Recession on the Mind?

Currently we are going through a recession here in the United Kingdom and it is effecting everyone in one way or another. The word recession means to withdraw or to recede* the results of recession are always negative and we feel the effects every day, unemployment, hunger and heartache of many kinds.

In the same way the recession of one’s mind i.e. when we stop thinking or withdraw from leaning we also suffer negative consequences. “Leaning” (education) is the key to growth and prosperity of both the individual and society as a whole and therefore it stands in opposition to recession and brings both recovery and new birth.

I have been involve in the delivery of information (IT) in business for over 28 years and have seen the effects on business (and therefore people) of both the good and bad use of Information via Technology. My own experience has show me that, bar none, those who have embraced the use of information have succeeded or grown and those who have withdrawn or receded have disappeared or died.

We are now approaching the Easter holidays and we all have an opportunity over the coming days to take time out and read, think, learn, grow.

Now this is were I want to encourage and challenge you to read the Bible, the worlds best selling book, with an average of over 100m copies sold world wide every year. If as said before information and learning are key to your well being and growth, both now and in the future, then why would you not take the challenge?, what are you afraid of? The Bible says in the book of Matthew, Chapter 7 Verse 7** “Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you!” so why not.... Ask, Seek, Knock,”  I did this 22 years ago and it changed my life in so many amazing ways. You could start with one of the "Gospels" they are named, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospels are eyewitness accounts regarding Jesus, who he was, what he said and what he did. You can find the account of what happened at Easter in the book of Matthew near the back of the Bible starting around Matthew Chapter 25 through to Chapter 28. Why not push the boat out and read the whole of Matthew over the Easter weekend, it’s only 28 Chapters long.

If you would like to do this but don’t have a Bible you can buy them at most good book shops but remember the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. So get a good English translation, something like the NIV (New International Version) Bible or ESV (English Standard Version) Bible. Alternatively we can read the Bible for free on the Internet at www.bible.cc or www.esvbible.org You can also download the Bible on to your PC, PDA, Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry or iPad at www.youversion.com/mobile Turn the recession into your growth or recovery. God Bless and have a great Easter break. I pray you will all grow in some way over the next few weeks.

*Source - http://dictionary.reference.com ** Source - http://bible.cc/matthew/7-7.htm

John Terry, Steve Hester, Mass Media, Mass Histeria!

Over the last couple of weeks the media have whipped up at storm and many have been caught up in it.

First let me say, that if John Terry of Chelsea and England Football Teams is found guilty of committing  "racial abuse" against Anton Ferdinand, he should face the consequences of that in a court of law (not the media) and should rightly be condemed for doing so.

Secondly, I would like to point out that Steve Hester CEO at the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was only being paid a bonus for doing his job as agreed with his employer i.e. you and me or HM Government.

John Terry has not been found guilty of anything and Steve Hester was been paid for a job well done. However, John Terry has lost the England captaincy and Steve Hester has lost his bonus.

So why are we throwing away the things that we hold so dear in this Country. Things like, all citizens are innocence until proven guilty in a court of law and that if you agree a contract of employment both parties (Employer and Employee) should stick to it.

Two of the reasons for this are, the power of the media and our propensity to believe them. This is incredibly dangerous to us personally and our future as a Country. We have build up our laws in this Country over thousands of years, to protect us from injustice and the baying crowd. We should not now throw them away just because we "think" we have all the "evidence" we need to judge them, especially when that "evidence" is provided by the media.

Something to think about? The reason for our laws is to avoid the following. Should John Terry be found not guilty of the charge against him, he will have missed his opportunity, a 15 year career highlight of leading his Country, England, in a major tournament. Since joining RBS as part of the Government rescue plan. Steve Hester, has done a great job in helping the us, the tax payer, to get our money back, hence his bonus however, he may now decide to leave RBS and get a better job. Maybe one where he can trust his new employer to pay him as agreed in his contract of employment. I wonder who will pick up the challenge of the RBS after that?

Final thought - Going back to my opening line. The problem with a storm is that it can turn things upside down, so be care in what you wish, pray or ask for, you may get it.

How did it ever happen? Darwin in the Dock

I read the following quote by the Swedish zoo-physiologist, Soren Lovtrup from his book, Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth, New York: Croom Helm, 1987, p.422. - "I believe that one day the Darwinian myth will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science. ....When this happens, many people will pose the Question: "How did it ever happen?" and it got me thinking....


I became a Christian in Sept 1990 and I remember how angry I felt a few months later, when I realised I had just accepted everything I had been taught at school and college as true. What was even worse, especially in the sciences, we were only taught to question or challenge certain things in the science subjects but not others. Asking questions in history and science is why I loved these subjects so much, so why these road blocks on questions about darwinism and evolution?


According to my Daughters this is still the case in our schools today. As Prof Lovtrup said in 1987 "How did we let this happen?" What I find even more interesting is it cannot be for lack of evidence against these two ideologies just look at some of these quotes from prominent evolutionist below...

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George Wald (Nobel prize for Medicine 1967) writing in Scientific American, 191:48. May 1954 - "The Origin of life"
"When it comes to the origin of life there are only two possibilities: creation or spontaneous generation. There is no third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved one hundred years ago, but that leads us to    only one other conclusion, that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds; therefore we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance."

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Sir Fred Hoyle (Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University) - Hoyle on Evolution, Nature, 294[5837]:105, 12th Nov 1981.
 "The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to the 40 thousand naughts (zeros) after it. It is enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor on any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence."

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I have found stacks of these types of quotations by prominent evolutionists in the scientific community over the last 200 years. The general public seem totally unaware of the massive issues faced by evolution and as each day goes past we discover more and more about life and our amazing universe which stands against this ideology.


So back to the question posed by our Swedish zoo-physiologist, Soren Lovtrup "How did it ever happen? maybe I could be so bold to say that with the information we now hold in modern Science, the better question might be "Why did we let it happen?" Ignorance? Money? Pride? Ideology most certainly, if this were not the case, we would freely debate this in our classrooms and in the media.


Ideology is so powerful and in some cases can look like religion to the person watching on or listening in. The wrong ideology can also be very dangerous and result in oppression and at worst torture and death. Its partitioners and followers holding fast to that ideology with passion and faith like some religious zealot.


So the "Why" in my question can only be answered by looking at the ideology behind the resistance to greater discussion in our classrooms. As a very good friend of mine once said "Stop! Think about it"

Ignorance and lies make monkeys of us all.

Catdui's Comment - NewStatesman 25th April 2011 - "I have no religious belief and yet I am a tribal Christian" Martin Rees Astrophysicist, Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

I enjoyed Martin Rees article in the NewStatesmen this week "I have no religious belief and yet I am a tribal Christian" but, I am always surprised by the notion perpetuated by intelligent and respected scientists when writing these articles or similar books, the notion that they themselves have no faith (religious belief) or bias.

Everyone has a faith, belief, religion, world view or ism of some kind. To suggest otherwise is either ignorance or lies. To state the blooming obvious you will fall into one of two camps "Atheism" a set of beliefs held by Atheists "There is no God" and "Theism" is a set of beliefs held by Theists "There is a God". From each of these flow the details of one's belief i.e. Naturalist (Nature did it like this....), Christian (God did it this way......), Muslim (God did it that way), etc.

Even though Martin says in his article "But we shouldn't set up this debate as "religion V science"; instead we should strive for peaceful coexistence....." he still does not seem to recognise that his own "beliefs" and "studies" effect his view of the universe or science in general. This perpetuates the myth that study in the sciences is carried out in someway, by people with no bias, an empty mind and no life experiences to cloud their view.

I applaud Martin for his request for more critical thinking and wider debate in science however, in order to do this, we first need to be a little more honest with ourselves regarding the effect of our own beliefs on science. After all, we share the same facts and the same universe, it is how we interpret and critic this information through scientific method that matters.

I suggest a good place to start would be in the schools and universities. Let our students and scientists for that matter, ask any questions they wish regardless of its premise, which I have already postured, we all have. We should not have a situation in scientific study, as is the case in the United States at the moment, where you are not allow to challenge the current paradigm (belief), this just takes science back to the times of Galileo and others.

Science must! be open to critic. It has been stuck in one 19th century dogma for far to long without allowing any proper, open scientific critic or debate in our institutions and especially in the our media. This is the biggest threat to science and our future.

I leave you all with one of my favourite sayings "Beware the sound of one hand clapping!"

Catdui Comment - Adams Apple - April 2011