Tag Archives: Religion

Get more than two people together who supposedly believe the same thing; what do they do? Try to convince you they are right.

Business, Money, Power, Religion, Saving the World

Top Down or Bottom Up

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If you are intent on Saving the World do you take a Top Down or Bottom Up approach?

Bottom up, as in, rally people to a cause.  Get at least some enthused enough to take some action. i.e. Change to buying energy efficient light bulbs. Excellent work but when you do the numbers pretty ineffectual in your effort to save the world.

Top down, as in, I am global supreme leader, you will only use energy efficient light bulbs or I will ensure you are punished for not doing so.  We have the United Nations and the Security Council to dictate and enforce but that too seems pretty impotent with respect to saving the world.

This is the stage where many give up, the realisation that no matter what we do, the world is running head long towards a cliff and there is no stopping it.  The rationale is “I don’t think it will happen in my natural lifetime – what happens after that is of little consequence to me”.  Our thoughts are probably true, we don’t reflect on them too much because they make us think of ourselves as selfish bad people,  we use it just enough to be able to live with the enormity of the problem.  Some get to old age, thinking we are that much closer to the cliff than when they were born, feeling sorry for the generations to come, but happy that they won’t be around to experience it.  Many believe the top down approach is working with things going perfectly to plan.  God (The Global Supreme Leader) has it all in hand. Revelations is literal and we should all rejoice as we approach the edge of Armageddon.

The jeux de position Top down versus Bottom up presents in a quest to save the world would indicate the quest is pointless.

If we look at risk versus reward. It it is personally less risky to believe in God.  (A supreme Global Leader whoes existance can’t be proven and must be taken on faith) If God doesn’t exist you personally no worse off than those who didn’t believe in God. However if God does exist, and paradise is something you aspire to, the the reward is high for no risk. 

Unfortunately as a group the same analysis doesn’t hold.  If motivation to take action of individuals believing that the future is under control and it isn’t, then Armageddon is a self-fulfilling prophesy regardless of your beliefs. Personal saviour, group demise.

Our motivation for personal survival, here on earth, and in the afterlife for those who believe in it, could be used to veer us away from the cliff. No Armageddon. We would all survive. Including future generations.

A mechanism which hooks into our primordial survival instinct to accentuate activities that promote group survival is required.

That primordial Survival Instinct is often interpreted as Greed. Was Gordon Gekko right? Can Greed be good?

Communication, Giving, Love, Power, Religion

Quotes I relate to

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In no particular order I list some quotes that have relevance to the intentions of Kahatika.

  • “For it is in giving that we receive.” ~ St. Francis of Assisi
  • “All communication must lead to change” ~ Aristotle
  • “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix
  • “Integrity is the essence of everything successful.” ~ R. Buckminster Fuller
  • “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” ~ W.Edwards Deming
  • “Everything is practice.” ~ Pele
  • “You (never) change the existing reality by fighting it. Instead, create a new model that makes the old one obsolete.” ~  R. Buckminster Fuller
  • “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” ~ Nelson Mandela
  • “If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.” ~ Buddha
  • “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” ~ R. Buckminster Fuller
  • “Love is the gift of life. It’s a human need and a privilege. It’s one of the few energies in life where the more you give it the more you have!” ~ Tony Robbins
  • “The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.” ~ Tony Robbins
  • “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” ~ Dalai Lama
  • “There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.” ~ Ronald Reagan

  • “The truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme; but in both extremes.”― Charles Simeon

The design of Kahatika embeds the essence of these words. Truely we “Stand on the Shoulders of Giants” ~ Bernard of Chartres, made famous by Issac Newton

Agnostic, Business, Religion, Science, Technology

Conservation will not Save the World

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When I speak of my “Save the World” goal I don’t mean saving the planet. After all, the known life cycle of the sun dictates the ultimate demise of our planet. Saving the sun is not on the agenda.

So when I say I want to save the world I actually want to save our species, or more correctly I want to save our species long enough for it to evolve into it’s next revision.

In the long term there appears to be only three alternatives for that to happen.

  • 1. God rewrites the physical world laws to reveal a new reality that our species can survive in.
  • 2. A more advanced extra-terrestrial life-form than ourselves takes pity on us and facilitates our escape from our doomed planet.
  • 3. Our science and technology develops sufficiently for us to escape.

Both 1. and 2.  I can only hope and/or pray for, and as I really don’t want the responsibility of saving the world, would be really cool alternatives.

Unfortunately in my reality, three is the only alternative that I can take action on.

OK,  now that we are all convinced that without science and technology advancements we are eventually doomed. We being us and all our plant and animal friends. We necessarily can only use conservation and sustainability measures as a means to delay premature destruction of our planet long enough for our species to get off it. It seems logical to use science and technology as a means to advance conservation and sustainability to give us that time and as a byproduct keep our hand in; High tech conservation and sustainability techniques are sure to aid our escape.

I guess that means that only some of us will have the luxury of going back to a simpler less technology driven lifestyle, and only then, for a few billion years.

Some of us will need to carry on pushing the envelope of science and technology and converting our new findings into something useful using the change agent of business. This is where Kahatika fits in.

P.S. Yes I know about the “Big Rip” Theory.  If it is real I guess I’m working to give us enough time for us to develop technologies that will enable us to pass to another universe. i.e. I’m on the road to the multiverse.

Agnostic, Religion, Saving the World

My Religion?

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It seems to me that Religion, from a practical perspective, is a set of guidelines to live ones life by. (Brand loyalty gives rise to a multitude of flavours; Judaism, Budism, Christianity etc)

I guess I have one of those.

I like to think I have derived them from first principles.  “If I was on the receiving end of the action I am taking, what would I think or feel about that action and the person taking it?” Karen Armstrong is doing her best to get us back to those first principles by advocating reviving the golden rule.

Being agnostic there is one overriding rule I feel compelled to live by “Don’t Recruit Followers to My Religion” , or in other words,  “Thou shalt not promote one’s Brand”. I have my own reasons for this rule.

  • There is Power in Numbers.
  • Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
  • “He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy!” – quote Brian’s Mother, Life of Brian (1979)

Even more compelling a reason is that someone I can assume carries a great degree of credibility, forbid conversion of Jews and Christians (people of the book) to Islam. Who am I to argue with the Prophet Muhammad ? Not until the 10th Century did it become legal to convert Jews and Christians. Obviously 400 years or so is sufficient enough time to corrupt a religion.

Someone else that holds a bit of sway in the Jewish community, Rabbi Hillel, stated that, “The Book” so to speak could be summed up by “The Golden Rule”. This guy died when Jesus was 10. Not sure how well teachings got around in those days, but I can assume that Jesus was pretty taken with the Golden Rule as well.

  • Taking the advice of a the pretty switched on historic figures above as, likely to be “good”.
  • That my religion (my system by which I make my moral decisions) is based on the golden rule.
  • Q.E.D. No Recruiting Rule.

I can show you a man made plan but I can’t show you a miracle.