Hey everyone. I was out on a walk today and I have to share something with you that occurred to me.
In a discussion with a friend, we covered evolution, Intelligent Design, processes and the subject of purpose.
She and I both agreed on both Evolution and Creation being taught. Teach both or none at all is my opinion.
Some people can take on a matter a faith about Creation and the origins of us. Others need those processes explained to them. To me, both are fine, even if they’re not to anyone else.
Here’s the thing. I’m all about believe whatever you like but don’t impose. It keeps things polite and civil.
The Edda even explains this origin point of Niflheim, a realm of perpetual ice and freezing temperatures and Muspielheim, a realm of perpetual fire and heat with Ginnungagap, a perpetual void being at the centerpiece of Creation. Niflheim threw off ice while Muspielheim threw off sparks, the two combined to create the mists, then a realm where, eventually, we would find our world and ourselves created by Odin and his brothers. It’s a very long story and not one easily summarized without missing great swaths of it and one everyone should read. Not to change your mind or your faith but to show that there are processes in everything.
One thing that I will ask, whatever your beliefs are, put them aside for a moment and just consider what I’m typing for a moment because I know what our problem is and I wanted to address it and show you how we got here. This is not an attempt at conversion to or from whatever your current mindset is but information that may be overlooked and might help to reinforce your own faith as I think the information transcends lines.
For the record, the thought that we came from nothing doesn’t make sense. First law of thermodynamics is clear that energy cannot be created, nor destroyed but can only change form. It’s why overunity in terms of engineering is a great thing to strive for but another law of thermodynamics is that in the change, energy will be wasted.
As a matter of science, to me, no matter your faith in whatever Creator or not, the one thing we’re missing is simple: We’re finite beings with a finite capacity attempting to understand the infinite. Whether you’re a Christian, a pagan or someone that is involved in astronomy as a hobby or the exploration of space as a profession, we’re all attempting to understand something vast and infinite while not being either ourselves. We’re also attempting, at some level to shape and mold ourselves to be better people in some way. We do it through small and incremental changes. We do it through processes.
Process, Both Personal & Practical:
Leading out with this thought; Everything Is A Process. From cooking, shopping, making coffee or tea, everything is a process. You have to get up, get dressed, get in the car, go to work, work your eight, hit the gate, come home and do that process over and over again. Even in the realm of magic, intention is focused through a personal process. Journeys in D&D, Cyberpunk, Cha’alt, Cyberrats and many other RPGs and Video Games, that’s a process. Protagonists go through a hero’s journey, a process that eventually takes the mundane moisture farmboy and turns him into a heroic Jedi Knight.
The point of the matter is, without that process, it doesn’t truly happen. Case in point; Rey Palpatine.
These days, we have a disconnection from those very processes. We have apps that can get us everything we’ve ever been inspired to desire at the touch of a spot on your handheld screen or a click of the mouse. Even this article, to some, will just seem to have been spawned from the Æthernet somewhere but that’s not fact. It was inspired by a discussion and, I sat down and typed ever jot and tittle of it. I ensured the links would be there to go to the sources cited. Sources, I had to search to find and present to you. That disconnection has spawned a lack of patience in us. We have too much convenience. We take it on faith that we can just order up, drive up, someone will be there to deliver to our cars or even to our homes. The minute something goes wrong, many of us become angry, irrationally so. Some of us shape our entire behaviors around experiences built on the mistake of someone else. In that, another process takes place. We lose grace and forgiveness and seek our wrath to be mitigated because, above all else, we crave power.
It’s a well-known fact that power in the hands of someone completely irresponsible becomes self-destructive, destructive outwardly…or both. These devices we carry on a daily basis were marketed as connecting us with the entire world, but at what cost?
We don’t see the processes anymore and, we don’t care about them. All we care about is results, results, results…and they’d damn well better be good or there’ll be Hell to pay, as some would say. It’s equivalent to the episode of Beavis And Butt-Head where they’re given corn seeds to grow and told that they would be able to make their own nachos out of it. They don’t get the process of growing the corn, harvesting it, refining it, making the corn tortillas, baking them into corn chips and then topping them with whatever else they’ve cooked. They just want the nachos and they’re unwilling to wait for them. It’s a great illustration of who many of us are today. We kept our eyes on the prize but failed to do the work to gain it. We just expected success. If they can do it, why can’t I? That was our prevailing thought. We didn’t see how much of a grind it was for some. We start giving up easily when overnight success isn’t something we get right off the bat. The entire process gets ignored. We disconnect from it and the people involved in it. I’ve seen short videos of people saying they’ve never needed a farmer in their lives. Apparently, they think that their vegetables, fruits and other foods just magically appear. That’s the disconnection I’m talking about. Once they starve, I’d be willing to bet they’ll figure it out but, once people like that have their way, so will the rest of us.
Purpose:
If none of you have ever seen the movie, Falling Down, I recommend seeing it. If you have, then watch it again but keep something in mind, William “D-Fens” Foster is doing much of what he’s doing because he has no purpose anymore. Detective Prendergast is an L.A.P.D. Detective who is disrespected by most of his peers, he constantly take shit from his colleagues, his boss and his wife. He’s on his last day before his retirement and he doesn’t want to retire. It’s everyone else that wants him to retire. He sees Bill Foster and realizes that’s what his future looks like.
People without purpose become destructive and nihilistic. They perceive no future ahead for them. Their best years are behind them and there’s nothing left but getting up to the same routine every morning and wasting their life away. That can embitter and enrage someone. Some people can make pivots and shifts in their lives while others may train a lifetime for a specific role only to find there’s nothing there. All the education, indoctrination and dues paid only for little to nothing to be at the end of that struggle can also create a real sense of envy.
When we disconnect from the process and care little to nothing for the people involved in that process, we then take steps to remove them as part of the process. Ideology today plays a colossal role in this. They don’t want to understand processes, they just want what they want when they want it. If your entire purpose for being is negated, then so be it, you don’t fit into the society that they’re trying and currently failing to create. I should amend that. They’re trying and failing to corrupt our society. Those types can’t create anything. If they could then they’d have a process and purpose. I think I just illustrated that point and now it’s time to move on.
Connection:
All this tech that was marketed to connect us has never isolated us more than today. We don’t talk with each other anymore as much as make demands of each other. These tools that eventually became marketed to our vanity (Selfie cameras, peripherals and instant uploads and editing videos along with lights that have all but replaced an entire studio) became geared toward the spread and rewarding of destructive propaganda on a scale that would make Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin absolutely green with envy.
Interesting that envy comes up again because, we circle back to it time and again. We live in a constant state of envy. We envy the illusion that these people put on rather than putting real content out. The algorithm is set against you. No matter how good your content truly is, it will be suppressed in order to reward those who support a narrative. You can like, subscribe, comment, click the bell icon for notifications whenever the new content comes out and…your favorites will still suffer. Channels such as Shadiversity and even movie reaction channels like Devin G have had to make backup channels and even shift to other platforms in an attempt to evade that very suppression and, Shad has been able to prove that he’s been suppressed. It’s why I’ve never been interested in monetization. Unless your content is completely on the side of the politics Google supports, your channel will never see the status needed to monetize. Even if it does, you can not expect it to last. How does this connect us? How does this tech do anything but isolate us?
When I was doing internet radio in the mid to late aughts, I was told “We can’t trust the media. We now have to become the media.” Those very same people are the ones that have illustrated they can’t be trusted either. The fact of the matter is that the tech won’t, in and of itself, connect us until we use it to those ends and, the tech is only a tool. It’s you, me and everyone else that must connect on some level to each other. The only real way to do that is to know who you are, be good with who you are and make it self-evident. I don’t have to run around reminding everyone that I’m from the South, I’m white, I’m a gamer, I’m a pagan, I like Pokémon, I like books on a variety of subjects or hiking. I’m good with someone finding those things out as they go and happy to talk with people about them but none of those things are my entire identity.
I’m Raven. Nice to meet you. Yeah I read tarot/runes/oracle cards. Want a reading? Okay. Cool. By the way have you ever tried…?
That’s who I am. I think it’s time we get back to that.
Conclusion:
The simple fact is that you and I may differ on the origin of the species but you have your own evolution. As with everything, you and I can’t change the world. Not at all. No amount of holding up a sign and screaming will do much of anything. All that has to be done is for you to be waited out. You’ll eventually tire out and go home and you still have work because you still have bills to pay. Petitions can be ignored.
May seem hopeless until you realize that people who produce garbage under a name you like are not entitled to your money. In fact, they’re not entitled to anything of yours. You can withhold if you like. If that’s what you choose to do, know that I support you.
But look at who you are. Reflect and figure out what you value most and then make those adjustments if you need to. You’ll find that others of like soul will surround you. You may also find that they may differ in theology, nationality, height, weight, etc but remember that you all have common ground and can build from there. It’s building on that foundation that matters most. If you’re spending your time hating on someone else because your screen told you to, then you’re wasting your energy. Remember that law of Thermodynamics? Then you need to ask where that energy is going because if it isn’t used in service of better positioning yourself and others, then what is it doing?
Your own process should be used to empower yourself. No one else will ever do it for you. Whether you have one God or many, that part doesn’t matter. The one thing we do have in common is that we were created from a process and we continue to undergo processes every day. If we’re not experiencing growth in some way, we’re regressing, de-evolving if you will and that’s the big problem and the final question you have to ask yourself is are you part of the problem or are you going to embody the solution?
As an aside that’s not much of an aside, I recommend that you all watch the movie, Phenomenon from 1996. We’ll be discussing it later, promise.
Which is where I offer you the blended combination of Evolution through intelligent design. Why have just one or the other.. 🤷🏼♂️