Work Ethic

My dad always had this sign, or one very similar to it, posted by the water cooler at the office. This is wisdom to remember.  Either be in, or get out.  Being in while wanting out destroys your own peace, and degrades everyone's view of you.  If you are to be in, then be in. Change what you can and accept the rest. If you cant.. leave.

Scientific Proof of God's Existence

There is often the notion that science and the bible are at odds. But that notion is just silly. The two are actually unrelated. Science seeks answers to explain the universe that God made for us.  That said, many attempt to use science to disprove God's existence.  This is sad.  Science should be used to find answers, truth, not to make proofs.

The video here presents one view of hte crossover between bible, God, and science. It takes what is commonly accepted modern scientific findings, and shows how they actually point to the necessary existence of a creator, commonly known as God. There are several point presented that are debatable as they are NOT facts (i.e. billions of years of time passing) but in general I agree with his conclusions. 

 

Easy as 1 2 3

A common phrase, "its as easy as 1 2 3"... but is it?

one of my biggest frustrations in life  is that the vast majority of people  we interact with... simply dont think. They have lost, or never had, the ability to reason, to truly understand concepts, to "know" things. Yet, they know many things... as remembered facts.

I was faced with a delimma in me microsoft days. After the acquisition of Datallegro,  the new microsoft owners asked me to embark on a mission, to teach the people at microsoft how to do what I do.  Of course, the first step was to understand how I do what I do so I could know what to try to relay.  Tht launched me on a jounrey of discovery.

This journey led me to a way of thinking about thinking.... Blooms taxonomy. It describd best  both the source of my frustration and the core of mission Microsoft called me to undertake.  This taxonomy providd the foundation. I share it here now as the basis of future posts.

Background:

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. During the 1990's a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom), updated the taxonomy to reflect relevance to 21st century work. The two graphics show the revised and original Taxonomy. Note the change from nouns to verbs associated with each level.

I prefer the verbs version, as it is more explanatory in common language, but here are both the original and hte updated:

Booms Taxonomy Original

Blooms taxonomy updated

Here are the official definitions of the layers acording to the updated version:

Remembering: can the student recall or remember the information?	define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall, repeat, reproduce state
Understanding: can the student explain ideas or concepts?	classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize, report, select, translate, paraphrase
Applying: can the student use the information in a new way?	choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
Analyzing: can the student distinguish between the different parts?	appraise, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
Evaluating: can the student justify a stand or decision?	appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, evaluate
Creating: can the student create new product or point of view?	assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write.

As you climb from the foundation (remembering or basic knowledge of facts) towards the top (the ability to create anew), you truly "learn' something. Not until you reach the top and can create using the thing known as raw materials that you can claim to "know" it. Before that you only "know about" it   The steps represent the necessary path from one to the other. No levels can be missed!  IF you sipe "create" withut climbinh through true understanding and analyzing... then yu siply create a new appraoch to facts, not a new understanding.

Unfortunately my mission at Microsoft mostly failed. And I understand why.

IT is a simple fact that for the vast majority of people, american education destroys the ability to climb this chart. The ability to learn is squashed through the approaches and methods of modern education. In its place is a full and sole embracing of facts... which is at the bottom of hte learning cycle. The student is recline to a life of remembering insted of understanding. The bible has a name for this... it is called "sheep".

At microsoft, the culture is much like higher education, squashing true understanding of concepts in favor of demonstrable facts.  I fact, within the culture there I clearly noticed that almost exclusively the higher the education of the person, the lower on the chart they lived.  So the microsoft culture went something like this:

the masses, the newcomers, fresh ut of school, little experience, lots of facts, some showed proomise, but few had the capacity to grasp. they became the busy workers for the first few years.

The middle men, after several years in, doing, working, experiencing, they learned... some were achieving true learning. They were the thinkers.. the ones that drove what little innovation there was.... until they either left for greener pastures or were promoted and schooled further...

The managers... higher ups, leaders... usually with more education credentials...  these were usually below the newcomers in ability to reason. They were numbers folks...  in fact the more letters they posessed behind their name, the less they could think.They spent their time mostly doing meaningless things and limiting the middle men who were actually creating.

The outsiders.. acquisitions.. these guys were good, knew how to think, but if so, they didnt fit into the culture and were quickly forced out. the few that stayed became.... managers.

I am not picking on microsoft... this iis the same patter I see in every walk of life, every profession, across america.  IT is rooted in the education system we run our children through. te education syste that was purposefully designed to rceate factory workers (non thinkers) from the american entrepreneur.

So back to the taxonomy... this is the key. facts have little value except to form a foundation. The true value in learning is in climbing the ladder and truly uderstanding relationshpips, the big picture, trenda, patterns, formulating cause and effect, building proposed scenerios, predicting the future.  Facts are only a small almost insignificant starting point. Sure.. important.. but only a sa starting point.

Sad is hte man who aims to build a house, lays a good foundation, but then praises the foundation so much so that... the house is never built. it woul cover his beautiful foundation! the house never appers, just a beautiful useful but useless foundation for all to see.

My point in all this is to express how true learning happens. You follow the levels to the top. You master something, not remember it.  And the amazing thing is... when you do this properly... you wll find that virtually all of life, all that matters, alings with the bible.  There is wisdom and technology within the bible that few find... becsue it is beyond the memorization. It is beyond verse and chapter boundaries. IT is in concepts... large clouds of thught that must be held in the comprehension in entireity to see the picture and grasp the beasuty.

More on this later.. that is the basics of sevral concepts I wish to share...

so for now.... 1 2 3 may be eay, but understanding 1 2 3  is... incredibly hard and immeasurably valuable.

The precepts of men

Dad made a profound observation one day...  This was around the time that "self esteem"  first rolled into the world as a major thought.  He said the following  (paraphrased)

When a sermon is based on truth it will be filled with scripture references to support the claims made....  But on certain topics those same preachers delivery a sermon that had only one or two half quotes scriptures. When there are only on our two individual verses to support a message,  is probably wrong."

I have watched this be true over and over.  When speaking about things like self esteem,  education,  etc...  There are a few quoted scriptures at best and then loss of the wisdom of man.  On basic points of doctrine there are lots of scripture used. 

The lesson here is,  when there are few scriptures,  be wary.  When one had to seek out versus to support what one thinks,  be careful.  When man is quoted more than god,  be skeptical.  To many use scripture as a"proof " of their own ideas instead of looking to scripture to find the truth.

Go to the bible to find truth in context.  Don't go to prove your beliefs.  Trust  messages that use multiple scriptures taken in context more than those that simply spout versus independently.  Check how many times the bible is used versus quotes from people.

An example is the classic "love your neighbor as you love yourself".  This is often used to claim that you must love yourself first in order to live your neighbor...  It is quoted to give proof thar man's biggest problem is not loving oneself enough. You can't give what you don't have.  Etc...  Etc.  Ironically though,  if you read this scripture in context and align with the bible message you find the exact opposite throughout.  Jesus is saying that everyone already lives themself,  we should love or neighbor that much.  Jesus taught that wet have to give up our own self,  die to self,  not cherish it.  Love of self is the problem,  not the solution.   Sermons and writings pushing the self love,  self esteem concepts have few scriptures to rely on ,  and they are taken without the context of scripture.

So be careful,  with the truth of god vs the precepts of man.  They usually clash.

Me

I once heard my dad say,  "I have been married to 4 different women"  confused by this,  I wondered,  but he continued,  "every decade she totally changed into someone new"

Now I can relate to that.  I wish to tell you the high level story of...  Me.  Sometimes people seem surprised or confused by the choices we make,  but we must all remember that life is a journey,  and what we think are destinations are really usually just milestones along the way

My journey has been a huge circle through many strange lands. 

I started life...  Different.  All up to my teenage years I was different.  I was also ridiculed,  criticized,  austricized,  laughed at,  attacked  because I was different,  but I was me.  I was intelligent,  wore glasses,  wore braces,  had strong conservative beliefs,  was living in a home / church where miracles happened weekly.  My dad was the biggest figure in town,  riding around on his tractor in our organic 1 acre garden in his brilliant white shirt with a iron on Jesus people patch on the back.

We were different,  and I loved it.  I was at peace.  I was me. I loved God,  I knew what I knew and stood for something true. 

Then high-school.  Somewhere along the way I made a turn.  I got tired of being different.  I remember a time thinking "I am done....  I just want to disappear into the crowd."  the particular circumstance escapes me,  but I remember the moment.  I prayed " God I still love you and will never reject you,  but I can't do this anymore".  And at that mile marker my journey changed.

Drinking,  sex,  rebellion,  women chasing,  part of me went crazy down that road.  I stayed away from drugs because I knew that my mind was all I had to earn a living and that could not be risked.

Other than that.  I started down a road I regret.

There were moments of wavering.  For a while I went back and tried to ge me,  but my heart was broken by the early years of ridicule.  I just wanted to be liked,  accepted.  So I wavered game and forth.  Preacher for a while,  rebel for a while.  Two people fighting inside me to be in control.

I married 3 women and divorced 2, and through that I lived 4 different lives.  Always searching to be who I thought I should,  but every mile marker I passed left me deeper into the world of the lost.

Yet I never rejected God,  not inside,  not verbally.

This journey travels through the strange lands of my life and drops me into the life I have today.  Through a string of deeply moving,  tormenting,  and life altering situations,  the Lord led me back...  To me.

So today I sit here as a ultra conservative,  semi Mormon,  ultra traditional usually poor farmer with too many kids to believe and a life that shocks anyone from my past.  They think "wow how you have changed" or " now dave really went off the deep end"  but no.  What they don't realize is that THIS IS ME.

It was only through years of pain that I realized it is going different that is the path.  As the bible says,  "narrow is the way and few are those who find it".  Peace and the resulting happiness comes only from being different.  Let the world be who it is,  let Satan rule,  but to be happy in this life,  we are called to be not of this world,  to be different. Ironically,  what I spent my life seeking,  the acceptance of this world,  sameness,  conformity,  is what brings pain,  suffering,  death.

Today I am who I was,  who I am,  and I am at total peace with it.  Fortunately the Lord brought me a wife that followed on this journey and accepts me.  The God of the universe,  and the woman God gave me accept me.  It is enough.

Be who you are,  and know that only if the world hates you,  will you find true peace. Don't spend a lifetime proving this simple Bible truth as I did.  Live your life,  be you.  Be the you that God created you to be.

The big picture

There are lots of moments,  events from memory to document here.  I do the best I can to pick out the ones that gave meaning to life.  However....  It is important to see the big picture.  My own childhood was not made of these moments in isolation.  There was a steady stream of miracles that far surpass anything seen today.

During the 70s, miracles of various sorts were weekly. Good moved constantly is a variety of ways.  Healings,  words of wisdom,  prophesy,  revelation,  exorcism,  angels,  the list is long.  The weekly question was not "will God work miracles this week",  it was "which miracles will we see this week"

I am not talking about little potential answer to prayers....  No...  I am referring to verifiable instant supernatural miracles. Things that are simply impossible,  happening almost daily.

That's how I grew up...  Exposed to so many miracles and shows of extreme power that they became commonplace,  expected, almost trivalized.  I can relate to the hebrews under moses lead that kept asking for bigger and bigger miracles,  never satisfied.  Miracles don't satisfy a rebellious heart like wealth doesn't satisfy a greedy soul.  We took gods power for granted.

But what days they were! I have seen more miracles in this few years as a teenager than most people see in a lifetime.  Those experiences are cemented inside me as a solid foundation that will never be shaken.  God is alive and well,  period.  Organized religion...  All of them...  Are wrong.  It's that simple.  I have personally meet Jesus,  seem enough of his work and his heart to never doubt. Of that i assure you.

Curiously...  I still walked away for a time.  I ignored god.  I never ever denied him...  Just ignored him, went my own way.  Add expected that ended in misery deeper than any imaginable...  But that's another story.  The thing is..  I know and have always known than god is alive and well today....  I saw first hand hundreds is examples of the supernatural.  Yet...  I went my own way for years.  Miracles,  signs,  wonders,  they do not change a person's heart. 

Bottom line is...  My teenage years were filed with miracles like today life can be filled with TV shows.  These few that I write about are but an example.

God is real.  Religions are wrong.