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373 ===== 1 Jun 2024
At age 81 I realize I am not the property of my parents. I do still benefit from their wisdom, but I belong to myself, where I am accountable. There is a comparable realization in theology. Some people believe that we exist in the mind of God, the locus of reality. Instead, the concept God resides within us. We are accountable within.
374 ===== 2 Jun 2024
Purpose in life is not forced or bestowed upon us. We develop it over time as we learn to evaluate our own powers.
375 ===== 3 Jun 2024
Following the example of the cult leader requires chanting "lock him up" in the halls of debate. Out of respect for civil discourse and good judgment, the rest of us do not stoop to that level of behavior.
376 ===== 4 Jun 2024
God language (all names assigned to all deities) realistically refers to an internal monitoring function of the human psyche. It is not given to humans to impose this function on fellow humans. I cannot live by your values.
377 ===== 5 Jun 2024
We exist in a well-ordered reality. Fundamental principles of philosophy and science are not the playthings of a personal being.
378 ===== 6 Jun 2024
There was a TV movie long ago in which a crew was constructing the future one minute at a time, like the assembling of a series of stage sets. At the beginning of one minute, each object had to be at the position it occupied at the end of the previous minute. That plot line was a contemplation of continuity. No matter how much we embrace change, we must get there from where we are now. Continuity is required.
379 ===== 7 Jun 2024
Was the previous Gem about continuity of time clear and persuasive? There is an online discussion at Quora asking whether at some quantum level space and time are granular. Decades ago, physics instruction asked the question whether at that level particles or energy can jump from one state to another with no passage of time. On the other hand, in strict stasis (everything is stationary) the passage of time would be undefined. Our observation of time is dependent on relative motion, meaning fast-moving observers count the passage of time differently from each other. The thirst for continuity must not overwhelm our flexibility to deal with uncertainty-either in physics or in human psychology.
380 ===== 8Jun 2024
The previous two gems raise up a straw man and knock it down. Instead of retreating into hopelessness, physicists and philosophers steadily search for underlying principles. The manifestations look confusing, but perhaps fundamental reality is stable after all. We do expect our existence to continue.
381 ===== 9 Jun 2024
"Expect existence to continue" may even be the physicist's definition of god.
382 ===== 10 Jun 2024
The steady chorus performed by cicadas contains a low-pitched ground bass that sounds distant and almost invariant. Above that there are two or more higher pitched regularly pulsating lines. I cannot discern whether they are both localized and directional. That impression might be a change over time happening relative to my movement. This analysis comes from a would-have-been musician. An entomologist could articulate more detail. I contemplate two questions: (1) Is there more going on than perpetuation of the species? Is there a philosophical depth to the communications? (2) I am 81 now. Will I be here the next time the concert is performed?
383 ===== 11 Jun 2024
If I were to believe in the depravity of man, I would amount to very little [324] indeed. A dignified and respectful self-appreciation gives me the confidence to contribute [245] significantly to mankind. Expectation advantage (whether the world is expecting good things from me) begins inside me [323] and necessarily bears fruit.
384 ===== 12 Jun 2024
When a company support advisor says "be assured that I will absolutely fix your problem today," profound panic sets in on my end. The corporation instructs its support team to say that just as churches instruct missionaries to gain a testimony by telling people the church is true. The pretended confidence does not improve the reliability of the statements made.
385 ===== 13 Jun 2024
On a technical support call, the technician and I get so much more done by reinforcing each other. My praise makes the person glad to have come to work today.
386 ===== 14 Jun 2024
We do not study philosophy to strengthen the cage that holds us in. We study philosophy to question the cage in the process of outgrowing it. The key is to be led by imagination.
387 ===== 15 Jun 2024
Existence of god does not follow from something Plato wrote. The function of the philosopher is not answers, it is questions. The philosopher's discussion helps us to understand the question. From that, we develop our own answers.
388 ===== 16 Jun 2024
I like a person to be grateful for a favor I do, but I prefer that the person not consider my action extraordinary. I feel more comfortable when the recipient of the good deed considers it normal behavior and thinks "I would do the same thing." Otherwise, I fear that the other person might not be generous.
389 ===== 17 Jun 2024
I am so thankful for my parents who lived their lives in a generous way. They did not by any means take the generosity of others for granted, but they did pass on to me the idea that generosity is the natural way people are. It's easy for me to fit into that picture of reality.
390 ===== 18 Jun 2024
In the Socratic dialogues, the interlocutors occasionally move the conversation forward by saying "yes, there is no other way. " A better translation might be, "You may pursue that thread, after which I will evaluate how much it adds to my thinking." That is the openness with which Ernstraudian philosophy is to be read.
391 ===== 19 Jun 2024
Do God's children subdue the earth or nurture it? Is there a difference? Intentional positive lifestyle is to pursue a deliberate program of leaving the environment healthier than it was when we came into it.
392 ===== 20 Jun 2024
Gem #90 quotes the adage "if you did not change behavior, you did not teach" - suggesting instead that a good example lets viewers choose to follow. However, there are behaviors that urgently need changing! How forceful should teaching be? If we achieve change by force, can that still be considered teaching? Can the result be an improvement? [1/5]
393 ===== 21 Jun 2024
Illnesses such as obesity brought on by bad eating habits reveal a teaching failure because bad behavior has not been changed. Families and schools did not teach nutrition in a way that effected acceptable behavior. Does Gem #392 require effective teaching to be more forceful in changing behavior? [2/5]
394 ===== 22 Jun 2024
I consider it a monumental success that the United States has been much more effective than Europe in curbing smoking. The previous two Gems have framed the question whether Americans are therefore better educated. [3/5]
395 ===== 23 Jun 2024
Public health minded people, including me, answer Gem #394 positively: the healthier population is better educated. A good result follows a good method, right? Next, consider authoritarian states that confine dissidents to "re-education camps" in light of the dictionary maxim "criminals are to be re-educated." [4/5]
396 ===== 24 Jun 2024
Gem #395 sets a language trap around the words "good result" and "better educated." This is not resolved by using a dictionary to parse those exact words. The tension is in the terms "health," "crime," and "dissent." The conundrum asks us to be sensitive to the values we bring to the words we use. [5/5]
397 ===== 25 Jun 2024
The joy I experienced by online sharing in Annual Sessions (a Quaker gathering in the location that is my physical picture of "heaven") is an intense pain, namely, not being there in body for the full experience of serving and being fellowshipped by my fellow seekers. If I have self-awareness after death of my physical body, that could intensify the pain as I lose two-way participation with these Friends. [Compare the graveyard scene in "Our Town."]
398 ===== 26 Jun 2024
Today I awake as the humanist teacher opening new insight for my students. Yesterday I was the stalwart pillar of a local church. Before that, I was the dedicated father serving the welfare of my family over all else. Tomorrow I will be the poet inspiring my public. Indeed, these characteristics are always and without conflict my identity. We underestimate our own responsibilities if we perceive ourselves as simplistic monofunctional role-players.
399 ===== 27 Jun 2024
When a new leader, such as a pastor, begins to serve an organization, it is often hoped that the former leader will move out of that organization as part of letting go, turning over the responsibilities, and giving the new person an unfettered fresh start.
What does it mean when a church advises me to "turn it over to God?" Am I to let go of, or stop working on, my issue-to vacate, or step out of, the picture? What does that improve in me? [Gem #195; #370]
400 ===== 28 Jun 2024
Don't let your standing in the church (your rank as "believer") depend on how many improbable claims you believe. (By the way, participatory religion is not about believing; it is about doing.)
Ernstraud Philosophy is never to be "believed." It is rather the process of evaluating propositions for possible expansion of your field of comprehension.
401 ===== 29 Jun 2024
The function that people commonly call God is a set of metaphysical principles to which the multiverse or cosmos adheres. This entity or capacity is intuitively sensed; it does not impose itself on humans. Mind of God, as explained elsewhere, is not a static ordering or pre-existing conclusion; rather, it develops dynamically (in real time) from the multi-processing carried out by human minds cooperatively applying fundamental principles to current practical or philosophical questions.
[I apologize for becoming technical. Sometimes I must stop glossing over details and relieve tension by attempting a more accurate comprehensive statement.]
402 ===== 30 Jun 2024
My church upbringing concentrated on cultivating personal worthiness which would qualify me for eternal rewards. I directed all my attention to myself. In my maturity, I participate with Quakers who care deeply about others, seen individually and as a society. Our guiding principle is not working by ourselves for ourselves. Instead, we pursue unselfish motivation and steadfast action toward the common good. That encompasses being aware of, sensitive to, and engaged with, our fellow occupants of the planet.
403 ===== 1 Jul 2024 Monday
Opposite views, still neighbors - mutual respect and cooperation
Any proposition might be appreciated from more than one viewpoint.
A) The sun god drives his fiery chariot across the sky every day because of his love for his children.
B) Humans find themselves (evolved) dependent on a solar system in which the energy radiated by the central body is beneficial to their existence and activity.
Conscience permits me to identify with one viewpoint in preference to the other.
Basic humanity requires me to respect fellow humans who identify with the other perspective.
Ernstraudian practice is to harvest our crops cooperatively.
discuss
404 ===== 2 Jul 2024 Tuesday
Enforce conformity?
Teenage years are the time to develop independent identity, blossom as an individual, and offer society something new and unique. During that time, subjects suffer crushing expectations to conform, to fit in, to be like everyone else. Being different is self-definition; being the same feels like self-preservation. The resulting balancing act lasts a lifetime, hopefully becoming manageable with practice. It is not only the stuff of human development, but also the very essence of society.
Countless adults who are afraid to stand out resort to compelling others to be just like themselves. Intolerance is a response to the fear of being different. Those who can't relate attempt to regulate--specifically, to regulate others. On the positive side, the genius, survival, and blessing of America is pluralism.
discuss
405 ===== 3 Jul 2024 Wednesday
Freedom OF & Freedom FROM are inseparable
The term religion has become a catch-all word to describe tales and taboos that have no basis in logic. Describing society, freedom of religion must indicate freedom from religion. To satisfy logic of inclusion, the class must include a null entry or the empty set. Therein lies the American ideal of freedom. [#38; #162]
This comports with the teaching that some other concepts (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence) are words without corresponding references in reality; they describe an empty set.
discuss
406 ===== 4 Jul 2024 Thursday
From every perspective
The Ernstraudian ideal is to comprehend every issue from every perspective. Perhaps that is another meaning of godhood, a journey rather than a state of arrival.
discuss
copyright © 2024 Kent Busse
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