Author: Philip Andreae

Genesis evolution creation and the power of God

Created back when at least before  April 2008

https://andreae.com/category/personal-thoughts/spiritual-thoughts/

During my journey from one of not wishing to believe in the one of accepting the power and grace of God; I explored science and hoped science would offer all the answers and ultimately be able to explain everything.  As my learning expanded, I came to appreciate that there was too much order in my eyes and my mind’s perception; I came to accept that only a creator could establish the order of the universe we live in.

When I reflect on the big bang and read Genesis 1:1-5, I see in those few words the fact that there was a Big Bang, and it was when God created the light.  In those seconds and billions of years that followed, God set out to create the universe and eventually create the planet we call earth.  All of that is the work of his “First Day.”  If we measure it in our time, billions upon billions of years pass; God created dark matter and let fly particles of matter and energy in the great blast he caused.  So great is his power and so glorious his vision was formed, the universe, galaxies, stars, suns, and planets all turning so that there would be a time of dark and a time of light.  His first day’s work was done.

We know the foundation of all life on earth is made possible by the existence of air and water.  On the second day, he created H2O and the air.  With these two creations, he created the expanse between the water in the sky and the water on our planet.  So ended God’s second day’s efforts.

On the morning of the third day, he created DNA and developed the structure of a plant cell.  He then spent the balance of the day manipulating this creation into what we know as the vast diversity of plant life.  He then blessed these various forms of vegetation to be fruitful, evolve, and multiple.  On that day he set in motion the process that would allow these initial forms of vegetation to evolve into the multitude of plant life we are familiar with today.  He wanted his various creations to evolve and enjoyed watching the new forms of vegetation emerge and recognized that some would not survive and in many cases decided to destroy those that were not pleasing to him.  He saw that his creation of numerous plant species was good and saw that his third day of work had come to an end.

On the fourth day, he saw that for evolution to continue there must be times when the sun, with its great energy, would touch the earth.  So he parted the waters of the sky to form what we now call clouds.  He caused the planets to rotate and the sun to disappear and the other planets, stars, and galaxies to become visible.  He set the earth’s rotation and orientation to align with all his other celestial bodies, causing there to be warm times and cold times.  By setting the earth to tilt and spin at a certain rate, he was able to create the seasons which further stimulated the growth and evolution of his first creation, vegetation.  The vegetation was now capable of following the cycle of life he set in motion when he created the passage of the seasons.  By altering the strength of the light from the sun and the intensity of the light of the moon he added diversity to his creation.  With this new process in place, it was time for God to rest the evening of the fourth day.

On the fifth day, God arose and decided to create creatures that would fill the seas and soar through the sky.  By using his creation, DNA, he moved on and created animal cells.  In the morning he created simple creatures to inhabit the sea and soar through the sky.  He saw that this was good and he caused these creations to be fruitful, evolve and multiply.  As the day progressed he continued to experiment and create more complex creatures by developing animal cells capable of performing different functions.  God continued to relish in the creation of diversity.  As he created each new species he continued to embed within them his concepts of evolution and enjoyed watching each evolve from its own kind and fill the sky and the sea with a diversity of birds and sea creatures.  And it was time for God to rest the evening of the fifth day.

On the sixth day, he saw that the land was only filled with vegetation and saw that the richness of the vegetation of the land could support new forms of life.  So in the morning, he caused the creatures that inhabited the sky and the sea to evolve and descend from the sky and crawl out of the sea.  As the day progressed God further populated the land by creating new creatures.  Like he had done on the fourth and fifth days, he blessed these creations of the land and let them be fruitful, evolve and multiply.  As the day passed he noticed that some of his creations were so large that he could not allow them to continue to multiply.  Slowly but surely God evolved his land-based creations to become what we know as livestock and wild animals.  God was selective in his process of creation and enjoyed creating a wide variety of creatures.  Yet, he also had an eye for beauty and diversity and would often determine that one or another was not fit to continue to exist.  Those that were pleasing to him, he allowed to flourish, multiply, and evolve.  Others of his creations, he saw were not good and he destroyed them.  In all his thinking there was a plan to create a creature in his own image.  As the creatures of the sea, sky, and air evolved he selected only those creatures which would be suitable for the world man would also inhabit.  After a time he saw the success of his process of selection and planned evolution.  His creations had evolved to the moment when he was ready to populate the world with a creature God could commune with.

So near the end of the sixth day – Genesis 1:27-28 – God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground”.

Given that he made man in his image, the man had the ability to think, the power of free will, and a rebellious willingness to create anew.  God also knew that through time our knowledge of where we live and all that is around us would grow and he would have to chastise us often to remind us of his power and dominion over all.

I could venture into the question of Sin and ponder how the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony. greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride fit into God’s plan.  What we do know is that God can see everything that will and has happened.  He knew Women would listen to the serpent and eat of the fruit of the Tree he had forbidden them to eat from.  With this same clarity, God knows that at different stages in the growth of our knowledge of how the earth and the universe were formed some would see themselves as God’s equal and decide that there was no need to reverie the one God.

These foolish men would forget to continue to pursue knowledge and instead stop and come to believe that the little knowledge they had acquired gave them the power to see themselves as Gods and to think they could understand ALL.

Knowing all of this, when God spoke with Moses he offered the ten commandments and reminded us in the first four commandments that there is ultimately only one.  He left us to recognize that if we bow down to science or other idols we will lose sight of the reality of creation.  We would forget how God always intended there to be another question to ask, another space to explore, another particle to find, another marvel to ponder, and other theories to test.  He understands, by dividing half by half over and over again, we would never reach zero nor by exploring the universe we would ever see the beginning and have a chance to see the end.  For in the beginning there was God and in the end, there will be God.

As someone once explained “Something cannot come from Nothing”

He wants us to learn, yet he built something so complex in its character.  One of being both infinitesimally small and infinitely large that we can and will never reach a time when there is nothing more to learn.

Any scientist that stops in his quest for knowledge has lost sight of his reason for being a scientist.  Any human that accepts what he is told and does not continue to question will lose sight of the infinite power of God and become lost in a cloud of ignorance. God’s greatest gift is that we can always seek and learn and that we will always have more to learn and search for.

When I read Genesis I know I am reading the words of Moses and I know that Moses was listening to God telling the story of how he created all that we see around us.  What is clear is that God knew that man was not ready to understand the complexity of what he had done and so he offered Moses a simply yet vastly complex picture of his six days of work, knowing that we could explore and learn yet at the same time accept and be certain of his power.

What is amazing is that when we listen to the great scientists, the ones that continue to look deeper into what it is they are exploring they find that in the end there are no final answers, simply more questions.  This is exactly how God planned it.  He wants us to explore, he wants us to learn how to manipulate and utilize that which is around us.  What he also did was create something infinitesimally small and infinitely large so that through the reality of infinity we can and will never be able to find any other answer than the one written in Genesis, God created the universe and all that is within it, including the processes of reproduction, evolution, mutation, and destruction.

Yes, as I did at the beginning of this email, he allows us to interpret the words in Genesis and wants us to further our knowledge and understanding.  He knows that through the ages we will understand some of the complexity of what he did.  But at the core, the words that are in the Bible are the clearest way of saying everything and leaving us the responsibility to always question and learn.  Through this responsibility, God knows that in the end, we will understand that only the creator could create the universe, in its complex glory.

Neither Chaos, Genetics nor Evolution will ever be able to help us understand why only four basic elements can be combined in such a variety of ways to produce so many complex life forms.  The complexity of DNA and the cell and their ability to evolve are and will remain God’s greatest creation.  The stars’ nebula and beautiful clusters that fill the telescopes we use to see into the distance only offer us a glimpse of God’s love of art.

The order and chain of life are so structured.  Only the ONE has the knowledge and power to drive the creation of the universe and design the process of evolution, allowing the plants, birds, sea creatures, land animals, and those most primitive of elements: matter and energy; to continue to create new and wonders things.  Only the one God has such intellect and power.

Of Jesus that is for another day.  There the story is of God deciding that he had to finally come to earth to teach us how to live together.  For, unlike other living things, we were given free will, and unless we accepted his guidance we will and can destroy that which surrounds us.

We must remember, God almost gave up on us.  Remember how he destroyed all but those Noah took forward?  Jesus came to offer us salvation and more importantly to simplify the Ten Commandments down to two – Love God and Love Your Neighbor.   If we could simply do these two things then we would be at peace and like the other creatures of god’s creation live in harmony in God’s universe.

Our quest is simply to help everyone to understand that by living with those two commandments in our hearts and in our heads; we can live in peace and maybe one day return to the Garden of Eden.  With respect for the one unimaginable God and together as the common inhabitants of this plant, we can work as a team to be better than how we operate as isolated individuals seeking dominion over someone else.

With God’s Love

We are all Kings of the World

Jesus the King of the World for 18 years wandered this earth. As our teacher he stands before us with one truth. Love each other. In so doing you love and honor God.

Matthew 25:40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,* you did it to me.’ 

Tomorrow Immutability and Trustless is this what we want?

2 words immutability and trustless. 

Such big words. The idea something is once written can never be changed, altered, or deleted as well as elegant. Or that there is no need to worry about anything, what is presented simply is one instance of knowledge not until more than two can be found is there the possibility of trust. But if more than a few assemble and not sure then!

In a trustless environment, there is no single entity that has authority over the system, and consensus is achieved without participants having to know or trust anything but the system itself. A definition from one of the major institutions helping to establish this new.  New what?

https://academy.binance.com/en/glossary/trustless

It is the removal of relationships so they can be replaced by something, no someone new that is bothersome.  Words like usury invade reality, and a few get very wealthy as the mass spend to survive, always being driven to need more. 

We have lost the ability to commune.  We lost track if the responsibility to be good stewards of the garden we were given responsibility for .

Crypto

I learned it in school then again at the hand of David Chaum

He taught me that if I kept the key length long the work hard and the hardware self defeating then a digital signature is absolute proof of presence under and agree set of conditions.

We then spoke of operating systems, payments, smart cards, cryptography: asymmetrical and symmetric. Rooted in PKI and the need to assume a trust less world.

Then there is money. We knew, time ago, we could use electrons to replicate notes and coins on ledgers and within balances.

Electronic Passports, National Identity Cards, and Drivers Licenses will have or have had a digital form.

Now we create Digital Assets.

Valued by a market.

Dreaming of unimaginable wealth or food on the table in the morning.

There is Evil

The Golden Rule assumes we collectively wish to be at peace and in harmony with each other.

Yet there are people who care only for themselves and what their greedy self desires.

Often greed is bound up in mystical beliefs and a focus on evil for its own sake.

If we have the right nurture we will respect the beliefs of others as they respect how we see things.

The Devil is how good people describe or justify the the evil acts of evil people. They separate the evil from an enemy, family member, neighbor, or colleague who may may not be perfect and desires a chance.

Democracy is at Stake

Democrats cannot give up on voting reform. The nation can’t afford it.
Opinion by the Editorial Board

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/23/voting-reform-cannot-die-future-democracy-is-stake/

When I think about democracy I wonder about how long it will take to truly become democratic.

This transformation requires the agility to accept change as society moves forward and expands on all sides, Be our differences density, education, technology, automation, learning, health, family, place, or position.

Memorial Day 2021

Here we stand a great nation struggling with the stalemate of division.  A nation bound in a history of firsts capable of so much more.

The struggle over tribal beliefs often times built on fear and reservation defies logic.  Religions and teaching are the source of nurture essential to achieving happiness.  If success in assuring peace requires that in early life each of us learns the Golden Rule,  then we must learn the way to make sure each of us understands the value of nurture in assuring happiness.

Van Buren v United States

Date & Time:
Tuesday, June 29th, 2021
10:30 AM PT | 1:30 PM ET

Explained: A Legal Perspective on the Future of Cybersecurity Research

The Supreme Court’s Van Buren decision earlier this month aimed to clarify the ambiguous meaning of “exceeding authorized access” in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the federal computer crime law.

In the context of protecting critical infrastructure from hackers, this particular ruling will define how we manage, report, and handle unauthorized access.

It also raises some foundational questions that, if weighed carefully, have the potential to foster a collaborative relationship between researchers and companies. How should good-faith researchers conduct themselves? Does this redefine the relationship between companies and hackers? Is every researcher considered to be in violation of CFAA if they’ve not sought permission to access a system?

Jared L. Hubbard and Christopher Hart have followed this ruling closely and worked on amicus briefs to aid the Court in this matter. They will discuss the case and answer questions.

Speakers:

Jared L. Hubbard, Partner, Fitch LP
Christopher Escobedo Hart, Partner, Co-Chair, Privacy & Data Security Practice – Boston, FoleyHoag LLP


Register on Eventbrite


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Copyright © 2021 Voatz. All rights reserved.

Thinking Voting

Today we seek to ensure each citizen eligible to vote can vote. Issues like location, geography, education are all elements of the values we must embrace as we work to assure the citizens ability to vote.

The first question of voter and eligibility takes us into the realm of who or how elections are managed. Candidates, contests, question are all elements of what is presented to the voter as a ballot. According to practices and rules, contests involve selecting candidates. While questions focus on yes/no answers or a score.

Anonymity creates a need to construct a mechanism to assure one vote per voter while preserving the privacy of the voters identity. This one requirement solved reduces the risk landscape significanttly and complicates the angle of attack.

Adhering to a security first continous improvement principles and integrating prevention and detection into the design of the source code.

I believe Voatz has solved the most challenging task and embraced best of breed components and partners to build a secure immutable record of each unique anonymously signed ballot.

The rest, as long as vendor certification mechanisms and coherent standards exist, has been done over and over again in: financial services, government services, defense, health, and retail. With sound software design and release procedures, built on quality principles inherent in the companies ethos

All we need is the right to improve democracy.

No one is chosen

How can any tribe claim to be chosen?  When so many other cultures and tribes emerged in other parts of the globe.  Each grew up with an understanding of the unimaginable Creator. God, by whatever name.

This elemental craving to be better than another goes back to the emergence of language. When we learned to communicate with together we began to wonder: how or why?

These two questions get more complicated when we wonder how those lights appear in the night sky or why the rain does not soak the earth.

Yet up against the Mediterranean this band of escaped Egyptian slaves claim lands from the inhabitants.

A long time ago out of Northeastern Africa Homosapien emerged.

Homo sapien an interesting evolution of the primate. They settled in tribal communities. Evolved and seeking shelter, food source, drinking water, and sanitation together.

A new world order seems to be the next step in man and woman’s evolution. Division twin tribes, cultures, people and religion create animosity. It is this animosity built on fear often times we we must address as we evolve.

Where would I live if both ice caps melted and all glaciers disappeared. How much water did you put on the Earth? Somewhere on what will become Eastern seaboard is where Philip wants to build, I’m home.

The next question, when does it matter. If I think of myself 2050 I would be 96. If I think beyond, 21 sounds like a good number.

The Israel mistake – Sheikh Jarrah – is part of Palestine

In August 2009, the court evicted the al-Hanoun and al-Ghawi families from two homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Jewish families moved in based on a Supreme Court ruling that the property was owned by Jews. The United Nations  coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry condemned the decision: “These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace.”[34] The US State Department called it a violation of Israel’s obligations under the Road map for peace.[35] Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said “Tonight, while these new settlers from abroad will be accommodating themselves and their belongings in these Palestinian houses, 19 newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep.”[34] Yakir Segev of the Jerusalem municipal council responded: “This is a matter of the court. It is a civil dispute between Palestinian families and those of Israeli settlers, regarding who is the rightful owner of this property… Israeli law is the only law we are obliged to obey.”[36]

Sheikh Jarrah –  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sheikh+Jarrah/@31.7743298,35.2207493,13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x150329c27b01f693:0xce2261ccf7265d95!8m2!3d31.790504!4d35.228707

In 2021, clashes occurred between Palestinians and Israeli police over planned evictions in the neighborhood.[37][38]

Israeli Palestine May 12th, 2021

12 May 2021

 

What is a DAO and how do we govern tomorrow

Distributed autonomous organizations, a DAO.

When we think of governance and how we control society, we immediately must consider the realities of people in the tribes they belong to.

Recently the emergence of bitcoin, the understanding of the power of a distributed ledger, the use of a hash chain, the power of cryptographic processes, and the security of the devices we carry establishes a foundation for a brave new world.

What is governance? It is the method processes and mechanisms a society puts in place to establish order and ensure harmony?

The ancient Turks, Greeks, slave spoke of democracy, the idea that each member of the tribe, the town, the city, or the state could assemble and determine new laws, regulations, and best practices. We then evolved into Republican governments the concept of a group of people representing a larger number of citizens.

Influence and power define what shall evolve. In my lifetime, the idea of being able to plug the handset of your telephone into the back of a terminal and establish a connection to a computer somewhere out there was a novelty. For my father it is Time in Geneva when Aryanism stood out as a challenge, opportunity or threat. Telephones were just emerging and radios were available. TV was still not present. Paper books and libraries surrounded the environment we will call Geneva.

City on the Lake, what is this thing place in his history his is as relevant as your or mine.

One question why anonymity at the profound process of engagement. When you are something called anonymous I am not sure I want to play. If your anonymous is mandatory; I don’t want to play.

The innovative spiritual and the. Nurturing essence of life.. How this evolves involves countless engagements.

Each sublime note to the fabric of the virtual environment we present to the public is.

And, all of us form the fabric of the public.

He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said,* ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’* then that person need not honor the father.* 6 So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word* of God. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines

“Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”

What shall we do? Simple honor the one Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31

You commit to what you believe in with a robust desire to adhere to the moral imperatives. The one God is the same God written about in so many different ancient lore.

The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32

32

Who is your neighbor?

Anyone you engage in an event. An event is is anything we all seek to record. By the way any unit of one can record as long as all parties are aware. It is our contracts and promises. Those such as payment, voting, identity and influence.

See you next time.

Spirituality and Religion

Long ago, the idea of religion led me to understand we could control the masses through their indoctrination by a few. When speaking to someone of their religious beliefs, they remind us that if we put our faith in Jesus or the Almighty, they call God, all will be right with the world. They point to the ever after and the chance to live in heaven. They argue we live in a sinful world, and it is man’s sin that brings upon us the challenges many of us have faced. Some talk of reincarnation this thing called soul, nirvana has some future we cannot know.

On the other side of the discussion, there is spirituality, that inner sense of understanding. Some would argue our spirituality comes from our religious beliefs. Others would suggest it is better to have a spiritual foundation not based on religion but your inner sense of self. This inner sense of self begs the question,

“Who Am I.”

History repeats itself. Throughout time charismatic leaders have been able to grab hold of the hearts and minds of the masses. These charismatic individuals have led their followers in either positive or negative ways.

The question really should be who is in control. Is it the charismatic leader, or are there others who sit in the darkness operating as puppet masters responsible for the strife and misery inflicted upon many as these few enrich themselves?

Governance a Question for Society

Distributed autonomous organizations, a DAO

When we think of governance and how we control society, we immediately must consider the realities of the people and the tribes to which they belong. Without understanding their history and the context of the culture, we gamble with knowing the truth as we try to understand their focus, purpose, and future.

What is governance? It is the methods, processes, and mechanisms a society puts in place to establish order and ensure harmony? The ancient Greeks spoke of democracy, the idea that each member of the tribe, the town, the city, or the state could assemble and determine new laws, regulations, and best practices. We then evolved into representative structures where appointed, elected, or heredity groups of people came together to represent many citizens.

Long ago, yet, in my lifetime, the idea of plugging the handset of your telephone into the back of a terminal and dial into a computer somewhere out there was a novelty.

Last decade, in response to the financial crisis brought on by those who sought to profit from the creation of financial instruments derived from the derivate of another financial derived instruction, we read Bitcoin: A Peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System.  This seminal piece of work drove us to understand the immutable and trustless power of a distributed ledger.

When bitcoin emerged, Satoshi’s whitepaper described a new world order. A world built on mathematics, founded in a meritocracy, and governed by software. It makes one wonder about the written into science fiction novels. They expressed concern and worry about computers and pure logic taking over the world.  Sometimes humanity became technology’s servant.

While learning, I remembered a series of conversations with David Chaum as he explained the concept of a hash chain, the power of cryptography, digital signatures, and certificates as I explored the security of the devices we carry.  This journey drove me to explore relationships, artifacts, cards, and credentials.

After 45 years serving the financial community with a technical orientation, I came to understand the power of identity, the fallacy of software, and the integrity of people. At the same time, history was rewritten, curriculums were changed over and over again. Disinformation, trust, fake news, and propaganda meld into this cacophony. A collage of perspectives linked to our identity and flavor soured by the relationships and encounters we have had during our limited existence. Today I wonder about elections, opinion polls, proxy votes, and the selection of representative government.

Today it is time to embrace a citizen-centric view of technology.  If we do not stop and think, the brave to a new world we may construct could look like 1984 or a world under the watchful eye of Skynet.  If we reflect on what we, the citizen, want and direct what we do to achieve that collective vision.  We can work as one together and establish the foundation of that brave new world we all seek.

A distributed autonomous organization seeks to address a myriad of challenges. As peers in a decentralized structure, the participants deliberate, vote, and reach

 

consensus.

Like in any organization, people are attracted to thoughts and ideas that meld well with their own. But what makes this so new? Long ago, when representative governments or councils were created, the community decided to allow a few to manage the needs of the many.

What is so different? Our interfaces have changed. The way we engage has expanded and no longer restructured to verbal or hand-delivered written communication. In written communication, there is a thought.  I stare at my computer screens; my pen is poised over a tablet as I use script to write notes or the keyboard to chat across multiple instant messaging applications.  While staring at a word processor, PowerPoint presentation, or spreadsheet, I can engage and share with people spread across the planet using my cameras, speakers, and microphones.

A distributed Autonomous Organization is simply the grouping of people using technology to widen the breadth of participation.  No longer restricted to location, we can continue to expand networks and engage with our peers.