One Way Trip

     Why anyone would want to live on Mars is beyond me, I love Earth. There is nothing on Mars that sounds even remotely appealing. There is no oxygen, no water, no grass, no animals and no blue sky. Anyone traveling to Mars can look forward to seeing rocks, sand, mountains and more rocks. There is a reason why humans don't live there. Until humans invent a way to oxygenate the Mars atmosphere you would have to stay indoors all the time or wear a space suit. Mars is not a pretty place and very cold. It is much colder than Earth because it is farther from the sun. Mars has a very thin atmosphere that can not retain heat, a summer day can range from 70 degrees to -100 degrees at night.
     Despite all of the negative features of the Martian planet this seems to be a worth while adventure to some. Technology is finally catching up with imaginations and now living on Mars will actually become reality. Mars One is a Dutch non-profit, privately funded organization that aims to establish a human settlement on Mars. The Co-founders Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders claim that Mars colonization will be made a reality in 2023, less than ten years away. Apparently they have been very successful at marketing this idea because more than 160,000 people have turned in applications for the journey. If you are in the United States the application fee is $38.00 per person. So far all of the information I've read has all of the funding coming from public donations and private investors. This is no short trip, in case you were wondering it will take you 7 months to get to Mars from Earth. I found this story interesting but like so many other things there is a catch. There is still an important piece to this story that I saved until the end. It is true that humans currently have the technology to colonize Mars , however we don't have the technology too get back. Thats right, this will be a one way trip! So let me get this straight. People are lining up for a 7 month trip through outer space only to get dropped off on Mars with no way to get back? Am I the crazy one here or does this sound like a raw deal? To each his own I guess. If going to another planet is for you and you are interested in finding out more about Mars One... click on the link below.-BDB


Source - (Google Images)
http://www.mars-one.com/en/about-mars-one/about-mars-one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Mars#Temperature

Giving Thanks

    Who are we thanking on Thanksgiving if not God? Most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving but not all of them believe in God. I guess when you don't thank God you end up thanking everything else. If you don't believe in God I made up a list of 7 things you can choose to thank this Thanksgiving instead of God. Of course I don't want anyone to actually use my list, I am just bringing to light how empty Thanksgiving is without God.

1) "The Stars"
2) "Mother Nature"
3) "Evolution"
4) "Myself"
5) "Technology"
6)  "Dumb Luck"
7) "Blind Fate"

Unfortunately these are your choices, or you can choose not to give thanks at all. The things on this list probably sound silly to you but this is reality. It's a reality that these are your only options without God. By making this list I was attempting to make a point. Thanksgiving is a tradition in America that we often don't take the time to appreciate. This year make sure to know who you are thanking. -BDB (Google Images)

Christmas War

      Lets be clear from the beginning, the war on Christmas has nothing to do with Santa Claus and everything to do with Jesus. In fact this is a direct attack on Jesus and his followers. This happens every year and it starts right after Halloween. The individuals behind these attacks are made up mostly of atheists and atheist supported organizations. They are armed only with emotion, this is not about logic or common sense. Why would anyone attack the foundation of there own country and the very freedom that allows them to complain? Like I said, it's not about common sense to these individuals. They have no respect for America's founding principles and are laser focused on their agenda. Their favorite targets are public schools, public land and courthouses. According to these individuals anything owned by the government that has a hint of Christmas is in violation of the separation of church & state. This is an out of context, twisting of the constitution. I'm not going to read or quote the first amendment but this is clearly not what it means.  What these attackers don't understand is that Christmas is a tradition not a law. Even though we may get angry and offended we must remember that atheists are not the enemy, they are misguided, lost souls just like we once were. I knew the time to write this blog was coming soon and I hate that this has to be written, it really is ridiculous. Every year we see these groups threaten to sue public schools because of a Christmas party or celebration. The saddest part of all is that school officials get intimidated and back down instead of standing up for their rights. The schools back down and often cancel long standing traditions. What is never made clear is why these individuals care so much about something they don't believe in. Only one percent of Americans claim to be atheists and they are running the show. In case your bad at math, one percent is roughly 3 million people. It sounds like a lot but not compared to 300 million. It is true that the country has changed a lot since the U.S. Constitution was written but what hasn't changed is the inspiration for the Constitution, it was the Bible and don't let anyone tell you different. The only losers in this war are the children who have to be told that their School must cancel Christmas because someone complained.-BDB (Google Images)

Police Oath

  The oath of office sworn by all police officers differs slightly from state to state, county to county.
What doesn't differ though is the basic concept. All police officers swear to respect and uphold people's rights, this means uphold the U.S. Constitution. In America the Constitution trumps all laws and ordinances even though this is not what society tells us. This is not what the media tells us and it is not what the schools are teaching our kids. If a police officer gives you an unlawful order you are not required to obey it. We are not required to blindly follow orders just because they are given by a policeman. Police officers all across the country are making illegal arrests. The reason they are getting away with it is because no one dare question the police. Our society is conquered by fear, we need to ask questions and most importantly we must know our rights. Most police officers don't know the laws well enough to answer your questions, but they will arrest you if you don't listen. The police have the power to arrest anyone for anything, all they have to do is say you were "disturbing the peace" or "obstructing justice". These two charges broad and cover just about anything. The bottom line to all laws is the U.S. Constitution. It is simple, if a law contradicts the Constitution, it is an illegal law... period. Police officers might say something like "we are just following orders", this is a scary statement in America. This is the entire reason for the oath, It keeps officers of the law morally accountable to themselves. Its too bad there are men & women in high positions who ignore the oath and ignore the constitution they swear to uphold. Bad orders are often given and we need cops who are mentally strong enough to remember their oath and risk their careers for this great country.- BDB
(Google Images)

Learn from History

 

   There is an old saying that goes "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it". When we look back on past civilizations we see that the number one perpetrator of all crime has been government. Every time a government gets too big it inevitably abuses its power. This is a fact of history that has happened over and over again. If this is true why don't we learn from history? I wish I had a good answer to that question. I think at the heart of it is human pride. We think we know better than people in the past, we think we are smarter. The truth is people have always been the same. We have always been stubborn, rebellious and prideful. We are no smarter than anyone in the past. In my opinion we have gotten dumber. I'm not being funny, it comes down to simple science and logic. We are copies of copies of copies and everything breaks down with time, time is always the enemy, this is called the law of entropy. We have incredible technology only because we have built upon successes and failures of the past. If we were as smart as we think we are we wouldn't be giving government so much power. This is what made America different, we had seen what a powerful government was capable of and rebelled against it. This led to starting our own colonies and eventually fighting the revolutionary war. This is what makes the U.S. Constitution so important. It is a document that was created with wisdom, wisdom of living under tyranny. The founders of this country learned from mistakes not just from individuals but mistakes of nations. This is why America is special, we are based on the individual instead of a central control. Governments never get less powerful unless they are overthrown, is this what it will take to turn things around?
-BDB (Google Images)

Jury Rights

     When researching this topic, I was stunned to uncover this secret weapon of the American citizen  called " jury nullification". This is by far the most underutilized right of the American Citizen. Serving on a jury is the only time that an average person has more power than the American President and Congress combined.
With the advancement and growth of our government it seems the average person is becoming less and less interested in their individual rights. It is almost like people have given up. Most people still think we are a democracy, the United States of America is a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. This means the legal system is meant to abide by a set of rules and must recognize the individual rights outlined in the U.S. Constitution. In fact not only is the government supposed to recognize our rights but they are supposed to protect them. What we are seeing now is our rights being taken away. It will not happen overnight. It happens slowly and nobody notices until its too late. If people stop caring and don't fight back, our Constitution will fade away. As Americans we are called to be skeptical of government, its healthy to the republic. The U.S. Constitution is written to limit the government's power and put it into the hands of the individual.
With "jury nullification" the jurors can decide that a law is unconstitutional and therefore it does not apply to a particular case.
     This is incredible power is unknown to most of the public. Why don't we hear about this? My opinion is that the U.S. Government doesn't want us to. According to them they are the final authority.... not the people.
"Jury nullification" brings the final decision back to "we the people".
This is very scary to a government who is determined to rule us , not work for us.
A hypothetical example of "jury nullification"-  A case in which a man is on trial for illegal gun possession. The man has not harmed or threaten anyone and has the weapon secured. He is arrested because he does not have a firearm's identification card (F.O.I.D). Which is required under Illinois law. In a case like this the jury can decide that the man is guilty of breaking the law, but the verdict would be to nullify the law (only in this case) because it is unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution states that our right to bear arms "shall not be infringed".
Therefore it is ultimately an "illegal" law. Wow... no wonder we don't hear about this. This is the original intent of our country, freedom, limited government and individual responsibility.- BDB
(Google Images)

Sources-
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

http://fija.org/

Man vs Machine

 

     Growing up in the 1980s the "The Terminator" was a very popular movie set in the distant future. Now as technology accelerates at an incredible rate we are left wondering how far we are from this science fiction movie becoming a reality. Will we live to see a time in which machines take over the human race? In "The Terminator" computers become so smart that they became self aware and rebel against their creator..(sound familiar)? I can assure everyone that this will never happen. The reason I am so confident in this is simple logic. A computer can ONLY do what it is programmed to do. If machines turn on humans it will be because they are programmed to, but we would know all their moves.

    There is no doubt that the human race will continue to build some very realistic "human-like" machines. These are often referred to as Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) These A.I.s look human, sound human, and act human, but they will never be human. The most complex computer will never appreciate art or understand emotions. If a human creates a computer, the computer he creates will always be inferior to him. In other words.. I cant create something smarter than myself. Computers will always be programmed by humans, they will never learn on their own terms. Any learning that is done is only an illusion. It only learns what it's programmed to learn. Each year many new machines are made to make life easier and more efficient, they will never do more than this. Just like we can never be smarter than  God (our creator), a machine or computer will never become smarter than a human. A human can learn from mistakes and adapt to situations. A computer can only adapt to the choices it is programmed to make. We may not be made of metal and plastic but humans could be called the most complex machines in the world. Instead of steel we have skin, instead of gears we have cells, organs and muscles, instead of a program we have free will. We are complex, biological machines living independent of any pre-programmed decisions. This is called being alive. Computers will never have life. This will always be the difference between humans and machines.- BDB (Google Images)

Atheist Church

   I want to start by saying that I don't believe in atheists. I believe people who call themselves atheists just don't understand God or are angry with him, usually it is a mixture of both. This rebellious world is full of evil that masquerades as sincerity and rational thought, and misguides many souls. With that being said, an atheist should be welcome into the house of God the same as any
other person. So what's the problem? The problem is they are often not welcome. Christians are often intimidated by so called atheists and are not equipped to answer their questions. This is especially true with the new breed of atheists who are
intelligent, articulate and very aggressive. This is devastating to a believer who is not secure in their faith. Instead, believers just avoid atheists or judge them harshly which in turn gives the atheist more justification for denying your God. As a Christian,
I can say we have been terrible at reaching out to those who struggle with belief. After all .....how we treat someone ultimately reflects on Jesus.

     We now turn our sights to Hollywood California where a new "church" has sprung up. This is not like other churches though,  this is an Atheist Church. The first question that came to my mind was, if atheists don't believe in God why do they want a church? As I gave this issue more thought...I realized they are trying to make a point. Make no mistake about it, this is a message aimed directly at Christians! The message goes like this- We now have a place where we meet once a week also. We will welcome everyone while being more friendly and less judgmental than you and we don't need God here to do it. The next question is-What do they do there if not worship God? The answer is- Worship everything else. They have motivational speakers, stand up comedy, music and even fellowship. This is great and I have absolutely no problem with it, but don't call it a church. This is where my gripe comes in. The founders of this "church" wanted to call it a church because it causes controversy. They know exactly what they are doing, calling it a worship/fun center wouldn't give them the attention they crave. From the outside I see people trying to fill a void that can only be filled by God- BDB

Source- (Google Images)
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/10/atheist-mega-churches-launch-in-u-s-but-not-all-non-believers-are-excited-about-it/#