First Blog

It's that gifting time of the year. So, I thought to take a closer look at the gifts I have already. Not just the kids, car, house, and health, but the real gifts, as in those I was born with. They are many, so many it is troubling why I have them. Among them is the gift of problem-solving. Another is the gift of curiosity. This article  is about them all, with a closer look at faith.  December 20, 2022 Gifts to Humankind by G Donald Allen Upon us now is the season of giving. Just as important is to inventory those gifts we have been given. And they are many. At Thanksgiving, we count our blessings. Today we travel well beyond counting to those wondrous gifts given to us at birth. These gifts co-mingle, coalesce, contravene, and entangle to make us what we have become. Not material, nor theoretical, and without position or location, they are undeniable. They are within the domains of psychology, chemistry, and sociology, forming our very human foundations. Evolution or design

  Interesting observations and facts about religions - a bullet lecture. ·         They can be accepted, understood, and believed at all intelligence levels. ·         They allow multiple interpretations. ·         They encourage decent relations between people. ·         They posit an answer to the most basic question, “Why we are?” ·         They offer all believers a pathway to eternal peace. ·         They require faith without physical evidence. ·         They allow and suggest miracles have a divine origin. ·         They need the advent of historical prophets. ·         They reject contemporary prophets. ·         They need martyrs. ·         They require or hope for, secular signs.

You may not have ESP, but you do have some equally important extra senses . All of us have special senses unavailable to machines or other living things. Not reading the future, or moving objects by pure thought, these senses are more important to you in almost every way. They are not called senses in normal parlay but without them, you’d have an empty existence. Far beyond taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing, they carry you through the most difficult times and propel you to excellence and achievements amazing even yourself. They lift you from despair. They heal your broken heart. They enlighten your life's journey. The Paranormal Suppose you’ve just heard that a computer can “perceive” the cards of the standard paranormal deck.   You know squares, wavy lines, circles, stars, and the like.   You would say nonsense and say it quickly. Because if it could, you could.   And this is because the computer functions on algorithms and algorithms are written by peop

Always have hope! Hope is like a tiny battery deep inside you that must not fail. If it fails, you fail. If you have hope, your system is activated to action.   With hope, you may try, work, invent and explore new ideas. You have a burden lifted into your being to discover new unknowns.   Without hope, you languish in a valley of inaction. Hope, like love, is fragile, easily breakable at first.   As well, hope can carry through the most difficult times. SPORTS. One manifestation of this is with sports teams.   When a team gives up on itself and loses hope, its fans also give up. Their supreme effort to win is dissolved. The conversation turns to next season and new player acquisitions. In European leagues, relegation is assumed, resulting in players looking to change teams. The entire team package is lost until it finds hope once again. CITIES. The city that loses hope, dissembles. It’s laws are not enforced; homelessness rises; city legislatures lose focus toward me

My dad used to say if you want a serious problem to solve, find one that no one has yet solved. Knowing now that the best minds work on the hardest problems, these unsolved or open problems must be difficult. In this short piece, we talk about time, its elusive meaning, and its close cousin of order. The God Problem.  Is there or isn't there?  Those that believe do believe on faith, an inner sense of knowing.  Those that don't mostly believe it is only a matter of time and the endeavors of science to solve there is no God.  But suppose such a solution is offered?  The universe is this way or that...  But who made the universe is the next level.  But suppose the universe is this way or that?  Then how were the laws created?  And when this is resolved, how did the laws come into place?  In short, what ever is resolved, the next question is "Why's that? Who did that?"  The God Problem is one of infinite regression for the scientist, but solvable by act of faith alone

Doubling down. Theory, ideology, faith, whatever it may be, we see now in current affairs the intransigence of public and scientific players the willingness to persevere with a policy or theory, of some position despite the evidence it  seems not to be working. The remedy is not to revise, readjust, or relegate the program or  position, but to double, even triple, down upon it.  It is true, they argue, we just haven't given enough time or resources to fulfill its benefits.  It doesn't matter the topic, ranging from health care, to green solutions, to capitalistic markets, adherents will not let go.  Their theory is correct, they contend, we just need to persevere along this path. Persistence is the by-word of all too many.  This country, founded greatly upon William James' concepts of  pragmatism, has reversed course to pure belief.   Now this leads us to an conundrum.  It is seemingly impossible to let go, reverse course, or reformulate.  Remarkably, this is a partic

As was recently posted on LinkedIn by Dr. Ya'akov Sloman,  "Scientific Realism, in the general case, is the idea that theories developed by the scientific method match what is "really" in the world. That is, if a theory has predictive value it means that what the theory describes actually exists in the world. In the particulars, every philosopher who considers this idea has variations on it, but the core is the epistemic certainty, the idea that what we know from successful scientific theories (those with predictive power) is not just a model that is internally consistent, rather it is a direct description of things-as-they-are." Is it possible to justify this position without resort to simple optimism or outright faith-based arguments?" Sounds long and philosophical.  Yet this simple post generated a blizzard of response.  Indeed, if you've been reading this column, there is almost nothing true or what you believe is true without some belief or faith

Seven Ways You Figure Things Out and Solve Problems The human brain is a marvelous organ.   It is designed for but one thing: survival of the body.   And survival means solving a non ending stream of problems. Ever thought about how you figure things out? Your marvelous brain has it covered. Indeed, you use six separate systems to make conclusions, resolve questions, problem solve, and just about everything else. Using the acronym BRAIPIE, we describe them in this order. The order and priority a person uses one or another of these systems varies from person to person, from religion to religion, from fine arts to science. Beliefs/Faith - You have a set of beliefs and a state of faith, both of which which function as guideposts on how to view problems and resolve difficulties. These are your strongest system, and can override all other considerations. The two overlap so much, it isn't really possible to distinguish them. The first is the second, and the second is the first. Ra