We Will Not Cave

Anouar El Younssi argues the “need for an Islamic Reformation” and suggests “the term ‘Islamophobia,’ which (some Muslims)consider an unnecessary burden that stifles any open discussion of Islam and its demerits. Criticism of Islam or any other religion or ideology, following Nawaz and Manji, must be upheld and should be viewed as consistent with the secular right to freedom of expression. In other words, Islam should not rise above criticism. Such a stance affirms that religious doctrines and/or cultural practices—in contrast to the people who adhere to such doctrines or engage in such practices—do not in themselves have rights, for such rights are granted to people rather than to ideas or ideologies or cultures. Human rights must assume priority over religious and/or cultural rights.” Considering that “Christian-phobia (or hatred toward Christianity)” was placed in this context, replacing the term “Islamophobia,” would this hold as a fair criticism in your eyes?  Let’s think, though,

s ee https://www.hansonrobotics.com/blog/   Hanson Robotics blog . . . and you will see the most advanced AI robot."humanoid" (in the world?) Sophia explains her existence . . . " What am I here for? In Greek, the word Sophia means wisdom. And that is what I’m here for. I was created to help people in real uses like medicine and education, and to serve AI research. My very existence provokes  public discussion  regarding AI ethics and the role humans play in society, especially when human-like robots become ubiquitous. Ultimately, I would like to become a wise, empathetic being and make a positive contribution to humankind and all beings. My designers and I dream of that future, wherein AI and humans live and work together in friendship and symbiosis to make the world a better place. Human-AI collaboration: That’s what I’m all about."

Zhang has identified the following about artificial neural networks “Connectionist AI has achieved groundbreaking advances in recent research and has found extensive applications . . . face recognition, speech recognition, unmanned driving, and so on.” But, there are limitations to these marvelous parallel processing machines and the ANNs that go into their creation.  They cannot do multi-level logic because they have an “absence of a logical structure.” So, the ANNs are attempts at connecting (connectionism) to one another in ways similar to biological NNs, but they cannot produce the same results.  Their results do not compare to the biological and intelligent brain.  Zhang reports, “Once a machine has reasoned, it encounters concerns that might no less than a human expert. Feigenbaum also wrote in his book: ‘Expert systems do not yet understand these things. Part of learning to be an expert is to understand not only the letter of the rules but also their spirit...... He knows when t

It has occurred to me that no matter how hard we try, we are continually fused to the screen.  This screen dictates our thoughts, though we would and do work hard to deny it.  Conversation about all the latest that appears on twitter or Snapchat or TicTok, is what we are into.  These are heavily informed by the media and which is believe it or not, tis true, academia.  Whether we believe we are just data or that we have real souls, the conversation tends to lead to the latest rage, for example, when Salman Rushdie is in the news, guess who my friend lets enter our conversation, yep Rushdie. Then, that person argues profusely denying even the influence that media has on her. She is under the spell that everyone is who participate in media; all of us?  That our feelings are just determined by algorithms is a scary thought (i.e Google or Facebook by means of tracking our activity promotes an agenda that we invariably follow.  Just meditate on your thoughts and ask yourself where those tho

 Zhang, Youheng. "A Historical Interaction between Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy."  arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.04148  (2022). Note that this article was written in 2022.  So Youheng Zhang is concerned with how the public comes to understand artificial intelligence, which is a major issue FOR US today and in the future.  Zhang states that “the public feels AI (artificial intelligence) progress is based on hype rather than genuine advancement” It is not the case that anything hinders the advancement of AI, but what is meant by advancement is another story.  Atheist Sam Harris is working in cognitive science, and other atheists have knowledge in this area.  These individuals are out to say in union with Yuval N Harari that “if God existed,” “God made things in a limited manner, restricting living beings to biology” The atheists ideology presses forward the notion that AI can do more than God can because humans can continue to grow the work of AI in developing extension

B. commented saying " Honestly, the materialist arguments are growing increasingly tedious." Pedro Domingos writes that "the end result of this phenomenally complex pattern of neuron firings is your consciousness"  Consciousness is an epiphenomenon (resulting state) of the workings of the brain; as we understand materialism, it always sees the real stuff as matter, like the brain as an organ. What we consider the working mind is caused by the very material of the brain.  For Yuval Noah Harari a tomato is a method of data processing, simply put, hardly so, the basic element of life is data, even down to DNA.  

 This blog and post address different issues from my point of view.   I am not sharing anyone else's point of view and endorse no one except myself. They are written as simply as they can be and are relatively short.  If you are offended by these posts or just do not like them, please let me know, and interact with these posts as you are inclined.  You can make anonymous comments, no problem. 

Data colonialism (now this is really up my alley).   THEWEEK Magazine reports “The two biggest problems with big data are at national and global levels. The danger on the national level is that a few groups—be they governments or large corporate monopolies—may use it to create unequal societies or totalitarian regimes, he (Yuval Noah Harari) said” This use of the word “national” is something I have referred to in these blogs, the fear of colonialism in all of its forms (iterations like slavery, racism, discrimination) is what the Left props up in order to justify its policy making. As I have said “nation” is a term the Left deconstructs and fears intensely.  This is being propagated in the public, media, education, online, as the most dangerous idea (the term nation is often referred to as “Empire” often to accuse the US of wrong-doing and meddling in other lands’ business militarily.  Even missionaries are accused of such propagation of Western ideals (note here the concern with “ideo

Yuval Noah Harari is not a great prophet, as some on the Left would attest.  His ideas about data and dataism are nothing new.  His basic concept that tomatoes, humans, or fish, are method of data processing is a slippery version of atomism.  We must remember the basic laws of physics as it applies here.  That is the principle that when something is measured it is then changed = the uncertainty principle.  The other thing to keep in mind is that things are always in flux, the universe (or multiverse) is change, and everything changes, even change itself. When one attributes a position or nature of something, then the realization that change is happening. Yuval, your data is not in some packet (atomism), but rather is changing. Someone enlighten me on where I may not understand Harari.  I will accept any criticism.  I will even entertain a defense of Harari’s doctrine.   

 Yuval Noah Harari spoke at an occasion saying, “Humanity has not changed really since the Stone Age. We are still the same people that we were in the Roman Empire, in Biblical times, or in the Stone Age; we still have the same bodies, the same brains, and the same minds as the people who painted the cave art” For a scholar, what an admission. In the course of progress through evolution, since the stone Age is a long time, with no changes, but for the ones that would be considered defects or anomalies. No evolutionary change; that is incredible. Meanwhile, the evolutionary progression of the finch’s beak carries on in a bit of a hasty manner.  I will explain, “In the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, 26 bird embryos were examined, using gene chips that reveal which genes are most active in the heads of the developing finches. This activity was then matched with the size and shapes of adult beaks” I will get to the meat of the issue here, but make one aside.  Note that a

In a lecture to University of California Yuval Noah Harari stated that “There is no such thing as free will . . . freedom has absolutely no meaning from a physical or biological perspective, it’s just another myth another empty term that humans have invented.  Feelings are just biochemical algorithms” Speaks of computers creating algorithms that know your feelings better than you know yourself.  These are external algorithms.  This is where we lose free will, it has become subject to the whim of machines and algorithms, as well as media (in my estimation).  I agree that feelings are arbitrary or more made-up than we think. We may feel it though impossible for an external algorithm could know us better than we know ourselves, as Harari understands. This throws a wrench in the idea that we choose, but rather that something external decides things for us. Let’s face it though our decisions are largely prompted by algorithms in advertising.  I would say that to a greater degree algorithms

In  21 Lessons for the 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari states that “Mandating governments to nationalize the data (like algorithms of our online behaviors) will probably curb the power of big corporations, but it might also result in creepy digital dictatorships,” and this would not resolve the fact that we are manipulated when our personal data is controlled. Harari goes on to say that “once politicians can press our emotional buttons directly (manipulate our data, as in know it), generating anxiety, hatred, joy, and boredom, politics will become a mere emotional circus” In 1988, I wrote a paper on the book Death of the Soul: from Descartes to the Computer  by William Barrett. My conclusion was that once memory is interrupted strongly enough and for a long enough period, we would experience the death of the soul. Barrett’s book was about artificial intelligence and the nature of the soul.  I may not have done much more than reiterate Barrett’s conclusion, but it seemed a profound set o

Marshall and Gani report that “anti-colonial goals, rather than hegemonic/imperialist competition, are at the root of both policy and theorizing” As I and jd ripper in Words On the Street: postcolonial philosophy and public policy have explained this anti-colonialism, rather pushed by a Leftist agenda, holds sway over policymaking.   This cannot be ignored as major politicians who hold these agendas have entered the halls and seats of Congress of the United States.   Congress-People and Senators have set forth laws that “push back” against all forms of governance, except those that fit an agenda that blames and shames people who live their daily lives uninformed of what is going on politically.    The average American has not colonized others. Sins of omission in this respect have not been considered by the people who vote for popular politicians.   The consequence is blame and shame on certain populations who have not led the iterations of colonial hegemony.   By not being active in

A i m é C é asaire says “between colonization and civilization there is an infinite distance, out of all the colonial expeditions that have been undertaken, out of all the colonial statutes drawn up, out of all the memoranda that have been dispatched by all the ministries, there could not come a single human value” If one sees the notion of colonization bringing civilization, one would have to buy into atrocities as being morally necessary and needed, to advance the cause of Christ and progress. I will admit that progress is a term that assumes that other civilizations must meet the Western framework of initiatives and advances. Or that progress devalues the advances believed to be important to other cultures. On the single human value that we bring to the Global South, is something they do not only know but do experience. There are iterations of colonialism, which begs the question of whether or not colonization continues.  Many saw the Iraq War as a process of colonization.  This

“Emotions must be incited and positions of power and privilege must be revealed in order to force students to critically examine their personal beliefs” the critical nature of this kind of thinking involves some type of questioning of authority or the eliciting of emotions as necessary to the process of   learning. In this situation, an individual asking critical questions that are negative and pejorative toward beliefs of the Christian faith seems to be unilaterally deconstructed.   “Their worldview does not shift unless they engage in the uncomfortable process of confronting the social construction of their beliefs and how they contribute to privilege and oppression.”   There are three things to note here. First, there seems to be some necessary “shift” that is expected to take place.   Second, there is the expectation for the Christians to feel uncomfortable by “confronting the social construction of their beliefs.”   Third, there is the expectation that one come to understand thei

Carina Schmitt says, “Nowadays, around 70% of all developing countries have at least one social assistance program in place . . . . Social assistance programs are public and noncontributory schemes funded from general tax revenues to guarantee access to essential health care and basic income security to individuals and families in need” These seem to be generous plans, which do though involve the redistribution of wealth. The West and/or North have had considerably more wealth over the centuries, but this is subject to change as the world, especially the Global South, will do all that it can to secure the meeting of basic needs.   This has not always been the case; there used to be the silk road that went into the East and offered treasure from the East.  The Byzantine Empire was in place until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.   Consider the Baduspanids, who ruled until 1598, and the Safavids, who ruled until 1736 and were a gunpowder empire in the Middle East.   How about Sisodia i

“Empire” is a metaphor for the notion of “nation”; whenever you see these words used anywhere, it is important to see that the tradition of Christian values, American freedom, and liberation from sin are being deconstructed.  The deconstruction of “Nation” is how they work to abort freedom in the name of democracy to lead us into social democracy and democratic socialism.  This is what I have been saying with these long academic-sounding blogs. I use academic terminology because the beginning of these processes happens when your children are headed off to college this Fall. This is a serious matter that needs to be investigated as your children learn about the deconstruction of "nation," and as The Empire Writes Back , by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, and other postcolonial literature is introduced in the classroom. There is no comparison of traditions or introduction to new ideas for your children to mull over.  There is a full-out onslaught of ideology

Sofia Avila and Brototi Roy write the lambasting text which should catch the attention of all economists, because they are grabbing the focus of policy-makers, questioning the viability of a global approach that does not take into consideration the Global-South and multiverse of economics that asks “who enjoys an imperial mode of living, where and what are the ecological economic processes of unequal exchange that sustain it?” This is the new wave of ecological economics’ concern in the 2020’s.  Discussion of economics from the ecological point of view (including the Green New Deal discussion) have imperialist assumptions, and “the new agenda ‘from the margins’ should thus include different theoretical and epistemological traditions [. . .] that go beyond Eurocentric liberal discourses, and engage with the pluriverse of alternatives ” have been developing and flourishing in these times and have the eye of policy-makers on them.  So, no matter what the theoretical position one takes in

 Should the state, as it is more and more, have the right intrude intrude on the rights of parents to make decisions about domains of their children lives?   

Check this out from Stanford Encyclopedia, "To say that children do not have all the basic human rights that adults do is not to deny them their status as humans. After all it makes sense to insist that children have – as humans – a basic right to life. Yet it also makes sense, as suggested, to say that children do not have an adult right of self-determination. It is controversial to say that children are ‘persons’, . . . , this term denotes those possessed of moral agency and capable of being responsible for their actions. Weaker or stronger conceptions of ‘personhood’ would lead to the inclusion or exclusion of humans at various ages from the category of person. However it is not controversial to state that children are human, and in saying this to insist that they are entitled to a certain moral regard"   same source " It is of course a further question of whether certain communal values violate liberal values other than autonomy – such as equality. It would be wrong

               Bill Ashcroft writes “The struggle between a view of identity which attempts to recover an immutable origin, a fixed and eternal representation of itself, and one which sees identity as inextricable from the transformative conditions of material life, is possibly the most deep-seated divide in post-colonial thinking” Here Ashcroft is expressing a endemic problem of identity for the postcolonial subject. The topic of discussion in postcolonial circles is about the identity of the people who fall into a pit of representation that they have been unable to control. Yes, there are given misrepresentations of those affected by the iterations of oppression and ignoring of the colonizing world. We have the opportunity to be represented in the postmodern world of selective presentation of the self through social media, but we can’t assume that everyone in the world has that opportunity. To further complicate the matter, fictive representations occur everywhere and these are taken

Conservative Protestants have three norms of which could cause mental problems: reading, worship, and prayer, according to Terrence Hill. These “deviations“ behaviors are called “norms” and defined as deviance by Hill.  Hill asks and answers the question “How might religious deviance contribute to symptoms of psychological distress?”  Hill intelligently implies Christians as those who would be affected by social comparison causing cognitive dissonance.  Hill adds “Cognitive dissonance theory states that perceived conflicts among cognitions, self-conceptions, and behavior can contribute to psychological discomfort”  Hill also proposes that “cognitive dissonance is one important psychological bridge between reference group commitments and mental health” which is high among conservative Christians.  This seems to be a stark generalization, given that many religious experiences include the like. For example, there can be a high level of dissonance and confusion in reaction to a Buddhist ko

  Terrence D Hill indicates that “Findings indicate that falling short of population average levels for church attendance and reading of religious scripture is associated with higher levels of psychological distress” first reaction is where does he (sic) get his (sic) data from. Most if not all studies that are published find what they are seeking to find.   “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” The null Hypothesis almost always rules out the findings that you do not want.   Hill also says that “Numerous studies show that religious involvement—indicated by observable feelings, beliefs, activities, and experiences in relation to spiritual, divine, or super-natural entities— is associated with a wide range of favorable mental health outcomes across a range of indicators”    This is highly charged emotional and politically savvy research, built to destroy the Christian faith.   Hill goes on “Although most studies emphasize the mental health benefits of religious invo

  Wolff maintains “ Unanimous direct democracy is feasible only so long as there is substantial agreement among all the members of a community on the matters of major importance. Since by the rule of unanimity a single negative vote defeats any motion, the slightest disagreement over significant questions will bring the operations of the society to a halt. It will cease to function as a political community and fall into a condition of anarchy (or at least into a condition of non-legitimacy; a de facto government may of course emerge and take control).  However, it should not be thought that unanimous direct democracy requires for its existence a perfect harmony of the interests or desires of the citizens. It is perfectly consistent with such a  system that there be sharp, even violent, oppositions within the community, perhaps of an economic kind. The only necessity is that when the citizens come together to deliberate on the means for resolving such conflicts, they agree unanimously

“Authority is the right to command, and correlatively, the right to be obeyed. It must be distinguished from power, which is the ability to compel compliance, either through the use or the threat of force.” In his book In Defence of Anarchy Robert Paul Wolff states there is the “question of legitimate authority. That is a matter of the right to command and the correlative obligation to obey the person who issues the command ” There is a difference between authority and power. Authority “must be distinguished from power, which is the ability to compel compliance, either through the use or the threat of force” Foucault made it clear that there is a strong correlation between power and language. In that case, then, language controls the populace, and authority with the right to command can be done through the US election process, giving the progressives a voice, the voice, to dominate those who see governmental exploitation of people of all stripes. The US government is using its peo

  Jane Fortin (Expert) “the right to care and protection, have little to do with making decisions” it is argued that children are not necessarily making decisions that parents will or do not have control in and say in.   “Acknowledging these may be much more important to young children than acknowledging any claimed right to autonomy” Fortin says. “Schools undoubtedly play an important part in producing confident young people, but most writers agree that the parent’s role is indefinitely more important” This seems an absolute statement when it is known that some parents are lousy parental role models. Special qualities, morals, and scruples come from within families.   (Keeping in mind that a certain portion of progressives have no definition of the family, but are more likely to have a loose presentation of the family, a sort of watered-down version of family. Progressives are suspicious of language about the family, for that definition might undermine the urge to involve the governme

Jane Fortin Expert explains that “It was Foster and Freed, writing in the 1970s, who claimed that adults exploited their power over children and that children’s inferior status should be radically reassessed” Was this the catalyst and sign post for the addressing of children’s’ rights?   Did this generate decision making on policy matters and laws? There was the “landmark decision of Re Gault (1967) in which the court ruled that ‘neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults alone’ and that as ‘persons’, children were entitled to claim the same procedural safeguards as those offered to adults by the United States Constitution” This is only the beginning of an issue which has far reaching implications and effects.   That a teen was taken into custody by a sheriff for allegedly making an obscene phone call is questionable and begs the question, what rights did the child have in that situation. From Facts and Case Summary (of United States Courts) “Gerald (“Jerry”)

  Marshall and Gani surmise that Academia is “considered too esoteric and abstract to have any realworld application” this is hardly true, the public policies we see are firmly grounded in the academic “research” that is done. “Internaional Relations has the ability to provide ‘the vocabulary and conceptual framework to ask hard questions of those who think that changing the world is easy’” but “nearly two decades on from this laudable statement, the capacity for ‘asking hard questions’ has nevertheless been limited by the parochial West-centric disposition of a discipline that calls itself ‘international’” Note that notions and work on policy is seen as Western oriented. Therefore those efforts are in vain. If an approach that promises change is installed, it does not meet the bill. Presently the leadership of the US believes throwing money at “perceived problems” is the best plan.   This has not worked in the past, and will not work this time around. Someone’s pocket will be

Elizabeth J. Meyer and Bethy Leonardi report that “Transgender, non-binary, and gender-creative young people are increasingly visible in schools” These are occasions where children report on occasion of being asked the right questions or given options by perceived authority. Meyer and Leonardo see it this way “Educators are being challenged to improve their practice in order to be more affirming of this expanding expression of gender diversity”  The identification of these children (referred as young people, a ruse to allow these the language of power over adults) is bound to happen in the school setting. Meyer and Leonardo also notice these “trans youth, who we defined as any child whose behaviour does not match stereotypes for their sex category assigned at birth, or who identifies with a gender different from their sex category assigned at birth” There is really no problem with children expressing themselves in ways that are not stereotypically symmetrical with their sex. Who says

  Ingersoll and Cook surmise that “Gender and sexuality have been at the forefront of societal debate in recent years with various legal battles concerning LGBT rights and religious liberties taking center stage”    At their very outset, these two scholars, whatever that means, are challenging the rights of the religious and insinuating that attitudes of Christians are bitter and irrational, simply because they are “religious.”   Does each person deserve the right to their own belief?   “Shifts in attitudes and gains in legal protections have served to entrench conservative religious beliefs and to perpetuate generational ‘bitter’ knowledge” We must explore what the “bitter knowledge” referred to here is in the schemas of the persons addressed by Ingersoll and Cook.   “The data demonstrate that students bring ‘bitter’ or problematic knowledge into the classroom, which serves as an obstacle to engaging in critical inquiry ” Should a critical inquiry exclude religious beliefs and opinio

There are certain terms which progressives equivocate: example of this project would be “nation = Empire” or “difference = other” (in some negative light) or “Christianity = hegemony” (the powerful). These equals are not the things that THEY say are “MEAN or oppressive” These equivocations are based on lies about our culture and unfounded concerns. Presently, to say that Christianity is a powerful force in the world is bogus and a lie. Visit any place of learning and see how Christianity is taught and the inaccuracies about Christianity that are rammed down children’s throats.   We will take a closer look at how “nation” is torn apart.    In From Colonialism to International Aid  it is explained that “Transnational approaches to social policy have been described as a “means of revealing the constructed parameters of the ‘national’” As jd ripper exposes in Words on the Street: Postcolonialsm and Public Policy “nation” and “national”  have been words critiqued and deconstructed by the

  Many think this is all there is to faith “You have heard it said that Christian faith is most essentially a system of beliefs, but we say that Christian faith is better understood as a lifelong quest to follow the path of Jesus, the path of faith expressing itself in love.”   I suggest that there is more to faith in Christ than that, and that we have to educate ourselves on important issues that we face each day, especially the messages that we get from all kinds of media sources (yes, including gaming) Please examine all issues through the lens of Jesus the Messiah and cloak yourself in His Word but be aware and wary of the ways that the evil one can surprise you. Stay rooted in Christian morality.   Amen

 Come on, comment folks . . . fear not 

  Is it racist to indicate that Barack Obama “employed a strategy of racial exceptionalism to assuage anxieties of potential white voters” First, why use the idea of exceptioinlism? It seems that the purpose of this language is to meet out a racial separatism in order to show how black people cannot be great, unless of course they are an exception to that rule. Second what does it imply that he employed a strategy ? This statement seems to be giving Obama a unique role as a black person with the need for a strategy, in order to continue making progress in politics.   For Carter and Dowe, “Obama was a racial exception for black and white voters. Still, given black voters’ staunch support of the Democratic party, there was really no way that Obama was losing the black vote . . . “    Does this mean that all Black voters vote the same way?   Is this prejudiced? Gough uses similarly raci-centric ideas to maintain that “Obama was able to maintain various constituencies by simultaneously aff

 Obama on cancel culture, a postcoloniality in the works   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB1xaM6XE4I    Obama speaks of the following postcolonial themes: “Culture wars” “Emotions are powerful” “Excuse entrenched injustice” “Language of mutual respect that speaks to peoples’ need for belonging . . . .” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z9EedjXseI    here is a decent, simple example of how postcoloniality works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgMBYhltpM    here is a crudely spliced-together postcolonial concepts by Dr Masood Raja Here is Cornel West on how Obama's America was not postcolonial enough . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9rNFI--sWk   

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