Here’s the link for my Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=6600631

My friend, David (who I talked with about math and evolution on previous blogs, links are below.) went on a backpacking trip in Africa recently. This is his story of the experience of other cultures.

Math, Evolution, and the Meaning of Life: A Dialogue: Part 1

Math, Evolution, and the Meaning of Life: A Dialogue: Part 2

Math, Evolution, and the Meaning of Life: A Dialogue: Part 3

This is the eighteenth blog in part 2 of this series. Here is the link for the page where the others can be found:

https://mindgasms.bplifetime.com/category/travel/

June 28, Discover Rwanda Reunion:

On the day when we headed back from Kibuye, we had to take a taxi to another town so we could catch a bus somewhere else. This is because we missed the 5’o clock bus to Gisenyi. However, for an additional 4000RWF for the cab ride, we made it back safe and sound. We got dropped off right at the front entrance to the hostel.

When we got there in evening, and walked up to the patio, we were happily greeted by all the rest of the backpacking crew. It was heartwarming to see all of their faces again and hear their travel stories after they had been off and doing their own thing for 10 days. We had a few drinks, ate dinner, and caught up. We just enjoyed each other’s company.

Later that night, I came across a familiar face as I was conversing with the guys at my table. It was the girl from the race back in Kigali. I went up to talk to her, and she recognized me too. Her name was Emily. She seemed impressed that I had come in second place, and was happy to see me. We talked for a bit, late at night.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t showered since the kayaking trip, and my pants were still dusty. They were 3 days old, and had dried after getting wet in the water from Lake Kivu. So, I went to take a shower, which I had been putting off since I had arrived. But by the time I got out of the shower, she was gone, and everyone else was asleep. Bummer. I was enjoying that girl’s company.

The next morning after breakfast, I went for a walk by the serene waters of the lake shore with Sarah Bell and Rebecca. We walked for about 20 minutes over coarse grains of sand. We stopped to enjoy the view, and Rebecca went for a quick swim. We headed back shortly to catch our 10 o’clock bus to the next place where we would stay. The bus was full. We called boda bodas, I said my goodbyes to Emily, and left to head to Inzu Lodge for the last two days of the program.

Here’s the link for people who want to support me on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=6600631

My friend, David (who I talked with about math and evolution on previous blogs, links are below.) went on a backpacking trip in Africa recently. This is his story of the experience of other cultures.

Math, Evolution, and the Meaning of Life: A Dialogue: Part 1

Math, Evolution, and the Meaning of Life: A Dialogue: Part 2

Math, Evolution, and the Meaning of Life: A Dialogue: Part 3

This is the sixteenth blog in part 2 of this series. Here is the link for the page where the others can be found:

https://mindgasms.bplifetime.com/category/travel/

June 25-26: The Congo-Nile Trail:

On the morning of the 25th, I woke up early to sort out my money issue. I was a bit annoyed about not being able to get things in order the day before. I woke up at around 6. I had paid for the hostel stay the night before, so I was good to go.

I grabbed a ride from a boda boda and went to the bank. At first, the ATM that I found was no good. The screen kept saying “Error.” I wasn’t too happy about the situation, since I had to start the bike trip at 8:00.

So I walked around and asked people where I could find another ATM. One guard led me down the street to another ATM by a building. This one worked. Finally, everything was good.

I looked for and failed to find food, so then I grabbed a ride from another boda boda and headed to Inzu Lodge, the place next to Rwanda Adventures. I ate the mango that I had previously bought in Kigali Heights and explored the lodge while I waited. My biking partners were set to arrive later. Had I known, I would have kept looking for a place to eat.

We introduced each other. My guide was named Marcel, and the other two bikers were Anna Maria and Hector, a Columbian couple living in Nairobi. We packed our bags, and took some pictures. At 9pm, we headed out, bought some supplies, and then we were on our way .

Pretty much all of the path was an unpaved dirt road. Some parts were really rocky, and others were dustier. The views were beautiful. Endless overlapping hills surrounded the blue-island-dotted waters of Lake Kivu. We went up and down hills for most of the path. Rarely were we ever on the straight, flat ground. Throughout the entire trip, there were children playing in the streets from the small clusters of agriculturally sustained homes that lined the hillsides.

In the evening, we stayed at Kinunu Basecamp, a small hotel by the middle of the path. It was a quiet place. I had gone with Marcel to check out the coffee cooperative just down the road, and learn how coffee production worked. The stars and milky way at night were beautiful as always, and the sunset in this place was by far the most beautiful one I had seen during the whole trip.

The Columbian couple camped in another area. In the morning, Marcel and I went there to catch up with the two of them. It turned out that they had called it quits. They had decided that another 9 hour long bike ride the next day was too much for them. They were nowhere to be found. The property owner told us that they had taken a ferry the rest of the way to Kibuye.

…To be Continued…

Here’s the link for people who want to support me on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=6600631

His foot hit the concrete. He didn’t feel his feet on the ground. His body was just following the tunnel vision in his mind. His movements were automatic because his consciousness was hijacked by adrenaline. 

He stopped at the end of the alleyway, his heart pounding in his ears. Putting his hands on his knees while he caught his breath, he looked back into the darkness. He could smell that someone had smoked a joint a few minutes ago. It was one of the last houses he had passed. 

His hearing was obscured because his heart was pounding in his head like a drum. But his ears didn’t catch shuffling feet, or the clinking metal of a gun shifting around in someone’s hands. 

It felt like he was safe for now. His ears confirmed that, once his heart slowed down enough for his hearing to work properly. He started strolling calmly down the sidewalk, going farther into the neighborhood. If he kept running, he would just draw attention to himself, especially if he headed toward the busy city street. 

It was a mistake to go there so soon after he had killed him. He should have waited until things cleared up. Then suspicion would had been drawn away from her.  

That was how it worked, always on to the next reaction to someone attacking one of their own. Or stealing from them, or getting arrested, or slipping a little of the product or cash aside for themselves.  

Those people would tell themselves that it was for saving to get out of the damn neighborhood and get a real job, so they could protect their families. But they’d always just blow it all on more drugs, or strippers, or hookers. Or it could be some idiotic purchase like a flashy new gun or car. As if the cops wouldn’t notice. They all really just wanted to be Scarface. But they couldn’t admit it to themselves because that would validate a stereotype. 

A black Honda Civic slinked up from around the corner. The tires squealed, but then it slowed down to try to creep up on him. 

As the car approached, he opened a gate for a little wooden fence in front of a house. It was a few down from the one he’d passed. It would be dumb to make it seem like he was reacting to anything they did. They definitely suspected him, but he had already taken off his sweater and thrown it in someone’s yard, and they hadn’t seen his face yet. 

After opening the gate, he made a show of pretending to find his keys. He fished deep in his pockets for them, then gradually fumbled them out and into his hands. He looked for a particular key, feeling the eyes of the men in the car boring into his back. 

“Damn,” he swore out loud for their benefit, smacking his thighs with his palms. He made it look like he had forgotten his house key in his car, and was heading there. One was conveniently parked in front of the house. 

The black Honda had tinted windows, so he couldn’t see who was inside. But it had pulled up to the curb about 10 feet behind the car he was walking towards. 

He dropped his keys in front of the front wheel on purpose, making it look like an accident. His small silver pistol slipped into his hand from inside his boot as he grabbed his key with the other hand. 

Keeping his gun obscured from the Honda’s view, he did the next three actions in one fluid motion. While the hand with the key in it drifted toward the door, he swung his gun around to aim at the Honda’s engine. He knew that the windows would be bulletproof. Burning metal started slamming into the front of the car from his pistol as his keys dropped to the ground. He grabbed his bigger black handgun from the back of his waistband before the keys landed. The weapon had been moved around a few times so the guys in the car wouldn’t see it. 

All four windows of the Honda started rolling down, and he saw guns poke out of the openings. He ran back and then dove in front of the car where he had dropped his keys. Bullets shattered the windows and crashed into the metal and plastic. 

He could smell gasoline. As soon as the shots stopped, he stepped out from in front of the car because he knew it would take them a few seconds to reload. Hot metal rapidly flew from both of his guns, pounding into the Honda’s engine. 

One of the dumbasses started shooting from the Honda after seeing the flames coming out of it. 

The dumbass shot him in the calf, so he fired the last barrage from his knees, grunting in agony on the way down. Another bullet hit his shoulder, shooting blood into the air. 

The Honda exploded half a second later, propelling him upward and several feet down the road. He landed awkwardly on his injured shoulder, screaming in pain. 

Then he looked up at the burning car, grinning and laughing quickly with smug victory. But another wave of agony shot through him a second later, blunting his ego. 

Hearing sirens, he pushed himself to his feet and headed back to the main busy street. He would get lost in the crowd, then grab a jacket from a dumpster behind the clothing store he saw. Then he would hotwire a car on a mostly empty street, and vanish like smoke.   

Here’s the link for people who want to support me on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=6600631

 

 

My friend, David (who I talked with about math and evolution on previous blogs, links are below.) went on a backpacking trip in Africa recently. This is his story of the experience of other cultures.

 

https://mindgasms.bplifetime.com/2017/07/14/math-evolution-meaning-life-dialogue-part-1/

 

https://mindgasms.bplifetime.com/2017/07/25/math-evolution-meaning-life-dialogue-part-2/

 

https://mindgasms.bplifetime.com/2017/08/04/math-evolution-meaning-life-dialogue-part-3/

 

This is the fifteenth blog in part 2 of this series. Here is the link for the page where the others can be found:

 

https://mindgasms.bplifetime.com/category/travel/

 

June 24, Lost in Gisenyi:

 

With my backpack all packed, I said goodbye. I walked out of the Mijo hostel, and was on the way to end my story, embracing the unknown all on my own. It was a great way to truly experience solo travel for the first time. I got on a bus, and hoped for the best. I had previously booked my hostel stay at Ste Theresa, which was the cheapest place I could find. I travelled with Patrick, who I met on the bus. He was a local preacher heading home to Muzanze.

 

 

Once I got to Gisenyi, another man helped me catch a boda boda to the location on the map on my phone. We agreed to 700 RWF for the cost to the site. However, once we got there, we noticed that the place seemed to not exist. The driver was asking around, and I didn’t have much to say due to the language barrier.

 

 

We eventually got the help of a local bus driver from the Serena hotel, the place around the corner from the pointer on my map. He made some phone calls, travelled with us to the location, and nothing was to be seen. I had all my stuff with me, no place to go, and limited communication. The time was getting later too, so I started becoming anxious. My phone battery was getting low, it was past 4pm, and this hostel didn’t seem to exist.

 

 

Fortunately, I had the idea that with wifi, I could get the hostel information from my email. But with no wifi in sight and a dying phone, things were becoming trickier.

 

Eventually, as a desperate measure, we went back to the hotel to connect to wifi and get the information. By then, I had already paid the boda boda driver 300 RWF more for the inconvenience of waiting. He was also concerned for my own safety, along with his desire to get back to work at the hotel. Low and behold, I got the number with 6% left on my phone, we called, and found the place. I paid the chauffeur 1000 RWF and expressed my gratitude as he left the site. 

 

 

The hostel was a simple house with no wifi. The host spoke almost no English, and the few others staying there were also locals. At least I was happy to know that I had a safe place to stay, but my plan to use wifi to get my bearings straight was spoiled.

 

 

I charged my phone while I went out to scout for food and wifi. No one knew English. Communicating with pictograms of the wifi signal was my only option. With little daylight left, I decided to order a pizza at one of the places that I had checked out. On top of all the struggles I was going through, waiting for the pizza took the rest of my daylight hours.

 

 

I got back to the hostel while watching the stars in the sky, and wondering about my wifi situation. When I got back, I made yet another discovery. I didn’t have enough money to pay for the bike trip the next day. I needed an ATM A. S. A. P!

 

 

However, I was happy to learn that the directions to Rwanda Adventures were buried in the conversations I had with the organization. Late at night, after picking up my charged phone from the hostel, I went walking in the pitch dark streets of Gisenyi. It was populated by many locals walking to their destinations with food and supplies, so I assumed that it was pretty safe to travel, regardless of the blinding darkness. Lone men with groceries, and groups of women carrying supplies on their heads, gave me confidence to go out late and know that I was safe.

 

 

However, with all of the day’s events in mind, I was somewhat panicky. It seemed like anyone who remotely appeared to approach me from the darkness was going to stab me. I was jumpy, and every time I turned around abruptly to address the “tense” situation, people were probably wondering what was wrong with me.

 

 

I walked for a couple of hours, and eventually called it quits. I didn’t even know where I was on the map. I decided to search in the morning, So I headed back and went to sleep before starting my 91km journey the next day. At least I had directions to the bike place, where I was supposed to go. The only issue that remained was money.

 

There are a lot of crackpot theories out of there, and this might be one of them. But regardless of how true it is, it’s fascinating to think about the possibility that the idea of Santa Claus was inspired by psychedelics. This theory is apparently associated with Gnostic Christianity, which is an older, more Pagan interpretation of the religion. This largely extinct sect, according to what I’ve heard, was also heavily involved with entheogens. It seems like a lot of ancient cultures and traditions were as well. This not a consensus, but there is a lot of archaeological evidence to suggest that at least a large number of  ancient mythologies were heavily inspired by psychedelics like mushrooms, peyote, and ergot, which contains LSD.

It’s easy for anyone who has used psychedelics to see how the cosmic struggle between good and evil, and the importance of enlightenment, could have been originally thought of by people tripping their balls off. A good trip can be the most transcendent experience of your entire life, but a bad one can make you go crazy and lose your faith in humanity. It’s entirely possible that the idea of enlightenment comes from developing the mental toughness to overcome horrifying challenges, and come out of hallucinogenic battle with a profound sense of accomplishment. These ideas are almost ubiquitous in ancient traditions.

This type of theory is even largely believed by John Marco Allegro, who is one of the four original people who investigated the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was the only one who was agnostic, and not an ordained Catholic priest. He outlines his theory in the book called The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. It has to do with Christianity being essentially founded on psychedelic rituals and fertility cults, since the Dead Sea scrolls are even older than the bible.

This is the Gnostic legend of the character we now call Santa Claus, to the best of my knowledge; at least the fundamental details: Thousands of years ago, before Christianity, in Northern Europe, shamans were worshipped. They were the equivalent of priests, and they praised a sacred mushroom called the amanita muscaria. This contains psilocybin, which is the main active ingredient in the common green “magic” mushrooms about which probably everyone knows. The amanita muscaria is red with white dots on the top, and it has a different chemical structure than average mushrooms used for drug trips. It contains the red and white colours associated with Santa Claus. For some people, it has no effect, but for others, it is much more powerful, especially when you also drink your own urine. I’m not sure why that apparently happens, but I’ll take people’s word for that.

The shamans would go around villages, sometimes dressed in red, and visit people at their little shacks called yurts. They would carry around a sack of the amanita muscaria mushrooms, placing some of them under what we regard  as Christmas trees today. There were apparently a lot of spruce, pine, and fir trees around this area during that time period. The villagers’ yurts had holes in the top to let out air from the fires they would light to keep themselves warm. The shamans would come through the holes in the yurts. They would place mushrooms on the walls near the fire to dry if they were wet from being picked from snowy ground. The villagers would eat the mushrooms, and commune with God.

This sounds similar to the story of Santa Claus, doesn’t it? Think about the symbolism. Santa, jolly from using psychedelics, carries around his sack of toys or gifts in the form of the ability to commune with God. He puts some presents under trees, which we later decorated to symbolize the place where you can gain the gift of transcendence. Santa comes through our “chimneys”, or the holes in the tops of the yurts, and puts the presents in front of the fire. When people wake up, we open our stockings to gain the gift of enlightenment, and find more presents under the tree. There are other parallels between the Gnostic legend and the story of Santa Claus, but these are some of the fundamentals.

I’m not saying that this is the truth of the fable of Santa Claus. There are many theories. I have barely investigated any of them, and I have no idea how plausible this theory is in comparison to others. However, I think that it’s enthralling to think about how mythologies originate. Some theories are much more exciting and crazy than others. But they all offer fascinating explanations for why we tell stories that ideologize ideas we collectively hold as sacred. Was the idea of Santa Claus inspired by psychedelics? No one really knows for sure, but it’s an interesting possibility.

 

 

 

Like many controversial issues, capital punishment is very polarizing. People on one end of the spectrum are completely supportive of it, and their opponents wholeheartedly reject it. Both sides have many good points. Some people are such reprehensible excuses for human beings that they deserve to die, yet it is still valid to say that no one is righteous enough to make the decision to end someone’s life.

Let’s look at the case for capital punishment. There are many examples of people who cause so much harm to humanity as a whole that keeping them alive is more of a problem than a benefit. People that fall in to this category include Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, and pretty much every serial killer, perpetrator of mass shootings, terrorist, and rapist. If we let them roam freely, they would cause chaos. Even people against executing such people tend to agree that they should be locked in cages for the rest of their natural lives. But why should we stop at imprisoning them? If they rot away in prison, they’re costing taxpayers a whole lot of money, (unless they’re in private prisons, which could fill up a whole other post) and we’re doing the favor of clothing, feeding, and providing shelter for these monsters. They get to live until they die of old age, while their victims, and their families, get no retribution.

Now let’s lay out the standard argument against capital punishment. Yes, there are bad people, and they should be separated from society. But what gives anyone the right to take the life of someone else? Sure, dictators and serial killers can be evil, and show no remorse, but what is the point of killing someone to show that killing is wrong? Isn’t that a double standard? Also, those animals certainly deserve punishment, and can’t prison be worse that death in many cases? For instance, as far as anyone can know without actually going to prison, aren’t rapists regarded with disgust even by hardened criminals? This might not be true, but if prison movies and T.V. shows have any basis in reality, rapists get terrorized and raped in prison. Can anyone say that such acts are not justifiable, or at least unquestionably brutal? Additionally, who decides who lives and who dies? What gives someone the authority to decide to end someone’s life? Are they some combination of a Buddhist monk and a Navy SEAL? No one is infallible, so no one should have the right to judge someone so harshly that it causes their death. Plus, many people who are against capital punishment are pacifists. There are varying degrees of belief in it, but for them, taking someones’s life is never justified.

You may have noticed that both ends of the spectrum make good points, but both also have flaws. For example, opponents of capital punishment argue that even if it costs us money, we should keep monsters alive rather than kill them, which makes us pay to support their right to life. No matter what way you look at the situation, spending hard-earned money on providing terrorists, dictators, serial killers, and rapists with three square meals a day seems wrong. Also, pacifism is an admirable philosophy, but is not pragmatic when taken to the extreme. In self defense situations, sometimes you have to choose between murder, and being killed. Unless you’re some truly enlightened being, which might not even exist, you would probably murder someone in a kill-or-be-killed scenario. Additionally, isn’t ending the life of an evil person arguably more compassionate than sending them to prison to get terrorized, raped, or subjected to solitary confinement? Shouldn’t people who claim to be more gentle and loving go for that option? Another flaw in the case against executing atrocious excuses for human beings is that it doesn’t really matter who decides to put them to death if we all know how guilty they are.

Those are problems with the argument against capital punishment. Now, let’s go through issues with the claims of the proponents of it. I used to support this idea, but I changed my mind when I watched a documentary called Into the Abyss, directed by Werner Herzog. One aspect of this situation that it addresses is the fact that the family members of people who get killed want revenge. This is completely understandable. If someone murdered your mom, dad, brother, sister, son, or daughter, you would want that person to die. But this is a primal instinct, and we shouldn’t allowed to act on it. People on both sides of the fence on this issue paint it as black and white, but it is much more complex than they understand it to be. If everyone had the right to kill someone out of a desire for retribution, the cycle would never end. You could trace murders in your family back to the dawn of humanity. We all have ancestors who were unjustifiably killed. As society became more civilized, violence declined, and most of us haven’t experienced a family member’s murder. But all of us could avenge our ten thousandth great grandparents if we really wanted to. It would just decimate the global population.

One issue that the documentary goes into that I hadn’t thought of in detail before is how well established the guilt of the criminals is. If there was an incorruptible and perfect system that could determine who had committed crimes, and who hadn’t, then capital punishment would be a good idea. But that’s just wishful thinking. The fact of the matter is that many people have been falsely accused of crimes, and executed for them. That is terrifying! We have ended the lives of people who were in some cases, guilty of less severe crimes than those of which they were accused, and in others, were completely innocent. Their true potential was never realized because they were purely victims of circumstance.

Another aspect of the situation that Into the Abyss illuminated for me was the families of the perpetrators. Even if someone is a serial killer or rapist, if they get executed, and they have families, then we’re punishing them, too. The parents, siblings, or children of criminals don’t deserve to go through a loss because their family member committed unbelievable atrocities. If the convict gets put in prison for the rest of his or her life, rather than getting killed, then the family can visit them. It keeps society safe, without causing unnecessary hardship to people who have done nothing wrong.

Yet another angle of this debate that the documentary went into was the people who carry out the executions. Everyone tends to have a hard time with killing, even if we are only injecting a needle into a vein. There are people whose job it is to inject criminals, and watch the life fade from their eyes. This would be hard for anyone who isn’t a complete psychopath or sociopath. State officials interviewed in the movie talk about the fact that some people support capital punishment, but they have never tried killing the murderers themselves. The average person, other than the family of a victim, would not consider actually doing the deed personally. They want to farm it out to prison employees, and even family members of dead loved ones would be incapable of murder in many cases. One problem with this idea that the executors mention is that some states in America kill criminals with extreme frequency. One Texas employee said that one year, he executed 52 people. That’s one person per week! Some people may deserve to die, but can anyone honestly say that 52 people in one state deserve to be killed over the course of one year?

This is why capital punishment is a good idea in theory, but not in practice. Throughout human history, there have been some unquestionably evil people, and they may always exist. Some of those monsters deserve to die, but there is no criminal justice system that is infallible. Since there will likely always be errors in enforcing laws, because they rely on humans, who are imperfect, we should not allow for the possibility of the innocent being executed. Even if criminals are undeniably guilty, if they have families, they don’t deserve to be punished for the terrible acts carried out by their loved ones. If a killer or rapist is completely at fault, and doesn’t have a family, should we be allowed to task people with the job of executing them? Soldiers, police, and people in other careers immersed in violence often exhibit post traumatic stress disorder. Is it reasonable to subject people to this so that animals can get put down? I don’t think so. Even though there are reasonable objections to bring up in regards to lifelong incarceration of monsters who don’t deserve to live, the alternative causes more problems than it solves.

This is a test post. Don’t read it.

Some people think it’s impossible for aliens to exist, while others swear they have had personal encounters with them. As with nearly every subject, the most likely truth lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

There’s no way to know for sure whether intelligent lifeforms exist somewhere else in the universe. Therefore, the idea of aliens at first can seem as preposterous as leprechauns, fairies, God, Zeus, or any other myth.

The more specific these ideas get, the more unlikely they become. This includes little green men, or short grey humanoid aliens, with giant heads, enormous black eyes, and no discernible gender.

However, the more generalized beliefs get, and the more options we consider, the greater the probability of alien existence becomes. When you consider the sheer magnitude of our universe,the chances of homo sapiens being the only intelligent species shrink more and more. Astrophysicists are constantly discovering new planets suitable for life, and this makes claims of us being the only highly evolved species increasingly arrogant.

If you look at aliens as nothing specific, but merely other intelligent lifeforms, then the probability of them existing is so high that is appears inevitable. Among the billions of stars in the universe, most of which contain orbiting planets, there are some chunks of floating rock that are similar to Earth, and are entirely suitable for life. Even if these planets only represent a miniscule fraction of all interstellar bodies, there should be at least thousands of them in the known universe. There may even be thousands within our own galaxy, and scientists have so far only been able to map out 4% of the universe! Statistically speaking, further exploration is guaranteed to reveal more Earth-like planets.

Most descriptions of aliens in people who claim to have seen them are anthropomorphic. This is odd, given that the chances of this being the case are vanishingly small. It’s obviously due our own representations of intelligence. Human beings are the most intellectually evolved creatures in the universe, as far as we know. So it’s logical for us to assume that even more advanced iterations of life will look similar to us.

Certain evolutionists like Richard Dawkins, claim this may be partially true. He believes that evolution through Darwinian natural selection of random mutations is the only way that life can arise and flourish. This means that other lifeforms might not resemble us because their evolutionary paths may have branched off in very different directions from humans. However, they will probably have arrived at their current state through the same mechanism. They could be anthropomorphic, or completely different, but they will have evolved in a similar fashion as people. Many other people agree with Dawkins, citing factors like evolution’s complexity, and the requirement of specific ingredients for lifeforms.

Other scientists disagree. They argue that given the high number of factors that could lead to life elsewhere in the universe, it is parochial to assume that it would be humanoid, or at least follow the rules of evolution. No one has any idea of how much our laws of physics apply to undiscovered reaches of space. On distant planets, life could have found extremely unusual ways to form. Adapting to different fundamental scientific laws, it could have learned to consume and produce energy in varying methods. These lifeforms might experience life in ways that we cannot possibly imagine. Consider the idea of amorphous, methane-based intelligent beings, who survive on sulphur, and produce copper. You could speculate endlessly about all the directions in which life could go.

It is possible, although highly unlikely, that life somehow failed to arise elsewhere in our universe. It could also be the case that other lifeforms evolved, but haven’t made it as far as us. Another option is that other beings came into existence, constructed their own societies, and are exponentially more advanced than us. But maybe they are so far away that we will never meet them. Even if there are lifeforms in the deep reaches of space that are hundreds of thousands of years ahead of homo sapiens on the evolutionary scale, they may never develop technology to allow quick interstellar travel.

This brings us to the Fermi Paradox. First postulated by Enrico Fermi in 1950, he pointed out that if extraterrestrial life is so common, we should have seen evidence of it. Maybe human beings actually are a rare success story, lucky to have survived every event that led to our existence. Many creatures, from the first single-celled organisms, all the way to you, have died along the way. There have been interstellar collisions, asteroid impacts, natural disasters, wars, famines, diseases, droughts. The list of obstacles against life could go on forever. Maybe the odds of surviving, and flourishing well beyond where we are now, are simply too insurmountable. An alien species in another galaxy would have to figure out how to do things like travel through wormholes, or at speeds much faster than light, to be able to get close to Earth. These feats are thought to be impossible by many, but that isn’t necessarily true.

Let’s talk about UFOs, or Unidentified Flying Objects. There have been many of these throughout human history. If you see something flying through the air, and you don’t know what it is, that’s a UFO. A hunter-gatherer tribe who have never seen a plane before would think they are magical if they see one. Weather balloons or satellites can look mysterious if they’re far away, and you don’t know what they are.

However, when most people use the acronym, UFO, they are referring to an alien spaceship. There are innumerable people who claim to have seen them, and many also say they have been abducted. A lot of people believe aliens have visited Earth, but their evidence is almost entirely specious, or even ridiculous.

When you look at the evidence of alien visitations, the vast majority of it consists of eye-witness accounts, with a little bit of video footage sprinkled in. Most of the video footage has been completely debunked, and the small amount that hasn’t remains mysterious. But something unexplainable is nothing more than an anomaly. It doesn’t mean that aliens have visited us. The supposed footage of extraterrestrial craft could be various other things. It might be secret government projects, tricks of light, artifacts in the picture, deliberate hoaxes, or a number of other possibilities.

We know that eye-witness accounts are entirely unreliable. People’s memories are highly flawed, and most of us are completely certain that our inaccurate accounts of events are correct. There have been countless times when innocent people have gone to jail because witnesses mistook them for criminals who look similar. The order and details of events can also easily be confused by anyone in a high-stress situation. Your brain interprets prior occurrences in the way that suits your self-deception. We all have stories in our heads that turn out to be slightly different when we discuss them with others who were there at the time. That’s why, when recalling what a man walking down the street a week ago was wearing, you might think he was wearing a red hat, while your friend could be certain it was blue. Let’s not forget that people also could easily lie about alien encounters or UFOs to get attention, or validate their own version of events. They might even have a financial incentive, if they’re writing a book, making a documentary, or trying to sell some obscure service.

Area 51 is often used as evidence for aliens. For decades, investigative minds have claimed that the government was hiding evidence of flying saucers, and alien bodies. A lot of people believed them, because it’s an attractive and imaginative idea. However, what is more likely? Is it more probable that aliens figured out interstellar travel, came to Earth, crashed their ships, and were captured by the government and the military for study? Let’s remember that there were government and military officials who claimed this was going on. Or, is it a greater possibility that the military was working on secret projects, civilians found out that they were being secretive, and people in charge of the projects went along with the theories? If people are working on secret operations, does it make more sense for them to tell everyone the truth, deny it, or aid in perpetuating myths?

According to recently declassified C.I.A. documents, the most likely possibility turned out to be true. Area 51 was a secret military base during the Cold War, and it was where the C.I.A. developed secret technologies, such as spy planes, and covert recon tools. Since this was happening during the Cold War, American military and government officials didn’t want Russia to know what they were working on. So when people started spreading rumors about aliens and U.F.O.s, they denied them, claiming that the experimental aircraft people saw was objects like weather balloons. The C.I.A. continued with this strategy in public, but in secret, they had people posing as ex-C.I.A., and ex-military, going around and telling people confidential alien stories. These civilians were told to keep this information secret, but they publicized it, which is exactly what the C.I.A. hoped for. If an enormous amount of people believe you are working on alien technologies, that draws attention away from the possibility that you are developing spy planes. If the C. I. A. had told the public they were deciphering the intricacies of extraterrestrial space flight, people would have demanded to see it, so that option wouldn’t have made sense. It would have also drawn the attention of Russia.

It seems highly likely that there is intelligent life somewhere else in the universe. Perhaps we just need to continue exploring and advancing technology until we find it. Maybe alien lifeforms communicate through methods so sophisticated that we haven’t invented them yet, and they can travel in dimensions we don’t have access to. It’s possible that there are highly advanced beings out there that are too far away for us to communicate with. Or, maybe human beings really are the most advanced form of life in the universe. Perhaps we will discover the truth in the future. Whether aliens exist or not, it is unlikely almost to the point of impossibility that they have visited and communicated with us. But that doesn’t mean that it unequivocally has never happened. As with most highly speculative issues, this one has many proponents on either side of the spectrum. No one knows the truth, which is why it’s so enticing to think about. Whether you believe in aliens or not, and whether you believe they have interacted with humans or not, no on can deny that alien life is an endlessly fascinating topic.

 

 

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Prescription drugs are an issue that is both phenomenally complex, and extremely polarizing. Most people seem to be either completely supportive of them, or they view them as marketed poisons. As with almost every highly publicized subject in our world, people tend to oversimplify facts to support their extreme positions. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

Prescription drugs are often over-prescribed, especially in North America, and particularly in the United States. More people there are on prescription drugs than any other country in the world! If this is the fault of doctors, we can really only blame them indirectly, because the problem is systemic. The majority of doctors are trained to fix symptoms through drugs and treatments, rather than by addressing underlying problems with effective and preventative options. If most people who need blood pressure medications get off of them because they start exercising and eating healthily, drug companies would lose a lot of money. That’s why they spend an average of 2 billion dollars a year on advertising! It’s also why they hold conferences, and invite doctors to come and be encouraged to prescribe their drugs. This pernicious framework is one of the main factors that can lead to doctors treating patients with slow and inefficient methods.

That is the part of the equation that anti-prescription drug people have  mostly correct, but here is where they take it too far. They claim that since doctors are encouraged to maintain health instead of improving it, this means they are inherently corrupt, and want to harm patients. These people argue that natural approaches are all that is needed, and prescription drug companies do nothing but suck money out of people, only to deliberately harm them. It is true that there are many natural plants and treatments that help people, but throwing out the baby with the bath water is in this case, a dangerous proposition.

A healthy diet and lifestyle can take us far in our quest to live long, healthy, happy lives, but there are some problems that are unavoidable, and have no natural cures. Some people against prescription drugs don’t use vaccinations, or antibiotics! That is an unbelievably bad idea! It has already caused innumerable deaths. We can’t cure things like Polio, or the Spanish Flu, without vaccinations. To claim otherwise is laughably dishonest. In the case of antibiotics, it is generally unhealthy to be on them for a long period of time, but if the alternative is death or disease, it’s better to use antibiotics. There is no effective natural alternative, and let’s not forget that antibiotics were natural to begin with. Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was derived from bacteria growing around mold.

The term “natural” is a cop-out. Viruses are natural, and some of them kill us, while others can help us. The same is true with bacteria, food, lifestyles, and drugs. A cheeseburger can be made from natural, organic ingredients, but that doesn’t mean cheeseburgers are health supplements! Food companies have no official guidelines they must follow when using the terms “organic”, or “natural”. That doesn’t mean we should start following diets of pizza and beer, but neither does it necessarily mean that “organic”, “natural” lettuce is completely the way it’s supposed to be. Natural and organic foods are more likely to be healthier than their alternatives, but they are not The Limitless Pill, and other options are not Kryptonite!

All drugs are tools, whether they be natural, prescription, legal, illegal, kosher, blessed by the pope, or blessed by Satan. When choosing a tool, we need to make sure it’s the right one for the job, and that we use it correctly. A hammer wouldn’t cut a piece of wood very well, and if we’re not careful with a saw, we can chop off a finger. Some tools are better and safer than others, even other types of the same tool. A brand new screwdriver will probably work better than an old, rusty one, and a belt sander might require more instruction than a hatchet. Some legal drugs are safer than illegal ones, and other illicit ones are more beneficial than their legal counterparts. Some prescription drugs and treatments are a better idea than natural ones, and vice versa.

Extreme positions on either side of an issue are often flawed. We could all benefit from fully looking into someone else’s stance before we judge it, even though this is very difficult, because it goes against our instincts. We all want to be right, and hate being wrong, even if we don’t admit it. However, if we take the time to look at both sides of issues, we will discover good points and bad points on each end of the spectrum. The complete truth of a subject can rarely be known.

The best we can do is look at the majority of facts, and determine aspects of the truth, which are always subject to change. This approach often leads to the conclusion that extremists are wrong, and moderates on both sides of an issue possess valuable foundations of truth to build on. In the case of prescription drugs, they are not inherently bad or good, and are not automatically better or worse than anything else. They serve a valuable purpose. If we add prescription drugs and therapies to our tool-belts, along with natural approaches, we have a better chance of choosing the best tool for each job. In the journey of life, we all need well-stocked tool-belts.

 

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