Thursday 18th December (1447/2025/5786)

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“I feel ashamed.”

“I should have known.”

“I feel like shame, shame and shame.”

“I feel ashamed at not knowing any better.” we all say to ourselves internally and privately.

We all feel like we should’ve known better before the sin and after the sin.

”Although I did know better, I did know, I knew, I really did, but I chose to sin regardless anyway” is an all too common feeling.

As is stated in Torah, an eye is paid with an eye, therefore an eye is paid with an eye in reality always and always so.

It’s both hard and previously unheard of to be human.

In our inside little narrative, HaShem then thus says to our backs:

”You chose yourself over me??”

“In that case, I will also choose you over me.”

And thus individuals are given their lot according to their true soul’s name, essence, and purpose, and we’re rewarded as we our self chooses.

As an eye is paid with an eye, so HaShem, said: ”You chose yourself over me??” ”Then, in that case, I will also choose you over me.”

And thus individuals are given a lot according to their soul’s true named essence, and rewarded as our selves chooses.

One can be rewarded for obstacles with fair dues, which rightly is exactly what you yourself chose. That is the payment of sin and reward. But Reward given before and after repentance. Reward and reward.

One can be rewarded in absence with fair dues, which is rightly exactly what you yourself chose.

The payment of sin is sin.

Reward given before and after repentance. Reward and reward.

Teshuvah, and proper teshuvah, is and always has been necessary and achievable, in order to receive unlimited energy, never again needing to shower (that is to not stink – no B.O.), have perfect stool, perfect urine, perfected wisdom and understanding, and to be in perfect tune with your own body clock in its entirety.

The anointing oil [of eternal life, (for everyone)] is not a good diet in of itself necessarily, nor happiness or excess, but rather good deeds in perpetuity and/[y]our full and complete rectification of the human soul through a heartfelt teshuvah process of complete purification.

The key to the purification is one’s personal deeds, so that through our deeds, one once again achieves immortality, through the eternal love of and from our Almighty Father In Shamayim, with us all living throughout the entire known universe.

We all shall live to the ripe old age of 120 years in our own created habitual paradise, until we bring complete paradise down to Earth, which paradoxically is this moment right now.

When we do enter Shamayim, that is, together as one, but not as a unity, together, will the entire world HaShem has prepared for every single one of us upon our universal plateau of life be attainable.

I’ve had my life flash before me (on more than one occasion, sadly) and on the last, Allah allowed me a peak into this our Next World, which is but still empty and a perfect world reality.

I saw not even 0.000000001 % of this, the Next World To Come for a measly three seconds, and 1 second lying in bed awake in witness of this Next World To Come was vastly in excess of all the pleasure I had experienced that very day (and it was a good day!), with out any doubt and with out any shock or awe (the awe came only after the event).

You see? We were always in the Garden of Eden (Gan Eden) which is identified as Gozo Island, Malta.

We were never booted out at all in all these years, not even slightly.

Rather, we each swam to Malta proper as well as the boot of Italy, which is Sicily. This is all after Eve and Adam chose to have children together.

And with “sin” (original sin) we necessarily had to leave Gozo for Malta to sustain “our flock”, because that’s what shepherds do, and that’s what all our foremothers have done.

Malta is the birthplace of civilization.

It is the Lost City Of Atlantis.

And God/Allah/HaShem’s Torah (for Jews) is the Touchstone.

For non-Jews it’s the 7 Laws Of Noah.

Why were the Jews chosen you may ask? The answer is simple and simply remarkable.

The Jewish Nation of Israel was chosen by God after all other nations rejected the strictness of His Torah, but because the Israelites had no other choice after they already became enslaved in Egypt by Paroah [Pharaoh Khamenei], and wanted to thank the Most High for exuding and exorcising them out of that hellhole of slavery and destitution, they gladly accepted.

And now, even Paroah is redeemed (and/or redeemable).

The Jews are indeed simultaneously both the chosen people and the cursed ones, as is now obvious. The Shoah of Hitler (((yemach shemo!!))) was just a precursor to redemption.

Jealousy, therefore, is incongruent with reality and history’s check marks.

The reward for the righteous of the Jews is not ever again dying. The reward for the righteousness of the gentiles (lawsofnoah.com) is also not ever again dying [and thus living eternally], thus restitution has now been made [for some].

An additional reward for the righteous of ALL nations, united as Righteous Nations, is Supreme knowledge.

—Brendan & Maya

Awakening the Divine Spark Within

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As we progress through life, we may find ourselves searching for a deeper understanding of the world and our place within it. We may often ponder the larger meaning of life and seek to understand our true purpose in existence, looking for ways to connect with something far greater than ourselves alone. This journey of exploration is a deeply personal one that can take us on a profound path to self-discovery and understanding. In the study of Torah and Jewish teachings, we are constantly reminded of the ultimate goal of life, which is to establish a meaningful relationship with HaShem—God, and to find that spark of infinity within ourselves. This brilliant spark of the divine, within us all, is one of our most valuable assets and can be tapped into to create remarkable transformations in our lives. It is this divine spark of Godliness at the core of our being that can help us find clarity, purpose and direction as we journey through life.

To truly connect with the divine, we must look beyond the superficial and delve deeper within ourselves. Through introspection, personal prayer, self-improvement, and a dedicated pursuit of spiritual growth, we can uncover the hidden truths that lie within. This journey of self-discovery requires commitment and effort, but it leads to a greater understanding of ourselves and the world around us. By embracing personal responsibility for our spiritual development, we open ourselves to a deeper connection with Hashem and the world around us.

The Holy Torah and Sages of Israel guide us to see the world with a sense of wonder and reverence, reminding us that there is a higher power that pervades all aspects of life. By cultivating a deep and meaningful relationship with HaShem, we can find true fulfillment and purpose in our lives. This connection brings blessings and creates a sense of contentment, happiness, and peace that permeates every aspect of our existence. It is through this connection to God that we come to understand our place in the world and the role we are meant to play in fulfilling our ultimate potential. It is a journey of self-discovery, growth and enlightenment, as we come to realise that through our relationship with Hashem, we become our true selves.

It is important to remember that this connection to the divine is not something that can be achieved overnight. It is a lifelong pursuit that requires constant effort, discipline, and a willingness to let go of our preconceptions and biases. This process of spiritual growth is not always easy, and there will be moments when we may feel lost or uncertain. But by committing ourselves to this journey, we open ourselves to the possibility of discovering the true purpose of our existence and awaken our inner gifts. It is through this process of self-discovery, we come to understand that our relationship to God is not just about attaining a state of enlightenment, but it’s about the journey itself, the learning, the growth and the transformation that come from it. It’s about becoming the best version of ourselves, one step at a time, one day at a time. It’s about becoming fully alive and in touch with our inner selves and the world around us.

As a people, the Jews have blessed us with a unique perspective on the world, one that enables us to appreciate and make the most of the opportunities that come our way, while also acknowledging that there is always a higher purpose and greater challenges that we can strive towards. As we find ourselves fully immersed in the year 2023, with a high likelihood of the coming of Moshiach and the redemption of the world, it is important for us to remember that this is not a time to be passive but to actively seek to deepen our connection and develop a meaningful relationship with Hashem, our loving Creator, Father, and King. Through this connection, we will be able to find true fulfillment and purpose in our lives, blessings, and a sense of contentment, happiness, and peace that permeates every aspect of our existence. It is through this relationship with Him that we come to understand our place in the world and the role we are meant to play in fulfilling our ultimate potential, and the purpose of our entire existence.

Trust in HaShem

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It is commonly spoken about and there are many discourses in Torah learning about Emuna (faith) in Hashem (G-d) which is the simple expressed belief in His existence and His goodness. What is less spoken about is Bitachon (trust) in Hashem. What does it mean to have bitachon in Hashem?

Firstly, bitachon in Hashem can only materialise by possessing a proper vessel to contain the wisdom that everything He does is for the ultimate good, even in the moment. A proper vessel (a “container”) for bitachon can only be built in the heart through the performance of mitzvot (the commandments of G-d) – whether that be the 613 commands for the Jewish nation or the 7 Noahide commands for the Gentile nations and all they encompass.

A broken container for trusting Hashem, which comes about through sinning, yields mistrust. Not distrust – but mistrust – an inability to trust that all Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, Blessed is He) does is for the best for a person and for the world, Chas V’Shalom (G-d forbid).

We have thus established that in order to have suitable trust in G-d’s guidance and intervention of our life we need to have at the very least pure intentions and a willingness to keep his mitzvot. But what does trust exactly entail?

When someone trusts another they take their faith (belief) in that person and elevate it to another level. Their faith in another doesn’t simply remain a hope and a wish that all will be fine between each other but instead when someone wholeheartedly trusts, their hope and wishes become a serene confidence in the goodness and protection that the other can offer.

A serene confidence is the outcome of bitachon in Hashem. A tranquil and unruffled state of mind and being; a conviction and assurance that all is well and all will be well even in the most trying of times.

As G-d is good, and all Goodness is within Him, thus it shall be good and it is for the good, both the inevitable good and the good in the moment. Despite the heavenly curtain that currently prevails and shrouds the full Divine Light from being seen in this world, all remains for the good and bitachon is our own individual manifestation of that good in our lives.

Bitachon is a completion of faith, however not so simple to implement, simply because it requires constant reminders that all is good. We can only be reminded if we have a purity of heart in deed because it is Hashem Himself who grants us this trust.

Bitachon in Hashem is the sweetest and most tender awareness in the world and a treasure to be treasured!

Pause and reflect

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There’s at least one thing I’m gradually finally learning for my own good over the last few weeks, and it is perhaps the most profound and important for me in my own life, and it’s is to truly pause and reflect before replying to anything. To compose and repose myself after an external event or word spoken to, then and only then to give a sincere response.

It is a mark of wisdom to be patient, but to be patient in the moment takes extreme self-restraint. This is something that can be learnt by all of us if we are truly going to live a good life. For responses to hardship, criticism and pain can only prove to provide fuel to the exact situations our responses are intended to dissuade if they are reactionary.

This is a rule intrinsic to human interaction and it can be expounded by stating that pausing to reflect before action yields positive results and acting reactively yields the exact circumstances we endeavour to avoid. 

I’m continuing to learn to pause before replying, to assess the situation with all the wisdom and insight accessible to me and only then provide a response. Yes, the silence or inaction may be deafening or even awkward but this is how it must be, and how it must be to be free and obtain control of one’s destiny.

It makes logical sense to pause and reflect before a response to life’s occurrences because it gives time to nominate the best outcome for each individual circumstance. It takes practice and a strong will but it is most definitely worth it. Try it the next time you feel flustered – simply stop in your tracks. Take a moment. Think of the consequences, breath and then reply. Make a habit of it and you will quickly discover its benefits.

As always, stay blessed!

Wisdom in the Messianic Era

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There are many times throughout our lives where we are met, from heavenly sources, with profound insight. If we are simultaneously lucky and smart enough we can implement these insights into our daily lives for the development and correction of our own life and the lives of those around us, elevating the world in the process.

Unfortunately, as a matter of course, the majority of the insights and flashes of wisdom we encounter are quickly forgotten and lost in the murkiness of time. Why we can’t remember all the insights we are blessed with is a matter of the nature of forgetfulness in the era of Olam Ha’Zeh (the world after the fall of Adam & Eve and prior to the coming redemption). We are born to forget because that is part of our test here on earth and unless we put sufficient measures in place to remember we shall forget the most important lessons in life and fall into transgression Chas V’Shalom (G-d Forbid).

In the Messianic Era, as memory is rectified to its unbound state [as briefly outlined in previous blog posts] the wisdom that we have acquired during our lifespan will return to us in its full capacity. We will remember the many spiritual insights we experienced in a clear and concise manner. If we are deserving we will be constantly reminded by Hashem (G-d) of these insights at their due time, when they are befittingly able to be put into practice.

Having a spiritual revelation (or insight) is indeed a blessing and also a just reward for our good deeds or speech. We are given understanding only for the purpose of doing good.

There are some who’ve wickedly used their G-dly given insights for wicked deeds and in the Messianic Era these individuals will be separated from the wisdom that they have been blessed with (which was given only to do good) and will be left with empty nothingness; their nature shall be as dullards. For the meek of mind in this generation, who are also blessed with flashes of wisdom and insight over their lifespan; if their deeds and speech are proper and pleasing to the Lord, our Father and King, their intellect will bear an elevation, allowing them to remember the wisdom acquired in their lifetime to make capable the righteous study of G-d’s Torah – that of which contains all the secrets needed to sustain a person in good and holy stead and allow them to live a righteous and blessed life.

In the Messianic Era wisdom will be given the righteous and struck from the wicked, an equally befitting and just reward and punishment.

Be You!

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We are not alive to be anyone but ourselves. 

Logically and rationally we cannot be anyone else and for all of us, myself included, it’s time we stop trying to do the impossible and wanting to be someone else.

I think many, myself notwithstanding, have lived in a dream-like state of wishing to be different and better. That is fine, but concurrently that is not who you or I am. The essence of your reality is you are you the way you are and nothing is going to change that. 

You’ll never magically learn those skills you’ve been wanting to learn for years or transform into that better body you crave. You can be different and better, but not by becoming an entirely new person. 

The reason you have thought that you could learn those skills and transform into a better body but haven’t in actuality is because you’ve chased another identity other than your own.

Does this ring true for you? It does for me. I’ve wanted to have the knowledge of a thousand books but without actually accepting that I am who I am without having read them. Now though I am starting to accept that I am me just as is, as is you without already having accomplished what you desire in your heart and mind.

The solution to being you, I believe, is to solemnly concede that being you is all you can be, as is. Nothing more, nothing less and with no strings attached. A concession with the sober knowledge that no alternative options are available to you.

To be you by giving yourself consent in the knowledge that as no other options are available to you being you is not only perfectly fine, it’s how it’s actually designed to be.

Upon truly giving yourself the consent to be you I believe then and only then can you be unequivocally free. Stay blessed!

The Purpose Of Life

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Words can be confusing. Despite making sense their meaning depends on personal interpretation. So I ask you… “What is the purpose of life?”. A loaded question, right? But let’s break it down. What is purpose? The dictionary defines it as “an objective to be reached; a target; an aim; a goal”. Narrowing our language further down: what is the objective, target, aim and goal of life?

The answer is startlingly simple. It is what you give it. Yes, yes, the tired old answer you’ve heard countless times before. The purpose of life is what you make of it. But again, language is confusing. It was done that way by Hashem, King of Kings after He destroyed the Tower of Bavel (Babel) and scattered the people of the world after the great catastrophe of the flood of Noah (see Beresheit/Genesis 11:1–9). 

After the flood, the Torah tells us that everyone on earth had the same language and the same words (ibid. Verse 1). The interpretation of this is not only did people speak the same language but they all understood each other perfectly, to a degree of understanding that caused zero confusion. Despite this they were haughty and wanted to make a name for themselves (ibid. Verse 4) and defy Hashem’s loving and benevolent instruction to fill the earth (Beresheit/Genesis 1:28) rather than build and remain in one city (ibid. Verse 4). As a result, Hashem confounded the speech of all the inhabitants of earth (ibid. Verse 7). What does it mean that Hashem confounded their speech?

G-d did not create multiple languages, He instead made people to bumble and stammer. He caused interpretations to go awry. People were misled, understandings were mixed up, chaos ensued and the unity that heretofore allowed the people to thrive was garbled. It was this disunity that thus scattered everyone over the face of the whole earth (ibid. Verse 8).

As a result, we live in the world we do now. Because humanity filled the entire planet, different languages were formed over time out of the dialects of people.

So now when we all ask and exceedingly want to know what’s the meaning or purpose of life, the question almost becomes void in and of itself. It has lost all understanding, unless we can restore its understanding for ourselves.

Is there a difference between the purpose of life and the meaning of life? We have established that a purpose is an objective; a target; an aim and a goal. Let’s return to the trusty dusty old dictionary to define what a ‘meaning’ is. The dictionary defines meaning as “the message (or idea) that is intended”.

We now have two vital words clarified. ‘Purpose’; being an objective, target, aim and goal. And ‘meaning’; being the message or intended idea.

We have established that the purpose of our life is the goal we ourselves give it. However the meaning of life, the message or intended idea behind life intrinsically cannot be ours to provide. We did not create life thus we are not the giver of the message. The message of life is found within the Holy Torah of Hashem. The Torah given to Moshe (Moses) and the ancestors of the Jewish people. It is the Torah that is the blueprint of life, the “dossier” that provides the schematics for living. It is the Torah that provides humanity for all its needs. The Torah is not simply a book, it is the divine underpinning of reality given to humankind throughout history, through Holy Tzadikkim (righteous people) and Prophets.

The purpose of life remains the purpose we ourselves give it. But to know our purpose we need Hashem’s helping hand. We need the Torah and this is why Torah study sustains the entire world because without it we are empty of purpose and without a need to live we die.

Collective Consciousness in the Messianic Era

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Upon the advent of the Messianic times, reality will change in such a way that for all of humanity it shall be impossible to doubt the existence of the divinity within and without all that is.

As we are living now prior to the coming of the Moshiach (messiah), individual existence entails a solitary perspective of objectivity. We live in a subjective world; we rely solely on our subjective interpretation of the world around us. Our own reality does not interject with another’s — we live with our own views, understandings, hopes and aspirations. When the due time of redemption takes place, individuality will totally encompass objectivity. We will know objective reality together as a unified one. What does this mean?

In the messianic age, a person’s consciousness will be adjunct to the rest of humanities consciousness. We will live a shared consciousness. Not that we will lose our individuality, Chas V’Shalom (G-d forbid), but that we will be in touch with one another in such a deep intrinsic way that we will feel the souls of one another through thought, even while physically distant, to the point of ecstacy. We will experience an entirely newfound shared consciousness that brings us together as the G-dly creations we are, as we are meant to be, and as Adam and Chava (Eve) experienced prior to the fall in Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden). We will literally live together as one in a joint reality, no longer in an individual reality and no longer feel loneliness because togetherness is what we will inherently blissfully feel.

The unified consciousness we will enjoy relates to time and it is best to explain it by comparing it to the period of this world now prior to Geula (redemption). We currently exist in our own bubble of time, we do things individualistically within time and while our thoughts and actions have an effect on others and the world around us time is only communal based on the hands of a clock. In the Messianic Era we will experience time communally based on the revealed divinity around and within us. Time will no longer be an obstruction to meeting our needs and wants and the needs of society around us, compelling us to neglect some areas of our lives in lieu of others, having us to prioritise areas of importance above other areas. Our own individual timelines will be a companion to the timelines of all others and all aspects of reality around us. One event will perfectly accompany another event, and no two events will be out of place.

These two intertwining aspects of reality in the Messianic Era is what I call ‘collective consciousness’. While it is difficult to comprehend now in Olam Ha’Zeh (this world prior to redemption) when redemption takes place it will be very normal, like the world was intended to be. Our wakeful experience will be knowing each other on a profound, deep and intense level. We will no longer hate because our realities are shared and what harms another will be apparent to harm us also. We will feel at one with our fellow because our views, understandings and aspirations will be one in the same. We will want the same thing, that is, namely to all get along peacefully.

Collective consciousness means intrinsically and inherently sharing a reality. We do so already, but apart. When HaShem (G-d) graciously brings about redemption of the entire world we will know and feel within our hearts and entire being that we were not so different all along and essentially and fundamentally we are one. One with another and one with G-d. May the redemption of the entire world come speedily, in our days!

Reality in the Messianic Era

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• •

One aspect of our own respective realities that will change upon the revelation of the messiah is that human consciousness, that is an individual’s ability to relate to his own personal faculties of thought, will experience an upshift in lucidness and a stripping away of the boundaries of forgetfulness.

Pertaining to memory, each human being, in fact every living creature and thing will be able to perceive time beyond the limits of linear comprehension and pertaining to lucidness, sensory perception branching from all the above worlds will be attainable.

This expansion of mind-function allows for the limitations of the current human condition to gradually disintegrate and the supernal light that exists and has always existed as the initial and primary Source of Creation to become obvious.

The obviousness of G-dliness in the messianic era comes from a revelation of the true nature of each person’s neshamah (soul).

In these times right before redemption it is incumbent on a person to perform mitzvot, good deeds and take refuge in Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu, The Holy One, Blessed Is He, now. Why?

Because on the day and hour and minute that Hashem (G-d) decides – and has already decided – to redeem the world, each person will no longer with personal effort be able to affect the standing of his neshamah (soul) in the eyes of G-d nor civilisation.

Every person, Jew and non-Jew will be able to see divinity within the times of the messianic era according to his standing prior to the redemption of the world.

After redemption one can no longer rely on personal effort to improve himself. His fundamental consciousness will have already shifted to know G-d’s existence clearly and his ability to adjust his moral standing thwarted.

For some, the coming of the completion of Creation will arrive without a whiff of the wind; but for the righteous, the redemption of the Jewish Nation and in extension the entire world will bring about magnificence and personal glory beyond the scope of fathomable imagination.

• •

COVID-19 Perspective – Victoria, Australia

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The page in the above image contains a total of 15,000 individual tiny dots.

Let’s say each single dot represents 1 person. This page of dots pictured above would therefore represent 15,000 people.

If you want to envision the entire population of the State of Victoria, Australia – requiring a total of 6,750,000 individual dots (the approximate population of Victoria in 2021) – imagine 450 full pages of these. That’s more pages than most books.

Now if you account for the official number of active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria as of today, Friday 23rd July 2021 – 158 – the amount of dots this would cover would barely encompass just 1% of one single solitary page of dots — not even two complete rows of dots. If you think in terms of an entire book, this would be less than the first sentence on the first page.

Furthermore: out of this 1% of one page of a total of 450 pages representing the people who are currently infected with COVID-19, statistically over 96% of these people will fully recover from it, with or without the vaccine.

So if you ask me again why I’m not yet taking an experimental vaccine with unknown long-term side effects, with no current plans to travel, this is my answer to you.

Update (April 2022): Vaccinated with Moderna Spikevax (3rd Dose)

What is love?

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What is love? A four-letter word that connotes so much. An idea so hard to convey let alone comprehend completely.

Dare I claim that love itself is the cause of everything that exists.

For the worlds — this universe and the spiritual worlds above exist and came to become only through love. It is through Hashem’s (God’s) attribute of love that He willed and sustains a Creation.

But what is love? To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t think anybody does, really. Not completely.

We recognise facets of love, we feel love and we see when love is expressed.

If love is the cause behind existence then maybe our existence itself — simply to be — is an expression of love. Do we see that? The blessing it is to be, here, now, alive, awake, thinking, animated.

I also do not fathom that’s all there is to love.

In my imagination love is the most complex of all ideas.

It is commonly said “God is love,” and if that were true then love is simultaneously the simplest and most difficult thing to comprehend.

Love is a feeling, a doing, an appreciation, a caring. It is a mindfulness, a consideration, a noting, a thank you. A wish, a hope, a selfless act, a teaching.

Perhaps love is everything that is good. And all that is good is really love expressed. Maybe, just maybe, there is only love, and we just haven’t been able to recognise it yet?

Something to think about.

Global Surveillance — 1984 has arrived: Explained

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Ignore the attention-grabbing headline for a second.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory.

The Australian House of Representatives has just—as of 7th December 2018—passed new legislation, entitled the Assistance and Access Bill 2018.

This legislation, if enacted, will not just remove our rights to digital privacy in part, but in totality; none of your digital information will be again completely safe and hidden from prying eyes.

What does these proposed laws entail?

The legislation in the Assistance and Access Bill 2018 would allow law enforcement authorities to force tech companies to hand over user information… even if it’s protected by end-to-end encryption.

Tech companies such as Facebook, Google & Apple and many others will be compelled to hand over users’ private data to intelligence agencies. Such private data includes that which even the aforementioned companies themselves do not now yet have access to— due to encryption.

What is end-to-end encryption?

An example of end-to-end encryption is the technology built into WhatsApp. Only the parties in each chat are able to read the chat content — anyone else trying to hack into your chat data, if successful, will only be presented with gobbledygook. In order to read any of the text in human language the hacker will have to somehow crack the “encryption key” in order to decrypt and decipher the text into anything remotely readable.

Using WhatsApp as an example, only you and your chat partners hold the encryption keys and therefore only you and your chat partners can read the chat contents.

End-to-end encryption effectively prevents other parties accessing your information.

Because modern encryption technology is arguably impossible to crack, it adds an important layer of privacy to our digital content, such as communications on WhatsApp.

Side note: Part of the reason Facebook advertising can so accurately target your interests is that [Facebook] Messenger is not end-to-end encrypted! Facebook’s servers, amongst other things, read all your Messenger conversations. Facebook actually openly admits this. Doing so allows their algorithms to categorise and automatically select what advertisements you will likely be drawn to.

They can do this because while WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, Messenger is not.

What are the implications of the legislation?

What this legislation obligates is that all tech companies install what is called a “backdoor” into their apps and relevant software.

A ‘backdoor’ in simple terms is an added piece of code that gives companies the capability to access, through a secret passageway, all your encrypted private information. The result is that essentially none of your data will be completely private anymore.

Outwardly this legislation is solely for national security interests; in order that the Australian government be able to intercept suspected online terrorist activity and prevent terror attacks.

Law enforcement officials in Australia, as well as the U.S. and other nations have repeatedly labeled the use of end-to-end encryption as a national security issue because it inhibits the investigation of suspected terrorists’ communications.

— Bradley Barth, Senior Reporter, SC (Cybersecurity) Magazine

The statistical fact that one is more likely to be killed by a shark attack than a terror attack lends credence to the suggestion of ulterior motives to this bill—especially considering its huge implications; global surveillance.

But doesn’t this just affect Australians?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. As Facebook, Google, Apple & others are global corporations, any modifications they make to their products due to compliance with this legislation are necessarily going to apply globally. It’s near impossible to install internal server-side software that only and strictly applies to a geographical region while still having a worldwide reach. If nothing else, costs would be extremely prohibitive to implement this.

Don’t forget, Australia is part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement, which also includes Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

Australian politicians would not have been able to write and pass this bill if not for explicit co-operation from all the United States, UK, Canada & New Zealand.

What will happen if the law is passed and the tech giants comply?

It is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate concern that rogue intelligence agencies will take advantage of this legislation to gather all the data they can on any persons they wish to, with the pretense of them being a broadly-defined “security concern”.

The arguably greater concern at first lies in the fact that the tech companies we all mostly now rely on will have unfettered, unrestricted access to know and see everything they possibly can about us.

And I do mean everything; from passwords to private home videos and one’s files in cloud services, to chat conversations and live video conferences.

Not only this, but having to install a backdoor into end-to-end encryption leaves a gaping hole in security for nefarious groups and hackers to find and exploit. There is absolutely zero reason to suggest such people won’t be trying with all possible available resources to find a way into these private information gold mines.

What can you do?

Help people become more aware of what is happening right under our noses. The more people that know what’s going on, especially in Australia where this law is in the process of being legislated, the more opposition and difficulty will arise for those wanting this implemented.

Conspiracy enthusiasts (I like that term better, don’t you?) will be quick to point out that this is all part of the globalist agenda to concentrate all world powers into a single world body in charge of all laws, law enforcement and militaries, with dominion over all earth’s citizens.

While I’m not going to advocate this theory now, what we are definitely seeing is a strong tangible push towards less human rights and more government and corporate control.

Do something.

If this article was useful to you, please share it on.

Links:

Encryption: Why we’re in choppy water for the future of digital security – https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/420112-encryption-why-were-in-choppy-water-for-the-future-of-digital-security

Australia passes law forcing tech giants to circumvent encryption on target devices – https://www.scmagazine.com/home/australia-passes-law-forcing-tech-giants-to-circumvent-encryption-on-target-devices/

Wow, what a lovely early Christmas present for Australians: A crypto-busting super-snoop law passes just in time – https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/07/australias_crypto_legislation/

Australia passes controversial anti-encryption law that could weaken privacy globally – https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/7/18130391/encryption-law-australia-global-impact

Handy Smartphone Apps

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In my intention this will be the beginning of many more blog posts on the topic of practical use of modern technology.

Traditionalists will often state that today’s technology, while positive in many respects, is more of a hindrance than a benefit to living a happy life—which if we are truthful is what we are altogether striving for.

Today’s technology does make life just that little bit more complex, with all its applications and nuances. However when we look at the primary purpose of a specific innovation, it is usually to make a task or many tasks more efficient and incredibly simplified, with the overarching goal of making our lives better because of it.

My belief is that if we can make technology work “in our favour” then we are ahead of the play.

Essentially, we ought manipulate technology to adhere to general principles of maintaining happiness and also, to comply with our values.

Personally, I love the Android mobile Operating System for its Open Source foundation and its ability to be customised in almost every way imaginable possible on a smartphone.

Here are five apps (some also available on iOS) that I recommend installing:

  1. Flipboard: News For Any Topic
    Developer: Flipboard
    FREE (contains ads)
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flipboard.app&hl=en_US
  2. Dictionary.com: Find Definitions for English Words
    Developer: Dictionary.com, LLC
    FREE (contains ads & in-app purchases)
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dictionary&hl=en_US
  3. Cx File Explorer
    Developer: Cx File Explorer
    COMPLETELY FREE (no ads, no in-app purchases)
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer&hl=en_US
  4. Simple Gallery
    Developer: Simple Mobile Tools
    COMPLETELY FREE (no ads, no in-app purchases)
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dictionary&hl=en_US
  5. Location Share
    Developer: Carey Metcalfe
    OPEN SOURCE & FREE (no ads, no in-app purchases)
    https://f-droid.org/packages/ca.cmetcalfe.locationshare/

Q: Shouldn’t God protect us from all harm if He loves us and we love Him?

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From: https://www.quora.com/Shouldnt-God-protect-us-from-all-harm-if-He-loves-us-and-we-love-Him

My answer:
He should and He does. Though He primarily protects us from harm to our spiritual eternity and wellbeing.

In our physical existence, while it would be nice not to feel pain, or go hungry, the physical world is just our temporary home in which we are visiting for a specific purpose. This world is like a blink of an eye; in a blink of an eye you are gone from this world. Meaning: in the time it takes for a person to blink, is how long your life in this world is compared to the eternal life one is rewarded.

With that in mind, Hashem (God) still protects His cherished ones, and those who call on Him in truth, from all harm.

Even the supposed bad things that happen to us, are really for the good—the obvious good!

Hashem knows what’s best for our soul correction (what about us we need to correct in our lifetime) and everything that happens is for our ultimate best, even if we ourselves can’t see it.

The slippery slope of acceptance

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A 69-year-old man asks to be declared 49, claiming age is as fluid as gender – Washington Post

A Dutch pensioner is asking a court in his hometown of Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam, to change his birth certificate so that it says he took his first breath on March 11, 1969, rather than on March 11, 1949. The judges heard his case Monday and promised they would render a verdict in the next several weeks.

Mr Ratelband sees his request as no different from a petition to change his name or the gender he was assigned at birth.”

It was only a matter of time.

Hashem commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves, meaning that which is hurtful and painful to us, if we can empathise correctly, is also hurtful and painful to us when it is happening to another human being.

It is therefore implied that one should not ostracise or mistreat another person because he or she is different or going through a personal struggle of identity. We are obligated not only to treat others with respect, but to love them.

It is painful to my sensibilities to see many individuals in this day and age undergoing such strong and compelling crises of identity. Men wanting to be women, women wanting to be men, or individuals otherwise accepting a non-binary gender.

It is clear to science that biological sex is unchangeable; it is ingrained in one’s DNA make-up. Biology can however be modified, through gender reassignment techniques, but that does not change the immutable essence of a person’s gender given in the womb, or at birth.

Choosing to identify as an opposing gender does not make it so, however convincing in appearance. Yet modern liberal western society has taken upon itself to justify the multitude in their quest for liberation and self-expression by giving them a choice on what is by definition unchangeable.

What we are seeing happening now is the collapse of defined logical boundaries. Boundaries that through their use provide a clear picture of what is, and what isn’t.

We have to call out, in a respectful and sensitive way, what this now commonly discussed issue of gender fluidity is all about; it is gender dysphoria—a mental malady. Gender dysphoria and gender nonconforming is not new, but because it is so much now promoted within mainstream society, more and more people are believing within themselves that their innate gender traits, whether masculine or feminine, are representative of a specific sex or none thereof.

Masculinity and femininity always fall on a spectrum, whereby a male can be more feminine, and a female can be more masculine—and everyone fits somewhere on the spectrum. There is nothing inherently unnatural about this. I have to call it out though—what is unnatural is the taking of one’s own innate spiritual characteristics and using that to modify biology, and consequently ones own accepted gender.

There is nothing wrong with who you are the way you are. That applies to everyone, with the exception of the committing of sins. You are who God created you to be, in the body you were gifted with.

Society has begun on a slippery slope whereby common sense is not prevailing. We are living in an era where people think what they think is right and good is right and good, without second thought of what Hashem is asking of us.

As a society, we need to reassess where we are at and where we are heading.

I think most would agree it is preposterous for one to be able to choose their own age (unless in rare circumstances where date of birth is unknown). But this is what we’ve asked for—let people be who they want to be. This not the will of Hashem. We were created by God with an individual purpose and mission, and to stray from our real identity as human beings is to belie that purpose.

Why did God gift our existence?

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The reason God began creating the physical world was to bestow His perfect kindness upon His creations. If there were no creation, to whom could He show His  perfect and loving kindness to?

Apart from that, He created mankind specifically to be partners with Him in creation. To be a partner of Hashem means to act according to His will and to endeavour to the best of our abilities to make the world a better, more perfect place for future generations and all who dwell within it.

Because He is the embodiment of mercy He understands we weren’t created with perfect character traits, so His patience with us gives us time to repair ourselves and the world around us.

We are obligated to rectify our sins and fix our mistakes, fulfilling our mission here on earth, and in doing so correct all our neshamot (souls), which is the sole purpose of our existence in this physical plane.

When Hakodesh Baruch Hu eventually returns to us, He will dwell in this world also, in a tangible and recognisable way.

Logical proof of the possibility of God

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From: https://www.quora.com/Does-proof-that-god-exists-prove-it-is-the-god-you-believe-in

Question: Does proof that god exists prove it is the god you believe in?

Answer by

brendanphoto
Brendan Cilia, seeker of spiritual knowledge, devotee of logic

No.

By definition God is:-

Infinite— encompassing everything imaginable; immeasurable; omnipresent

Eternal— existing beyond the scope of time; always existed, always will exist; without beginning or end

Omnipotent— can do anything; infinite in power

Omniscient— having complete and unlimited knowledge and awareness; perceiving all things.

This is so because the above characteristics are the ultimate in definable godliness: everything (infinity), always (eternity), unlimited and unrestricted (omnipotence) & knowing all possible things (omniscience). Any forthcoming proof of God would necessarily rely on the above characteristics.

Any other differing definition of God that people have is logically fallacious.

Replies:

Trevor Klassen
The definition itself is logically fallacious. This description of a god creates unavoidable paradoxes that make its very existence impossible.

Brendan Cilia
What paradoxes?

Trevor Klassen
True omniscience would mean that the entity which possesses it would basically be paralyzed. It could not ‘act’ on anything, or think anything, as it already knows everything. What could it change? What rules could it make for its creation, if it already knows what every single quark in the universe is going to do? Omniscience creates a powerless god, and also negates the idea of free will. An omniscient god certainly couldn’t have been caught unawares by the deception of a talking serpent, or the disobedience of a naked woman.

Need more?

Brendan Cilia
Please logically explain how true omniscience would cause such a being to be paralysed. I fail to come to that conclusion.

And of course God wasn’t caught unawares by the talking snake or the disobedience of Adam & Chava. I’d be very surprised if many religious believers in the bible actually thought that.

It seems you’re projecting your human limitations onto an entity which by definition is infinitely more sophisticated than humanity.

Also, free will exists despite God’s omniscience, and it is it entirely possible that true free will exists, despite being paradoxical to our inherently limited human capacity for understanding, due to God’s attribute of omnipotence.

Trevor Klassen
Omniscience erases free will in the most obvious ways. If god knows how every person is going to turn out before they are even born, then there is no choice. The entirety of time and space has already happened in god’s mind, and he can do nothing to change anything. If he could change something, it means he didn’t know the outcome already, and is therefore not omniscient. If he is omniscient, he already created my choice at the beginning of time, so there really is no free will. This is obvious if you really think about it. All the ‘omni’s’ you attribute to your god are impossible qualities to begin with, because of the paradoxes they create.

If god was not caught unawares, then he knew exactly what the serpent was going to do, he knew what Eve was going to do, he knew what Adam was going to do, but he still put the tree, the fruit, the serpent and Eve together. This makes god responsible for evil. Eve was set up to fall, giving your god license to become the complete asshole described in the Old Testament.

Brendan Cilia
Trevor, your argument is an abductive one. You are not logically verifying your claims.

a) You have not deductively argued how omniscience of God leads to no free choice

b) You have not deductively argued how omniscience of God means God is powerless.

c) You are using your unverified conclusion of no free will to conclude God is responsible for evil.

I’m not trying to be an asshole here but you haven’t logically proven anything of what you’re claiming, it is all supposition at this stage.

If the entirety of space and time has already occurred in God’s mind, it merely alludes to His greatness— he already knows our free will choices and already accounts for that.

That he already knows what our free will choices will be does not preclude the fact that he allows us to choose them within our realm of space of time in which He is beyond.

Trevor Klassen
The logic is inescapable. If he is omniscient, he can’t change anything. It doesn’t require an argument or proof, it’s a property of being truly all-knowing. It’s kind of in the definition of omniscient. If he already knows every decision I will make, then I am not really making any decisions. He created the universe in which I can make no change, and neither can he. How can he change any part of reality, without it being something he already knew he would do? This means nothing was changed. If you can’t see this inescapable paradox, it’s because you don’t want to. I think I used simple enough language to explain how it works. You’ll need to show me now how omniscience doesn’t create this paradox, instead of falsely saying my words mean nothing.

Brendan Cilia
It is somewhat paradoxical to our human understanding, but I’ll try to explain.

Can we change past actions? Can I change something I did 5 years ago?

The definition of God is that He created time and space and exists beyond it while being inextricably within time and space. For Him the universe is just as much reached it’s end destruction as He remains there at the very first moment of the Big Bang. The fact that He permeates time and space throughout is a concept we have to try to understand while being inextricably stuck within it.

Free will occurs because in decision-making we are placed equally in between good and evil, equally able to go one way or the other. God created an environment in which the human being, when faced with a decision, is pulled equally in either direction of right and wrong, making free will possible. That God knows what we will choose doesn’t preclude the fact that in that moment of time we are able to choose what we eventually will have chosen. I honestly fail to see what you are claiming.

If I know everything about the combustion engine, am I precluded from mechanically working on one due to my all-encompassing knowledge of the engine?

Trevor Klassen
So, he’s both outside time and space, but inextricably within time and space as well? He can have an effect on time and space, matter and energy, but at the same time he can’t be detected, because he’s beyond our scope of understanding? You know this doesn’t make sense. What you have done is created an entity that cannot be falsified, meaning that there is no way to ever know whether or not it’s real, even if no trace of it is ever found, because you’ve built in magical properties that make him the ultimate hide and seek champion. He’s there, but he’s invisible. He intervenes in the physical world but you can’t detect his presence or effect physically. It’s all so obviously made up.

Brendan Cilia
Perhaps it seems “made up” to you Trevor and difficult to swallow, but you have not provided any logical explanation to why He can’t be both outside time and space, but inextricably within time and space as well if He is infinite. And why He can’t have an effect on time and space, matter and energy, but at the same time can’t be detected if He is omnipotent, and beyond our scope of understanding if He is omniscient, and we are not.

And I agree, we cannot presently know if He is real or not through the scientific method. But we can know He is real individually through our own efforts in truth-seeking. If He is real then logically it means He able to make Himself known to people.

Trevor Klassen
Because there is no logical way for anything to be outside and inside at the same time. It’s an illogical premise, and you know it. You are making your god above logic, so don’t expect me to provide logical reasons to refute what you say. You have set up the definition so that it can’t be proved wrong (or right).

Brendan Cilia
I have set up the definition in which God is verifiable through logic. 😉

“Because there is no logical way for anything to be outside and inside at the same time.”

Of course there can—something that encompasses both the outside and the inside. Oxygen is both inside and outside my house. Gold is both inside and outside the earth.

Trevor Klassen
He is not verifiable through logic if his qualities and attributes are not governed by logic. Logic only proves something if you accept the opening premises as true. Your opening premise is that god exists, which is a circular logic.

Your analogies of oxygen and gold are meaningless. Do either of them exist inside and outside of the universe? Do either of them exist inside and outside at the same time? Can oxygen hide its properties and effects on other substances, so that it can’t be detected? Can gold create worlds and universes, and answer prayers? This takes the argument nowhere.

Brendan Cilia
I’m not claiming God’s existence is verifiable through logic, I’m saying the logic of the possibility of His existence is sound.

Perhaps you can’t accept my analogies of oxygen and gold. But through it I have logically proved how something can be outside and inside something simultaneously. You claimed it was an illogical premise, which it is obviously not. And gold and oxygen most definitely do not have infinite properties so cannot possibly have the conditions of something that is infinite.

Thus we are at the point in the debate where I’ve stated, logically, why a God can exist, and you’ve been unable to successfully logically refute that.

(EDITED)

Trevor Klassen
Your first sentence is a non-sequitur, even self-contradictory. You are thinking in circles (which is, of course, the only way to maintain belief in a theistic god).

You have only proved that an object can be surrounded by a gaseous element. The claim is both outside and inside the universe. This is simply not the same thing. Oxygen gas is made up of molecules, some of which can be inside, and others outside. But one molecule cannot be both outside and inside. You are right, there is nothing illogical about oxygen being inside and outside of a house, but your god is not oxygen, and the universe, time and space are not a house. Your analogy requires there to be (and there obviously is) space outside of the house. Is there space outside of space, in which god can exist? Is there time outside of time? That’s what’s illogical.

Brendan Cilia
“Your first sentence is a non-sequitur, even self-contradictory.”

Touché, I have corrected it: I’m not claiming God’s existence is verifiable through logic, I’m saying the logical possibility of His existence is sound.

Analogies are by definition examples of what is similar or comparable. I would certainly argue that the fact of God existing within and -out of the physical universe (due to His property of infiniteness) is definitely similar or comparable to the fact of oxygen existing within and outside my house, and gold existing within and outside of the earth.

“..but your god is not oxygen, and the universe, time and space are not a house. […] Is there space outside of space, in which god can exist? Is there time outside of time. That’s what’s illogical.”

Of course God isn’t oxygen and the universe, and time and space not a house! Is there something outside of space in which God can exist? Why not? Can you prove otherwise? Is there something outside of time? Probably; the universe is finite so science is telling us it began at the beginning of time. What was before, what is after?

Trevor Klassen
Have none of my examples given you any indication that the properties of omniscience and omnipotence are actually logical impossibilities? Yet you still cling to the thinnest of threads, hoping something logical supports your belief. Sorry, nothing does. So now we’re down to the possibility of your god’s existence being logically sound. Well, no, not if your god is defined as having these logically impossible traits. The logically possible god is the god of deism, or pantheism. All other gods must be taken on faith, and faith alone. Logic, reason and evidence do not support the existence of any scriptural, personal, intervening god who answers prayers and cares what you do with your genitals. All those gods are logically unsound, and belief in them, in any non-allegorical, non-metaphorical way, is illogical and anachronistic in the age of reason.

Brendan Cilia
“Have none of my examples given you any indication that the properties of omniscience and omnipotence are actually logical impossibilities?”
None. Because that itself is unsubstantiated and an illogical supposition. Until you can logically prove—which you haven’t—why it is impossible for God to be omniscient and omnipotent I can only presume you are clinging to your understanding of the world, despite logical inferences of other reasoned possibilities.

Trevor Klassen
I think I did use logic to show how these properties lead to paradoxes and logical impossibilities. All you have said is “no you didn’t” without explaining how my assessment is wrong. You are trying to have it both ways. God is logical, but god is not subject to the rules of logic. I can’t prove anything about a character that isn’t bound by the rules of proving things.

Brendan Cilia
Well your claim is: complete omniscience prevents omnipotence. But you haven’t proven that claim, logically, nor at all.

Care to provide a logical deduction for such?

Trevor Klassen
I already did this. If he knows everything, past present and future, he can’t do anything he didn’t already know he was going to do, which means he doesn’t really react to what people do or say or think. He can’t react to anything, he can’t change anything, and he can’t change anyone’s preordained destiny. Our fates were written the moment he created the universe. If he created Hell, then everyone going there was going there no matter what, because he already knew who is going to go before he dreamed everything up. The moment something changes, omniscience is broken. This is why the description of god as omniscient is completely incompatible with the stories in Genesis, or the bible in general. God is routinely surprised, and angry. Why? He had to know everything that was about to happen. Please explain to me how this biblical god could be omniscient, but not held responsible for the existence of evil and pain and disease and death?

Brendan Cilia
In other words:-

A: God knows everything, past, present and future.

B: Therefore, he must already know what people will do.

Conclusion (C.): He can’t react to what people do.

Can you not see the logical fallacy in that line of reasoning?

Knowing already what people will do does not preclude him from already knowing how he will react!

You can’t get from B. to C. in the above logically at all. C. is a completely false inference.

Trevor Klassen
He’s not really reacting. He’s just playing out exactly what was already pre-ordained to happen. He’s not actually able to do anything after creating a world he cannot change. No fallacy.

Brendan Cilia
You’re implying here that we, human beings, have no free will!

Is that what you believe?

Basically you are saying:

A: Everything is preordained.

B: Therefore I have no free will.

C: If I have no free will then neither does God.

OR

A: I have free will to pick and choose my actions.

B: Though God knows what I’m going to do and say and He also knows how He is going to react.

C: Even though God had the power to create the vast physical universe, and me with free will, He has no power to grant Himself free will.

ALSO

C. God has preordained everything from the beginning of time, but none of that was from His own free choosing.

Trevor Klassen
No, that is not what I believe. It’s what an omniscient god necessitates. I don’t believe in that god, or any god, and I do believe we have free will because there is no such god. Your ABC’s here don’t add up.

Brendan Cilia
That is your arguments though, even if you don’t believe the veracity of the assumption of God’s existence.

Please correct them for me.

Trevor Klassen
I’m not arguing that that is what I believe. I’m arguing that omniscience leads to those conclusions. There is nothing to correct. The god doesn’t exist, and the omniscience doesn’t exist, those are just necessary results if omniscience were possible. Omniscience means no free will for anybody, gods included.

Brendan Cilia
How so?

Trevor Klassen
I already explained it. If he truly knows everything, he can’t do anything he hasn’t already done when he created the universe. He can only “play out the tape”, as it were, or else he would be changing things, which means he didn’t know he was going to do that. Changing any predetermined outcome breaks the omniscience. He can only sit and watch, or, if involved, he can only be involved in exactly one way, without deviation. Free will means you need to be able to make choices. What choices can an omniscient being make? If two options are presented, and a choice is to be made, this means that the chooser could not have known the options beforehand, and could not know how they would choose before the options come up. So no choices, and no new actions are possible for an omniscient being. How else can I explain it?

Brendan Cilia
Thank you. I understand your point of view now.

Everything you have said is correct.

There is only one flaw, you are not seeing the full picture.

Everything you have stated applies to omniscience alone. Without omnipotence. Nothing you have stated precludes an omniscient being from also being omnipotent. Yes, if God is omniscient alone, and knows everything that will happen, including how he will (re)act, he is indeed unable to do any and every thing. But whereby can you assume that because He is omniscient He cannot be omnipotent?

He knows everything and can do anything. Using my previous example of a combustion engine; I can know every possible thing about combustion engines and can also be able to do every possible thing with a combustion engine. The former doesn’t preclude the latter, in fact the former precedes the latter.

I think your problem in comprehending this, aside from the fact that you cannot accept the existence of a god, is that you yourself are not omniscient. You don’t know everything there is to know, and certainly you don’t know every possible imaginable possibility.

Nothing you have already stated precludes an omniscient being from being omnipotent also. I reiterate, you are merely talking about omniscience by itself.

Trevor Klassen
Actually I have not been addressing omniscience alone. The whole point of everything I said about omniscience is that it makes omnipotence, or even great power, impossible. I don’t understand how you can say I haven’t addressed omnipotence in this way. It was the whole argument. These two ‘omni’ qualities are logically incompatible. On one hand you say “Everything you said is correct”, and then you go on to say something that goes against everything you just admitted is correct.

Brendan Cilia
If you are considering omniscience without accounting for omnipotence, what you are claiming is right.

The two (omniscience and omnipotence) however are not contradictory no matter how you illustrate and portray one or the other.

I can claim about myself: “I know everything, and can do anything I wish”.

Despite being clearly false for a finite being such as myself, the two are clearly not a logical contradiction of terms, no matter how you elucidate the former and latter part of the claim.

As I demonstrated, knowledge precedes ability. I do not have the ability to run without knowing how to walk. In fact knowledge necessitates ability. The greater one’s knowledge, the greater one’s ability. The idea that the more one knows the less able they are to act is nonsensical; it is a counter-intuitive proposition.

You’re acceding that the more one knows, the greater one’s ability to act—except when one’s knowledge has reached infinity. That itself is illogical. For example, if I had billions of dollars, I would be able to act and purchase an exceedingly great amount of items—but there is a finite point of my purchasing power. If I had infinite dollars, there is no limit to my ability to purchase; my purchasing power is unhindered due to my attribute of unlimited money.

Logically speaking the more one knows, the more power of action they have. More knowledge inherently implies greater ability. The opposite is also true. For example: animals have a lesser knowledge than the average human and it is evident that they have a lesser ability to do the things a human can.

Trevor Klassen
You are still clearly missing the obvious point that, in dealing with omniscience, I am already dealing with omnipotence. You can’t have one with the other logically. You can have omniscience, but that leaves you powerless. You can be really powerful, but you can’t use any power if you already know everything that’s ever going to happen. You can only use powers to change things or do things if you don’t know the future, which means you aren’t omniscient. You can’t really talk about one without involving the other. So, sorry, I have accounted for omnipotence already.

Brendan Cilia
I think we need to address the inherent nature of knowing everything in relation to eternity—the quality of not existing within time.

Of course if I know everything I retain the power to change or do things. You are claiming that because I already know future outcomes I am unable to affect them in any way. That is true only looking forward into the future from the present.

If I exist outside of time, past, present and future is irrelevant because one moment ago has happened while simultaneously hasn’t happened—an entirely logical premise when considering timelessness.

The claims you are making are only relevant within time and space.

Trevor Klassen
Imagining something being outside of time and space is basically invoking magic. It doesn’t mean anything. It isn’t a position of logic of any kind. It’s an escape clause so that your god can have impossible qualities.

Brendan Cilia
No it isn’t. One cannot imagine themselves being outside of time and space for we are inextricably within it. The fact that science states that the universe, time and space, is finite and had a beginning posits the notion of a first cause. If cause and effect is a compulsory condition within the universe, then why would one suggest it definitely isn’t a condition of the universe itself as a whole? Science here too agrees with this premise, as scientists are actively seeking answers to the question of the cause of the Big Bang. Whatever the cause of the Big Bang, that cause existed or exists outside of time and space.

Trevor Klassen
Science is not agreeing with anything you are saying here. Science would say, to anyone who claims there’s a being that exists outside of time and space, “prove it”. It’s just a wild assertion that can’t be tested or falsified or verified. It is exactly like invoking magic.

Brendan Cilia
Science is agreeing that there must be a ‘first cause’. Atheists choose not to accept that this first cause could be sentient.

Trevor Klassen
The science of cosmology does not agree that there must be a first cause. Please cite any credible cosmologist who says there must be a first cause. Religious apologists do not count, because they don’t use science to make that claim, even if they believe it.

Brendan Cilia
So they say the Big Bang just happened to occur in a vacuum without explanation? Fair enough, one is entitled to believe that.

But that is not what we are debating. I have stated that a God must be altogether infinite, eternal, omniscient and omnipotent. I have demonstrated how none of these attributes are logically contradictory when present together.

Trevor Klassen
Why don’t you actually go read some cosmology to see what they actually claim about the early universe, and what they don’t. You are making claims about science that aren’t true left, right and centre in your arguments.

Where have you demonstrated that? All you have said is that I am wrong, over and over, in different ways. You have offered no reasoning or examples or analogies that aren’t immediately shown to be wrong.

Brendan Cilia
It seems that I have aptly demonstrated that, because after extrapolation you have been unable to refute what I’m saying other than come up with new reasons why I am wrong, which I then explain how such is accounted for.

“You have offered no reasoning or examples or analogies that aren’t immediately shown to be wrong.”

Let’s finish this up. How about you explain once and for all how the collective properties of: infinity, eternity, omniscience and omnipotence, together, are logically incompatible with each other as a whole?

I’ve offered a plethora of reasons, examples and analogies which you have not even for one been able to deny on logical grounds.

Trevor Klassen
I’m not sure you know what ‘aptly’ means, but I have clearly and easily refuted your points every time you didn’t really make one. The logical errors are obvious each time, but you come back and simply repeat your earlier assertion, and pretend like you’ve addressed my logic.

Knocking down omniscience and omnipotence ought to be enough. Infinity or eternity are not properties of your god, anyway. They may or may not exist. We don’t know.

Brendan Cilia
Aptly: suitably, appropriately

If there are logical errors in my arguments, you didn’t point them out, you merely suggested I was invoking magic.

I have reasonably demonstrated how with omniscience, omnipotence, infinity and eternity altogether, what I am stating about the necessary and integral attributes of God are in fact reasonably and logically sound… to which you replied “It is exactly like invoking magic.” That isn’t at all a rebuttal of how all those properties can hypothetically exist simultaneously within a being but more like an admission of failure to logically disprove it.

Trevor Klassen
Does that word really fit what you were trying to say? You suitably, appropriately demonstrated something? Okay.

Brendan, I have done nothing but point out the logical errors, over and over. All you have done is repeat your claims, and repeat your opinion that your claim is logical, without providing any more logical arguments. Claiming that you know that there is anything beyond space and time, and that it’s, of course, your god, is an empty claim. It can never be refuted or proven, because nobody can go outside of time and space to check. It’s a ridiculous claim, but it is all you have left when actual logic and evidence and reason gang up on you. Playing that card ends all debate, because it renders your belief impervious to verification or refutation. It’s a cop-out, non-explanation of anything at all.

Brendan Cilia
You haven’t pointed out the logical errors though, and if you tried to, I then consolidated the logical consistency via the explanation of and re-introduction of the original claims of my premise (as outlined in my initial answer).

You then feebly resorted to asserting I am invoking magic.

I was never trying to prove God to you, merely proving that the belief in the existence of God isn’t illogical. Which it isn’t.

Indeed belief in God is presently impervious to verification, which is one reason I haven’t been trying to convert you in the slightest way.

I wholeheartedly assert with full conviction (defined as “a fixed and firm belief”, seeing as though we are now playing the semantic game) that knowledge of God is entirely possible.

I’ll leave you with the text of Mishlei (Proverbs) chapter 2

בְּ֭נִי אִם־תִּקַּ֣ח אֲמָרָ֑י וּ֝מִצְוֺתַ֗י תִּצְפֹּ֥ן אִתָּֽךְ׃

My son, if you accept my words and treasure my commandments;

לְהַקְשִׁ֣יב לַֽחָכְמָ֣ה אָזְנֶ֑ךָ תַּטֶּ֥ה לִ֝בְּךָ֗ לַתְּבוּנָֽה׃

If you make your ear attentive to wisdom and your mind open to discernment;

כִּ֤י אִ֣ם לַבִּינָ֣ה תִקְרָ֑א לַ֝תְּבוּנָ֗ה תִּתֵּ֥ן קוֹלֶֽךָ׃

If you call to understanding and cry aloud to discernment,

אִם־תְּבַקְשֶׁ֥נָּה כַכָּ֑סֶף וְֽכַמַּטְמוֹנִ֥ים תַּחְפְּשֶֽׂנָּה׃

If you seek it as you do silver and search for it as for treasures,

אָ֗ז תָּ֭בִין יִרְאַ֣ת יְהוָ֑ה וְדַ֖עַת אֱלֹהִ֣ים תִּמְצָֽא׃

Then you will understand the fear of the LORD and attain knowledge of God.

כִּֽי־יְ֭הוָה יִתֵּ֣ן חָכְמָ֑ה מִ֝פִּ֗יו דַּ֣עַת וּתְבוּנָֽה׃

For the LORD grants wisdom; Knowledge and discernment are by His decree.

וצפן [יִצְפֹּ֣ן] לַ֭יְשָׁרִים תּוּשִׁיָּ֑ה מָ֝גֵ֗ן לְהֹ֣לְכֵי תֹֽם׃

He reserves ability for the upright and is a shield for those who live blamelessly,

לִ֭נְצֹר אָרְח֣וֹת מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וְדֶ֖רֶךְ חסידו [חֲסִידָ֣יו] יִשְׁמֹֽר׃

Guarding the paths of justice, protecting the way of those loyal to Him.

אָ֗ז תָּ֭בִין צֶ֣דֶק וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט וּ֝מֵישָׁרִ֗ים כָּל־מַעְגַּל־טֽוֹב׃

You will then understand what is right, just, and equitable—every good course.

כִּֽי־תָב֣וֹא חָכְמָ֣ה בְלִבֶּ֑ךָ וְ֝דַ֗עַת לְֽנַפְשְׁךָ֥ יִנְעָֽם׃

For wisdom will enter your mind and knowledge will delight you.

מְ֭זִמָּה תִּשְׁמֹ֥ר עָלֶ֗יךָ תְּבוּנָ֥ה תִנְצְרֶֽכָּה׃

Foresight will protect you, and discernment will guard you.

לְ֭הַצִּ֣ילְךָ מִדֶּ֣רֶךְ רָ֑ע מֵ֝אִ֗ישׁ מְדַבֵּ֥ר תַּהְפֻּכֽוֹת׃

It will save you from the way of evil men, from men who speak duplicity,

הַ֭עֹ֣זְבִים אָרְח֣וֹת יֹ֑שֶׁר לָ֝לֶ֗כֶת בְּדַרְכֵי־חֹֽשֶׁךְ׃

Who leave the paths of rectitude to follow the ways of darkness,

הַ֭שְּׂמֵחִים לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת רָ֑ע יָ֝גִ֗ילוּ בְּֽתַהְפֻּכ֥וֹת רָֽע׃

Who rejoice in doing evil and exult in the duplicity of evil men,

אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָרְחֹתֵיהֶ֣ם עִקְּשִׁ֑ים וּ֝נְלוֹזִ֗ים בְּמַעְגְּלוֹתָֽם׃

Men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their course.

לְ֭הַצִּ֣ילְךָ מֵאִשָּׁ֣ה זָרָ֑ה מִ֝נָּכְרִיָּ֗ה אֲמָרֶ֥יהָ הֶחֱלִֽיקָה׃

It will save you from the forbidden woman, from the alien woman whose talk is smooth,

הַ֭עֹזֶבֶת אַלּ֣וּף נְעוּרֶ֑יהָ וְאֶת־בְּרִ֖ית אֱלֹהֶ֣יהָ שָׁכֵֽחָה׃

Who forsakes the companion of her youth and disregards the covenant of her God.

כִּ֤י שָׁ֣חָה אֶל־מָ֣וֶת בֵּיתָ֑הּ וְאֶל־רְ֝פָאִ֗ים מַעְגְּלֹתֶֽיהָ׃

Her house sinks down to Death, and her course leads to the shades.

כָּל־בָּ֭אֶיהָ לֹ֣א יְשׁוּב֑וּן וְלֹֽא־יַ֝שִּׂ֗יגוּ אָרְח֥וֹת חַיִּֽים׃

All who go to her cannot return and find again the paths of life.

לְמַ֗עַן תֵּ֭לֵךְ בְּדֶ֣רֶךְ טוֹבִ֑ים וְאָרְח֖וֹת צַדִּיקִ֣ים תִּשְׁמֹֽר׃

So follow the way of the good and keep to the paths of the just.

כִּֽי־יְשָׁרִ֥ים יִשְׁכְּנוּ אָ֑רֶץ וּ֝תְמִימִ֗ים יִוָּ֥תְרוּ בָֽהּ׃

For the upright will inhabit the earth, the blameless will remain in it.

וּ֭רְשָׁעִים מֵאֶ֣רֶץ יִכָּרֵ֑תוּ וּ֝בוֹגְדִ֗ים יִסְּח֥וּ מִמֶּֽנָּה׃ (פ)

While the wicked will vanish from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Brendan Cilia
Good luck Trevor and I wish you the best on your search for truth.

Trevor Klassen
Okay, thanks. You too.