Can Science and Religion Co-exist?

Is Anything that’s not Scientific filled by God?

Intelligent Design is not a new concept where we believe anything that ‘’cannot’’ be explained with the limited human knowledge should be filled by God, instead it is anything that can be explained by human knowledge combined with anything that cannot be explained with it. So the more we find new scientific data and facts, the better we understand ‘’how’’ God made it happen. Evolution was a new thing but people are starting to find a pattern with evolution and God because religion in reality has never dealt with explaining ‘’how’’ instead it deals with ‘’why’’ and these two can work hand in hand without contradiction, Anyhow due to the way evolution was promoted in the past targeting to solely disprove God there has been a cult of haters in both sides of religion and atheism who have failed to find a balance. Indeed you get the extremist who ‘’completely’’ deny such a science and then also you get the extremist who ‘’completely’’ deny God without any scientific backup.

Science is not required to prove Faith

If a religious person believes in God it has to do with ‘’faith’’ than science. So he/she does not require science to prove faith instead she/he can use science to increase faith through analyzing patterns of nature. A recent research has shown that people of faith find patterns in the surrounding better than people who don’t have faith,

‘’Several studies have revealed that people who practice meditation or have prayed for many years exhibit increased activity and have more brain tissue in their frontal lobes’’

This is not supposedly a bad thing because people who find something out of nothing have their right to fill their hypothesis with their own consciousness. Taking what is unknown and figuring it out does not have one ‘’correct’’ answer.

But Science is required to disprove God

But if a strict non believer had to disprove God, he/she has to use science to disprove God because non-believers of the supernatural should base life ‘’only’’ on scientific facts. Indeed it might sound funny to disprove faith through science. God might not belong in the science class room, but a believer of a God sure belongs in any class room. The least argument science can bring is it’s very ‘’unlikely’’ for God to exist but that will not disprove God to be false. Now let’s see if it’s worth to give up something that cannot be scientifically proven or disproven?

Religion Is Hope and Meaning to life

Certain qualitative questions of life do not get answers by science for me. When my nanny got depressed she tried anti-depressant medicine which was only chemically fixing her issue by hiding the actual cause of depression, when she later decided to try religion through the comfort it gives to the spirit by meditation and belief that her personality will continue for eternity she naturally cured her depression and has felt better about life. Such valuable spiritual benefits of religion are not worthy to be left out for something that is not proven to be false through science.

If you have heard about logo therapy, the human brain functions in a way where ‘’hope’’ and ‘’purpose of life’’ increases happiness and gives meaning to life. The spiritual concept of religion gives an eternal hope which can benefit if used in the right way. Science can be used for something disastrous as Hiroshima and also religion can be used for something evil as suicide bombing. But both of those can also be used for a good cause if done in the right way and direction.

Just to give an example of the power of ‘meaning to life’’ As Victor Frank states in ‘’Mans search for meaning’’

‘’Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. Now, how could I help him? What should I tell him? Well, I refrained from telling him anything but instead confronted him with the question, "What would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive you?" "Oh," he said, "for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!" Whereupon I replied, "You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering—to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her." He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left my office. In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning ‘’

When many prisoners were put in Nazi concentration camps, they all were facing a terrible virus spreading around. It was around November and people had a rumor of ‘’hope’’ that for Christmas they will be set free. Many people lived with the Virus infection fighting hard for life and none were reported dead. But suddenly when it was Christmas they got to know that freedom was just an illusion, and the people suddenly started to die of that same virus which they lived with for month’s right from the next day 26^th December. Only a few that had longer hope or belief in God survived.

Such is the power of hope and meaning to life, this is something Science will never answer and never take away from our life.

As the author of ‘’Mans search for meaning’’ says

‘’The observations of this one case and the conclusion drawn from them are in accordance with something that was drawn to my attention by the chief doctor of our concentration camp. The death rate in the week between Christmas, 1944, and New Year's, 1945, increased in camp beyond all previous experience. In his opinion, the explanation for this increase did not lie in the harder working conditions or the deterioration of our food supplies or a change of weather or new epidemics. It was simply that the majority of the prisoners had lived in the naive hope that they would be home again by Christmas’’

Religion can make suffering and death meaningful

No we are not talking about extremist that use religion to hurt others, but there are millions of billions out there who can find happiness through religion even in the worse of condition.

A prisoner at the time of Nazi concentration camp said

‘’But in reality our sacrifice did have a meaning. Those of us who had any religious faith, I said frankly, could understand without difficulty. I told them of a comrade who on his arrival in camp had tried to make a pact with Heaven that his suffering and death should save the human being he loved from a painful end. For this man, suffering and death were meaningful; his was a sacrifice of the deepest significance. He did not want to die for nothing. None of us wanted that.’’

I will end it with a Quote by Martin Luther King jr

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”

Reference

Frankl, Viktor E. Man's Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon, 2006. Print.

www.wmbriggs.com/post/5076

Government using your battery to spy ?

Recently i came across a viral video on Facebook claiming that the government has a surveillance chip inside your battery, The video shows a man peeling off the label of his mobile battery to reveal a chip inside

To most of us tech savvy people its just one of those ridiculous videos that keep popping up on the internet, But due to recent concerns over "Illegal Government Surveillance" videos like this, Can confuse some people

So for those of you who think that the government has somehow manged to sneak a chip into every mobile battery, let me ease your mind, Leave that battery alone!!!

That's not a surveillance chip its called a Near field communication (NFC) chip

NFC chips are usually placed on the back of phone case or inside the battery like in batteries manufactured by Samsung, Not a lot of people are aware of this and get confused 

So please don't try to peel of the NFC chip, There is actually a risk of damaging your battery, The chip is harmless it doesn't transmit anything its not suppose to, In fact it can be quite useful.

Meat or Vegetarian: which is best for your Health?

Make your diet work for you; don’t work for your diet




Personally speaking, I eat both meat and plant based diets. Anyhow recently I encountered a few vegetarian friends of mine who came into debates about "stop harming"animals. I had to point out to them that their expensive leather shoes are taken from animal skin, the medicine they take were at some point tested on poor lab rats or apes and almost every cosmetic product out there is filled with animal fat. Also looking at the cycle of evolution, our species would have not come this far facing different weather conditions and natural disasters if they only ate plant based diets. Arabs, Jews and early Christians of the desert survived because of their meat based diet while on some other parts of the world such as India this was seen as an act of sin. What people need to understand is that India has a tropical weather which suits fine for a vegetarian while many other parts of the world are either too cold or too hot. Our ancestors had to go for meat to survive and animal farming was a practice that existed with homo-sapiens from the early days. Anyhow, today we live in a super-market shopping world where every type of food is available regardless of the weather or condition of the country you live. Does this mean now it’s time to forget how we came this far as a species and turn everyone into a vegetarian? Well, the answer is complicated because in the pre-supermarket era, our ancestors from different parts of the world ate animal food and this gene has been passed to some of us which makes meat a likely source of energy and vitamin for a healthy life. So let’s not judge or identify people from the food they eat. As Denise Minger, author of "Death by Food Pyramid" puts in her book "if you choose to put a label on your diet, make sure it doesn’t undergo a sneaky mission creep into the realm of your self-identity. Your current food choices may be low-carb, low fat or plant based, or any other number of descriptors. But you are not low-carb; you are not low-fat; you are not plant-based. You’re a human being trying to make choices that best serve you and your specific goals at this point in time. You are not defined by the foods you eat. You are not a slave to an ideology. Make your diet work for you; don’t work for your diet."


What is actually good for you?

If plant diets have worked for some and meat based diets worked for others, what’s the point of this article? And what’s actually good for us?


As shown in the book "Death by food Pyramid" According to research and surveys done on African tribes, Aborigines and other native tribes it has been proven that regardless of what ideology of food these tribes followed, they all were found to be completely cancer free. As biologist A. Price described "Not only were those populations virtually free from dental issues, with perfectly straight teeth and cavity free mouths despite most of them never touching a tooth-paste, but they also seemed protected from other chronic diseases overtaking American bodies" He further stated that on his 36 years of contact and research with these tribes, he never saw a case of cancer among truly primitive Eskimos and Indians. Dr. J. R. Nimmo a physician who treated the African native and modern white population at the same time, concluded that in his 13 years of experience he had never seen a case of cancer among natives (just one suspected case). He stated that during the same period he had operated several dozen malignancies for the white population, which numbers about 300.


The Common Enemy

So far, we have come to understand that regardless of the ideology of a diet, there is something harmful in modern diets when compared to traditional native diets. Instead of going Vegetarian vs Non-Vegetarian, the real battle comes down to hunted wild meat vs McDonald's beef burger or organic plant foods vs genetically modified plant foods. Today we see 100s or 1000s of different health omitting diet plans, but which one the right fit for you? Well there is no such "one fit for all" due to the different weather conditions, genes (APOE4 gene) and ideologies we have. Anyhow, what do these health-promoting diets all seem to omit? Let’s make a list where all Paleolithic-style diets, plant-based diets and Mediterranean diets can come in to common terms as "bad food".

· Refined flour
· Refined sugar
· Industrially processed vegetable oil
· Anything lab-produced with chemical preservation's
· Nearly any fast food such as McDonald's, Burger king that come in a fancy tinfoil package ready for microwave (List taken from "Death by Food Pyramid")


When almost every popular diet plans can bring a list of common "bad foods" as shown in the above list, we need to take it very serious. The Democratic Party and Republican Party might disagree on their social welfare policies, but they both can agree that America’s debt is indeed increasing, so it becomes a fact than fiction. I am not here to give solutions to every health issue on earth, but I am here to highlight the critical bad foods that needs to be eliminated from our daily life. A refined white flour eating vegetarian is not healthier than an organic meat and plant eating omnivore, same way a McDonald's beef burger eating omnivore is not healthier than an organic plant eating vegetarian.


Best of both Worlds

Instead of fighting for a vegetarian world vs non-vegetarian world (limit that to ideology), let’s fight against the common enemy of both worlds, if you’re a vegetarian be a better plant eater and if you’re a meat eater be a better meat eater. Below is a fascinating list of tips by Denise in her book "Death by Food Pyramid" 

· Make the plant-based portion of your diet full of whole, fresh, minimally processed produce. The marvelous thing about many plant foods, especially the fibrous vegetable kind is that they’re low in energy density, meaning you can pile them onto your plate without having to swap out the delicious things. Avoid "empty," denser foods like bread, sugar, pastries, pasta and other items that deliver less nutrition with more calories. 

· Cut down on the forms of meat with known mechanisms for contributing to disease, namely well-done meat, or anything that’s touched open fire via grilling or other high temperature cooking (Which is further described in Meet Your Meat chapter of the Death by Food Pyramid book), these foods contain compounds that can act as carcinogens in the human body. Stick to gently cooked meats and favor cooking methods like steaming, stewing and baking. 

· Aim for nutrient density, Rock stars of the plant world include dark leafy greens, brightly colored vegetables, mushrooms, berries, seaweed, and fermented vegetables. And for animal foods, that includes organ meats like liver, bivalves like oyster and clams, egg, fish roe, cod liver oil, and raw dairy from pastured cows. 

· Act like a vegetarian (yes, let’s admit the fact that most of the vegetarian friends we know are much more disciplined in other aspects of life). In perhaps unfairly stereotypical terms, that means being more physically active, abstaining from smoking, watching the number of margaritas you slam back, and generally being a health-conscious, functioning member of society. Even if you don’t have to take the vegetarian diet plan out of a vegetarian, you still can learn good things from a vegetarian’s life style because research has proven that they live healthier not because they only eat healthier but simply because they "live" healthier and eating is only one part of the health story. A non-smoking vegetarian is always better than a smoking omnivore, same way a non-smoking omnivore is better than a smoking vegetarian. So let’s not limit health only to what we eat.


Finally to conclude the article, I will provide a list that I made with my own understanding and readings (Most of the credit goes to Denise Minger and her amazing book "Death by Food Pyramid"). I call this "Ten Commandments Of Healthy Eating."


1. Eliminate or Reduce Refined Grains (white rice, white flour) and favor whole grain (Red rice, Red flour etc.)

2. Eliminate industrially processed Vegetable oils and favor virgin coconut oil and Ghee

3. Refined white sugar is addictive than cocaine, Replace refined sugar and favor natural sugar sources such as Fruits

4. When choosing animal foods, limit muscle meat and favor Organs (Liver, Brain etc.)

5. Avoid cooking meat on open fire or high temperature that cause carcinogens (radiation that can cause cancer) in human body, favor gently cooked meats, and favor cooking methods like steaming, stewing and baking

6. Increase the plant based diet and reduce denser foods like bread, pastries and pasta

7. Stop eating any creation coming from a crinkly tinfoil package, a microwavable tray such as McDonald's or Burger King takeaways

8. Avoid Trans-Fat (Almost every super-market shelf product has this, google and learn more about trans-fat) Completely and reduce eating Deep fried short eats

9. Increase the intake of Sea Food with high omega 3 to boost health and immune system

10. Vitamin B17 (Manioc, Apricot seeds, Gooseberry, Spinach) helps fight Cancer


By any means this is not a perfect list but I ensure that this will be helpful for those who are seeking for tips for a healthy lifestyle. Keep in mind that knowledge is something which evolves with time, what I publish today might not sound the same to a future audience. Also I highly recommend people to read the two books "Death by food pyramid" and "World without cancer" given in the reference list.




Reference List
Minger, D. (n.d.). Death by food pyramid (1st ed. ). Primal Nutrition Inc

Griffin, G. (1997). World without cancer: The story of vitamin B17 (2nd ed.). Westlake Village, CA: American Media.

Welcome to Cheese Or Chalk

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