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I walked into a class last month where the stated lesson written on the board was Existentialism. There were handouts and some allotted time for discussion. Needless to say, I became very excited.  Existentialism is basically divided into two camps, the Atheist and the Non-Atheist.

I started the discussion by asking the students if they knew a TV personality by the name of Bill Maher. Some did but most did not or did not care.  Bill Maher is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, satirist, author, and actor. He is also a hard line atheist who believes everything happens randomly and by accident. He also hosts his own cable show on HBO called “Real Time with Bill Maher” where he brings in some of the most famous people/thinkers of our time then engages them in a lively discussion on current events.

One night, Bill Maher had a guest who was a scientist, astro-physicist, and author. I believed Bill Maher was trying to get this scientist to reaffirm his “we are a random accident” atheist point of view, but instead, Bill was taken by surprise when his guest said “if everything were a random accident, you would have one eye on your knee and your mouth could be next to your backside”. Needless to say, Bill Maher was stunned by his guests' comments and wasn’t asked many questions after that.

That response from Bills' guest reminded me of a paper I read from Dr. Robert Lanza, another author, scientist and astro-physicist who said the following paraphrased statements.

Science has given us all sorts of advances in existing and new technologies. Thanks to the knowledge gained from these new advances such as the Hubble Space Telescope (to view the expanding universe caused by The Big Bang) and The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, (discovering the Higgs boson or God particle) science has given us a better understanding of the world around us. The more we discover, the more we realize just how truly amazing everything is.

Consider this: If the Big Bang had been (one part in a million) more powerful, the cosmos would have rushed out too fast for the stars and galaxies to have developed. If the gravitational force had been decreased by a hair, stars including our Sun, would not have ignited. If the surface of the molten Earth had not cooled enough to form the 20 mile deep crust, or if the planet cooled too much, life as we know it, would not exist. Even our ever expanding sun is at the right size and place that if it expanded any more, it would burn off our atmosphere radiating the planet then melting the earths’ surface with its searing gas. The Earths' orbital position from the sun, third planet, is also called the "Goldilocks Zone".

 

These scientists have identified over 200 of these parameters that could have easily been different values but happen to be exact right. Tweak any of these parameters, you and I never existed.

 

The probability of all 200 plus parameters together with other physical laws and events lining up perfectly, leading to this point in time right now, where you, the student, are listening to my boring speech and I am looking at your brilliant faces versus randomly floating around the universe as space dust or rock is less than 1 out of 10 to the 50^th power. What does that mean? It’s like winning every lottery ever created and will be created in your lifetime.  Another way to think about this is to imagine the children's fairy tale  “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. A little girl named Goldilocks enters a home belonging to the three bears and tries different bowls of porridge; the first is too hot, the second is too cold and the third one is just right. She also tries different chairs and beds and every time the third try is just right. Now, imagine Goldilocks making the right choice on the first try, every single time for 13.7 billion years. Now, does that seem random and accidental to you? 

So, the big question is, “Why Are You Here?”

I was having lunch with some colleagues today and had to politely listen to one of their discussions about the second amendment. This person was telling the rest of us that he was so happy to finally get his concealed weapons permit that we all needed to go get our permits before they outlaw them. He also said that the government will be taking all our guns away.

I wanted to say something but we only had 15 minutes left in our lunch period and I didn't want to get into a debate with one of my esteemed and learned colleagues.
If I had the time and patience, I would have asked him what makes him think the government would take all our guns away. There are more guns in the US than actual people. The population is about 350 million and there are about 400 million guns scattered all over the country. Listen, the government does not have the capacity to round up 11 million illegal aliens, what makes him think they can find and gather 400 million guns?

What he doesn't realize is that he is being played by a group that is making big dollars from guns and ammo sales. The false rumors they spread through fox news causes conservatives to become paranoid and anxious. This is the same group that President Eisenhower warned us about in the late 50s, "The Military Industrial Complex"(MIC). Their greed and their ability to corrupt politicians here and abroad is unprecedented. They make money by creating then selling military equipment to our military, our public and other countries.

This is where it gets interesting: The three largest recipients of American foreign aid are Israel, Egypt and Pakistan in the tune of 15,000,000,000(15 Billion) dollars per year. These countries are not even developing nations which is what foreign aid was created for. Ninety eight percent (98%) of that money goes to the purchase of military equipment. Guess what group benefits from this deal? Yes, the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) benefits and we, the US taxpayer, pays for it. It is to the best interest of MIC to perpetuate the conflict in the Middle East to maintain their profit projections. I believe that if we stop foreign aid to the Middle East the fighting would also immediately stop.

There are other parasitic industries that feed on American Tax dollars such as Medical Insurance/ Healthcare industry, Big Pharmaceutical, Big Oil, and Big Agriculture. All these industries get huge subsidies, tax breaks and loopholes from the government.

Instead of cleaning up the problems, loopholes, and corruption, congress would rather privatize Social Security, gut Medicare and Medicaid. We can thank "Citizens United" for congresses' new insensitivity to the people. They will tell us what we want to hear to get our vote, but they will do anything big business wants them to do to get their money. This legislation has changed our country's core values forever.

I recently received an email from an ex-marine friend who included a heavily circulated poem about the 2nd amendment (the right to bare arms) titled "Why Gramps Has a Gun". I enjoyed the cleaver wordsmith-ing of witty reasons why gramps carries a gun. I also agreed and enjoyed Granpa's climax ending to the poem that resonates with everyone who has experienced a crime in America.

"Police protection is an oxymoron.
Free citizens must protect themselves.
Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the
crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to
take an "ass" whoopin'....
.author unknown (but obviously brilliant)"

The author then includes a select global history of gun control and the disastrous consequences. The select history ended with this bit of information.

"SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN!
SWITZERLAND 'S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE.
SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED CRIME RATE OF ANY CIVILIZED
COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!"

Wellllllll…… That is not exactly how the story goes….

The BIG difference between The United States and Switzerland is that Switzerland is a SOCIALIST country. Qualified adults are conscripted into service at 18-21 years old where they are trained and supplied guns; because they are part of their local militia (reserve) they are expected to fight for their country when needed. In the USA, the story is a little different; the people who manufacture guns are also part of the military industrial complex. Our politicians are corrupted to be more interested in protecting the profits of the military industrial complex than protecting the welfare of its citizens. This is the reason why an unlimited amount of guns can be sold to anyone with the money to pay for them (sounds irresponsible compared to Switzerland doesn't it). Switzerland's citizen weaponry is part of their homeland security. USA's weaponry at large is used to make gun manufacturing corporations rich and to kill civilians, teens and children. Compared to the number of human killings, a smaller group of killings happen to wild animals by legit hunters.

First of all, there are no words that can express the shock and sadness we have for the families of Newtown Cn. What happened there was beyond evil. What we have seen and experienced unfolding on television on 12/14/12, is true life, real police investigative work in action. Leads have to be checked out and verified. Human errors or mistakes are made. It takes time for the real story to finally come out once the dust settles.

In stark contrast, over a decade ago, before we had smart phones or Ipads, within half an hour of the second plane hitting the second tower of the world trade center during 911, television media had pictures of all 19 terrorist lined up in little boxes, with their names, their nationality, who gave them their orders, why they did what they did, where they sat on the plane, what they carried on the plane, what hotels they stayed at the night before, and how they paid for their plane tickets.

While watching the tragic story unfolding in Newtown, I asked myself: a) Has the creation of Homeland Security and the implementation of the Patriot Act hampered our criminal investigative abilities? b) Are those police investigators in Connecticut worse than anyplace I've ever seen? c) Were we that much better at criminal investigation ten years ago than we are today? d) _______________________ (fill in the blanks).....

This is in response to a DA member question: "Is this the age of Enlightenment"

Is this the prophesied "Age of Enlightenment?" Is there such a thing as too much information? We now have an abundant access to information, art and ideas that we have never had before, but, will everyone use or take advantage of it? Will that dirt farmer pushing his water buffalo in that distant third world country take advantage of this new technology?

I believe the internet has made the world a smaller place. It has connected people from all over the world, instantly. Ideas, Art and Information can now flow instantaneously. This, I feel, is a good thing because it brings people closer together. Will we reach "Singularity" or even reach that utopian future that the great late Gene Roddenberry described in his writings? (IMHO)Doubtful! There is one thing we can never escape from, and that is our humanity, including everything that comes with it, the beautiful, the good, the ugly, the brutality, the greed, jealousy, etc., etc., etc. It seems like great minds in our history come up with ideas and inventions that they claim will cure or fix things such as crime, hunger, deceases, need for abundant energy, etc; just to be disappointed by humanities' profane use of their invention.

Old story: There once was this couple that was created by other worldly beings. These advance beings told this couple they could do whatever they like, anything at all, except eat fruit from the tree of knowledge. If they consume the fruits from the tree of knowledge, they would destroy their paradise and never see it again. Unlike their creators, the couples' genetic code have not been completely switched on making them incapable of fully appreciating the fruits of this universal knowledge. Their current state of "humanity" has and will continue to sabotage any advancement bringing them down to the lowest primal common human denominator (anger, violence, hatred, greed, jealousy and ego); and for this, there is NO cure.