HAVE COMPUTERS MADE US SMARTER?

We live in a mordern new world. Everything is at our fingertip via the internet and the computer advancment. What is more interesting is that the quality of education has gone down in the U.S. The "I want it now" generation has ground to a stop. Instead of everything getting better, we are worse off then before. The economy is in the trash and fewer jobs are available. There is no doubt that computers have made information available to us more quickly.
When I was in college, learning about computers was alot different. We learned how to create program using diagrams and punchcard. Then the cards were put into a computer the size of a 44ft Semi truck and trailer. Today a computer the size of a wrist watch can do much more at a faster speed. Advances in computers, medicine and technology have made the machine smarter and the operator lacking the ability to use this information. Computers are still, GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. Many young people know how to conquer the word in video games, text at the speed of light, talk on phones the size of an earing, but when the power goes out they are as dumb as dirt. Clerks in stores have problems figuring out change and taxes when the power goes out. Our kids were told in school that math wasn't important because this was now the calculator generation. If you told a student to go to the library and do a research project without the help of a computer, they can't get past the dewy decimal system. They look to quick answer sites like Wikipedia and are content that the site is 100% correct 100% of the time. There is so much knowledge available now on the internet that a person can argue pro and con on any subject. Cut and paste and the article or information has a completly different meaning. Rational judgement has been thrown out the window and replaced with speed. It's not the computer fault, but the operators. Faster is not always better.

Now that the atheist have crawled away we can talk about something more depressing. The Detroit Tigers have turned from the best to the worst in major league baseball. They are in the weakest division in baseball and still are falling fast.
If that doesn't depress you, let talk about the petroleum industry. After waging war in Vietnam and Iraq over oil, the oil industry continues to profit off the American people in money and lost lives as the casualty of war. Then they turn around and pollute the Gulf of Mexico and better yet, the State of Michigan. The great supporters of the oil giants, "The Republicans", continue to want less government control over how the oil industry is run. We now give our money, or children, and our environment to the continued profit of Big Oil and Big Business.

Wikipedia is a free,[3] web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 15 million articles (over 3.3 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site.[4

This is a direct quote from their website
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles (except in certain cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption and/or vandalism). Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or with their real identity, if they choose.
This is another direct quote.

How can this even be considered as factual. Anyone with a computer can contribute and they can do it anonymously to hide their identity or creditentials.

This is why I refuse to use Wikipedia as a source.

I have heard from Justin, see the previous blog. I want to answer him very simply to show tactics.
1-He claims to have not blocked me. The fact is that I was on his friend list and then removed. He admits it because he turned around and accepted my new friendship request.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/878207/why_wikipedia_is_not_a_reliable_source.html
2- He claims to have given me all the information and I have ignored it. I have read his "facts" that he presented from atheist websites and wack jobs. He then uses Wikipidia to try to prove his points when no credited university will allow their students to use Wikipidia. He then adds his thread from Wikipidia. Here is the first part of that thread from Wikipidia.
CONFIRMATION BIAS
Confirmation bias (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias) is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses whether or not it is true.[Note 1][1] As a result, people gather evidence and recall information from memory selectively, and interpret it in a biased way. The biases appear in particular for emotionally significant issues and for established beliefs.
Now that he has interjected Wikipidia's explanation of Confirmation Bias, he believe that this means something. I encourage everyone to read this and then follow the footnotes etc..... and a whole new vision appears. Justin is describing himself....... and just about anyone else on the planet. These are his "facts".
As I have said many times how atheist love to twist and turn facts, and all the thing that magicians call mirror tricks. This also falls under Confirmation Bias.
3-The next part is classic attack. He calls me
You're a profoundly deluded idiot and until you actually start being honest and admitting that these things have already been explained to you in detail, with references, including fucking journals from theological seminaries etc, I'm not going to bother repeating myself anymore. I've been repeating these things over and over for weeks and you just keep lying about it and pretending you haven't been presented with a wealth of evidence PURELY BECAUSE IT IS CONTRARY TO YOUR DELUSION.

Aside from the name calling and being called a lier, he calls his atheist websites and Wikipidia a wealth of evidence. He also love to use theologians against christian with manipulation on his part and then use his confirmation bias to confirm his wealth of evidence.
4- He repeats his denial of blockage. When raising my children I could always tell when they were lying. Most parents are aware of this as we also did it as kids.
If you repeat a lie enough times, maybe it will become the truth. If you are caught in a lie, yell, scream, and sometimes even swear to try to convince others that you are not lying. You can also tell your parents, "you just don't understand". Then finish it up by saying that everyone who disagrees with you are delusional.

5- He calms down realizing his errors and trys to laugh it off as a joke.

I personally don't like using these"wealth of evidence." They are most times bias towards one side or the other. I could quote the bible, an excepted source of information, but that would be bias. This would also lead to everyone's different interpretation of the Bible. We can also manipulate science but Justin has already called this "Confirmation Bias" and is moronic. His rules of discussion comes back to bite him. Once again we are back to basics, the first word, the Bible. With that in place come the interpretation of the Bible which would fall back under Confirmation bias and that puts us back at stage one. What is missing? Faith, faith, and faith. You have it or you don't.
Justin also like to condense all people who are Christians together in one neat little ball. All the extremes are put in one ball and called fanatics or weirdos.
That's like judging all atheist by one definition, you just can't do that.
In conclusion I feel that God is trying to work in Justins heart and I'll keep praying for him. Am I bias towards my faith? Guilty as charged. I just know that the burden of proof is not on the Christian, but on the ones who wish to tear us down.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The two Atheist that I have been talking about have banned me from their facebook. Give them enough rope they will either hang themselves or avoid humiliation. They shouldn't feel humiliated because they were playing from a losing hand. Their tactic are out dated and they were exposed for what they have, no convictions about, their Atheism. Now I can move on more confident in God and his ability to win over the hearts of Atheist. Maybe they will change their way back into the arms of a loving God. Beware Christian people, there are smarter and trickier people out their who would try to match up to God. Remember first is your faith, second is the fact it is their job to disprove God, and third is that God is always with you. Since their world has crumbled, please pray for them at this time of doubt in their lives. Our God is great.

In discussions with an Atheist one thing kept popping up in my mind. Why does this person attacks all Christians, bundles them all together and tries to use science to attack faith.
Many examples on how pure science is a recipe for disaster. How about a person who got convicted of rape 20 years ago. Science and everyone said that he did it. It was impossible to contradict the scientific facts, yet 20 years later DNA absolutely proves this persons innocence. Science wasn't wrong back then, just wasn't as advanced as it is now. Science has a way to go before it can start to compare itself to the Lord God Almighty. When you look at early Christianity, some extremist burned witches at the stake. Years later we are much smarter.
The greatest flaw in the argument between Atheism and Christianity is the human factor. Not all Atheist are alike as well as Christian being the same. Free will make this impossible and thank God we are all different. I respect and agree with some scientist that disagree with the age of the earth. Yes I do question the age and do keep an open mind to it. I also don't worship the book called the Bible, but I do worship God, two completely different things. Once again the human element comes into play. Some Christians defend the Bible by saying that the word DAY in Hebrew means, "an unterminated amount of time." Does that give me complete confidence in the age of the world? no, but it does not change my faith because we are talking about two different things.
One Atheistic article went to the extreme of asking the question about God. If I am a Christian who has lost his legs and I pray to God for him to give me new legs just like the ones I had before, why can't a God who can do anything give me my legs? These fall under the question that we are not advance enough to know the answer, other then the famous standby, "Gods Will", or "God is using it to straighten your faith" etc......... Sometimes we just don't have all the answers like the DNA example I used earlier. When you want to discuss accuracies or inaccuracies in the Bible I can see that, I don't worship the book called "The Bible". That would make it an idol and God said not to worship anyone but him. I have questions with the Catholics who worship using saints and statues.
In everything there is no final answer, no one knows all the answers and all people can't be put into one categories except human. I stop reading when a author starts lumping everything together and will ignore this as a attempt to shortcut to an easy answer. This is disrespectful to science and all those scientist who have worked hard to get answers.
All living things are growing which include faiths, science and human behavior. To disrespect this is closeminded as well as trying to make scripture or science win a disscussion of faith.

Some Atheist never learn. I'm at a lost for words to describe the audacity of these people who use the same tactic to try to prove their point. They will even grasp at the ever changing world of Wikipidia as a desperate attempt to sound knowledgeable. I have already set the facts in the previous blog and still they want to change things around because of lack of credibility on their part. I pray for those so blind as those who refuse to see. I wish there was a better way of showing them the error of their twisted logic and mirror tricks. We have all seen it and debunked it and they still try to use it. These might just be the biggest idiots because they are normally intelligent, they just don't know how to use their intelligence.

You have to love the atheist approach to Christianity. Prove there is a God because we can't prove there isn't. It is squarely on the shoulders of the atheist because God came first. Even if you don't believe in the Bible, the story of God is still there and must be disproved. Historically this is impossible, scientifically it can't be replicated, and in such can't be disproved. As Christians we have faith in our God, and don't need to go to ridiculous extremes to try to defend out faith. Faith, the belief in things not seen, seems to trip them up everytime.

I have been observing messages on Facebook on the subject of fair journalism. Two gentlemen claim that Fox news is bias, while another claims that these two are crazy for believing this claim. Both side are quoting video clips and source references to back up their side and no one is backing down. I've seen this before in other discussions. Some people feel that if you are educated, then you can't be bias. Some feel that if it's news, it has to be right because Walter Concrite was the most trusted man in American and he was a journalist. Journalistic integrity is a joke. These people are paid lots of money to sell their brand of news. Sources are no longer double checked for accuracy as there is a race to be first. Being first doesn't have to be right, just first. If the story is wrong, they can spin it off on someone else or bury it because they are the news. Who can you trust to tell you the news? How about Christian News Networks? Only if you believe that the earthquake in Haiti was Gods curse on an evil people, or that anyone who is not a christian cannot tell the truth. There are more "journalist" out there then you can shake a pin at. This what I'm writing might jokingly be called journalism as well as anyone elses blogs. The old say about opinions,"like aholes, everyone has one and most of them stink" is so true. So how can you tell the truth? I wish I knew, but I think it come down to reading all, then using your brain to decide. Once again, another opinion. I did find out something interesting while listening to a sermon today. The pastor remarked on how his computer broke down and he had to write his sermon longhand.HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM............. best sermon I've heard in a long time. I believe he even mispronounce a few words, but that was ok. He had to take the time to think out what he was saying at a alot slower pace then he was used to. The brain reconnected to the fingers and once again man triumphed over machine. I'm not saying to throw out technology, just take a deep breath and slow the presses down. Not everything is a news story and main stream press should leave shoddy journalism to the paparazzi who invented it. Tabloid journalism should not be embraced as it is by the modern media. Next thing will be politicians acting like tabloid journalist......oppsss.... too late

Lets talk about the weather
Have you noticed that when storms approach Muskegon they seem to part like Moses parting the Red Sea. One half goes north and the other goes south and re form after they pass Muskegon. I am not complaining as we do seem to get the gentle storms. Is there something about Muskegon that big storms want to avoid? Maybe it is political, there is not enough media coverage to waste a good storm.

Time to cough up

Years ago when the railroad started to grow across the country, the Barons made the money while the immigrant did the work. After the immigrants were paid, they were charged room and board and everything else. Lumber barons were the same, as were miners etc....... The song said" I owe my soul to the company store. History has continued this practice into the 21 century. The one difference is that if the big companies can't find someone to work for less then nothing, they can ship the job over seas. The senate finally past the unemployment extensions to help people out. Despite the filibuster by the right, the bill will pass. People on SSI haven't had a raise in years, and insurance companies are charging more. Cost of material continue to rise, profit margin are at an all time high, and jobs are disappearing with some holding on by their finger nails. The right wing says the same thing, "Who's going to pay for it?" I am bold enough to say the answer. It's time for the upper class to cough up. That right, pay your share and pay even more. Pay til it hurts. Many people pay till it hurts with little or nothing, the rich have extra. Come on, step up to the plate. The deficit will always be there if the the poor continue to do the work.

Just finished up my cardiac rehab class. Liz and I get to watch our grandson today as his parents are going tubing. Got him back home and he fell asleep in his swing.
Doesn't feel as humid today, but it is still warm. My mission this week is to start and complete a project. I have so many half finished projects that it is driving me crazy.
Young Don is coming to the states this week. He will be spending most of his time in Indiana as a chaperon for his students. He will come home is August for some time with his family. His wife was not able to make the trip this time, but hopefully she can come another time.
God is great

MEDICINE, STILL A PRACTICE.

Jim Fix was in super shape. He was a world class runner, perfect shape, ate healthy, had his cholesterol in the perfect range and was enjoying life. He was a marathon runner that many people idolized and yet he dropped dead of a heart attack. He was a victim of CAD (coronary heart decease). Why did his arteries plug up? Medicines answer, "We don't know". This is not a slap at medicine, because without their accomplishments I would not be here today. I am not debating the God vs. science argument as that has been argued far to long.
Everyone seems to have an answer for heart disease, but people keep dying from it. People who don't have it seem to think they have the most answers, until it hits them. Some of these people will recover with no further problems while others will struggle with it the rest of their lives. Some people will smoke their whole lives and have no problem while some people will not smoke at all, and struggle with lung disease. How many so called experts on healthy diets have died prematurely. How many diets are there out there that claim to be the one? Pharmaceutical companies all claim to have the right pill for your condition. How many people die after having a successful stress test? Medicine and science have come a long way and accomplished great things never seen before but there is so much they don't know.
My cardiologist told me that during my recent heart event, er doctors with all their machine and knowledge know less then 10% of what is happening. Their job is to stabilize until answers can be found. After what seemed like dozens of test, they found a 98% blockage during my recent heart event. It wasn't until the anagram that the problem was found. During these 24+ hours I kept wondering if it was all in my head, thus leaving me with alot of stress. One year ago I was admitted with the same symptoms and nothing was found. I was diagnosed with having an event and sent home after spending 2 days in ICU. In other words, the doctor were stumped even though they were convince I was having a heart attack.
I've tried to return to work but my heart issues keep getting in the way to the point that even small part times jobs are hazardous to my health. I am on disability because of this which angers my brothers and sisters.
The reason I bring this all up is to start a discussion that the republican right wing says are us people living off the government. Why social security is not as black and white as they want it to be. According to them, I am the lazy people living off the government.

Every politician has a idea to start the economy. Some are good, and some are just dumb. Sound bites even make it look worse. Congressman Hoekstra's sound bit is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. " Tell the government to get out of the way." This is a very strong right wing sound bite. What would happen if government got out of the way?
Unfair labor practice, greed, corporate corruption, soaring prices, unfair competition, the demise of small business etc....... This is like giving the prisoners the keys. We need larger government, unfortunately, to police those who only think of themselves. We need a government that is not influenced by the profit line of big business.

Trying to get fit. I was serious about losing weight and started to work out at the YMCA. After a month of working out lightly, I have a heart attack and heart surgery. Now I am back to exercise at cardiac rehab trying to get back in shape. Does this seem like I'm going in circles? Every time I try to get back in shape, I end up with more heart problems. All the good tasting food out there, I can't have because of the dangers to my heart. I am reduced to a vegetarian who has fish and chicken once in a while, no alcohol, no stress and hopefully lost weight.
This is so confusing.

A headline this morning was saying that "Jessie Jackson sees the Labron Story like slavery." I laughed so hard that I could not read any further. It was bad enough that Labron shamelessly promoted himself, but that all those people actually watched it on ESPN didn't help. Jessie is just doing the same thing, self promotion. There are racial problem in this world, but this is not one. Labron is getting millions for what he does and in no way should be compared to slavery in any shape or form.

Michigan, the land of the "no fault" insurance scam strikes again. The state's conservative supreme court has stated that Insurance Companies can set car rates by credit scores. Why don't they just use magic cards and crystal balls. the rich get richer and the middle class disappears.
The fact show that the people most likely to loose a house to foreclosure, the rich. The one's most likely to pay less taxes, the rich. Most poor people have cars with just minimum coverage while the richer people will have total coverage. The bottom line is that our laws are based in profit margins. We should remove these judges from the bench and replace them with a CEO from a fortune 500 company who received a bailout from the federal government. Where is the "tea party'" on this one.

Are we still looking for weapons of mass destruction. We would have better success looking for Waldo then looking for BenLadin. Saddam and his brothers are dead, and the Taliban is a disco group in Vagas. What in the world are we doing in Iraq and Pakistan. Our children are being killed in the name of freedom, and we criticize other country's and their holy wars. We have failed to learn anything from Vietnam and Korea. This 4th of July I prayed for our men that have served and are serving our country. I pray for our leaders who use war and patriotism to protect politically backed financial interest. Oil is flowing in the gulf, and blood is flowing in Iraq, and our people are dying for a profit line. It's time to stop the flow.

Vegetarian Hell. That is where I've been sent. No red meat, no alcohol, no sweets, if it taste good spit it out. Who knew that fruits have calories and cholesterol. Can't do anything for the next two weeks that would raise my blood pressure or cause me to bleed. On top of all this, I am told to relax and get rid of the stress. i can't ride a bike, cut the lawn, drive a car, and eat meat. STRESS?

Let's git rid of stress. Everybody I owe money to, please forgive my debt. I'm on a fixed income and prices keep going up. The Republican have thrown our economy down the toilet and the value of my home is cut in half. Now my taxes are doubled to keep up with the loss of income from fallen property values. My hospital bills, after insurance, are more then I owe on the house, and Republicans want to cut my SSI disability because they think I'm a bum. Meanwhile the Republican want to cut taxes to the wealtiest American, let corporate greed run wild. WHERE THE HELL IS THE STRESS?

IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS PAY CASH, AND IF YOU CAN'T PAY, GET THE HELL OUT OF THE COUNTRY. THIS IS THE TRUE REPUBLICAN MONTRA. IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT YOUR RETIREMENT WAS TAKEN BY A PONZI SCHEME, WALL STREET COLLAPSE CAUSED BY THE FREEDOM TO SCREW EVERYONE. WHO'S FAULT IS THAT? ONCE YOU ARE OUT OF THE COUNTRY, THE RIGHT WING WILL CONSTRUCT FENCES TO STOP YOU FROM COMING BACK. PLEASE BE KIND ENOUGH TO DROP DEAD OVER A LANDFILL, SO OUR TAXES WON'T BE USED TO PICK UP MY DEAD CORPSE, IF I DON'T MANAGE TO GET TO THE BORDER. If I"m hungry i should move to a third word country so that a bunch of rich musicians can hold a feed the world concert to help me. WHERE THE HELL WOULD I GET STRESS FROM.

What keeps me together is the kindness of others. Christian kindness is not Republican or Democrat, it is just love in it's purest form from people not seeking return on an investment. Their investment in me, helps me invest in others.

Now that I've got that off my chest, I can feel less stressed.

A laugh for the day

Three women, two younger and one senior citizen, were sitting naked in a sauna
Suddenly, there was a beeping sound. The young women pressed her forearm and the beep stopped. The others looked at her questioningly. "That was my pager," she said. "I have a microchip under the skin of my arm."

A few minutes later, a phone rang. The second young woman lifted her palm to her ear. When she finished, she explained, "That was my mobile phone. I have a microchip in my hand."

The older woman felt very low-tech. Not to be out done, she decided she had to do something just as impressive. She stepped out of the sauna and went to the bathroom. She returned with a piece of toilet paper hanging from her rear end. The others raised their eyebrows and stared at her. The older woman finally said..."Well, will you look at that...I'm getting a fax!"

Justin Stressman said...
Of course your God would necessarily have been the one to have stricken you down in the first place, and caused you to live in fear for your life for the past 7 or 8 years now.

And it was modern medical science that was to thank for saving you...

But I don't expect you to acknowledge those points.

Why does God do bad things to good people. If God was real, why would he do this to you (the ant under the magnifying glass). If medicine alone saved my life, then medicine or science caused my heart attack (Fatty foods, preservatives, etc.).

Before I answer Justin, I will say that I have not lived in fear for my life. Yes I have had more heart problems then the ordinary man, but I don't live in fear of death, for all of us will die sometime, but I rejoice in life. I don't compare myself with the Jones', but celebrate the things I have.

Now I will say something that will get some people so mad that they will jump up and down and maybe shake their heads in disbelief." I rejoice in the things that have happened to me." . I will now explain my statement without biblical or scientific evidence, just what I believe.

I believe that God gives us all a different trail to follow thru life. If we all traveled the same road, had the same education and experiences, and we all believed the same, this would be a very boaring existence. Life is an adventure. Why in the world are we here? I believe it is to experience life, to travel that winding road, and to share it with others. If you want to go thru life fighting it, it will fight back, and if you go thru life ignoring it, it will ignore you. I rejoice in people with different opinions. I don't need pages of science to show that Justin does not believe in God. I like the simple approach. A simple,"I don't believe" would be ok with me, because it is your life and your right. The problem I have with some athiest is not the fact that they don't believe there is a God, but that they are so angry that everyone else don't share their opinion. What would I gain if someone has a different opinion then mine and I were to minimize their opinion.
I heard a minister once gave a sermon that was 45 min. long. He had many and great references. He waxed eloquent and made me marvel in his public speaking abilities. The biggest problem, he made his point after 20 min and didn't know when to shut up. He quoted people he thought were experts because they had written a book. He also missed one major point, the fact that others may think different. His road traveled was different then others, but not necessarily better or more correct, just different. If I have a higher IQ then most people, does that make me smarter then most? No, just like if Einstien was so smart, why didn't he invent perpetual motion, or why couldn't he throw a curve ball?
Is God "Picking on me"? Has science caused my problems or solved them? Once I know all the answers, I will let you know. In the mean time I will live the life that God puts in front of me.