Squat and Squabble

With Halloween approaching, it seems to be a good time to talk about the “afterlife.”

It is an ageless question: What happens to us when we die?

The world’s religions are quite adamant that the spirit, or soul, survives the mortal body and continues in existence eternally after death. Whether or not that soul goes on to Heaven, or to Hell, or is reincarnated into another life, the beliefs may be approached differently in theology, yet they all share the common belief in an afterlife of some sort or another. Even Satanists, atheists, agnostics, and generic “non-believers” ascribe to some sort of existence beyond the biological. Something that lives beyond the boundaries of human life.

Modernly, with so many people rejecting traditional religion, it is curious, but not surprising, that an offsetting rise in other afterlife beliefs has become common. Take a look at Halloween, for example. It is now becoming one of the most popular holidays in America (to the chagrin of traditional religious believers, unfortunately). But what is Halloween? Decidedly it is not a traditional religious celebration, but the event nevertheless celebrates the existence of spirits, ghouls, ghosts, and goblins, and witches and warlocks connected to them through magic or incantation. Each of the fear-inducing spooks of Halloween are examples of connections to life (of one sort or another) following death. The holiday is dedicated to the concept of a mysterious life separated from, and following, biological death. Halloween is the spiritual celebration of an afterlife.

And what of the morbid fascination with the concept of zombies? These are human bodies that arise after the the human spirit has departed through traditional death. The premise of zombies is yet another belief that the body and the soul are separate and distinct.

And what of vampires, and werewolves? These are humans who have melded with wild animals, and live for centuries sharing both the human and the animal spirits.

These varied ranges of beliefs are premised on just a few basic categories: That there are living humans with imbedded souls (us); and independent souls that depart and survive after the death of the body (ghosts and spirits); and human bodies that survive after the soul has departed (zombies); and blended spirits that survive eternally on Earth trapped in bodies as quasi-humans (vampires and werewolves).

All of the religions, as well as the non-religions, are founded on a belief that we enjoy a binary existence as human beings, composed of one part body, and one part soul, joined together in life and separated at death. It seems that we all believe in the same thing, arriving at an identical conclusion from vastly different directions.

Bodies and souls, souls and bodies. Death is certain, yet life is everlasting.

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Happy Halloween.

Many people seem convinced that major changes are occurring in the world today regarding global warming/climate change, and that those changes are caused by human activity. The proponents of this theory condemn the burning of fossil fuels and the release of high quantities of “Greenhouse” gases by humans, and direct enormous effort at curbing this activity.

But a look at the logic of that argument reveals serious flaws. They are saying that changes in the atmosphere are what is warming the planet, asserting that it is a thin blue line of atmosphere, about 60 miles thick (according to NASA), causing the warming of the entire planet (which is 8000 miles in diameter).

Think about that for a second. They say that a thin coating of gases surrounding a planet is causing it to heat up. Really?

Earth’s atmosphere, when compared to the size of the earth, is not much deeper than the coating of paint on your car, when compared to the size of your car. Is it likely that this thin coating of gases is warming the entire planet?

The core of the Earth is a solid ball, mostly iron, about 750 miles across. That inner core is surrounded by an outer core of molten elements that vary in temperature from 5,000 to 14,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and that molten core is about 1800 miles from the surface of the planet. From time to time, the molten core leaks out onto the surface, in forms of volcanoes that are sometimes catastrophically explosive.

If you wanted to heat a pot of water, would you blow hot air onto the water’s surface, or would you put the pot on the stove? Is it more likely that the atmosphere is heating the planet, or that our planet is heating the atmosphere?

Humanity lives atop the crust of a molten planet, not much different than flies crawling around on the top of a freshly baked chicken pot pie.

If the oceans are getting hotter, and the polar ice caps are melting, and the atmosphere is warming, it is far more likely that it is the heat coming from below us, and not the air above us, that is the real culprit.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be pointing fingers and looking skyward to find the source of our environmental change – maybe we should be looking down.

“Histrionics” are dramatic, overdone, emotional actions and words that are done to influence someone. Unlike real emotional reactions, histrionics are fake and intended to manipulate others.

There is no better word to describe the current state of affairs in the U.S.

People organize protests over the most inane subjects, rant and rave about mundane and inconsequential events, and actually engage in violence under a faux umbrella of staged indignation.

Whether it is the shoes worn by the first lady, public statutes of confederate democrats from the civil war, university cafeterias that dare to serve GMO food products, or public appearances by persons that have contrary opinions, there will invariably be exaggerated offense taken by somebody. Guaranteed. From something as mocking by eyeball rolling and tongue clucking, to out-and-out rioting and destruction of property, or physical attacks on people, histrionics has now become a staple of American society. And it isn’t done for any other reason than to manipulate other people.

Extreme abnormal behavior (Histrionics) must be a required course in higher education, because there is no greater place to observe histrionic behavior than on university campuses. There is always a new march in favor of “whatever,” or a march in protest of “something,” or a sit-in demanding that the administration either do something, or stop doing something, and overly emotional students are always prostrating themselves and tweet storming and chanting and cutting classes and making signs because they insist that other people must change their behavior to conform to the latest fad or behavioral construct.

Histrionics is not confined to the campuses, either. At any hour of the day, on every TV or radio news show or talk show, and in every issue of every newspaper and magazine, there is a headline story about how terrible something is, or how cruel somebody is, or how unfair something is, or how we should be terrified or indignant or unaccepting of something or someone. Progressives and the media are adept over-emoters, finding topics for feigned outrage under every rock and behind every door.

And while the histrionic behaviors are ongoing, the important stuff is slipping by unnoticed. Nuclear war? Terrorist attack? Natural disaster? Economic collapse? Plague? Moral decay? Societal breakdown?

Nah, let’s get incredibly upset about how it is unacceptable to stand up to our enemies, or to consider extreme vetting, or about why urban planners don’t build disaster proof cities, or how trade policies shouldn’t favor Americans, or how bad it is to get vaccinations, or how unfair it is to criticize drug users, abortionists, or three parent families. You get the picture – “How dare you use tap water to put out a house fire!?”

Chicken Little obsessed that the sky was falling after having been hit by a falling acorn. Nowadays, people obsess on Chick-fil-A. The bigger picture seems to always be missed.