Albert Einstein – Critical Physicist

Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist and author of the theory of relativity, and his thoughts:

On Critical Thinking:

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

On Ethics:

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

On Religion:

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.

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.

The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.

On Education:

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

On Science:

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

…one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.

On Mystery:

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

On War:

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

On Love:

No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.

On Sheep:

In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.

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Is The Absence Of War, Peace?

Blogger zukunftsaugen recently shared his sentiments on the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas and the growing international sentiment to cease hostilities.

zukunftsaugen quickly points out that a cease fire is not necessarily peace:

Does it mean that the Israelis should stop shooting and the Hamas faction should stop their rocket firings?  Is that peace?

And in a cease fire period, is it peace where one sides lives prosperously and the other side slowly wastes away in poverty?

I think that most people who are calling for a cease fire and peace really mean they do not want to see on their televisions or in their newspapers pictures of dead or dying children.  They do not want to see pathetically equipped hospitals unable to provide 21st century care.  They do not want to hear any more of suicide bombers or rocket firing extremists.  They want somehow to put the lid back on the Middle East mess and just have it go away.

Interestingly, his sentiments are a perfect analogue to Arakawa of Patlabor 2 and just as valid:

And yet it seems to me that the line between a just war and a unjust peace is very faint indeed. If the just war is a lie, is the unjust peace less of a lie? We are told there is peace but we look around us and even if we cannot give it words our lives tell us we cannot believe what we are being told.

In the end every war gives way to peace so-called, and every so-called peace is the dormant seed of war.

So it’s only a matter of time, til the hard reality of war sweeps away our illusion that the absence of war is peace. So I ask you again, what are we working to protect?

We enjoy peace on our T.V. screens while just outside the camera shot the war is raging. We forget we’re just a camera angle behind the battlelines. No, we don’t forget–we quite simply refuse to remember.

 

The Israel – Hamas conflict is one with the oldest historical roots, and a conflict that will not simply go away with every premature call for ceasefire. Let’s see if we can plumb the depths of this conflict in future posts (although I already feel it’s gonna be a daunting task). zukunftsaugen already hinted at the complexity of the context of this conflict:

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a conflict between these two parties and also a surrogate for other neighboring countries to express their national interests.  Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Iran, and even Iraq all have a dog in this fight. If by magic, there could be an agreement with these countries and the US, the funding that supports the arm purchases could evaporate.  The atmosphere would then be ripe for a full negotiation of all the issues supporting free Israel and free Palestinian states.  

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Have Some Australians Gone to Iraq Due to Oil?

First a supposed admission by Sarah Palin, now this.

Is this really the reason? Assuming it is really the reason, would that be the the reason why they went to Iraq in the first place, or are they only in it now since they don’t trust what the U.S. will do in Iraq?

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Iraq was Invaded Since They Wanted to Sell Oil in Euro’s?

I have heard of this conspiracy theory years ago. Now it’s on youtube. With all the hearsay conspiracy theories subsequently being documented on the web, I wonder how the U.S. will weather all the news. I tell you, people are just starting to talk now and they are now beginning to blame each other. Respectable Americans are now coming out and even asking to sell U.S. assets. How much lower will the U.S. economy go?

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Islam and Polygamy

http://www.55a.net/firas/english/?page=show_det&id=209

Polygamy renders the best solution

studying of mortality shows that the rate is higher for men than for women. This disparity is in evidence from early childhood to extreme old age. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: “In general, the risk of death at any given age is less for females than for males.”
It is widely established that the number of women outnumber the number of men due to certain reason :

(1) wars . It is reported that In the First World War (1914-18) about 8 million soldiers were killed. Most of the civilians killed were also men. In the Second World War (1939-45) about 60 million people were either killed or maimed for life, most of them men. In the Iraq-Iran war alone (1979-

1988), 82,000 Iranian women and about 100,000 Iraqi women were widowed. All in the space of ten years.

2- Imprisonment : In the U.S , no less than 1,300,000 people are convicted daily for one crime or anther. A number of them – 97% of whom are men – are obliged to serve lengthy prison sentences.Work accidents and street accidents are also among the these reasons .

According to data collected in 1967, in that year a total of 175,000 people died as the result of accidents in fifty different countries. Most of these were men.
For reasons of this nature, women continue to outnumber men. This difference persists in even the most developed societies e.g. in America. According to data collected in 1967, there were nearly 7,100,00 more women than men. This means that even if every single man in America got married 7,100,00 women would be left without husbands.

In facts , some nations do not practice polygamy as this is an act against man-made laws but they really did , the possibility of transferring biological fatal diseases are so high , such communities suffer from ADS , an innocent wife or husband may be the victim . social ills are rampant . The question is which is better to solve this problem ? The best answer is ” let’s go back to God’s solution ” A dark picture is awaiting , unless we stop outdoor-relations .

During the Second World War, in which several western countries such as Germany, France, Britain, etc. took part, a large number of men were killed. As a result, women far outnumbered men at the end of the hostilities. Permissiveness then became the order of the day, to the extent that boards with such inscriptions as “Wanted: A Guest for the Evening” could be seen outside the homes of husbandless women. This state of affairs persisted in western countries in various forms, even long after the war, and is now largely prevalent because of industrial and mechanical accidents.

Billy Graham, the eminent Christian evangelist has recognized this fact: “Christianity cannot compromise on the question of polygamy. If present-day Christianity cannot do so, it is to its own detriment. Islam has permitted polygamy as a solution to social ills and has allowed a certain degree of latitude to human nature but only within the strictly defined framework of the law. Christian countries make a great show of monogamy, but actually they practice polygamy. No one is unaware of the part mistresses play in Western society. In this respect Islam is a fundamentally honest religion, and permits a Muslim to marry a second wife if he must, but strictly forbids all clandestine amatory associations in order to safeguard the moral probity of the community.” 75

Makes sense doesn’t it. And guess what, from the same website it also says that in the Old Testament of the Bible, polygamy was allowed.

Polygamy in Christianity :

History says that Polygamy was practiced among the Christians , it seems that there were some human resolutions that stopped it . In the eighth century Charlemagne, holding power over both church and state, in his own person practiced polygamy . St. Augustine seems to have observed in it no intrinsic immorality or sinfulness, and declared that polygamy was not a crime where it was the legal institution of a country. He wrote in The Good of Marriage (chapter 15, paragraph 17), that polygamy …was lawful among the ancient fathers……..” He declined to judge the patriarchs, but did not deduce from their practice the ongoing acceptability of polygamy . During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther said, “I confess for my part that if a man wishes to marry two or more wives, I cannot forbid him for it does not contradict the Scripture.”African churches have long recognized polygamy. Early in its history, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced polygamy in the United States.  Splinter groups left the Church to continue the practice after the Church banned it.  Polygamy among these groups persists today in Utah, neighboring states, and the spin-off colonies, as well as among isolated individuals with no organized church affiliation.

According to Father Eugene Hillman, ‘Nowhere in the New Testament is there any explicit commandment that marriage should be monogamous or any explicit commandment forbidding polygamy.’[7] The Church in Rome banned polygamy in order to conform to Greco-Roman culture that prescribed only one legal wife while tolerating concubinage and prostitution.

In the Bible , Jesus never reject the old testament but even said  ”   “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (the Old Testament) or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17-18) .

There were some situations that imply that Jesus implicitly approved of  polygamy ,   according to Matthew 5:17-18 above, we clearly see that Jesus honored the  Old Testament, and forces Christians to follow the unmodified laws of it that have not been replaced by newer ones in the New Testament.  The Old Testament as we clearly see above does indeed allow polygamy without a shadow of a doubt !!. There is not a single verse from the New Testament that prohibits polygamy.   Jesus’ parable allows polygamy between 1 man (the bridegroom) and 10 virgins (5 became his wives and slept with him)!  19:1-12  Jesus didn’t ban polygamy .In Matthew

New Testament insists on monogamy only for bishops and deacons. No church council in the earliest Christian centuries opposed polygamy. St. Augustine clearl)’ declared that he did not condemn it. Luther tolerated it and approved of the bigamous status of Philip of Hesse. In 1531 the Anabaptists preached polygamy and the Mormons of today believe in it (see Abd al Ati, The Family Structure in Islam, American Trust Publications, 1977, p 114 : Until this very day, the church in some African countries conducts the marriage of men to more than one wife. In Europe, the attempt to legally enforce monogamy and outlaw polygamy took place as late as the late sixth and early seventh centuries.

Sometimes Muslims really make me wonder. They may really act differently from a lot of us, but what I can say is that they are a lot less hypocritical about their sacred text than some other religions who twist their respective texts to suit themselves.

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Peace and War from Patlabor 2

Patlabor 2 is a Japanese Anime (Cartoon) that waxes philosophical about war and peace themes. Here is a poignant dialogue between a policeman and government official that reflects upon these ideas. Also note the Japanese context portrayed here–their defeat in World War II and their position in the world then and now.

Is peace the absence of war? Or war the absence of peace? Is there such a thing as a just war or a unjust peace? What is civilisation if it is founded on the victims of war?

Next to religion, it is politics and its darker brother: war, that has moved society and civilisation towards various ends (sometimes folly).

Great insights from this cartoon. (Transcript of Arakawa’s monologue is below)

Arakawa:

You as a policeman, Gota, me as a self-defense force spook, what is it the two of us are actually trying to protect?

It’s fifty years since the end of world war two. We’ve lived our lives never having known war. Violence yes–but that’s recognized as criminal, never a time when the whole country was dedicated to legal violence.

Peace? Is it peace we’re working to protect?

What is peace meant for this country, for our city, for us?

All the effort and passion Japan put into the war ended in Hiroshima in defeat. Then the Americans came, bringing their nuclear deterrent, their cold war, their Hollywood chewing-gum war. And now all over the world there are bullet wars, civil wars, suffering, misery, death.

We’re a rich country. And what is our wealth built on? The bloody corpses in all these wars. They’re the foundation of our peace. We now put the same effort into indifference that our parents put into war. Other countries comfortably far away pay the price for our prosperous peace. We’ve learned very well how to ignore their suffering.

Gota:

No matter how repulsive the peace, it’s still vital to guard it. It may be an immoral peace, maybe an unjust peace, but an unjust peace is still better than a just war.

Arakawa:

I share your revulsion about “just” wars, if there ever was such a thing it was the war against the nazis, our allies Gota, our allies! But how many millions throughout history have died in the cause of what their lying leaders called “just” wars?

And yet it seems to me that the line between a just war and a unjust peace is very faint indeed. If the just war is a lie, is the unjust peace less of a lie? We are told there is peace but we look around us and even if we cannot give it words our lives tell us we cannot believe what we are being told.

In the end every war gives way to peace so-called, and every so-called peace is the dormant seed of war.

So it’s only a matter of time, til the hard reality of war sweeps away our illusion that the absence of war is peace. So I ask you again, what are we working to protect?

We enjoy peace on our T.V. screens while just outside the camera shot the war is raging. We forget we’re just a camera angle behind the battlelines. No, we don’t forget–we quite simply refuse to remember. That cannot go on. Sometime, somehow, we will be punished.

Gota:

Punished? By who? By God?

Arakawa:

Anyone in this world can be like God, most in a universe no bigger than their own minds, all-present, all-knowing, and yet impotent outside the confines of their heads. And what God cannot do, men will attempt. Unless. Unless we stop them.

They must be stopped. That is our task.

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