Death, Near and After

The older I become. The greater is my interest in this issue of Death, Near, and Thereafter. Not long ago, I read a piece on what they called after-death experiences. The trouble is that they defined “after-death” as a period after a person’s heart had stopped beating. That was their definition of “death”—the heart had stopped beating. Now to be fair, should the heart cease, never to return, death seems a likely event. Yet, I think of death slightly differently. However necessary is the heart, which causes blood to flow throughout the body, it is the brain that for me defines Life and Death. That is, should the brain cease to function, that event signals Death.  I am not informed or perhaps intelligent enough to know whether the brain might cease, but other organs, the heart say, could continue. I assume they work together as integrated mechanisms. I take it the brain needs routine flow of blood which brings oxygen, keeping the brain operational.

I understand that some people actually have had their hearts cease for some time, but then they come back. Often they report on their thoughts during that time of heart cessation, sometimes referred to as a death or after-death experience, using the heart as the defining point of life or death.  So, there are many “after-death” tales told by folks who underwent this awful experience.

Now we seem to have two kinds of “after-death” experiences. The first is that relatively brief stage where the person’s heart ceases to operate, but then comes back around and begins beating anew. During that shaky period, the brain may continue operating, even if it ceases what we might call “normal” operation. And those folks might or might not remember anything during the heart shut-down stage.  I think that many people experience thoughts during this heart shutdown, which signals to me that the brain has never completely shut down, and so, technically, the person is not “dead”, regardless of the heart malfunction.

See, I regard brain-death as the real definition of “death”. Should the brain literally cease operating, the person is (in my limited viewpoint) technically dead. And if the brain does not recover and begin operating again, the person will become permanently dead.  That makes me wonder whether there has ever been a case in which a person’s heart stopped, causing the brain to cease, and then the heart began beating again, but the brain would not begin operating? But then, I guess, how would one know the brain was not operating? Oh via electronic monitoring, huh?  Apparently, once the heart ceases to flood the body with blood, carrying oxygen, the lack of blood flow may begin causing problems, damage to various parts of the body. So, restoring blood flow as quickly as possible is key to a healthy restart of the body’s various functions.  But the real key is restoring blood flow to the brain, because the brain is the key to life.

But now we come to perhaps the main point—once the brain ceases to operate permanently, we enter that state known as “death”.  That is the period in which the person loses all awareness of life, and the rest of the body’s organs begin deteriorating.  Remember, the brain, is what defines LIFE in my view. So, without any brain, there is no LIFE.  But now we encounter this other strange phenomenon. Remember, there is no brain, ergo no awareness of anything. And that is perhaps the awful truth. Being DEAD, means you no longer are aware of anything. And, because you have no brain, you do not even know that simple fact. YOU are now gone. But, excuse me, not, you are not “GONE”.  You simple no longer exist. You, that physical entity, remains in place, but now that physical entity is as a piece of wood from a tree, a branch perhaps. 

See we adopt this fairy tale of humans taking a trip, after that brain cessation. Yeah, we move on up into the hills of heavenly clouds, so we can look down and observe our earthly friends and relatives.  But have we any evidence of such a conversion? Hmmm, well no. To my knowledge, there has never been any evidence of a person returning to life with an awareness of having looked down from the heavenly regions of outer space. So far as we know, once the brain ceases, and we cease living, there is nothing further that occurs. And we do not know that, because we no longer exist.

But because that phenomenon is so disturbing, we humans created an entire after-life existence called Heaven, oh and Hell (for the naughty amongst us).  And we created God(s) that rule over that place called Heaven (oh and let’s not forget Satan ruling over his Hell).  

Now, I have always wondered about this amazing place we invented. Just think; it gave rise to actual humans who theoretically act as the Earthly representatives of the Gods above (I guess Satan has no Earthly Buds representing him).  So, popes, priests, nuns, et al were all invented by relatively ignorant humans to provide a control system on Earth for the humans who continue to reside here as living, breathing creatures. Now, however ignorant were those folks who invented that Earthly representative system known as RELIGION, I have to admit its ultimate cleverness. I mean they invented an entire global employment system that had its own financial system (humans give them money so that they can live in peace) and a very large measure of control over those humans who continue remaining alive.  See, they retain the power to bless you, or to threaten you with that Hell place. In olden times, they could do you even more damage.

But think of it. Even now, in the 21^st Century, humans all over the globe pay respect and obeisance to the religious hierarchy of the world, as those folks continue to pretend that they KNOW God and KNOW what happens to you after you die. That afterlife thingie, you know.

Now, suppose (however unlikely) the world of humans slowly began to understand the actual likelihood of NO AFTERLIFE. That is, you die because your brain ceases operation and then it is over. NOTHING FOLLOWS. NOTHING.  If we were to actually and finally, understand that simple fact, would we simply walk away from Organized Religion?  There really would be no point any longer. And then, what would we do, having understood that simple fact of Life and Death?  Morality itself would need to be re-examined, because it would no longer have any relationship to the likelihood of an afterlife, good or bad. If we decided to be good to other humans, that decision would have to be based on simply making us feel better about ourselves. So many concepts would have to be re-examined because we would need to decide how to live based on what was good for us, while we are here. Now surely that would cause some humans to act badly to other humans (think Donald Trump) just because it might enhance their own power over other humans.  But I wonder whether we earthlings might decide to treat people well. Just because we might all like to be treated well. Who knows? I suppose there might be a slow movement of human thinking and acting in one direction or another—either towards Peace and Love and Decency, or towards the opposite. I suppose we need to think hard about that shift. Which way are humans inclined if there are no Gods and no afterlife of any kind? Hmmm, think hard and long on that proposition, folks. Our World awaits your decision.

Anger in America

I guess the central issue about Trump supporters is now resolved. I have been scratching my head, in wonderment, trying to understand why, in view of his mounting legal issues, they continue to support him. And not merely support him. They are adamant. No one else will do. As awful as he is, I thought maybe they would cotton to the Floridian, DeSantis. But no, so long as Trump is openly running for their love and adoration, they will continue heaping it upon him.

And apparently, policy issues do not enter into this equation.  Until, that is, you convert the policy issue into a Rage Factory. For example, one could understand immigration being a contentious issue, with Republicans and Democrats taking at least modestly different positions. I mean, all Americans are a product of immigrants entering America, right? So, we might all understand that immigration is a desirable fact of life in our world, but that it needs to be controlled.  But, No, it isn’t that simple. Turns out, if you talk to a Trumpie, Immigrants from the South (you know, different languages, maybe even different skin color) are invading our poor country, raping our young women, and committing most of the violent crime we experience.  Yeah, you didn’t know that did you? So the Trumpies are pissed and want us to install razor wire at our border, shove them all back into the water, and shoot them if they insist on trying to come in.  And it’s all the fault of the Dems and their senile old leader, you know, Joe the Elder.

And then there is that nasty inflation thingie. We apparently had no inflation until Biden came into office.  And then, the price of beer doubled. And gasoline??? Well, who can afford to drive their car any longer? And we know, it’s all those stupid Dems. Prices are always stable under republicans and Trump simply refuses to let those cranky businessmen raise their prices.

So, then the Dems rigged the last election, using fake ballots, and stole the Presidency from The Donald. I mean, everyone knows Trump actually won, RIGHT??? But those GD Dems subverted the entire election to get Trump out of office. But then, even worse, they “siced” all their legal lapdogs on him, and began bringing fake charges against him, to keep him from regaining his rightful office claims. So, now he faces dozens of fake indictments, and tons of financial charges by women who made up stories about him.

And that January 6^th Thingie at the Capitol?? Well, we had a bunch of innocent folks who came to Washington to applaud Trump and to encourage him to stay on. They visited the Capitol quite peacefully, like good tourists, but again the Dems turned it into a small War, by using their own rioters to pretend to be Trumpies. That whole thing was like a fake movie plot made up by the Dems.

And the crap goes on. We good, honest, republican supporters just want to get on with our lives and go to work to support our families. But those Dems don’t work like that. They are trying to steal yet another election. Only this time, we will not let that happen. Trump is our MAN and we want him to regain authority and return this Nation back into its rightful status as a home for good Christian-Republican values. 

So, there it is folks. Yep, that’s why they’re angry, and they ain’t gonna take it any longer. And we (the rest of America) need to understand that America is going to change, one way or another after this next election.  And we need to think about how it should change. So ready yourselves folks. There’s an election coming up soon. Prepare yourselves.  And remember, You the People are the ones who determine what will happen. And kindly remember also, that however much we blame Trump for awful things, he could do none of those things if the American People were not supporting him. HE is a reflection of the America people. So, vote your consciences, but always be aware of who you are supporting.

The Games Begin

 And so, Let the Games Begin. Ahhh Iowa, we hardly knew ye.

But How . . . Why???

I know, I know, they don’t like Joe Biden. He’s too old. They hate current inflation rates.  And so, they will vote for Donald Trump??? Not Ron DeSantis??? Not Nikki Haley???  I know, I know, I really do not like either of them either. What about Christie??? Oh, he dropped out, huh? Still, Donald Trump??? And it wasn’t even very close. I mean, he got 51% of the vote.  And the 91 indictments?? You hate inflation, but you don’t mind a dude who has been criminally indicted??? So, if he took out a gun, walked onto Fifth Avenue, and shot and killed someone, you would still prefer Donald Trump??? Really??

I do not any longer understand Americans. I mean, is this really just Stupidity??? Can it be that simple? Nah, there must be other explanations. Religion??? But how could a belief in God affect anyone’s thinking about voting for someone as bizarre as Donald Trump? I mean, he is as far from Jesus as it is possible to get.  More likely, Trump would have been one of the dudes stringing him up to that cross, and then banging in the nails, before heading off to the local pub for a couple of brews.

What is there to like about the man? Oh, he hates people trying to cross into our country, especially if they are of a slightly different color, and maybe speak a different language.  And so, I assume every racist in America prefers Donald Trump to almost anyone else. And he makes fun of women every chance he gets. “Grab’m by the pussy . . .they love it”. Really? And so, ladies, tell me again why you prefer Donald Trump? You mean, you really do love it when someone like him grabs you by the pussy??

And they seem not to mind the fact that he fails at almost everything he tries? I mean, six bankruptcies??? And three failed marriages???  So, he’s lousy in business, and worse at the marriage thing.  Really, has there ever been anyone as bad at so many things as Donald Trump?

But, you say, he was a great president! Really?  Well, they loved his hawkish foreign affairs talk. And, more, they loved his gibberish about our Border policies.  Yeah, he’s a flaming racist at our borders, and they love that. He’s going to build a Wall, and they love that, even though he failed at that when he was President.  They claim that the economy was better under Trump. Well, yeah, inflation has been nasty, but Biden has brought it under control—note that none of the Trumpies are paying attention to Biden’s successes. Well, he is a Democrat, after all. And, actually, our economy is doing well. Low unemployment, investments in public sector, sort of like Ike. Remember him?  But, Trump is obviously preferred to Ike, right??? Well, not to anyone with a functional brain.

So, I think it doesn’t matter what Biden does. He’s an old dude (as is their Dude, actually) who refuses to gun down migrants at our Southern border. I imagine also that Biden gets hit because of Bibi’s killing ways in Gaza. I mean, Trump was a fairly strong Israeli supporter, but the mess being created by Bibi at the moment, is blamed by MAGAHeads on Biden.

And so, the Republican games have now moved onto New Hampshire, where the MAGAheads hope to repeat Iowa and maybe kick both DeSantis and Haley out of the race altogether.  I mean, how much losing can their financial backers continue to support?  If you are going to continue forking out bribe money to POLs to back their candidacy, they better show themselves to be winners.  And so, let’s see whether New Hampshire MAGAHeads rule up there. So, New Hampshire, what will you be saying to America? Do you too want America to be over??? Tune in folks. The best is yet to come.

Welcome to 2024

So another year has passed us by. And the more I (thankfully) continue to age, the greater are the numbers of folks, whose names I recognize, who have passed into that Netherland called Death.  Yeah, that’s one of the real bummers of remaining alive—all the folks who don’t. I mean, Sandra Day O'Connor, Rosalyn Carter, Diane Feinstein, Jimmy Buffett, Tony Bennett, Alan Arkin . . . and the list goes on and on.

And then we have what used to be known as Politics.  Yeah, 2023 was quite a year for demonstrating the Decline and Fall of American Politics.  I have been at least aware of American politics and our government since maybe WW II, say the 1940s. FDR dominated that scene, but after Roosevelt, we had Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy (Ahhhhh), Johnson, and Nixon. And good old Ricardo, began a parade of characters, some good, some awful, but it was like we hit some rocky road of politicians. I mean, Ford was ok, and Jimmy Carter was briefly fine, but then he was abbreviated by that rascal Reagan (ugh). And then that idiot-malenfant George Bush, happily interrupted by Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama (a really, really smart Prez). But then the bottom dropped out and the republican party seemingly collapsed into a heap, replaced by some gangrenous, braindead political party, vaguely designated MAGAHeads. Happily Joe Biden kicked them out of the White House, but they have remained the official Party in Opposition (PIO). And ever since they lost, Fox News decided that the MAGAHeads deserved total wall-to-Wall “News” coverage.  And so, they never actually went away, and 2023 was filled from top to bottom with their news. Now, to be fair, a lot of the news about MAGAHeads was really news about new criminal indictments of their pseudo-leader, Donald J. Trump. He seemingly loves violating our criminal statutes. He rarely, if ever, pays his bills. He fails at all of his businesses. He fails at all of his personal adventures (marriages). His children practically shriek awfulness.

And yet, Americans take his make believe political candidacies seriously. Others who align themselves with politics on the Radical right side of the tracks—DeSantis, Haley, Christie, et al have to work really hard simply to continue trailing him.  Seemingly normal Americans declare they would vote for no one but the Trump. Really folks??? You’re not just pulling our chain, are you?

And many Americans think that Biden is just too old, and so they may not vote for him. Really folks??? You won’t vote for Joe cuz he’s old? But he actually still has a functioning brain, unlike his main opposition—the MAGAHead himself.  And if one examines America during 2023, it was not a bad year. There had been some inflation early on, but that seemed under control. Employment levels are good. Public investments that benefit the Middle Class are being made. He has been dealing with some pretty dicey foreign affairs, with Russia and Vlad the Impaler acting like Nazi Germany towards Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas killing one another with abandon.  There seemingly is no “Good side” in that region. Perhaps were we to ship off all of Hamas maybe to somewhere in the middle of the Saudi Desert, it might improve, but that ain’t gonna happen.

So, folks, if you think not voting is an option, then you are deciding to vote implicitly for Donald Trump. So, remember, in 2024, Not Voting is casting a vote for Trump.

And so we welcome our coming New Year. 2024 seems filled with promises of all kinds. But mainly I look on those promises as of the “Be Careful What You Wish For” kind.

Take care. Love your loved one. Be kind to strangers and, generally, to folks who seem in need. The world needs Kindness, Love, and Peace. Practice all. And Work Hard at whatever you do. 

Welcome to our New Year, 2024.

Life and Life

 With all the highly publicized killings going on in Gaza/Israel and in the Ukraine, I wondered about some recent talks officialdom has been holding about victim compensation. Like, if we kill 500 innocent civilians, including children, how much should we compensate the country?

So, what is human life worth? Is each life worth the cost of a case of beer?  Hmmm, tough one.

And then, after I arise early each morning, I trod downstairs and go outside to take a picture of the morning sunrise. And I accompany my picture, being posted on Facebook with, “Morning lovely. Be kind. Peace bro.” And then again, in the evening, as the sun commits itself to setting, I post another picture and write, “OK, It’s Time to Wine On. So Do It.”

But in between, an entire day of personal steps and events occurs. I look out the window and observe a bird at one of our feeders. Or our mailman stops by to drop off our daily mail and we chat briefly about his day and the events of that day.

And at some stage, I shove a toothbrush into my mouth and clean my teeth. But only after consuming some freshly brewed espresso, and a sliced mango. Or I go out into the garden with some clippers and snip off some unwanted plants in the garden.

Or I sit with a glass of wine, as we munch on some dinner while watching a British mystery, or comedy on our TV. And then, at some stage, we take off our night dress and climb into bed, and turn off the lights, as we both try to engage in that thing called Sleep.

See these are all little signs that we are not a case of beer, or some other commodity one may purchase at the corner store. We are living creatures. We breathe, we laugh, and sometimes we cry. And we think.  Yeah, that thinking thing. Something comes across your consciousness that today is December 7^th, and that springs a memory of that fateful day, December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day. Yeah, we’re really old, so we have an actual memory locked inside our heads.

Life is really a series of large and small memory snippets. We do things, or observe things and they are then tucked away into our brains.  See that doesn’t happen to a case of beer. Humans and really all other living creatures are memory banks. So, when we decide to kill off a bunch of humans of varying ages, we are eliminating those memory banks. And the young ones especially are deprived of all those creative acts and that slowly building memory bank filled with good and bad images.  And we, the world at large are also deprived of the acts those living creatures might have created. As we shoot or bomb that 3-year old, maybe we are killing the next Van Gogh, or Shakespeare, and we will never get to understand what our act of killing actually accomplished.

Killing is a truly mindless act, because if we thought about the act, it would become near to impossible to carry out.  In Gaza, folks who identify with Hamas seem not to mind killing folks, as long as those folks are Israeli. See, they don’t care that they are stealing future life events from people who identify as Israeli. And so, they also, without proper understanding, create within those same Israelis the same sense of armor around the brains that will allow Israelis to do the same thing to Hamas humans.

But it isn’t just in Gaza. Some idiot in Nevada, followed on the heels of another idiot in Texas, or was it somewhere else in America (so many shootings, so little time), managed to shoot innocent humans who had done nothing except wander into the wrong place at the wrong time.  See, with guns at their easy disposal, angry humans continue to cut off the future lives of other humans, who will then no longer experience watching a sunrise or a glorious sunset.

Killing is so final and eliminates hundreds, even thousands of gestures of love.  Life is really quite amazing. I am now in my 88^th year of that thing we call life.  And I have thousands of tiny events registered within my brain. Event images embedded within me that might have gone unnoticed had I died earlier.  I may die, any day now. Who knows? But I also may live another set of days and weeks and even years, creating and observing small and large things that others in the world may also observe.

Why can we not commit to peace and love?  Why can we ban books but not guns? Amazing really.

Well friends, continue to think and try to observe life all around you. Think about what happens to you today, and think, “I am grateful for the good things in my life”.  Try to be happy. But at least, try to BE. And do your best to allow that person next to you also BE.

Why Are We Here?

 The older I become and the more I read, the more I wonder about origins and the why’s and wherefores’ of Life.  Specifically, I keep wondering why humans are here at all.  The most likely explanation, I know, is that we are all accidents of evolution.  That is, we began as sponges in some ocean and then began acquiring the genes that eventually gave rise to life forms, which in turn led to humans over millions of years.

But, more to the point, what, if anything is our purpose in being here?  I know the God seekers think that a spirit who seems to be in charge of all life, created humans especially as some kind of tribute, although a tribute to what I keep wondering. Does God in some way resemble humans, so that humans were created in God’s image?  Maybe so, but, if so, what might we make of such a trivial pursuit? God felt so inadequate that she had to create a human-form resembling her? And then, what, she created humans in all possible states of adequacy and behavioral patterns?

And now, we are left with Humans, many of whom seem to prefer killing as a hobby, or even a career choice.  I look around me at our current world and what do I see? Russia under that braindead human Vlad the Impaler, continuing to spend its money and its human resources trying to kill as many Ukrainians as possible.  And, then after a couple of years of that debacle, Hamas in Israeli-Land decides to move into action and kills 1400 Israeli innocents. But, really, everywhere I turn to see humans killing other humans. I need only turn around almost anywhere in America to find one or more Humans gunning down fellow American Humans, mostly all of the Innocent variety.

It seems almost anywhere you go (and there are exceptions I know) Humans appear to spend a lot of their time and energy trying to figure out ways to kill other humans. So am I to conclude that Humans are placed here explicitly to kill off other Humans?  I imagine that, eventually the Humans of the Killing variant will eventually graduate to the really big killing machines. I mean, think back to the mid 1940’s and Japan in that World War II killing game. Yeah, we were all getting really good at killing large numbers. But then we decided that rifles and bombs were mere playthings. So, we invented a really big killing device—the Atomic Bomb. And we tried them out in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  We apparently don’t really know, but estimates range between 100,000 and 200,000 Japanese Humans died as a result of the two bombings. So, two bombs and BANG, a hundred thousand or two are dead. That was so large that it actually caused the ending of that particular War.

But did it end all wars? Hahahahaha . . . no not even close.  Some estimates suggest that somewhere close to a half million Humans have died in the Middle East since the creation of Israel.  And remember, the killing machines associated with the Israeli-Middle East conflicts, also in turn produced the 911 attacks, which led in turn to more killing sprees all over the Middle East.

And we should never forget those World Wars, both I and II, where it is estimated that in the tens of millions of Humans died as a result.  See, I was born in the 1930s, and Humans have continued killing other Humans ever since, in non-stop killing sprees. And it wasn’t as though something happened to trigger those killing sprees. Nope, they have been going on ever since man acquired an understanding of how to kill other Humans.  It makes me wonder whether more sophisticated killing machines are the true end result of Human evolution, maybe even the true purpose of human evolution.

So, as I begin aging out (I am pushing on toward 89 after all) I have begun concluding that the main purpose of Humans and Human development is killing other Humans. Now, exactly why any God would choose that objective for its creatures is way beyond my Pay Grade.  It does sort of suggest to me, though, that a God is a pretty unlikely development instrument for Humans and other of our world creatures. More likely, way more likely, I would conclude that Human development is mostly accidental and is an example of evolution going seriously off course. And you know all this great fear about AI that has been growing of late? That AI might begin moving out of our control, and begin simply taking over from Humans? Well, maybe that is exactly what is going on, and that this disastrous developmental path on which Humans are proceeding, where we continue to improve our ability to kill off other Humans, may in fact be brought to an end finally by AI interventions.  Think of that. What a concept huh? Who knows, maybe AI will curtail Human Murder instincts and cause Humans to develop in some slightly more “civilized” manner. Wouldn’t that be nice? And would God be pleased, huh? She might be smiling down on us as we consider how to end AI. Funny, Huh?

Tata Humans . . . think hard about all this.  It’s time for a change.

Beginnings and Endings

The older I become, the more interesting is the question of Beginnings, or Beginning. I realize that we know a lot about both beginnings and endings. We see humans being born and then dying. And we see plant beginnings and endings all around us. And then there are all the other animals that come into our lives and then leave us, a bit sadder, even after a fairly full life.

And I have speculated fairly repeatedly about my view of human endings. That is, although we use language that implies a journey (they “left us” . . . “they are gone”) the only evidence we have suggests only cessation. When humans die, they simply cease to function. Their brains cease operating and thus nothing follows. And it would seem that is the only sensible description for all “life forms”, i.e. all animals, and all plant life, which really means all life forms.  Material forms, rocks, mountains, even planets, stars, seem to come into existence and then cease to exist in that form. Whether a star, or a mountain can be said to experience “life” would be questionable, since we currently have no way to communicate with such seemingly inanimate entities.

But back to beginnings. Yes, we see them all the time. So, we understand that humans are created, exist in a known form and function according to certain rules.  We can even trace animal life back to fairly early beginnings, say a billion years. Oddly, sponges are listed as among the early life developers.

But this complex life development is but one tracing within our overall universe of life forms and other creatures, like planets and suns.  The universe is an amazing place, and unbelievably complex. And it always brings me back to origin questions. Folks like Neil DeGrasse Tyson spend their lives investigating and then describing the early development of our universe.  And others, those of a religious persuasion, employ other less rigorous descriptive approaches. See Neil and his BFFs spend their time trying to move us back in time so as to better understand the actual origins of life. Our religious folks I guess gave up on that game fairly early.  From their perspective, a God decided to, I don’t know, wave a wand and thereby create life.  They have some pretty silly stories, like Adam and Eve that can’t withstand too many questions. Still, at some stage, according to them there was no life, and then life was formed.

Now, whatever one thinks of the religious origins' tale, when compared with Tyson’s, my mind continues to wander back in time and always arrives at the question, “If there is/was a God, Who/What created that God?  Even if I follow Tyson back further into the origin story, I arrive at the same question. How did anything develop? Go back to before the Big Bang. Something existed then and led to The Big Bang. Who/What created that something?  Was it God? But, if so, Who/What created God?

See, if God always existed, why not the universe? And if so, How/Why?

And if humans had decided on a God, and simply left it at that, then good. Why Not? But then humans had to decide how best to use that story. And so, humans invented the Tale. You know, God created everything, and, especially, created humans so as to . . . to what? So as to worship God? How vain a God would that be? And then came the tales about Death leading to human forms sitting up on clouds looking down on we still-living critters. So, apparently, we have billions of entities (no bodies, just disembodied “souls” wandering about up above us, watching our foolishness play out daily.

And we humans actually have built whole stories and vast, complex entities called churches and interpreters called priests, who tell us what to do. How crazy is that? Folks who have no clue are allowed to tell us how to live nicely. Now, mostly, we ignore all those rules, because we seem to prefer creating our own rules of living and control. We even seem to prefer killing other humans, as a form of either sport or simply a way of expressing our disgust with how life actually turned out.

And largely, we seem to have moved beyond the God-tales, and have settled on Money-Tales. Oh we still pretend to the God-thingie. Because it remains a really useful way to maintain control over other humans.  See, we create priests who pretend to know about origins and the God thing. And then other humans place themselves into positions of control over the priests, so that they can retain total control over the humans.

Oddly, this system that might have led to peace and kindness over all of humankind, instead seems to have led to destruction and inhumane controls.  Could we change that? Sure, but first we would have to decide that we did not need a God, or those folks who pretend to know/understand God.  Humans are perfectly capable of organizing peacefully and humanely, should we ever decide that was a preferable course to inhumane methods.  Of course, that might suggest that we stop killing one another. And that would be really hard for humans. We do so seem to like killing.  It’s almost as though our Gods are watching us play out a sort of Godly TV game. Peace might just be too boring to Gods.

Ah well, back to daydreaming about origins, I guess.  It’s easier than the alternatives. How about, just be nice to your neighbors.