rather than a closed field.

Modern chess computers have reached about a 3800 rating and that's about it-even with the best programming available. World chess champion Magnus Carlsen today has about a 2850 chess rating. Computer data banks may have millions of times more history content than a human being, not just less than a third better, yet a computer cannot presently write a single book of philosophy that is meaningful or useful much less write anything competent that is a philosophy of world social history.

I think that today evolution theory has inspired many people take up a jaundiced skeptical world view of atheist phenomenalism and randomicity theory as a philosophical point of view. Necessarily disregarded are deterministic factors of physics. Featured is quantum uncertainty while disregarded is the possibility that quantum uncertainty is simply a packing mechanism for one-dimensional or very small quanta that are not in space-time scales large enough to be measured in a steady-state-determined field. That does not mean that the quanta are themselves indeterministic phenomenally speaking. They too exist as dimensional phenomena in some greater than is measurable paradigm.

Applications of chess to the real world- inferences one may make from the chess tool kit about the nature of reality are few. Sociopaths and political theorists have commented on individuals in society in chess pawn and piece metaphors. There are people who view society as a sort of abstract chess game that one may 'win' through careful manipulation. In short, chess provides a penury class tool kit for making inferences about reality.

Chess as a philosophical tool is largely of an a posteriori construct. Chess analysts have noted 'materialism' in some players who will take an immediate en pris pawn for instant gratification instead of building a plan to maneuver and destroy an opponent. Chess is not Lao Tzu's 'Art of War'.

Reading and memorizing scripture alternatively may lead one to learn ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek or Latin languages; in fact even old English or German-since Bibles were translated into the German language by the 5th century. Philosophically scripture may lead one to make new inferences about the nature of reality based on remaining consistent with theology. Here is one example...

Christians learn that they are born with original sin. Perhaps it is the thermodynamic spatio-temporal and material state of being they have inherited from the fall of Adam and Eve-original humans who became cognizant of their fallen state. A Christian may infer that the ancient doctrine is informative and from God and perhaps a metaphor or analogy encompassing a criterion of cosmology.

If Christians require salvation because of their original sin and the temporal condition if they are to be acceptable and forgiven to the eternal God then a way to do that for humanity that is incapable of doing that for-themselves must be provided if they are to be saved. Only God himself in the Son Jesus Christ is capable of making that atoning sacrifice and of creating a bridge to eternal salvation.

That is a parameter that can support inferences of a very advanced kind. That is with the grace provided by God wherein the Christian is led to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior-a substitute for themselves. Technically speaking one may wonder how that is done.

Thus one may establish an inferential paradigm and use physics concepts essentially as analogies since God as an Absolute Supreme Being who is spirit has transcendence over all physics.

Through acceptance of the Lord into one's heart a kind of real replacement therapy arises in which the Christian becomes more Christlike. The elect individual actual is receiving the grace of God allowing him or her spiritually to evolve to a state of pure Spirit closer unto God. God is acceptable to God unto eternity. Jesus is God. Christians receive the substitution content of God for-themselves spiritually and are readied for eternal being.

Of course there are innumerable details and complications to the process that will remain mysteries. Yet it is possible to imagine a situation where an old ship for instance is gradually replaced with new parts until it is a completely new ship made of a superior substance. Alternatively one could have an existing large and complex computer program that is gradually rewritten or translated into another language that is more appropriate for a new platform while keeping the meaning of the original program content except for flaws. People that are saved are like that becoming replaced in time with Christ although retaining their form and thoughts to a certain extent. Christians receive new and improved spiritual bodies much like their present form in heaven, yet I suppose each will be perfected.

Corruption and the Queer New World Order

Corruption Generally Works to Concentrate Power

In a democracy corruption tends to work to concentrate power and wealth. As the media are more corrupt and raving speech dissociation became a temporal demotic norm the confusion worked as a smokescreen for public corruption as well as private. When public affairs are challenging to meaningfully access, and as politics becomes something of a kickback to insider contractors and other phenomenon, the demos or people tend to lose power and determination politically with their political choices evolving to be limited to those puppets willing to serve the interests of a global oligarchy.

I think that it isn't simply the case that clever conspirators have bought off the media and Hollywood or that just imperialists loyal to foreign leaders have brought millions of immigrants to the U.S.A. in recent years that just don't share historical American values such as those of the founders nor realize what they are. Perhaps greed expressed in average people requires corruption scaled up to fulfill ambitions for power and wealth and that people elected to the highest office just don't look toward the good of the nation so much as the good for themselves.

Neither can one blame the present state of the U.S.A. on 41 who may have found the New World Queer order and influenced insiders to win the World championship in baseball with an expansion team (the Florida Marlins) and manipulated Bill Clinton into starting 'don't ask, don't tell' military policy and placing Monica Lewinsky. If the Queer new World Order was started by a former C.I.A. chief, President, super-connected Washington insider and abetted whole heartedly by the Anglophile Clintonistas it could not be proven any more than who really J.F.K.

With about 19 trillion dollars of public debt and a very flaky global economy may be Americans are moving to becoming a peon class. Leaky border and immigration policy fails to indoctrinate Americans in traditional values and democracy. A democrat President-Obama signs off on the Bush II tax cuts when he had complete easy breezy power to veto and negotiate back some cuts a bit at a time from the bottom up.

When pervasive public corruption is the norm, and as Al Gore said there is no presiding legal authority and as a slide toward godless atheism through public education is a driving force for the awakening powers of futility for the average citizen the middle class itself becomes a minority-as it has.

Perhaps no one really needs to earn more than a million dollars annual and the tax rate should be progressive to pay off debt and provide investments in environmental rehab, space exploration, free public education and a guaranteed minimum income. Maybe patents should be limited to ten years and copyrights to twenty and after the expiration of the period of exclusive ownership the former patent or copyright owner would receive a royalty of 10% from anyone using the property. That way invention and intellect would be reinforced and rewarded rather than bureaucracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApLhqN_UsSw

It is known that everyone needs fundamental security, housing, the opportunity to date and to develop career goals. Planning for retirement housing is as important as planning for storing worldly goods in a unit if traveling a lot during one's working life. It is not at all certain that the perennial accumulation of wealth is a necessary to valuable way to spend one's life instead of having sufficient material and then thinking philosophically about how to better society and its prospects. Value theory is a philosophical field that could be better utilized today in planning public policy.

Peyton Manning & Veracity in Pro Sports

Allegations that Peyton Manning used human growth hormone to help repair a broken neck and his denial raises the question of veracity in pro sports; that is do athletes ever tell the truth about the use of banned substances?

All of the great 1990s baseball home run greats; Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Rodriguez used and initially lied about the use of banned substances. Maybe the great Hank Aaron unwittingly benefited from steroids to help him pass Babe Ruth's record. Arnold Schwarzenegger could be a poster child for steroids invented in his home town of Vienna in the 1950s. And what about Lance Armstrong, Bill Clinton and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Can athletes be held to a higher standard than politicians?

In the case of Manning however, I have no problem with his use of HGH if he did use it. A broken neck is a fairly serious injury. If it is of fair use in regular medical recovery procedures for non-athletes I know of no reason why athletes should be banned. If HGH can help paraplegics recover help or prevent people from lapsing into paralytic conditions they could fairly use it too.

(Bob) Hope and Fischer video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSWau3pTyIg

Syria, Pakistan, Solar Power and Arable Land

Syria has vast tracks of land presently utilized more for warm than agriculture. Would it be reasonable for the U.S. Government and its partner sponsors of the civil war to invest as much in water making through desalinization for agriculture purposes as weapons, explosives, cash and training to the coalition of willing anti-Assad political jihadists?

One may wonder if thousands of hectares of new crop land irrigated with water that was saline before be pumped with solar power through pipelines to canals where evaporation and condensation trapping occurred yield freshwater isn't a better catalyst for peaceful coexistence than barren deserts and fossil fuel exhaust.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1015345/alternative-energy-aedb-plans-to-enhance-energy-mix-by-2018/

Presently solar power is underutilized in the low tech pumping of water and evaporation of saltwater for condensation entrapment process in desertified regions with land that might otherwise sustain agriculture. Cheap local food supply is good for human health and as valuable as a healthy wild ecosphere where it exists. It may not be necessary to displace prime wild land biota in order to create farmland when quality desert farmland could be brought online with judicious coordination of alternative energy sources that don't add pollution or global heating gases.

http://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2015/12/17/federal-budget-deal-to-boost-investment-in-alternative-energy/

What if ISIS could be transitioned into installing solar panels instead of bombs and digging canals for water making and irrigation instead of for burials.

Police Shootings Videos; What About Crime Videos

Select demands to immediately publish police shootings in order to protect civil liberties raise a number of interesting questions. Because few like any shootings of people and a certain innate prejudice would exist against anyone shooting others it is probable that adverse publication would create adverse publicity for police departments generally. the context wherein such incidents are published ought to be included too, as well as the out of context police action comprising shooting anyone.

I will not belabor the point that some defense attorneys probably would not want video of their clients involved in shootings immediately published on Youtube. That recalcitrance might exist for ordinary criminal defendants as well as police.

Police shootings such as those of Chicago occur in a given context. Police officers might have work that sends them from one criminal incident to another rather like some people might shop from one store to another. A police officer may experience involvement with hundreds or thousands of crimes and never shoot anyone. I think the context of police shootings; not just the specific incident, might be included in video publication in order to better understand the circumstances in which police shootings happen.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-shooting-20151226-story.html

Perhaps Chicago police forces might upload to Youtube whatever video of crimes they have every day as soon as they occur for the public to experience, and then when a rare police shooting occurs swift uploading of those videos could be uploaded too in a context where the public better appreciates the nature of the work of police departments in urban areas.

The Good News of Jesus Christ

Into this world approximately 2020 years ago was born a Savior unto those of faith named Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus was born in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem in fulfillment of nearly two thousand years of prophecy. The Lord brought good news to humanity. Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

In the world today there are more than a billion souls professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Even so the world is challenging with pressing demographics and classical competition for scarcity of finite resources. The greater challenge is even more fundamental though; human nature and the fallen state of mankind.

Mankind exists or coheres within a physical field in the Universe with thermodynamics that require constant fueling. Personal survival and comfort reinforce a will to power drive that generates conflict. The Lord professed that humanity basically be untroubled about all that. For God provides, clothes the sparrow and numbers the hair of everyone's head. Overcoming human nature's corruption with faith in the Lord and the grace to accomplish that the Lord provides allows the Holy Spirit to work with more cooperation of that were possible, through one's own life to solve the world's social troubles.

Even so Christians themselves may worry about the end times of the troubling world. For at least a couple of centuries some Christian theologians have misinterpreted John's Book of the Revelation and given the bulk of its first century prophecy fulfillments a future date. Setting back correct Bible prophetic interpretation 2000 years they see a looming apocalypse as ever immanent. In error they believe that Armageddon will precede the second coming of Christ. Muslims believe a similar, comparable wrong interpretation of the Revelation that was synthesized by Muhammad the Erroneous Prophet.

In fact when the end times seem near, it probably means that the end of the age of the gentiles isn't. Jesus Christ will return in a time when there is a majority of Christians in the world, not when they are few and challenged by a majority of infidels as in the first century. While it is entirely possible that the worldly policies of mass migration relocating problems instead of fixing them, over-consuming natural resources and failing to use intelligence in environmental economic design to overcome economic injustice and environmental decay exacerbated by war and the immorality of atheism will lead to global population crashes and apocalyptic events as the bubonic plagues of the 13^th century destroyed 2/3rds of Europe's population, that is probably an indication that the end is far away, for the Lord will return when there is a Christian majority and a fairly prosperous world.

The good news to consider is that the world's population may evolve a Christian majority and good environmental economic business ethics during the next century or two and make the world a place appropriate for the third coming of Christ, for Jesus was here in Earth in the flesh the second time following his resurrection.

For further reading on post-millennialism I suggest Kenneth Gentry's 'He Shall Have Dominion'.