Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

During the past few days the GOP presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has been explaining why all the sacrifices he has made – creating thousands of jobs(?) – is on a par with that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan. Their son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed by a suicide car bomb in 2004. He was 27. As a result, Trump’s stand on the issue has drawn almost universal condemnation, even from leaders of his own party, although none have actually withdrawn their support. Apparently he has not learned a fundamental rule of self-preservation: When you have dug yourself into a hole, stop digging. This is not the first time that Trump has found himself at odds with the general sentiment; as a result, I have been inspired to look for an explanation for his apparent obliviousness to other people’s concerns and feelings. And I think I have found one. According to the American Psychological Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 4th Edition, Text Revisio...

A Noah’s Ark Theme Park has opened in Kentucky, and according to those who have seen it, it’s a wonder to behold. Its sheer size and workmanship are obviously the work of modern day craftsmen, which raises the question of how unskilled artisans using the tools available at the time of Noah could have created such a massive structure. Even its shape resembles that of a vessel of today, which also begs the question as to how Noah was able to create a craft four thousand years before its time. Of course, since it was designed merely to float, the problem of a propulsion system never came up; this greatly simplified the task. As a theme park the ark indeed appears to be an interesting attraction, but the term appears to be designed to cover up the real intention of the founder, Ken Ham, and the organization for which he fronts: Answers in Genesis . This is an effort at mass indoctrination into the belief in Biblical inerrancy by the proponents of Creation Science. I do not intend t...

     How about this for a wild idea?      Dispense with urinals in public restrooms – most men don’t use them at home. Furnish all rest rooms with cubicles that have floor to ceiling walls. Each cubicle would have a door with a deadbolt that locks from the inside. A small sign on the outside of each cubicle would automatically display “Occupied” or “Vacant” as the occupant activates or deactivates the lock. Everyone would use any rest room because they would all be alike in providing privacy and protection for all.      Wait a minute – perhaps it’s not so wild after all. The airlines have been doing this for years. ****** My books , “There Are Only Seven Jokes” and “The Spirit Runs Through It” are available in paperback or Kindle at Amazon.  

Previously I discussed the futility of arguing the existence or non-existence of God (April 4, 2016, Some Thoughts on God is a Question, Not an Answer ). This is not the same as discussing the merits of a belief in God’s existence.         When Voltaire wrote “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him,” he was not saying that he doubted God’s existence; i n fact, the statement was made as part of a piece that he wrote condemning and refuting an atheistic essay called The Three Imposters. He was concerned that the essay was an extremely dangerous work since it questioned a notion that was useful for society: the idea that criminals would be punished in the afterlife. I think Voltaire’s view was too small.          Let me digress to discuss the concept of a worldview, which, according to Merriam-Webster, is a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific s...

William Irwin, professor of Philosophy at King’s College, posted an opinion piece in the New York Times (March 26, 2016) entitled God is a Question, Not an Answer. Professor Irwin contends, rightly I believe, that both the true believer and the avowed atheist “must admit that he has his doubts, that occasionally he thinks he might be wrong.” Does God exist? Irwin goes on, “There is no easy answer: Indeed, the question may be fundamentally unanswerable.” As a result, Irwin suggests that people should not be too dogmatic in their discussions of the question, but should be open to opinions from all areas of the spectrum. I should like to discuss how the question arose in the first place. Both the believer and the non-believer eventually arrive at an answer which, although they may not realize it, turns out to be the same unfalsifiable hypothesis about which Bertrand Russell wrote so clearly in 1952. 1 Or as Carl Sagan so succinctly put it, "Your inability to invalidate...

     Suppose there were a large group of U.S. citizens who followed a certain major religion. All of these followers appear to be good citizens. However, a very tiny minority have been performing egregious atrocities which have received worldwide condemnation. What would be your feelings toward this group as a whole? Here are a few scenarios from which to choose:      1)    Do not allow any more followers of this religion to enter the United States. Normally we have not put up barriers to followers of a particular religion, but there is precedent for it. In 1939 the ship Saint Louis , carrying 937 Jewish passengers attempting to escape from Hitler’s Germany, was turned away. The ship returned to Europe, and 254 of the passengers became victims of Hitler’s final solution to “the Jewish problem.” The rest were allowed refuge by other European countries.      2)    Sequester those followers who are alr...

Recent letters to the editor indicate a common misunderstanding of the difference between meteorologists and climatologists. Without going into the argument for or against human-caused climate change, I should like to clarify this difference. Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere using traditional tools: the thermometer, barometer, anemometer, and hygrometer, along with modern tools such as radar, earth-observing satellites and computer modeling. Because of their effect on weather forecasting, the study of certain specific conditions, such as El Niño, the North Atlantic Oscillation, etc., is also important. The focus is on short term weather phenomena and forecasting, normally several days or weeks. Climatology is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time. Its tools are ice cores and tree rings, along with meteorological data accumulated over many years: rainfall, temperature, atmosphe...