The following is an actual question given on a University of Liverpool chemistry final exam.

The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues via the Internet, which is why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s law that gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that, if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell. Because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay constant, the volume of Hell must expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Sandra during my freshman year, that “it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is endothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is extinct … leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being – which explains why, last night, Sandra kept shouting “Oh my God.”

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY “A”.

When I received this video

I wondered if prudish Americans would appreciate the continental humor.

For me and now I speak from my heart, mind and soul.  I remember well going to Jones Beach with two special ladies.  They made it clear they would bath as they wished and I needed to accept and not be some leering male.  I then remember traveling to Paris and seeing beautiful people adorning those typical French round advertising pillars.  The French simply use the beauty of the human body to promote perfume or some other sensual thing.  After I moved to Europe and we venturing, children in hand, to the beaches of Holland, France, Spain and Italy we learned to simply accept.  Even more telling, I attended an ITUG conference at a 5 star hotel in Budapest and ventured down to the spa.

I wonder why Americans  are bound up in a moral turpitude.

We are either far to the right or fair to the left.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was interviewed today and argued our country must come back to the center.  Morality is key to why we are so far apart.  So many on the right so many on the left.  Little room to find accommodation in the middle.

We purport to be a country of law, a country of freedom and a country of choice.  Yet we are tangled up in imposing rules to govern choice.  I read of how in Virginia back in the 30’s they attempted to ban interracial marriage and discovered that most of the population had some of Pocahontas in them.  I then think about those that are marching today.  They argue that the friends who died, are more important than the rights of those who want to let anyone bear arms.  Yet that small minority, the NRA, seems to have control over the decisions of the peoples’ representatives.  If we believe we can ban the mixing of races, yet we are unable, as the majority, to ban the type of arms, weapons, people are allowed to own, what are we!

Arnold today spoke of education, health and the environment.

If we want to Make America Great Again then why do we allow our system of education  to stigmatize people based on where they live.  Why do we not assure each citizen the right to equal education.  He reminded the audience this country ranks 39^th in the world.  He said that regulating diversity was ridiculous.  He argued that by offering equal education, we enable people equal opportunity.  His argument made perfect sense.  Using local property taxes to fund education, ultimately means where you live, hence your family income, defines who has opportunity to excel.  If we want to remain the greatest country in the world and assure all citizens equal opportunity, then, we must invest in education.

Bottom line Education is the key to Making America Great Again.

Health, there are 4 living doctors in my family.  Through my kinship to them, I have heard and listened to them speak of the issues with our system.  For my simple mind the problem begins with Capitalism.  It is all about big corporations wanting to profit from their skills.  It is about insurance companies wanting to minimize risk (expense) by minimizing the amount of care they have to pay for.  I am familiar with social medicine.  Three countries provided me personally with exposure to how it can and does work.

Yes, if you can afford care in this country, you will get the best care.

The challenge, every American cannot afford care, without insurance.  And, if everyone is not insured then those that are the least wealthy and healthy are without.  For me this graph tells the whole store. 

I am personally paying insurance under a Cobra plan.  For Selma and I, one household, it costs 1,291.43 a month $15,520.92 a year.

We all need universal care.  We need to require everyone to pay into our health system.  This is the only way will we assure affordable care for all.  How does one build such a system, I suggest, it must resemble what Switzerland has built.

Minimum care paid through taxes.  Supplemental care, each households responsibility.

Next is our environment.  Once, we worried about pollution and the quality of our air and water.  Now, we must expand our thinking.  We must remember we are stewards of this earth and realize our consumption of the earth’s resources will affect the balance of the earth and its ecosystem.  We are here to protect the earth for our children and for the children they will bring into this world.

We can argue all night long about the science.  What we do know is that if we change the balance of anything there is a result.  The classic appreciation of cause and effect.  We the USA, with less than 20% of the word population, recently were responsible for most of the carbon dioxide injected into the atmosphere.  Today this no longer is true.  But, we recently pulled away from helping to lead the world to a better place.  Instead our President wants us to return our sources of energy back to those non renewable earthly resources, coal and oil.  We all know they pollute!

Finding reusable means of generating energy, is good politics.  The Economist March 17^th 2018 had an excellent special report on the politics of energy.

If we do not embrace renewable sources of energy and reduce our dependence on Oil and Coal, we will no longer be the great national we are and seek to remain.

As I write, I am remember learning about the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  As the first sentence so aptly says it

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing everything – from the way we relate to each other, to the way our economies work, to what it means to be human”.

We must properly harness technology.

• Education is the key.
• Our environment can only benefit.
• Healthcare will simply become more efficient

In the end we will improve everyone’s life.

Yet?

As Adam Smith best explains, our global economy (yes we are a global economy), can only be successful when we view it as a closed system.

We must appreciate that we are all part of the whole.  Only when we each give to our own abilities, will we find balance.  If we allow labor arbitrage to take jobs away; then, those who lose their jobs must find new ways to contribute.  They cannot expect the system to sustain them!

Yet they should expect those that profit to help re-educate.

Why am I writing.  What am I asking.

Maybe to share.  Maybe to speak out.

There is one other topic on my mind.  Those who understand the loss of a friend in Parkland are speaking out, they are marching in Washington and around the country to get people to listen and vote to arrest the stupidity of how the second amendment is being mis-interpreted.

For me the key is found in the first part of that amendment

“ A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,

In my opinion, what resulted from  District of Columbia v Heller (2008) was an unreasonable interpretation of the second amendment.  I would suggest United States V. Cruikshank (1876) and United States v Miller (1939) are a better interpretations.  Those interpretations, in my opinion, are not influenced by the political influence of the NRA and gun manufactures’.  Their and the NRA’s focus is to market, sell and protect their right to profit!  They are not focused on assuring the free state has a well regulated militia.  If they were, they would insist on training, education and the formation of groups – in other words militias.

The second phrase

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

For me, this is why Switzerland ends up with guns in every home.  The people are members of the armed forces. They are “The Militia”.  They belong to a “well regulated” group of people focused on “the security of a free state”.  They are trained.  They understand the purpose of these weapons.  The militia, in other words the people, can determine if there are mental issues and exclude those individuals as they are evaluated and introduced to their responsibility as a member of the militia of the people.

Looking back on the histogram above many of you are or will be part of the upper 10%.  We are the ones most gifted.  We therefore must be the ones that are the most interested in making this world is a better place.  Simply accepting the way it is, means we are not working together to make the world, this country, a better and more equal place.

Going back to the video we must assure our freedoms.  We must focus not on how we expect people to live.  We must remember why we became a nation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

Our founders made it clear, we each have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The way I interpret what we attempted, as a nation, to establish; is a body of people, a society, that respects each of our individual rights and seeks to protect each individuals right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  If I want to expose myself in the comfort of a community that enjoys this way of life, as long as we do not imping on your rights, why not?  Slavery, Blue laws, various interpretations based on the desire to impose your will on me is not why we declared independence.  It is not what our constitution attempted to create.

I want clean air, clean water, not to see your litter in public view and be able  to drink alcohol and/or smoke marijuana.  I want the ability to see a doctor when I need to and not worry that I cannot afford to.  I want to be able to to see all children attend school, knowing they will get a great education.  I also do not want to worry that some lunatic will buy assault rifles and use these weapons reserved for a well regulated militia to kill children while they are at school.  I want to be able to attend a music festival and not worry that some person up in some hotel room is capable of buying an arsenal simply to kill people.

Yes we should have the right to hunt and protect ourselves.  Assuming we are trained and capable and more importantly are of stable mind and body.

We must each remember the ten commandments Exodus 20 or simply put the two found in Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:29-34 and Luke 10:25-37

Most importantly we must read, appreciate and be the Samaritan described in Luke 12:30-37.

Each of us is bestowed with skills and abilities.  We have the funds to be able to help drive policy we have the responsibility to assure each is given the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These are my beliefs.

I hope those reading my thoughts are willing to respect them and share theirs.  Only if we engage in discourse can we assure ourselves life, liberty and the ability to pursue happiness.

Obviously to avoid spam I do moderate comments.  As long as there is no profanity, I will not censor anyone’s comments.  I am also posting the existence of this Blog on Twitter and Facebook.  In those environments and as Cambridge Analytica has demonstrated, these thoughts will simply expand the public’s awareness of my habits, patterns and thinking.

Respectfully,

 

In an apologetics I was asked to question the idea that something came from nothing.

This is what I have to believe if I am going to listen to the Atheists and ACLU.

Then I thought about Creation and Intelligent Design. Oh how much simpler it is to believe than these Macro Environmental facts that cannot be backed up with data explains it all. There is much to accept if you are going to believe out of the Big Bang and Chaos; time would produce a single cell. Then from that single cell produce the abundance of life forms that have and do exist.

255 proteins must magically appear in one place at the exact right time,

Before we can start thinking about things like DNA

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops

During my journey from one of not wishing to believe to one 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 all that my eyes see and my mind perceives; 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.  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 passes; 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 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 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 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 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 day, 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 multiple.  Slowly but surely God evolved his land based creations to become what we know as the livestock and the wild animals.  God was selective is 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 where pleasing to him, he allowed to flourish, multiply and evolve.  Others of his creations he saw where 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, 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 Woman 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 was 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 that they understood 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 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 understand dividing half by half over and over again would never reach zero or by exploring the universe we would never see the beginning and had no chance see the end for in the beginning there was God and int he end there will be God and on and on he goes.

As some one once explained “Something cannot come from Nothing”

He wants us to learn, yet he built something so complex in it characteristic 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.  For 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, like 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 or 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 is 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 the 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