Truth and the Majority View
© Tatiana Velitchkov

The majority view takes place in a wide scope of judgments, from a few allies arguing over which team will win in a particular sport to a mass opinion about global ecology. It is important to get insight about the coming up of a majority view and evaluate the validity of its judgment.

The word majority is not clear and would be taken to mean a large part of a certain population. Before considering the majority view as the ultimate judgment, you need to know how the majority is formed.

Someone asked how many times Bjorn Borg won the Wimbledon men’s single’s tennis championship to a hundred people. Summary of the results was; 75% said five times, 5 % said four times, 16% said six times and 4% said three times. Here, the majority view is a mere classification of ideas. The majority view is determined after conducting a poll. In secret polls, majority view cannot manipulate the decision of an individual as the majority is not always right, it can be wrong at times.

A person thought that painting a flag, a black square or duplicate images of a bottle is great art, but then most people differed. This person had experienced the art by researching about it in books and trying to paint, after which he realized the difficulty involved in painting. He thus firmly believed that painting the American flag, the black square and duplicate images of the bottle was indeed a great art and which according to him was the truth. This was his truth and would not be swayed by any form of majority view because he was well conversant with painting.

In the case where a car breaks down and the owner wants the best expert to service his vehicle, he has several of these experts in mind but then selecting the ideal one becomes a challenge. The majority concept comes in when you walk to a certain mechanic store and see so many cars which are in need of repair, just like yours. Thus, you gain confidence in this mechanic even though you don’t know his level of expertise just because you have seen most people’s cars in his garage. You should not allow other people’s actions to guide you. Instead realize why you need a particular thing or service and then identify the best person who will suit your needs according to your own judgment.

An instance when the majority could have strong judgment is during a trial in court when most of the jury determines a ruling. This is in regard to sufficient or insufficient evidence.

This is an interesting video about The Absolute Truth about Absolute Truths

By Donald Swarbrick.

We measure time according to our solar system but, why do we think that our time is the only time measurement in the universe, and why do we assume,every stage of events taking place out there is measured by our time?
It is by us here on earth, but not necessarily by everyone in the universe.

We know there are enormous planets in deep space within our vision, and when we can reach even further we will discover solar systems in a very much bigger scale than ours.

If,life does exist on one of these massive planets,(which it will, of that I have no doubt) their time scale will be very different to ours, as it will be measured according to their solar system which, if so very much larger, will reflect a very much slower pace of time, therefore, their measurements of time and distance to other planets, and galaxies, even their lifespan itself, will be calculated in a completely different manner.

Our solar system, in comparison to one like that, will seem to them, like theirs in a fast forward motion, and our lifespan merely a blip in time, which of course it is, but we have never stopped to think just how insignificant our solar system is, and always assume that we are the superior race in the universe.

Mankind as we know it has many weaknesses, one of them being his lifespan, cut short by sickness, wars, or other disasters that can befall earth, or simply old age which in most cases lasts less than one hundred earth years. A blip in universal time.
We are barely here in this form, before we are gone again, leaving our ideas, or discoveries for future generations to elaborate on, which limits the progress we make.

Another life form evolving in a solar system so much larger than ours, that works in a completely different way to ours, will have evolved much stronger than us, with less weaknesses to shorten their lifespan.
The very fact that their time measurement is so much longer than ours will make their lifespan longer, if not eternal, as their solar system having evolved billions of years before ours would have given them time to perfect life, also given the fact that their ideas and discoveries will not have been hampered by death.

Another reason to believe such a planet as this would have a different time scale is, that if it used our time scale, one side of the planet would be earth years behind the other, or earth years ahead, just as we in Britain are hours behind Australia, or ahead of America, so in theirs, they will have calculated time to suit their solar system, long before time was needed on earth.

Now that puts the measurement of time and distance into a different prospective, which would make the universe a much smaller place for them and would enable them to travel through space without having to worry about distance.

If you look at the universe  through their eyes, the galaxies they, or we can see are not billions of light years away, but only a short journey away in the exceptional conveyances they will have perfected on that planet, therefore they will have reached these stars. They will be able to confirm my theories in my last post that what you are seeing out there is happening now, and not some light reflection from an event that happened light years ago.
It stands to reason that the light source HAS to be there if we can still see it in a structural form, solid or gas, otherwise it would  just be light energy we would see, and we would have nothing to travel to in the case of dying stars.

Scientist contradict themselves by looking out at other solar systems light years away, and recognize a planet orbiting around a star, and when telling us about it lead us to believe what they have witnessed is occurring out there now, but then they try to tell us that the forming galaxies or the light from the dying star they see, happened billions of light years ago, and the event is only reaching us now.
What is the point of looking out into the universe for other life forms if you think the light reflection you are looking at happened many light years ago, because according to their theories, how would we know if the promising planet that could hold life still exists, or if it died, and the light reflection of its death throes have not reached us yet?

If we want to unfold the mysteries of space, we have to take into consideration, that we are only a speck of dust in the universe in comparison to the enormous planets with life on them, and our life span is only a fraction of time in comparison to theirs.
We have to admit our inferiority in the universe, accept that other life forms that may look the same as us, can reach us, and have reached us.
That is what the bible is all about, people from another solar system being on earth.
You do not have to believe the bible but you do have to admit that if such a planet exists, everything I said is possible, and given everything I have said, you have to admit that more than likely such a planet does exist.
Out there in the universe, the measurement of time, and distance IS completely different, and will bring a whole new definition to our observations, and calculations that we have surmised from our lowly position in space.

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Does Life Have a Meaning?
by Tatiana Velitchkov © 2009

Even though human beings have acquired more knowledge and material things than it was during the pre-historic era, they still lack a sense of purpose in life. We struggle to understand the meaning of life everyday, but it seems that the more we try to unravel the true meaning of life – the more we plunge into extreme uncertainty. This should not be the case especially during this era when humanity has made many impressive gains. This is the time in which the quality of our lives needs to have improved. Nowadays, life expectancy has increased in almost every corner of the earth even though poverty still casts a smaller shadow.

Despite all this, humanity is still troubled because it is plagued with aimlessness and a sense of drift. Counselors John James and Muriel James describe these happenings as saying that the world is pervaded with a universal hunger. They say that people are hungry to get more from life so that they are more involved into finding the meaning to life. One major reason why people hunger is that they lack a sense of purpose in life. They fail to understand that God is involved with humanity so He has plans for our being. In order for one to be in peace, we must realize what God has in mind for us. Some time back, the Western man possessed a feeling that history moves in a linear fashion right from the beginning to the end. Majority of the people had the conviction that nothing walked with feet alone aimlessly and that there is no life that has to be wasted.

There are explicit meanings to life and creation. Jesus Christ teaching that your hairs are numbered was an assurance to most people. They agreed that God is aware of even the tinniest creation, the tiny birds included. This assurance was, however, strong until the 19th century when there was major intellectual and spiritual shifts in history leading to many scholars viewing the teaching of Jesus and the Bible with skepticism.

The roadmap of life had been granted to humanity by believing in the Bible. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ showed that the purpose of human life is pegged in two supreme principles; one is that of loving the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind. The other one is loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus reiterated that it is love that will make our lives worthwhile. He further explained that we should first direct our love towards God, then towards one another. It is love therefore that is making our lives what it is. Unless we learn to love, there is no meaning to our lives.

Mathematics versus Science?
by Tatiana Velitchkov © 2009

The field of science is wide and although Mathematics has sometimes been described as a science there are still philosophers and mathematicians who have argued against this. This is because, according to them, you cannot verify mathematics through experiments or observations hence it cannot be a science. Some people believe that there is a close relationship between pure mathematics and natural sciences.

Science can be divided into the natural and the social. The social sciences deal with people and the societies they live in while the natural sciences study natural occurrences. If you consider Mathematics under the sciences, it can be placed under the formal sciences branch that studies formal systems. Sciences include biology, engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, geology, microbiology, psychology and astronomy. Most if not all of these sciences apply mathematical concepts in one way or another. Mathematics has four major disciplines which include arithmetic, algebra, geometry and analysis.

Philosophers have differentiated mathematics and science on the basis of abstractions and empiricism. Mathematics deals with abstract entities and most of the abstractions are absolute truths. It is also possible to form new abstractions from existing ones. Science on the other hand is based on empiricism whereby experiences form the basis of the knowledge we have. Hence there are no absolute truths in science and what has been discovered can be revoked later which is rare in mathematics.

Although it deals with abstractions, Mathematics uses scientific methods. Applied mathematics for instance uses scientific approach to solve problems by applying the mathematical concepts. Sometimes it is hard to place mathematics as a science because it does not qualify the definition of the word science but in essence, it may be a science because of its ability to produce solutions to problems.

Both mathematics and science have similarities and differences but the fact remains that there is so much use of mathematics in science. Computer science borrows heavily from mathematics so are others like actuarial science. Mathematics is however more systematic as compared to science and is based on proofs. Mathematical claims are proved easily as is its nature of having absolute truths to most of its theorems.

When dealing with sciences in general, it is difficult to avoid any mathematics at all and vice versa. Hence, in a way, the two compliment each other. Mathematics cannot stand on its own without science and science has to rely on mathematics for some applications.

 Rules and Exceptions
by Tatiana Velitchkov © 2009
 

Rules are the guiding principles which prevent one from doing wrong. What if there were no rules? Everyone would be free to do what he or she felt like and there is no doubt that society would be rotten. Crime would be like the wind which blows everywhere and about. There is no institution or organization without rules that create a streamlined system. Contrary to this concept, you will find some exceptions to the rules but then rules are made by man and he can alter them to suit his purpose as he wishes.

Mason Cooley, an aphorist in the United States once said that the mind demands rules but facts demand exceptions. Statutory as well as regulatory bodies express their views through rules and exceptions. In certain occasions, the exceptions are too detailed such that it inhibits the rule from being effective as intended. Other exceptions tend to favor a special group leaving the other group with no option. This is mostly applicable to makers of the rules who will exclude the impact of rules from their life’s operation.

Common sense rules are contradicted by exceptions which are unknown and unexpected by a large number of people. There are grammar rules for instance which facilitate the learning of students although most of these rules have exceptions. Depending on the understanding level of a child, a teacher may decide to; not teach the students about rules and exceptions, teach rules and ignore the exceptions, teach both the rules and the exceptions at the same time, teach rules first and then the exceptions or he, or she can decide to give students the assignment of making their own rules and regulations. Despite the fact that grammar rules and exceptions co-exist, the most important thing is make sure that the students understand language patterns.

Rules and exceptions can be pretty confusing especially when there is no clear explanation for the exceptions. An instance is the spelling rules and exceptions where you find that certain words are added certain letters when changing from one form to another and unless the exceptions are well understood, you may find yourself confusing the spelling of a word especially when it’s changing structure, for instance from the present to the past.

The case of the IRA retirement benefit scheme has it as a rule that no one should withdraw his or her retirement savings unless they had reached the recommended age. An exception to this rule may arise especially in a case of emergency resulting to harsh penalty charges.

The Mind-Body Problem
by Tatiana Velitchkov © 2009

Many studies have been carried out to explain the relationship between mental and physical phenomena. There has been no agreement on the correct answer and it is the single most important gap in the understanding of the natural world. The problem here is that every time an answer is given to the question, it appears unacceptable. Therefore, many attempts have been made to explain this relationship but at one point in time, there will be one acceptable answer.

In our mental lives, consciousness is the most salient feature. It is believed that the first concrete fact which everyone of us will affirm to belong to his/her inner experience is the belief that consciousness of some kind goes on within ourselves. Even though consciousness is believed to bring a mark of the mental in our lives, it pushes the question one-step backwards. We are rather conscious when we are awake than when we are in a dreamless sleep. We have conscious states when we are conscious therefore, we cannot discriminate at the same time, we cannot forget. Each conscious mental state is a way of being conscious.

When a person knows his conscious mental state or its qualities, the only thing in question is oneself: what he understands is the particular modification of that object, the way it is conscious. For instance, when we see a red apple, we see just the apple and not the redness as something different from it and, hence we represent the apple we see as red. When a person is conscious they will know that they are, and they will know how they are conscious, that is their mode of consciousness but they cannot infer, when they are conscious, that they are, or how they are. There is, however, some kind of relationship between our own and others’ conscious mental states. Because of our behavior, others have to infer that we are conscious but we do not have to, but they cannot know non-inferentially. Others will have to know our mental states.

In the mind-body problem, consciousness has been seen as the central mystery and is the primary obstacle in understanding the mental. Another traditional mark of the mental is what is called “intentionality”; its adjectival form is “intentions”. It is the feature of an event or the state that makes it about, or is directed to something. Beliefs are intentional states that represent words as being in a certain way. These can be true or false and it is their particular condition of satisfaction. There are no differences between the false beliefs and the true ones. Understanding consciousness and intentionality is a great step in solving the mind-body problem.

In this video Bertrand Russell gives his brief insight on mind and body problem

Philosophy in Mathematics   
                                                                                                                                                                 
by Tatiana Velitchkov © 2009

Philosophy in Mathematics is an area of study which involves a lot of investigations. In its concept, philosophy of Mathematics is associated with the teaching practice of Mathematics. Many people remain into the question as to why we have to teach and learn Mathematics. Though the learning process cannot be separated from the teaching process in that, a lecturer has to undergo the learning process to be able to deliver in form of teaching the Mathematics to other learners.

There are different needs as to why one would be interested in learning as well as teaching Mathematics. These aims and goals in the society come with different persons. Here the aims, goals, purpose and the rest should be considered to serve the society and their social groups as well. This should also be extended to the educational needs as well as to the society at large.

Much as the society and the social groups aim at teaching and learning Mathematics, each of them has a role to play. In this activity each party should be able to understand the kind of relationship that should be adopted to see them into success. This will demand from them, the underlying aims as well as the rationale, the role played by the Mathematics in the society, the learner and the teacher.

The philosophy of Mathematics has three possible applications which are the overall philosophy, philosophy of education and philosophy of mathematics. This does not mean that they are substantive components of application and knowledge that integrate these tasks. However, Mathematics education and philosophy are levels of knowledge that bring together the processes of practice, knowledge of an individual and the enquiry process and even the knowledge that has been put into publication.

Philosophy brings about a systematic approach in analysis and proving ones fundamental challenges. It puts the mind into exercise and a thought of intelligence hence leading to reasoning, thinking, enquiry and this takes you to the level of the output which is justification, conclusion and beliefs. These concepts, outputs and theories can be transferred to mathematics and education.

The issue of philosophy of Mathematics is left with problems to address which will provide the answers to questions ranging from; the definition of mathematics, the relationship between the society and mathematics, understanding what it is in learning mathematics, understanding what it is in teaching mathematics, understanding the position of mathematics in the field of study and approaches in mathematics education.

See the following video about Philosophy of Mathematics

Nothingness
by Tatiana Velitchkov © 2009

Nothingness could be best described as absence or a state of nonexistence. In scientific terms it can be defined as – before the big bang there was nothing. Grammatically nothingness means something, why? Well, because it is a noun. Since we know nouns refer to something then we can say that nothingness is a thing by itself. Nothing has an attribute. In a sentence we can say there is nothing in that room which can be rephrased as that room is empty, or everything that was in that room is gone.

In philosophy, the negative which is on the contrary of itself offers itself to the positive. The positive to the degree assures itself. The significance of this position from nothingness follows an outcome of the preposition into which a philosopher agrees with. Some philosophers avoid the new world to a point of nothingness, while others say that nothingness can also be described as foolish.

For us to speak about nothing then something must be in existence. In a state of nothingness there can be no motion that nothingness is the opposition of something. When the car passes it goes through nothing making the emptiness to go backwards hence the car has moved the emptiness.

Different cultures understand nothingness differently. Buddhists say that it is only in the mind. If your dreams do not come true it does not mean you are nothing. Another example is when one attempts to shoot a bird, he relaxes for a moment saying that he has a better focus. This makes us more intensity that without doing this our conscious thinking would not help us achieve our goals. For us to grasp nothing or nothingness then there must be something.

When we count numbers, we always assume that nothing has any particular meaning. However when we continue counting we find that zero (which we assume is nothing) changes after a period of time. According to science when we say there is nothing that does not make sense. To give a good example, when we say that a place is a vacuum that means that matter is not present.

However, we know for sure that constructing something without the presence of matter is impossible because of gravity. Therefore, if a region of that nature existed, then that means nothing would be something of distinguished importance in quantum-mechanical vacuum. Whenever we write nothing on a computer, the computer’s processor will always write something to recognize it as a function.

You could check the video about Alan Watts and his views on Nothingness

Resentment and Rationality
by Tatiana Velitchkov © 2009

Resentment can be described as a withdrawn feeling and desire, which creates values. Resentment is very complex to deal with both internally and in its association to various dimensions of human survival. Even though resentment affects the heart of a person, it so much affects our relationship with other individuals. Resentment is an inert personal secret which most fear to open up to others. We just keep it to our selves. On the other hand, the rationality of resentment is considered essential to a phenomenon and its constituent parts or elements.

Resentment always starts and is involved with one or several negative feelings. Resentment calls for revenge. Resentment as an underlying moving condition can be very dangerous as it shows ones conscious intentions. Resentment can manifest itself in several ways as well as having several important constituents. The first constituent is the desire to have what others have that you do not posses. This may include desire to be physically stronger, healthy, stronger, beautiful, liberal, intelligent, wise and holy. The mere uneasiness of qualities owned by others and exhibited by certain things is not distinctive of the resentful man. The common man and the modern man both exhibit this behavior.

Many a time people will feel incapable of achieving what they wish and give in so easily. Such resignation does not always lead to unhappiness, resenting or loosing hope. In order for resentment to be felt, it must be accompanied with a negative feeling. The inability to fulfill ones desire will occasionally be in line with some negative feeling. These negative feelings include anger, rage, malice, bitterness, spite, hatred, jealousy, envy, desire to revenge, resignation, holding grudges and resentment. Resentment will not always involve all the above negativities but it will contain some of them. Envy is the desire to own what is owned by others. One will always feel incapable of having those values and a sense of unfairness for not having these values. In order for a person to feel that he/she deserves to have or own values owned by another person he/she must have a sense of self-worthiness. Thus he will have an intrinsic worth as a rational being as well as a sense of her self worth.

Rationality justifies the worth of an individual and in such doing, a sense of self worth leads to rational strain for uniformity. If you would feel yourself as being worthy then you would also deserve to own the values owned by others as they are also worthy people just like you. Rationality is innate in resentment. In order to overcome rationality we must hold back negative feelings, which make us, desire to have the values possessed by others. Rationality is somehow the cause of resentment and the cause of all evil.

You might want to see the following video about Ignorance is Not Rationality

Hello folks, this is just an intoduction to let you know what to expect in Donald’s views.

I intend to explain how I came to theorise about the subjects in my blog http://unfeatheredangels.blogspot.com/ and try to give more detail and  logic to them. Most so called discoveries about the universe and how it originated are theories, and some theories are calculated from other theories which leaves plenty scope for error or misjudgement.

We as nations on a planet that is so insignificant in this universe as to be the only human intelligence in it is a ludicrous and arrogant suggestion and because we have discovered and landed probes on planets near to us we think we could be the only intelligent beings in all the vastness that is space.  In my opinion we are in comparison to the real intelligence in the universe, like the cavemen hollowing out trees  forming the first primitive canoes to  utilise the water making it easier to explore and expand to other parts of our globe. We have taken the first steps to explore and expand into the universe and like the cavemen. WE will encounter other “tribes” or nations as we now call them whether it be them that return here, or us that reaches them, which, in my mind is the most unlikely of the two.

Make no mistake there has been superior beings on earth before and that is what the various writers in the bible are trying to explain to us in their naive and simple way being thrust into having to explain a technology so far advanced that they could only use the description of things  they could relate to from their era.

That is why the bible has so many interpretations. Why if as a nation with so many of our own advancements can we not at last realise that the machines we strive to invent for space travel have been here and are being described in the bible? Some of the miracles spoken about in the bible were as read “MIRACLES” to people of the biblical age and even as far as  our grandparents, but are no longer a mystery to us as some of them are being performed now on earth. Artificial insemination is one example, and of which could have been used to impregnate Mary, and one of the many theories you will find in my blog that we will discuss and dissect if need be .

If you have theories of your own do not discard them just because a scientist, or someone else THINKS they have found the answer - because until it is proven beyond any doubt it will always be a theory, and we have a long long way to go before we can verify the theories and calculations that are assumed on earth.

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