03 June 2022

President Biden spake; "2nd Amendment isn't Absolute"

 President Biden has declared the second amendment to be less than absolute (whatever that means). It is good when a President can declare the constituion and its amendment maleable and subject to his personal political will. Lucky he isn't for the return of slavery or he could declare the 13th amendment isn't absolute either.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-address-gun-control-assault-weapons-ban

Apparently Presidents can declare elements of the constition less than absolute after deeming an offending amendment so. If it doesn't say that in the constitution its proobably because it isn't 'absolute'.

02 June 2022

N.P.R. Propaganda in support of Administration narrative on Ukraine Annexation

 As the U.S. government prosecutes its war against Russia in the Ukraine the administration requires a continuing narrative of support for its version of events and causality of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. This morning National Public Radio broadcast a tale of two statues of Vladmir- the founder of Kievan Rus, as a way to convey the impression the Russians are pretenders to be leaders of the Slavic world and Ukraine was always an independent country not part of Russia or the Rus. People that have read history know that is largely in error.

Vladimir- a Viking whom had ventured down the Dnepr River in the era of Vikings traveling European rivers for exploration and war in the 9th century onward a few hundred years, consolidated the river settlement of the Slavic people at Kiev and the Russian nation formed. Russians increased in population and eventually expanded north and east to areas sparsely populated for hundreds of years. Eventually the capital of Russia became Moscow- a convenient location especially as Russia eastward expansion took them over the Urals and to the Pacific. NPR gave the false impression that Ukraine was always an independent country and wasn’t part of Russia, and that is propaganda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus%27_people

The history of the Varangian-Vikings and their heirs that expanded Russia is fascinating and of course jostles within themselves and with other people around them for land. That process is what is continuing today. President Biden and the Democrats decided to get involved and take some land for the Catholic-Polish and German-British side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUgzqkCW6A4

If the United States last another century or two it is possible the capital may be moved to Missouri and that wouldn’t mean that Washington D.C. is no longer part of the U.S.A. The capital at Moscow does not mean that the Ukraine isn’t part of the historical Russia. Moscow can rightly claim to be the lineal successor of the Rurik dynasty and the nation of the Rus founded by Grand Prince Vladimir at Kiev. It should be noted that Vladimir was not the first leader of the Rurik dynasty- that would be Rurik. Vikings were leaders and Slavs and Finns the people for some time, although I would guess that the bloodlines merged eventually.

Power compensates for the need to be accurate or truthful; for administration that is very helpful for providing rationale to support supplying multiple launch rockets to Ukrainians so associates can send missiles flying about Ukraine at Russians. When taking a country- Ukraine, from Russia, it would be better to be honest about the historical facts, than disingenuous.

The better version would be that President Clinton levered Ukrainian independence from Russia while warring on Serbia during the interregnum following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. After a quarter century of rebuilding Russia the Russians are trying to take back the Ukraine.

01 June 2022

Philosophical inquiry into characteristics of God in regard to the Universe

Philosophers naturally enough pursue knowledge of what isn't known. Cosmology today obviously is incomplete. The expansion of the universe that is accelerating, the size of the Universe, dark energy, dark matter etc. those are a few of the problems. The idea of a multiverse is also something one can easily consider and compare to the ideas of what an infinite, eternal being of a Creator of Multiverse should be to be consistent in modal logic terms with what is known of creation. One would think philosophically, that a characteristic of God would be actualization of an infinite number of universes a priori, in His thought, as an omnipotent and omniscient being. One knows that the Higgs field slows down two-dimensional mass less particles in so they pick up the appearance of a third dimension- and hence mass can exist as an apparent phenomenon. Energy seems to be the basic substance, and what it is actually made of at the funamental level isn't certain. Leibnitz thought one-dimensional monads made of spirit comrprised what might be zero-dimensional points of string theory, I believe it is. None of this is deflection. It is simple philosophical interest in the theology of an infinite Being sustaining universes and multiverses. This isn't a "god of the gaps' approach though it would be unreasonable to expect God to be a material substance like a human or someone meaasurable to science i.m.o.

Social Media is Harmful to Democracy

 Social media is where Americans discuss politics. It is owned by the richest people. They determine what is hateful speech or what is fake news and delete it or bury it in search engine listings. Social media therefore is conditioned and permitted free speech warping democratic expression toward its own ends; it is not a neutral moderator or political speech or art. Social media is heavily biased and filtered by Democrats serving plutocrats.

The remedy probably is to have a public social media alongside privately owned social media. Reason dictates that privately owned Democratic expression venues will be biased and hate free expression of political opposition or even of taxing the rich more.

If the Congress wanted to be useful it would establish a public free speech social media system that would provide every citizen a web page of their own that is secure and available for all to read in cyberspace. If the Congress wants to protect democracy and free speech it would need to establish publicly owned social media right away while there are still Americans not conditioned by the plutocracy to follow along their narratives.

31 May 2022

Validity of Bible and Quran comparatively

  When I need to get an epub file 'validated' that can be a rigorous process going over the code involved. Philosophers like to be very careful with the use of language and what it means. many have pointed out that some philosophical problems are actually language meaning problems, rather than things-in-themselves. Comparing the 'validity' of the Biblos (little books) with the Quran would require defining validity and agreement on a truth theory I suppose, first, before comparing historical data. If you look at my free e-book that is a commentary on Berkhof's Introduction to the New Testament, you would see some of the meticulous work Berkhof did and examining the gospel books. One can do that for the Quran too, and learn what references in it compare with those of the Bible.

https://www.lulu.com/en/ie/shop/garrison-clifford-gibson/a-commentary-on-berkhofs-intro-to-the-new-testament/ebook/product-21420051.html?page=1&pageSize=4

In the past I read quite a lot of history including that of the ancient world. There is quite a lot of material, and virtual none of it is 'fables'. People can have mass hysteria or insanity; actually the validity of truth isn't necessarily determined by majority vote, although these days that may be a popular view (that it is). Mass ignorance is common in political propaganda. Popular sentiment shouldn't determine the verdict at trials- facts should play a primary role. In philosophical concerns one need interpret facts or data and understand where and how that data fits into other relevant matter. It is important not to leap to conclusions in logic as well as history. If atheism is a popular belief today, it does not follow that a majority vote validates it.

Of the 256 possible forms of syllogism just 24 are valid. People talk past point, overlook relevant data and often assume that some material is comprehensive, exhaustive and universal when it is not. As is known- "If an invalid argument has all true premises, then the conclusion must be false." Alternatively, if an valid argument has false premises its conclusion is false. The distribution of terms assumed to be universal that are not is a problem with arguments relying upon contemporary physics concerning Christianity.

Consider the history of Abraham and his son Isaac, whom God ordered Abraham to sacrifice. It is challenging to formulate in a strictly logical paradigm, There is much historical, archaeological, scriptural and analytical evidence needed for even comprehending the circumstance. So much that generally just the faithful take the time. Human knowledge and lifetime is limited. People specialize and want to put blinders on to filter out what they consider is unimportant data. They make summary dismissals of material they regard as unimportant, and quickly decide truth or falsity for convenience concerning faith in the Lord.

At the last second God allowed Abraham to substitute a sheep that became caught in the brush as the sacrifice. That incident was a paradigm for the appearance and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ 2000 years later. There are many things that are known and worth looking in to. Of course as you say; one must determine what one believes for-himself. In a social dialectical reason context, that paradigm is interesting for the case of criminal trials.

30 May 2022

God is not embedded in the Higgs Field like Humans

 Jesus said that no one had seen the Father except for the Son. One may accept the numerous witnesses of Jesus and his works as evidence of God, if one accept eyewitness accounts as evidence. Moses at the end of his life was given to see the glory of God that passed before, just fractionally. There has been much work done on researching the Bible and its history. Louis Berkhoff did some excellent work on that. I went over the book and made a commentary of it. Free to download...

 https://www.lulu.com/en/ie/shop/garrison-clifford-gibson/a-commentary-on-berkhofs-intro-to-the-new-testament/ebook/product-21420051.html?page=1&pageSize=4 

 God is Spirit and not embedded in the Higgs field. Contingent beings made to exist in the Higgs field as steady state mass cannot obtain evidence of anything besides energy-mass of the universe I believe.

It is worthwhile considering the nature of ideas and how they fit philosophically into language and meaning. Ideas about what exists, and how it does exist, including a Creator have always been a part of philosophy. The neo-Platonist Plotinus is a good example. His 'Enneads'- 54 tractates are worth reading. St. Augustine was a Plotinian before he converted to Christianity. 

https://archive.org/details/plotinustheennea033190mbp

Government negligence bungles security for school kids forced to attend school

 Federal and state governments should be sued for failing to protect school kids required by law to attend school until the eighth grade. If those students could afford expensive, secure private schools whom were shot at Uvalde they would still be alive. Forcing school kids to congregate in unsafe places with unlocked doors and no security is irresponsible. Would the government put even 40 billion dollars into upgrading elementary school security or blame Barney Fife's slow response instead.

If kids are forced by government to go to school, the school should at least be a secure environment. If governments prefer to be negligent and incompetent that’s usual enough, yet they should pay a steep price for it.

Scientists Trained an AI to Design 17,000 Viruses

Because biologists are among the most common scientists and AIs like large language models can be trained to design viruses the potential fo...