Gideon Guidance Gaffe

Gideon missionaries came to my treatment facility to save us sinners. My counselor told the group of witnesses I was struggling with the higher power aspect of the 12 step religion (and it is a religion even though their own literature denies it)  so I met with their best, a prosperous attorney. He asked me why I couldn’t accept a higher power doctrine.

I told him I didn’t believe in God or any religion. He wanted to know what happened, why did I reject religion. Nothing happened I explained, except I decided to research religion. It seemed logical to investigate what my eternal soul depended upon. How is it that people follow the group they are born into blindly? The Lawyer began to make arguments.

“Listen,” he said, “AA is not a religion and you don’t have to believe in God, your group or a doorknob can be your higher power.”

I replied, “Isn’t AA a program that insists on honesty, honesty to others and yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Saying I believe a doorknob can cure me is dishonest.”

“It’s not the actual doorknob that will bring you peace it’s . . .”

“What,” I interjected, “what it represents, God?”

He tried a different tactic.

“The most popular book in the world is the Bible and you can find them everywhere. With all those people reading Bibles they can’t be wrong. Millions of passionate people have found solace through Christianity, they can’t all be wrong can they?” he asked.

“Using your logic I could say the following must be true too. Since Islam is the fastest growing religion and the Koran is catching up to the Bible, and talk about passion, Islam followers are blowing themselves up for their faith they must be correct.”

“That’s different,” He barked angrily.

If those were his best arguments I was in for a long boring day. I found it curious a man who used logic and argued for a living was so blind to the inconsistencies he was touting. As we went on I think he realized the logic of my points and it upset him. He was seriously pissed off. Of course, he would have only gotten angry if I was making good points.

 

Where did we park the car?

My friend said, “the car is this way”, pointing. Nothing looked familiar in that direction. I asked him why he thought it was that way? He said, “I feel like that is the way, I’m pretty sure”. In this big city, new to both of us, we had wandered until lost. I pointed at a building that looked familiar and suggested that direction. He began to argue, insisting he was correct. We walked miles.    He was wrong!

Sometimes feelings are correct. However, they may not be feelings at all. Our brain filters out most input and doesn’t make us conscious of most details. An avid hunter in my earlier years, I’d be sitting in a tree stand, hunting deer with my bow. Scanning the woods I saw nothing, but in the back of my mind I knew I had just seen something, I even knew the area. After staring for some time I glanced away, there it was again. I looked back and there stood a deer, not moving and blending into the background.

This talent took years to develop and understand. Unfortunately my friend’s feelings are based on assumptions. (From years of experience with him) And in fact, most people I’ve met do the same. I annoy them by asking them the basis of their opinion or idea. Why is this annoying? Because it makes them realize, they don’t really know what they are talking about, but are just making assumptions and guesses. (I heard that once. They say (who?) that. I hear that all the time. It was on tv. I experienced that once, which they assume makes it always true.)

Most of you won’t know what I’m talking about, or will think you do and be wrong. For the few who know, do you point out the fallacy of their idea or keep your mouth shut?

Mega Fauna extinction

As an avid hunter and historian, I have unique knowledge for analyzing the mega fauna extinction event and hunting tools. Unfortunately, my experience will never be used.

One example of how history gets created rather than reported, happened recently in Africa. An archaeologist found a trove of ancient broad-head points. They were relatively small, about 1″ across. She determined they were arrowheads, for small game and the makers were primarily small game hunters.

She had never hunted herself, yet, rather than ask hunters about the arrowheads, she asked fellow archaeologists. She built upon published and accepted ideas, also written by academic types. If the excepted theory is wrong these scholars will demand proof far above the standard they used to develop the theory.

Today, with all types of metal available and superior bows, we still use small broadheads for hunting, especially large game. Large game has thick hide and penetrating to vitals takes incredible energy. The choice of a ‘large’ broadhead  for big game  is unlikely, nearly impossible, unless on  a spear made for thrusting alone.

The BBC and British museum recently said the following (in brackets).

[The period of the Clovis people coincides with the extinction of mammoths, giant sloth, camels and giant bison in North America. The extinction of these animals was caused by a combination of human hunting and climate change.]

They actually have no idea what caused the mega fauna extinction and yet they adhere to the scholarly-consensus guess. Hunting did not wipe out the mega fauna, neither did weather. The glaciers have retreated many times and the mega fauna survived those changes.

Man disappeared from the North America with the giant animals. Humans would have and did hunt small animals, making survival almost assured unless something else was at play.

In Africa a tribe still hunts the old way, which is likely how mega fauna would have been hunted. A hunter or group of hunters would have panicked the herd, singling one animal out chasing it until it collapses or gives up. Humans are slow but have great endurance and a cooling system few animals can match.

A television program followed one hunter who, on foot, chased an antelope through the savanna. The animal easily distanced itself at first but the man kept jogging, tracking the antelope when it was out of sight. Soon the man was gaining on the exhausted Antelope. Two hours later the Antelope gave up and allowed the hunter to walk up and spear it.

Frescoes of mammoths falling over cliffs do exist.  Such a rare and epic event would be chronicled, and was. Mammoths, like elephants, were very smart and if one survived this canyon hunt it would never return to that trap, nor allow its new herd to be trapped. People who have not hunted or those who only hunt with long range guns will not understand how quickly animals learn.

There is some evidence that a meteor struck North America; a crater has been found at the bottom of one of the great lakes, but dating it is not possible. A meteor strike is a more likely scenario.