LOGICAL MINDS ONLY

Do we have a real identity? If so, can this identity be branded? It is far from being an idle or meaningless question. Think of us as a commodity that has a patented formulation. We are unique, defined by a particular set of features, but if these characteristics can be hacked, or plagiarized and our identity stolen, then we can be taken over and destroyed as a people. There is nothing more import...

The West is radical. The East is extremist. The ideologies clash which is why the cultures clash, but extremism has entered the West in ways radicalism failed to make inroads in the East. Do you want to understand the history of man and the problems of the present? Without being immersed in the narrative of extremism and radicalism as tied to two great races and cultures, your understanding of the...

There is a difference and it is a difference that is well worth the time it takes to understand the distinction.

Democracy is the best of all possible options is a phrase that is true relative to the options considered. Such broad-based comments say more about the person making the statement than reality. Democracy is better than autocracy but saying this opens the door to the question of whether there are other ways of combatting and avoiding autocracy. Surely, no modern nation supports fascism but then we...

One of the worst things that can happen to a gambler is to visit a casino for the first time and win. It is difficult to resist the urge to go again. But win or lose the impulse will be to return and get even or win some more. So it is with conservatives and democracy. An election win for Conservatives is not a good thing. It merely encourages them to stay in a game they cannot win, not in the lon...

The Golden Rule is a universal moral dictum or injunction that asks us to only do what we would want others to do to us. Kant saw it as a guide to good behaviour based on assuming our actions would be universalized and our example would be a model for all other persons. This idea was weakened by comments that sociopaths were not concerned with modelling good behaviour. But perhaps the analysis don...

The question asked implicitly by this essay is how few words does it take to explain, in a way that enables us to fix the problems, why social problems exist? How concisely can the dilemma of man be transmitted to other human beings. In this 1200-word summary the origins and explanations for mankind’s social problems is condensed for ease of transmission, and then further summarized in one short p...

America has a Trump problem but the problem is not Trump but what Trump represents to the left. To understand the left and the problem is does not help to look at Trump. He expresses the problem but not perfectly. In some respects, he is part of the problem as is anyone who embraces political solutions. To understand why Trump is such a problem we must look at the Great Cultural Divide, it is deep...

Radicalism is not the same as extremism though people confuse the terms. To be radical is to be different not in a quantitively way but qualitative. A radical is a person set apart in that they do ask for more or less of what exists but a new option. The Doctrines of Radicalism sets forth the points at which radicals differ from the current system. Christian Radicals believe the current system is...

The church is either of this world or radical. If the church is not radical it is undifferentiated from this system of things. To be radical is to be totally distinct and separate from what is the standard. Radicalism is inherently a purpose as it contains within itself the desire to differentiate itself from the herd. The idea of a light on a hill encapsulates the idea of a radical church.

Hate exists as a personal attitude, but hate as a useful legal category is intrinsically divisive and unjust. There is no legal basis on which to label people racists, or xenophobic as these are not objective terms. Nor can there be any legal requirement to like, love or embrace another culture or race let alone a member of that race. Why was it not racist to hate Japanese and Germans in the war a...

There are few things we can all agree on and if there is agreement it is often only about the incidentals. We all agree that gravity exists if there is a lot of disagreement about what it is. There is one statement or proposition that no one can refute or deny. Which ought not be an issue were it not for the fact that the world has pretty much managed to quell its appearance or modify it in such a...

A solution is only as good as the ease of its implementation. To reform the world or to even correct a single problem seems to be almost impossible, that is because of the costs associated with fixing a solution using the very system that produces the problems. Apriorian has a solution that costs nothing and requires only what you have. The Free Nimby Franchise simply asks you to stop making probl...

Canada and many other Western nations are in a race to add to their populations as they struggle to reduce their resource use. It’s a strategy that has only one outcome, failure. If the present population cannot pay current costs, increasing the population does not eliminate the problem, it merely delays it at the cost of making the situation worse, even while adding to the difficulty of reducing...

Part Seven is not directly related to the experiment but it is a way to demonstrate the claim that a proposition about God cannot generate predictions. Here are twenty-five of them, all empirically testable, all verifiable using a quantified method of comparison.

NIMBY's are generally mocked, the acronym is essentially a pejorative. But there is nothing so strong in higher creatures than the desire for territory. Even jealousy is a form of NIMBYism. Nations go to war to protect their borders and moral outrage is a result of someone sensing their principles have been overstepped. If you are one of the many who feel they have a right to what they worked for,...

The power or rule of the people as an ideal, hides an elephant and with it a dirty little secret. An election held by a prison is unlikely to generate a stable government. In this case, the prisoners and their guards, are not a people. At the same token an immigrant population and a group of settlers from totally different cultural groups cannot be seriously considered a people. But nor can a grou...

The key to the experiment is the separation of the Control Group from the Test Group, unless this can be done with quantifiable precision, the experiment will not be conclusive. But the line, conveniently, is not a physical one but a conceptual one and placed precisely where the line can be the most convenient and precisely located. The line is an accounting device, as precise as the line between...

To prove the existence of God requires a Test Group and a Control Group. The Control Group is largely undifferentiated containing all those not in the Test Group. But to operate the experiment, the Test Group requires protection from the Control Group. Policies and programs that are suitable to the operations of the Control Group will be incompatible with the operation of the Test Group. Therefore...

Are you tired of the high cost of justice? Justice is so expensive we cannot get justice for tagging, shoplifting, intimidation, and littering. In many cases we cannot even get justice for drug dealing and prostitution despite the impact it has on communities. We need highly paid, highly trained police officers to take down murderers, gangsters and so on. We do not need or want armed policemen dea...

If we are to conclusively proof God exists, the experiment must prove all those ideas and beliefs that conflict with the existence of God, are invalid. This is tantamount to claiming that a proof of God must be a Theory of Everything. The weakness of conventional attempts to prove the existence of God do not attempt to prove all that which is inconsistent with God has been discredited. To prove Go...

The experiment to prove the existence of God poses certain problems not present in the ordinary formal experiment. These issues are gone into here. What we discover is that a proof of God is not a proof that the secular world and its propositions and assumptions are valid. The proof of God is not evidence that secular sinful man can serve as proof that God exists. There must be a Control Group but...

Something is not wrong because it feels wrong nor is it right because it fits in with our agenda. Exploiting the good will of our neighbors may well be wrong but we not only need to know why it is wrong but to what degree. Objectively if we are believers in right and wrong and in science we need to quantify and verify the good and bad in society so that if we are changing things, we know in which...

Most people if pressured would agree mankind exists for a purpose, whether known or unknown and, they would agree human beings have rights. If pushed further no doubt they would admit that beside rights men have duties. The problem with this conventional and widespread position is that having a purpose is not consistent with having rights and to have rights is not compatible with having duties. A...

In this second part the problem of using the church or Christianity, as the test group, is discussed. It may seem odd, but the way the church has been formed and Christianity established makes them ineligible for participating in the experiment or serving as an element of the proposed scientific investigation. Objectivity is the key to any scientific test and the church and Christianity are simply...