Rod Martin Jr.'s Blog, page 5
January 18, 2020
Barriers to Miracles
A rock cannot perform a miracle. It is an artifact of this physical universe. Miracles are done from the viewpoint of spirit; not from the body or ego. If anything is important in our life, then likely we are not in spirit. And by “important” I mean anything that causes us concern, worry, fear, anger, frustration or any one of dozens of other negative emotions or attitudes.
In other words, prayers and miracles don’t come from Homo sapiens bodies. Too often people pray as a body and wonder why God isn’t listening.
So, the first aim must be to arrive at the spiritual self. There are likely an infinite number of ways to help achieve this.
All of them include a willingness to face our crimes or sins, and to take responsibility for them. When we grumble or complain, this is a sign that one of our sins have surfaced in our mind and is haunting us. This could be a small as that donut we took at breakfast when we told our spouse that we were going to stick to our diet. In some cases, it could be a murder we committed several centuries ago. Don’t think for a moment that your disbelief in reincarnation is going to make that crime go away; that’s a form of self-imposed blindness. There is scripture throughout the Bible which supports the notion of reincarnation, not the least of which is Christ rebuking John the Baptist for forgetting that he is Elias (Elijah) returned to precede Jesus per prophecy.
The Nature of Spiritual Barriers
[image error]Barbed wire, pasture fence; a dangerous barrier. Photo #1995820 pixel2013 (CC0) Pixabay.
Physical barriers are vulnerable to force; the greater the force, the easier the barrier is overcome.
Spiritual barriers remain opposite to this in many ways. They still block passage from one place to another, although spiritual places have more to do with attitudes and results. Spiritual barriers are strengthened by force! Let that thought sink in deeply. Any force or effort is akin to “doubt”—the attitude that thwarts miracles. Effort means that we don’t trust God to carry through with our request. Such a doubt-ridden behavior is the opposite of prayer.
Living in Delusion, Wish or Importance
Perle Epstein’s 1978 book on Kabbalah gives us a relevant quote: “Bliss ungrounded in physical reality is not bliss but delusion, insists the Jewish master” (Bayha ben Joseph Ibn Paquda, an eleventh-century judge in the rabbinical court at Saragossa [Caesar Augusta], Spain). As I relate in my book, The Bible’s Hidden Wisdom, “The transcendent state of faith or bliss cannot be achieved by blinding oneself from reality or ignoring the evidence of science.”
We need to face reality without flinching. We need to “be there” without lugging around a lot of excess emotional baggage. (I discuss this trait of “being there” in greater detail in an upcoming blog.)
While delusion can be a major barrier, so can the attitude of “wish.” Look at that for a moment. Wish brings with it the feeling of “want” (lack) or “desire” (need). It contains the lack and need of the object of desire. Wish implies resentment for a current condition and wandering eyes toward that “greener pasture.” The attitude plants us squarely on the wrong side of the fence.
Prayer done right pictures our self on the right side of the fence and no concern about the wrong side. If anything, our self remains grateful for the experience on the wrong side. Gratitude is what sets us free. And by picturing and feeling our self on the right side, the need to get here is no longer “important” (egoistic).
The idea of “importance” about a goal—the object of our prayer—brings with it both the burden of ingratitude for our current condition and a reinforcement of our state of being on the wrong side of the fence. The harder we push, the more strongly we are rooted in our current starting point. This may seem counterintuitive; and this is a feeling we must dismiss. Spirit does not work like physical reality.
Not Following the Steps of Prayer
Genesis 1 and 2 gave us the two key steps for prayer, or miracles.
We need to get the idea or “Word” of the end result (most of Genesis 1), andWe need to rest from our idea or creation (Genesis 2:1–3).
In fact, here is exactly what it says,
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Genesis 2:1-3).
This second step is what gives the first step persistence. Without it, the creation remains an instantaneity—an idea without time.
The first step is merely to picture clearly exactly what is to be persisted. The first step is the creation; the second step is the persisting.
More Steps for Mere Mortals
[image error]Footsteps on beach, finding the right path. Photo #3938563 DDZphoto (CC0) Pixabay.
Mortals require more steps than the above two. Why? Because such creation and persisting have to be done by spirit. It requires that spirit wake up and become at-one with God—the source of all miracles.
This means that we need to give up the physical and egoistic selves for the time being. We need to remain undistracted by our sins, including worries and incompetence. All such things are egoistic (selfish). This also means that we need to avoid delusion—dreaming about how nice it would be, but not actively creating and allowing (persisting) the creation into the time stream.
Giving up our physical and egoistic selves can run into barriers. Prime examples include undisclosed sins, what the Scientologist would call “overt acts” and “missed withholds.” Confession is the key to dispelling this kind of barrier. This does not need to be confessed to another individual; it can be merely recognized for what it is, or confessed to God.
Avoiding delusion can be achieved in a number of ways, including looking at all of the related physical reality. When I performed my first premeditated, methodical experiment with miracles, I achieved this “mortal” step by imagining in my mind (looking as spirit?) the light switch, the wires hidden in the wall which led to the fluorescent light bulb, the ballast wiring and circuitry, and the fluorescent tube itself.
Dispelling importance can be achieved by giving up all claim to the object of desire. Be grateful for the current condition. Also, be grateful for having the desired end result. See? You can do both. Gratitude makes it easy to move between points. Gratitude is spiritual lubricant.
Another way to dispel importance is to remain utterly humble and perfectly willing for God to say, “No,” to our request. Still another way is to be perfectly willing that everyone else in the universe achieve what we desire before we achieve it for our self. And yet another way to dispel importance is to remain perfectly confident that God will say, “Yes,” to our request.
All of these are not mutually exclusive or incompatible with one another. They are all in harmony with something for which there is no direct language to describe. If we can see how all of the above are in harmony, then we can sense the meaning for that word which does not yet exist.
December 21, 2019
Reverse Vectors — Methods for Removing Fear and Doubt from Prayer
[image error]Sun, clouds and hills. Clouds reversing vector. Photo: kareni (CC0) Pixabay
God wants us to grow up. He wants us to learn how to ask properly. Learning this requires that we take full responsibility, retain utter humility and unconditional love, and muster fearless confidence. Quite often these seem more difficult than they sound.
Fear can get in the way. So can anger. Many other emotions and attitudes can get in the way. Behind all of these is the judgment of “importance,” frequently unspoken and often enough not even realized.
The feeling of importance can overpower us, making us doubt we will accomplish that which we desire.
Such doubts can cling to us like sticky glue or fly paper, making it seem impossible to let go. Like the old 18th century punishment, we feel tarred and feathered. Removing the shameful stickiness used to require weeks of waiting without the right solvent. Those so punished suffered both shame and discomfort. When asking through prayer, importances and doubts can cling to us much like the tar and covering of chicken feathers.
Nothing can seem more important than our mortal lives, especially before we awaken as spiritual children of God. We know no other identity. We feel trapped in a limited and vulnerable life.
If we are ill with a life-threatening illness, we feel the clock ticking on our life. The apparent importance grips us with a fear we cannot shake. If we face imminent death, whether by a murderer, a desperate thief, or a wild beast looking for its next meal, we feel time expand and seconds become rapidly evaporating epochs.
How do we regain control? How do we remove the overwhelm and importance? Failing this, we succumb to the apparently inevitable reality. Succeeding, we gain a foothold in the spiritual domain and ask with a clean, spotless heart for that which we desire.
The Reverse Vector
[image error]
One powerful technique I found, I call “reverse vector.” This wasn’t my original discovery; I learned it in my days in Scientology. The concept can be modified to fit our current needs. It works like this: Whenever we feel trapped by some unstoppable force, rather than resisting that force, we take charge of it as if we were the driver, instead of the victim.
In martial arts, this looks like taking an attacker’s momentum and using it against them. Sometimes, we can add to their momentum, throwing them off balance. Other times, we can merely redirect their inertia.
With a source of fear, we might imagine in our mind that the object of our fear has done its worst. In fact, we imagine helping our enemy, making our own destruction that much more powerful and glorious. This is not a defeatist attitude. No, instead it is a loving generous attitude giving our enemy whatever they want and doing it without hesitation and full of joy.
This is an attitude similar to that of the Viking Berserkers going into battle. They start with the attitude that they are already dead, so the fear has no more grip on them. Because they are already dead (in attitude), their own lives are no longer important. This makes them far more effective in battle and may end up increasing their survival rate.
But be clear about this. We are after saving life and empowering ourselves. This is the attitude that does just that.
The best attitude is not one of giving up, but quite the opposite. This is the sense of taking control of everything our opponent has done, is now doing, and seems inevitable to do. Do it with joy, knowing that we have lived a glorious life.
Reverse the Vector — Be the Giant
[image error]Jupiter with polar aurora, and Earth next to the Red Spot for scale. Photos: NASA (PD)
To achieve the same level of unimportance, we might reverse the vector of apparent size. Our source of overwhelm may seem larger than ourselves. We can referse this relationship by picturing ourselves as the size of the building we’re in, the planet we’re on, or even the galaxy within which we reside.
We might get a sense of the size of our own planet Earth, realize that it is tiny compared to Jupiter, then that Jupiter is tiny compared to our own sun, and that our one sun is only a single star amongst 200 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Be bigger than this!
When a bolt won’t turn, no matter how hard we may pull on the wrench (spanner), sometimes going in the opposite direction will break it loose.
Picture in your mind giving up all that you have left—not in the apathy of giving up, but in the joy of wresting control of the situation from this action-reaction, deterministic universe.
Is there a danger, here? What if we slip and miscalculate? Don’t worry. Act as if God will catch us after our body dies. This cultivates certainty and a relaxed humility. Do it well enough and God will acknowledge the intent we hope we’re sending to Him.
[image error]Sun, clouds and hills. Photo: kareni (CC0) Pixabay
Reversing the Vector on Scarcity and Overwhelm
Another barrier to prayer is the sense of scarcity. This can be a feeling of “too little” on any one of a number of vectors or topics. Scarcity of money, health, time, pleasure, feeling, knowledge, forgiveness, energy, mass, space and innumerable others.
Overwhelm—and thus a sense of importance—can be defined as too much or too little of something. For example, too little or too much,
space,time,energy, ormass.
Too much space can include things like, “too great a distance to the hospital.” Too little energy can include things like, “running out of gas in our car.” And too much mass can include things like, “an avalanche landing on top of us.”
When we realize that we’ve experienced dozens of times just about every disaster we can imagine, then the current disaster does not seem so important anymore. This can allow us to send our prayer with zero doubts, because the desired result is no longer “important.”
Reverse Vector Curing Selfish Focus on Self
[image error]Clouds and hills. Photo: kareni (CC0) Pixabay
All negative emotions, like fear, anger, apathy, especially if prolonged, tend to be selfish. There are exceptions, but they are rare. One such exception was Jesus beating the money changers in the temple.
These emotions are self-centered. They are full of ego and devoid of spirit. Again, exceptions exist, but they are rare. For example, an enlightened one, operating fully in spirit sees a loved one misbehaving and realizes that anger could jolt them out of their mechanistic slavery to his own desires and pleasures.
If we remain worried or afraid, we are being selfish. Reverse the vector. We’ve already looked at the idea of giving ourselves much more of that which we fear. But there’s more we can do.
Another example of this “reverse vector” technique is to help someone else. Stop focusing on the self and put our focus on others who need help, perhaps far more urgently than we do ourselves.
Please let me know your thoughts or questions.
December 12, 2019
Conditional Sidebar Widgets – Making a Website More Flexible
If you have your own website, whether it’s hosted professionally, or it’s a freebie, it’s nice to have a certain amount of easy programmability.
On WordPress sites, for instance, we might see a sidebar next to our articles. For beginners, this sidebar will likely remain unchanging. It might contain a search input textbox, a list of recent blog articles and an advertisement or two. It might also include links to social media sites.
WordPress comes with the ability to add widgets to your sidebar depending on one of a number of criteria, like tags, categories, authors and others. This allows you to control which ads show up on which articles. It’s pretty cool and relatively easy—all beginner-level stuff.
A Love of Programming
I understand that not everyone is interested in programming. And that’s what is cool about the WordPress sidebar widgets. I’ll get back to those in a moment.
I’ve always loved programming. Even when my late father worked for the NASA contract facility for Documentation Incorporated (Doc.Inc.) in the 60s, and I experienced computer flow charts for the first time, I was a geek at heart.
For years, I rented website hosting space and programmed all my websites by hand—HTML, CSS and PHP functionality. Though that was lots of fun, it was also time consuming. Life begged me to find a better, easier way. When finally I moved all my websites to the free platform at WordPress.com, I no longer had the unique, professional-sounding addresses I had once enjoyed, but that was a small price to pay for making everything far easier. WordPress makes it easy to achieve website flexibility without having to do all the programming yourself.
This cool piece of programming on a WordPress site involves the ability to place code in my sidebar conditionally. I have over 20 titles in my own pen names. If my blog article involves climate, I can display one or more of my climate science books in the sidebar.
This variable functionality is easy to include on the widget page of the dashboard of wp-admin for your WordPress site.
https://%5BYOURWEBSITE%5D.wordpress.com/wp-admin/
WordPress Flexibility
[image error]WordPress admin menu, widgets.
The following discussion assumes that you already have at least one article with the tag or other criterion with which you will be controlling the appearance of the desired widget advertisement or notice. This also assumes that any picture you wish to use in that widget has already been uploaded to your WordPress media library.
To utilize this powerful tool, from your WordPress admin menu, select “Appearance” and then “Widgets.” This is where you control what appears in your sidebar and possibly other areas of your page, depending on the WordPress theme you’re using. Each theme has its own number of page elements. Some come with multiple sidebars and multiple page footers.
The illustrated sidebar area (below) is rather Spartan. It’s called merely, “Widget Area.”
[image error]WordPress Widgets page.
[image error]WordPress, add Custom HTML widget dialog box.
The available widgets reside in the center of the screen. As you can see, there are quite a number of exciting tools you can include in your own sidebar. Some themes default to several widgets which can be removed, if you desire. This theme defaults merely to a “search” tool. Scroll down until you come to the “Custom HTML” widget. Click on it, and then click “Add Widget.”
As always, WordPress may change the appearance of their admin page or any of the tools used, so modify these procedures as needed to achieve the same end result. If WordPress is markedly different, please let me know and I’ll update this article.
[image error]WordPress sidebar “Widget Area.”
In the Widget Area (sidebar), your new Custom HTML widget is added, ready for you to add a title, if you desire, plus text and HTML code, as needed.
A text-only widget can work, but people respond far more to pictures. So, if you have a picture already uploaded to your WordPress site, you can add it here in code. This is really pretty simple, so don’t freak out that this includes a tiny amount of programming. We will go over the beginner’s level HTML code in just a moment.
However, we need some information before we begin.
[image error]WordPress, admin menu, media library selection.
First, we need to find the location of the desired picture. This assumes that the picture you will need is already uploaded to your WordPress website. So we don’t lose our work so far, simply click on “Media” in the admin menu, then Right-Click “Library” to open in a new tab. From your gallery of pictures already uploaded to your website. Click on the desired picture. This opens up a pop-up form with a number of details concerning the picture. On the bottom right, click on the “Copy Link” label. This will select all of the address for the desired picture. Either press “CTRL-C” on your keyboard, or Right-Click and select “Copy” from the pop-up menu.
[image error]WordPress, media library, grabbing a picture’s address.
[image error]WordPress, widget text and code.
The Custom HTML widget shown here now has a title, some text, a link to the desired destination (in this case the book’s sales page), and the code for the image to be displayed, inserting the URL address we just copied into the source (“src”) attribute.
For beginners, here’s how this code works. The tag has to have a start and an end () to enclose the affected area—the picture or text that will link to the destination web page. The [image error] image tag does not require an end, because it doesn’t need to modify something else; it stands alone. So, the code for our linked picture takes this basic form:
[image error]
In the [image error] tag, we need the location of the picture assigned to the “src” source attribute. So, we type in the needed information in a form similar to this:
I’ve added additional code—width=250—to constrain the picture to the desired width in the sidebar.
Finally, I let the visitor know that they can click on the picture to find more information.
That’s all the “hard” work. Now comes the fun part.
Before saving the widget, click on the “Visibility” button next to the “Save” button.
[image error]WordPress, Widget Visibility, conditional on Tag settings.
Here, we won’t explore all of the possibilities. Simply ensure that the first drop-down list contains the word “Show”, then click on the “Select” button and choose the type of criterion you wish to use to control whether or not the widget appears. On my website, I use the “Tag” selection. This requires that the tag already be in use, otherwise it won’t show up on the list of available tags (the next drop-down list). If your desired tag has not yet been added to your web page, you will need to add the tag and update or publish the page.
For example, if my article is about miracles, I may want to display an advertisement for my book, The Science of Miracles. To enable the appropriate ad widget, I add “tsom” to my list of tags for the targeted article. Then, when someone visits the blog article on miracles, they will see the cover of the book, The Science of Miracles.
I hope this helps those who have their own WordPress sites. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know in the comments section, below.
October 17, 2019
Religion: Suckered into Forgetting Humility
Photo: Man giving finger by Vitabello (CC0) Pixabay.
One of the key precepts of many religions is that of the humility
required to learn that which is not normally part of the human experience. That
elusive topic is, of course, spirit.
The spiritual realm is not like anything in the physical realm.
There is no space. There is no time as we know it—no persistence. There is no
energy or mass.
Too many of today’s religious, however, are not humble to Truth
and to God. What remains particularly sad is that too many are unwilling to
explore new territory in the spiritual realm and new ideas about it. They are
comfortable sitting just inside the entrance of religion, a long way from
spirituality—a long way from heaven.
This type of malady is not confined to religion, though. It is a
common human condition found in science, culture, ethnicity, politics and more.
Take the “climate change” debate, for instance. I offer online a
course at Udemy.com called the Critical
Thinking Academy.
Initially, it had two main modules—an introduction and a critical analysis of
the “climate change” topic.
In recent weeks, I have been finalizing the course’s module on
logical fallacies. While uploading the materials for this module, I noticed
that one of my former students was extremely dissatisfied with the course. But
what he said provided me with not only a perfect example of logical fallacies
in action, but also a lack of humility on the part of that former student. The
following has been added to the course description without naming names, but to
help prospective students understand how the course can benefit them:
EXAMPLE OF CRITICAL THINKING:
One of the reviews for this course [Critical Thinking Academy at Udemy.com] provides us with a perfect example of logical fallacies in use to argue against taking the course. Let’s examine this student’s comments to see how they stack up when put under the examination of critical thinking.
The student remarked, “It is a pretense to position critical
thinking fundamentals to deliver conspiracy theories and climate change denial.
I would suggest people google the instructor prior to taking the course.”
Pretense?
No, there is no “false show,” here. This course and the discussions in it truly
do analyze the arguments on the topics of climate change to achieve a more
reasoned critical thinking. The second module (“Logical Fallacies”) adds to
this by providing an in-depth look at how critical thinking can become derailed
by fallacies like the ones used in the comment. Sadly, some use such attack
fallacies to get people not to look at opposing facts. Critical Thinking is all
about examining all sides of an issue, rather than ignoring them. Critical
Thinking demands that we question everything, including our own beliefs.
The former student said, “…deliver conspiracy theories…”
But what is a conspiracy? One of your free
books provides evidence from numerous reputable sources that
prove that conspiracies are, as the title says, “Dirt Ordinary.” This is no
fantasy, or kooky topic. In fact, there are at least 489 new conspiracies
starting every second, on average, every day, all year long and every year.
Theories are called by scientists, “hypotheses,” and are used to explore the
possible causes of observed, factual phenomena. A conspiracy is defined merely
as a conversation between 2 or more people for the purpose of doing something
unethical or illegal. Criminal selfishness is to the individual what conspiracy
is to the group.
The use of the term, “denial,” is a
pejorative, ad hominem
attack, one of the logical fallacies about which you will learn more in the
course.
The former student recommended that, “…people google the instructor prior
to taking the course.” Knowledge is always a good thing, and I
strongly concur with the former student’s recommendation, but with one very
potent caveat: Don’t let anything you find out about any instructor dissuade
you from investigating a topic more deeply. Facts are facts, no matter who says
them. Judge the facts, not the personalities. Those who put on blinders will
miss unique opportunities for discovery. Every viewpoint has value—even yours.
Derailing Spiritual Studies
[image error]Woman of many colors signifying a diversity of viewpoints. Only humility can lead us to Truth.
Photo: Ivanovgood (CC0) Pixabay.
Eighteenth century Christian apologist, William Paley (1743–1805) feared that his peers would fall all too frequently into the trap of “contempt prior to investigation.” I discuss this attitude of unsupported dismissiveness in my book, The Bible’s Hidden Wisdom: God’s Reason for Noah’s Flood. To the biblical literalist, they already “know” truth, but don’t realize the error of their ways. Their “truth” is their interpretation of the Bible—not the Bible itself. There are thousands (perhaps even millions) of biblical interpretations. Most of them are wrong in one fashion or another—most of them, or all of them.
The following excerpt from my book drives home this point:
“The old saying about not being able to teach an old dog new
tricks comes from this phenomenon. The older people get, the more likely they
are to develop the idea that they’ve learned all they need in life. They
frequently feel that no one can teach them, because they’ve experienced things
that younger people would not understand.
“But not all older people are this way. Some develop a lifetime
attitude open to learning. They are constantly emptying their cup so that it
may be filled again.
“The first rule in a search for answers is to maintain the
openness to receive the answers once found. The art of interpretation requires
that your cup must first be empty” (The Bible’s Hidden Wisdom, chapter
6, p.108).
I use the Eastern metaphor of “empty cup,” of course, to
symbolize the required humility before learning or discovering anything.
The Know-it-All Attitude
[image error]Man shushing. “Be quiet!” is the attitude of those who think they already know everything. But no one knows all that God knows. Until we have such omniscience, we need to hold humility, for that is one of the 4 key traits of God.
Photo: Vitabello (CC0) Pixabay.
Many of today’s church leaders are so confident of their own
knowledge and interpretation, they think they know all they need in order to
teach others their religion. Confidence is a good thing. But confidence without
humility descends into arrogance. But aren’t these two concepts in
opposition—confidence and humility?
The answer to this important question involves some discussion.
We need to understand the definitions of our words and to refine those
definitions and how the attitudes they describe are used.
Confidence in self and self’s knowledge is counterproductive. So
is humility to the interpretations of man. Instead, we need to be confident in
God’s ability to help us reach greater knowledge and humble to the fact that we
may never know it all. See the difference? The former is misguided confidence
and humility; the latter puts self, last, and God’s perfect knowledge, first.
When I first published The Bible’s Hidden Wisdom, I
attempted to discuss it in several groups on LinkedIn—a popular,
business-related website. I joined one group of biblical literalists and was
promptly ejected. The leader of that group sent me a gruff email, letting me
know in no uncertain terms that I had it all wrong and that there is no such
thing as wisdom hidden in the Bible. He let me know that the Bible was written
to be understood easily.
So, I was left to wonder about his notion of following Christ,
who said that we should love others—even our enemies. I wanted to join his
group to share what I had learned and perhaps to learn from their viewpoints. Was
it a loving move to block all discussion? Somehow, I don’t think so. His
actions seemed to tell me that he felt he already knew he was right and that he
could not teach me anything. His action seemed to have no love, generosity or
humility.
Today, Christians who evangelize seem compelled to tell anyone with whom they disagree that they are wrong, even if we believe in Christ and God, but have different views about those entities. Ego is thick with them. They reek with the stench of self and self-righteousness. I’m all too familiar with that attitude. I’ve been there and all too frequently revisit that dark territory.
But sometimes I will push the buttons of others to provoke their
own egos, getting them to become more critically aware of the monster hiding
inside.
Science, scientists, logic and the erudite Age of Reason have
corrupted the spiritual efforts of man with a new breed of evil—this modern
brand of self-righteousness. It is an attitude that is as old as humanity, but
it has taken on a new cloak—a more pleasing shroud of darkness.
Part of good critical thinking includes the humility to consider
that everything we know about a topic is entirely wrong. At first glance, such
an idea seems entirely painful. Giving up our precious knowledge seems
impossible. But when we get past the initial discomfort, the idea of being free
of all past knowledge is quite liberating. We can always put back simple things
that still seem to work, like “2+2 = 4,” “God is Love,” and similar. The
humility to view the world with fresh eyes allows us to see things we would
otherwise easily miss.
Everyone has their current place on the road to Truth. Some have
stopped for awhile, perhaps even thinking that they have arrived. Perhaps
something will help knock them from their complacency and their lack of
humility. I continue to pray for more humility and wisdom so that I can
continue to learn.
October 7, 2019
Missing Atlantis by a Mile
The idea of missing a target has been the topic of much ridicule
throughout human history.
“You couldn’t hit the side of a barn!”
“Uff! You missed the target by a mile!”
“Not even close!”
The title refers to a figurative mile, meaning “not even close.”
Many of the attempts to identify the location of Atlantis—Plato’s lost island
empire—have missed their target by thousands of miles, but also have missed in
many other ways equally as important as relative location. It’s almost as if
the people who are going to all that effort have not taken the simple and
necessary step to read what Plato said on the topic. That’s like baking a cake
by changing one or more of the critical ingredients simply because the baker
doesn’t understand the ingredients or cannot believe them. Or worse, the baker
did not read the recipe or even look for the recipe. This is an interesting
study of insanity.
Michael Shermer, self-proclaimed “skeptic,” once infamously wrote
in Scientific American magazine, “What if Plato made up the story for
mythic purposes? He did.” That’s not science. That’s a logical fallacy—Appeal
to the Stone type.
“See? The stone doesn’t disagree with me, so I must be right.”
And this in a magazine which purports to be all about science.
Several researchers who believe Atlantis existed have ignored
Plato’s date for Atlantis, because his description of Atlantis sounds like
Bronze Age Europe. So, to them, it must have occurred at the same time as
Bronze Age Europe. If they can believe some of Plato’s details, why not all of
the details that are not subject to “literary license?” They imply that 9600 BC
Earth did not contain any civilization capable of working bronze (an alloy of
copper and tin). That also is logically fallacious thinking. They would have a
hard time proving bronze did not exist at that time.
“Literary license” refers to details that are not important to a
story. They are translations for the benefit of Plato’s audience. The Greek
philosopher readily admitted that he changed the names of the characters in his
story because the original names “hurt” the Greek ear. Much the same happens
when we call Deutschland “Germany”
or España “Spain.”
And the Spanish do the same, calling Germany
“Alemania” and England
“Inglaterra.” But things like cardinal directions, sizes of land, distances and
place names, are not the sort of thing that fall under the purview of “literary
license.”
Plato’s use of “triremes” is also understandable. These were the
most advanced war ships of his day. These were part of his literary license,
for they communicated to his readers the important ideas of “modern” and
“powerful.” This is a bit like the use of rocket fins, streamlined shape,
vacuum tubes and meter dials in the 1950s science fiction movies to communicate
“futuristic.”
Atlantis Everywhere
[image error]Map of Celtic Shelf surrounded by Ireland, Great Britain, France and Spain. One of the many places that are not Atlantis. Map: Eric Gaba (CC BY-SA 3.0).
The mania over Atlantis seems to have grown to insane levels.
It’s almost as if someone were paying dozens of crackpots to come up with
wildly strange ideas for where Atlantis has been hiding all this time.
One video on YouTube pushes the notion that the Richat Structure
in the Sahara is Atlantis. Though the Richat Structure
is circular and strange, it is not a sunken island now covered by ocean. It is
not the size of Ancient Libya and Asia Minor combined. It
does not face Gadira.
If we take the one idea of strange circles, then the Moon could
be Atlantis by this sloppy definition. The Moon has plenty of circles in the
Mare (seas) and the whole thing sinks into the Atlantic Ocean
on a daily basis, as seen from Western Europe. This also
misses the real Atlantis by a “mile.”
Atlantis is not Indonesia,
the Celtic Shelf, Sweden,
Southern Spain, Antarctica, Malta,
Thera or any one of dozens of other so-called “candidates.” None of them match
Plato’s definition.
Geology of Atlantis
[image error]Map of North Atlantic, showing the locations affected by the geology of Atlantis. Map: Uwe Dedering (CC BY-SA 3.0) cropped.
Perhaps the most compelling reason to follow Plato’s “recipe” for
locating Atlantis is the fact that he picked one of the only places that was
geologically correct in a number of ways. These are reasons Plato could not
have known about. None of these prove Atlantis existed, but they all support
the possibility that it did. Islands tend to form along tectonic plate
boundaries as a result of subduction and magmatic arcs. The part of the Atlantic
Ocean which faces Gadira (modern Cádiz, España) includes a major
tectonic plate boundary—the Africa-Eurasia boundary.
Not only that, this boundary is poorly defined as if damaged by
one or more disruptive events. The Azores, farther west
along this tectonic plate boundary, sit upon an underwater plateau and west of
a major bend in the tectonic boundary. That bend is a telltale sign that the Africa
plate, some 36 million years ago, changed its direction of movement with regard
to the Eurasia. The Africa plate
had been moving in a rectilinear direction that was more or less toward the
North. Then, roughly 36 million years ago, the Africa
plate started rotating counterclockwise. Why this happened is easy enough to
understand, if you include the formation of an island from some impediment to
subduction.
When two tectonic plates converge, one tends to slide underneath
the other, like the Pacific plate sliding underneath the South
America plate. At that boundary we see a deep trench next to tall
mountains, many of which are volcanic in origin. The Pacific plate slides
underneath the South America, moving deeper toward the
Earth’s mantle. As the old Pacific material descends, it heats up and gives
rise to magma which pushes upward to become volcanoes.
When India
slammed into the Eurasia plate several million years
ago, the thicker, continental material of India
could not slide underneath the Eurasia. The Eurasia
choked on the thicker material. The inexorable movement of India
caused the continental material of Eurasia to buckle,
giving rise to the Himalayas.
Something similar happened in the Atlantic.
I suspect there was no continental material on which the Eurasia
could choke, but the collision of continental Africa
with Eurasia did result in several events starting roughly
50 Ma and up to 35 Ma.
What is now the Arabia plate was ripped off from the Africa. The Great Rift Valley was started, along with Dead Sea and Red Sea. Theoretically, this put stress on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which was creating new material for both the Eurasia and the Africa plates. Theoretically, the stress caused a wrinkle in the Africa that the Eurasia could not swallow through subduction. This impediment to subduction grew much as the Himalayas grew. This crustal folding resulted in an island being formed some 40 Ma. By about 36 Ma, the island had grown so large and tall that the Africa plate could no longer move northward locally. This put stress on the entire Africa plate, creating fissures throughout the Sahara, leading to mountains of Ahaggar and Tibesti. Numerous volcanoes sprung into existence. The Africa plate, stopped in the West, but still smoothly subducting along most of its shared boundary with Eurasia, started to rotate counterclockwise.
We have evidence for most of this sequence in the geology of the Northeast
Atlantic, North Africa and the Middle
East.
The story of Atlantis isn’t over. There is more to come.
Currently, I’m nearly 70,000 words into the writing of Mission: Atlantis,
a book that has been 60 years in the making. If things were to proceed
smoothly, I will be done with the book late this year or early the next.
Concurrently, I’m rebuilding a friend’s website—Atlantis Quest. That’s a lot of
work, but it’s a labor of love.
In the end, we may discover that Atlantis was never real—that
Plato indeed merely made up the story to prove a philosophical point. But we
will have discovered this by investigating the subject the right way—no appeals
to the stone as Michael Shermer did, or ad hominem slander as so many
others have done.
If, instead, we find out that Atlantis was real, then we will have opened up a new book on human history. I hope we fill its pages as carefully as all science should have been done.
For those who are interested in learning more about what we do know about Atlantis, check out the website, Mission: Atlantis at http://MissionAtlantis.WordPress.com. Or buy the short book, Proof of Atlantis?
October 3, 2019
What Republicans Can Learn from the Democrats
If I had to choose, I’d be a Republican instead of a Democrat,
but that would only happen if I were blind to the crimes of both parties. It’s
too late; I’ve been red-pilled (freed from the lies of the “matrix”).
Why Republican? I share a lot of the same ideals with the Republican base. I do not share much with the Democrat stereotype of Republicans or with the Republican elite.
I used to be a Democrat in a time in my life when I was not at
all political; merely going along with the California
flow.
Both parties are corrupt at the top, but that’s a topic for a
different time. After the way the Republicans treated Ron Paul in 2012, I’m
less than enthusiastic about the label “Republican.” The party does not live up
to the stated ideals. Republicans need to fix their party, but they also need
to survive so that any meaningful reforms won’t die with the party. And the
Republican party is in very real danger of being locked out of the White House
and Congress forever!
A few weeks ago, I learned how Democrats took over what had
traditionally been the Red State of Colorado. Some might say that Colorado
has been Californicated—corrupted beyond all repair.
While it’s important for us to learn how Democrats did it, we
also need to understand the urgency of the situation. The technique Democrats
used is currently being exported to Kansas
and Texas. If Democrats complete
this in Texas, Republicans will
have become effectively a 3rd party in a 1-party country.
A New Republican Strategy
Before supporting any candidate, Republicans should support
building freedom-loving infrastructure that will support future candidates.
Imagine how much money each and every candidate spends on
offices, databases, messaging and voter outreach. All of that infrastructure is
built up each election cycle and then lost, whether the candidate wins or
loses.
Now, imagine that all of that work and expense is preserved and
strengthened through all election cycles. Instead of a costly expense, the
infrastructure to win elections becomes an investment. Of course, all this
needs to be established as non-partisan.
Such infrastructure can include,
Coalition building, Voter outreach, Think tanks, Organizations that do only lawsuits, Databases on every voter in the state, Investigative reporters, Ethics watchdog group filing complaints against opposing candidates, and Much, much more.
Watch the following short video—an interview with Jon Caldara, president of Independence Institute, Colorado.
August 31, 2016
Book: Thermophobia — Curing the fear of Global Warming
Cover of my new book, Thermophobia: Shining a Light on Global Warming. Click on the cover image to find out more.
First of all, I want to thank those of you who purchased copies of this book prior to release—last August 26, 2016. My heartfelt thanks go out to you.
What is the book about? It’s about the simplicity of science and the complexity of climate. It’s also about the politics of humans and how marketing can be made to sell even the most outlandish ideas.
Take for instance the notion that Global Warming is bad. An amazing number of people have bought into this. Likely they never knew that Global Warming made civilization possible 12,000 years ago. They don’t realize that Global Warming helps to reduce the amount of CO2 in the oceans. And Global Warming helps to expand the range of life on planet Earth.
Some Warming Alarmists think that Global Warming will burn up the lower latitudes if it gets comfortable at higher latitudes. This is entirely wrong. The reason is simple. Earth has a temperature regulator called water. Warm it up and more of it evaporates. This creates evaporative cooling. What’s that? Lick the back of your hand and blow on it. Feel the coolness? But with all that water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds form, creating shading to help cool things off even more.
So, Global Warming is safe. But what about rising sea levels? Yes, that’s a major inconvenience, but that’s all it is—a nuisance. The other alternative is death. Okay, so take your pick: Move or die. Which choice sounds more appealing? Let me explain.
With Global Cooling we could end up in the next glacial period of the current Ice Age. That could end up killing 7 billion people and trillions of land animals. If you don’t believe it, just remember that massive Global Warming—raising global average temperatures as much as +12 °C—12,000 years ago, made civilization possible.
With Global Warming we would have the benefits of more rain, smaller deserts, fewer droughts, weaker storms, and usable land all the way to the poles. Yes, coastal residents will have to move or to build dikes to protect their coastlines. But that’s been a problem throughout human history.
Really, the choice is pretty clear—warm the planet and move, or cool the planet and die. Some choice. And too many people don’t understand they are opting for death. Oops!
If you’d like to learn more about the book, check out the Thermophobia page at the publisher.
The post Book: Thermophobia — Curing the fear of Global Warming appeared first on Rod Martin Jr.
July 21, 2016
Book: Instant Happiness and a Website’s Rebirth
Book Cover: Instant Happiness. Finding happiness made easy. Now available. Click on the cover image to find out more (opens in a new tab).
Instant Happiness, a New Book is Born
This Saturday, July 23, 2016, my latest book will be released. But it’s available for pre-sale already at Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble and Kobo Books. If you buy it now, from these outlets, you can get it for $2.99 before the price goes up after release.
After publishing the book, and as the release date approached, I realized that my personal website was all wrong. It was all about me and my interests. While that can be fascinating, at times, it doesn’t serve a very useful purpose. The theme of my new book, Instant Happiness, is all about helping others find the joy and happiness they deserve.
Rebirth of a Website Starting with Instant Happiness
If you’ve looked closely at my website, before, you should notice a big change in the structure. Most of the tabs have been changed. One tab—about the courses—has been removed and the page permanently redirected to the publishing website, Tharsis Highlands. Other pages from the old tabs have been linked from the “About” page.
The main menu tabs now relate to the desires that all of us have:
Joy and Instant Happiness
Wealth and Prosperity
Love and Romance
Health and Physical Well-being
Power of the Zone
Spiritual Bliss
Global Responsibility and Empowerment
The key idea with this change is the help you achieve your own happiness, health and empowerment. On some of these topics, I’ve had profound experiences, making me a world-class expert. On others, I’ve learned a lot, but I’m still learning. The goal, here, is to share all that I’ve learned to improve your own chances of success. The type of successes I’ve had in some areas can rub off on the others. How is that possible? By discovering and utilizing the underlying laws of all activities. There are some basics that are common to all endeavors and remain universally applicable.
Let me know if you have any questions or problems. I’m here to help. I want you to have your own instant happiness.
And, because I have an ego that’s not so easily bruised, let me know what you think of the book. Specific, constructive criticism can only help me improve. I look forward to hearing from you.
The post Book: Instant Happiness and a Website’s Rebirth appeared first on Rod Martin Jr.
May 19, 2016
Intelligence and Critical Thinking — the Foundation of Reason
Perennial symbol of intelligence, Rodin’s Thinking Man statue. Photo: Satyakamk (CC BY-SA 3.0).
One definition of intelligence has long stuck with me: The ability to recognize identities, differences, and similarities.
The first level of intelligence is that of recognizing identities. Thus, a baby penguin can recognize her own mommy or mother’s voice. Even amongst a host of other penguins squawking, the baby can home in on the one sound that is uniquely their mother’s.
This first level is, of course, the most crude and rudimentary form of intelligence. You cannot get very far with this level of aptitude. It’s too easy to be fooled by look-alikes or sound-alikes. Record the sound of momma, and the chick can be lured away from their mother. Print a large photograph of momma, and the child can be tricked into thinking it really is their mother.
Without critical thinking, humans can fall for similar tricks. It’s called “advertising,” “marketing,” or “politics.” Say something enough times on the evening news, and people will believe it. Thus, American wars become “peacekeeping” events. Don’t try to convince the victims. Peace? Sure, they’d love some, but American war tastes just as bitter as any other.
Unintelligent Americans?
Does this mean Americans are stupid? No, not at all. (And thank goodness, because I’m one.) It does mean that they are vulnerable to manipulation. Every human is. We have certain self-interests or self-concern. Those who have studied our motives can manipulate them. If we learn better critical thinking, we can boost our own intelligence. With better critical thinking skills, we become more immune to such manipulation.
Take the concept of the generality, for instance. “Everybody knows” men are smarter than women. Oops! Everybody? Who is this “everybody”?
If we think critically about “everybody,” we realize the imperfection of this claim. How can anyone survey “everybody” in order to prove such a claim? They didn’t survey me. Suddenly, the 100% perfection of the original claim is shown to have a chink—a flaw. A cursory survey of history shows many women who were incredibly intelligent—much more than me (a male). Nobel prize winning physicist Marie Curie is one such woman who comes to mind. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, one of the world’s first computer programmers, is another one that comes to mind.
Generalities and stereotypes are an unintelligent mode of thinking that uses the first order of intelligence—identities.
These days, Americans typically think that “conspiracy theories” are “fantasy.” But are they really? Where did this “fact” come from?
If we break this down and study it, we see that “conspiracies” are quite common. In fact, in my book, Dirt Ordinary: Shining a Light on Conspiracies, I show that there are at least 489 new conspiracies starting every second, on average, somewhere in the world. That yields several billion starting every year. The way most Americans use the word “theory,” they’re referring to what scientists call “hypothesis” or “idea.” Though some ideas are based on fantasy, a great many are based on solid fact. So this identifying “conspiracy theories” with “fantasies” is, to put it politely, full of holes.
Intelligence for a penguin is simple. Antarctic Adelie penguins. Photo: Jerzy Strzelecki (CC BY 3.0).
Intelligence, Second Level—Differences
The second level of intelligence is only slightly better—recognizing differences. The penguin chick recognizes that several hundred penguin adults are not “mother.” But this is so close to the first level intelligence of recognizing identities. In one respect, it’s exactly the same. The penguin chick identifies each penguin as “not mother.” You’re “not mother,” “not mother,” “not mother.” Simple, but not terribly intelligent.
So, now the chick has two identities:
Mother
Not Mother
This level of intelligence gives us things like “outsiderness,” “xenophobia,” “prejudice,” and the like. You’re not one of us.
Intelligence, Third Level—Similarities
The third level of intelligence is considerably higher, especially when combined with the first two levels. This is the ability to recognize similarities. This is an extension of the first level, so when used alone, it lacks a great deal.
Here, the penguin chick recognizes that all of these adult penguins are similar to mother. But that one other creature is not similar. Yes, that human looks, sounds, and smells entirely differently.
But if this level of intelligence is only about “similar,” and “not similar,” then we have not progressed very far. Intelligence cannot be about digital, on-off switches.
We have to look at what is similar, what is different, and what is identical.
When we study this more closely, we see that there are different dimensions to this concept of similarity, difference, and identity. A rock may be round like a penguin, but it is not alive. A dead penguin isn’t either, but not exactly the same as a rock.
Intelligence, Fourth Level—Mix and Match?
I might add a fourth level of intelligence. I call it “mix-and-match.” It includes all three levels in various combinations. It also looks at the various objects, traits, and states as separate, but related things which we can recognize. For instance, every physical object takes up space. Conditions like “need,” “compassion,” or “love” do not take up space.
We can see that every attitude has two key vectors—toward and away from self—the holder of the attitudes.
Those attitudes that are toward self are considered self-ish. The effects those attitudes, or the actions derived from them, can have on others can be either beneficial or detrimental. So, we can have “good” selfishness or “bad” selfishness, as it applies to others.
We can also have attitudes that are toward others (away from self) which can be good or bad for those others. We can see that those actions which are bad for others usually have some selfishness attached to them for the one originating the actions. The other kind of outward attitude—the kind with good results—can sometimes have no selfishness attached to it. We call this “altruism” or “unconditional love.”
We need to question the things that “everybody” knows. For example, are all forms of socialism equal to mismanagement and tyranny?
I would like to suggest that we take a more open view of everything we think we know. Don’t confuse socialism with mismanagement and tyranny; anarchy with chaos; conspiracy with fantasy; war with peacekeeping. When someone says “climate change” equals “global warming,” question the identity. Ask probing questions to see if there are any exceptions, like global cooling. When someone says “global warming is bad,” ask why. Break the old identities and view these concepts and others from a fresh perspective.
Finding Purpose in Intelligence
Symbolic of spiritual awakening, shafts of sunlight coming through the clouds. This goes beyond mere mechanical intelligence. Rays of sunlight in St. John. Photo: Bike756 (PD).
All too frequently, intelligence is used for selfish purposes. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can have intelligence used for altruistic or unconditionally loving intentions.
For those who reject the notion of a spiritual side to reality, I can understand and pity them. They are blind in a way which is hard to describe. Seeing through spirit is almost like a feeling which includes unconditional love. It also includes responsibility for all of those around us, not only with an active compassion, but also taking responsibility for their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Responsibility is not blame; these two concepts are polar opposites. With perfect responsibility, we can no longer ever be victims. We become immune to self-concern. And without self-concern, we achieve freedom without limits.
Seeing through spirit includes utter humility—giving up the ego self (all of selfishness and the inward vector of attitude). This does not mean we don’t care for our own bodies, families, groups, and world. This kind of humble responsibility makes us all the more keenly aware of what is needed to nurture our condition and the conditions of those around us. It treats our enemies with the same love with which we treat our children.
And seeing through spirit includes a fearless confidence that transcends all human frailty. This kind of humble confidence is what allowed Jesus to walk on water, Moses to part the sea, and myself to perform dozens of miracles in our modern age.
The intelligence with which I was blessed I have been able to use as a tool to analyze those miracles and to understand them as a scientist understands electromagnetic fields, chemical doping of semiconductors, and the rocket thrust against gravity which was used to take men safely to the Moon and back. With this intelligence, I’ve been able to dissect and analyze the Bible, discovering the Kabbalists’ Tree of Life matrix embedded in two chapters of Genesis. I found what may be the identity of the mark placed upon Cain and the identity of the Flood’s target. I have even discovered what may be the true biblical timeline that remains compatible with those of science.
Putting Intelligence to Work
Part of the power of intelligence is in the freedom to consider all possibilities. This is why the first principle of critical thinking is to “Question Everything.” By “question everything,” I don’t mean to question it with a “rejecting” or “doubting” attitude. That’s what is so flawed about skepticism—the potent bias of “doubt.” What I’m talking about, here, is temporarily setting aside all knowledge so that none of it gets in the way of new discovery. This questioning also includes our own attitudes and skills. This questioning recognizes that we may not yet have the necessary skills to discover the answers we seek.
We need to remain humble to the Truth, whatever that truth may be. We need to hold all that we know away from us, not as if it is tainted and diseased, but as if it were once again unknown. We use this restraint and humility to let truth come to us without old ideas getting in the way. We can always reclaim that old knowledge after our investigation, if it still serves us well. Any preconceived ideas will only get in the way of intelligent discovery.
One scientist—a geoarchaeologist from Texas—once refused to believe controversial evidence, because he was too attached to the old way of thinking about North American anthropology. The laboratories which had dated the bones of Lucy, from East Africa, were used to date the artifacts found at Valsequillo, Mexico. Lucy and her date are regarded highly in science. Valsequillo and its date are either forgotten or ridiculed. The difference? Preconceived ideas and evidence. In East Africa, the evidence fit the preconceived ideas. In Mexico, the evidence contradicted the preconceived ideas. So, who was wrong? The scientists who wanted to keep their dogma alive, or the scientists who wanted to know the truth?
Every one of us has a unique intelligence. We each view the world from a different point-of-view which remains valuable to us all. If we were all to gain greater critical thinking skills to improve our intelligence and awareness, we might be able to help each other make this world into the garden it could become.
What would you like to learn?
The post Intelligence and Critical Thinking — the Foundation of Reason appeared first on Rod Martin Jr.
May 11, 2016
Critical Thinking: The Largely Lost Art of Awareness & Intelligence
Critical Thinking Academy course image at Udemy.com.
Critical thinking is in short supply these days. Yes, it still exists, and some people have plenty of it. But I’d like to make a bold claim—that everyone can always have more and better critical thinking.
Albert Einstein once said, “The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think” (New York Times, May 18, 1921). Especially in today’s world of internet connections, facts are easy to look up. Understanding, working with, and accurately using those facts is something that requires great skill, work, and humility.
New Course on Critical Thinking
I love teaching. I taught two semesters at a local college, but didn’t like the commute. Teaching online suits me just fine. Recently, I published my second online course with Udemy.com—“Critical Thinking Academy: Boost Awareness & Intelligence.” I hope to make it the most effective critical thinking course in human history. I would like very much to have it inspire people every bit as much as did Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in Ancient Greece, and Jaime Escalante in East Los Angeles. Will I make it? Only if my work is good enough. But I think I have the right attitude (let me know if I don’t). I always hunger for more feedback to know what works.
What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is the ability to gather all the right data and to ask probing questions about it all. In fact, I tell my students to “Question everything.” And I mean it. Question my teaching, question their own knowledge and beliefs, and even question authority. Critical thinking must have the freedom to look wherever an investigation needs to look.
Critical Thinking Earth, spinning globe logo.
The tools of critical thinking don’t guarantee perfect results or a perfect answer. As with any subject, there can always be missing information. We must keep in mind that the great unknown might contain our answer, and only reluctantly give up its secrets.
Not long ago, I wrote an article on “debunking” for Critical Thinking Earth. The critical thinking skills are so lacking in today’s society that just about anyone can claim to debunk some idea, and get away with it without actually doing the work required to achieve a proper debunking. To debunk something is to eliminate it as a possibility. One website which claims to be everything on the topic of “debunking” does a great job of supplying possible alternative explanations, but a lousy job converting those alternatives into actual debunking. The article was titled, “Debunking — A Lost Art — Greater Need for Critical Thinking.”
Anyone who understands critical thinking will immediately see that merely supplying an alternate explanation does not accomplish a proper debunk.
Critical Thinking Example
Poor critical thinking by proponents of Global Cooling, President Obama, the United Nations and the Rockefeller family. Obama photo: Elizabeth Cromwell (CC BY-SA 3.0); David Rockefeller photo: TheRichest.com; iceberg photo: Knuand (CC BY-SA 3.0).
For instance, the Warming Alarmists (UN, Al Gore, President Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, NASA, Dr. Michael Mann, and many others) claim that global warming is bad. This is easily debunked. They imply that global cooling is good, but seem to forget that all of humanity currently lives in an Ice Age interglacial called the Holocene. According to one climate scientist (W.S. Broecker, 1998), the Holocene is 500–6,000 years overdue to end, depending on where one draws the boundaries of this current interglacial. Several facts help us make our case:
Ice Age glacial periods are deadly to plant and animal life.
Human population levels during the last Ice Age glacial period where never more than a few tens of thousands, because of scarce rainfall (too scarce for agriculture), extreme cold over northern and mid-latitudes, and violent storms because polar cold was so close to equatorial heat.
The next glacial period of the current Ice Age could start later this afternoon.
Most of the history of life on Earth was spent outside of an Ice Age, with far warmer temperatures. Equatorial temperatures were virtually the same as today, but polar temperatures were balmy—palm trees and alligators in Greenland.
Life dies in the ice and snow, and thrives in warmth.
Would any warming create problems? Of course! But some people are focusing on tiny problems while missing the avalanche of ice and snow sitting on the other side of the equation—the cooling side.
A global cooling of –5 °C would plunge temperate zones into Frozen Climate—a new glacial period. And yet life has thrived for millions of years with a global warming of +20 °C, and CO2 levels ten times what they are today (4,000 ppmv). This amount of warming happened in the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum and lasted for 14 million years without much hardship.
We’re still suffering from our 2.6-million-year Ice Age, and NASA is calling our minor thaw “Earth’s fever.” This is an appeal to emotion. It’s a lie and an exaggeration—like calling a warm blanket a “blast furnace.” When you’ve frozen your butt off on a cold, snowy day, a warm blanket looks pretty good.
Invitation to Better Critical Thinking
I would like to invite you to take my “Critical Thinking Academy” course. If you follow the link, here, to my publishing website, you can get a 25% discount from the full price at Udemy.com. They pay me more for bringing them customers. So, I get to spend more time adding more modules to this course, and creating new courses. It’s a win-win for both of us. So, if this course interests you, one extra click or two could save you 25%. Not bad.
Critical Thinking Takes Work
Any good critical thinking requires work. It’s never perfect, but it tends to yield far better results than the shoot-from-the-hip logic being used by so many these days. The debunking article, above, gives one priceless example.
So, what do you think about critical thinking? I had one person on FaceBook tell me that everyone in America needed it (except her). And I was so hoping that she would take the course. Critical thinking skills help us to see our own areas of blindness and bias. I continue to discover my own blind spots. Learning is a lifelong activity; not a destination.
If you were to take a course on Critical Thinking, what topics would you want it to analyze? What claims would you want it to pick apart?
The post Critical Thinking: The Largely Lost Art of Awareness & Intelligence appeared first on Rod Martin Jr.
