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< Back The Barrier-Breaking Power of Music Magesh "We were both smiling from ear to ear, unable to communicate with words, music our only form of communication." I have had a blessed career as a musician, performing with many renowned artists like Lionel Richie, Ricky Martin, and Nelly Fertado. I remember playing a sold-out concert to 10 thousand people. My band was opening for Justin Timberlake. As I was playing the drums, I noticed a sea of people jumping up and down to my funky beat. This gave me a tremendous feeling of pride. It was overwhelming seeing that many people having a good time in unison. How has this music given people from all different walks of life a sense of joy and freedom? I was eager to explore the profound influence music has on all of us, especially how it can break down barriers and bring people together. I was still elated a week after playing the concert, my mind trying to decipher what had happened that caused the people to escape their everyday lives and disappear into the music. Afterward, I received many compliments. A father told his children that I got to be an outstanding musician through years of practice, but that was only part of the equation. I never felt my musical talent was mine; rather, it is a talent that passed through me. It is probably summed up best in James 1:17: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” I especially like the second part of this verse about changing like shifting shadows. I interpret this as using my musical abilities to spread positivity and not getting caught up in negative vices. My 25-year career as a musician has given me the ability to witness how powerful music can be. How it can reach beyond race, creed, and even language. I remember going to a rehearsal studio with a local band. A drummer is always the first to the rehearsal studio, simply because of the amount of equipment they need to set up. As I prepared my hi-hat cymbals, I heard this phenomenal-sounding bass guitar coming from the next room. I immediately followed the sound, which led me to a young musician from Senegal. I immediately told him how funky he sounded, expecting him to replay thank you for the compliment; but, to my surprise, he said nothing at all. He just looked at me blankly and then sheepishly said, “Not much English.” I signaled for him to follow me into the next room with his bass guitar and launched into the drumbeat of James Brown's "Funky Drummer." He immediately played the bass line, and I felt the earth shake. We were both smiling from ear to ear, unable to communicate with words, music our only form of communication. This must have been divine intervention. As we were playing, the musical director walked in to hear us jamming. He was so impressed he hired that unknown, young musician on the spot to do a major tour. This never would have happened if we hadn’t played together. The energy we created was palpable. It didn't matter that we were from different backgrounds or even different countries. The music connected all the missing pieces, like in 1 Corinthians 12: “As a body is one, though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.” The young musician told me he had been praying for golden opportunities. He had just moved from Senegal and didn't know any other musicians. His incredible ability to play music led him to become an in-demand session musician. Although the odds were stacked against him of becoming a successful musician, his faith created a literal miracle. This wasn't the first time I had experienced music breaking down barriers. Once, I was traveling in Japan with a friend who was also a professional musician. We stopped by a famous jazz club to see some local musicians. I remember the club being sold out; everyone there to see a great jazz singer. As we didn't speak Japanese, my buddy and I used Google Translate to get by. Just as the show was about to start, the club owner took the stage with a disconcerting look on his face. He told the crowd that the piano player had suddenly fallen ill and was unable to perform. They tried to call another local piano player to see if he could fill in, but his phone was off. I used this opportunity to walk forward in faith, not in fear. I introduced myself to the club owner and told him that my friend was a famous piano player and could play with the band. At first, he was skeptical, until I showed him a YouTube clip of him performing. Suddenly, he announced the show will go on due to a miracle! The best thing about jazz music is it's open to interpretation. A piano player from Texas might play a C major 7 chord in a different inversion than a piano player from Tokyo, although they are the same chord that will make the song work. This isn't the case with classical music, where it must be played note for note. That's why, in my not-so-humble opinion, jazz is better than Bach! The drummer counted in the first song, the classic jazz standard “Autumn Leaves.” I immediately saw the faces in the audience light up. They knew the piano player didn’t speak Japanese and had limited knowledge of local customs, but this doesn't seem to bother them as the music fills their bodies and minds. In between songs, the singer spoke to the audience in Japanese. I could tell my friend playing the piano had no idea what he was saying; all he understood was that everyone in the room was smiling. Magesh has written for “Lessonface,” “Aeyons,” “The Modern Rogue,” “Euronews,” “The Roland corporation,” “Penlight,” and “Elite Music.” He writes several monthly publications on music education. In the past, Magesh has written for parenting, humor, mental health, and travel websites as well. Previous Next

< Back Why We Must Pray Michael G. Pravica "It is our prayers that will, God willing, save the world and our souls because God will know us." At fundamental level, our universe consists of quantum particles (integral spin bosons such as photons, deuterons and gluons, and ½-integral spin fermions such as protons, neutrons and electrons). One of the most fascinating characteristics of these particles is that identical particles are indistinguishable from one another (i.e. they cannot be labeled) [1] and follow laws of quantum statistics that are dramatically different from the laws of distinguishable classical particles/entities that we are more familiar with where objects (e.g. balls, playing cards or cars) can be labeled. For bosons, Bose-Einstein statistics governs their behavior [2], and for ½ integral spin particles, Fermi-Dirac statistics determines their behavior [3]. The strange behavior of tiny quantum particles is one of the most fascinating mysteries of the quantum world and it is from these principles that our classical world is constructed. As living beings who are made from these indistinguishable particles, it is easy to argue along a similar vein that we, too, are indistinguishable. Of course, this is not true at the classical level. Yet, our constituent particles (molecules, atoms, nuclei, electrons, etc.) all return to the immense reservoir of matter in our universe and remain respective indistinguishable particles when we die. Thus, there is something more about us that makes each of us unique in the universe (i.e. we are more than just the sum of our constituent parts): our soul. I have argued before [4] that the soul is likely an infinitely dimensional or at least higher dimensional gift from God, who is likely an infinitely dimensional being who made our four-dimensional universe and likely many more. Thus, God established a special connection between humans so they could be “God-like” which has nothing to do with the constituent quantum particles that assemble our physical bodies. However, after the Original Sin, God decoupled from humanity so that humans could understand that life without God (and obedience to God) will be extremely challenging. The essence of humanity’s struggle is to reconnect with our Creator. 1 Corinthians 8:3 states: “But whoever loves God is known by God [5].” Loving God takes many forms such as helping our fellow humans in need, glorifying Him and acknowledging His ability to help us through seeking Him (prayer). I will focus on prayer in this brief essay. God gets to know us when we pray to Him. It is God’s love that gives each of us our uniqueness and removes the degeneracy of “indistinguishable souls” as God knows each and every human being who loves Him and thus has Faith in Him. Satan is jealous of us because he lost this very special connection to God. Those who do not seek God end up becoming indistinguishable souls (at least to Satan) which God does not interact with. They get lost in the quantum mechanical chaos of our universe. We maintain our connection with God (which was created at conception) by praying to and believing in Him. This special connection enables us to spiritually transcend our universe and connect with our Creator just as Michelangelo depicted Man reaching out and trying to touch the hand of God in his Sistine chapel painting. This is the essence of the connection: mutual interaction via transcendent everlasting love. Love is the most powerful force in all of God’s Creation. Just as in pre-WWII times, we are on the precipice of a devastating conflict (WWIII) which will destroy humanity. More than ever, we need to bring God back into our world to illuminate, expose and ultimately vanquish the evil that Satan is perpetrating here to destroy us. God will save us if we pray to Him and demonstrate to Him that we love Him as He loves us. Satan seeks to disrupt our unique connection between the Lord and His children in the four dimensional spacetime world that He created for us to live, enjoy and glorify Him in. Satan is trying to turn us away from our Creator by tricking us into worshipping inanimate elements inside this universe that constitute indistinguishable particles (e.g. the Golden Calf) and focusing on cold materialism instead of on our God-like essence by dissuading us from following Jesus Christ. Prayers to God are transmitted via the super dimensional transcendent Holy Spirit which not even Satan can stop as he is trapped in this four dimensional spacetime. It is these prayers to our Father that will, God willing, save the world from its self-destruction and at the least save our souls because God will know us. This is why, more than ever, we must pray. This was originally published on Medium. References: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_particles 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_statistics 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi%E2%80%93Dirac_statistics 4. https://english.pravda.ru/science/129528-soul/ 5. https://biblia.com/bible/esv/1-corinthians/8/3 Return to Harvest 2024 Previous Next

< Back Hidden Hope in Spring’s Awakening Donna Bucher Though hidden, life prepares for emergence in spring. In what seems like an overnight arrival, the signs of the hope hidden within spring’s awakening, stun my senses as I walk from the parking lot to my office. Each of the half dozen maple trees boast a myriad of red buds, the large birch tree sports tiny green leaves, and the timid green fingers of daffodils and tulips point upward, as the gay song of busy robins escorts me to the door. Nestled in the heart of spring’s awakening rests an unshaken Hope displayed in creation’s preparatory signs of a new season dawning. Perhaps my tendency of speeding into my days prevents me from noticing spring’s wonder until it emerges in full splendor, but the signs of spring this year captivated me earlier than I remember. Speaking a delightful lesson from the Lord on the hope hidden within spring’s arrival, the awakening of slumbering plants and wildlife remind us of life yet unseen. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 Life Hidden in the Heart of Spring On a brief walk around my garden, multiple signs of spring greet me in every corner. All of which lay hidden not many days before. Marveling each year at the appearance of tiny buds on barren trees and shrubs, along with little green points emerging from soft soil, spring feels like magic to me. Life shrouded in death slumbers in the womb of winter’s stillness awaiting the whisper of the dawn of spring’s awakening. Though hidden, life prepares for emergence in spring. Held within the life source of trees and shrubs, buds slowly form over winter months, peeking out as sun caresses rough limbs. Root systems of perennials thicken and spread, gathering nourishment from the soil. Bulbs planted, divide and multiply while strengthening and maturing. All remains unseen preparatory work, predicated on the unchangeable hope of the return of spring. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24 Not only does creation’s hidden work of life reveal hope, but our own garden planting reveals the inner confidence we harbor of a promised harvest. Many people start seedlings indoors which they then plant outside once the spring weather stabilizes. All with the confident hope of seeds dead in the earth breaking forth in new life at the right time. Our preparation rests in a promised hope of new plants come spring. Yet with the first sprouts, we practically jump for joy seeing this hope realized. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:25 The Hidden Hope of Spring Teeming with new life, spring echoes the glorious resurrection theme. After winter’s barrenness and darkness, trees, shrubs and plants prepare for the emergence of new life while robins, sparrows and wrens tirelessly build nests fit for welcoming offspring. As Christ’s body rested in the tomb three days and three nights, death and darkness quenched the hope His followers possessed in the Kingdom and rescue they anticipated. Waiting centuries for the promised Messiah who would free them from persecution, while establishing an everlasting Kingdom of God, they now saw only the death of everything they once believed. Yet what they could not see was Christ wielding death and darkness in the greatest rescue mission of all time. For using death and darkness to defeat death and darkness, His sacrificial death not only cancelled their sin, but secured eternal life for them. (1 Corinthians 15:54-58) The hidden Hope of spring speaks the resurrection story with every appearance of new life from the darkness of earth and womb. The Joy of the empty tomb bursts upon us with each sign of renewed life and vigor throughout creation. Infusing our souls afresh with His promise to make all things new. God’s resurrection hope hidden in the heart of spring invites us into a place of release. The true magnificence of spring’s hope unleashes the restrictions in the places where winter lingers in negativity, grief, fear of the future, or uncertainty. Our Lord has written the promise of Resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime. Martin Luther Spring’s new life reminds us even in the hard places of our lives hope promises new beginnings. As I gaze over my gardens, seeing the dead stalks and dried leaves of last season’s beauty, the resurrection story echoes spring’s anthem — out of death’s remnants rises new life. A new life which lavishly clothes our souls with new growth possibilities, unfolding in the beauty of transformation from apparent death and darkness to the glorious light of spring’s spiritual renewal. As spring’s awakening invites us to leave not only the harsh winter weather, but our own spiritual winters, it also invites us to remember the true hope hidden in our dark seasons. Take a moment this spring and embrace the joy of the resurrection story within the emerging glory of God making all things new. Image: Constable, J. (1821). The Hay Wain [Oil on canvas]. National Gallery, London. Donna is a passionate creative, writer, poet, speaker, retired missionary, CASA volunteer, experienced counselor and hospice and palliative care support personnel. Founder of Serenity in Suffering blog, and author of the Serenity in Suffering newsletter on Substack, where she shares articles, resources and counseling designed to help readers grow personally and find spiritual intimacy with Christ; ultimately finding purpose in the trials they face. Previous Next

< Back Drumming to Inner Peace Magesh The biggest connection I made between music and spirituality was that they both focus on the present moment. When I managed to stay in the present moment in both the song and in life, I realized there was no time for anxiety. I've had a great career as a session musician. I played the drums for Lionel Richie, Rhianna, Ricky Martin, Nelly Fertado, Kimbra, and many other pop stars. I have also taught the drums and piano for over 20 years. (Although now all my teaching is online...thanks, Covid!) Playing music has taught me many things: the discipline of practice, how working hard yields results, and that, if you get lucky enough, your dreams may come true. Although I have done many cool things like playing on television, performing in multiple countries, and appearing in magazines, there was one thing that trumped all of these: playing music gave me inner peace. Here is how that happened… As an adolescent, my mind always moved quickly with racing thoughts. Looking back, it was probably teen angst and a good dose of old-fashioned anxiety. My older brother played music, too, and one day, he took me to the concert of a famous drummer. I can still vividly remember the performance. The drummer played to a sold-out auditorium of 1,000 people. His performance was so outstanding by the end, he received a standing ovation. I was mesmerized by it and also by the crowd’s reaction. At 14-years-old, I didn't know many things; what I did know was that I, too, was going to be a famous drummer. After convincing my parents that my school grades would improve if they bought me a drum kit, (they didn’t!), I sat down in my bedroom to start my first practice session. As soon as I hit the snare drum, all my racing thoughts stopped. Just like that! There was no worrying about what was going to happen at school tomorrow, nor any worry about if the girl on the bus liked me; in fact, there was no worrying about anything. What there was, was the present moment each time I hit that drum. I remember feeling incredible peace as I launched into a basic rock beat. (The irony was this beat probably filled my neighbor with anxiety because it was as loud as a jackhammer!) I've read stories of Buddhist monks who achieved a blissful state of mind through constant meditation. I don't know if I reached that state of bliss, but my teenage angst definitely disappeared. By playing music and literally concentrating on one note at a time, I didn't have the time to be concerned about problems outside my bedroom door, and, after playing for just a few months, my self-esteem and confidence improved tenfold. This was simply because I was starting to sound great…or so I thought. My older brother was a professional musician. After I had been playing the drums for ten months, he opened my bedroom door and quite calmly said, “Your timing sucks. You should get some drum lessons.” After picking up the shards of my shattered self-esteem off the floor, I realized that maybe he was right. I booked a 30-minute lesson with a famous Australian drummer. I really thought this teacher would be impressed with my ability to play several types of drum beats. However, as I sat down to play, he said, “Your posture is all wrong.” How could I screw up sitting down? He then asked me to play something I was comfortable playing and to pretend that he wasn't there. I played a basic rock pattern, which, I thought, was decent. The instructor had a look on his face as if someone had just insulted his mother. Slightly in shock, slightly angry, he said something I didn't understand at the time: “How do you go about breathing?” “I usually just breathe in and out,” I replied. This actually made him laugh out loud because what he meant was how I breathed when I played the drums. After carefully explaining to me that drumming was an extremely intense physical activity, he suggested I breathe two counts in, two counts out. This changed everything for me. I don't know the science behind it, but the exercise slowed down both my heart rate and my mind, which, in turn, made me feel incredibly calm. I would go on to have lessons with this teacher for 13 additional years. I would be performing with some of the biggest artists in the world, and still, I’d go to my weekly drum lesson. When people asked me why I was still taking lessons as a top professional, my answer was always the same: “It makes me feel good.” The biggest connection I made between music and spirituality was that they both focus on the present moment. When I managed to stay in the present moment in both the song and in life, I realized there was no time for anxiety. I remember being 16-years-old and saying to my teacher, “What happens if I'm on stage playing a concert and I make a mistake?” Without hesitating, he said, “Once you make a mistake, that moment is over. You have to leave it in the past. If you focus on that mistake, it will only lead to more mistakes.” If that isn't a metaphor for life, I don't know what is. * Editor's Note: Music can play an important role in how we experience the world and communicate that experience to others. Be sure to check out The Meaning of Music in this issue of AT Magazine. Magesh has written for “Lessonface,” “Aeyons,” “The Modern Rogue,” “Euronews,” “The Roland corporation,” “Penlight,” and “Elite Music.” He writes several monthly publications on music education. In the past, Magesh has written for parenting, humor, mental health, and travel websites as well. Previous Next

Meet the writing team at Aletheia Today, the magazine for believers in God and science. Masthead Masthead David Cowles Editor-in-Chief Read More E. C. Argus Contributor Read More Grace Krzenski Young Writer Winner, Winter 2023 Read More Deidre Braley Contributor Read More Elizabeth Bradfield Contributor Read More Fr. Timothy Joyce, OSB, STL Contributor Read More Deborah Rutherford Contributor Read More Ayala Emmett Contributor Read More Vittorio Bufacchi Contributing Writer Read More Erin Gruodis-Gimbel Contributor Read More Ian Paul Contributor Read More Jan Heckler Contributor Read More Annie D. Stutley Contributor, Editorial Board Read More Magesh Contributor Read More Meggie Gates Contributor Read More Dr. Stephen Stern Contributor Read More Jay Terrell Contributor Read More Rabbi Dr. Jon Kelsen Contributor Read More Gurnmoor Contributor Read More B.J. Yudelson Contributor Read More Laura Cabrera Contributor Read More Olwen Wymark Contributor Read More Dr. Stuti Pardhe Contributor Read More Fernanda Nascimento Contributor Read More Dr. Regis Martin Contributor Read More Amy Toman Contributor Read More Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson Contributor Read More Mark A. Villano Contributor Read More Nicholas Senz Contributor Read More Rev. Dr. Anne-Louise Critchlow Contributor Read More Hadassah Treu Contributor Read More James Bratt Contributor Read More Steve Gimbel Contributor Read More Naomi S. Baron Contributor Read More Bryon David Contributor Read More

< Back God David Cowles Oct 12, 2021 The Creation Story in Genesis makes it clear that ‘Adam and Eve’, and by extension the entire cosmos, are entirely free; otherwise, the idea of ‘creation’ would be a sham. If the cosmos is just a figment of God’s imagination, subject to his absolute control, then it is not ‘created’ at all but just ‘dreamed’. Creation implies that a new entity comes into being that is no longer subject to the will or the whims of its creator. The Creation Story in Genesis makes it clear that ‘Adam and Eve’, and by extension the entire cosmos, are entirely free; otherwise, the idea of ‘creation’ would be a sham. If the cosmos is just a figment of God’s imagination, subject to his absolute control, then it is not ‘created’ at all but just ‘dreamed’. Creation implies that a new entity comes into being that is no longer subject to the will or the whims of its creator. Consider music (or art or literature). When we say that Beethoven ‘created’ his 9th Symphony, we understand that Beethoven retains no control over his ‘creation’. It now belongs to its conductors, musicians, audience and critics. Is God any less of a Creator than Beethoven? However, unlike Beethoven, God may still be able to interact with his creation, not in his role as creator, but in his role as comrade-in-arms. In Marxist terms, God is the ultimate ‘fellow traveler’. According to 20th century philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, every event impacts God’s ‘Consequent Nature’ while that same ‘Consequent Nature’ influences every event. In Biblical Judaism, this is represented in the constant dialogue between God and the Patriarchs, Moses and the Prophets. In Christianity it is represented in the Incarnation and the Holy Spirit. In Hasidic Judaism, it is represented in the Shekinah (sparks of divinity resident in every actual entity, i.e. event or object). In contract to Determinism and Deism, Judeo-Christian theology allows God to play an active role in the unfolding of history and the evolution of the cosmos without compromising in any way the ultimate freedom of that cosmos. Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back Life After Life David Cowles Oct 17, 2024 “Nothing lasts forever. Maybe not even death.” Remember when things were simple? First you were alive, then you were dead. “Those were the days!” (Archie Bunker) Then medicine blurred the lines. ‘Brain death’ replaced ‘cardiac death’ as our preferred criterion; but now things have just gotten a whole lot more complicated! Researchers at Tufts University and the University of Vermont have found that the cells of deceased organisms can live on for substantial periods of time on their own and indefinitely when provided with nutrients, oxygen, and bioelectric or biochemical stimulation. Impressed? Don’t be: this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not all cells need to be reanimated immediately after the death of the host organism. For example, human white blood cells can survive up to 86 hours after organismal death. Muscle cells harvested from mice can be reanimated after as many as 14 days, fibroblast cells from goats and sheep after as long as a month. More astonishing still, these rejuvenated cells, nicknamed ‘xenobots’, have the ability to form multicellular organisms apparently unrelated to the body plans of their original host organisms. Skin cells extracted from deceased frog embryos can spontaneously reorganize into multicellular organisms in which they exhibit behaviors well outside their original biological roles. For example, these ‘second chance cells’ use cilia – small, hair-like structures – to navigate their surroundings. Who says there are no second acts in America? It gets better. Human lung cells can self-assemble into multicellular organisms that repair themselves and any neurons that just happen to be nearby. Apparently, there is such a thing as ‘a born caregiver’. The ability to restore themselves if they become damaged is a natural feature of living organisms, and it is preserved in xenobot biology. Xenobots can close a severe laceration within 5 minutes. These injured cells are able to heal their wounds, restore their shape and continue their work as before. Xenobots are even capable of memory; they have the ability to record information and use that information to modify their behavior. Researchers now hope that these xenobots may be trained to exhibit certain behaviors upon sensing appropriate stimuli. You were hoping your children would exhibit this ability, but that experiment turned out to be a howling failure; now you must place all your hope on xenobots. Can they learn to absorb and break down certain chemicals, especially environmental toxins? Can we train them to synthesize and excrete useful chemicals and proteins in the process? The remarkable plasticity of cellular collectives allows them to form bodies and exhibit behaviors that are quite different from their original organisms - without undergoing any modifications at the DNA level! These cells can spontaneously take on new roles and create new body plans without waiting for mutation and natural selection to work their magic. Perhaps these xenobots have things to teach us. For example, can they help us understand how individual cells naturally come together, communicate, and specialize to create a larger organism? It’s a new model that may provide a foundation for regenerative medicine. Xenobots and their successors may also provide insight into how multicellular organisms arose from ancient single celled organisms, and the origins of information processing, decision making and cognition in biological organisms. Perhaps you’re not as excited by all this as I am. Perhaps you don’t care so much about unicellular life forms. Maybe you’re wondering, “What about me? Why can’t my life be prolonged?” Well good news for you too! A new technology called OrganEx may be right up your street. Basically, OrganEx adds cellular level life support to traditional technologies like ECMO. It revives the body more slowly employing a gentler process of reviving cells that have already begun to die (see above). Turns out those single cell organisms are important after all! To test OrganEx, a Yale University team turned to humanity’s closest non-primate relative – who else but the common household pig? Two monitors, one for the heart and one for brain activity, showed flat lines. The pigs were dead. An hour passed. Then scientists connected each animal to the OrganEx system: heart monitors connected to four out of five pigs began to light up. The hearts’ electrical activity had resumed spontaneously, without chest compressions or other obvious lifesaving measures. What does this mean? With this technology, doctors might be able to extend the amount of time someone could be ‘dead’ before recovering. Minimally, it might make more organs from more bodies recoverable for transplantation. At a cellular level at least, death may not be as quick or as final as once thought. For the person who collapses from a heart attack and remains on the ground for 10 minutes, the findings raise a key question: How dead are they, really? One could imagine using OrganEx after a cardiac arrest. Nothing lasts forever. Maybe not even death. Keep the conversation going. 1. Click here to contact us on any matter. How did you like the post? How could we do better in the future? Suggestions welcome. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! 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< Back Happy Thanksgiving David Cowles Nov 24, 2021 Happy Thanksgiving! Really? With COVID, economic insecurity, terrorism, etc. what do we have to be thankful for? Only everything! Literally…every thing. Being is a function of being good. (Don’t tell that to my 10 year old self.) We ‘are’ only in so far as we are ‘good’. We don’t realize it, but we have a blind spot. Sadly, we are not “all that we could be”. But what is this thing called ‘Good’ that we celebrate this week? It’s God. It’s what makes Being be. It is the yardstick by which we measure everything in our world. But because it is a yardstick, it can’t be among the things that it measures. It must transcend our everyday world. And what transcends our everyday world is what we call “God”. Happy Thanksgiving! Really? With COVID, economic insecurity, terrorism, etc. what do we have to be thankful for? Only everything! Literally…every thing. Being is a function of being good. (Don’t tell that to my 10 year old self.) We ‘are’ only in so far as we are ‘good’. We don’t realize it, but we have a blind spot. Sadly, we are not “all that we could be”. But what is this thing called ‘Good’ that we celebrate this week? It’s God. It’s what makes Being be. It is the yardstick by which we measure everything in our world. But because it is a yardstick, it can’t be among the things that it measures. It must transcend our everyday world. And what transcends our everyday world is what we call “God”. Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back Heresy, Now and Then David Cowles Aug 8, 2023 “The Illuminati prefer their 19th century ideologies to science’s 20th century discoveries… the ‘sin’ of heretics, then and now, is narrowness of vision.” A single thread runs through the Intellectual History of the Western World. It occupied the Pre-Socratics in the 5 th century BCE; it dominated Christian theological speculation in the first centuries CE; and it is a major concern of non-analytic philosophy and theoretical science today: How can we account for the Unity of Universe and the Plurality of ‘things’ (e.g. events) that constitute it? Alfred North Whitehead (c. 1930), the last great systematic philosopher in the Western tradition (Plato through Hegel), grounded his magnum opus, Process and Reality , on this observation: “Creativity, many, one are the ultimate notions.” According to Whitehead, the World is a process (creativity) by which many become one and one becomes many. Whitehead’s project, the conciliation of unity and plurality, is no longer a focus for most philosophers but it has become an obsession for many scientists: The relationship between the Quantum Wave Function and its discrete measurements. The distillation of elementary particles and forces from the Big Bang singularity. The phenomenon of non-locality (Bell’s Theorem, 1964). The hypothesis of Dark Matter/Dark Energy. ‘Cutting edge’ is what’s happening at MIT, not Harvard, at Cambridge, not Oxford. (Ok, a gross overgeneralization…but you get my point!) Bad philosophy, bad theology, and bad science share one feature in common: they cannot accept the radical implications of their own discoveries (viz. Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman ). John Bell, Edwin Hubble, and the early Quantum Mechanics were subjects of the most vitriolic attacks. They had shamelessly shunned Empiricism & Rationalism, the twin pillars of modern Western thought. The reaction of the philosophical and scientific communities made it clear that the Illuminati prefer their 19th century ideologies to science’s 20th century discoveries. Even Einstein weighed in, “God does not play dice!” Sez who? Of course, he does; in fact, he’s a Craps Master . His picture hangs over the pit at Bellagio . Despite a century of effort by “the best minds of my generation” (Ginsberg, Howl ), not a single shred of evidence has been adduced to debunk any of these counter-intuitive models (above). “It’s yesterday once more!” (Carpenters, 1973) We’re back in the early centuries of the Christian Era. The Council of Nicaea (c. 325 CE) has just put the final stamp of orthodoxy on the Cosmology implicit in New Testament scripture and in the writings of the early Church fathers: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth…I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages…true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father… By the Holy Spirit (he) was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man…I believe in the Holy Spirit…who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified…” The theological heretics of that age, like scientific heretics today, could not accept the implications of the orthodoxy that alone can account for our everyday experience of unity, plurality, and creativity. St. Hilary of Poitiers, writing c. 350 CE ( De Trinitate ), called out several heretics by name: ‘On Valentinus, Manichaeus, Sabellius, Hieracas, on Arians, Dasher, Donner and Blitzen’. These men (and deer), much as they disagreed among themselves, all rejected orthodox Christology as defined at Nicaea. Specifically, they could not get their heads around the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. I will not take you through the details of each heresy. Collectively (but not uniformly), these heretics could not accept (1) that Father and Son could both be wholly God, (2) that the Father could beget the Son with no diminution of the Father’s divinity, (3) that the divinity of the Son did not compromise in any way the divinity of the Father, (4) that a Son could be born of the Father and of Mary and yet be co-eternal with the Father, and (5) that Father and Son could be two distinct persons sharing a single substance ( ousia ). The Church is right to condemn these heresies with extreme prejudice. Had any of them prevailed, Christianity would not be the intellectual force it is today. And the heretics themselves? Burn them, of course? Not so fast! Orthodox Christology is a tough sell to any crowd. As Muslims are fond of saying, “God forbid that Allah should have a son.” Hilary’s heretics share a common, dysfunctional ideology: 1 + 1 ≠ 1. When anything (even Godhead) is shared, it must be diluted; when something is one, it cannot be two or three. Similarly, if A is in B then B cannot be in A: ‘a mouse in the house’, not ‘a house in the mouse’. These reservations seem reasonable, and they may indeed apply within a certain range of experience; but the cosmology they represent is inadequate to account for the entirety of that experience. Similarly, Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics ‘work’ within a certain range but do not constitute viable models of Universe. Ultimately, the ‘sin’ of heretics, then and now, is narrowness of vision. Infinity (∞) is, well, infinite, so ∞/2 is still ∞. The Son is the Word ( logos ) of God: “All things came to be through him. Without him nothing that is came to be.” (John 1: 3) But the relationship between God and Universe cannot be vectored (→); it must be reciprocal (↔): covenant, not just commandment. “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God… (and) The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1: 1, 14) The Eternal had to ‘happen in spacetime’ so that whatever happens in spacetime might be eternal. Perhaps Hilary’s ‘heretical five’ should be forgiven for not fully understanding this…but that makes the achievement of Nicaea all the more astonishing. Image: The Pharisees and the Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper. Created by James Tissot (1836-1902). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York. Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. 4. Aletheia Today Magazine (ATM) will be devoting its entire fall issue (released 9/1/23) to artificial intelligence (AI). What are the philosophical, theological, cultural and even spiritual implications of AI powered world? If you’d like to contribute to the AI Issue, click here . Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back The Propagation of Influences David Cowles Nov 21, 2023 ”Just imagine what it would be like if we actually had to take responsibility for our actions…if we couldn’t blame our shortcomings on others. Who could face a mirror?!” Why is it that Event B looks a whole lot like Event A? And why is it that events A, B, and C seem to form some sort of logical continuum? We can only conclude that A somehow ‘influences’ B, which in turn ‘influences’ C, so that the whole chain has a sort of solidarity…or identity. Obviously, I must be talking about Causality here, right? Perhaps…but not necessarily. There are other ways that influences could propagate. For example, events might have a built-in tendency to copy other events (magic…or fractals). Any way you slice it, influences do seem to propagate. Those of you who regularly sample Aletheia Today Magazine and Thoughts While Shaving know to expect the unexpected, so here goes: “Influences do not propagate!” Let’s go back to our original events, A, B, and C. A inherits a multiplicity of events, which it proceeds to organize into a nexus that serves as its launch pad, i.e., its World. A is motivated by ‘universal values’, collectively known as ‘Good’, but often specified as ‘Beauty, Truth, and Justice’. These values stimulate evaluation (and condemnation) of what is and imagination and appetition for what could be. (Bobby Kennedy: “I dream of things that never were and ask why not.”) They are the source of everlasting restlessness at the heart of the spatiotemporal world. The specifics of A’s evaluation informs A’s arrangement of its World, the first step in A’s bold plan to save the Universe. Go, A, go! A is motivated by the universal desire to realize eternal values in the spatiotemporal world, but A is a recursive process that modifies itself as it modifies the world. Sometimes feedback can be perceived as ‘noise’. (Hmm, that sounds eerily ‘familial’.) The result is a trajectory that almost always lands ‘off target’. Been there by any chance? No? Not to worry then! A is not like you and me. We became exactly the people and lived exactly the lives that we set out to become and live at age 5—no hiccups along the way! A is not so fortunate. Yet, every A achieves some measure of its original good intention (no matter how slight), and that becomes A’s ‘satisfaction’. Satisfaction is subjective, but it has an objective face which is projected onto the Actual Worlds of all subsequent events. No surprise here; whatever you’re feeling always has the potential to spill over and impact others in your orbit. B repeats the process. It reacts to A’s multiplicity of events increased by one (by A). But B is free to organize that multiplicity in any way it chooses. For example, it may choose to keep A’s Actual World virtually intact and be guided by the same mix of values; it may copy A’s ‘subjective aim’ as closely as possible. That’s how it is that we experience consistency and endurance in our world. On the other hand, B is free to shake up the mix of values that guided A and set sail for an entirely different destination, dragging A, kicking and screaming, along for the ride. A set off for London, nice, but B is heading for Bora Bora, also nice. Each destination is a manifestation of Good, but each represents a different mix of the Values that constitute the Good. This is how it is that we experience novelty and variety in our world. Bottom line: B rules. A has no control over B. A ‘propagates no influences’; it has no influences to propagate. At best, A can lead by example. A respects B’s autonomy and, to be frank, A is critically dependent on an independent and creative B and C and D to redeem its own misfire. B can be ultra-conservative; it can reconstitute A’s world as best it can and mimic A itself as closely as possible. Or, like a rebellious teenager, it can reject almost everything A represents (‘almost’ because we can never totally escape our parents). Is this sufficiently bizarre for you? Ok, but what’s the alternative? A gossamer net called ‘causality’ draped over the world’s furniture? Well, ok, let’s explore that option. Again, let’s start with A. Upon termination, A is thought to propagate certain influences forward in time, e.g., its momentum. B occurs whenever and wherever the world reacts to (entangles with) A’s momentum (there is no more A per se in this model – it’s past). What about C? In this model, C is an event in the process of development, passively powered by residual influences from events that no longer exist and purposelessly directed toward events that have not yet begun to exist. Isn’t something missing in this model? Where’s the is ? I’m reminded of certain pseudo-math problems that occasionally cropped up in high school - problems where all the variables cancel out, and you’re left with a big pile of nothing. That’s ontology according to the Standard Model. The propagation of influences turns out to be a carefully curated illusion. Understandably so! Just imagine what it would be like if we actually had to take responsibility for our actions…if we couldn’t blame our shortcomings on others. Who could face a mirror! Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back Be a Prophet! David Cowles Sep 26, 2023 “…As always in human history, it will be prophets like you who will herald change – like roosters summoning the dawn.” You’ve read the Old Testament prophets. Did you ever think, “I wish God would call me?” Well, what’s to say he hasn’t? The role of the prophet is to speak Truth, especially when it’s unpopular…like now! Today, we are all called; literally everyone can be a prophet, but how? Aletheia Today has identified 5 themes from our online publications and turned them into icebreakers - memes that reflect ideas, secular and religious, theological, philosophical, and cultural, that are by now familiar to regular readers of ATM and TWS . Subscribe here . To help you jump start conversations, we’ve selected 3 useful everyday items and emblazoned each item with one of our 5 memes (below), all guaranteed to break through any ice, no matter how thick. Just pick one of our memes, match it to an item from our store , and you’ve already taken the first step on your journey of 1,000 miles. Good luck! Stay safe! Check out our memes: Not God or Man, God and Man - The world used to be full of gods disguised as humans; today, it’s humans impersonating God. Yahweh (‘God’ in Judeo-Christian scripture) is wholly God (Creator) and wholly Human (Savior, Redeemer, Messiah)! In Genesis, “God created the heavens and the earth,” the Cosmos, the material world, ‘the whole shootin’ match’. Then through Mary, Mater Dei , God became an element within that whole. Incarnation turns the Cosmos inside out. The whole becomes the part. That’s solidarity! Shop AT! Think Dangerously - The art of thinking is threatened, but don’t blame today’s AI. Most thinking is done using language, the original AI, the fossil record of other people’s thoughts. Ironically, we refer to today’s AI as Large Language Models (LLMs) – a tip of the cap to the sub-structural role of language in all AI. Was the library at Alexandria the world’s first fully functional LLM? But there’s a problem. Only 3% of what we think is original ; the rest just echoes past ideas. Somebody thought them up once, but it wasn’t you…or me. So why the compulsion to repeat these stale memes, endlessly, ad nauseum ? Be a revolutionary, have original ideas, think dangerously! Shop AT! Smash Idols – “ You shall put no gods before me . ” Idolatry is the root of all sin, putting something ahead of God. It could be a Golden Calf, a Tesla Model X, or a bottle of booze. There’s nothing wrong with gold, cars, or spirits – until they become idols…and then we have to smash them (figuratively speaking of course)! Sorry about your windshield. Shop AT! Exodus 3: 14 - “I am who am.” Moses challenged God: ‘Ok, I’ll lead your revolution against Pharaoh…but first, tell me who you are!’ So, Yahweh utters these four words: “I am who am.” The gods of Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Hollywood are beings among beings; Yahweh is Being itself ! Shop AT! Judges 21: 25 - “In those days, there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” After the Exodus, God ruled Israel directly for 250 years; it wasn’t hard. First, there’s Torah, 613 dos and don'ts for daily living. Then there’s conscience – everyone’s direct pipeline to the mind of God. Finally, there are judges , charismatic leaders who step up as needed in every culture to do the work of God. Samuel, Israel’s last faithful judge, warned the people against throwing over theocracy for monarchy: “He (the king) will take your sons and assign them to his chariots (conscription)…he will make them do his plowing and harvesting (civil service) and produce his weapons of war (military industrial complex)…He will use your daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers (exploitation). He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves (eminent domain) and give them to his servants (bureaucrats). He will take…your best oxen and donkeys and use them to do his work (nationalization). He will also tithe your flocks (taxation…). As for you, you will become his slaves (…without representation).” (I Samuel 8: 11b – 18) In a single stroke, the people of Israel ceased to do "what was right in their own eyes" and began doing what was expedient in the eyes of another…with predictably disastrous results. Indeed, the entire millennium from Samuel to Jesus can be seen as one long effort to mitigate or reverse the disastrous decision made at Ramah. So tell me now, “Who needs a king?” Shop AT! Judeo-Christianity is revolutionary in every sense of the word: philosophical, cultural, political. It challenges virtually every tenet of our materialist, conformist, authoritarian culture. The Judeo-Christian perspective offers welcome, if challenging, relief from the mind-numbing hum of modern civilization. Perhaps Tracy Chapman said it best in Drive (The Cars): “You can’t go on, thinking nothing’s wrong…” Plenty’s wrong! Regional wars, terrorism, the threat of nuclear holocaust, racism, sexism, poverty, climate change, mass extinction, bioengineered pandemics…shall I go on…or do you get the point? These problems have been millennia in the making, and they won’t be solved overnight. But as always in human history, it will be prophets like you who will herald change – like roosters summoning the dawn: Moses, Lao-Tse, Isaiah, Buddha, John the Baptist, Galileo…you’re in good company! Shop AT! Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. 4. Aletheia Today Magazine (ATM) will be devoting its entire fall issue (released 9/1/23) to artificial intelligence (AI). What are the philosophical, theological, cultural and even spiritual implications of an AI-powered world? If you’d like to contribute to the AI Issue, click here . Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.

< Back CVS and Consciousness David Cowles Oct 24, 2023 “…Congratulations…you just created your first universe. May I call you God? Or would you prefer Lord of ‘the Ring’?” Riddle : What does a cash register receipt from CVS have in common with an electron, human consciousness, and political revolution? Give up? Answer : They all exhibit 720° symmetry. What? 720° symmetry? That’s ridiculous! You can have 90° symmetry, 180° symmetry, 360° symmetry, but never 720°. That’s just not a thing. The idea itself is ridiculous. I agree with you. It is ridiculous…and yet, it is a thing. May I demonstrate? Next time you visit a CVS, please don’t throw away the mile-long cash register receipt they give you at check-out. Instead, turn it into a loop—but not just any loop—a special kind of loop known as a Möbius strip. Here’s how (not recommended for readers under the age of 3): Hold the two ends of the receipt, one in each hand. Twist one end 180 degrees. Scotch tape the two ends together. Not too challenging, but congratulations anyhow: you just created your first universe. May I call you God ? Or would you prefer Lord of ‘the Ring’ ? But now what can you do with your Precious ? Run your finger along its surface. Keep going. Still going? It’s endless, isn’t it? You’ve taken an everyday rectangle, albeit elongated, with well-defined sides and edges and turned it into a one-sided loop with no boundary. You’ve created what topologists call a ‘non-orientable’ surface. Now pick a spot on the ‘strip’ and imagine an arrow on that spot, pointing up; slide that arrow to the right or left until you come back to where you started (360°). Hmm, something’s different, isn’t it? Your arrow is pointing down now, as if it were a reflection of the original arrow. Of course, it is the original arrow, only now it’s ‘disoriented’, a bit like me after a long night at my local . But no problem! Just keep going in the same direction. Another 360° et voilà , your arrow’s pointing up again. Your universe is symmetrical after all, but that symmetry requires 720° of revolution, not the meager 360°, as in my boring universe. At first, it seems amazing that we can create 720°symmetry in 360° space, but the phenomenon is not as rare as you might suppose. Ever heard of an electron? Electrons have something called spin – the subatomic analog of your finger running along the Möbius strip. We’re familiar with spheroids. Obviously, they exhibit 360° symmetry, right? Not necessarily. Turns out that the electron, and the proton, all massive subatomic particles, in fact, exhibit 720° symmetry. They behave like figures on a Möbius strip, not like baseballs. BTW, just in case you were wondering, massless particles like the photon generally exhibit boring old 360°symmetry, but the graviton is a bit of a twist : it exhibits 180° symmetry. 720° symmetry is important in another context: consciousness. I am aware of a table. For the sake of argument, let’s assume it’s a real table existing in a material world. Thanks to the properties of my central nervous system, I am aware of the look and feel of this table, but I am also aware of myself, and I am aware of myself being aware of the table. That’s consciousness! But what’s that ? Is it some sort of transcendental substance, a ‘soul’ perhaps? Or is it just another manifestation of a material ‘neural net’? Neither. It’s a topological feature of Universe per se . Like mass and energy, particles and waves, it’s akin to the property of reflection: the universe reflects itself. Apparently, self-reflection is an irreducible property of Being. Perhaps it’s what Being is. That’s not to say that self-reflection is always, or even usually, conscious. Consciousness rises to the level of a phenomenon only in the context of certain well-defined, but currently unspecified, physical structures. Once upon a time, people broke Universe down into ‘mind’ and ‘matter." Gilbert Ryle ( The Concept of Mind ) put an end to that. He demonstrated that that sort of dualism makes no sense. Mind and matter, like mind and body, are just different aspects of one phenomenon. Today our models are more nuanced. But using the old terminology, it turns out that both mind (consciousness) and matter (massive particles) exhibit 720° symmetry. This appears to be the real, deep structure of Being, not the anemic ‘special case’ abstraction we know as 360° symmetry. As usual, we have things upside down! Universe is characterized by 720° symmetry; 360° symmetry is a relatively rare, ‘degenerate’ exception. Yet we’ve mistaken the exception to the rule…once again! We’ve imprisoned ourselves in a ‘toy universe’. We ‘swim’ in Maya . “You say you want a revolution” ( The Beatles )? Well, you’re at home here! And what is a revolution other than the inversion of the socio-economic arrow? Marx said it well: a “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”. The Psalmists, Isaiah and Mark, did even better: “The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.” But the prize for Best Said goes to The Who : “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” The Theory of Revolution requires that the fabric of society (the political logos ) be non-orientable. How else can we turn an up-arrow down? But, of course that could never happen in the real world, could it? We’ve never seen a revolutionary cadre turn into a new aristocracy, have we? Oh and BTW, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn that has your name written all over it. Let’s chat. Keep the conversation going! 1. Click here to comment on this TWS. 2. To subscribe (at no cost) to TWS and ATM, follow this link . 3. We encourage new articles and reprints from freelance writers ; click here to view out Writers’ Specs. 4. Aletheia Today Magazine (ATM) will be devoting its entire fall issue (released 9/1/23) to artificial intelligence (AI). What are the philosophical, theological, cultural and even spiritual implications of AI powered world? If you’d like to contribute to the AI Issue, click here . Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! Thoughts While Shaving - the official blog of Aletheia Today Magazine. Click here.