Elen1107

I'm thinking that invisible matter and energy is, while perhaps not a completely settled matter, is understood to be by many scientists and people in the field to be very true and very real, that is, almost completely decided upon.

I, myself like string theory. I sometimes wonder if we can make our whole selves full of light and "vibrate" at a certain level, if that might be how eternity is achieved. Just saying 🙂

Well, if I do end up going there from time to time, I hope you'll take it with a smile and a grain of salt. It seems to be one of my roles in life sometimes. I think it's even one of the things that I've borrowed from the NT; - 1st Timothy 5-2 "Treat older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." I flip this around, but don't often feel like someone's mother or sister, so I end up being like an aunt. These are maybe, 'roles', but sometimes they can help and make things simpler and easier and put things in a kind of context.

That's just awful, & right around the corner too! The things that you mention can be good ideas, but some of them can also be rather expensive. Perhaps the costs of alarm systems and security screens will come down, or become more standardized. I'm thinking that this "CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design)" that you mention is a really good approach to things. It can help alot. I've lived in neighborhoods where the expectation of good citizenship was really high, and everyone knew it. There were more good people than bad people and the "bad guys" just knew it, and just pretty much knew they would get caught and wouldn't get away with things. Having this collective sense of good citizenship also gives people who don't really know what to do, a way of thinking and seeing things that they can 'step in with' and perhaps not end up going in the other or unhealthy directions. We may not really have "control" over these things, but we all do have some influence, even if it's just pointing these things out to other people, so eventually and step by step, a change is made and things get done. One thing I've noticed and that happens in society, is that when one or some parts of people's collective sense of good citizenship needs to be changed or updated, what people tend to do is tear the whole thing down and start all over again, instead of just examining, challenging and changing that one part. This is not a good or positive way of going about things.

I've figured out how to scroll back in time in this forum, to when I was last participating and posting here. I still vividly remember that day and leaving that theater. I'm wondering if it was an actual turning point for me. It's kind of funny to me, cause come on, this is Star Wars and total fiction and science fiction. Trying to remember if I'd ever heard of a concept of God or "the Force" like that before. This original Star Wars was mentioned by Joseph Campbell in his 'The Power of Myth ' series. I'm wondering if that's what finally gave me the impetus and the "faith" to say to myself, If this is the way that I really think of God, then I'm just going to go with it. 🙂 edit > Found a link to at least some of what Campbell said about this. To myself it was really just about the "force" or God just being this big, enormous energy or consciousness, not so much about war or human heroes and such

Could God be both?

I'm sorry, I thought you, or Burl, was referring to my last few posts and the conversation we were having there. What I was talking about is not necessarily a measurement of God. It's quantum level mathematics that tells the scientists that something like 98% of all matter and energy in the universe is invisible, that this energy and matter holds the universe together, that it can itself create what we know as matter, and that it must exist, or else the whole universe would come apart and would also not be there in the first place. A few people have stopped to speculate and ask if this might have something to do with God.

How did you access my posts from 2014? Does one just scroll down until one gets there? I'd been wanting to get back to this forum for about a year, but not getting to it. Then notices from this sight just started popping up in my email, so I thought it was a good time to re-start. It seems I really need a chance and opportunity to talk about PC and open minded Christianity. I was hoping I haven't been too much of an 'Aunt Ellen' to you, in some of the things I've said. This tends to happen with me a bit, especially with people that are younger than myself. Hope I didn't get too corny or something. Good to hear and see that you are still getting on and along

Well, what I'm asking is if one of your sons decided to live alone as a single person, what kind of building and architectural security would you want him to have? Would you want him to live on the first floor where it's perhaps easier to break in. Would you want him to have a locked entry way to the building, or even double doors and double locks to enter the building? Would you want it to be in a place where the tenants are well screened so there'd be less chances of crime? Would you want good doors to the entryways to the actual apartment or place, with good locks on the doors too? Would you want the fire exits to be built in a way that would make them hard for a person to use to break in? Where would the building be located? Would the area be well lit or situated so people are less likely to commit crimes in front of or near it? What else is involved? I'm not sure. I guess I'm assuming that if a person goes out on their own as a single individual, that they will be renters or if they are lucky condo owners and not owning an entire house. What should these places be like and be built like in order for them to be safe for everyone living there? I think I disagree with you where you say, "I don't think there is any place or building that someone would want to live that would be completely safe from harm. It would be more like a prison with much freedom given up." I myself would love to live in a place or a building that is completely safe from harm. I think I would just love it. I don't see how this would be giving up any freedom at all. In fact I think that the freedom would be tremendous. The freedom of being able to live somewhere and not worry about a thing. No crooks, no crime, no violence, no hardships and no harm. Myself I would just love it, and it's something that I've been looking for all my life. How possible and feasible it is and what it takes is another question all together. I agree with you that a good neighborhood and having people living there with a sense of good citizenship is the most important thing. Far and away it is the most important thing. Then one doesn't have to worry about things like doors and locks or how easy it might be to break in. You started this thread mentioning how you have been helping poor folks who had like four children that they themselves could not really feed and afford. You said, what ends up happening is that they then end up having more children, again that they can't afford or provide for. My thinking is that whether it's in Florida, or any other state, or in a third world country, one of the things that would help in not creating these really large families that the parents cannot provide for, would be enabling people to live separately and as single individuals. If men and women are able to live separately, especially before they are married, they are less likely to have so many children that they cannot provide for and are much less likely to have such large families. I used to live in an older renovated farm house, converted into five one bedroom apartments. It was in a good neighborhood with a relatively low crime rate. It was pretty ok. Thing is I was driving at least two hours to get to work and two hours back in order to be able to afford this one bedroom apartment, and earn the salary that I would need to pay for the rent. The young woman next door told me flat out that she would not be able to afford the apartment that she lived in next door, which was exactly like mine, without her boyfriend. She just couldn't do it. She basically felt forced to live with this man because she couldn't afford anything else. This is much more likely to cause unwanted pregnancies, and children to be brought into this world,, that people are unprepared to take care of and provide for. This seems to be how the cycle often starts. People can't afford to live independently so the cohabitate, when they cohabitate they are much more likely to have children. When they start having children they end up with even less resources and need to do things like accept charity and go on welfare. Now they are even more dependent on cohabitation as well as charity, and more children and more births are that much more likely to occur. Safe, affordable apartments, that people can live in and afford as single individuals, I think is an important step in curtailing these chains of events. Safety and security is also an important consideration here, because the single individual has more safety concerns and safety needs than the people who are living with someone else and cohabitating.

You may be right, but how have these three criteria not been met? 1) It certainly had been measurable 2) The measurements have been repeated, and many times 3) It certainly has been observed by independent observes. These scientists are as independent and diverse as they come, especially in their theological & non-theological beliefs, if not their scientific and mathematical approaches.

I'm also asking what kind of building would you like them to be living in where you feel they could be safe and free from harm?

Well that's good Love them, really, I promise you won't regret it 🙂

That is real good to hear. Real good. I meant it though. I remembered you from when I was posting here like 5 years ago. (don't know if you remember me at all). I liked you then too. Your smart and intelligent and brave too, with some of the things that you are willing to say and stand up for. "Don't let the turkeys get you down." ( < that's a quote from a T-shirt that someone gave me a long time ago). Thought you had life under control did ya. Sometimes I've just got to go with put the G Spirit/God first or the "K of heaven first and all these things will be given to you" or I'll just come undone. Know you don't really 'do' the GS/God and the K of H, but there's got to be something not too dissimilar that you've got going for you too.

This all got me thinking about early Dutch architecture. We can save it for another thread but just thought I'd mention, it was built with relatively simple technology, but still managed to create safe, though smaller, top floor apartments that are suitable and affordable for one or two people. Your being an ex-police officer I bet you could contribute a lot to these ideas and this subject. Where would you want your sons and grandsons and daughters to be living when they get out on their own and have to make their way in this world?

Well that will impress the girls!! . 🙂 . 🙂 . Teenage boys, I'll bet they're giving you a run for your money, eating half a horse everyday while still growing out of their clothes! Did anyone warn you about that part?

Yeah, I wasn't raised religious, (except for some of my dad's weird stuff), or church going at all. I think I might have seen a black and white movie on the TV when I was a child about Fatima, but I really didn't get it or identify with it at all. For me it was just little, inner visions, like in my minds eye, not an outer "actual vision", like someone standing outside of me in a room or in a special place or something. Thanks for saying it's not weird. I'm like, it would look kind of weird to me. To me it's just things that have happened. Added edit > If you read my last post to PaulS on this thread it explains a bit more about it, but don't feel like you have to or nothing, I know how short time can get and how "heady" this stuff can get sometimes.

I've been doing a lot of the things that people have mentioned above. I also advocate for clean, green energy. There are a lot of amazing clean energy innovations out there, so many that one can really believe that our energy problems could really be solved in renewable and sustainable ways, without the pollution and without risking going into full scale global warming. I have a friend who sneaks onto conservative Christian websites and posts the following verses, trying to tell them that conservatives can actually conserve, and that these verses mean, "don't do that": Revelation 11-18 "The time has come for judging. . . and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” Don't want to get into any "end of times" prophecies here, apparently people have been destroying the and desertfying the earth for a long time. Just want to let people know that the bible does say something besides "dominate and subdue" the earth. Come on, take a sponge bath once in a while to save water and energy, and let the kids have the bath! (just kidding and not kidding, both at the same time) . 🙂 🙂

I have heard of the Tiny House Movement, and have seen a number of them on the internet. I have wondered how really safe and secure they are, and how easily an average person could break in. It also depends on how they are situated and if someone could commit an unlawful entry by meeting a person at or near their door. In places where things are very poor or desperate (both culturally and monetarily) people will do anything to steal anything, or commit assault(s). What does safe, secure housing really look like and what does it take to construct and maintain them? That's a big subject. If you or other people want to give it a go, I guess we can do that. Something that would function in areas that are not real safe to begin with and could keep people going so they could take care of themselves and perhaps also prepare and save up a bit for the future.

There are things that we can't control or change, But we can try :-)

I don't think that one can really believe in these experiences unless one has had them themselves. That might just be the way it is with this as well as with some other things. They say that some people don't believe in Love until it happens to them, but in a way that's a different subject. I haven't read much from the "traditional theistic Christians", so far they haven't really spoken to me, I get through the first few pages and then just have to put it down. Most of the reading that I do is with people like Spong or Ehrman or like I think I've said to you before, documentaries on science and that sort of stuff. I have read the bible, most of the Old Testament and the New Testament a number of times, but I don't count myself in league with the visionaries in the bible, not at all, I just can't go there. Also, some of these little inner visions I've had, (they were just like seeing the image of Christ in my minds eye), were before I had ever even read the bible, cept for a very few pages, so I don't think I was 'being like them' or something, in fact I'm sure I wasn't. Actually I'm kind of embarrassed about talking or communicating about them. I can see how people would think it's just too weird. Thanks for reading

For myself I had been on a search for truth for like 10-15 years. I'd been picking up little snippets and sayings during this time, which I really loved, but it wasn't enough. Finally I became internally and emotionally, and what I now see as spiritually desparate, and started praying to a God I didn't really believe in and didn't know a thing about. That's when these little inner visions of Jesus came to me. There was no inner or outer compulsion for me to be "finding Jesus". Not from family, friends, community or from myself. In fact I could say the opposite was honestly and really more true. I don't really see this as, as you say, my "mind accommodating" myself. I had given up on Jesus long ago, that's if I ever "had" him, I wasn't raised religious or church going, and what I got from my father, who was raised religious, I didn't like hardly at all. Sometime after that I started finding writers like J. S. Spong who really enabled me to get past "all that" that I really didn't like in the first place. (there's a good deal left out in this story but it will have to do for now). I can't speak to you about what you think is authentic. I can only find and realize these things for myself. I think you might be right, that we can't "make ourselves believe one thing or another". At the same time I do feel like at one point I like made myself believe some of my experiences, in part because I simply and really needed too. (This was after I discovered Spong and Ehrman and didn't have much else to go on except my own experiences). It really hurts that you had that level of anxiety and depression and were considering taking your own life. Gees, I don't really know what to say. :-( :-( :-( Glad this forum was a "life saver" for you. Hope everything is going ever so well for you and that you never go back there again. I don't know how really good I am about relating about these things, but if you ever need to communicate start a thread on this forum or even send a message. I like you Paul, even though we often think differently, and perhaps I'm a step or two older than you. I genuinely mean it and do like you. You're a good and smart and considerate guy, and these things are worth more than people often give them credit for. Hope that you are doing well now.

I'm wondering if part of the problem, and solution, of over population leading to hunger could actually be in architecture. That is a person's ability to live as a single person, without a partner, and be able to afford a roof and four walls, (and a good door). This gives people more conscious choice as to whether they procreate or not. They can start creating families later in their adult lives, can live as single persons for as long as they choose, and can separate if need be In order to maintain a balance here. Just a few thoughts

Good points Again, good and interesting points

"The more we know, the more we know we don't know" 🙂 (when I said I couldn't do quantum physics math right yet, I was joking. It would surprise me as much as anyone if I could ever do it).

From the Pauline Epistles: "Do not rejoice in what is evil, but delight in what is good." It's a choice Once I learned that this is a choice I've been able to fine-tune my thinking more and this has lead to great moments of inner peace, as well as a general sense of inner peace also.