God

You are currently browsing articles tagged God.

Americans Are Hindus?

August 17, 2009 in Religion / Baha'i Faith by Ezra S F | No comments

Perhaps I don’t understand a Newsweek article advocating Americans have more in common with Hinduism than Christianity?

First, the numbers of Americans who agree with the sentiments are 65%, 30%, and 24% respectively for each argument. We’d use numbers as strong as 30% and 24% to illustrate people are opposed to something. Of course, we’d use “only” to precede the terribly small number.

Second, the one decent argument, that Americans are accepting there are many paths to God can be found in many of the world’s religions. The Baha’i Faith takes it a step further. God started each of the major religions to bring all of humanity together in moral maturity. Yes, there are differences. However, distilling the teachings down to what they teach about morality, there is far more in common than distinct.

Hinduism is more than respect for people choosing their own path to God, being spiritual, or cremation. Americans are much more complex than these ideas as well.

Trusting Social Networks

July 14, 2009 in Interweb, Privacy by Ezra S F | No comments

Sunday at brunch we had an interesting conversation about Facebook.

Establishing the appropriate privacy levels to the various constituents see appropriate material is hard. So hard it takes a long pages of text and screenshots to just paint a picture of what to review for the top 10 Facebook privacy settings.

We were discussing how to make the Facebook world we touched more private. How to keep those we supervise or those who supervise us at bay once accepted into our social circle. Few of us only post things our grandmothers would find acceptable, so how do we ensure grandma will never see that picture? This meant banning grandma from seeing the Wall or photo albums or tagged photos.

I had heard we would soon be able to change the privacy levels of individual posts.  This privacy granularity comes at a price according to the New York Times:

By default, all your messages on Facebook will soon be naked visible to the world. The company is starting by rolling out the feature to people who had already set their profiles as public, but it will come to everyone soon.

People like walled gardens. Taking a term from Seth Godin, interacting with just the handpicked few forms a tribe.

If sunlight is the best disinfectant, then social networking on Facebook will die should it be exposed to the world (or too hard to remain private). The most common criticism of blogging is the whole world is in your business. People like the faux-protection of participating online where Google cannot archive it for posterity. This is why Facebook experienced such explosive growth.

Hopefully users will be able to deal with keeping everything as private as they like. Otherwise, we’ll be looking for another walled garden. Maybe I’ll even end up back on my private Twitter account?

BBworld From Afar

July 14, 2009 in Blackboard Vista, Interweb by Ezra S F | No comments

Staying true to tradition, Blackboard found a great speaker, Seth Godin, with a positive message. Notes people took…

Scott found the best point, I think.

Compliance doesn’t work to create value. Compliant work will always go to the lowest bidder. We can always find someone cheaper to follow the manual. Value is created by doing something different.

See! This is a mind numbingly positive message.

I liked some people on Twitter pointed to Jeff Longland’s role with VistaSWAT as a leader in the vacuum Blackboard has left open in the community.

Created a Yahoo Pipe for Bbworld09.

UPDATED 2009-07-15:

This TED video has much of the same substance as Godin’s Bbworld keynote.

Image of God

February 2, 2008 in Quotes, Religion / Baha'i Faith by Ezra S F | No comments

I picked up Einstein and Religion the other day. Its been a compelling read as I am about 1/3 through in just over 24 hours. Both of these come from pages 74-75.

Maimonides:

Our Knowledge [of God] consist in knowing that we are unable to comprehend Him.

Spinoza:

On your question whether I have a clear idea of God as I have of triangle, I would answer in the affirmative; but on your question whether I have a clear image of God as I have of triangle, I would answer in the negative. For of God no image can be made.

From Dead and Buried to Reaching the Stars

December 17, 2007 in About Me by Ezra S F | No comments

What is the American fascination with Tutankhamun? Personally, I favor Ramses II. Actually, Ramses II was one of my first obsessions. I knew everything there was to know about him at seven years old. Decades later, I’ve forgotten most of what I knew.

We share the phoneme “Ra”. Ra was an Egyptian sun god probably a tie for my interest in other sun gods and goddesses such as Helios, Sól, Amaterasu and Apollo. Unlike Icarus, I longed to fly too close to the Sun. Other kids thought about becoming police officers or fighting fires. I longed to travel to inside the orbit of Mercury near our Sun. Also, I thought about traveling to other stars.

As a child, my doodles were small to fairly large battles of militaristic or science-fiction themes. I especially liked strong, impenetrable bases. Later, in high school, the doodles changed into massive dungeons and mammoth castles. The builder expressing itself?

The dreams of my childhood seemed unattainable in my youth. Certainly I gave up on them too early. However, I like where and who I am today.

Godwin’s Law

June 9, 2007 in Philosophy by Ezra S F | No comments

Godwin’s Law:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

Wowsers…

Where is God?

July 25, 2006 in Humor / Weird, Religion / Baha'i Faith, from LiveJournal by Ezra S F | No comments

Two little boys, ages 8 and 10, are excessively mischievous, they are always getting into trouble and their parents know all about it. If any mischief occurs in their town, the two boys are probably involved. The boys’ mother heard that a preacher in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The preacher agreed, but he asked to see them individually. So the mother sent the 8 year old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the preacher in the afternoon.

The preacher, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, “Do you know where God is, son?”

The boy’s mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open. So the preacher repeated the question in an even sterner tone, “Where is God?!”

Again, the boy made no attempt to answer. The preacher raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy’s face and bellowed, “Where is God?!”

The boy screamed & bolted from the room, ran directly home & dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him.

When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, “What happened?” The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, “We are in BIG trouble this time. GOD is missing, and they think we did it!”

Dragons

July 10, 2006 in Books / Novels / Writing, from LiveJournal by Ezra S F | No comments

This series is my LOTR (the books I have read over and over). From 7th grade through 11th grade I read them at least once a year, usually twice. I replaced my first copy with another as the covers were nearly destroyed.

So, now I know how the fanatics feel (not true, . I so would love to see this be a great set of movies. At the same time, I know fanatics generally dislike the movie adaptations.

Dragons’ Weis Likes Movie | SCI FI Wire:

Author Margaret Weis told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming film version of her book Dragons of Autumn Twilight necessarily cuts a lot of the book’s plot to make it fit into 90 minutes, but, she added: “I read the script, and I like it. It’s very faithful to the book.” Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first in the Dragonlance series of books, is being adapted into an animated film written by George Strayton and directed by Will Meugniot.

Weis added in an interview that she and her co-author, Tracy Hickman, always hoped that the series would be made into movies. “While we working on the book 20 years ago, Tracy and I used to joke, ‘This scene would look great in the movie!’” Weis said. “And now it will.” How does she feel about the upcoming production? “Very pleased. Very excited. And a little nervous.”

The series of books is based on the universe of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games. Dragons of Autumn Twilight begins with a group of adventurers who seek the truth about missing gods, then become involved in a quest to learn more about a staff with the power to heal. The series grew to more than 100 titles. Weis co-wrote 10 novels and wrote several by herself. She has also edited stories for Dragonlance anthologies.

The Dragonlance “world is fantastical, romantic, with lots of political intrigue and characters people can relate to,” Weis said. “The heroes are not kings or princes. They are ordinary people—middle-class working types—who get caught up in extraordinary situations. And, of course, there are dragons.” —Carol Pinchefsky

UPDATE 2010-JAN-16: I watched this movie a while back. While a fan of the books at age 14, the movie made me nauseas to watch. The voice acting sucked. Animation 1980s Saturday morning cartoon quality doesn’t belong in a movie made for the late 2000s.

Protected: Homework – Know Thyself

July 8, 2006 in Uncategorized by Big Eazy | Enter your password to view comments

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:


I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr

January 15, 2006 in Movies / Films / TV, Race / Racism, from LiveJournal by Ezra S F | No comments

Boondocks did an episode on Martin Luther King, Jr. It inspired me to Google MLK. Much of this is a poignant reminder of how far and not far enough the both America and the world have come. We are not living the dream.

Yet…

I Have A Dream

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968
I Have a Dream Speech

« Older entries