Rick's Blog

It helps them. Science can provide some of the most inspirational religious experiences. Consider the imagery described by Carl Sagan: A still more glorious dawn awaits Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise A morning filled with 400 billion suns The rising of the milky way Imagine the majesty, the inspiration, the "evidence" for the glory of God shining down on us by a magnificent sunrise. Now multiply that by 400 billion. Now multiply that by 1 trillion (estimates place the approximate number of galaxies in the visible universe at 1.4 trillion). And that represents only the subset of the universe that we can see and only that which we can see with our most sophisticated instruments. God, if He exists, is greater than all that. Humans, in our weakness, can be brought to tears by the "majesty" of God evidenced by the dawning of a single star when in reality that vision represents an infinitesimally small portion of God's true glory. The degree to which we experi

I have often used this analogy when describing logical thought and how some people (usually religious) refuse to see the obvious shortcomings of how they look at things. Consider this familiar setting: Wile E. Coyote looks across the canyon and see the Roadrunner. So he gets a bunch of planks of wood and nails one to his end of the canyon. He walks to the end of that plank and nails another plank to the end. He walks to the end of that plank and repeats the process until he runs out of planks almost all the way to the Roadrunner. The Roadrunner points down and runs away. Wile E. Coyote looks down, waves to the camera and falls down the canyon. Wile E. Coyote extended his thought process without having the proper logical support for the thought he already had and extended himself all the way across the canyon with no support to stand on. Eventually, his entire system collapsed under its own weight, as it should have from the very first plank. And this is the problem w

O to struggle against great odds, to meet enemies undaunted! To mount the scaffold, to advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalance! To be indeed a God! ~ Walt Whitman, " A Song of Joys " I have come to know the joy of this inner strength of which Uncle Walt sings.  Didn't particularly like the path that brought me here, but as they say "no pain, no gain."  I struggled against those great odds, and they tore me down, but now I see they only succeeded because I allowed them to succeed.  I gave myself up to them.  Now the wool has been pulled back from my eyes, and I have reclaimed me for me.  I have remounted the scaffolding and rebuilt myself.  And now I know no fear.  I know no tyranny over my mind nor over my heart.  I meet my enemies undaunted, because they cannot make me cower before them.  I advance against them with perfect nonchalance, because their attacks cannot hurt me.  They are insects to my power.  I am once again impenetr

I was thinking about why it is I think the way I think, like what exactly are my primary motivations for aspiring to live by my virtues. And I came up with this partial answer: Data. Lt. Commander Data, Science Officer of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701D. Hear me out. I live my life with as much emotion as possible. I allow myself to feel and feel deeply, because I believe that is embracing life, and living life fully, and experiencing, being "close" to God. Because I now flex that muscle, I am strong. Because I embrace my emotions and my desire to laugh and especially my desire to cry, my emotional muscle strength can keep me in control when emotions like anger and fear come up. Because I feel and because I laugh and cry, anger and fear no longer control me - I control them . I am now stronger than them. I now have the whip and chair. And my animal will no longer overpower my human reason and my ability to stay in control and analyze and find the best solution to any situation

Being a huge Genesis fan, I am obviously a fan of Peter Gabriel. I'm not crazy about his music since he left Genesis, but he is hands down one of the greatest lyricists in the history of rock'n'roll. In fact, one of his Genesis songs "The Cinema Show" was included in a college-level text book on modern poetry as THE song representative of the entire rock'n'roll genre, but I digress... "Solsbury Hill" is sheer genius and has always been one of my favorite songs of his, but only recently have I understood the deeper meaning of the lyrics. I won't take up space with the lyrics, but you can follow along here . This is my interpretation of the song: First verse: in a moment of clarity, he is rescued from his own life. Second verse: he decides to turn within to rebuild himself, silently, lest anyone consider him a nutjob for thinking that he actually has the power to fix himself, because in the eyes of others, that would require Jesus-like ab

I am of the belief that what problems we suffer through in life effect us only as much as we allow them to.  The Christians depicted demons for centuries as vicious carnivores filled with evil.  I don't believe in demons like that, but I believe that the fear the imagery inflicts on us is the result of something real.  The true demon is the tendency within ourselves to submit our own will to depressive and self-degrading thoughts, as if to cower before them like they were giant red creatures with horns and pitchforks.  The truth is because you are alive and sentient, you have the ability to do whatever you choose to do, and no demon has any power over you.  The day a person stands up to that fear inside of them that tells them they are unable to overcome Problem X (weight, job, relationship, etc) is the day that person claims their God-given ability to control their own destiny and to cast out that demon.  If you are unhappy with your appearance or with your smoking,