Curtis Dahlgren
"SEASONAL" greetings (plus more amazing energy facts, part IV)
By Curtis Dahlgren
A FEW TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE READER'S DIGEST:
- "The prospects for solar power"
- "Do European women make better wives?"
- "The spread of grass-roots capitalism [stocks owned by common people]."
- "What is a Mormon?"
THAT WAS THE JUNE 1955 ISSUE OF READER'S DIGEST, BTW! What goes around comes around full-circle. The more things "change," the more they seem familiar. Deja vu all over again. Most of those 1955 stories sound like they could have been 2012 stories, and the one that really caught my eye was the one on solar energy (M.I.T. started working on solar power in 1938). And some now think that a few "stimulus" grants can make it practical in 4-to-8 short years?[!] Here are some excerpts from the article by Harland Manchester:
"Unveiled last year [1954] after long research, this silicon wafer was the first successful device to convert useful amounts of the sun's energy directly . . into electricity . . . [but]
"The silicon must be so highly purified that it is worth nearly its weight in gold . . . Other applications of solar energy, such as heating houses, distilling sea water and cooking food, may come into wide use before we learn how to use the sun to generate electric power economically.
" . . . 'We are about the same distance from practical success in utilizing both solar and nuclear energy, providing the same amount of effort is given to each problem.'"
I guess we gave a little more "effort" to nuclear, but that was no doubt a wise choice! In case you can't figure out my main point here, it's just the fact that so-called "progress" often takes decades, even centuries — sometimes without the anticipated "success." Progress can't be forced!
And our success at solving human nature problems has been even slower — often REGRESSING in the age of secular Utopianism.
AS FOR "SEASONAL GREETINGS": This is one of those rare years where the Hebrew calendar and the mainstream church calendars coincided nearly perfectly (Good Friday and Passover). And then there's a Third Way, Christians who keep the seventh day Sabbath and the "old, old" high annual holy days. Those people are really in sync this year. Oh would that we humans could be so humble as to get on the same page on other issues, both religious and socio-economic (even political), eh?
The Mormon article caught my eye, not just because there's a Mormon running for an office that is quite important, but because the church I support once rented a building from an LDS congregation for our church services! How many religious organizations could you imagine ever renting their property to another (sort of competitive) church? That was my first clue that "those people" weren't exactly what some critics say.
A few excerpts from the June 1955 Reader's Digest (by Richard Evans, condensed from LOOK):
"Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a 'Mormon.' The term is a nickname for a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . .
"They believe that the last . . [Gospel] restoration occurred early in the last century."
The article mentions Joseph Smith's 1820 experience and the gold plates that he found. One misconception I used to have is that Mormons believe the writing on the plates was done by angelic sources or something. Back to the article:
"The Book of Mormon is part of a record of the prophets and peoples who were ancestors of the American Indians in the period from about 600 BC to 421 AD. These people were of Asiatic origin, of the House of Israel, and left Jerusalem during the reign of King Zedekiah, eventually to cross . . to the Western world, where they built great cities and civilizations. Ulti8mately, they all but destroyed themselves in warring with one another.
"They brought with them certain records of the Old Testament. Their historians, statesmen and prophets kept records of important events of their own civilization, some of which were engraved on gold plates."
Just explaining, not complaining nor promoting. The people who believed they came from the House of Israel (the Ten Tribes) may have been "aliens" who lived among the Israelites and had become assimilated into the "Hebrew" culture (for all I know). Anyway, besides my connection to the LDS church building in which I once attended my church services, I have another "connection" through Carthage, Illinois. Joseph Smith was killed by a mob in 1844 at Carthage, and Carthage College is one of my alma maters (1962-63). It moved to north to Kenosha, Wisconsin in the 1960s, while the Mormons started moving west in the 1840s.
"During the next two decades, 80,000 Mormon pioneers traversed the thousand miles of plains and Rocky Mountains . . and more than 6000 died along the way . .
"Mormons emphasize education because they believe that the 'intelligence' each man attains will remain forever with him. His search for knowledge, for truth is an inescapable obligation." [end of excerpts]
P.S. IS "INTELLIGENCE" ANIMAL, MINERAL, OR VEGETABLE?
Speaking of "grass-roots capitalism," I believe we have an inescapable obligation to also combat, refute, and defeat the philosophers of human secularism. I'd like to review a book entitled "CLIMATEGATE; a veteran meteorologist exposes the global warming scam" by Brian Sussman (WND Books, 2010).
The "Forward" of Sussman's book on climate starts in a surprising place — a discussion of the philosophy of Marx, Engels, Hegel, and Barack Oboma:
"To Marx and Engels, matter — atoms, molecules, and the [physical] is all there is or ever will be. . . [They] held that 'if science can get to know all there is to know about matter, we will then know all there is to know about everything . . .
"Such a patrician worldview resonates with today's elites . . To them, God is a mythological crutch for imbeciles, and whatever morality is required shall be defined by them, subject to their goals. Thus, telling a lie or perpetrating fraud is perfectly acceptable — as long as the end justifies the means . . .
"Darwin's theory of evolution sealed the communist founders' convictions that . . occasionally some people are spit out of the womb with a superior brain, making them more worthy than others . . . and those born into evolution's aristocracy possess a duty to dictate how the 'underdeveloped' shall live."
PPS:
To make a long story short, that's the real "Social Darwinism" — not whatever Oboma was trying to "lecture" us about the other day from the bully pulpit (he loves social engineering while accusing other people of "darwinism"?). It's laughable.
BY THE WAY, did you know that the Ten Commandments can be stated in 70 words? The Ten Commandments — in a decentralized, non-elitist community — could have solved more problems than 2,700 pages of lawyer-written "LAWS."
Well, maybe I'm starting to "ramble," but I hope you got the point! Excuse me; I think I need a cup of coffee. Or something.
© Curtis Dahlgren
April 8, 2012
A FEW TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE READER'S DIGEST:
- "The prospects for solar power"
- "Do European women make better wives?"
- "The spread of grass-roots capitalism [stocks owned by common people]."
- "What is a Mormon?"
THAT WAS THE JUNE 1955 ISSUE OF READER'S DIGEST, BTW! What goes around comes around full-circle. The more things "change," the more they seem familiar. Deja vu all over again. Most of those 1955 stories sound like they could have been 2012 stories, and the one that really caught my eye was the one on solar energy (M.I.T. started working on solar power in 1938). And some now think that a few "stimulus" grants can make it practical in 4-to-8 short years?[!] Here are some excerpts from the article by Harland Manchester:
"Unveiled last year [1954] after long research, this silicon wafer was the first successful device to convert useful amounts of the sun's energy directly . . into electricity . . . [but]
"The silicon must be so highly purified that it is worth nearly its weight in gold . . . Other applications of solar energy, such as heating houses, distilling sea water and cooking food, may come into wide use before we learn how to use the sun to generate electric power economically.
" . . . 'We are about the same distance from practical success in utilizing both solar and nuclear energy, providing the same amount of effort is given to each problem.'"
I guess we gave a little more "effort" to nuclear, but that was no doubt a wise choice! In case you can't figure out my main point here, it's just the fact that so-called "progress" often takes decades, even centuries — sometimes without the anticipated "success." Progress can't be forced!
And our success at solving human nature problems has been even slower — often REGRESSING in the age of secular Utopianism.
AS FOR "SEASONAL GREETINGS": This is one of those rare years where the Hebrew calendar and the mainstream church calendars coincided nearly perfectly (Good Friday and Passover). And then there's a Third Way, Christians who keep the seventh day Sabbath and the "old, old" high annual holy days. Those people are really in sync this year. Oh would that we humans could be so humble as to get on the same page on other issues, both religious and socio-economic (even political), eh?
The Mormon article caught my eye, not just because there's a Mormon running for an office that is quite important, but because the church I support once rented a building from an LDS congregation for our church services! How many religious organizations could you imagine ever renting their property to another (sort of competitive) church? That was my first clue that "those people" weren't exactly what some critics say.
A few excerpts from the June 1955 Reader's Digest (by Richard Evans, condensed from LOOK):
"Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a 'Mormon.' The term is a nickname for a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . .
"They believe that the last . . [Gospel] restoration occurred early in the last century."
The article mentions Joseph Smith's 1820 experience and the gold plates that he found. One misconception I used to have is that Mormons believe the writing on the plates was done by angelic sources or something. Back to the article:
"The Book of Mormon is part of a record of the prophets and peoples who were ancestors of the American Indians in the period from about 600 BC to 421 AD. These people were of Asiatic origin, of the House of Israel, and left Jerusalem during the reign of King Zedekiah, eventually to cross . . to the Western world, where they built great cities and civilizations. Ulti8mately, they all but destroyed themselves in warring with one another.
"They brought with them certain records of the Old Testament. Their historians, statesmen and prophets kept records of important events of their own civilization, some of which were engraved on gold plates."
Just explaining, not complaining nor promoting. The people who believed they came from the House of Israel (the Ten Tribes) may have been "aliens" who lived among the Israelites and had become assimilated into the "Hebrew" culture (for all I know). Anyway, besides my connection to the LDS church building in which I once attended my church services, I have another "connection" through Carthage, Illinois. Joseph Smith was killed by a mob in 1844 at Carthage, and Carthage College is one of my alma maters (1962-63). It moved to north to Kenosha, Wisconsin in the 1960s, while the Mormons started moving west in the 1840s.
"During the next two decades, 80,000 Mormon pioneers traversed the thousand miles of plains and Rocky Mountains . . and more than 6000 died along the way . .
"Mormons emphasize education because they believe that the 'intelligence' each man attains will remain forever with him. His search for knowledge, for truth is an inescapable obligation." [end of excerpts]
P.S. IS "INTELLIGENCE" ANIMAL, MINERAL, OR VEGETABLE?
Speaking of "grass-roots capitalism," I believe we have an inescapable obligation to also combat, refute, and defeat the philosophers of human secularism. I'd like to review a book entitled "CLIMATEGATE; a veteran meteorologist exposes the global warming scam" by Brian Sussman (WND Books, 2010).
The "Forward" of Sussman's book on climate starts in a surprising place — a discussion of the philosophy of Marx, Engels, Hegel, and Barack Oboma:
"To Marx and Engels, matter — atoms, molecules, and the [physical] is all there is or ever will be. . . [They] held that 'if science can get to know all there is to know about matter, we will then know all there is to know about everything . . .
"Such a patrician worldview resonates with today's elites . . To them, God is a mythological crutch for imbeciles, and whatever morality is required shall be defined by them, subject to their goals. Thus, telling a lie or perpetrating fraud is perfectly acceptable — as long as the end justifies the means . . .
"Darwin's theory of evolution sealed the communist founders' convictions that . . occasionally some people are spit out of the womb with a superior brain, making them more worthy than others . . . and those born into evolution's aristocracy possess a duty to dictate how the 'underdeveloped' shall live."
PPS:
To make a long story short, that's the real "Social Darwinism" — not whatever Oboma was trying to "lecture" us about the other day from the bully pulpit (he loves social engineering while accusing other people of "darwinism"?). It's laughable.
BY THE WAY, did you know that the Ten Commandments can be stated in 70 words? The Ten Commandments — in a decentralized, non-elitist community — could have solved more problems than 2,700 pages of lawyer-written "LAWS."
Well, maybe I'm starting to "ramble," but I hope you got the point! Excuse me; I think I need a cup of coffee. Or something.
© Curtis Dahlgren
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(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
