Accidents do happen

Anyone who has read any of my blogs has probably guessed by now that I don't just believe things without evidence. This goes for religion as well. Anyone who is religious simply has to have some faith in veritable litany of obfuscations and acquiesce to truths that have absolutely no counterpart in real life. Much less evidence.
It is by accident that anyone is born into a family and thereby into its religion. This has nothing to do with religious belief. There are no Christ genes, or Allah genes, or Buddha genes. It is accidental that one is raised a Christian, one a Jew, one a Muslim, one a Buddhist. A culture surrounds that family and gives structure and support to those who grow up in that family and that culture.
Religions are inculcated alongside the surrounding culture. Acquiring that religion is an accident of birth. It is as accidental as having educated parents, or rich ones or poor ones or handsome ones .
Religion requires belief in things unseen, unheard, and unable to be tested or disproved.
The world is and has been plagued by people who do not believe in accidents of birth. People who somehow believe that they have the rights to impose their religious beliefs on others regardless of the others' cultural community. They believe something is true on faith and faith alone without looking for and demanding one iota of logical substantiation in the surrounding world.
So I say to the religious of the world, regardless of what you believe - or need to believe or think you might believe about your God or Creator or Master of the Universe -
Keep it in your mind. Keep it in your heart. Let it give you great peace and comfort. Be aware that for most of you these beliefs are an accident of birth. Don't expect others, even your neighbors to believe what you do without question. Don't expect others to even understand what it is you believe.
Without a church or synagogue or mosque or temple, what would you believe?
These institutions and sects thereof do not unify their religion, they divide it. They seek to solidify and seal a set of unique beliefs amongst its members that its members would never in a million years come up with themselves just by believing in a higher being.
Being a member of an established religious group is not the act of most critical, thinking people, it is keeping the bathwater with the baby. It is buying into the culture of acceptance for simply belonging to the Faith.
How would you be thinking today about religion, if your parents were Jewish not Muslim or Buddhist not Christian. Your religious beliefs - just an accident.

More Music Please

The simplest song can have the most powerful effect on my mood and well being.
I cannot in any way define a way to reproduce that effect with a new and different song.
The same song performed by a different artist might fall flat. Change the key.... no that's not right. Change the arrangement, the orchestration. Something is missing - no gut reaction.
I am still in awe of the complexity of music - given a relatively few notes to work with. Timing, duration, sequence, note, timbre.
Try to compose a song that has yourself swooning! I have done it in my dreams - I love dreaming. I am a magical musician. Asleep.

Brain Power

Have you ever felt that your brain has had enough and needed a rest? I have.
The brain uses energy at a rate of about 25 Watts. That's without a muscle moving. With continuous physical exertion that might represent 20% of your body's energy consumption. No wonder your brain can tire. Could you run your brain at 100 Watts? I don't think so. You'd get a hot head.
What, I wonder, is the upper limit of knowledge that can be stored and effectively retrieved in the average human brain. I mean,: facts, recognitions, behaviors, memories.
No matter how fast a computer is - memory is limited by physical storage devices.
This same is true for the brain - in a way... The brain has an astounding 100 trillion neuron interconnections called synapses. These synaptic structures can change over time to create more and more complex associations within the brain. But just how much "knowledge" can it store?
The brain operates much more slowly in neuron firings/second than a computer's operations/sec, so a computer can do an unbelievable number of calculations on a mathematical level.
Perhaps this capability far exceeds what a brain could ever do. But the brain has a storage and modification ability that computers don't (yet). We learn. We learn search paradigms, mnemonic devices, problem solving techniques that so far, has put us ahead of the standard
desktop computer.
Computers can grow in physical size, and components can get smaller and more efficient. New technologies seem almost endless (because of the human brain) . Will we be ever be able to stuff enough in our heads to catch up? Or in the end will we become mindless dependants on electronic thinking devices?
What are our brains' limits? Think about it.

Faith Hope Charity

You have heard that some churches ask a tithe of 10% of a family's net income. You also know that many families do just that. The result is that most major churches are very very rich.
One can do whatever one wants with his or her money, but why are churches tax exempt?
Churches own land, business, stock, much of which is income producing, but the government receives nothing from these profits. The rest of us pay taxes on investment growth. Why exempt the church? I really cannot think of even one good reason. If the church is considered an entity and its holding do not belong to church members, then churches certainly do make profits. They don't give away their excess capital.
The Catholic church rivals the largest money making corporation in the world in assets and income. The Vatican collects gold, jewels, painting, and other valuables. To what end? Primarily to provide for its own comfort and security. Check how much of their vast fortunes go to clothe the naked , feed the poor, heal the sick, house the homeless. Why do we need separate Christian charities like Save the Children when the Catholic Church alone could go a long way to saving them with its own funds. Missionaries seek to convert. Why? More Christians to contribute to the wealth of the church! Fewer heathens to worry about.
Jesus was a poor man. He shunned the idea of amassing wealth. Yet, there are many ignorant preachers today who get on TV and espouse how Jesus wants his followers to be rich.
Rich in spirit perhaps. How do you get rich according to these "men of God"? Send them your money (that makes one man rich....) and Jesus will reward you tenfold.. Oh yes! Don't work for your money. Buy a few extra lottery tickets (the entire game is fixed by Jesus). Skip a meal or a rent payment and send it to your preacher. God thinks that is a fine thing to do?
Take your money and send it a charity that helps people who are sick, hungry, oppressed.
Pick one that actually spends its funds on a good cause, not one that keeps it amassed in their own coffers.

Hawaii - Oh Oh!

I've been to various parts of the world. No, not a highly experienced international traveler, but I've sampled Europe, Asia and North and Cental America. I have yet to find a vacation spot as lovely as Maui. I like Oahu too. There is no architecture to gawk at and not many quaint old villages to tour, but for pure, raw
deep brain tissue relaxation, Maui's got it. The air is always redolent of tropical flowers in bloom, light and sweet. The temperature, day and night is warm, comforting, and soothing. Everywhere is mountain or sea. Yes, everyone speaks English, but so what?
Haleakala - majestic and central - creator. So much fun and so luxurious to bicycle DOWN. (did that twice - never loses its
attraction - IF you don't fall off your bike)
Fresh fish, fresh fruit, few bugs. Let's go.