Pray for Orlando

This weekend the LGBT community was targeted by a terrorist attack.  The attacker a self-radicalized member of ISIS/ISIL.  Now 50 people with possibly more to come are dead.  These people did not deserve this.  They should have never have died the way they did in this hateful malignant violence.

So I say prey for the dead, their families and those who are struggling to survive their injuries in the hospital.  Pray with all your might.

Pray for Orlando

Gods other children: Demons (Djinn)

Did you know that in the Koran that God also created the Djinn (demons in western lore)?  Yep, God created them too.  The order of creation was the angels, then the djinn and then man.  However, many people don't know about this or have considered the role of the djinn in our spiritual world (at least that is how I see it).  So who are the Djinn?

Djinn or in the western world demons are beings made of fire and gas.  It is kind of like how man was made from clay and ash, while angels were made of light and warmth.  According to Islamic tradition, these creatures are generally invisible to the naked eye.  They fade in and out of view due to their composition.  They take on the roles of nature spirits and of antagonists to man.  In short they help balance nature and also to test mankind.  As such they are generally neutral or dangerous to mankind (hence stories of possession and afflictions by demons).  Needless to say as beings created second by God, they see themselves as superior to man.  They are equally however capable of great good or evil like mankind.  So you could say they were the prototypes to man as well.  Interestingly King Solomon in the Bible was able to use holy scriptures and spells (yes those things existed back then in Judaism) to control and manipulate the djinn.  

Like the tribes of Israel, the djinn are organized into twelve tribes of their own and with a possible thirteenth tribe existing.  The tribes are organized based on each types of djinn's nature and what they are capable of.  Of course Christianity expanded on this and created an organization of demons of the underworld where there are 72 legions each led by some sort of demonic king or earl as the ranks follow the same kind of royal ranking systems of medieval Europe (books were written about it in that time after all).  Nowadays we usually just lump them together under Satan or Lucifer or even call them all devils.  

Final thought:  We forget that God is supposed to come first and that God created everything.  So to test us, to mold us as we evolve as human beings it is no stretch that God created the djinn (demons).  It also becomes more complex if we include the creatures of other countries outside of the Middle East and Europe to the mix like the Indian Rakasha and Japan's Nui.  Already some cryptozoologists are trying to integrate and categorize these creatures in a religious format especially Japans cryptozoologists as they have already placed things like Vampires and Werewolves into their own classification system for their demons, the Yokai.  Needless to say I find it all interesting and fun to learn about.  So this is me just sharing.

Lucifer Vs Satan.

So Lucifer and Satan are not the same angel.  Yes they are both angels who fell, but are not the same.  Yesterday we told the background of Lucifer, so today for clarity and hopefully an interesting article, we will tell the backstory of Satan.   Satan's story starts similarly to Lucifer’s.  He is jealous of God's love for his new creation Adam.  But instead of rebelling by trying to corrupt his fellow angels, he instead speaks out in defiance in front of everyone.  Satan wants to know why Adam and humanity are more perfect than him and the other angels.  God says that they are the closest of his creations that resemble his image.  Basically, mankind is closest to God in shear terms of looks and perhaps even mentally as well (angels are pure, and thus are more corruptible than man).  So God says for him to prove it and gives Satan a job for which he is motivated for.  As such, Satan is to tempt man into disobeying God.  That is Satan's job.  He goes around testing our faith, trying to make us falter in our faith and do things that are against God's will.  Hence when Muslims pray, they do it shoulder to shoulder believing that they can keep Satan at bay by not giving him the room to whisper in their ears.

So who actually sits on the throne of hell?  It is most likely Lucifer as he would be pleased to oversee the punishment of those who disobey God.  Satan's job tempts man, while Lucifer brings about divine punishment in the afterlife as part of his redemption.  It can be inferred that these angels both in their dislike for man became the perfect vessels for God to test those who come the closest to being God (us mankind).  You see, no matter what, God loves all that he created, so giving them all a second chance is not out of the realm of possibility (hence why I believe God could allow for and instigate instances of reincarnation for the soul and spirit to redeem themselves).  God gave Lucifer a second chance (along with his followers) to put fear into the hearts of man.  Basically, Lucifer punishes sinners for betraying God's expectations.   So you could even say that Lucifer hates man even more for betraying God by sinning in the first place (we are closest to God due to our being made in God's image after all.) 

Final Thought:  I think personally both angels are fully motivated to do their best to tempt and to punish man for our insurrections (Lucifer is burning us in hell fire after all to make us become redemptive).  Though I think this hatred is less hate and more sibling rivalry or even the desire for power.  I mean, what older sibling does not get jealous of the attention the younger sibling gets.  In fact if you apparently read the Hebrew text of the Torah, when Gods name is written, it stands for parent and then changes throughout the course of the text to mean different things.  So you could say that big bad Lucifer and Satan are our much older angelic bad boy brothers (or sisters as angels are not supposed to have a biological sex), who try to aid God (Big Daddy) by teaching and disciplining their younger siblings (us).  To do so they try to tempt people away from believing in God.  Or at least, this is what I am getting from what I have learned.  Yea, they are jealous, and maybe even resentful, but in the end they perform a very important duty by tempting us, and burning our sins away in hell fire.  That duty is to reinforce our mental fortitude, our faith, and our inner spirit as we become worthy to stand before God.

When the angels fell. Heaven's war.

I have always heard stories of the fall.  When Lucifer led his band of angels and was cast out of heaven.   But I wondered.  God is all powerful.  He created us and thus can destroy us.  So how can angels make war against God without being smited?  The answer came to me when I was watching a discussion between Dr. Alveda King (Dr. Martin Luther King's niece) and Glenn Beck.  That answer was that the 1/3 of angels cast out did not make literal war.  They couldn't.  Instead they used a war of words and ideology.  Lucifer who was jealous of man whispered in the other angel’s ears and told them that they were better.  That if they listened to him, then everything would come out ok.  In this, Lucifer wanted to supplant God due to his jealousy of man replacing him as God's favorite by controlling heaven in the same way mankind continues to vie for control of earth.   It was a rebellion of thought in order to ascertain power.  That power was to show that Lucifer was the perfect son and could be as great as God.

 Now the question is, why God didn’t just push them at the outset.  Why didn't God just be rid of Lucifer before he corrupted so many?  I think there is a few reasons.  God created the angels just like he did man.  As such, Lucifer and the other angels are God's children as well.  God could have been hoping that another angel could talk Lucifer out of it.  That the arguments against would prevail.  However, Lucifer's promises of not having to do anything but obey corrupted the pure hearted angels.  They stopped thinking and therefore no longer performed their duties.  They became a cancer.  That cancer was going to corrupt all the angels if not stopped, and thus God cast out his favorite angel Lucifer and those who no longer could think for themselves save follow Lucifer down from heaven.  

Final Thought:  Now to me it makes sense.  That an angel could actually beat God or supplant God was preposterous to me.  But as a power struggle where Lucifer sought control over the other angels and thus manipulated them into not obeying God, now that makes sense.  However, I do not think it was God fearing losing control of his kingdom that worried him.  It was what his children and Lucifer especially would do with that ability to manipulate and control that he feared.  God could not be defeated, but his other creations could.  So mankind and the other angels who were still loyal and could think for themselves were under threat of possible persecution by Lucifer's mentally lazy followers who rely on others to think for them.  And as punishment Lucifer now sits on the throne of hell, or is it perhaps Satan, another who rebelled (if you look at the Islamic lore) who sits on hell's throne? Well that can be tomorrow’s blog post.  Hope you enjoyed the read.

Triconomy of humanity

Did you know that our bodies are separated into three parts when talking about them in a religious sense?  When God created us we were made in three parts.  Those three parts are as follows, body, soul and spirit.  So what do these parts consist of?  Well let me tell you what I know.

The Body:  Basically it is the human flesh.  Our bodies are our conduits to manipulate and travel in the physical plane of existence.

The Soul:  Our souls contain our emotions.  Everything primal "thought" wise is in there.  From the pleasure we get from sex, to the drive to live.  All these stem from here.

The Spirit:  The final component that is often used interchangeably with the soul terminology wise is the spirit.  The Spirit contains our knowledge, what shapes us and our conscious decision making.  It is also the part that passes on to Heaven and meets God (as far as we know that is, as the body is left behind).  As such it is considered the most important part of our triconomy as it allows us to communicate with God.

Final Thought:  This is me sharing again.  In this case I wanted to bring attention to another way of viewing the body soul and spirit to share that our soul and our spirit may not be the same thing.  In some cases people will reverse the role of soul and spirit based on their own beliefs or understandings of the words.  Interestingly to note is that many religions have souls, spirits and maybe even more components to what consists of us, the human in the body itself.  I personally believe in the above and thus I share this with you.  Hope you enjoyed learning a little about this subject and that it spurs you to seek out more knowledge on the subject.

Children and Concussions

Should we protect children from high impact sports?  I think we should, but under no circumstances should sports be banned.  So how would this work?

High impact sports, like Rugby and Football among others, put children at risk of a concussion with children being very susceptible to brain damage.  Apparently a single concussion can impair a child for over two years.   Yes children want to play these sports, but they cannot make an informed decision on when to play.  So now it is up to adults to figure out what to do.  Some policies and laws are being put in place that can help.  One such policy is "suspecting concussion".  What this does is have a child who is suspected of having a concussion be removed from the game immediately so they can be checked by a doctor on the side lines (another child on the team will sub in while this happens).  This helps ensure a child with a concussion gets help immediately.  Another such policy/law is "return to play" laws.  In this case, if a young athlete gets a concussion they must be cleared by a doctor before they can play again in any contact sports.  This policy protects the child from further damage to their brains.  Some colleges have taken to eliminating full contact training to limit concussions and other injuries which protects athletes.  Thus alternative means of training or even non-contact versions can be used to compete and train with one another.  Another idea is to base players on size rather than age which prevents kids from getting injured by the bigger/stronger members of their age group (bigger children hit harder and thus are more likely to cause severe injury to their smaller peers).

Conclusion:  There are options, as stated above, for the children to be protected from concussions and any further brain damage.  It takes a little common sense to balance child safety and them playing the sports we love.

Problems with Libertarian Candidates

The Libertarian party is the political party that wants to take over the world so that everyone can be left alone.  Basically, they advocate for as little government as possible while still being able to punish the obviously wrongful acts (things like murder), and protecting the country from harm (terrorists and foreign governments).  But the candidates for the party are problematic and here is my reasons why.

Let me start by saying I respect the libertarian party and what they stand for.  They want maximum freedom for each and every individual.  However, when they talk about those freedoms they scare people.  Candidates like Gary Johnson (former governor of New Mexico) wants all illegal drugs legalized, and for no drug to require a prescription.  As such you could buy Heroin, and Percocet.  Problem is that people in America are only really willing to allow Marijuana to be legal right now.  People in the United States cannot grasp the idea of people buying Heroin, Pot, Meth, Percocet’s and their antibiotics from a drug store without a prescription.  People fear the possibilities of drug intoxicated people dying on the streets of New York City and elsewhere.  While their fears are well grounded, countries like Spain have had legalized Heroin for years and they have none of the problems people fear most with legalizing narcotics (especially as the use of the once illegal drugs has dropped).  Libertarians thus cite these facts, but America is not ready to listen and thus the libertarians come off as lunatics.  Likewise it is the same for foreign policy.  Libertarians want free trade, and if you don't attack us we will not kill you attitude.  But many non-libertarians take this to mean isolationist policies and unwilling to fight enemies (like terrorists) based on how they present their arguments.  Basically we libertarians can come off as nutty.

Conclusion:  Austen Peterson, a libertarian Presidential candidate, actually talked about this issue with Glenn Beck.  He said that Libertarians have to be willing to make sacrifices while putting forth their ideology and as such be pragmatic.  So legalize weed, not anything else until it is acceptable to the general public.  Embrace free trade and potentially open borders when people's concerns over terrorism and jobs can be alleviated.  Basically, do not rush the ideology of personal freedom, instead let people decide if and when they are ready for the personal responsibility aspect that comes with being a libertarian.