I am Celebrating Cedar City, Utah

Cedar City, Utah may not be perfect, but I think it is a great place to retire.  Jean and I have enjoyed so many of the parks and recreational facilities, especially the walking/biking trail near our home.  We have also used the aquatic center, attended concerts and music festivals, and frequented the farmers' markets.  Thank you mayor and city council (past and present) for making Cedar such a great place to call home.

The Sabbath

We talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy in church today.  We were taught that keeping the Sabbath is an outward expression of our inward, personal commitment to God.  It is to be a rest from our labors...  It is to be a delight...  But most assuredly it is a sign of our faith in, and our faithfulness to God.  We were instructed to just throw away the lists of things we can and cannot do on the Sabbath, and try to keep it holy by focusing on Christ.

I think a Wendell Berry is an example of keeping the Sabbath.  Every Sunday he would go for a walk around his farm and write down his thoughts as poems.  They display his faith, his reflection of events and the world around him.

A clamor high above
Entered the shadowed grove,
Withdrew, was still, and then
The water thrush began
The song that is a prayer,
A form made in the air,
That all who live here pray,
The Sabbath of our day.

From A Timbered Choir, pg. 58.

Thank you Mr. Berry for your example.

The Sabbath is a delight.

Evidence of the Anthropocene Epoch

I believe we are living in the Anthropocene Epoch...  It is unlike any other period of time in the history of the planet because the number one force of impact and change is the human species.  We are changing the Earth with every tire track, every mine, every well, every building, every gallon of fuel we burn...  And we have this cavalier attitude that the Earth is our home, our playground, and our garbage dump.  There is no place that everyone considers sacred and thus leaves free of our litter.

Yep, we are changing everything here... it's the Anthropocene!  Let's drink to that!

Facing the Facts

We need to face the facts and not just hold on to old theories, procedures, and doctrines.  As new evidence is discovered we need to accept the theories they support.  As new materials and methods are created we need to abandon the old ways of doing things and advance to the next levels of technology and civilization.

Astronomy has pushed out our views of the universe way beyond the solar system and our galaxy.  It is very big and we are very small.  Geology has pushed back our Earth's history way beyond 6,000 years.  It is very old, and we are very late comers on this planet.  Meteorology has discovered many of the causes of our weather beyond "acts of God."  Biology has explained germ theory, genetics and evolution, freeing us from superstitions of demons causing disease and mental illness.

We are making strides in every field, learning how things work and why things are the way they are.  We know so much more than our grandparents did.  So, why do we hold on to old ideas?   And why are we afraid of anything new?  Why do we look back into the past for answers to our current problems, and fear the future?  Why do we continue to put "new wine in old bottles?"

I believe we need to look at all the evidence and accept the truth they point to.  Courage!  We are going to make a future, not restore the past.

Deciding to Be Better

I recommend the website, Deciding to Be Better (http://d2bb.org/index.htm).   

Their mission statement is:

I understand that to change the world, I start by changing myself. I therefore decide to be better. I make a personal commitment to goodness and strive to make my life better each day. I am a person of high purpose, high ethics, high integrity and high values. My goal is to work in friendship with others to improve myself, my community, my nation and the world. By respectfully bringing our message to all people, we will make the world a better place for everyone.

Their motto:

DecidingToBeBetter: A force for self-improvement, goodness and togetherness that helps humanity to eliminate evil.

Take a look and see what you think.

I Want Heaven on Earth

OK, this is what I want.  I want heaven on earth...

I want to end all wars, military conflicts, terrorism, and violence.

I want to end hunger, homelessness, and poverty.  Every human being should have equal rights to the Earth's resources.  It is our birthright.

I want children to grow up without fear.

I want to see all disease conquered.

I want justice for all, and compassion, respect, and tolerance for all.

I want to see the Earth healed and pollution to end.  Surely, God is offended by how we have messed up His creation.

I want to see clean renewable energy powering our civilization.

I want to see every person able to pursue his or her happiness.

I want to see all abuse ended.

I want to see heaven on Earth... and I want us to start working to create it rather than sitting on our butts waiting for Jesus to come back and make for us.  We are like the man the Lord gave one talent and we are hiding it in all our politics, economics, religions, and nationalism.  We think we are going to return it to Him without even trying to make things better?  How did that work out for the man in the parable?  (Matthew 25: 15-30)

Two Book Recommendations

Manna (http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm ) and The Second Intelligent Species ( http://marshallbrain.com/second-intelligent-species.htm ) by Marshall Brain.  Both raise serious questions about what we are doing on this planet right now... and what could happen while AI and robots take over the world.  I was enthralled his ideas.  I'll talk more about them later.

Is this what we really want?

(the wall from the movie Monsters)

I think there must be a better way to "secure" our borders than a fence or wall.  There never has been an impenetrable border to any country in history.  That is because a border is an imaginary line drawn on a map, not a real thing in the real world.  It will cost too much to make a border a reality.   I think an open border would be the best, most natural border to any country.  Then when people come to visit our country, we have options on what they can have or do here.

But politicians insist in this fantasy, I would rather our military actually defended our borders than sending our troops out to other countries around the world.  Bring them home!

And will we build a fence along our northern border too?

Life is Sacred

I believe that all life lives with this imperative: Survive and thrive as long as you can.  Everything we do is to survive first, then reproduce, and beyond that to pursue happiness.  We must breathe, drink and eat in order to survive.

Eating requires each of us to kill other organisms.  We take their lives in order to live ourselves.    Vegans, omnivores, and carnivores all eat other living things that are trying to survive and thrive.  Our ethics is that we kill to survive.  There is not yet any practical way around this.  We can debate the ethics of eating animals vrs eating plants.

I believe that all life is "sacred" whether it has been created by God or is the product of evolution.  I believe that if we kill another living organism, we should do it for the sake of survival.  I try to be consistant in this belief.  I will kill to eat.  I will not kill just for pleasure.  I would kill to defend myself, my family or others in danger.  I would not kill for vengence or justice.  Therefore, I am against abortions except in the case where the pregnancy harms or endangers the woman's life.  I am also against capital punishment.  I have no problem with a killer being shot and killed in defense of innocents.  I do have a problem with a prisoner being executed.  I have no problem with a nation defending itself from invasion; I do have a problem with a nation invading another country and going into battle to secure oil fields.

I know I making this very simple and black and white... in my mind, either life is sacred, or it isn't.  I want to live; and I believe all living things want to survive and thrive.

We Must Move On

I believe that we must move on with science and technology.  We must look at all our problems, face them honestly, and commit ourselves to solving them.  We must begin to believe that we can solve any problem we face; and if our solutions create problems, we will fix them too.

I think it is time to stop wringing our hands and worrying about science andtechnology taking us to some dystopia.  We can create a glorious future.  We can solve every problem.  We just have to have the will to do it.

That said... if we are going to have a big socialist government, why don't we spend more of our tax dollars (and deficit spending) on education, science, and technology, and less on military?

Let's move on!  We've got some serious problems to solve.

Planned Parenthood

As a libertarian/anarchist I would cut all funding for Planned Parenthood.  I believe that they can exist on the donations of those who believe in their mission.

On a related subject: I believe that abortions should be limited to only those pregnancies that are the result of incest or rape, and in those rare cases where the mother's life is at risk.  I would not make abortions illegal, but I don't believe tax money should be used to provide abortions to women.  Instead, I believe that contraceptives should be easily available to to all women and men of reproductive age.  Again, donations can support this cause.  

I believe that abortions are evidence of a serious lack of education or concern on the part of both men and women.  If you have sex, assume that you will get pregnant.