Pantheism: God is all, and all is God

"The mind's intellectual love of God is part of the infinite love by which God loves himself." 
-- BENEDICT DE SPINOZA

By Alex P. Vidal 

NEW YORK CITY -- Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza came from a Jewish family who had fled to Holland from Portugal to escape the oppression of the Catholic Church. 
His whole life was to be subject to religious persecution.
He believed that Christianity and Judaism were kept alive by rigid dogma and ritual. 

He denied that the Bible was inspired by God down to the last letter, saying that when we read the Bible we must continually bear in mind the period in which it was written.
He proposed "critical" reading, which revealed a number of inconsistencies in the texts.


NATURE

Spinoza said that everything is nature. He identified nature with God, saying that God is all, and all is God. This is called pantheism. To Spinoza, God did not create the world in order to stand outside it. God is the world. 
So it follows that all our thoughts are also God's or nature's thoughts. There is only one God, one nature, or one Substance.
His philosophy is notoriously hard to understand. He was influenced by Rene Descartes but rejected his distinction of thought and matter as two separate substances, believing there was only one.
Everything that exists can be reduced to one single reality which he simply called Substance.

PASSIONS

Spinoza said that it was our passions--such as ambition and lust--which prevent us from achieving true happiness and harmony, but that if we recognize that everything happens from necessity, we can achieve an intuitive understanding of nature as a whole.
We can come to realize with crystal clarity that everything is One.
The goal is to comprehend everything that exists in an all-embracing perception. Only then will we achieve true happiness and contentment. 
This was what Spinoza called seeing everything "sub specie aeternitatis," which means to see everything from the perspective of eternity.

Invitation to attend Trump's 'victory party' at New York Hilton Midtown

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I just received an invitation to attend the "Donald J. Trump Victory Party on Election Night in New York City" at 6:30 p.m. at the New York Hilton Midtown on November 8, 2016. 

In an email from the Foreign Press Center, I was told to secure a media credential for the event. 

Meaning that Trump is 100 percent sure of beating Hillary Clinton? Very interesting.

Latest poll results showed Trump and Clinton are neck and neck in the race to gain 270 electoral college votes.

Earlier, I got another invitation to attend the Washington Press Center Election Day Tour-Visit to Virginia Polling Place in Alexandria, Virginia also on November 8, 2016 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

According to the information provided in the invitation, "Virginia was a critical swing state during the 2008 and 2012 presidential election cycles and has remained a player in 2016 in both the Presidential election as well as down-ticket races."

 ISSUES

Several issues contribute to this status, added the information.

Among them are Virginia's complex geographic, economic and social diversity, "not to mention that Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine hails from the Old Dominion."

The information said, "these factors will likely influence the outcome of Virginia's election results as voters head to the polls on November 8."

Participants in the tour will receive an overview of the mechanics of voting in Virginia, "they and they will have an opportunity to interview voters on sited," stated the information.

Among the topics during the briefing are: "The Disruption of American Politics", "Next Congress", "Latest Exit Polls", and "Foreign Policy and the Next Administration."

Pacquiao, Vargas meet face to face in final press conference

Former multi-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas faced off at the final press conference before their PPV showdown on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas

Manny Pacquiao: I thought I wouldn’t see you again, but now I’m here to continue my journey and all I can say for this fight is I respect Vargas and his team, how dedicated they are. I feel what he’s feeling right now because I’ve been there when I was 27 years old, 28 years old, and how hungry I was. What I’m thinking when I prepared for this fight was I have to make sure I’m in condition, work hard even though I’m working in the office. It’s not easy being a senator working in the office and being a boxer while you’re training. It’s hard, but it’s a good thing when you are happy and enjoying it.

Jessie Vargas: I had a great training camp. This has been my best to date. I’m very happy with my team, they’re bringing out the best in me. I said before my last fight and we’re planning on outdoing that performance. We’re looking stronger, faster, we’ve over-exceeded every aspect in training when it comes to speed, power, intelligence in the ring, ring savvy. We have a strong hook, we have a strong right, either way. If he wants to sneak over to the right we’ll catch him there, if he wants to sneak over to the left we’ll get him there. So we’re ready. I can’t be any more ready than this.

(Report from fightnews.com)

Knowledge that isn't intelligence

"I keep six honest serving men. They taught me all I knew. Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who."  -- RUDYARD KIPLING

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It was Sir Francis Bacon who said that "knowledge is a power."
Intelligence, on the other hand, has other definition. 
Most psychologists consider intelligence to be "the ability to adjust properly to the environment", particularly when faced with new problems or situations. 

In other words, it is the ability to use the knowledge we have in order to "figure out" what to do in a new situation.
But here's why intelligence is reportedly much different from knowledge. A two-year-old child knows very little, because he hasn't had enough time to acquire the knowledge of a grown-up; but he may be very intelligent in the way he uses the little knowledge he has. In the same way, a person who has had little chance for education may be highly intelligent, yet unable to read and write.

MEASURE

Special tests are used to measure intelligence. These are not information quizzes, but tests of the individual's powers of memory, judgment, reasoning ability. etc.
Before an intelligence test can be used, it must be tried out on thousands of individuals. From the results the test psychologist finds out how well the average person of a given age makes out on the test. The test is then ready for use.
To measure a person's intelligence, he is given one or more of the intelligence tests which have already been "standardized" in the way just described. His result on the test gives his "mental age" (M.A.).
For example, if a child does as well on a certain test as the average 12-year-old, he has a mental age of 12. If the child actually is 10 years old, his "chronological age" (C.A.) is 10. The child's I.Q. is then found by dividing his mental age by his chronological age.

TABLE

A person whose mental age is the same as his chronological age, has normal or average intelligence. His I.Q. is 100. The following table shows how people are classified by their I.Q.'s in each I.Q. "bracket," according to High Points in Biology:
I.Q. 140 or over-- classification is genius; 120-140: very superior; 110-120: superior; 90-110: normal; 80-90: dull normal; 70-80: borderline normal; 50-70:moron; 25-50: imbecile; below 25: idiot.
The measurement of a person's intelligence was done after the Bureau of Education in Paris wanted to find out whether the poor results of many children were due to inattentiveness, lack of desire to learn, or lack of intelligence or ability to learn.
They called on Alred Binet for help. He organized a system of tests which were not based on school information but rather on general mental abilities. His work eventually laid the basis for the many tests of intelligence we have today.

TRAITS

Many mental traits and talents seem to be controlled at least partly by genes, research showed.
The histories of several families reveal a high percentage of individuals with such exceptional mechanical ability that it is universally recognized and respected. 
Peculiarly enough, unusual mechanical ability has been found in feeble-minded individuals, indicating that intelligence is not necessarily related to other talents.
Musical talent seems to be controlled by heredity. However, it seems that many genes must appear together to produce a truly great musical genius. 
This probably explains why there are so few great composers and performers, and why they sometimes appear among families where no unusual musical ability appeared before. The Bach family is an example of a family with many musical members.
Unfortunately, no accurate studies of this characteristic have been made, but most investigators are agreed that this characteristic may have a genetic basis.

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Wealth)

A person's true wealth is the good he or she does in the world.
-- MOHAMMED :

Even if they don't have fat bank accounts, cars, mansions, jewelry items, some of those who are so compassionate, generous, faithful, and understanding feel richer than the combined wealth of the founders of Microsoft and iPad; they feel happier than the top billionaires listed in Forbes Magazine.
--ALEX P. VIDAL

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Want, Need)

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. 
-- VERNON HOWARD :

It's not necessary to own a mansion on a hill if we only need a shelter. It's not necessary to be heaped with hallelujah like demigods if we only need recognition for a good deed. It's not necessary to own a Mercedes Benz if we only want to reach our destination on time. 
-- ALEX P. VIDAL 

Celebrity Tombstones

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
"Good friend for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here!
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones."

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: "Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I'm Free At Last."

EDGAR ALLAN POE: "Quoth the Raven, nevermore."

CARL JUNG: "Bidden or unbidden, God is present."

WYATT EARP: "Nothing's So Sacred As Honour And Nothing's So Loyal As Love."

CRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER WREN, WHO DESIGNED ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL IN LONDON, IN WHICH HE IS BURIED: "Reader, if you seek his memorial, look around you."

DOC HOLIDAY: "He Died in Bed."

 JOHN KEATS: "Here lies one whose is writ in water."

CLARA BARTON: "An Angel of the Battlefield."