Bubba the Science Fan's Friday Blog: Beauty and metaphor ignored in the Bible

Welcome friendly readers. Thanks for being here.

Two things converged for me this week. For fun I occasionally go on Youtube and debate creationists. I’m OK with most any religious belief unless it expresses harm for another (which many do) but I have a problem when theists try to force their way into the science classroom.

I had an extended debate this week with someone very devout in their belief that the universe was created by a supernatural being. We went back and forth several times. When I expressed doubt about his science(?) he argued that my rejection of his theories was merely because science is a religion too and I am just dogmatically attached to a theory that is false because I have faith in science.

Then just two days ago I read an article regarding a new discovery I recently touted in this blog as further proof of the Big Bang. Turns out that this new discovery may not be correct. Apparently some of their data was wrong and their results are being questioned. OK, back to the drawing board.

See? There is the difference between science and biblical science. One group of scientists found something interesting, then other scientists tested the first groups work. Found a mistake? No problem, we accept that and move on. What can we learn from this mistake?

I don’t see this in theists. I have several problems with Christian philosophy, one of them being their insistence in their scripture being a historical document. There is some history in the Bible but to ignore it’s metaphor is to miss the greater meaning in the text.

The JW come to my door often because I am quite polite to them and treat them with respect. I enjoy our conversations, really. But they4 argue often that their faith comes in part from the belief that the Bible is a literal representation of creation. I think they are missing the point of their own scripture. To see the Bible as a literal text is to miss the beauty and philosophy completely.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The Gavaskar Center For Peace

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

Earth has become the spiritual center for the Milky Way as a result of actions taken by Max Gavaskar and Paavo Tarvas in Estonia almost eighty years ago.

The Gavaskar Center for Peace was begun within days of The Mothers Speech. Her call for peace, the call heard around the galaxy took place there in Estonia and that spot is marked with a small monument.

The Gavaskar Center is just out of town where an old wastewater treatment facility and an oil refinery were in ancient times. Now the land is covered with gardens with plants from around the Milky Way and the center’s buildings were designed by the finest builders from all the known advanced species.

There is an annual music event there and a whole range of events, workshops and gatherings.

Max used to have an office there and she spent a lot of time there when she wasn’t traveling the galaxy settling disputes or poking her fingers into her garden at home.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The spiritual center of the galaxy.

Welcome wonderful readers. Thanks for being here.

I’ve never been to Earth but I hear it is a lovely planet. I’ve seen Harappa and I’ve spent most of my adulthood on Kusha.

Who knew that Earth would become the center of the galaxy? Well, at least the spiritual center. No place in the Milky Way has argued as much about spiritual matters as Earth. Most sentient species move on from their primitive religions early on in their industrial movement.

But, for some reason the Earthers held firmly to their ancient spiritual traditions and they paid a dear price for it. Religious wars decimated the Earth population for centuries. Especially in Europe where the fighting was especially intense.

Many historians feel that Earth would have been able to join the family of the Milky Way centuries sooner had they not been held back by their religious impulses. The Tarsans under Mary Carmini were particularly heinous.

Perhaps that was “paying their dues” for now Earth is the house of spirit for most all intelligent species.

More on this tomorrow.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan blog: The second prettiest planet.

Welcome majestic readers. Thanks for being here.

Me and my mates in the Gutterminds played a festival in Harappa City yesterday. We were on till late last night, so my blog post this morning won’t be too long.

Springfest has arrived on Kusha. Some folks who don’t live here or haven’t been here long think the it’s spring all year long on the Garden World, but then spring get here and people discover a whole new level to spring.

There is another planet that rivals planet Kusha for beauty. I’ve never been there but I hear Earth is almost as lovely as here.

So this week we’ll spend some time on Earth and discuss what has been happening since Max and the Maausk movement made Earth the spiritual center of the galaxy.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Notes from the Author: Fighting Writer's Block

Welcome intrepid readers. Thanks for being here.

Philip the Bard will return monday. Today I’m writing about writers block.

I’ve attended many writer’s conferences in a number of venues. One thing that seems to come up often is “the fear of the empty page”. It seems to be on the minds of many writers. As often as I’ve heard it mentioned it must be a significant problem.

I have my problems as a writer (spelling, punctuation) but writers block is not one. There are several reason for that and I hope that by sharing something about what I do may someday help a struggling writer faced with a blank page.

First of all have a great story to tell. I’ve written seven books. Six of them are a series and one was semi autobiographical. Writing “The Best in Each Other” was simple enough as I was drawing stories from my life and writing them the way I wanted them to have turned out. The rest of my books comprise “The Harappan History Project”. I came up with the germ for these stories over forty years ago and I am totally in love with the people and places that are in my universe, at least most of them. (planet Lava sucks and I’m not too fond of Blake Fitzgerald) When I sit down to write about these stories I am so eager to see what happens to my imaginary friends that I am compelled to tell their stories. 

When I sit down to write I already know what I am going to start with. I think about my stories all the time. When I go to bed, before I fall asleep, when I’m driving, when I’m watching TV. I do my best work when I am doing nothing.

One trick I learned is to stop a writing session before you complete what you are working on. That way when you sit down to the keyboard the next time you already have something to start with.

Some writers insist that they must be in the proper environment to write. Asimov wrote in a plain empty room so as to not be distracted. I’ve heard other writers describe their perfect writing environment. A cabin by a lake or an old English library. I say, forget about that. Learn to write when ever, where ever. I work very well while being distracted. I like to work with the radio or TV on as a noisy drone in the background. Forcing my consciousness to the page is one way I find the concentration to write.

When I begin a new story I start by figuring out what the ending will be. Second, I come up with as interesting a beginning as I can. After that the writing is all about filling in the “middle”. You don’t have to use this method but have some plan for your story. Use an outline if you have to, but try to come up with some way to organize what you hope to accomplish with your story.

And, most importantly, love what you are doing. 

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Sanderson's drive.

Welcome fastidious readers. Thanks for being here.

We’ve spent this week discussing Miles Sanderson who preferred being called Sanderson, just Sanderson. He was with Max Gavaskar for most of her rise to influence. Many people look to him as one of Max’s mentors. It is said he guided her from behind. Some argue that he was the driving force in Max’s peace movement.

I knew both of them fairly well. Sanderson was not a driver. I wouldn’t say he was a follower either. He was more of an observer who pitched in when he saw a need. When he first met Max she was afraid and alone. He saw that she needed a friend and he made sure that he became one and further he insured that Max had other friends that were trustworthy. I assume that Dusty Waters would have eventually befriended Max but Sanderson urged the Madam to get close to the strange new girl in town.

I don’t think Sanderson ever influenced Max in a was that changed her direction. Max Gavaskar had a driving desire to make logic and reason the guides for morality. She had seen too many times where passion and faith dictated human activity that worked to the detriment of society.

Sanderson was like Max in that way. He was a logical person and based his moral code on logic. I think that is what drew him to support Max and help her when he could.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the bard's Harappan Blog: More Sanderson

Welcome fine readers. Thanks for being here.

This week we’ve been discussing Sanderson a good friend and key aid for Max during the Galactic War.

There were several moments during that period when Sanderson’s computer expertise came into play. If he had not been there in Estonia would Max have ever got her  message out to the entire galaxy? Probably not.

His reticence to enter the public sphere kept him from getting the acclaim he rightfully deserved. I don’t think he minded. He and Kiki set up house on Kusha but were regular visitors to planet Lava to see their friends there. 

I met him several times at various social functions. He was a quiet man but when he did say something people listened. He carried an air of authority even in his last years. He is perhaps the only person in Max’s close circle that did not out live her. He passed a couple of years ago of cell failure. The same thing Max is succumbing to, a space disease that modern science has not yet found a cure for.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Sanderson, just Sanderson.

Welcome great readers. Thanks for being here.

Sanderson, just Sanderson. Who knows why he eschewed his first name? He was a quiet man and remained out of the public eye for most of his life. He was honored on his one hundredth birthday for his actions in Estonia, but other than that he remained hidden from view.

That certainly did not stop speculation about him. He has been a curiosity for historians. More to the point his relationship with the Mother of the Galaxy.

Many writers have speculated that he and Max had a relationship. They did but not a romantic one. There were rumors on planet Lava that the two of them lived together in Salmo but I have it on good authority from several sources that they did not “mingle” in a physical way.

I once had a conversation with Max where she told me that he was as much a father figure as a friend to her. She was forced to leave her parents and go live alone on a crappy planet where she knew no one.

In Max’s time there she gathered a cluster of friends and allies. Perhaps none of them were as important as Miles Sanderson. Or rather Sanderson, just Sanderson.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Those who helped the Mother of the Galaxy

Welcome devoted readers. Thanks for being here.

Last week we discussed Marcus Johnson who turned out to be one of the most influential humans of all time. He steered society from beyond the grave for many generations. Possibly the only person who has exerted more influence on human history and culture is Max Gavaskar.

Lets spend a little time with her life. It’s been some time since we went into her background. I just finished rereading some of the writings about her time on Planet Lava and I was struck how her journey led he to what she became. Her experience on Lava tempered her and she gathered around herself a collection of allies that became instrumental in her success.

She met Miles Sanderson who was a pivotal character in the events that led up to Max’s ascension. Tomorrow we’ll talk some about Sanderson . . . just Sanderson.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Building Harappaholm

Welcome marvelous readers. Thanks for being here.

Marcus Johnson landed on planet Harappa with around two thousand followers. Their first construction project was the building of Harappaholm. Not the apartment complex on Kusha but the librarian’s complex on planet Harappa.

Johnson had brought with him a vast collection of Earth materials. Music, movies, books, paintings, sculpture and crafts. Harappaholm was built to store these things. 

Some people see Marcus Johnson as a man with a huge ego and they are not wrong. What some people forget is that Johnson was also a visionary and he did have an altruistic streak. He felt it was important to preserve Earth’s history. We have to remember he thought the Earth environment was collapsing beyond repair and it would have had it not been for Johnson’s air scrubbers.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Notes from the author: Yesterday I killed someone very close to me.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014

Welcome phantom readers. Thanks for being here.

Philip the Bard will return tomorrow but for today I want to discuss a profound experience I had yesterday.

I killed some one very close to me yesterday.

OK, OK it’s not what you think. Yesterday morning around seven thirty I completed the first draft of the last book in my sci fi series. The last chapter in the book details the life of our protagonist. The final sentence is her last words.

I sobbed like a baby when I wrote those words. I had killed someone I’ve lived intimately with for a long time. I’ve lived with these stories since I was twenty years old (forty years ago).

I still have work to do, rewrites, edits and such but when I wrote those last words that was the end of this person’s life. Now when I work on the book is it more like working on a history. Max Gavaskar for me is no longer a living breathing being. She is a grand lady of the past.

Everything I do for her now will have a touch of melancholy. I will miss her very much.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014

Notes from the writer: The End of My Writing Career?

Welcome mysterious readers. Thanks for being here.

Philip the Bard will return tomorrow. I am nearing the completion of the first draft of “The Mother of the Galaxy” and I think I may finish it today if I get right to work.

This may be a huge moment for me. It may be the end of my writing career. Perhaps it’s like childbirth and I may forget but right now I feel that this is my last novel. I go through too much when writing the first draft. I feel everything my characters do and I put them through some awful shit.

Don’t get me wrong I love my stories. I had to write them. But this is the story I have thought about all my life. I am so looking forward to writing the final scene. I’ve been looking forward to this day for most of my life.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The First "First Contact"

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

How did Earth react to life in the galaxy?

The countless centuries of religious wars on Earth came to an abrupt stop with First Contact and with Paavo Tavus and his Maausk movement for peace. Why did not finding life on Harappa have the same effect?

Most Earthers at the time were told limited things about the Messiah’s colony on planet Harappa. I don’t think many people really considered the impact of there being another planet where life had evolved.

Much of the indigenous life on Harappa was fairly primitive compared to Earth life forms. Most of what was on Harappa was the algae that grew in the sea. Only parts of Harappa could support life as we know it. There was bacteria and some various worms but the valleys settled by the Founder and his followers, my ancestors, were the best places on Harappa.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Messiah, myth vs reality.

Welcome dear readers. Thanks for being here.

We’ve been discussing the life and times of Marcus Johnson, the man known as the Founder on planet Harappa and the Messiah on Earth.

After his second disappearance he returned to the public with the announcement that he was looking for two thousand people to take a one way trip to a newly discovered planet that Johnson had renamed Harappa. Earth scientists had recently found a way to find the signs of life on exoplanets and Harappa was full of the stuff of life.

There were some concerns that its orbit seemed unstable. There was something in its vicinity that was tuggin on it. We now know that that was the Blue Moon a small gas giant that was a companion of Harappa until Harvest Day when the two bodies were separated by an illumaphane blast on Harappa.

Most people thought Johnson was nuts. How could he even consider taking a one way trip to another planet without sending a probe first?

He did not have any problems finding volunteers. Thousands of people wanted a way out. He spent several months weeding out people he felt didn’t fit the psychological profile required to build a new civilization.

He and his followers were forgotten shortly after he left. The data regarding the livability of the planet was lost in the great computer crash shortly after Johnson’s departure. Eventually Johnson and his followers became more myth than reality.

When the Greenies based their religion on him and his supposed writings I think most of them did not believe he even existed for real.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba's Friday Science Blog: Beginners Luck

Welcome groovy readers. Thanks for being here.

I am a person well acquainted with “beginner’s luck”. Let me explain. Several times in my life i have tried something and succeeded so spectacularly that folks thought I was a “natural”, then on the second try I’d come down to Earth.

The first time was while I was in the Air Force as a young man. I was showing a buddy some yoga to improve our skiing as a return this friend was going to show me how to high jump. One nice thing about being in the Air Force is that every Air Force base I was on had excellent gyms and sports facilities.

My buddy and I went to the track and found the high jump pit. We set the bar so ridiculously high because, as my buddy explained if I knew I was not going to make the jump then I could focus on the technique without worrying if I’d clear the bar.

Well, I cleared the bar and my friend said by a lot.

“I’ll bet you cleared your height. That’s amazing.”, he said.

So we put the bar up to my height and I tried again. 

Not even close. I tried and tried and I could never get back to that level. The same thing happened to me several years later when some friends tried to introduce me to water skiing. The first time I got up and was doing fine. I even did a jump of the wake.

The boat driver said he’d never seen someone just get on a water ski and take off like that. Then I fell. Tried and tried and I could not get up again.

Last summer I had a breakthrough on the guitar. I tried to learn a new style (electric lead ala Carlos Santana) and all of a sudden it clicked. Man I was wailin’!

I’ve been practicing seven to ten hours a week since. The other night I was playing and I was doing OK. But I notices that my music did not quite have the spark or soul that I had when I first learned to play this way.

What is this all about. What is it about me that I am able to pick something up without thinking much about it and doing it very well, yet if I strive, work and put all my effort into it I fail. 

Hmmm. If any readers have any insights . . . that would be great.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The Founder and the Messiah

Welcome gentle readers. Thanks for being here.

With all the attention Max Gavaskar has received in recent decades Marcus Johnson seems to have faded into history. For so many years human history was all about him and his followers, on both Harappa and Earth. Lets spend a little time with the man who was known as the Founder on Harappa and the Messiah on Earth.

He was born on Earth in the Texas territory of North America in Earth year 2044. He was the son of the newly elected First Citizen of the newly formed government.

His childhood was broadcast live to the entire world. This was back before the SID and their climate control system. The Earth’s climate was convulsing as a result of the primitives pumping so much CO2 into the planet’s environment.

Historians today still debate how people in the twentieth century were able to ignore the warning signs that their environment was headed into a period of wild cycles. Some think that they were misled by their leadership others take the belief that the people just would not respond.

Either way Marcus Johnson was born in a fragile world. His birth was seen as a ray of hope. At least the propagandists of the time tried to make people feel that he symbolized hope.

His first words were “Giddy up go, Daddy.” For a long time his followers on Earth used the term Giddy Up as a greeting and an expression of support.

So Giddy Up good friends. Have a great day. I’ll be back here tomorrow with more on the man I grew up knowing as the Founder.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Today's blog: A little something different. My LIfe With Birds

Welcome nice readers. Thanks for being here.

Philip the Bard will return tomorrow but for today a little something different. My journey with birds.

Last night when I was putting our chickens “to bed” one of them jumped up on my shoulder while I was waiting for the stragglers to enter the coop. She looked directly at me with her little round eyes and we shared a moment. I was touched by her soul at that moment and felt a connection that was healthy and loving. I love my chickens.

I haven’t always had a good relationship with birds. When I was a kid, eight or nine years old the birds outside our house started attacking me. No one else. Every time I’d go outside they’d start swooping down towards my head. They never pecked me but they came awfully close. My Dad didn’t believe me so he’d go out  and . . . nothing, no birds. Then I’d step out onto the front lawn and immediately the birds were all over me. We tried changing the color of my shirt, the door I came out of but nothing would dissuade those birds from attacking me. fortunately we moved not too long after this.

Then as a young man in my twenties I went with a buddy to visit his family in Petaluma. The family had some sort of exotic bird. Every time they gave me the bird he pooped on my. Again no one believed this at first so the bird was passed around and indeed he only pooped when he was on my shoulder.

Later that evening I was sitting at one end of the couch and my buddy at the other end with the bird. The bird jumped off my buddies’ shoulder and started walking across the back of the couch towards me. He got half way and pooped. He looked at me for a brief moment then turned around and went back to my friend. I figure since he’d lost his load there was no point in going further.

I am glad that I have seemed to have healed my relationship with birds. I hope to have a good relationship with all of nature and humanity.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014

Bubba the Science Fan's Friday Blog: Science, civility and respect.

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

Yesterday I got in a semi heated debate on Facebook. A poster put an article about putting an onion on your foot for healing and how silly was that? I posted that I have seen onion poultices work many times. I was assaulted, called ignorant, a troll, was told that I was projecting and that I only had deluded myself into believing what these people knew for a fact.

I defended myself by suggesting my fellow posters calm down and drink a cup of herbal tea. Then I was “intellectually dishonest”, what ever that meant. Apparently one poster was upset that I had included her when I mentioned that several posters had insulted me. (she was innocent, mostly) I apologized then went to her Facebook page and found that debunking “alternative medicine” is an issue for her.

Rather than jumping back into the cesspool of debate I decided to come here and discuss civility and open mindedness.

These people were so sure that they were correct, after all they had science on their side, right? Those of you who’ve been here before know that I am a HUGE fan of science. I debate creationists for fun. But I also acknowledge that science is sometimes used by the unethical to promote falsehoods.

One of the arguments against the onion poultice was that it reminded one poster of someone who told her that trees gave off healing vibrations. OK, I’ve heard similar arguments made against many scientific issues, climate change for example. Does one mistake discount the mass of scientific findings? No. Does one fortune teller dispensing bogus healing advice negate thousands of years of evidence?

Those of us who are fans of science can get a little full of ourselves. We need to retain some humility. If we do not we become more like the creationists who ignore logic in favor of faith.

The people I was debating with could not see any alternative. When I challenged them they said that I “must” be a troll. I could not possibly believe something they did not. The strength of conservatives is that their undying faith gives them strength that liberals do not have. Their weakness is that their undying faith prevents them from seeing alternatives. I guess I just ran into some conservative minded liberals. Hmmm.

My point is that we should all try to treat each other with respect.

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Earth Year 2014