I just took an amazing walk through the forest and got to a clearing where there were probably a thousand fireflies flashing every second, against an almost pitch black background. Simply incredible sight. Like the 4th of July.
It is unfortunate that people have been trained to rot their brains out getting propagandized by TV, rather than going outside and enjoying all the amazing gifts God has created for us.
The world would be a much better place if everyone shot their television, and got back in touch with the real world.
I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.
– Albert Einstein
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
– Albert Einstein
The scientists’ religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.
– Albert Einstein
Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.
– Albert Einstein
amen to that…. I just blogged the same thing.. about a week ago on my facebook.. keep up the good work.. the next generation.. may need to count on it..
Yes, time alone in God’s creation is necessary to maintain any semblance of sanity in today’s troubled society.
Amen brother! There is nowhere like outside, walking free in God’s awesome creation.
My back yard is middle earth, with some deer. I just leave the patio doors open while I watch Duck Dynasty. 🙂
I live in a city, and I do regularly walk outside but the difference between being inside and outside is not much to look at. We have a few parks, which are better than nothing, and I can’t complain because I know many people are worse off than myself.
On the whole though, cities are efficient, and convenient, but they are not healthy places for people to live in. I think that’s why we see so many people going mental… that’s just a theory. Most of the “Green” political movement live in big cities, and they know nothing about the environment because they live in coffee shops, but distantly they want to believe they are living on a farm, or living in a forest. They construct a fantasy world, to help them survive the real world, by ignoring it.
I’d like to leave the city because I don’t want to end up like that, but I need the money and I need a job, so I spend the money on a mortgage to give me some place to live in the city. I’m pretty over it, but it’s also the life I’ve lived for a long time.
The problem is the that space we have available to us gets smaller and smaller every day because the Federal Government declares more and more of our land to be off limits and make it inaccessible. Most Americans have no clue this is even happening. As less and less Americans have less of an opportunity to enjoy our open land they will become less interested in the outdoors (undoubtedly aided by their TV sets ;-). When this happens that land will be destroyed (through development or whatever) because the people will no longer appreciate it.
It’s beautiful to hike at night and see the wonders of nature. Although I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to bring God in to it to make that point. When the left says that skeptics are “a bunch of right wing religious nuts,” you can only say that that is absolute bs. I know that it’s totally harmless and really beautiful to talk abut God and nature, although it begins to strike a nerve considering some of your previous posts and discussions that ensued. So I would still error on the side of being careful in trying to to make sure you don’t inadvertently give ammo to the enemy (as they try to characterize us all with one brush).
And yes, it matters. Because the public opinion battle will be won, or lost, in the middle ground, where the unaffiliated independent voters reside, and it would not be good if these folks think skeptics are what the left stereotypes us as. Personally, I think all of us should endeavor to keep science and religion completely separate, without leaving any possible chance of that being misconstrued, but I know you were feeling good after the beautiful hike and want to express this with a sense of your beliefs. Just use caution. And remember, let me state the obvious, not everyone believes in God, so those that don’t, that are perfectly good skeptics otherwise, might think it’s a little presumptuous or something. You can strive for unity, where you will have a more effective fighting force, or you can dismiss these people as no good. And btw, how are the dogs? I remember you talking about them a lot in your snowy hikes in Colorado. I hope they are well!
I agree.
I disagree.
“Political correctness” is a form of mind control. We are not supposed to think for ourselves, and certainly not supposed to speak what we think. Just because some folks know there is a God does not make them “religious nuts”.
That’s not what I said. You can say that this reference is gratuitous. Unneeded. This is “ostensibly” a climate change blog, not a church. And to reiterate, that the left makes a big big deal about how skeptics are motivated by right wing politics, and religion, we don’t need to do anything that even in a smallish way helps strengthen that impression. It is potentially a really big blow to our credibility. And it’s just not necessary to go down that road, and risk it. There’s no necessity of bringing religion in, people have their own churches. Yes, and that becomes a big topic of discussion, if a skeptical blogger gets all religious in “official” blog space supposedly devoted to climate matters.
There seem to be common truths in science, religion and democratic constitutional government, and
Common untruths in the lock-step totalitarian governments, sciences and anti-religious dogma of Stalin et al.
Dogmatic scientists and dogmatic religionists are identical twins, each hiding under a cloak of respectability!
How dare that Einstein fellow make all those gratuitous references to God!
Uncle Al disagrees.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Yesterday, he was asked to keep his political beliefs separate; today he is asked to keep his religious beliefs separate. When I look at this site’s URL, it says stevengoddard in the subdomain. This is his site, and is better-served as a holistic representation of who he is.
Anyone who doesn’t believe in God can simply bypass a post such as this one. Anyone who disagrees with his stance on gun control can bypass posts related to that topic. It’s not Steve’s/Tony’s fault that people who hold such disagreements are unable to segregate their political/social disagreements from those topics with which they would otherwise agree.
As far as I am concerned it is about respecting another person’s beliefs. It is something the ‘Left’ is always giving lip service to while at the same time trouncing on anyone who is not in lockstep with THEIR beliefs.
Catering to their mandates is NOT the way to win because all they do is turn the screws tighter and move the line further to the left.
For example when I grew-up Ni–er was considered impolite and we were to use Ne-ro, Then we were told Ne-ro was ‘Racist’ and we should use the word ‘Black’ Now I get a woman screaming at me and having me banned from a gig for using the word ‘black’ Actually I have been ‘Accused’ of being a racist three times in the last year – a first in over sixty years. Note there was nothing I did that was racist, it was just a way of trying to push me in to groveling and making ‘monetary amends’ but I did not push so I was “punished’ for not groveling.
I am agnostic, and as far as I am concerned, if Steve wants to celebrate his religion more power to him. I am very sick and tired of watching the Christian bashing and the white bashing and the American bashing. That is why I am at this site.
I was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland during the summer of 1970. One evening I decided to walk back to my barracks from the movie theater instead of calling a taxi. Wanting to make the walk in as short a time as possible, as it was getting dark, I took a shortcut through a semi-wooded area. As I was walking along, I was startled when I saw a nearby light out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to see what it was, it was gone, only to reappear a few moments later, floating slowly through the air. Having grown up in Utah, it was the first time I’d ever seen a firefly. What a treat that was, made doubly delicious because it wasn’t something more ominous. 😉
As a country boy who spent 40 years working in cities now returned to to country in retirement I know what you mean. But these townies are destroying the beauty and peace with bl**dy great windmills and covering fields in Solar panels.
+1000
Agenda 21 will have us all living in very dense cities with limited travel ranges short enough and the excuse? To save the earth.
As to shooting TVs….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJ5vbSt9K0
People living in cities are intrinsically more helpless and easier to control when it comes to limiting their water supply, their food supply and their energy consumption.
People in the country are harder to rule, because they are more self sufficient.
Grab a history book. The origin of liberty was the rise of the Yeoman class in the Middle Ages. A Yeoman was neither a serf (landless and bonded) nor a lord (owner of large lands and many serfs). Yeoman was the original “middle class”:
* Enough land to make a living, but not enough land to require servants or slaves.
* Allowed to carry weapons and trained with sword, pole-arm, longbow, and “misery cord”.
* Willing and able to fight for the defense of family and farm.
* Self sufficient in most things, but also able to benefit from and participate in trade.
* Via the House of Commons, able to participate in politics.
Over time, as technology improved, the Yeoman dropped his bow and took up a musket or a cannon. Then the musket became a rifle (thank you Benjamin Robins and Isaac Newton). Slavery did not go away because people felt sorry for the slaves. Slavery went away because you can’t build an army out of slaves, you need free men who believe they have something to fight for, and you need lots of them.
I agree except for the last part.
Slavery went away because of Access to Energy and labor saving inventions. Horses and a combine are a heck of a lot more efficient than slaves. Also for factories laborers earning a wage do not have to be housed, fed or clothed and they will produce more per hour for less cost in the long run.
The US Council on Economic Development understood that moving a lot of people into cities and away from farms meant cheaper labor and more customers so they made the decision in 1945 to rid the USA of ‘excess farmers’ link
Now with better education, more leisure time and opportunities the Yeoman/Middle Class is challenging the upper class so they want to return to a two class system by reducing the middle class back to serfdom.
That is the real origin of Agenda 21 not Gore Bull Worming.
I’ve often wondered about the range of fireflies. Just one of those things that need looked into. I’ve seen them in states from the east to the middle of the USA (PA, OH, Iowa). I haven’t seen any in the State of Washington but I live at an elevation of over 2,000 feet. Hiking trips usually take me higher still. Okay, so now I’ll have to check.
Your belief in a god explains a lot, thank you.
As Richard Feynman said : “God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand.”
I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.
– Albert Einstein
Never thought I’d say this: Einstein was wrong.
“Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the Scripture called the Creation.” – Thomas Paine, “Age of Reason”
Studying the intricacies of Creation, which Einstein eschues, is how “know His thoughts.”
“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”
– Albert Einstein
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
– Albert Einstein
I am convinced the Creator, Destroyer and Sustainer of every atom, life and world in the solar system was purposely obscured in scientific textbooks after destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Here’s an old link that I will repair if it fails to open:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10640850/Man_God_and_Sun_%281500-2100%29_%281%29.pdf
Nothing is as limitless as the arrogance and stupidity of man.
Most atheists are not intellectually honest or courageous enough to carry their beliefs to their logical conclusions.
It’s a ‘hand’ they play, a position presently ‘held’ in the market, an arbitrage play against other ‘popular’ beliefs presently they see in vogue, subject to change should conditions in the ‘market’ warrant …
Science is the what, when, and how of nature.
God is the why of existence, the why a universe, why this universe.
So who do you ask why?
Steve
Time to put in a vote for my go at a needed word (if it was good enough for Shapespeare then I can have a go!)
Empixellated
Describing those who spend too much time watching screens and not enough outside windows
You’re so right about the beauty of creation. I still remember the sheer magical wonder of the first time I ever saw fireflies, up on the Berkshire Downs (southern England, west of London) on one of many night walks organised by my church. I guess I was about 7 or 8 at the time; so over 40 years ago. They never preached about the beauty and complexity and fascination of the world, they just took us out there and let us experience it. I guess it’s ultimately thanks to them that I ended up with a combined honours degre in biology & geology – I couldnt figure out whether I was more interested in the hills or what lived on them! Also, of course, my consequent sceptiscm of the CAGW industry.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Make the most of it. If the Agenda 21 zealots get their way, walks in the countryside will be banned, being “No-go” areas for humanity. We are the UN. We WILL be obeyed, because we know what’s best for you.
+1
Another great reason to shoot the idiot box :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7KTD4eP2U#t=365
OR : put in search box : Must See ! How The Illuminati uses Television to Control you
Don’t be put off by the total, 40 mins well spent to protect your children.
Subliminal is scary.
“This video does not exist. Sorry.” That’s what I got.
This quite often happens with these controversial videos, Scott.
It’s why I put the written title reference below the link code.
I just typed in to the youtube search box : Must See… etc
& it worked fine.
“How The Illuminati … ”
Oh no, not this stuff again …
Conspiracy theories are the favored tools of the weak-minded. You can quote me.
.
I’m not sure about God, who created Man, who quickly ascended to the throne of ‘superior species’ and commenced to destroy – to the best of his limited abilities – all that was beautiful and harmonious about Nature in the process. I’m a great believer in Nature and the Balance and perceive dimly that there must be slightly, or even much, much more beyond what we see in this chaotic, destruction-ridden world which, nevertheless – courtesy of Nature – still manages to enthrall and spiritually enervate those who would only open their eyes to its real beauty and miraculous intricacy.
You can’t ‘feel’ Nature through any TV, no matter how big a screen it is or how ‘perfect’ the sound reproduction may be. Get off the couch and get dirty people; it’s the only way – and take your dog with you if you have one (he’ll love you all the more for it!)
Actually it was my goat I have been taking for walks lately. (6 days old and has to be bottle fed every few hours so comes with me everywhere, but he is a real sweetie and is learning to walk on a leash.)
For me nature is just outside my door. Nothing like opening the front door and having a red fox calmly look you in the eye or see a snowy owl or red tailed hawk or eagle on the fence posts or in the trees surrounding my fields.
There is no way I want to go back into a city or an apartment after living here on my farm.
Nature’s never in balance, Jaime, always in flux, always changing, ever since the end of the last ice age. This is a minor theme of Michael Crichton’s big novel, ‘State of fear’.
He details also, among much else, man’s (or the dumb US Govt’s) disastrous attempts to ‘manage’ or achieve a state of stasis in Yellowstone National Park. Well worth a read, a deserved best seller.
‘My grandson cries, “look, fireflies! I’m gonna try to catch one”. And in the dark the flashing spark soon leads him on to snatch one.’
Luckily we still see them each year.
It has been such a chilly summer so far, that even though I still have fireflies flashing on my mountain, they are fewer in number and their flashes are slow and feeble. The warmer it is, the more the fireflies flash, by the way.
Last year was as bad, too, and this usually is a precursor for whether a winter will be warm or cold. So far, the fireflies are signaling a colder winter.
Do fireflies cause global warming?
(One nanoWatt times petazetagazillion fireflies = a whole lotta climate “forcing”.)
🙂
That depends: how many mirrors are involved?
Psalm 19:1-6
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Just a little something else concerning are great leaders of the day.
Job 12: 23-25
23 He makes nations great, and destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
24 He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason;
he makes them wander in a trackless waste.
25 They grope in darkness with no light;
he makes them stagger like drunkards.
That about sums it up!
“The world would be a much better place if everyone shot their television, and got back in touch with the real world.”
I shot my TV in 1975 and I have not missed it. Lots more time to do the things I enjoy, camping, caving, climbing, hiking, horse riding & carriage driving and reading.
I have been watching the firefly display against a background of trees each night all this summer. They have really been going to town this year. The dragon fly aerial acrobatics are neat to watch too, not to mention the bats.
Tel says….
“…On the whole though, cities are efficient, and convenient, but they are not healthy places for people to live in. I think that’s why we see so many people going mental… that’s just a theory…”
Caged animals display abnormal behavior and depression. This has been known for a long time. Horses will stall walk, chew wood, windsuck, weave…. if kept stalled too long. It is the reason I have stalls built to satisfy the Animal Rights Activist’s idiotic town ordinances but only use them for medical purposes. I mean come on, a plains animal who survives from the deserts of Africa to subarctic Sibera needs shelter????
Distressed Animal Behaviors and Some Recommendations for Improvements at the Kuala Lumpur Zoo, Malaysia
http://www.academia.edu/attachments/5611801/download_file?st=MTQwNDEzNjU5MSw5OC4xNy44My4zMg%3D%3D&s=popover
And they want to squash humans in to 14 ft X 14 ft micro mini-apartments link in Transit Villages with no access to private transportation.
I lived in apartments most of my adult life but I spent all my free time either on the farm where I boarded a horse (as free unpaid labor) or on weekend trips caving. To be caged in a city? No way in Hades!