Random Thoughts

The Beautiful Virginia Countryside

www.dennismook.com

Here are some thoughts and questions that, when I am sitting quietly and thinking, I have recently asked myself.  I don't have answers for these, they just cause me to critically think.

a)  One can never see the present.  You can only see the past.  No matter how close an object is, it takes time (the speed of light--186,000 miles/sec) for the light reflecting off the object to reach you.

b)  Who created God?

c)  When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, the first reads (a bit different for each Bible translation) "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."  (King James Version)  God gave these to Moses.  Does this mean that God was acknowledging "other gods" existed?

d)  Why can the Universe expand faster than the speed of light, but nothing else can exceed that speed?

e)  We don't hesitate, and even take great pleasure in taking care of a baby or small child.  After all, their very life depends upon us adults.  Why do we then think it is a burden to take care of the elderly, whose very life may literally depend upon us adults?

f)  Why is it okay, by law and by many peoples' ethics to abort a fetus (baby) but prostitution is illegal?  If the pro choice advocates say a woman should have the right to do with her body what she thinks is necessary, then why do they oppose women who choose to be prostitutes?  Why is one okay but the other being exploited?  Why is the making of pornography legal but prostitution not?  Isn't it basically both having sex for money?

g)  What changed, and when did it change, that people no longer respect the opinion of someone who disagrees with him or her?  Not in all cases, but that way of thinking seems to have become prevalent.  Why did our culture change for it to be necessary to criticize, belittle, mock and strike out against someone with whom you disagree?  Can we one day again agree to disagree?  After all, opinions are neither right nor wrong, they are just opinions.

h)  The Internet is amazing.  It brings so much information to individuals to view, hear, read, learn, etc.  However, it brings a lot of bad.  It brings government spying, corporate spying, invasion of privacy, a memory that never goes away in the sense that once something is on the Internet, it is always out there.  I wonder if, in the end, the Internet will be judged good or bad for society?

i)  Why can't we see "dark matter?"  What is it?  There is more of it than there is matter we can see but why can't we see it?

j)  Is the United States on the same ethical, moral, cultural slippery slope of change (I'm not judging good nor bad change) and decline (that is my subjective judgment) that we mimic the Roman Empire in its decline and dissolution?

k)  What was there before the "Big Bang?"  My mind cannot comprehend something, anything, not being there.  In the same vein, how can the Universe expand into nothingness?  There has to be something, maybe emptiness, but my mind cannot comprehend nothingness like it can't comprehend infinity.