SUFFERING

          I have been thinking about science and suffering. 

          I became a scientist in part because I wanted to help people and alleviate suffering.  (The other part was avoiding the draft.)  Science is supposed to alleviate suffering, you know.  Instead I now find myself administering exams and writing columns, both of which may be excruciating to some people. 

          A lot of scientists seem to worry about suffering, although the people who seem to worry most about suffering are people who have never seemed to suffer very much.  Richard Dawkins, the late Christopher Hutchins, and other atheists are, or were, greatly exercised about suffering, although they themselves have University educations and live rather extravagant and indulgent life styles.  While atheism thrives in industrial nations, the suffering poor of the world seem to embrace religion. 

          Actually I’m not even sure what suffering is.  Presumably death qualifies, although I am not sure why since everyone gets to do that.  We often call surviving death suffering when the one who didn’t survive was a loved one.  Can a team actually suffer a loss?  I suppose pain is suffering, although pain exists on a kind of a continuum.  To what degree do we suffer?  If I skip meals in an effort to lose weight because I suffer from being overweight, am I still suffering? 

          I meet many people who are deathly afraid of being stung by a bee.  Yeah, it hurts, but I’m not sure I would call it suffering.  What about only having one shirt?  Is that suffering?  I guess that depends on how often you are able to do the laundry under those conditions.  What if you don’t own a car and have to live in a one room house?  Interestingly, many people who have to live under those conditions don’t act as if they are suffering at all.  I mean they laugh, love, play, get married, have children, and just have a good old time anyway.  In fact, they don’t seem to worry too much about suffering.  They often seem happier than me.         

          I’m not sure why scientists seem to worry about suffering so much.  Suffering isn’t a science, although my wife thinks I have turned it into such.  She just doesn’t understand how hard it is to be a professional windbag.  Sometimes my back just kills me from standing for all those lectures.  I wonder if being boring counts as a disability. 

          Science is supposed to deal with the real physical world.  I guess suffering feels real enough, but where is it?  Is there a tiny, fundamental particle of suffering out there of which all suffering is composed; like atoms or cells?   We could call it a sufferon.  Then we could classify suffering as to the number, kinds and arrangements of sufferons.  “Oh man!  I have seventeen sufferons today from talking so much!”  Or not.  This could really backfire on us when other people started counting and comparing their sufferons to ours.  Maybe it should remain a little vague.

          Many people seem to be concerned about who is responsible for suffering.  Interestingly, some seem to think it is God’s fault for not stopping it.  Shouldn’t they blame Satan for causing it?  Presumably God can interfere with Satan.  Can Satan interfere with God?  Apparently he can, when he causes suffering.  If God is a benevolent God then He would never cause suffering, even if He occasionally failed to prevent it.  So, who is guilty, the one who caused the suffering, or the one who failed to prevent it?  

          If a scientist fails to prevent suffering is the suffering his fault?  Is it enough to have tried to stop suffering or does it have to be actually stopped before God can take credit?  Well, thankfully, I don’t have to assign blame for suffering; I just have to alleviate it.  Unless suffering is my fault for not alleviating it like a good scientist should.  In that case, I can always blame God. 

           

           

BEFORE HUMANS A WILD ASS

          Before there were humans there was a wild ass and lilies.  Before there were humans there were cockroaches and daffodils.  Before there were humans there were fishes of the sea, fowls of the air, and grasses and herbs of every kind.  Of this the scientists and theologians all agree.  The sequence of Genesis is very much the sequence proposed by scientists for the creation of life.

          It is commonly thought that humans were created last because we were the epitome of his creation.  But what if we are an afterthought?  Does God love his other creations equally? 

          I believe that God loves his other creations in a way that does not necessarily conform to human purposes.  We are concerned with the usefulness of the tree and are confused by what good a mosquito could be for.  God took great pains and time to create beauty, grace, color, seasons, and motion in an infinite variety.  He used patterns that include us, but existed before us.  Did he create it all for us?  Or did He create it all for his own pleasure and delight in creation, and we are allowed to share in it? 

          In fact, we are even asked to exercise dominion over it.  What does dominion mean?  One definition is, “the power of life and death.”  It seems true that we hold that power over his creation.  How sad he must feel at times as he sees the death and destruction of his creations, not for our use, or for further creation, but for senseless greed and waste. 

WHAT COMES AFTER

          One of the failings of humanity is the tendency to not think beyond the goal.  This is sometimes only a mild problem, but also sometimes a significant issue, even to the point of disaster. 

          In 1982 I finally achieved my goal of receiving my doctorate degree.  Detours for military service, work to support the family, delays in research results, and working to pay off bills before tackling the next step all played a role.  The doctorate had been a goal for so long.

          To my surprise, I was left feeling very lost for a very long time.  It was almost a depression.  I had focused so long and hard on the goal I had not thought about what to do when the goal was achieved. 

          I have seen the same effect on young men coming home from a mission, or on being released from active duty military.  A young man may think about, and prepare for, a mission for 19 years.  But for two years he doesn’t give much thought to what he’ll do when he returns.  Even though he may have vague ideas about a career and getting married, he may find himself in the doldrums for several months.

          Have you ever noticed that it is easy to install apps, set up accounts, enter data, but it often very difficult to uninstall, delete accounts, change data, or exit programs.  Sometimes, especially in early software, that was an oversight.  Sometimes, in modern applications, that is planned.

          This not thinking beyond the goal can cause more serious problems when it is on a national scale, concerning matters over which we have little control.  For example, we may focus on the next election, thinking it will be a solution to our problems.  Of course the national debt will still be staggering regardless of who wins.  Our liberty will still be at risk.  The countries energy needs will still be unsustainable.  Our dollar will still have been inflated. 

          We may think that if the Supreme Court just find the health care law constitutional/unconstitutional (you pick) everything will be solved.  There will still be an aging population needing increased health care with fewer workers to support the system.  We may go to war, but if we don’t know what we will do after we have won, we will never be done.

          I may increase the number of beehives only to find I am unable to sustain the support and care each requires.  I may start a successful business only to find no easy way to get out of it.  I may win the election only to find the problems insurmountable and events unexpected.  I may leave a large estate, only to have a family at odds over their inheritance.

          We cannot know the future.  But to set goals without considering what will happen after they are achieved is ill conceived.  There should always be an exit plan.

         

THE HUNGER GAMES

Okay, I am in big trouble.  See, I am a beekeeper.  That is a form of agriculture.  And today I had my seventeen year old grand daughter rendering beeswax on a hot plate.  My fifteen year old grandson was operating power machinery (a power mower) to mow off the bee yard.  My fourteen year old and 11 year old grand daughters were checking beehives and handling bees, without even a bee suit on. 

I am sure that I just broke every regulation just proposed by the US Department of Labor regulating youth employment on farms. 

Are we insane?  Has America lost its guts?  Does the Department of Labor have the right to tell me how to raise my family?  Does the government want more unemployed youth?  Do they want the youth to have no practical experience or skills?  Does it make sense to ship food 1500 miles round trip to feed America?  Couldn’t it be raised close to urban centers by families?

I cannot see any possible reason for these regulations except to consolidate authority and provide job security for the DOL.  Unless, of course, the purpose is to destroy Americas ability to produce food.  But no one would want to do that of course.  Well, except for our enemies. 

I do not know how to stop this.  I have written to my congressmen and I get standard form letters in reply.  I complained about government interference in the Church and received a form letter from both Senators Udall and Bennet (both Colorado) that referenced women’s rights.  WHAT?  I protested these regulations and received stock replies about protecting children.  FROM WHAT? 

Can we truly wait for an election to stop this madness?  Do you suppose there will be an election this fall, or will the unrest be such that the President will “have to” declare Marshall Law and “postpone” elections? 

BOYS

Do you have a plan? 

·        High school graduation rates for boys is 50.1%, 56.4% for girls.

·        Boys are twice as apt to repeat a grade as a girl.

·        Boys are twice as likely to be suspended from school as a girl.

·        Boys are three more times as likely to be expelled as a girl.

·        By 8^th grade only 20-25% of boys are proficient in reading. 

·        One in three children lives in a home with no father.

·        Forty percent of children in the US are born out of wedlock.

·        There is now as much as a two year gap in maturity between thirteen year old boys and thirteen year old girls.

·        Boys spend more time playing video games.

·        Boys spend more time watching pornography.

·        Boys who get hooked on pornography and gaming stop having healthy relationships or playing real games.

·        Boys without role models assume from culture than men are violent and have sex indiscriminately.

·        Schools teach to girls and most often treat boys as if they are missing the standard.

·        Rough and tumble play is discouraged as violent, even when no one is hurt.

·        Boys have higher suicide rates.

·        Boys are more likely to be administered drugs for ADHD.

It may, or may not, be intentional, but America is waging war on boys.  This will not change when the federal government intervenes.  It is not the States responsibility to teach boys to be men.  This will only change when fathers are back in the home AND modeling manly behavior. 

Notice that I didn’t just say the father was present.  It is not sufficient to just be there.  You’d better have a plan.

We started our when I invited my two sons to a meeting of a Rectangular Table.  We would have liked to make it a Round Table with knights and swords and such, but it was too expensive.  So we settled for a round tent called a yurt high in the Idaho Mountains.  We went and spent three days together discussing how we could be an influence in our son’s and grandson’s lives. 

The specifics of our plans would not be pertinent to other individuals because every father, son, and grandfather have different talents and personalities.  But we have continued with annual campouts with the boys, many with great adventures.  Most of these would never be approved, or tolerated, by schools.  But the boys are inordinately proud of their experiences. 

Do you have a plan?

THE CURSE OF ADAM

          Does it seem like the more humans try to free themselves from the biological world, the more they enslave themselves?  The movement to urban cities is supposed to be the epitome of civilization.  The country folk are still disdained as simpletons and hicks. 

          A friend of mine drew my attention to this quote.  “. . . the Europeans are post-Christian in this sense, too: they have tried to “liberate” themselves from the curse of Adam by substituting borrowing for working, and from the curse of Eve by not having children. It was entirely foreseeable that neither of these efforts would end well.”

          I believe this trend began after the Second World War, which is now about sixty years ago.  I wonder how long they will have to wander in the wilderness before their children can build the promised land. 

CHURCH AND STATE

If a government has the power to interfere in a religion for a secular cause, the same government will have the power to enforce a particular way of worship on you when you don’t wish to worship at all.  That is why every person, secularist, liberal, conservative, Muslim, Christian, fundamentalist, or atheist must be concerned about the Obama’s ruling mandating certain practices in the Catholic Church.  You may not care about this issue.  BUT THE DAY WILL COME WHEN THE ISSUE WILL CONCERN YOU!