Beautiful message. Love that song and artist as well! Fear is not something I ever dealt with during Covid or even now as the world continues to devolve. Anger is my struggle! Letting go of it has been very difficult. When it seems each day you are lied to more and more as well as all the gaslighting and virtue signaling, it can make a person feel crazy. You begin to doubt yourself but then you realize that is their goal. I don’t like feeling pissed off all the time but just look at our world. Intellectually I realize I’m getting nowhere because they will never admit wrongdoing so why not let it go? I guess because the stakes are so high! I so wish I could look at the bright side and I try. Your messages do help!
Thank you Patti for your wonderful feedback. I am on the same page as you that during this whole Covidmania, I was never fearful. I am still in shock though what this constant fear has done to people and society. I also share your anger and frustration and faith is a great helper here as well. Knowing there are likeminded people like you out there brings some peace as well. I am truly grateful for your encouragement and wish you a happy weekend.
I am not now a man of Faith, Tanja. I used to be, but I suffered cognitive dissonance in being a Catholic and a physicist. I knew the explanations of many things in the bible were not literally true, so I used faith to side step the logical conflict in my brain. I realised I had to face up to the truth shortly after the twin towers were brought down. Faith allowed me to pretend that errors in the bible could be glossed over, but once I saw that faith also allowed people to commit mass murder I decided to unite both sides of my brain and reject religion. It was a major personal step, and a painful one for me, and lots of people around me too. To realise that enormous untruths are being propagated globally and significant fractions of the population believe them was quite depressing. I've since added Keynesian economics, Net Zero, trans-women lesbians and Covid lockdowns to the list of crazy ideas people commit themselves to. "Religious fervour" is a quite appropriate term. Nice to see the hedgehog though!
Jon - thanks for sharing a bit of your journey out of faith. There are Catholic physicists and the term isn't mutually exclusive. The foundations of faith are important and there are many diversions off the road and of course many faiths.
Of course, we all believe in something and Rick Warren puts it well in A Purpose Driven Life - we are all betting our lives on something. Here is a link to a TED talk by Rick Warren 15 years ago where he talks about the incredible success of his book "A Purpose Driven Life". It is only 20 min long and you may find it of interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=640BQNxB5mc
Thanks Reuben, I agree it is possible to be a Catholic physicist, and I was one! The term is not mutually exclusive, but it requires one to accept two mutually exclusive truths - not a comfortable thing to do on the whole. Refusing to rely on faith didn't remove my "purpose" though, if anything it gave it more clarity, as I no longer had to try and interpret stone age or mediaeval religious dogmas. I will try to watch that TED talk at some stage, but we don't have much bandwidth here and I do need to be careful of consuming what little there is or else I'll get blocked by the company.
Not much left for me to say, except that I am living this conversation with you and Reuben. I would not only recommend the TED talk but also Reubens Newsletter and book. He is one to follow...
Thanks Jon for responding. I understand the situation you found yourself in and the issue of what is truth is the ultimate eternal question. It sounds like you have an interesting and challenging job. I think that you will appreciate the TED talk when you have a chance to view.
Thanks Tanja for your great post and the unlikely linking of fear and faith. As I read your helpful ideas about fear and their physiological associations - it reminded me of the quote attributed to Franklin D Roosevelt who said in his inaugural address in the 1930s "we have nothing to fear but fear itself". I wondered if those were his words and found that it was an accurate quote but had some antecedents which are interesting to read - see this link https://interestingliterature.com/2020/04/nothing-fear-except-fear-itself-quotation-origin/
Often - we have a nameless fear and many of us have fear of the unknown and particularly what lies ahead. An antidote to fear is faith. The writer of the New Testament Book of Hebrews wrote (the Amplified Bible translation) "NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation,the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]." Faith in God is like a title deed to eternity no matter what we may be experiencing at the moment. In the midst of great uncertainty, God's promises sustain me and encourage me. However, the journey of faith is not an easy one and we each have to work out what to put our faith in. Much of what we have seen over the COVID era was a deliberate attempt to induce fear (see Laura Dodsworth's book State of Fear which outlines the active process using psychologists in the UK to induce fear in the population). Fear is a certain outcome of situations in which our individual rights and freedom are completely removed.
Thanks for writing about these subjects with insight and clarity. Your photos and videos are always uplifting and the little hedgehog reminded me of the Australian version which is an echidna - a marsupial that lays eggs - https://www.britannica.com/animal/echidna-monotreme We have quite a few on the farm and they have come out of hiding for spring. The wonder of creation also is a great antidote to fear. Thanks for tutoring us up!!
Thank you again Reuben for your wisdom and your insight that is always valuable and broadens my horizon. I also appreciate the conversation with Jon who is a wonderfull individual like yourself. Happy first Advent to you and your loved ones.
Beautiful message. Love that song and artist as well! Fear is not something I ever dealt with during Covid or even now as the world continues to devolve. Anger is my struggle! Letting go of it has been very difficult. When it seems each day you are lied to more and more as well as all the gaslighting and virtue signaling, it can make a person feel crazy. You begin to doubt yourself but then you realize that is their goal. I don’t like feeling pissed off all the time but just look at our world. Intellectually I realize I’m getting nowhere because they will never admit wrongdoing so why not let it go? I guess because the stakes are so high! I so wish I could look at the bright side and I try. Your messages do help!
Thank you Patti for your wonderful feedback. I am on the same page as you that during this whole Covidmania, I was never fearful. I am still in shock though what this constant fear has done to people and society. I also share your anger and frustration and faith is a great helper here as well. Knowing there are likeminded people like you out there brings some peace as well. I am truly grateful for your encouragement and wish you a happy weekend.
I am not now a man of Faith, Tanja. I used to be, but I suffered cognitive dissonance in being a Catholic and a physicist. I knew the explanations of many things in the bible were not literally true, so I used faith to side step the logical conflict in my brain. I realised I had to face up to the truth shortly after the twin towers were brought down. Faith allowed me to pretend that errors in the bible could be glossed over, but once I saw that faith also allowed people to commit mass murder I decided to unite both sides of my brain and reject religion. It was a major personal step, and a painful one for me, and lots of people around me too. To realise that enormous untruths are being propagated globally and significant fractions of the population believe them was quite depressing. I've since added Keynesian economics, Net Zero, trans-women lesbians and Covid lockdowns to the list of crazy ideas people commit themselves to. "Religious fervour" is a quite appropriate term. Nice to see the hedgehog though!
Jon - thanks for sharing a bit of your journey out of faith. There are Catholic physicists and the term isn't mutually exclusive. The foundations of faith are important and there are many diversions off the road and of course many faiths.
Of course, we all believe in something and Rick Warren puts it well in A Purpose Driven Life - we are all betting our lives on something. Here is a link to a TED talk by Rick Warren 15 years ago where he talks about the incredible success of his book "A Purpose Driven Life". It is only 20 min long and you may find it of interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=640BQNxB5mc
Thanks Reuben, I agree it is possible to be a Catholic physicist, and I was one! The term is not mutually exclusive, but it requires one to accept two mutually exclusive truths - not a comfortable thing to do on the whole. Refusing to rely on faith didn't remove my "purpose" though, if anything it gave it more clarity, as I no longer had to try and interpret stone age or mediaeval religious dogmas. I will try to watch that TED talk at some stage, but we don't have much bandwidth here and I do need to be careful of consuming what little there is or else I'll get blocked by the company.
Not much left for me to say, except that I am living this conversation with you and Reuben. I would not only recommend the TED talk but also Reubens Newsletter and book. He is one to follow...
Thanks Tanja, I have just subscribed.
Thanks Jon for responding. I understand the situation you found yourself in and the issue of what is truth is the ultimate eternal question. It sounds like you have an interesting and challenging job. I think that you will appreciate the TED talk when you have a chance to view.
Thanks Tanja for your great post and the unlikely linking of fear and faith. As I read your helpful ideas about fear and their physiological associations - it reminded me of the quote attributed to Franklin D Roosevelt who said in his inaugural address in the 1930s "we have nothing to fear but fear itself". I wondered if those were his words and found that it was an accurate quote but had some antecedents which are interesting to read - see this link https://interestingliterature.com/2020/04/nothing-fear-except-fear-itself-quotation-origin/
Often - we have a nameless fear and many of us have fear of the unknown and particularly what lies ahead. An antidote to fear is faith. The writer of the New Testament Book of Hebrews wrote (the Amplified Bible translation) "NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation,the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]." Faith in God is like a title deed to eternity no matter what we may be experiencing at the moment. In the midst of great uncertainty, God's promises sustain me and encourage me. However, the journey of faith is not an easy one and we each have to work out what to put our faith in. Much of what we have seen over the COVID era was a deliberate attempt to induce fear (see Laura Dodsworth's book State of Fear which outlines the active process using psychologists in the UK to induce fear in the population). Fear is a certain outcome of situations in which our individual rights and freedom are completely removed.
Thanks for writing about these subjects with insight and clarity. Your photos and videos are always uplifting and the little hedgehog reminded me of the Australian version which is an echidna - a marsupial that lays eggs - https://www.britannica.com/animal/echidna-monotreme We have quite a few on the farm and they have come out of hiding for spring. The wonder of creation also is a great antidote to fear. Thanks for tutoring us up!!
Thank you again Reuben for your wisdom and your insight that is always valuable and broadens my horizon. I also appreciate the conversation with Jon who is a wonderfull individual like yourself. Happy first Advent to you and your loved ones.