How did the wacky idea that “free will” is somehow “free” get started.
Sometimes the costs of things are measured in ways that cannot be counted.
No amount of saving will pay for the hidden costs of free will.
Category: Blogroll
Where do we be headed?
It is hard to imagine how humans can be considered anything more than an evolutionary detour, a genetic aberration, that is in the process of sorting itself out. Some days I am more optimistic than others as to the likelihood of that happening.
It is profoundly saddening to see not only the atrocities inflicted on young children in Iraq by the extremist militants of ISIS, but also the response of some Christians that would have us believe that these actions are somehow “typical Muslim behavior.”
The beheading of children has nothing to do with religion.
There is no religion that I am aware of, certainly not Christian and certainly not Muslim, that has any doctrines that would support such an act. This is merely the act of lunatics, psychotics and horse’s asses. If they think they have authority from some higher power to commit these crimes, then they merely prove my case for me. However, people that would conveniently lump these horse’s asses into a particular “religion” have their own psychosis to deal with and are likely horse’s asses and lunatics themselves.
Neither course of action helps the human race get off its self destructive evolutionary detour and onto a course where it has a any chance of survival as a species.
Charles Buell
Using 10% of your brain—how to boost it to 12% while you sleep!
Like most of my generation, I grew up under the assumption that we only use 10% of our brains. Early on, I was determined to be the first person on the planet to use more than 10%. I figured that if I could make that happen, I could be such a contribution to humanity.
Not only have I discovered, now that I am older, that it is highly unlikely that I am going to accomplish my goal I have to deal with the fact that all humans use 100% of their brain pretty much 100% of the time.
These are very painful realizations!
The fact that it never occurred to most people just how ludicrous the notion that we only use 10% of our brains is, proves that we just plain have no clue how to use it. It should have been my first hint that it would not be possible for me to be that first exception.
Our brains are like cars with the drive axle blocked up so the wheels are not touching the ground. We then fully expect the car to go somewhere. It sits there working 100% or more and going nowhere.
Back when I thought we used only 10% of our brains, I saw incredible opportunity for humanity to actually pull itself out of its quest for extinction. Now I realize how much more complicated and difficult it actually is going to be.
So now it becomes a matter of figuring out why people SEEM to under-utilize they brains. It turns out that it has more to do with genetics, what we feed it, blood circulation and other factors that make some people seem smarter than others.
Another thing that plagues human brains is the fact that there appears to be little relationship between being smart and doing what is right. I always dreamed that one’s moral compass was somehow integrated with how smart we are. However, we see very smart people slide off the deep end all the time that have IQ’s that make mine look like the desired indoor air temperature.
I now find it incredibly distressing that I have been using my brain 100% of the time!
I think perhaps I need a Twinkie to get things going in the right direction.
Charles Buell
War and Peace—the short version
One measure of the hopelessness of the human condition is the degree to which one is committed to their own particular belief system being the answer.
Marmalade
I am becoming my father.
I guess it was inevitable.
I am the one who now has pictures,
in boxes and on walls,
of how young I used to be.
I am the one who now has baby pictures
that look as old as his baby pictures.
There are pictures of wives
and girlfriends
that look like kids.
Now I can see
that I actually was a kid
and so was he.
I am now the one
who takes longer and longer to pee.
And isn’t
accidental gas
a normal part
of the conversation?
Sometimes when I look in the mirror,
when he isn’t paying attention,
I catch him looking back at me.
I still have more teeth,
but now I get the point,
and keep on smiling anyway.
I now realize
just how harmless,
his never-ending interest
in all women
actually was.
When I was a kid
I thought that he had forgotten
more than I would ever know.
Now I know
that I have forgotten
more than I know.
Now I know
how UN-important what I know
actually is,
and yet wish that I knew more.
I still have
more hair than he did,
perhaps ever did,
but the jury is still out on that.
I still don’t like marmalade
but lick blueberry jam
off my pocket knife.
There is still time,
but except for the marmalade,
I am becoming my father.
By Charles Buell