Musings on God

 Imagine all the amazing creations: the starry night, brilliant sunset, flowers, fruit on the vine, etc. It's easy to assume there is a craftsman who created harmonious beauty: the oceans evaporate, clouds form, the wind blows the clouds to land, the clouds drop rain on the plants, the plants grow flowers, the bees pollinate the flowers, the flowers turn into fruit, animals eat the fruit and spread the seed, bacteria and insects break down the animal's waste making fertilizer for the plants to grow.

We humans consider ourselves to be the most significant of creations. But let's look at how humans fit into these creations over space and time.

The craftsman (God) has been creating for billions of years, yet man has only been around for a fraction of that (0.002%). Imagine a craftsman who has produced countless works of art for 70 years, and then 9 hours ago, the craftsman created something new (man). How could you claim that this most recent creation was the most significant? Could tomorrow's creation (in 500,000 years) or next month's creation (in 15 million years) be superior? 

What about the vastness of space? God's work can be found all around the visible universe, billions of light-years away, with portions of the universe that exist beyond what we can see. A spectacular galaxy appears as nothing more than one of a billion bright dots in our night sky. It would be as if our hypothetical craftsman reproduced all of the works of art on the planet, miniaturized them, and placed them as the period at the end of this sentence. What's the point of that?  (no pun intended). If we are the most significant creation, and all of this was created for us, what's the point of so much beauty we can't see with the naked eye? Sure, we can be in awe at what our telescopes discover, but what about all humans who never saw more than a speck in the sky? Is it wasteful: the immensity of space and the fact that we could never reach any of it in a lifetime?

Humans are just a little figurine crafted 9 hours ago in the corner of an immense workshop.

But surely, the craftsman cares most about this creation. How often do people fall on their knees, pleading for help from the craftsman? How often do these cries go unanswered? Is God an interventionist being who is willing to step in and repair our situation? Surely, the millions of Jewish people who died during the Holocaust deserved an intervention. Surely, the millions of Hindus and Muslims who died from famine and violence before and after obtaining independence in India from the British deserved an intervention. Surely, the 40 to 80 million who died of starvation and persecution under Mao Zedong deserved an intervention. This list could continue for pages.

Maybe God isn't an interventionist. 

Maybe God is just a craftsman who created a beautiful world for us.

Intellectual Vision: Four Truths and Eightfold Path

I’m trying to develop an idea like Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path, which applies to human understanding of reality. 

The Four Truths

1) There is an absolute, objective reality 

2) Humans (as individuals or collectively) are incapable of knowing reality completely 

3) Humans need to understand reality as much as possible for our well-being and survival

4) Humans can best do this by following an Eightfold Path

An Eightfold Path

1. Intellectual Humility – Recognize the limits of your understanding and be open to new insights, even if you consider yourself an expert. Recognize your own biases. Embrace the mysteries of the past and uncertainties of the future.
2. Intellectual Curiosity – Cultivate a deep desire to seek knowledge and explore reality.
3. Intellectual Honesty – Pursue and accept truth with honesty and integrity, even when it may be disadvantageous to yourself, your group, or your cause.
4. Intellectual Access - Make collective understanding available to all people. Share critical knowledge openly and ensure access for everyone. Practice transparency.
5. Intellectual Prudence - 
1. Avoid sensationalism or oversimplification. 
2. Critically evaluate information, verifying facts before accepting them or spreading them.
3. Avoid jumping to conclusions or being swayed by misinformation. 
4. Thoughtfully apply knowledge and consider how it affects others or society. 
5. Practice responsible environmental stewardship by reducing waste, conserving resources, and supporting sustainable practices.
6. Intellectual Tolerance - Accept diversity and differences, understanding that everyone has a unique life experience and perspective.
7. Avoid Persuasion, Seek Understanding – Engage in dialogue to understand and establish a shared pool of understanding rather than to persuade, manipulate, or win an argument.
8. Promote Empathy and Compassion - we are all human and make mistakes. We should not treat others harshly. It takes enormous energy to be informed on many subjects, and some truths are difficult to accept. “I’m striving to follow the eightfold path to truth. If I stray from the path, I appreciate earnest reminders from others. I recognize that not everyone shares my same conviction.

Example: Raising the minimum wage 

The Left and Right will make claims about what will happen if the minimum wage is raised. The Left claims it will give money to the people. The Right claims it will put companies out of business and may make it harder for teenagers or others to enter the job market, among many other unintended consequences. But no one knows the consequences for sure.  Let's look at this more openly.

If the minimum wage is raised, some businesses will comply, and others will not. Those who don’t comply may get away with it or face consequences.

Those that comply with it will pay for it out of profits or by raising prices. If they raise prices, they may gain or lose some of a particular customer's business.

If business decreases, the owners can cut costs by reducing their employees' hours, reducing the number of employees, or replacing employees with robots or other sources of automation. They could also find other cost-cutting measures like using cheaper materials, reducing energy use, or finding cheaper suppliers.

If employees leave (forced or voluntarily), they may find a better opportunity, the same, or worse. Some employees may stay enticed by the higher wages and miss out on other opportunities.

When replacing employees who leave, the employer may have an easier or more challenging time finding new employees. The employer may be more or less picky in their selection of future employees. If they are more picky, this could result in someone less qualified not getting the opportunity to get work experience.

If the minimum wage only affects a portion of businesses, it may be more or less challenging for other companies to find qualified workers (after the $20/hour minimum wage for fast food restaurants, my neighbor's company lost employees and ended up moving their manufacturing over the border).

Lower profits from any cause could end an ailing business, resulting in loss of employment for the people generously granted a higher wage. Some of these businesses may have ended regardless of the increased minimum wage, and there is no way of knowing at this point.

How each of the owners, employees, and customers responds is individual and based on that person's life experience and circumstances, and it can greatly differ by location (city, state, country).

The truth isn't necessarily black and white.

Resources

This post was inspired by Thomas Sowell's book Knowledge and Decisions. Specifically, the idea behind using the phrase "Intellectual vision" is from the book.

Intellectual Vision - a central set of premises from which particular positions can be deduced as corollaries . What makes them a coherent vision is the high degree of correlation among the particular conclusions reached among highly disparate subjects. An ideological vision is more than a belief in a principle. It is the belief that that that principle is crucial or overriding, so that other principles or even empirical facts must give way when in conflict with it.

You might call this post an "Intellectual Vision" to improve how ideas and beliefs can be formulated.

If We Ran Our Household Like the Federal Government

 Full disclosure: my most significant issue regarding politics is the Federal Debt. What concerns me is that no one talks about it. They talk about abortion, immigration, transgenders, and how bad the other political party is. I wanted to make the Federal Debt relatable, so this post compares it to personal finances.

So imagine that each week, your take-home pay (after taxes and other deductions) was $1350. Immediately, you have to pay $290 interest on your debt (luckily, your interest rate is only 2.7% on your $557,000 debt). The remaining $1,060 never seems enough, so you borrow an additional $460 to make ends meet.

If this were you, you would argue that you have no choice. Have you seen the prices lately? What you need is a raise!

If this were a friend or close relative, you would immediately find expenses they could eliminate. Do they really need the expensive Starbucks coffee? Maybe they shouldn't be eating at expensive restaurants? Or eating out at all? Seriously, they are borrowing $460 a week to live extravagantly? Their finances are headed for a cliff!

Does that help?

I did read that this analogy is misleading and false. Governments can raise taxes and print more money. So, let's add these to our analogy.

Raising taxes is like asking a friend to help you out. "I'm spending too much. Can you spot me $460 every week?" Yes, this is different because the government doesn't ask you. It demands you pay them and jails you if you don't. So, yes, economists are right. The analogy doesn't work.

Printing more money is like counterfeiting. You find a really good copy machine and make some extra $100 bills—four or five a week in this case—except for the Federal Government, which prints $1.5 trillion a year. Your fake few bills don't cause a problem, but $1.5 trillion yearly MESSES UP THE ECONOMY. It causes inflation. So, yes, economists are right again. The household finances analogy doesn't work with government spending.

I agree with this comment pointing out the value of debt: "This added purchasing power, when spent, provides markets for private production, inducing producers to invest in additional plant capacity, which will form part of the real heritage left to the future."

But this is strategic debt. If your $460 per week extra was to start a business, then I would say, "Go for it!" But if, after 24 years, you had no income from your business and were still borrowing $460 per week, I would say, "Time to cut your losses and close the business down!"

Notes:

This assumes U.S. Federal revenues are $4.44 trillion, a Federal Debt of $35.34 trillion, an annual deficit of $1.52 trillion, and $956 billion in debt servicing. 

Dogs and Cats: Insights Into Reverse Domestication

 I read a funny quote recently:

"Dogs prepare you for having Babies. Cats prepare you for having teenagers."

As usual, my mind tries making connections, and I thought of a book I recently read: "Domesticated: Evolution in a man-made world" by Richard C. Francis (It was part of the research I was doing for a children's book, "Untamable" that I wrote).

Domestication occurs when an animal species coevolves with humans, gradually overcoming fear and developing a dependency on humans. Prior to domestication, the animal was completely independent. Dogs became domesticated long before cats, and in a sense, cats aren't fully domesticated.

So the joke has some truth to it: dogs are like babies, being fully dependent on humans. Cats are like teenagers, never fully submitting and always striving for a level of independence. It's like the reverse of domestication. Remember this if you are raising a teenager. Your goal is to nourish their untamable spirit and help them achieve complete independence.

The Story of the Math Cult

 "But they're just pants!"

Sara was frustrated. All of her friends had the new jeans, and they looked cute. For some reason, she thought her mom might understand this time and just see that new pants might make her daughter happy. But no, somehow, it turned into a math lesson.

"You already have pants, dear. These new pants are just trendy. They didn't even exist last year. In a few months, they'll be out of style. Not like math. I can solve a math problem and get the same answer today as someone else got a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now. Even better, the answer is the same for me as for someone in China, India, or Africa. Math is true. Math is eternal."

Sara was sick of math. What was the equation for giggling? or hanging out? or even worse, making your daughter's life miserable? Just once, she would like to stay home on Mathday and watch T.V. (Mathday was the name her parents and other members of their math collective called Sunday. "It only makes sense to set aside one day a weak for the proper observance of the purity of mathematics.")

---

"What's this?" said her mom with a look of disgust on her face.

"That's my art project," said Sara. Her parents only agreed to let her take art if she kept to geometric shapes. Geometry always made her mom feel uneasy since there weren't any numbers or mathematical symbols involved, but Sara's dad showed the equations for various geometric shapes and how to calculate perspective, easing Mom's anxiety.

"It's not geometric. It's all curved and irregular," complained her mom with a strong emphasis on 'irregular'.

"It's a strange attractor from Chaos theory, which is a branch of mathematics," said Sara. She had done her homework. A simple internet search for What's the branch of mathematics that is the least like math? Her mom shuddered at the mention of Chaos theory. No one in her math group accepted that Chaos theory was actually math. Where was the certainty or the truth in Chaos?

Sara didn't dare bring home her other art projects. They were purely abstract, emotional expressions of how she felt inside. There was zero math. Oh, wait. Zero is a number in math. It was a math void. Damn it! Void is a math term. It was a nada math. Yes. A piece of nada math art.

---

"What pie do you want me to make for Pi Day?" asked her mom. March 14, or 3.14, was the holy holiday for the Math collective. Sara really wanted to celebrate the other holidays, like Halloween and Christmas, but her parents were purists. Those are just commercialized days for companies to sell more stuff. Sara thought about what her friend at school said about Pi Day. Pi Day was just invented by geeks to sell more math. Sara chuckled.

"Why are you laughing?" asked her mom.

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking about something. You know my favorite pie is apple," said Sara. 

Pi Day celebration at least had yummy pie. Most of the other math collective gatherings were nothing but math - theory, applications of math, and math self-righteousness. The adults gathered together, and from a distance, it seemed that they were talking about something interesting, like a new movie they saw. But when you got close enough to hear them, they were just geeking out on math. The kids all stood around eating their pie and rolling their eyes. Under their breaths, they talked about how boring their parents were and how much they hated math.

"I'm going to be a lawyer," said one boy.

"Do your parents know?"

"Yes. They said that I'd have to pay for college myself. 'Law is so ephemeral,' they said. 'We'll only pay for a true education. One that uses math.'"

Sara wanted to be an artist but never told anyone. Her art teacher said that she was good enough.

To be continued...

Don't Become Strangers

 A couple of years ago, my wife and I attended a wedding. The DJ had anyone married over 20 years come to the dance floor to dance. He gradually dismissed couples by raising the time married, "Married over 25 years, stay on the dance floor." Finally, he narrowed it down to a couple that had been married longer than anyone else. In front of all the guests, he asked this couple, "What's your secret to being married for so long?"

I don't remember what their answer was, but I've thought many times, "How would I answer the same question?" I felt anxious about it because I couldn't come up with a simple answer. One could give a long speech about everything it takes to make a lasting relationship work.

Recently, I found the answer:

Don't become strangers

The answer applies to any relationship, parents, children, siblings, old friends, etc. Unfortunately, I have let some people in my life become strangers. The result is both negative and positive. "When did they start thinking that way?" and "Wow, I've missed out on a lot of enjoyment not having them in my life!"

If you feel an unwelcome divide growing between you and someone in your life, do what you can to keep each other in your life. Talk to them about what and how they think. Be curious and non-judgemental. Don't treat them like a stranger. Show kindness and consideration.

Whatever you do, however you do it, make sure to nourish the relationships that you want to and should keep.

 

Moral Aloneness

 I came across the phrase "Moral Aloneness" in the book "Escape from Freedom" by Erich Fromm (I have to admit I didn't finish the book since it started hurting my head. A little too deep to read during a holiday break).

The idea is that you can feel lonely even when surrounded by people who don't share your views. This helps explain many experiences in my life. I tend to "look into things" for a deeper understanding, which results in me "seeing things differently" from others. It is frustrating trying to summarize countless hours of study during a casual conversation. It would be easy to assume my moral views are superior, but that's a dangerous assumption.

Sometimes, a moral position is less important than the relationship. I'm reminded of a couple of quotes:

"People are more important than the truth."

"It's hard when people sin differently than we do."

"Is that the hill you want to die on?"

Can "moral aloneness" explain the polarization in our world today? To avoid being morally alone, do people look for like-minded communities? If so, we need to adhere to our morals, even when resulting in "moral aloneness."  History is replete with examples of heroes standing on their principles. 

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."