Doubt and Delusion

Doubt and Delusion – the story of Adam and Eve

The fate of man started out with doubt and delusion, planted by the enemy of God into the minds of mankind. Satan was and still is the progenitor and protagonist of doubt and delusion having been the first to delude himself into thinking he is God, and he still lives under that delusion.

Our story, which is about Adam and Eve, is so detailed, plausible and human as it encompasses the full path a human walks to become delusional, evil and disconnected from God.

Travels with my Mind - part 1

Travels with my Mind (or 'Please, show a little kindness') - February 2020.

I have already, many years ago, started to write about the travels of my body, mind and soul, each travelling to different domains and to different destinations at the same time and mostly all three unconnected in space and time, but each leading or lagging the other in meaning, insight and substance. Although it was not out of body experiences, they might as well have been, being so unconnected in subject and context.
The first one being 'Rome is burning' when I visited Italy in 2012 and found it in modern day ashes and organized chaos, so to speak, after the world economic crises of 2008. It was a parody on the history of Nero who is said to have played a fiddle whilst Rome was burning during his persecution of the Christians in 69 AD. In fact, this impression and extraction is so powerful in our lives even today as we use Nero software to burn CD's.

Democracy will always fail

Democracy will always fail - and so will dictatorships and socialism.
February 2020.

 

To set the stage, I first need to quote a few men of note:

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. Johan Adams (1814).

Democracy stands between two tyrannies: the one which it has overthrown and the one into which it will develop. Paul Eldridge (1965).

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. H.L.Mencken (1949).

The Cause of Chaos

The Cause of Chaos

by P.K. Odendaal
January 2020.

It is all about boundaries, values and direction. Where are we going and do we know what is the space we are operating in?

This is the basics of life - and yet, so few people know these basics or stick to it and oh, how unimportant and inconsequential do we treat or regard these.

The examined life

The examined life – by P.K. Odendaal – December 2019

Oh, please, I wrote my matric exams many years ago and I still shudder when I think of how difficult it was and how I stressed. Fortunately I passed it and its past. More exams for me ever …  no thank you. I have had enough; what with all those sleepless nights.

I understand that fully ... but

Atheism - the biggest delusion

Atheism – the biggest delusion - by P.K. Odendaal – August 2019

Just look at this!

This is a light truck manufactured by one of the best light truck manufacturers in the world. The latest technology, computers and design engineers in the world designed this. It took them days and years to come to this design, strength, beauty and robustness. The best we as mankind has on offer. It had beautiful lines when it was manufactured and was almost perfectly manufactured, but objects in the universe scolded it.

The stuff Reality is made of – Part 2 - Induction

The stuff Reality is made of – Part 2 – Induction - by P.K. Odendaal - July 2019

We continue our exploration of the Universe with a second postulate.

 

POSTULATE 2 – GENERAL PROOF BY WAY OF INDUCTION IS A VALID UNIVERSAL PHENOMENON AND PRINCIPLE.

We are going to use Hilbert Space to prove this.

There is a principle in mathematics called induction which is a mathematical proof technique. It is essentially used to prove that a property holds for every natural number n, i.e. for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, and so on.

The problem arises from the … and so on. Is that up to ten, up to ten million or up to infinity? If we start at counting we know intuitively that it is valid for all integers up to infinity. The question which begs itself is: How far should we go until we accept it as being true. In the mentioned case ten is enough for me and a million is enough for a sceptic.

The stuff Reality is made of – Part 1 - Existence

The stuff Reality is made of – Part 1 –by P.K. Odendaal - July 2019

In this series I will be exploring important aspects of reality and explain it in some general terms. The main aspects I will be discussing are in some way connected to general intuitive axioms which, according to Gödel’s theorem, will not be provable in our terrestrial domain. Although this series of articles are technical and scientific in many ways, it will not be difficult to read and understand it for other-minded readers, as I will keep it simple and basic.

So, after pondering this subject for over twenty years, and although I have come to understand it only in a miniscule way and only an infinitesimal part of it, I am able to make a few basic postulates of the tenets of reality.

It is about how we look and think about things

It is about how we look and think about things - by P.K. Odendaal - April 2019

The most outstanding accomplishments of mankind were achieved by people who thought of things in a different way than we do. We are each being dealt the same kind of problems to solve and somehow we are not able to solve them, whether it be in our personal lives or in our work. That is why we have this saying that people must think out of the box. This implies that we have a thought box and the name of this box in called conventional wisdom.

The Essence of being Human Part 2 – Kindness cannot Kill

The Essence of being Human Part 2 – Kindness cannot Kill – by P.K. Odendaal – February 2019.

Be kind and exercise kindness. Contrary to what the adage says, kindness cannot kill. Kindness lets us live and inspires us to reach heights unknown to the unkind.

In the previous part I postulated that kindness and compassion are all we need to become human again. Of course the corollary to that is that we need compassion to be kind. The first is the thought and the second the acts which flow from it.

The Essence of being human - part 1

The Essence of being human by P.K. Odendaal – February 2019

Part 1 - Basic human values.

This article series was conceived as a single article centred on basic human values, but as I pondered the richness of being human, the subject has grown out of all proportion with my limited mind, and into proportion with our human divine calling to be like God.

I never could have thought that to be human was also to be divine. Humanity was always such a basic and simple concept for me until I started applying my mind to all the ramifications and implications of what it entails to being human.

I will live today

I will live today – by P.K. Odendaal – December 2018

As if I needed to tell you that. But, that is not the only thing I wish to tell you.

Think back and think now. What are we doing?

Yes, I know we work, we eat and drink and we sleep - and some might find that exciting. We do not need to think anymore. Everything comes automatically, surely and monotonously. Everything goes according to clockwork. Our clock tells us what to do now. In fact, there is some intellectual competition going on between us and our clocks.

Civilization

Civilization – by P.K. Odendaal – December 2018

 This is my third stab at the elusive concept of civilization, and I will keep on stabbing at it until I penetrate its hard skin and its soft belly. It is quite similar to the concept of families, of which it consists. Both concepts are untouchable, intangible, elusive and pervasive.

Free Will is absolute

Free Will is absolute – by P.K. Odendaal – December 2018

I have so often heard the following expressions by well-meaning Christians:

·    God is in charge and we cannot do what we will.

·    He will only allow us to do what He thinks is right for us, or what He might allow us to do.

·    God is in charge and will never allow anything if it is contrary to His will.

All these are an infringement of our own rights, a negligent omission of our own responsibilities and an opportunity to blame God when something goes wrong or something happens which we do not like.

The Beginning .. or the End ... Choose

The Beginning .. or the End … Choose - by P.K. Odendaal – November 2018.

There are mainly two types of people in this world. Those who build up and those who break down. Those who have faith in the future and the unbelievers for whom there is no future. Those who want to begin and those who want to end. And in between we have the fence sitters, of which I am a species - not at all endangered. In fact our numbers are increasing fast. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen or unseen. In fact, just the notion of classifying us is vulgar and makes us shiver. I mean, what is wrong with barking with the dogs and howling with the wolves - it is so politically correct.

Conform or Reform

Conform or Reform – by P.K. Odendaal - November 2018

Everything we do in life is that we either want to conform to a situation or we want to reform a situation. We accept or we reject, we accommodate or we remain intransigent, we compromise or we contest, we concede or we deny.

This encompasses our whole life. Some of us are rebels and we question or reject what we do not believe in, and others stand for nothing and fall for everything. Be it in politics, in business, in relationships or in private life - we experience everything in these two frameworks, and we usually choose the wrong one.

A satire on behaviour

A satire on behaviour – by P.K. Odendaal – August 2018.

It is said that a fool is born every minute and that you cannot protect a fool from himself or herself, so it seems that my desire to live and let live or to be considerate towards others and be considered by them, in turn or out of turn, is a wild goose chase in some utopia somewhere between here and nowhere.

It is madness to treat madness

It is madness to treat madness – by P.K. Odendaal – March 2018.

I have been struck wise by three films which illustrated to me the fallacy of the treatment of patients by specialists in special institutions or facilities. The conventional wisdom, which, as we know, is always wrong is to do that, so we need to do the opposite.

The three films were:

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

As good as it gets

Three Billboards.

All three are brilliant expositions of the treatment and therapy of such people inherent in social and communal activities.

I believe in humans

I believe in humans – by P.K. Odendaal - August 2017

Inhumanism – my own fabrication of anti-humanism, is rampant in the world and the cancer is spreading epidemically and hyperbolically, despite my article on it:

https://pkodendaal.blogspot.co.za/2011/07/my-travel-blog-2011-2.html

I never expected the article to be a magic wand, but neither did I expect inhumanism to travel faster than light. In fact, it is nowadays the only way to get some publicity – by strapping a bomb vest onto your body with or without bombs or burning your wife.

Reason and Romanticism

Reason and Romanticism – by P. K. Odendaal – May 2017.

The world is in a flux of changing moods and fortunes, always ready to balance the extremes originating from animate and inanimate things which are imposed upon it. In fact it is very finely balanced. If you take the forces in the Universe vying between contraction and expansion of it, you will find its equilibrium up to almost sixty decimals! It is not much different in other spheres of the Universe or Creation.