Knowledge

I find that the amount of information I intentionally come across and try to understand often changes the way I actually look at things. Once upon a time I was religious, and then there was a period of doubt and then I decided I wasn't religious, but then I went back and forth as to what religion is really good for and if I should accept it or see it as something that's in the way of science. That's only an example, but what I really mean by this post is that I've learned to accept things more, and be more optimistic towards what I learn in the future for what we think we know is only the tip of a very large iceberg - we don't really know anything.

My Beliefs: The Collection

This post is essentially a collection of thoughts and blog posts organised into what you see below. It represents what I have come to believe up until its writing, and as all else, it is subject to change as time continues and future experiences inspire new learning!

Introduction
I do believe that Faith, Love & Patience are the three qualities one needs to live happily. What I didn't understand until now was that there was a little more to it than just that. There are other factors that we must first recognize before we may be able to see through them. The first and most important factor in this equation to recognize is that, as the Buddha said, life is suffering.

The Environment

 People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.
― Romana L. Anderson

One's qualities underlay his intentions, which in turn lead to one's desire to fulfill how he perceives his purpose for living. Good qualities are generally passed on through good parenting and a positive surrounding environment. However, there are also other societal and environmental influences that play a huge role in how one perceives his surrounding world, which in turn usually also lead to many other more negative issues such as mental or physical illness, violence, etc. The main cause for these negative consequences of societal and environmental conditioning is the stress brought on by poverty and joblessness, let alone the lack of a positive environment for the majority of human beings. The less money you have, the more you have to work physically and mentally to make ends meet, and the lower your health physically and mentally. Money is just a material item, but the value that we give to it and what we do with that value could indeed be looked at as the root to all evil. Especially being in a capitalist society, it can only lead to greed; the system we've created breeds suffering; life is suffering.

Attachment & Balance

I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.
― Edgar Allan Poe

One must detach himself from the cycle of suffering through the understanding of his attachment to society. Nothing is addictive, what's addictive is the susceptibility of the individual to becoming addicted, or attached. To break the cycle, one must become aware that he is attached, and to do this one must understand what he truly needs so that he may separate that from everything else. Not that setting goals to obtain one's desires is a bad thing, the problem is when he loses sight of what truly matters; why he wanted that thing to begin with, why he desires such a future. The true path to enlightenment is a gradual path of first sustaining balance within the self. Attachment is only one extreme, the opposite end is no better.

God; The Universe; Consciousness; "The Big Electron" (George Carlin reference)

If there is a God, he is within. You don't ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.
— Bruce Lee

What is God? Many different cultures and societies called it many different things, but in the end of it all, it all comes down to it being the same thing. God, The Universe, Consciousness, etc, are all different interpretations of a higher divine power, it's what makes up what we have yet to understand about life itself. God is everything; everything is God; we are a part of what makes up God.

Our Purpose & Intention
The meaning of life is to live; to move forward with good intentions in order to Thrive. Actions are what we generally use to interpret the intention of a person, but actions come from thoughts, and the intention of said person comes from the emotion attached to the original thought. A good intention is one that keeps in mind one's best interests, which are what you need to do to fulfill your basic needs as a human being. First are the three more commonly known needs for food, water, and shelter. But, as social beings, there is also an equally important need to be touched; to feel loved and accepted. An example of this need would be how stroking an infant on the head for 10 minutes a day has been shown to stimulate brain development, but if an infant isn't touched at all, it will not be able to live.

Qualities of Practice: Gratitude & Thankfulness

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
— Buddha

Among all of the positive qualities one may practice, these are two of the most important! To be happy with what you have will allow yourself to obtain more of that which makes you happy in the future, it will also allow you to step back from the materialistic world of want and greed of which we live in, and allow yourself to love where you currently are right now!

Qualities of Result: Faith, Love & Patience
These are the three most basic qualities that one requires to create, encourage, and continue true good intentions. Faith is believing in something of which cannot necessarily be proven. Love is the deepest sense of acceptance and contentness. Patience is understanding the difference between when to walk or when to run. One must have Faith within the self, Love the self, and be Patient with the self, before he will be able to truly do just that with others, as well as with life itself.

Morality & Ethics

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.
— Abraham Lincoln

 What is Good, and what is Bad? As Abraham Lincoln once said, and as stated under the New Thought movement of the early 1900s, what is good and what is bad depend on what you truly desire - if you feel good about what you're doing, then you are inline with what it is that you desire. The feeling you get is what ultimately determines the morality of the choices you make.

The Laws of Attraction & Karma
The New Thought movement lead in the early 1900s really made a big deal about the power of the mind, or thought; how thoughts can affect the physical world. We've discovered that thoughts can be measured, they put off a frequency, and that is the beginning of the manifestation of that thought. What you think, will inevitably affect you, and the world around you. If you think positive things, you will create positive outcomes, where as negative can only lead to more negative experiemces. Some call this the Law of Attraction, but really it's another perspective on Karma. Where the law of Karma talks about being conscious of your actions right now because they will have consequences, the law of Attraction focuses on the results. It is important to understand that every moment will lead into a new moment, and what creates the next moment is simply what happens in this moment... when you think of something, every part of you will start to be affected by that thought. If you thought about happy memories or maybe a future you'd like to create, your body will respond in happiness, however if you thonk negative things your body will respond in such a way. Your train of thought leads to your state which changes whatever decisions you make. It's important to remove yourself from attachment to keep your mind pure and stag in the positive.

Time, Quantum Physics & Observation
Time doesn't flow in a line, as in past, present and future. It flows forward, like shuffling a deck of cards, each shuffle is a new moment. Each card can be a thought or action, natural occurrences like wind or even a storm, sun light, the gravitational pull from the moon causing the tide to come up, etc... there are a lof of things that we don't have control over. Not that we need to for we have control over ourselves. But these factors play a role in the creation of each new moment in time. Quantum Physics even digs a little deeper than this, it gets into the multiverse theory. There are different ways that this could play out but generally it is inline with spirituality in that throughout a lifetime you experience a series of moments, and in that series of moments you understand that other people are also experiencing their own series of moments - where quantum physics comes in is that it says every possibility is occurring, which means that each moment is constantly splitting up into more moments. We can only experience the "timeline" that we're in, but it's all happening. The moments that you experience are because you consciously observed them through thought.

Conclusion

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Once you understand your surrounding influences, and how you were and are being influenced, you're already one step forward in separating yourself from them - not in the sense of putting up a wall, but in embracing them positively so that you'll be influenced for the better instead of for the worst! This isn't something that you'll be able to snap your fingers and just do. What you are doing is redefining your very lifestyle, you must have faith that it can be done and be patient with yourself along your own journey in life. As you must have faith, and you must be patient, you must put love above all as your guiding authority - this is the root of the lessons of every spiritual teacher and leader,  from Jesus, to the Buddha, to Martin Luther King Jr. If there is one thing that you take away from this, to lead with Love is it.

Passion and Beliefs

If you're going to believe in a thing, you should be passionate about that thing. Beliefs are really just stubborn thoughts, when you believe something, you're biasing yourself towards that thing which makes it that much harder to think away from it. The problem is where the stubbornness turns into stubborn ignorance, where you're claiming to believe in a thing while being unwilling to understand or clarify within yourself what it is that you believe.

I don't see a problem with believing in a religious view, for example. The problem comes where one claims to be religious but doesn't follow the view or even educate themselves on it. You should understand why you believe what you do, or else you should be open to what else is out there. That is what I mean by, if you're going to believe in a thing, you should be passionate about it - if not then what is the point in believing it?

The Now

Life is only as long as a moment. The past no longer physically exists, it did but now it's alive merely in one's memories. Unlike the past being something that once was real, the future doesn't exist at all, it's but a figment of one's imagination - a mix of both prediction and desire. The past is to learn from, where as the future is meant to arouse the imagination, both of which can be powerful if used positively. If you were to remember one thing, it would be this: One may look, as long as he doesn't lose sight of where he is looking from.

One may look as far away from the present moment as they desire, whether it be in the past or in the future, as long as one's intentions are good. While one may have a thought, the emotion behind that is what creates the intention - the underlining cause of all meaningful thought and action. The meaning of life - not just in humanity but life itself - is to continue and grow, to thrive, and therefore a good intention would simply be in support of this.

What is terrorism?

This is a touchy subject for most, where to start specifically in this case is to define the term so there is no future confusion! Google define's "Terrorism" as "The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims." I feel like that's a fair definition, you would agree? Okay, good, because that is the most widely expected definition and therefore is what we will be using!

Would it also be fair to state that terrorism is a game the United States is playing with Russia over the Middle East? I would think so, which makes sense as I'm the one stating it. [lol?] Yes, maybe not right now? Well, let me explain.

Once upon a time there was the Middle East, and there was this place we call the western world, and then of course there was Russia. It all started back in 1989 when the western world, more specifically the United States, discovered that Russia had gone ahead with it's interests with the many resources available in the area that we know as the Middle East. Their response was obviously that if Russia was going to take a piece of the cake, the United States needed to dig in as well before Russia took the majority for themselves. The result of this is the CIA going into Afghanistan and recruiting new members for the purpose of training them in guerilla warfare so that they would be able to protect themselves in the case of a soviet invasion. The CIA probably didn't think the following would happen so soon, but the new recruits either decided to drop the whole plan and do their own thing with their newly acquired skills, weapons and money, or the United States needed something to use and framed them. Regardless, the CIA trained a group of people in Afghanistan and that group completely backfired on them which then separated into what we know now as the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

This is where it gets fun, well, for the rest of the world watching at least. The United States, in an effort to keep this situation contained, then went to the UN and basically got permission to form a peace keeping mission going into the Middle East to contain this group that they have initially created. This peace keeping mission was more so a war over anything, however it was barely publicized as a way as they still needed something to justify their reasons for being there in that manner, and so came the media with their propaganda. Terrorism was one of the terms the government started repeating and drilling into our heads, the media then obviously echoed it. Now that we've made up this image of terrorism, we needed the physical acts to justify it. Now, I'm not saying at all that the Middle East was all peace and happiness, there was some interesting things going on in the area. However, the majority of the people killed who the military claimed to be terrorists were just civilians fighting the United States invading their country. Who, in this case, are acting like terrorists?

[EDIT: Paragraph added 23/07/12, Credit to "awesomeo" in comments section!]
What we need to understand here is exactly why the United States as well as Russia both wanted control over the Middle East, for one it's in the middle of a few different areas such as Europe being to it's left, China to it's right and Russia being up top. Another reason why it's a very valuable piece of land is because of the natural resources which just so happen to translate into a lot of money. The US had previously implemented a dictatorship in Iran, giving them control over the country, but since Russia funded a revolution against him, well... Iran was now a wild card! Seeing as the US was desperate to get it's spot back, Russia, at this point, has began to create ties with Iran. Just as your crazy ex-girlfriend would do anything to have you back, the US came up with some interesting plots of their own. There were a few "terrorist" related events in the Unites States, but September 11th, or 9/11, was the biggest and most well known.

The issue with 9/11 was that there is so much more evidence to show that it, at the very least, was NOT what the government stated it was. Apparently two planes were high jacked by a number of men with box cutters and then flown into the twin towers, the jet fuel from the planes then leaked down the elevator shafts and each floor seemed to collapse on top of each other from top to bottom going straight down. Think about this, does that even make sense? How would jet fuel simultaneously make it's way to each elevator shaft in order to have this collapse of each floor then making it's way straight to the ground... Not that jet fuel would even be able to cut the four main beams of the building, if this building fell, it should have slanted to one side or something other than going perfectly straight down identical to a planned demolition, furthermore you would have seen four big beams sticking up in the air before later [maybe] falling after the floors were out of the way. These buildings were made to be indestructible, they were actually built to take planes flying into them, that just so happened to be one of the precautions they looked into when initially designing it. When closely examined later, the beams appeared to be cut at a slant, also, there was molten liquid metal at the base of the scene for up to six weeks after September 11th. What's even weirder is that the fighter jets that were supposed to be at the scene within seconds to minutes of any aircraft getting too close to the twin towers of all things, weren't even responding to the scene. The government stated that they had no way of anticipating air craft flying into the twin towers, yet that's exactly what they've been practicing and even were practicing during the time of the collision. The fighter pilots were confused because no one could make it clear whether it was a test or the real deal, unfortunately the radar maps were being scrambled at the same time due to the tests. The government also apparently found a passport in absolute perfect condition on the ground level of the twin towers after the event, rescue workers at the scene couldn't even find a whole piece of a telephone. What this means is that the four main beams were completely melted, everything was pretty much pulverized, but a passport of a supposed terrorist apparently survived and lay upon the rubble. Not to mention that this suspect was later to have been proven to have absolutely no connection to 9/11 or any of the members who were supposedly involved, and was no where near the scene at the time of the incident.

The United Stated now has a reason to go to full out war, aside from the UN and their so called peace keeping mission, with the Middle East on the fight against Terrorism. Any country allied with the United Stated then began to slowly remove it's countries freedoms, most argue this is to distract it's citizens from what's really going on. Is it not that obvious? We've never not-been at war, war makes money - you can spend a ton of money to go to war, but at the same time your economy is at it's peak with all of the industries focussing on military equipment, also that we can send a bunch of our own corporations in to rebuild the country which then again boosts our economy. Money isn't made by saving it, it's made by spending it, profit and debt are the same thing. The more you make, the more you'll spend because you know you'll be making more in return but because of this the more debt you have and therefore the more you'll then spend so that you'll make even more and so on. The trick is that you can't pay off debt, you have to keep making and spending. Debt comes from the initial interest applied on loans that the country buys from banks. The amount your country is worth in physical form compared to the amount it's worth in paper notes is exemplified through the decreasing value of the dollar. With a never ending and rising debt, the system has to have a way to refresh itself, it's called the recession. The way our system survives is off of a high and a low, not that it's constantly going between the two, but that the majority of it's citizens are poor where as a very small portion are very wealthy. If we were all rich it wouldn't work because there would be no one working to move the economy.

Do you know what the scariest part of this is? The fact that we're being programmed from our initial existence to not question, but obey and accept things for the way they are, instead of letting our creativity grow and evolving positively as a species. Education teaches to listen, questions are only welcome if they're relevant to what's being taught. I certainly see something wrong with this. Not that math, english and science aren't important subjects to pass on to our little one's who will then end up being who inhabit and run the world, but the way these subjects are being taught is what I'm focussing on. The general view of education is flawed.

This, my friends, is modern slavery, and this is why we have these overly used terms that are taken way out of proportion such as terrorism. If the government really cared about its people, it wouldn't permit tobacco and alcohol products, it would raise the quality allowed for fast food and processed foods. It wouldn't allow for the homeless to stay homeless and for the hungry to stay hungry, it would raise the low social class to a true middle where there are no "ghetto's" or areas that provide for negative conditioning. Helpful information concerning 'real' cancer treatment and aids medications wouldn't be oppressed. We wouldn't have jails because the majority of our people wouldn't be raised in a such a conditioning where jail would be in their future, any offenders at this point would go under a re-conditioning rehabilitation centre. It would remove for corporations to be looked at as people by the courts so that the people truly responsible can be held responsible. Banks wouldn't be allowed to be private organizations. The government would allow for countries to make their own interest-free currency, money wouldn't have as big of a part in the influence of politicians. We wouldn't go to war, there would be no need for the term terrorism or anyone or group who's acts may actually be classified as terrorism - including our own military.

Imagine a world where we didn't have to deal with any of this shit... Never stop asking questions, never stop bettering yourself for you're the seed to a beautiful flower, but you have to separate yourself from this mental slavery before you can allow yourself to blossom under the light of enlightenment. For the record, there is a lot of information here and my memory's a little blurry on the specific details at the moment, so don't hold it against me if I'm wrong somewhere! Feel free to correct me though.

Seven questions for religion.

I actually quite enjoy debating religion, well I enjoy debating in general but religion is a fun topic for me! I have nothing against one having beliefs, where things get fun are when said person tries to argue that their religious view is more correct than another, or that science cannot possibly add up to this view that they have.

I try to limit my beliefs and be as open as I possibly can for belief systems are really just stubborn thoughts, you're only limiting your minds potential to what the wonders of life behold, waiting to be discovered. "What do we really know about life?" This is a commonly asked question, what it means has little to do with what we currently know being wrong, but that we are only a tiny spec in the universe and so what we know is no different. Of course, what we currently think we know may not all be accurate, but it depends what your authority is concerning said knowledge base, science accepts the possibility of being wrong and is open to change - it's already taken that into account. On the other hand, this post is concerning religion, something that is generally a little more ignorant towards change.

These are seven questions that I ask in any argument,or debate. Although I did quite a bit of research into different religious views, I was raised as a Christian, so my examples are usually a little more biased towards that side of religion. None-the-less, let us get started!

1) Why do we have to have been created, what's wrong with evolution?

We understand much more about the universe based on science, evolution is a very real thing. It means change over time, the moment to come will have changed from the current moment, that is evolution on a very small scale.

One of the arguments I find religious people like to make is, "how could life have been created by chance?" Well, there's a few words in there that make that question extremely biased, in favour of religion. Those words would be "created" and "chance." Nothing was "there" to create life (other than life itself, of course), the big bang was like a spark turning into a fire, the spark was only one factor in how we've got to this point in time. Chance? What is random about this? Nothing is truly random, life is actually pretty organized. Life travels down the path of least resistance, it just continues, moves onward. What's random is assuming that there is a God, that is a physical entity, that created life - which brings us to our next question.

2) If there is a God, where did "he" come from?

If we're modelling God as a "he," we're modelling "him" after ourselves which means we're viewing "him" as a being similar to how we're beings. If this is the case, where did "he" come from? Even if we aren't labelling God as a being similar to how we're beings, where did this God come from?

3) What is God, and how do you know?

This idea of God comes from self proclaimed man-made religious stories, and there is absolutely nothing to even prove that the supposed writers existed as who they claimed to be, let alone God.

4) If God commanded humans to write your religious books, but you only know about God through your religious books, how genuine is this idea of God?

This question is extremely self explanatory... There really isn't much else I can say.

5) If your religion is the only right or correct religion, then what about all of the other religions that equally claim to be the only right or correct religion?

Especially concerning religions of which are so similar to each other as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What about Baha'i Faith, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Jainism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and many other belief systems from Satanism, to Gypsies, or even Vampirism? These are just examples of religions, what about the various sections that they're broken down into, how do you define what is right from wrong when they all claim to be the only correct view? The general answer is either "the devil did it" or that "it comes down to personal choice," which isn't the worst answer to give, but it completely undermines the point of having a belief.

6) If you believe in Jesus, what do you think of the hundreds of other Jesus' who all followed the same story line over different ages, and through different belief systems, all similar to christianity?

The best example I can give of this is Horus; the Egyptian Jesus three thousand years before Jesus. Here's an interesting Wikipedia page I stumbled accross on Jesus Christ in comparative mythology if anyone's interested in furthering their knowledge on this subject — or maybe you're just curious, there's nothing wrong with that!

7) What is the history of your religion, and the history of religion in general?

If you're going to have a religious belief system, at least understand it. Faith isn't an excuse for stubborn ignorance. Actually, as it turns out, religion didn't originally mean what it does today. This whole literal interpretation of looking at life as God is more of a modern thing, religion used to mean what we essentially look at as Spirituality today - which is that God is in the self and that we are life.

Christianity may have the oldest known book, but the first religious texts are from Hinduism, which is the oldest known organized religion. Hinduism didn't originally have anything to do with a God, just Karma and Reincarnation. There were only a few scripts compared to the golden book of how not to live. Of course the Bible, among other religious books or texts, does have a lot of good information and stories to tell, but it's been taken completely out of context and way too literally for its own good - they're just stories. Unless one can step out of his own stubborn thoughts, he won't be able to understand them. As far as I'm concerned, our purpose is whatever we make it - if you were told that your purpose was to pick flowers all day since you were young, that's what you would do because that's what's been put in your head. I'm not so against religion, just these stubborn interpretations of it that take away any real meaning from God. God isn't a being of his own, God is life, the universe, shit like that, and religion is an ancient people's interpretation of life. In the end if the day, religion has a very simple message, and that of a message of Love.

Cancer & Hemp

Did you know that the earliest known uses for hemp go back as far as 10,000 BC (in Taiwan), or that the earliest known woven fabric dates back to 8,000 BC (in China) and is apparently made of hemp?

The cannabis plant in itself has long been known to man as one of the most medicinal herbs we have here on Earth. The best part is that it doesn't stop at being just simply medicinal; hemp could also completely put a halt to the oil and coal industries because of it's ability to be created into bio-degradable plastic, or the deforestation industry with hemp being able to be grown and cut much quicker while also using much less chemicals and machines to turn it into paper than it takes to grow and cut down a forest and then turn that into paper. Hemp can be used for almost anything!

Hemp oil is apparently a very probable candidate in the "cure" to cancer, who would have guessed? I quoted cure to emphasize it, the biggest flaw of the fight to cure cancer isn't just that there isn't really a full cure but that cancer shouldn't even necessarily be something that we have to cure. It's important to note that cancer is now an industry in itself, there's a reason doctors and hospitals don't tell you anything about what exactly cancer is and if they do, they won't tell you what caused it. The only option we have open at this time is slow not-so-preferable treatments that will last a while and result in an even lesser immune system, and that's before the high probability of death. Cancer basically starts with a very natural mutation of cells, this mutation is really nothing and is completely controlled by your body. Where this becomes cancer is when it's able to spread in a part of the body in an unnaturally, uncontrollable manner. This is result of the environment within your body turning from it's natural base to a much more unnatural acidic through all of the unhealthy shit you put into it. It was Dr. Otto Warburg who discovered that cancerous cells cannot survive in an alkaline, oxygen rich enviroment where as they thrive in an acidic, low oxygen enviroment. He actually won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for proving this. Obviously with the changed environment your immune system won't be able to function as it normally would and therefore there is nothing to control this cell mutation. The bottom line is that cancer is one of the things that happens when you don't take care of your body.

What the hell do you think is going to happen to you and your [future] kids when all you put through your body is coca cola, mcdonalds, alcohol, no exercise, and a shelf full of prescription drugs with more side effects than any good they could potentially, temporarily do? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying go out and buy a 5-piece of marijuana and smoke it right now, there are ups and downs to everything and marijuana is something that a lot of people enjoy recreationally maybe a little too much. You are still putting smoke in your lungs [and that-shit-that-gets-you-high in your blood] and your body does need time to clean itself out. What I am saying is that I'm just tired of people talking about the cure to cancer as if they even understand what cancer is, and that we need to stop listening to what people say and taking their word for it, do your own damn research! I'm no exception.

Okay, I suppose I'll include a small bit of the history to the illegalization of hemp. So, why is hemp illegal? I'll start by saying that it's not illegal because it's bad for you, no one has died from marijuana alone. If the Government gave a shit about our well being, we wouldn't have alcohol and tobacco products, and the quality of the food coming from fast food restaurants would be much higher. There is actually a lot to do with why hemp, or marijuana, is illegal. The list goes from racism and religion, all the way to corporate greed. I'm not going to get too into this, I'll leave this research to your own doing. What I'll say is that the United States had a law once upon a time that made it illegal to not grow marijuana. The illegalization of marijuana in the United States actually starts with the Mexican revolution. After it's illegalization, other industries were able to arise and take over, and since then have worked to keep it illegal for the purposes of their own well being.

When does the journey end?

In short, it doesn't. It really depends from what perspective we're speaking through though. One's journey could be characterised as starting when born and ending when dead. But, what happens after death? We know life itself was here long before we were even born into it. So, I think it's safe to say that it's hard to give a start or end to the journey of life. However there is a pattern, everything seems to start and end except where it ends is a new start. Nothing dies, it just transforms into something new. Life isn't really a thing that can be defined with a beginning or end, for it's really only as long as a moment, it simply continues and lives on in transformation.

Einstein, His Professor & God?

This story as been circulating around Facebook, again (it's happened before - but I didn't do 'this' about it), and I've been arguing with a few people on the legitimacy of whether the conversation even happened and even concerning the topic they were supposedly talking about. You may start with reading the story below, and then I'll rant on about why it doesn't prove anything.

Professor: You are a Christian, aren’t you, son? 

Student: Yes, sir. 

Professor: So, you believe in God? 

Student: Absolutely, sir. 

Professor: Is God good? 

Student: Sure. 

Professor: Is God all powerful? 

Student: Yes. 

Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn’t. How is this God good then? Hmm?
(Student was silent.) 

Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good? 

Student: Yes. 

Professor: Is satan good? 

Student: No. 

Professor: Where does satan come from ? 

Student: From… God… 

Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world? 

Student: Yes. 

Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And God did make everything. Correct? 

Student: Yes. 

Professor: So who created evil ?
(Student did not answer.) 

Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they? 

Student: Yes, sir. 

Professor: So, who created them?
(Student had no answer.) 

Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen God? 

Student: No, sir. 

Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No , sir. 

Professor: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter? 

Student: No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t. 

Professor: Yet you still believe in Him? 

Student: Yes. 

Professor: According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son? 

Student: Nothing. I only have my faith. 

Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has. 

Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat? 

Professor: Yes. 

Student: And is there such a thing as cold? 

Professor: Yes. 

Student: No, sir. There isn’t. 

(The lecture theatre became very quiet with this turn of events.) 

Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.) 

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness? 

Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness? 

Student: You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you? 

Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man? 

Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed. 

Professor: Flawed? Can you explain how? 

Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.
Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey? 

Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do. 

Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.) 

Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class was in uproar.) 

Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?
(The class broke out into laughter.) 

Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.) 

Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.
Student : That is it sir… Exactly! The link between man & God is Faith. That is all that keeps things alive and moving. 

There is a lot more to the story than what is above, actually it's been slowly changed around like the game some of us may have played as children and know as 'broken telephone.' Actually, not just changed around, but there are many variations to this story. I'm going to start with the point that this isn't even Albert Einstein. If it were, we would have sources left and right to verify such a story seeing as how well known he is. However, there are no sources, the only information I can find are websites telling me that this story is listed no where in any biography that has anything about the man (or the child-er-teenager, since if this was him, he was younger at the time). Not to forget that Mr. Einstein isn't even religious and doesn't believe in having a personal god.

What they were correct to say was that cold is not the opposite to heat, as hot would be the word to use. Heat is something, cold is the (not so enjoyable) sensation we refer to when there is less heat than preferred. We actually don't know what absolute zero is, and so to say that hitting 458 degrees below 0 is the lowest we can go is just for the purpose of making people think that he actually has a point. Absolute zero is a scientific theory, which means it's not certain, but this is what we have right now, the actual number is -459.67°F (or −273.15°C since I'm up here in Canada). However, we have never actually been able to mimic or see absolute zero for ourselves. Another point that this student has made that is also correct is that darkness is not necessarily a thing within itself, it's the absence of light. This is basically the same as the cold and heat comparison, darkness being a sensation we perceive through experiencing less light. However, how does this show that there is a God and that Science is wrong? Even though we understand the difference between how we perceive light and dark through Science. This is an argument made to answer the long struggled-with question of, "how can a good God exist with so much evil in the world?" The answer of free-will, etc, are also a result of this. What the supposed Mr. Einstein was saying is that good is God and that evil is the absence of good.

Science doesn't actually limit us to five senses, actually - well, our own bodies don't limit us to just having five senses. The credit for the traditional five sense model has been given to Aristotle. Although this really has nothing to do with the conversation (other than that it's another false claim) so we won't further discuss this topic here, actually I'll just send those interested to another article I found breaking down more of our senses, here (link).

The student goes onto explain his perspective of how Science can't explain a thought and that it uses electricity and magnetism, etc. Just because one option isn't fully there yet, doesn't mean the other popular option has to be correct. Science may not be able to explain consciousness (thoughts), but Spirituality is certainly on it's way, and it has nothing to do with a God or religion. With the way this student is talking is actually basic tricks used when trying to win an argument, by using bigger terms and bringing up things that people may not fully understand, you now have the upper hand because everyone either thinks that you're simply smarter than them or they've missed something big earlier on. He is right in that we cannot measure God due to that it has no limits or bounds, for there is no exact description to what God is, one can only assume due to the extensive personification of God as a "he" in the bible or other religious books.

What is death? The student say's that death is the absence of life, some articles I've read have debated saying that it can't be for then it would work the same the other way around. I don't agree with this, I'm not even sure myself what happens after death. I think that our energy will become one with the rest of life itself, but in what sense? Obviously our body matter will merge with the Earth wherever it dies (unless you're an astronaut), but what about our consciousness? These are fun questions to ask but let's get back on track. If death is the absence of life, how would this person be able to believe a religious view which includes an afterlife as the main feature to it? That's the irony of this situation, this non-existent student has now caught up with his own foolish words. The end result of this paragraph is that death is the end of life as we know it.

What is evolution? Being a member of Science, evolution is very simply the process of change over time. If you do not believe in this, than what you're saying is that the second to come is absolutely no different than the second that just passed. They must be the exact same for they have not changed, right? So, to say that we cannot prove that evolution has occurred and that it is ongoing is absolutely insane. It isn't a belief or an opinion, it is a fact the same way we understand gravity to be a fact. The scale at which the process of evolution is looked upon can be widened in time to look at where humans may have evolved from. We've observed physical objects such as ancient writings in detail to bones and fossil records. How scientists understand this is like a puzzle with only so many missing pieces, but we have enough to fill in the blanks. I'm going to end this point with this, we didn't evolve from a "monkey," we simply share the same ancestry. The Science behind it is that at the time this monkey-like creature began to stand up right, is about the same time in Africa when the forests were slowly fading to a lesser amount due to climate change and varying other happenings. Strangely enough is the fact that the reason why they began to stand up right apparently has much more to do with mating. Let's face it, humans love sex!

This story is insulting to humanity, the students can see that the professor has a brain, however you can find out with very few household tools if you'd like. We have technology that can scan the brain, we understand that we have one through comparing our actions to those who we know to have a brain. Moving on, what exactly are the "established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol?" I have never heard of any such thing, and some simple research leads me to believe that I shouldn't have done any to begin with. The professor now smiles as he seems to be unsure whether he actually has a brain, so he seems to also decide to believe it by faith, and so the rest of the students seem to draw a similar line of thought. The best part is that the point of this conversation was to show that life is between the dualism of God and evil, as if they are opposites. To be able to believe this you have to believe in God, and that isn't proven anywhere, nor can it be. I have to say though, it makes a good point for someone who's already religious.

If God commanded people to make the Bible, but we only know about this God through the Bible, then how do we know that it's genuine? The short answer is that we don't, the long answer is - well, it's even shorter, there is no long answer. God is a thing of religious stories, we have nothing to trace this thing to before these stories except what's said in the stories. For example, how do we know that God commanded these humans to create the Bible? I'm just supposed to act on faith, right? What about Horus? The Jesus 3000 years before Jesus, or the virgin Isis before the virgin Mary? There are many beings who supposedly followed the exact same story line as those in the Bible. Where religion goes wrong with Science is that Science is built on being able to change and adapt, religion is a bunch of stubborn stories leading to a bunch of ignorant people. I generally don't have a problem with people who are religious, what I have a problem with is when these people claim to be correct but when challenged become angry and say that I'm evil - no one's said that to me yet but they're thinking it (lol). Other than that, I think the goal should be to understand your belief before you act upon it. A belief is really another word for a stubborn thought, without room for change you cannot grow. Faith is necessary, but not in the stubborn sense. Nothing is absolute, forever at least, and therefore removing any room for change is like signing the tombstone ahead of time for the death of consciousness.

If anyone is interested in understanding existence, you may look up the study of consciousness; the view of spirituality. For, where Science ends, Spirituality picks up. Spirituality is at the heart of every religion, consciousness is what God truly is. God is an exaggerated, personified thing that belongs to a series of stories for the purpose of explaining how these ancient people's perceived their own consciousness.

CISPA?

Before I start with this I think it's important to understand the very recent history of these bills and laws or whatever you want to call them, seeing as CISPA is only the most recent (one up until this post.)

• SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) October 26, 2011
  This was a bill imposed by the United States by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX). It's goal was focussed more towards online piracy, as stated in the name of the bill. It was supposed to put more restrictions on online copyrighted material.
• PIPA (PROTECT IP Act, or Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act)
  May 12, 2011
  Also imposed within the United States, the bill was introduced on May 12, 2011, by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). It's purpose was to give copyright holders access to more tools to assist them in keeping their materials (and who can access them) within their control. It ended up being passed but was actually put on hold by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).
• ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) November 15, 2010
  This is a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet. In October of 2011, the agreement was signed by by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and of course, the United States. In January 2012, the European Union (including 22 countries of which are apart of the EU) also signed, therefore bringing the number of signatories up to 31. Only 6 of the signatories need to agree on, or I guess "ratify," the agreement in order for it to come into effect, but I believe none of them have done anything yet. As far as I know, it's just sitting still. I put this one as the last because it was actually the last to be brought to my attention.
  

What these three bills have in common, are the infringements on our right and freedoms as human beings. After 9/11 (which I most definitely believe has a little more to it than what the Government left it at) the right and freedoms began to slowly fade away and didn't seem do seem as strong as before. Apparently, the internet is next. I don't know about you, but I hate that feeling that you get when someone is watching over your shoulder... Now, I'd like to point out that the reasons for which these bills were being imposed aren't that bad, but the solutions aren't in our favour. Before we continue on to what exactly this post is about, I'd like to leave it at this. Google, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, Reddit, and in total around 115,000 websites protested against SOPA/PIPA and or ACTA by either closing their websites completely, partly, or by displaying information about why exactly you shouldn't support these bills as well as encouraging those reading to do more research for themselves. People such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, as well as a letter written to congress by many of the inventors of the internet - and by many, I think it was something like 81? Any ways, you get the point. SOPA and PIPA were eventually shelved... Moving on!

• CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) November 30, 2011
  The most recent bill is apparently just the SOPA, but renamed, well - and completely re-done. This is what I've heard and read by some news source which currently escape my mind. I don't know about the literal accuracy of that but, at the very least, what I can tell you with certainty is that this bill is the SOPA's big brother and that it was brought to attention to the House on November 30, 2011 by U.S. Representative Michael Rogers (R-MI). It's actually an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947, which does not currently contain provisions pertaining to cybercrime. The bottom line about this bill is that it contains very few limits as to how the government can monitor private information.

These bills are an attack on the internet, how do you feel about every little thing you do being monitored on the internet? For the record, Canada (which is where I live - so I'll mention this) did have a part of bill C-10 (Safe Streets and Communities Act) which specifically had to do with monitoring the internet, but was taken out due to protest before the bill was passed on March 12th (a month ago).

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee is one of my greatest inspirations. Last night while bored on StumbleUpon, I came across this webpage of quotes by, you guessed it, Bruce Lee! I've never seen such a great collection of quotes before so I'm going post some of my favourite's below!

Be happy, but never satisfied.
— Bruce Lee

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.
— Bruce Lee

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
— Bruce Lee

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
— Bruce Lee

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
— Bruce Lee

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.
— Bruce Lee

The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment.
— Bruce Lee

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
— Bruce Lee

Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.
— Bruce Lee

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
— Bruce Lee

If there is a God, he is within. You don't ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.
— Bruce Lee

A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.
— Bruce Lee

Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.
— Bruce Lee

To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.
— Bruce Lee

The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems.
— Bruce Lee

If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
— Bruce Lee

Living healthy inside and out!

I came across two articles, the first being 50 Life Secrets and Tips and the second being 50 (More) Life Secrets and Tips! Personally, I already understood a lot of what these articles are talking about due to my reading into the topics of spirituality. That's not to say that it's not a good thing to re-educate one's self on this topic. Any ways, I'm not going to quote their entire page, I'm just going to give some of the points I enjoyed the most.

Use your memory and read more.
This will enhance your memory as well as make you the equivalent to a human Google, which is what some of my friends call me for my ability to reiterate "random" things.

Look people in their eyes and respond to them with their name when greeting them.
Eye contact is a very important thing, that connection establishes that you acknowledge them and aren't getting bored. Stating said persons' name when greeting them also will help establish a much stronger connection with that person.

Reduce your attachment to material things.
Obviously in a world where material wealth has become more important, it's not the easiest to rid yourself of. However, I'm not suggesting that one rids one's self from a material possession, but solely from the want or need or the attachment to that possession.

Focus the mind on the present moment.
The past is something that has already happened, it's unchangeable, one should not look into the past unless looking not to repeat a mistake. The future hasn't even happened yet, most are so fascinated with the future that they look so far ahead and begin to lose sight of where they currently stand. The presence is the result of the past, and it's what creates the future, why would you want to focus on anything other than just that? The past can only bring misfortune and regret where as the future with want and desire. The present is the gift of gifts!

Smile more!
Your emotions and how you physically act are directly linked in that the act of smiling will actually make you happier. Serotonin is what we call the happy hormone, by thinking something positive or physically smiling, this hormone is released and therefore connects the two.

Develop an endless curiosity about the world, life and travelling.
There is much more to the world than confining your existence to your house - or even your neighbourhood. Your neighbourhood is definitely a good place to start, but what about the rest of the world?! Life has so much to offer!

Get physically fit!
Being fit helps to make a much healthier you as well as boost self-confidence, especially when it comes to your love life. There is no reason why you shouldn't be motivated to achieve this!

Drink more water and get in the sun!
Forget about pop or soda or whatever you want to call it, try looking up what's actually in that stuff. You need at least 8 cups of water a day, but 10 is the preferred amount! The sun is like a boost of energy, this with water is what creates life as we know it - it's what created us!

Don't take life too seriously, try to think more positively.
Learn to laugh at your own mistakes, you have the rest of your life to get it right! Thinking positively is essential to your own happiness, by whatever means necessary, keep your thoughts positive.

Help others!
Helping others is important for bettering the self in that you will feel good about yourself. It's the best possible feeling that one can achieve in this life!

Make honesty all you know.
Keeping a reputation of being an honest person is important for your own integrity.

Put aside a time each day to think of everything that's worrying you.
This can also be called meditation, practitioners use prayer beads for this and as they go over each bead, they either repeat a thought or come to a new thought. You don't need to do anything fancy, just sit down and focus the mind on what's eating at you - this will help you to better understand exactly how you would be able to solve these issues.

Get up early!
Start your day off early and set an hour or so aside for activities like mediation, but focus on the positive things, this will jump start your day!

Sleep less.
Sleep is very important for you, it's when you body takes everything you learned throughout the day and puts it away. But, being awake is much more efficient for your being!

Figure out what your goals and dreams are.
Understanding what you're interested in and what you wish to achieve is important in that it's what will help you reach these goals.

Discover what you enjoy doing and pursue it!
I personally enjoy dancing and web design, these are what I'm able to put any stress throughout my day or my week into and let it out positively. I believe that it's completely necessary to have something you enjoy doing to release any form of stress into.

Learn to forgive.
It is important to forgive, this will help you in letting go of past memories that are holding you back from further self development!

Control your emotions and your thoughts.
This is truly what ends up creating who you are and more importantly, who you will become. Control your thoughts by restricting the to the positive side of life, and as stated earlier, set aside times for other kinds of thinking. Your emotions are something that get in the way of a lot of things, specifically negative emotions like anger, etc. Love is the only emotion you need to let out!

Take the time to sit back and relax.
There may be a lot to experience but that doesn't mean you need to rush, sometimes it's better to close your eyes and focus on your breathing.

Work on good first imprssions!
First impressions are what create the base connection between you and someone. It's this base connection that determines how a relationship between you and someone will grow!

Kony2012

I meant to write this earlier, and I feel that for the most part this whole thing has washed over, but I want to get it out on here so that I can just refer people to this post for future reference. By the way, don't just trust what I'm saying, (even though I believe I'm pretty accurate,) do your own research!

The Kony2012 campaign is basically explained in a 30 minute video created by the Invisible Children non-profit organization. However, this video is very biased and misleading. I want to leave something out there before I dig my teeth in to this one, IC (which is what we're going to call Invisible Children) is a marketing and advertising organization - they haven't called themselves anything other than that.

My stance on the issue: the whole campaign is a waste of everyone's time... Of course Kony is a bad guy, we get it, but that's completely beside anything that you need to understand about what this whole thing is, and by that I'm talking about the campaign itself.

What needs to be understood is that it's not just about this guy named Joseph Kony and his LRA, this issue is much bigger than that. It goes back 40 years ago to 1972 when Yoweri Musevini had began to gather a rather large group of people and later called this group the National Resistance Army (NRA). In 1986 they over threw the government, of whom apparently weren't very favourable, since they were overthrown and what not. Guess who took over, and is still in power to this day? Mr. Musevini, of course. Joseph Kony was a guy who was into some very interesting things from a young age - mainly cults and all of that fun stuff, and when his government was over thrown, he became very unhappy. I guess it would be safe to say that he really enjoyed the government that was in place. So, he as well gathered a rather large group of people and later calling it the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). They began to kidnap children and kill any adults in their surrounding, therefore not leaving them much of a choice other than to join the movement. In 1987 the LRA made their first real village sabotage, this was Kony's home village of which we know to be named, Odek. In 1988 the UPDA (Uganda People's Democratic Army) made an agreement with the NRA where most of the members of the UPDA were left unsatisfied and joined Kony and his LRA as a form of rebellion. From here on I'm going to make it really short, the LRA basically fucked the NRA up a few times, and the NRA responded by weakening the areas that the LRA was recruiting from.From there on is just back and forth fighting.

I left everything out concerning Congo, Sudan/South Sudan and the other surrounding Central African countries because that's just too much typing - I'm actually doing this from my phone, lol. Any ways, now that we understand a little more about the Kony2012 campaign and the history behind what's happening in Uganda, we get to punch some holes in the campaign. The following are five (5) strong points as to why this campaign isn't worth your time, and if you aren't satisfied then I have five (5) links to supporting articles right after that!

1. [The NRA have done the same, if not worse.] During the civil war between the NRA and the former Ugandan government, the wars between Uganda and Congo, and the time the NRA spent trying to fight Kony, they've done many of the things that Kony and his LRA have been accused of - if not more and worse. So why are we focussing on Kony and leaving the NRA out of the issue (even though the remaining fees from IC go through the NRA)?
2. [The remaining donations go through the NRA.] I'm not actually going to focus on the fact that IC's monetary history isn't really in the favour of what most would argue the cause is really about. By this I mean that their monetary history includes that somewhere around 30-32% of the donations actually go to the cause. But as I said, I'm not going to focus on that, the money goes through the NRA. That is the problem. IC is an advertising company, so it's completely understandable that they would need to fund that - the issue is that this doesn't actually help the problem that they're making a big deal about.
3. [The governments already know who he is.] Awareness is great, we should all be aware about what's happening in the world. However, the point of us being aware is so that we can make a scene and force the government to take action. The problem with that is that it's not like the governments don't know about this. Think about it, why wouldn't they know about this, actually - after 9/11 the LRA was listed as a terrorist group and in 2005 Joseph Kony was listed as one of the world's most wanted. The US had later sent 100 troops into Uganda to train and assist the NRA in finding and detaining Kony. The average person in the western world may not know about something that's happening in another part of the world, but that's because that situation really doesn't apply to us directly... Does he really need to become more famous than he already is? The governments of the world understand what's happening, it's been happening for 30 years and now the world gives a shit? It's time to ask yourself, "so, what exactly is this movement really about?"
4. [The LRA is a dying cause.] The UN stated that they estimate Kony's LRA to have been diminished down to around 200 members by now. They're a dying cause who have nothing left to do but run to South Sudan and hide until the pressures off. By the way, the LRA never had 30,000 children in their army at one time. That number was apparently created by the NRA as an estimate of how many children were abducted in total up until 2004. Although to be fair, Wikipedia states that some estimate the number goes as high as 104,000.
5. [IC is calling for War throughout Central Africa.] Lastly, seeing as the governments understand and are aware of the situation, and that the military is already in Uganda (even though Kony isn't), what IC is calling for isn't just about awareness or sending the PoPo to Kony's front door to slap some cuffs on him. Kony is supported by South Sudan and therefore is chilling there with his LRA. The only way to actually arrest this guy is if you were to invade South Sudan, as if war will solve that one? Keep in mind this is over child soldiers, we're now talking about war between two countries that have a history of recruiting just that. So now we want to bring this even further by pushing US military involvement? I didn't know that the US military ever actually helped a country, let alone the fact that any country the US military touches ends up the complete opposite from our desired peace and stability. War is the underlining factor of the Kony2012 campaign, and that won't help anything, it never has - why the fuck would it now?

The overall conclusion from the five points I've just made is really that, why now? All of a sudden the western world seems to care about an issue that isn't much of an issue anymore... The Ugandan people, well - the whole country, has recently (over the past few years) started to recover. This attention isn't actually helping anything, actually the majority of the Ugandan people's are against the general campaign. I really hope now people understand that you shouldn't just blindly follow a cause just because it's a cause and it's the "right" thing to do. Look into exactly what it is that you're funding before you fund it, you wouldn't buy a new phone without knowing about it first, right?

If anyone wants to have some further reading, I've prepared a few informative articles below.

• www.dailymaverick.co.za
• www.blog.foreignpolicy.com
• www.policyonpoint.com
• www.telegraph.co.uk
• www.blackstarnews.com

The most efficient way to make money.

The most efficient way to make money is by solving people's problems. The most common way to go about this is by either creating a problem, or creating the thought that there is a problem, and then creating a temporary patch that needs to continuously be applied. If you permanently solved the problem then there would be no income, permanent solutions simply aren't of interest.

It's saddening that this is how our system works, but this is the reality of life as we know it. A while ago my friend told me that I should write a book about how I feel, I replied;

Well, I've honestly thought of doing something like that. However, there's too many opinions, beliefs and faiths flying around for mine to matter any more than theirs. Besides, my entire view of what life is about is defined in one word, to thrive. What I can go on about are the flaws of society, the main one I find comes down to opinion, literally. Most people have this idea of "I'm right, you're wrong!", other than that the fact that we're following a very ancient way of doing things isn't the best for a society that's advancing exponentially. Laws are really only to fix things that we don't know how to fix; a patch on the system. For example, speed limits are in place so we don't crash and etc... Well we could add sensors in the cars and in the roads so that nothing can actually even bump into each other, and in terms of losing control or slippery roads we could include a form of adhesive in the pavement. But this costs money, and the banks/corporations will only fund such a project if they're making money in return. Unfortunately the easiest way to make money is by solving an issue, and if we solve all the issues then there won't be any money being made. That's actually a topic in itself though, the conflict between Science/Technology and the Monetary system.

The game of life.

I'm in school studying the general subject of criminal law, the program I'm taking is called Protection, Security and Investigation, and one of my teachers is a criminal defence lawyer. A lot of my teachers talk about some very interesting subjects, but this really stuck out to me - the below isn't a quote, it was simply inspired by what he had to say.

We could define a game as something that has a beginning and end, and rules. With that being said, life can be defined as a game; the game of life. It has a beginning and end, and rules. You can't simply win this game for that would technically make you dead, you can only be winning. To be winning you must understand the rules so that you may use and interpret them to your advantage. The trick to this game is the amount of differentiating groups playing and therefore a rule is not permanant for it is varying in interpretation according to each group.

The rules to life are governed within different societies and cultures, and therefore are subject to varying interpretation, for they all aren't going down the same road at the same time. Due to this, depending on where you live and how you're raised, your self made role in the game of life will be different. I say self made role solely because you have to make an imprint yourself and participate in society; life won't stop for you, it's up to you to stay ahead of the game. The fact that there are so many different groups of people is what creates such variations within rules, and with that a rule is not permanant, it can be changed by means of interpretation. This is what we will use to our advantage to stay on the winning side while playing the game of life.

My first post!

Hey! My name is Matthew and I've decided to create a Blogger, ugh, blog... I feel like I have a lot to talk about, so, let's start!

Bare with me, I'll get better at this... =)