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God’s Brain
GOD'S BRAIN
If God is a creation of the brain then God’s brain is our brain. It’s the brain that “believes”—not the liver, the heart, the lungs, or the intestines. The brain makes decisions for survival—it is the organ of adaptive behavior—the medium in which THOUGHT “vibrates”.
Wittgenstein: Imagination depends on perception: the echo of a thought. We live in a linguistic universe where reality is what we construct in words.
What is seen in the mind’s eye and what is heard in one’s head is no proof that there exist things which they SEE and HEAR.
HOMO DEUS
A Brief History of Tomorrow
The Great Decoupling—on algorithms (page 328)
Einstein: We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
CHANGE IS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE
WHAT IS LIGHT?
Without darkness LIGHT has no definition
Is light the glue that binds the universe—its energy delivery system?
Book cover of Peter Russell-from science to god, please crop
From SCIENCE to GOD
The apparent location of consciousness does not actually have anything to DO with the placement of the brain but depends on the placement of the sense organs. Our EYES and EARS happen to be situated on the head. So our perception (experiencing the world) is in the middle of the head.
IMAGINATION is the beginning of all magical operations
Imagine…that your eyes and ears are transplanted to your knees—how you observe the world from this new advantage point. Your brain is still in your head but your brain is no longer the central point of perception. Is your consciousness in your knees?
We can now CREATE almost anything we dream of
New Testament Gospel of Matthew 24:30—At that time the sign of the SON OF MAN will appear in the sky. They will see the SON OF MAN coming on the clouds of the sky.
Einstein: I fear the day when technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of fools (idiots).
GOD THE IMAGE OF MAN
LUDWIG FEUERBACH
Philosopher and anthropologist (1804-1872)
WHAT IS GOD?
Ludwig called religion a form of self-deception. For God (himself) is nothing but the essence of man’s imagination and “heart”; to believe that something exists which does not exist. Originally, God was the essence of NATURE. And the source of religion is man’s feeling of dependence “on nature”—its very purpose and END is the destruction of such feeling; the independence from nature (thereby creating the divinity of man).
What is the difference between a god that is not a person and no god at all? (Ronald Dworking)
Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself (Erich Fromm)
Life isn’t about finding yourself; life is about creating yourself (George Bernard Shaw)
Life is made up of time. We live in time.
The Dalai Lama: My religion is KINDNESS
The Language God talks: On Science and Religion
This is a mini-autobiography that the author entwines with reading the TALMUD and interviews with famous scientists—ON—science and religion.
From physicist Richard Feynman he learned that CALCULUS is the language of “the creator God”. We calculate when designing an object or project.
Calculus means PEBBLE
The reader is entertained with the adventures, as told by the author, on—“working on the atomic bomb”.
Physicist Steven Weinberg wrote The First Three Minutes; on the human quest for “order & purpose”. There are talks on the Apollo program and NASA, as well as on Copernicus, Edwin Hubble and Einstein regarding the universe.
In 1953, the discovery of DNA by Francis Crick and James Watson solved the prime secret of life which governs the “structures” of plants, bacteria, mice, elephants and Homo sapiens: of all living things.
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discussed the cosmic microwave background radiation—solving the prime secret of the universe? Is “this” without a beginning or an end in time, or did “an origin” out of nothing once occur [in the beginning was darkness]?
The book ends quoting PSALM 104—(the wonder of a child, the author calls it)—104:14, He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate, bringing forth FOOD from the earth. WINE that gladdens the heart of man, OIL to make his face shine, and BREAD that sustains his heart (see Genesis1: 11-12)
104:29—when you take away their breath, they die and return to DUST (Genesis 3:19, by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for DUST you are and to DUST you will return)
In my novel The Blue Mirror I tell the story of creation according to the Sumerians who invented writing 5000 years ago; having told the story orally before settling down to “cultivate plants” (agriculture).
I AM STARDUST
RUMI: When the secret of an atom-of-an-atom will become clear—then the secret of all created things will be clear, and then you will see God.
A PEBBLE (calculus) is a collection of ATOMS of different kinds
How many atoms in a pebble? The pebble is truly a MICROCOSM of the universe.
Science teaches how the heavens go
and
religion teaches how to go to heaven
MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
Erasmus wrote: RELIGION IS THE CULT OF THE INVISIBLE
Erasmus wrote: RELIGION IS THE CULT OF THE INVISIBLE
ERASMUS of Rotterdam (1466-1536)
In all Semitic languages El means God
El-Elyon = The Most High God
El-Shaddai = The Almighty God
Jacob became Israel—The Old Testament Bible: Genesis 32:22—Jacob wrestles with God. 32:27—“What is your name,” the man asked. “Jacob” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob but ISRAEL, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” 32:30—So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Eliakim, son of King Josiah, became Jehoiakim
King Josiah (630 BCE) made all the people pledge themselves to the Covenant (2Kings 23:2-3). The scrolls of the Torah were found during renovation of the Temple in Jerusalem. The high priest Hilkiah handed them to Shaphan the scribe who read them to King Josiah.
The symbol for a god was a STAR
ISAIAH 14:12-14
How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like The Most High.”
1 KINGS 20:28
The Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys
JUDGES 5:4-5
O Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water. The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel.
The research is meticulous
Biblical historical writing: the books of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles
Book of Ruth 1:16
“Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
Ruth the Moabitess was the grandmother of Jesse, father of King David and whose son Solomon built the Jerusalem Temple.
New Testament—Letters—2 Timothy 2:8
“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel”—the apostle Paul wrote.
Paul speaks to the Crowd (ACTS 22:17). “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking. ‘Quick’, he said to me ‘leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’” (22:21)”Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
All religions tell a story—have a message of hope and promise
However, nothing is more readily believed than what—regardless of the truth—meets our wishes and illusions halfway.
THE BRAIN—the sacred generator—envisions invisible realms
Beef-eating ban in Hindu India
The Holy Cow represents Mother Earth
In 24 out of 29 Indian states the consumption of beef is banned. Restaurant owners who have beef dishes on the menu are fined and jailed.
Koran 5:3—You are forbidden (to eat) carrion, blood, and the flesh of swine.
Koran 22:36—CAMELS: When you draw them up in line for slaughter and they have fallen to the ground eat of their flesh.
Old Testament Bible: Book of Genesis 9:14—You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood in it.
Book of Deuteronomy 12:23—Be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life; pour it out on the ground like water.
JUDAISM: Shehita is a a special method of slaughtering animals. With a special razor sharp knife an incision is made across the neck of the animal ‘in a single swift sweep’. The cut severs the main arteries, rendering the animal unconscious and permitting the blood to drain from the body.
Jews and Muslims may eat ritually slaughtered meat that is sold/labeled as Kosher/Halal.
Jews and Muslims are forbidden to eat the flesh of swine/pigs because they are considered unclean
HORSE MEAT is eaten in some European countries
In the West, cats and dogs are venerated pets and eating their meat is a crime
ESSAY 9
ESSAY 9
In 1956 in Papua New Guinea an unknown disease was discovered; about 35000 individuals among some 160 villages were infected. Every year some died of uncontrollable “shakings”—hence its local name “kuru”—a degenerative disease of the central nervous system with a gradual loss of coordination of voluntary movements followed by multiple infections. The cause was a slow-acting resistant virus similar to mad cow disease.
Mostly women were struck by kuru and this had sociological consequences—a large proportion of single men and widowers were caring for families. It turned out that the women had indulged in cannibalism, eating the corpses of close relatives out of respect for them. The flesh and brains were cooked and the bones were ground up.
Kuru declined when outsiders/whites arrived on the island and cannibalism became no longer a practice.
Another degenerate ailment of the nervous system is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease—identical to kuru.
Le Coeur Mangé
(Jean-Pierre Camus: 1584-1652)
The legend of “the eaten heart”
Memnon, a not rich young man, falls in love with gorgeous Crisele. Her parents finally agree to a future wedding. One day an old, rich widower falls in love with the beautiful young Crisele. The parents persuade their daughter to marry the rich widower.
However, Crisele still loves Memnon and she asks him to leave their town. He enlists in the army and fights in Flanders where he is fatally wounded. Before he dies he writes Crisele a letter and asks a relative to take his heart to his lover. Crisele buries Memnon’s heart in a church cemetery and devotes herself to mourning the loss of her young lover
The old husband has pangs of jealousy watching Crisele’s devotion. So one day he has Memnon’s heart stolen from its grave and orders his cook to prepare it as a “paté.” He then serves his wife the heart of her lover. When Crisele discovers she has eaten Memnon’s heart, she tells the relative who had given her the heart. He kills the old husband in a duel.
Crisele spends the rest of her life in a convent. In spiritual terms this entry is a new beginning: a new life founded on the promised return of the dead and the eventual reunion with Christ. The Eucharist recapitulates the original sin occasioned by the eating of the forbidden fruit—magical metaphor of “food” (the sacred heart) becomes a body: an edible body.
(Gospel of John 6:54—whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life)
Old Testament book of Isaiah
14:11-- maggots are your bed and worms are your blanket
The practice of cannibalism was to meet nutritional needs; political act/revenge against enemies; magical function/assimilation of the virtues of the deceased or casting out their souls, and as a religious ritual—a feast of the dead.
Book of Judith (Vulgate)
The siege of Bethulia
The Assyrian general Holofernes was warned not to attack the Jews as they were a people supported by God. Judith, a widow, accompanied by her maid servant left the city in a hurry pretending to flee and on her way told Holofernes that he would be victorious. The general invited Judith into his tent. She then tricked him by seducing him with her charms and plenty of wine so that he fell in a deep sleep. Grim-faced, she cut of his head. Triumphantly, Judith then brought the general’s head to Bethulia and a Jewish victory followed
At a party given by king Herod, Salome, daughter of Herodias, second wife of Herod, is enchanted by Jochanaan’s (John the Baptist) voice from the cistern, where he is “imprisoned”, insulting her mother. She orders the guards to allow him out. Jochanaan rants against her and her mother. Enraptured, Salome wants to touch and kiss him but he curses her and returns to his cell.
Herod asks stepdaughter Salome to dance her famous “dance of the seven veils”. She agrees only when he offered her anything she wants to choose. Salome dances and then claims her reward: the head of Jochanaan on a silver platter. The executioner comes up with his head. Salome kisses his mouth. Horrified, Herod orders his soldiers to kill her.
Imagination is the beginning of all magical operations
(Einstein: Imagination is more important than knowledge)
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
(First World War Poem by John McCrae)
VIENNA, Austria: in 1873, a model of an Italian-design crematorium was erected at the Great exhibition. Hitler lived in Vienna.
Imagine a nerve gas destroying the inhabitants of Manila, Philippines—millions of dead bodies piled in a “mass grave”: decomposing. That’s why every metropolis in this world should have crematoria for disposing of the dead in case of a bomb attack.
Cremation is he reduction of human remains to ash—a sanitary disposal of the dead.
The national cremation societies combined (1937) world-wide and formed the international cremation “federation” for consultative purposes.
CANNIBALISM: A Perfectly Natural History
CANNIBALISM: A Perfectly Natural History
by Bill Schutt
Sculptor Leonhard Kern
Old Testament Bible-Second book of Kings 6:28/29
Famine in Besieged Samaria
Eat Thy Neighbor
We eat him, because we knew him and were fond of him
(Dieri tribesman)
In the fields of Austria-photo by Guenther Benes
STONE AGE CUISINE
When I was a student at University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Professor Bernard Wailes (Cambridge) suggested I write an original essay. "How about Stone Age foodstuffs?" the novice replied with a chuckle. That was 1968.
Twenty years later, 1988, I returned to Philadelphia. Professor Wailes encouraged me to pick up the unfinished essay. I decided to make it into a manuscript for publication: Neolithic Culinary Delights. I spent many months at the museum doing research. At the cafeteria I had met a friendly young woman who became interested in my story and asked if she could read a chapter or two. One day she dropped by at my house and told me that my story was "unique" and I should have it copyrighted before someone could steal it. I told her that I had no idea how to go about it. She offered to do it for me, but she needed the manuscript. I said it was in my bank safe and I would drop by the museum the following week.
Rattled, I called a friend, a private investigator, and asked if it was true that people steal manuscripts. He laughed, and said that maybe my "friend" would put her name to it. He suggested I come to his office with the manuscript and we would go to a patent and copyright lawyer: Gregory Gore of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In those days few people knew what Neolithic was-so I had it copyrighted as Stone Age Cuisine. The story is still the same but updated- I now have far more FACTS at my fingertips thanks to the Internet.
Recipe
500 lbs of RESEARCH
100 lbs of DETERMINATION
1 bucket of IMAGINATION
2 handfuls of LAUGHTER
1 pinch of LUCK
March 3, 1957 - March 3, 2017
The road to success is always under construction
I grew this rosebush (Angel Wings) from seed (1990)
HOMO SAPIENS
VITA EST IN MOTU
Change is the essence of life
Homo erectus
Homo Neanderthal - named after Joachim Neander (1650-1680)
My Papa - 20th century Homo sapiens
Otzi's ancestors came from today's India
In nature every species is in the food chain: to eat and be eaten. In the natural world cannibalism is often the rule, not the exception.
WHAT IS GOD?
The water-lily pond of Guenther Benes (Vienna, Austria)
Christopher Hitchens: Religion is part of our cultural and intellectual history. It was our first attempt at literature, at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at healthcare, believing in faith healing, and at philosophy.
Clock Towers
London/England; Tokyo/Japan; Tabriz/Iran; Mumbai/India; Hainan/China; Hong Kong; Hoboken/NJ/US; Toronto/Canada; Cape Town/South Africa-visit Wikipedia!
The tallest clock tower on planet Earth is in Mecca, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
(Koran 9:33)
Is Google making us stupid because we no longer practice our memory for information recall?
The spiritual meaning for rosemary is "remembrance"
The Italian village of Acciaroli has more than 300 residents aged over 100-and a population of just 2,000 people. Acciarolians follow a traditional Mediterranean diet, but one that contains even more rosemary than most. The residents grow the herb and eat it almost daily. This could be the secret behind the longevity boost, suggest University of California researchers. 'Rosemary is used in herbal medicine to improve circulation, enhance MEMORY, assist digestion and relieve anxiety' says Dr Andrew Flower, a researcher in herbal medicine at the University of Southampton. 'There are also a wealth of studies showing the anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and even anti-cancer effects from compounds in rosemary.'
(London-- Daily Mail, January 17, 2017)
Before events "Fade from memory"
The memoir of Nicola, mother of Nick Clegg (British politician)
Please visit my "biography" for MY childhood memories-of the same Japanese camps-Kramat and Tjideng-mentioned in the book. My 100-year-old mother still remembers!
FREE SPEECH
The Frankfurt Book Fair: Freedom of the WORD is not negotiable. The fair is a place for dialogue.
Censorship of free speech has become rampant at universities. Debating controversial ideas is not on the agenda. Views that students find offensive and above hurtful have to be silenced because they can't cope with it (thereby leaving them vulnerable when they enter the workforce).
In the US it is legally OK to say offensive things about a religion and thus provoke hurt or anger. If some want it "criminalized", then we are no longer supporters of free speech.
Salman Rushdie (author of The Satanic Verses) on what is freedom of expression. 'Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.'
Mark Steyn (Canadian journalist and writer): The thin line between free speech and hate speech doesn't exist. Free speech by definition is for the stuff you don't approve of. His book AMERICA ALONE (The end of the world as we know it) is considered politically incorrect. ["If Jesus were alive today, he'd most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in an environmentally friendly car with an 'Arms are for Hugging' sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams."]
John P. Rossi (Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, January 7, 2007) reviewed AMERICA ALONE-"A cultural critic submits how the West was done in." The West will be confronted with a militaristic Islam and is unprepared to face this threat to the pervasive influence of multiculturalism, and a tolerance of Islamic intolerance that has already crippled many countries in Europe. The rise of an unsustainable welfare state and a decline of religious [Christian] values created a crisis of confidence. Mark Steyn labels multiculturalism the West's "real suicide bomb". It was conceived by Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own. Professor Rossi ends the review: It is the best read I have come across in some time.
Amitara Kar (The Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh): "Once we learn how to keep ourselves from 'voicing our thoughts', we forget how to think them in the first place. And ideas perish at conception. What could be more dangerous than that?" Some publishers and secular authors fled Bangladesh in fear of attack over their work because free speech is never allowed to trump blasphemy.
THE CANDLES ARE MANY BUT THE LIGHT IS ONE
HANS KUENG
There will be no peace among nations without peace among religions and there will be no peace among religions without dialogue among religions.
WHO WAS JESUS?
John P. Meier, a Catholic priest, is professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is perhaps the foremost biblical scholar of his generation.
A STUDY IN CREATIVE MYTHOLOGY
Rudolf Augstein was the founder and publisher of Der Spiegel, West Germany’s most famous newsweekly. He was raised a Roman Catholic and became an agnostic as an adult.
It seems that free speech (dialogue) is what is left over when a community has determined in advance what it does not want to hear.
Nothing is so hostile to religion as other religions
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Everybody is entitled to think their faith is superior to others, otherwise—what’s the point of having faith
The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new
How can we learn from the past-unless we—REMEMBER it?
HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND THE EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL
(New Testament: Acts 7:49)
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (New Testament: Gospel of Matthew 5:17).
New Testament: Hebrews. The Law requires that nearly everything be cleaned with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (9:22). He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the Most Holy Place once and for all by his own blood having obtained eternal redemption (9:12).
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day (New Testament: Gospel of John 6:51-54).
New Testament: Gospel of Matthew
Jesus stood before the governor (Pilate) and the governor asked him: “Are you the king of the Jews?” --- “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied (27:11). Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS: INRI/Jesus of Nazareth, king of Israel.
Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword (10:34).
New Testament: Acts (5:30-31)
The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him on his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
Old Testament: Book of Deuteronomy (21:23)
Anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.