Let's Add it Up

 

Let's Add it Up

I have come to discover over recent years, that I am a philosopher, an old and forgotten art. Now we have a lot of people who say they are philosophers, and they philosophize. Most are filled with shallow foolishness. Others stab at it, missing this or that, because they didn’t think it through.

That is the art of philosophy, to think it thru, to find the truth, as best we can, and train ourselves to believe it. But that takes time and effort and a lot of information. That’s why a culture has philosophers, to do the heavy lifting, to figure it out according to what is known to be true. That’s the key; you can’t build a successful philosophy, and subsequent culture on falsehoods. Whatever you do, it has to be in harmony with the very real world around it, or it’s not going to work. You can’t build a culture that doesn’t believe in eating, they would stave. You can’t build a culture that doesn’t believe in sex, they would die out. Okay, these are basic truths that we have to follow in order to survive; to live better than we would otherwise, we need a philosophy. Therefore it is necessary to create a common philosophy on which to build a culture, for a culture is built on common ideas and goals. If these ideas and goals are flawed, then the culture will play itself out. That is to say: it will rise to the level onto which their philosophy is based in truth. Above that, they have no reality to build on, and the world around you is real, regardless of what you might think.

My mother was a philosopher; I didn’t know it when I was young, but I did listen to her, and she was a well educated and very wise woman, a woman who had a way of seeing things as they are. I’ll be quoting her quite a bit. My father was a very smart man, he liked math, and my father liked things to add up. He would say, “If it doesn’t add up! It doesn’t add up.” He also liked to say. “If it’s true here, then it’s true there.” That is to say, if 2X2=4, than 4/2=2, that simple, don’t over complicate it. If you see it here, then you’ll see it there. I’ll be quoting my father quite a bit as well.

My Mother once told me, it’s better to watch the game than to play in it. Play, be part of the game, learn how it works at ground level, what does it take to make it happen? But, your point of view should always be from the bleachers, and beyond. As a result of this advice, I never saw, what my peers saw, I never heard what my peers heard. That was an odd thing that I didn’t come to understand for many years. So I was always at odds with my peer group. I just saw things differently.

I was born and reared a Roman Catholic, and learned the foundation, and teaching of the Church. I remember once as a teenager, I asked Dad, “You really believe all that stuff at Church?” He said yes. Now remember, I was born in ’52, so I was right in the middle of all the new age thinking. So I said, “But it doesn’t make any sense, with what they're teaching at school.” He replied, ‘it’s the only thing that does make sense, don’t be afraid to scrutinize your God, He can stand up to it.”

Back to being a philosopher, my Mother and my Father sent me on a journey, that I have come to realize in recent years, I might need to write it down, because, that’s what philosopher’s do.

I not going to tell you my life story, nor am I going to rehash what others believe, for that’s not my purpose, my purpose is to tell you what I believe, what I think and how it applies.

My Dad and I used to like to watch archaeology documentaries. It was fun to watch them dig up the past and talk about what they thought. Then once, in later years, they (archaeologist) were digging up some fellows who had shipwrecked up around Nova Scottish sometime in the eighteen hundreds, and had been buried by the local’s in the permafrost. Dad looked at me and asked, “How long you gotta be dead, before its okay to dig you up?” And I looked at him and said, “I don’t know.” But it got me to thinking. Archaeologist is a fancy and acceptable word for grave robber. Now, if you looked up archaeologist, and grave robber in the dictionary, you would get two different meanings for the same activity. One we accept, and one we do not.

Just how long do you have to be dead, before it is okay to dig you up? For the people, or for profit? A hundred years, five hundred years, should you dig up your own? How about cultures of the past, a people who aren’t really part of who you are? On what criteria would you base such a decision? Or do you just ignore it, and accept the idea this Grave Robber has a degree, works under the guise of an archaeologist, and is working for your good.

When I was six years old, my father gave me a bb gun, He gave me a mess of rules to go with it, the first of which was, don’t point a gun at anyone unless you intend to kill them, second, you can kill anything you want, but you can’t kill a song bird, or its your ass. I knew what he meant when he said, ‘or it’s your ass!’ Well, I learned one bird from another, just so I wouldn’t get caught shooting a songbird.

My mother always said of all the things that I may possess in this life, the language was the most valuable. You are; what you say and what you do, this is how people come to know you, and what to expect from you. Therefore it is very important that you know how to say, what it is you want to say, then make sure what you do matches what you say.

Well that is what I intend to do right here, use the language to tell you what I think, what I believe and the philosophy I have developed over the years. Keep in mind, as we go along, that as we learn things, our outlook, as well as our philosophy has to adjust, or we stagnate.

Stagnation seems to be the rule of the day; I can’t begin to list the number of cultures that have died away because of stagnation. But I am afraid that isn’t our problem; our problem is degeneration. Degeneration occurs when a culture forgets its philosophy. Remember, a culture is built on common ideas and goals. The problem with degeneration, is it kills a culture in short order (within four or five generations), while stagnate cultures dies a long, slow dead. ©

Chapter 1

As I said earlier, your philosophy has to be based on truth, or as much as you can conger up, otherwise when you put it into practice, it will fail you, because it has no footings, or standing in reality, so when you build on it, it just falls.

So where do we begin, well, what motivates a man? There are three things, food, sleep and sex. That’s it! Food, sleep and sex. The same things that drives all the mammals, food, sleep and sex. What is it we study about the animals, their eating habits, their sleeping habits, and their mating habits, oh, and how they raise their young, the maternal instinct, which is another motivating force, unique to the female. So the male is driven by food, sleep, sex and the female is driven by food, sleep, sex and the maternal instinct, the desire to pro-create.

Most of the animal kingdom is hard wired to know pretty much what they need to know in order to survive and pro-create within a particular environment, this according to the theory of evolution. You are your environment, you are what you eat. For the most part, I buy the theory, it seems sound at its foundations, but there is a glaring problem with it, the Being, in human being, the one thing that makes us different from the rest of the animal kingdom.

This is a very difficult thing to deal with. Why? Because it defies evolution. Evolution can not explain the being. What is the being? The ability to think? The ability to reason? What is reason? Aren’t philosophies built on reason? The Greeks, the Romans, the English.

The being seems to manifest itself at a place in the mind where activity of the gray matter meets language. There is something going on in your mind, your gray matter, you know it, you’re not sure what it is until it surfaces in the form of language. Now that language may be linguistics, art, music or math, but its language, just the same, all of which are written languages so as to be recorded.

It is this gift of language which allows us to organize our thoughts and ideas in our minds, and with a common language among others, can share these thoughts and ideas, with others, in a detailed manner.

The being also manifests itself through the exercise of its will. The will, what is the will, and how do we know it exist. When the gray matter comes to life in language, and makes a decision contrary to the way you, (the animal), feels about something and you act on that decision, that action, is the manifestation of your will. The human being is the only creature which can act contrary to the way it feels, (understand any action by the human is an act of will, but it becomes apparent when the action is contrary to the way one feels). Evolution cannot explain this.

But what makes us beings? The very fact that we know we are beings. That is to say, we are aware of ourselves, and we ask why?

The ability to ask why? The ability to act contrary to the way we are hard wired? Why would evolution bring forth such a creature? If you look at the theory, and the things that drive it, you are your environment, you are what you eat, survival of the fittest. So on and so forth. Doesn’t add up. The law of averages states, ‘it is more likely for something to occur, which has occurred before, than it is for something to occur which has never occurred. That is to say, man is out of place in evolution. Why would evolution produce a creature which would turn on evolution itself? But on the other hand, if we are indeed just a product of evolution, then how can we pollute the earth, how can we possibly do other than what we are suppose to be doing, it is not possible. Remember the law of averages, either we are doing what we are suppose to be doing, or we are contrary to evolution, and if this be the case; why?

So evolution isn’t cutting the mustard, do I throw it out? Let’s look at the questions we can ask. Who am I? Where am I?

Physics tells us a story about a universe that is some sixteen-billion light-years across. Now that’s big, real big. For instance, light, they say, moves at 186,000 miles a second, which is almost seven times around the earth. Now take that, seven times around the earth, straighten that out, per second, times one year, and you have a light year. Yet it takes light eight minutes to get here from the sun, and the universe is sixteen-billion light-years across. They (physicists) tell us it all came from a big bang. Basically, there was something, it existed in a void (interesting word, void) and it went bang, everything there is came from that bang. Trouble is, they don’t tell me what it was, where it came from, and who made it go bang. Do I throw it out?

No not quite, because I think they have a some of it right, but keep in mind the inherent flaws, lets us consider what we know.

What we know? What we know is simply the sum of the information our minds have gathered throughout our lives. Don’t confuse what you know, with what you believe, as many people do. Just because you know it, doesn’t make it true. Now there are many times when what you know will be true, but don’t confuse one with the other. Sometimes there are emotional ties to what we know, but if it isn’t true, than it won’t stand, and you can’t build on it.

What we believe, what is belief? Belief is beyond the core of your being, it’s buried deep, it’s what makes us tick, it is what makes us act (especially when no one is looking). Remember, we feel the core of our being is where gray matter meets language, and where language turns to gray matter, that is to say, it disappears from the present, into your memory, but it isn’t gone, we simply recall it. Belief is buried deep, like your memories, and can sometimes become confused with your memories. But, in a stressful situation, they will surface. Like impending danger, your beliefs will surface, and you will act accordingly. Now you may do and say a lot of things you don’t necessarily believe for the sake of social graces, which tells me you believe it is important to keep lines of communication open with your neighbor, for the sake of peace and prosperity, and to pick your battles. Get my drift? You act according to what you believe.

Now a philosophy is an organize way of arranging and explaining your beliefs so that others can come to understand the things that make you tick, and with the advent of common ground, one can build. So you see why it is so important that philosophy be base on truth.

Truth, now there is a word, its one Big little word. I should mention here, that words mean things. This is what builds a language, if I say to someone “that building is the Post Office,” I expect them to know what the bloody hell I am talking about. Now truth is simply, that which is (is being a verb of being). It is either true, or it isn’t. It either is or it ain’t. Get my drift? 2+2=4 \ 4-2=2. Now there are lots of real smart, educated people out there that will tell you otherwise, they speak of the grays areas, 'ask, what are they selling? And what do they believe? Can you build on gray areas? If I pick up a book, and I drop it, it’s going to hit the floor, period. If I pick it up again, and drop it again, again it is going to hit the floor, again, and again and again, period. This is truth, this is real, this, I can build on. So truth is absolute while belief is personal, deeply personal, in the gray matter. Asked yourself, ‘do you really want to believe things that aren’t true?’

So? You ask. How do I tell what I know from what I believe? First of all, belief changes very slowly. Belief adjusts itself according to what it sees to be true, now we might talk a lot of trash, but remember, belief is in the gray matter, and adjusts according to what it sees to be true. So don’t be afraid to see the truth, because your belief and your memories did. So it’s not really a matter of deciphering what you know from what you believe, instead, it’s a matter of going through what you know, and determining what is true and what isn’t, that is to say, ‘going through the ole file cabinet and throwing out the trash’. And do it in such a way that your memories and belief see you do it. Make a bloody effort. The way you do it is simple, take what you know to be true, and add it up, if this is 2 and this is 2, we have 4. Then take the rest and see if it fits the puzzle, don’t jam it in there, if it is good information, future information will cause it to fall into place, if its bad information, then future information will witness against it. Forming and working a philosophy takes effort, it has to be taught and learned. My Mother told me time and again, “don’t believe everything you hear.” – “When everybody starts jumping off the cliff, you come home.” – “I don’t care what they think, what do you think?

My father would not answer a question, if you ask him a question, he’d ask you ten, maybe more, until you discovered, you knew the answer all along, you just hadn’t thought about it. My Daddy taught me to think. I remember a time I asked him the age old question, ‘if a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one around, does it make a sound?’ Well after a discussion about the language, and the meaning of the word sound, yes, of course it makes a sound, because a sound it related to the shock waves in the atmosphere which emanates from around the tree as it falls, and of course they are present. Then he asked me, “does it make a noise?” I thought for a few moments, and said “no”, and he asked “why not?” And I replied, “because noise is a matter of interpretation.’ I was right. So you see a philosophy is neatly tied to the language and is taught and learned.

Now let’s go back to the foundation, what motivates a man, remember he is a mammal, food, sleep and sex. That’s it. Except for the female, who is also driven by the maternal instinct. Man, as a female has a unique problem, her young are born very early in their overall development, and mature very slowly, demanding most of her time and much of her energy. But she too has a being, and the power of reason, and the power to act contrary to the way she feels. Now a woman has several other problems, first comes the burning desire to have sex, and then comes the babies, some of which take 12 to sixteen years to free from the nest. It can’t be done without help; it is the male who hunts, fishes, builds shelters and provides for the woman and her young. Look at this! This is basic...!!! This is your foundation; woman is the foundation of civilization. Without her, you have nothing, that simple, that basic.

Let’s take a quick look at the female. The lure of a woman’s breast can be intoxicating to a man, ever wonder why? This doesn’t manifest itself elsewhere in the animal kingdom. The sight of a woman’s bare leg can stop a man cold in his tracks. Why is this? A woman can toss her hair, or bat her eyes, smile and nearly make a man sick. Why? This kind of power isn’t found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. She is an interesting creature, and I am telling you, if you look at the truth, she is the foundation.

What are evolution's basic rules of engagement? Survival of the fittest. That’s it. The strong eat the weak; the meat eaters eat the plant eaters. You sleep and gain rest and energy when you can. You spread your seed around so young are created; you are motivated to fight, sometimes to the death, to do so. You steal what you can, from most who ever you can; this includes your mother and father, bother and sister, because if you don’t eat, you die.

You run with the heard, and you run fast and hard so it isn’t you who are taken down and eaten, like the old fellow, or the calf.

These are the basic instincts, we are hard wired, we are mammals, and it’s what mammals do. Yes the rules of evolution are basic and simple. We live, we live hard, and then we die, and you don’t die of old age, you are killed and eaten, with a few possible exceptions, elephants, bull giraffes, only among human beings is dying of old age common.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering; what does this have to do with philosophy? Think about it, any successful culture acts contrary to normal animal behavior, in fact we go so far as to accuse someone who acts badly as acting like an animal. Look around, the animals really have nothing, except the wild, while we have built farms, cities, machines, ect… Why? How did this happen? Why would it happen?

Chapter 2

Okay, to get to where we need to go, we need to deal with the idea of abstract, or perhaps the subjective. What you have to understand about the abstract and the subjective is; they are absolutely depended on the being. Without the being, they don’t exist, that simple. They are born of the gray matter, surface in the form of language, and often times, through the drive of the will, come to be. Like the wheel, the lever, the pulley, ect… In fact, most of human behavior is rooted in subjective ideas, ideas that over time have proven to be true, workable and useful to betterment of human life. Subjective ideas, many of which run contrary to the way the mammals are wired. Yet, let us not forget, it’s a product of the being. Now a pulley might be made of wood, metal and hemp, but the pulley itself is a subjective idea, born of the being.

Okay, so where does that bring us. That puts us in a place were we are made from the materials of this universe, and yet have the uncanny ability to look at it subjectively, and to impose a will onto it, and ourselves so as to act contrary to the way we are hard wired. It’s almost as if we are on the outside looking in, or on the inside, looking out. It doesn’t add up. It never has, its bugged man along time.

So the big question is, is there a God? I would think, based on what I know to be true, the very fact that I can ask the question, dictates there is. If there was no God, then why would there be a creation and why would it bring forth a creature that would question it? Consider the ideal situation in which man finds himself, everything he has thought up, he has dug right out of the ground. If we think it up, we tend to dig what we need right out of the ground. That in itself is remarkable. But consider the law of averages; if we think it up, we dig it up, so if we think about God, than he is.

We have a magnificent view of the stadium, that is to say, we are located on the outer reaches of our galaxy, so it doesn’t blind us, yet we have a good view of it, as well as the rest of the universe, we are not in a cloud, we are not tucked away deep in the galaxy, we swing around in clear space in such a way as to pretty much see the whole of the universe. If you haven’t looked at it, then go outside and look at it, the universe is something to behold. The fact that we have such good seats, tells me there is God, and he wanted us to have good seats.

Ever notice that when you look thru a microscope, real close, I mean real close, you pretty much see the same thing as when you look thru a telescope. Funny how that is. Seems we are neatly situated in a place where the two meet, the microscope and telescope, you might even say we are the center of things, again we have good seats.

Okay, let us consider the idea, there is God. What does that mean? First, it means we are contained, that the universe is contained. Because, if there is God, than he is beyond the universe, he is the one who made it, and made it go bang (if it went bang).

Think about this, put this into place. If there is God, than of course he is beyond the universe and time and if the universe is indeed finite (which is defined by the idea God is beyond it), and contained, than by definition, God is infinite.

So again, let us consider for a moment, there is God. What would be our purpose? Perhaps part of it would be to continue on with the creation, for as the creator, does he not create through us, using the materials at hand. I’m telling you, if we can think it up, than we can dig it up, look around, you know it’s true. Perhaps to know the artist? For doesn’t every artist want to be known, as well as his works, and don’t forget about the good seats we have.

First we look at nature, then the creation as a whole, a work of art that can not be surpassed. Surely this God would want to make himself known?

Let us dwell on the idea of an aquarium for a moment. What is it? It’s a container. Within this container is a whole little world of fish. Now who’s responsible is it to keep the water clean, balanced and moving? Who’s responsibility is it to see to it there are food resources? Now what is the responsibility of the fish? Uuhh?? To be fish. That simple. To be fish.

Now let us consider for a moment, this aquarium belongs to you, and these fish in it, the fish you put in it, were capable of knowing who you were. Think about that idea.

Now think about the problem you have? If you stick your face right into the middle of things, you are going disrupt the whole of the place, and scare the begeebers out of the fish. Now this is something you can do, from your standpoint, and put things back to normal. But about half your fish are going to be dead, and the poor survivors? They’re spooked, real spooked.

Well? You can pull them out of the aquarium, and tell ‘em hi! But we know how well that’s going to work out. Again, if they live thru the ordeal, then they are spooked, real spooked! So from God’s point of view, he’s got a problem, how to reveal himself to those within his creation, without disrupting the whole of the situation.

In Language? I would think so considering this is the very core of our being, the place where the gray matter comes to life. Well, if he uses language, will I hear voices in my head, and if he is the voices in my head, how does he have credibility. Credibility? Now that’s important, with everybody selling God, he’s got to have credibility. How does God gain credibility?

Now remember, we are trying to build a philosophy, so my next step, in working this out in a reasonable fashion, is to look around at what we know, and what we believe.

So what do I have so far, food, sleep, sex, the maternal instinct, truth, being and God.

Now there are many things which stand out as truths. Like planting a seed, you’re going to get a plant, the same kind of plant from which you took the seed. You breed two of the same kind of animals, you’re going to get a third, fourth so and so forth. You look around and you have seasons, and you realize, the spring and the fall are wet while the summers are hot and dry and the winters are cold and dry (depending on where you are of course). There seems to be a force that pulls everything down, toward the earth. The moon goes through its phases every twenty-nine days are so. Fire tends to turn most things to ashes, except rock, so on and so forth. Basically, truths that stare us in the face through simple observation.

The same truths which stare all animals in the face, yet, some how, we see them, and we tend to add them up, if this is true, and this is true, then this is true, that is to say, if 2+2=4 then 4+4=8 and 8+8=16 and 16+16=32 – 32+32= 64 then we have something we can predict, and with the ability to predict, than we have the ability to predict results. Then from the subjective being, manifesting itself through the will’s power over the body, we have the simple pulley and crank to hoist water from a well, a lateen rig to lift water from a river or lake, farm, ranches ect… We have taken what is true and made it work for us. This is philosophy, to take what is true, believe it, then consider it and make it work for me.

Now, if we go back to the basic laws of evolution, nothing of this sort is possible, because you don’t live here alone, and your neighbors aren’t going to let you do anything of the sort, the moment you gain ground, they are going to steal it, and kill you in the process. Why? Because of jealousy, anger, envy, want, because they are animals. So how do you do something like this, how do you set an entire species against its very nature, in order to live better.

This brings us to the subjective idea of law. Law is a set of rules one must obey within the parameters of a culture. Law is what keeps us from acting as animals, so that subjective ideas can come to light for the betterment of the whole. Useful things like, ‘you shall not steal,’ you shall not murder,’ ‘you shall not commit adultery,’ you shall pay your fair share to the common.’ With these kinds of laws in place, and enforced, than things can be built, a man can grow a crop and keep what he needs and trade some of it for other things, like meat, wine, wool, ect… A man can build a house and not worry his neighbor will murder him and take it. So now we have a community living according to subjective ideas, (including law) and are living better because they are building and creating wealth. ©

Chapter 3

Now what do I have so far, food, sleep, sex, the maternal instinct, truth, law, being and God. Wondering why I listed law?

There is much more to law than meets the eye, on the surface, it appears to be a set of rules, but these rules sets us against our instincts, our basic belief, survival of the fittest, so in order for law to work, one has to believe it will work, and live accordingly, and with success come to believe in the law. That is to say, if one is reared by the law, and the law works for this person, and he grows to respond according to the law, than he has sub planted his natural instinct (his evolutionary response) with law. Another way of putting it is, he is now finding satisfaction for food, sleep and sex in the law, instead of through his own natural instincts. He is also likely to pass this belief on to his children, and so on until such time it fails to work any longer for whatever such reasons.

Interesting thing the law, the law is so much a part of us that few (if any) of us even have clue what our natural instincts even are, though the art of parenting is doing just that, purging instinct from our children and instilling the law. Does that sound like a good thing? Remember, law is a subjective idea, it would not exist without the being and if it didn’t work to some degree. We are going to have food, sleep, sex and babies, period! So in order for law to work, it has to fill these basic needs, for these are the motivators, these are the things that cause man to act, according to what he believes.

If he believes in the law, than he will act according to the law, yet, if he doesn’t believe in the law, and appears to act according to the law, than he is stalking prey! Think about that. Remember, things need to add up. So in order for a culture to have law, its important for its members to believe in the law, and enforce it among those who don’t.

Do you have the right to do that? To enforce a law you made up, subjectively, right out of your mind. For the good of the culture? Who’s to say your law’s better than mine? Does might make right? Does the majority rule? Who’s to say? Yet we enforce laws everyday. Where did these laws come from? Why is it I need to obey them? How does law gain credit-ability? On what authority can you base law?

Now laws came into practice through several sources, by far the most common is the top dog syndrome, or might make’s right. This occurs when the dominate male starts dictating the rules of behavior to those around him, and are enforced by the brute force of the top dog and/or his cronies. With some success, the rules will tend to take hold simply because they work, because the basic needs are meet with less effort on the part of the individual. As a result, the laws are continued to be used and become part of our belief. At this basic level we call it the tribe.

Now we have to keep in mind that man is very self centered, he is going to have food, sleep and sex, or he will die in the pursuit of same. So we also have to realize that according to evolution, we are here alone, we are born alone and we die alone. No one can be born for us, and no one can die for us. ‘Morley was dead as a doornail.’ Is what dad use to say. When you’re dead? You’re dead. So that dictates that food, sleep, and sex are as important as life itself.

So with this idea in mind, it is easy to see the limits of the tribe, its growth potential are limited to the thoughts and ideas of the guy in charge. So once you have a law along with traditions which work, the top dog tends to stagnate things. Why? Because he is in charge, and as long as things don’t change, he remains in charge. This can go on for generations, for when the chief dies, the next one in line changes things just enough to place himself in charge, then stagnation becomes the rule of the day, because as long as things don’t change; he’s in charge. So you see the natural progression of the tribe is stagnation.

Now we have established that God is. Now at this point we don’t know who he is or where he is. But that doesn’t limit man from using the idea of god to his own ends. Thus, with this idea of god common among men, many a god has been created to give the law authority above and beyond man, in other words, to give the chief cover, and as this was passed down through the generations, the chief himself came to believe in this god or gods. But in this case, the law is only as good as its gods. Now consider; if the god is fictionist, then law based on him will be flawed.

Every now and then a chief would come along who had great wisdom and could see pass his own self interest, with a vision for the people beyond food, sleep and sex. These chiefs, wrote into their law the idea of the people writing their own law. As this idea grew, so did the culture because the law’s limits were raised to the level of the people involved, and thus we had the Greeks, and the Romans, and many of our laws today are based on English law, which in turn is based on Greek and Roman law.

Notice here, we site law by the name of the people who thought it up, and ultimately destroyed it. The Greeks, the Romans, the English. That’s because there is a fundamental difference here. In the case of a tribe, the law is dictated by a king, chief or what have you. He and the god (s) above him are the law. Whereas with the Greeks, Romans and English, the law stood on its own, and was passed on from generation to generation in tact and those ‘in charge’ administered to the law, but they themselves were not the law, indeed they held the law above themselves. In other words, ’they believed in the law.’

Wondering what killed such great cultures? Why did they fail? There was a time when the sun didn’t set on English soil, now that is a successful culture. What happened?

I call it degeneration. It’s when a culture is so successful, that a steady supply of food, sleep and sex gives way to various forms of distractions, and as the generations pass, we are so busy with our distractions, and because you don’t worry that much about food, sleep and sex, we fail to teach our young the foundations of their philosophy, and why it works. As we slowly forget our philosophy, the one bringing us a steady supply of food, sleep and sex, we begin to think we can write anything into the law and it will be so. And so we do, and the next thing you know, the law, nor the abiding philosophy are no longer based in truth, and begin to fail, but because the culture has forgotten what made them great (the truth) they don’t know how to fix it, after all, those are old fashioned ideas. So as time goes on and the culture weakens because it’s lost, (even though those in the culture are too arrogant to realize it) their enemies come over the wall and loot what’s left, and you have sudden death (to the surprise of the culture). So the law, and its abiding philosophy has to be base in truth, and that truth has to be passed on from generation to generation in tact, and has to be believed by each generation, or they just become predators in the tall grass of the law, bending and twisting it to their own ends. Either you believe in the law, or you don’t. ©

Chapter 4

So now, in order to build anything, we have to have a steady supply of food, sleep and sex. If we are going to attempt to act contrary to our instincts, and act according to the subjective ideas put forth earlier, than we need a foundation. We need a steady supply of food, water, shelter and sex.

Now food was found through the idea of farming, that a man could grow ten times the food he needs with a plan and an effort. Another man could raise more meat than he could ever eat with a plan and some effort, and so we have the ranch. Yet another man can raise enough flax to clothes himself ten times over. These same men might be drawn together through a common source of water and agree to trade amongst themselves, cloth, for flour, flour for meat, meat for cloth, and so on. So each man can specialize, allowing others to provide certain needs, and together they live better lives than they would each one on his own. They also come to realize that two men can grow ten times what they need, which doubles the surplus, by adding only one man. So then comes the idea of family, with a woman, you can build a work force, and with a work force, you can build wealth.

These same men might find it necessary to come together as a fighting force in order to protect what they have from others, for the law within a culture, extend only to that culture. So other cultures might find their source of food, sleep and sex by looting what you have built, it calls for less discipline and effort on their part. Now keep in mind that on both sides of this equation are men willing to fight and die for food, sleep and sex, (if it's true here, than it's true there.) Again, these are the motivators.

So now we have a culture that’s growing, with many people working at different things, producing wealth, and are now in need of a common tool to help move trading along, into the picture comes the subjective idea of money. You can sell your goods for money, and with that money you can go and buy those things you need that someone else produces. It’s a tool to ease trading, that’s all it is. Now gold has been the standard for money a long time because it is beautiful, resilient and stable, but it’s only value, is the value a man puts on it. If a man does a days work for a piece of gold, than that piece of gold it worth a day work, that simple. What will a day’s work buy? Whatever that piece of gold will buy.

Now there is an inherent danger here, if you can buy food, sleep and sex with money, you might lose sight of how and why it came about and end up believing in money instead of depending on philosophy. If this be the case, and it evolves into the rule and everybody is in pursuit of money, than who’s building the wealth? Keep in mind, money is not wealth, money is simply a tool, wealth is the grain, the ability to ground it into flour, meat, fish, cloth, wood, leather, so no and so forth. So if there is nothing to buy, if no one wants it, than money ceases to have value. You can’t eat gold.

So we have to be careful in how we look at money. Money is the grease of trade, but a day’s work gives it value. For instance, I give you a twenty dollar bill and you go and buy a twenty dollar watch. What’s the value of the watch to you? Zero. Are you going to worry about a thief, are you going to keep it clean and in repair? Why (outside of emotional ties)? Because you have no investment, one minute you don’t have a watch, the next you do. It’s no different than had I given you the watch instead of the twenty dollars. Neither has value. But if you go out and work all day to earn that twenty dollars, and you go and buy a twenty dollar watch, you now have a watch worth a day’s wages. You’ll take care of it, protect it from thieves; repair it, for it now represents a day’s work(your time.)

So money represents the work you do, or the work (time) you put into something, and it is a convenience way of storing work (time) already done for future use. The better you are at what you do, the more your money is worth; therefore the money is only worth as much as the culture puts into it. Money is also a powerful tool to try new things, to fuel common projects, to provide for the common defense, to go different places, to see new sights. So you must work money into your philosophy, but keep it in perspective, it is a tool, the work (the time) has to be done, or the money has no value. Again, we have to believe this at our core, in the gray matter, like the law in order for it to work; otherwise we are just thieves lurking in the tall grass. If we slip up and end up believing money will provide, then it doesn’t. Why? Because it isn’t true, you can’t eat gold. Wealth is not built on money, it’s built on work. Regardless of the subjective nature of this discussion, work is real, work is what moves stones, plows fields, herds and keeps track of animals, builds shelters, so on and so forth. So even though money is a subjective idea, it has to be rooted in what is real, what is true or it collapses.

Sleep, like food is very demanding. Like food, when under pressure, can be done without, for awhile, but like food, after awhile, it catches up with you, and you’re going to sleep, like it or not. The problem, as a mammal, is you are very vulnerable, and off your guard, when you are asleep. Something, or someone could sneak up and eat you, yet it is something you have to do. So the seeking of safe shelter is high on the list of priorities of most animals, it’s evolution, survival of the fittest. I have to sleep, therefore I have to be safe when I am asleep, that simple.

So a man could build a simple hut and be protected from most things that might eat him, but another man could destroy a hut, and did. So the idea of the city came about, walls, motes, palisades, ect… But the man making his living sacking those fool enough to work is not going to be deterred, and so he mounts an army to come through or over your walls, motes, palisades, ect… So now you have to mount a defense, or join them.

So if I am going to have a working philosophy, it is going to have to deal with sleep, which calls for friends with common ideas and goals so as to come together for the common defense against those who would take what you have built, while you sleep. I (one of us) needs to be awake, alert and diligent, for another man will use your weaknesses against you, the Trojan Horse, the siege, ect… So we are driven to find a safe place to sleep, a truth I can believe in and build on, and which has to be included in your philosophy, if it’s going to work, and you have to believe in it, or you will lay awake at night worrying, and lack of quality rest will bring about your demise. But if you do believe and sleep well, but forget its footing and where it’s rooted, then you might neglect those things which secure it, and off your guard, over the walls your enemies come, while you sleep.

Then you have sex, it’s different from food and sleep insomuch as one can go along time without it without physical harm, but nobody wants to. It’s the instinct which perpetuates the species. It’s a hard driving instinct, like eating and sleeping which isn’t going to be denied and which has to be dealt with. Well, because of the need of a workforce, and this workforce is tied to the idea of family, the idea of a man keeping a woman evolve into marriage, or did it?

Chapter 5

Now, if we are going to look at this honestly, we have a couple of problems here a kinda kin to the chicken and the egg. Remember I said earlier, evolution can’t explain the being; the human creature is made of atoms, period, atoms, I don’t care how you pile them up, aren’t going to be aware of themselves. Well I see a problem with man himself as well. If you take the being out of the human creature, he is not going to be a successful species. He is not, as a rule, strong enough, fast enough to survive anywhere, except maybe a tropical rain forest, and even then, he’s easy pick’ens for the predators. Without the being to make use of all that brain power, the physical human creature isn’t really much good.

It is kinda like the birds, evolutionist want to tell me they are a product of random selection over millions of years, yet when you go through the process of changing a reptile into a bird, you come up with an intern creature which is going to be eaten. You can’t have a creature which uses flight as its primary means of escape, not be able to fly! Which is what evolution is trying to say, that a creature run along the ground, jumped into the air, flapped its forearms until one day its bones hollowed out and its scales turned to feathers and it took to the air. That creature, I promise you, by the laws of evolution, was eaten, every time it run and jumped and flapped its forearms. The moment it left the ground, somebody ate it.

Then you have the bovine of the plains, they eat grass, they have five stomachs so they can make good use of the food sources available in grass. Now which came first, the grass on the plains, or the five stomachs? Now bovine are depended on numbers to survive, like grass, the grass grows quicker than the bovine can eat it, so the bovine has to grow faster than the predators that eat them, so with pressure on their populations, I ask you again, which came first, the grass or the stomachs?

So which came first, the being, or the human creature, flight, or flight as a primary means of escape, grass or the fives stomachs, the chicken or the egg? Seems to me there is design within these evolutionary events, and if there is design in these, then the whole of the creation is by design. Now design is a subjective idea, and we know that subjective ideas are a product of the being, so now it stands to reason that a being is responsible for the layout of the creation as a whole. We have also come to understand that everything is enter connected, and so if there is design, than is stands to reason, because everything is enter connected, there is only one design, and if there is only one design, than it stands to reason, the is only one designer.

So again, the idea of God comes back to haunt us. Now let us consider what we know. The universe is sixteen billion light-years across, and it seems if we look through the microscope, it’s as small as it is big. So if there is God, than he is awesome. Now if God is, and he is as awesome as the creation suggest, than he is capable of making himself known to us, and it stands to reason, that he would. So now, as a person trying to put together a working philosophy, I almost have to incorporate God into it, in order to make any sense of it. One of the things I’ve learned, is things add up, they make sense, the universe is constructed in such a way it adds up. Therefore, if God is going to reveal himself, then there will be evidence to that effect; in other words, it’s going to add up. But when you consider subjective ideas are the product of the being, then much about God, and understanding him will be subjective.

So let us go back to the idea of the aquarium for awhile and the problem God has in revealing himself to us. Remember it’s not an easy thing to do without disrupting the whole of the environment, and placing the fish into a state of shock. I think we decided that the best approach would be language, to speak to us, perhaps even to write it down for us. So how would he go about doing this, and gain credibility? In other words, how would we know it was him? I would think, because it would add up, and it would add up, if it was true.

I (supposedly) live in a time, some fifteen-thousand years beyond the dawn of modern man, so I would think an effort would have been made by this time. So the thing for me to do is look around and see if any such evidence exists. There are many Gods to choose from, but remember, we need credibility.

Now there seems to be one particular God out there with a long history, which in itself lends to credibility, and that is the God of the Hebrews. Now I know what you’re saying, ‘why would God choose just one people, and if the God of the Hebrews, than why not somebody else’s God? Don’t forget, God needs to build credibility, and I think the God of the Hebrews has done just that.

Understand it’s not my purpose to preach religion; it’s my purpose to provide the path to my philosophy and to provide the foundations onto which it is built.

I think one of the pillars of this credibility is the Hebrew people. If you think about whom they were, they weren’t much, a tribe of nomads roaming around in the Sahara desert with no land and no direction, a sad bunch of people really, who no doubt, should have become extinct. But they didn’t. What they were to God was a pen with which to write. They were just putting together a written language, it was yet to be corrupted with slang and a lot of philosophical ideas, it was pure. So, God took a failing people in hand, with a newly developing language, and through their history, revealed himself to us. Now you may ask why doesn’t God talk to me? He does, but the pen he used was talking to the Hebrews. That’s what you have to keep in mind, the Hebrews were the pen, the scriptures are written for everyone, but the pen he used was speaking to the Hebrews.

Now if I pick up a pen and I write a letter, the letter will say what I want it to say, but if the ink is blue in the pen, the letter is written in blue ink, if the pen is about out if ink, then it skips and blots, and the letter will still say what I want, but it will be full of skips and blots. In other words, I am limited by the attributes of the pen I choose. The same is true with God, when he choose the Hebrews to act as his pen; he wrote what he wanted to say, using the attributes of the pen.

This God of the Hebrews also seems to be consistent, that is to say, the same person throughout the history of the bible, and he seems to tell a consistent story throughout, that is to say it has a beginning, middle and an end. Written over a period of some fifteen-hundred years, this is not possible. I don’t care what you think or say, a people are not going to make up a story over a period of fifteen-hundred years, their ideas will change, their philosophy will change, and their interest in telling the story would fade. It’s not going to happen, with a consistent personality dominating throughout the whole of the story; no, this is beyond the reach of man.

On top of that, this God predicted the future time and again, and the Hebrews witnessed these predictions come about, time and again; again, beyond the reach of man. I know a lot of people today say, ‘well those were just stories.’ Well, maybe? But our modern grave robbers are telling us it’s all true as they dig up the evidence from the graves of the Hebrew people. We have evidence of the great flood, (it's everywhere) and every ancient culture starts with the story of the flood, but the history of the Hebrews penetrates the flood. You don’t find this curious?

So, not only do we have God, we have to include him as part of our formula in our rational pursuit of a working philosophy, which, if you haven’t notice, is a pursuit of the truth. So along with my mother and father, I will be quoting the bible quite a bit. ©

Chapter 6

So, again, food sleep and sex are our motivators. But remember; when I speak of these I always say ‘of the mammal’, why? Have you ask why; yet? Because the being in human being, complicates things. (Now here I need to clarify the term being. In philosophical terms, to be means only to exist. The desk at which I am writing this essay has being no different than myself; that is to say, I exist and so does the desk, I be, it be(s). When we speak of creatures, we say lion, tiger, bear and human being; we qualify human with being, not because the lion, tiger and bear don’t exist, but because the human being is aware of being, 'we exist because we know we exist’, there is consciousness of self.) Animals are no more aware of their existence than a rock, why, because they are made of the same things, atoms. Well an animal is much more complex(ed) than a rock? But it is still made of atoms, and atoms react according to what they are and with what they come in contact with, this can all be spelled out mathematically, via chemical reactions and DNA. There is no path to consciousness; it is still a pile of atoms. This dictated by the theory of evolution and the entirety of the animal kingdom. They are what they eat; they act according to their drives for food, sleep and sex. Even the chimp, who’s DNA is only fifteen percent different than the human still acts according to the laws of evolution. The chimp, the most intelligent of all the animals, hasn’t built any houses, tills no soil or laid any roads, nor is there any desire to see beyond the horizon. The chimp, the most celebrated of all the animals, because of its great intelligent(s) and similarities to man, is studied by observing their eating habits, their sleeping habits and their mating habits. Although man is still motivated by the big three, his being (consciousness) tends to complicate things a bit.

So now, as a product of the being, we have subjective ideas such as curiosity, possession, lust, fear, creativity, shame, beauty, sharing, love, pride, humility, purity, chastity, service, loyalty, individualism, nobility, honesty, justice, law, power, self and God. None of which contribute to the survival of the human animal, but all contribute to the human living better than he otherwise would. These are all things that will motivate the human (being) to act, but not always in line with the way he feels.

How do you train a chimp to do things he would not ordinarily do in the wild; like balancing a ball or jumping through a hoop. You change his environment, you change the way he responds to his world: conditioning response. You don’t try and rationalize with him. So when it comes right down to it, the chimp is still acting according to the way it feels, it’s what drives the animals. Well, you ask, humans learn from conditioning response? I won’t argue with that, but who thought up the conditions and the responses and why? When we act contrary to the way we feel, we impose our will and if our action is valid, then we teach our children to act in the same way (tradition), but because they were taught, their feeling don’t contradict their actions, therefore they have been conditioned, but you were not, you created the response to the condition. We have the power to impose our will upon the world as opposed to just being a part of the world and through tradition, impose that will through generations. My mother always said, ‘you have the power to make yourself anybody you want to be.’

So let’s examine this a little closer, if evolution is the rule of the day, and God created it, than it is by design, and the animals are what he wills them to be (as is the rest of the universe). Now we contradict the design of evolution in so much that we are aware of it and act contrary to its precepts, and go so far as to impose our own will upon it. That is to say we have being and will. If the universe is, than so too is its creator, and if the universe can be understood through mathematical deduction (language), than it is by design, which is subjective, a product of the being, and because it (the universe) exist, it is a product of the will. A man can design an automobile, but that doesn’t mean it exist, the automobile remains a subjective idea, a product of the being, until the man through the exercise of his will creates it from the materials at hand, only then does it exist (as an automobile). Can an automobile exist without its creator? Therefore God has being and will. If God has being and will and we have being and will, then we have some aspect of God in us. Genesis 1-27 ‘God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.’ Seems to me it is safe to conclude that the male and female, the hands, feet, eyes, nose so on and so forth, makes us human, for we are like the mammals, therefore the being (consciousness) and will (action contrary to the dictate law of nature) must be the divine image, because none of the animals posses these. Human beings, therefore it is safe to conclude, are not animals. We are Man.

Also consider Genesis 1-28 through 2-7, here we find God gave dominion to man over all the earth, the fish, birds and all the animals and as we go into the extended story of creation, we find a story about God forming man out of the clay of the ground ‘and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.’ This seems to be a curious idea, it seems God made the whole of the universe, and then with a personal touch, he made man a living being. It also seems, the earth having been made a functioning environment, was given to man. Let me state here, this idea removes evolution's credibility.

So why is it important to establish the idea of man, as a separate creature from the rest of the world? Let’s go back to the idea of the aquarium. You prepare an aquarium with everything the fish are going to need; you set it up and get it running. Then you go and pick fish to put in it, what is the responsibility of the fish? To be fish, nothing more. So what’s important here, the aquarium, or the fish. Now you went to a lot of trouble to set up the aquarium, money, time, effort; but why did you set it up? So you could put fish in it. My point is; we are not a product of evolution, why? Because it doesn’t add up, we contradict the entire idea, but if you take the story of creation, and you balance it with the idea of the aquarium, it fits nicely with science. The earth (the universe as a whole) is our aquarium; God prepared the earth for the sole purpose of putting us in it. So I ask you, what’s important, the earth, or man? So... what's the responsibility of man..? To be man.... in the likeness and image of The Creator. That simple..... If......... we were to do that, God indeed, would take care of everything else.

George Henry Nichols