I’m the man who made the world. You wouldn’t know it looking at me though. Nothing all that special about me. In fact, I used to be just like you. Well, I still am, but I used to be just like you think you still are. Confused? Give it time, and you’ll get what I mean. You might not believe me, but you’ll know what I mean.

As a young man, I spent my time searching for the truth of the universe. Never did find it. I tried though. Studied magick, witchcraft, eastern philosophy, eventually became a fundamentalist Christian, convinced I knew the one true path to God and determined to show everyone else the light. I would be the one who could bridge the gap between believer and non-believer. You can probably guess how that turned out.

During this time, there was an expedition for one of the holy artifacts used during the reign of King Arthur. Most people dismiss him as a legend. However, I now have it on very good authority that he is real, and he did many of the things people claimed, even some of the supernatural things. But, that’s really a bit of a tangent. The point is, I joined the expedition, and sought the Holy Grail with a group of like-minded Christian archaeologists.

Well, long story short, we found it. Rather, I found it. The rest of my crew perished in Siberia. How it ended up there, I have no idea. Some prince probably took it for just a fancy chalice and used it as such, and it was traded and bartered amongst royalty until it made it to Russia, where it somehow fell into the hands of others and was eventually lost.

I stumbled upon it quite by accident though. While walking along the snow-covered wastes, I wandered onto a lake without realizing it. When everything is covered in snow and ice, you don’t tend to pay attention to more ice. It collapsed, and I thought I was surely going to die. Would have, too, but I crashed through close enough to the grail that it pulled me to its hiding place, safe from the freezing water of the lake. It wanted me to find it, so it saved me.

See, the Grail wished to be reunited with Excalibur, though that isn’t the blade’s true name. Truly, it is called Infinity’s Edge. As we get more into this tale, I think you will come to see why.

In any case, the Grail led me through Earth, protecting me from the pressure, heat, and other dangers that exist far below the surface. After King Arthur, the blade was disposed of by people who never wanted it to appear again. It’s power threatened them, and they wished to maintain control of the populace. I don’t know who it was, but they had a vested interest in keeping their power.

Finally, I reached Infinity’s Edge at the core of the world. Upon touching the blade, I learned more about our world than you could possibly imagine. I certainly can’t explain it all. I was also given the power to remake our world, in any fashion I wished. In short, Infinity’s Edge granted the wielder power that belongs only to God. How could I use such power responsibly? Furthermore, why was it there in the first place?

At this time, I was still a fundamentalist Christian. I wanted to be right badly enough that I considered rewriting history on the spot and creating God to fill that role. It was very tempting, because then I could truly be right, and could likely start proving it to those who didn’t believe. It didn’t feel right though. I’d still know I’d been wrong. And truly, it wasn’t what was best for us. I tried to think more about what the Biblical Jesus would have done. And I had my answer, because it was what he had always tried to do when he was alive.

I planted the divine spark within humanity. Now, every person who walks this planet has the power of God. Most haven’t realized it yet. Even the highly spiritual, the spell casters, the priests, and all the others fail to notice the spark, as they are focused on their old ways, and not the new path open to them. That’s okay though. People will notice with time.

Now, why not just make everyone aware of this spark? Well, I considered it, but people have just as much propensity for evil as they do for good. I didn’t want people to just begin fighting over resources before they realized they don’t need to do so anymore. The power does not provide wisdom or knowledge, after all. We still have to learn that ourselves. We’d destroy ourselves if we went down that path. If people learn of it gradually, we’ll be able to incorporate the changes into our lives more easily. We don’t do rapid change well. Gradual change lets us get used to it a little at a time.

So, someday, people will see their power. Then, perhaps we’ll all learn to rely on ourselves more. Though I suspect in reality, people will have to rely on themselves more before discovering the power they have. After all, things like this tend to mirror the way we’ve always done things. In the meantime, I have more work to do. Otherwise, it might be a long time before I have someone else to speak of this with in casual conversation.

Also, I’d like to point out that many practicing monotheists (Christian and non-Christian alike) believe in Universal Salvation. To believe a loving God could condemn someone to hell for choosing the wrong beliefs is completely illogical, particularly when he has given us no way to know for sure. The Bible doesn’t count, as I could just as easily cite the Vedas or Koran as ultimate truth, with just as much validity. If God wanted us to be blind through life, he wouldn’t have given us the ability to reason through situations and ideas. As he gave us reason, I’d think he expects us to use it to better ourselves and our world, wouldn’t you? And since it’s illogical to think a loving God would condemn us to Hell for the wrong beliefs, I guess he’d think to make it clear which faith we should choose if he required us to make that choice correctly. Since that isn’t the case, and most of us presuppose a loving God, I’d say that leaves the option that God isn’t really looking for us to make the right choice of religion. He’s looking for us to live our lives the right way, which there is also no guide book for, which leaves us to reason out the best way for ourselves. Guess we’d better think for ourselves instead of relying on the Bible, don’t you think? Yes, there is some presumption in this paragraph. I know I don’t know the will of God. But I’m trying to come to a reasoned conclusion here based on premises that are commonly held by many religions, the most prominent being that God loves us, and my own reasoning and thought processes.

So, not only is Pascal’s Wager a poor argument because God can see what’s in your heart anyway, it’s also a poor argument because a loving God wouldn’t condemn anyone to Hell for making the wrong choice of religion without the knowledge to make an informed decision, or using our reason to come to our own conclusions. Stop using Pascal’s Wager to try to convince people. It doesn’t work, and it’s quite possibly one of the most flawed arguments to convert people I’ve ever seen.

It is this contradictory nature and the way people invest so much effort into it that gives the Bible the power it has. That power is to reveal the character of the person interpreting the Bible. Those who think of homosexuals as second-class citizens will harp on the parts that condemn homosexuality. Those who believe that people are evil will focus on the role of original sin. Those who believe in social justice will highlight the way Jesus tended to the downtrodden and the poor. Those who believe in equality will focus on the elements that proclaim everyone to have a right to enter paradise. You can justify just about anything by picking and choosing your Bible verses. What you choose to justify speaks volumes about your character, not God’s.

Consider the large variety of Christian churches. Then consider religions outside of Christianity that still read and interpret the Bible in their own ways. You will find groups who are liberal, centrist, and conservative. Authoritarians and libertarians. Groups that are inclusive and exclusive. Groups that believe in their own superiority, and those that believe in the equality of all people. Groups that believe we’re all evil, that believe we’re all good, and that believe we determine our own morals. They all interpret the Bible in their own way, and how they interpret it tells you a lot about them. It tells you what their organization thinks. And it gives you a good idea what most people in that organization think, though listening to personal interpretations will tell you more.

People full of hate will use the Bible to justify hateful actions they take towards other people, and other groups of people. People full of love will use the Bible to support others. Generous people will use the Bible to promote charitable works and likely donate what they can of their own time and/or money as well. People with a need for control will focus on those elements that let them assert control over others when those others buy into what is said.

Naturally, you’ll learn the most about a person who puts a lot of stock in the Bible. Still, you’ll even learn a lot about people who don’t really care much about the Bible if they’ll play along and put forward their own interpretations, or if they decide to enter into a debate with someone who does believe the Bible is an important book. How they debate this person will give you insight into what even they believe in terms of earthly morals.

The same could probably be said of many holy books. The Bible is what I am most familiar with, so that is what I chose to talk about.

In the end, the Bible isn’t the path that gets you into Heaven. The Bible is a path to explore your own heart. If you are vocal about your interpretation, you tell everyone else what is in your heart as well, whatever that may be. The interpretation you choose exposes what you believe.

1) Provide what help you can, as needed and asked for.

If you’ve managed to land a job lately, you’re a prime candidate for providing this help. The job market has changed a lot, and it’s not as easy as it used to be. Still, even those who found jobs a couple decades ago will still have some good, timeless advice, so long as they can adapt it to the job market today. Help with resumes, cover letters, and even making applications as appealing as possible can go a long way. Even knowing when it is a good time to make follow up calls is helpful information to many job seekers, as this is not common knowledge. All the little things that may seem obvious to you aren’t obvious to others, so point them out when possible.

2) Support, don’t nag.

Pop quiz. What’s the best way to make someone not want to look for a job? Nagging them about it. This is true of most anything, but when you’ve applied to twenty different places in the past month, and been turned down at all of them, the last thing you want to hear is how you should try harder, put in more time job searching, and just get a job already. By this point, a job seeker’s self esteem has already often taken a huge hit, and piling more on top of that isn’t going to help. Instead, gently direct them to places and people that may be able to help and other possible opportunities. Also, be sure to congratulate them on their victories, such as landing an interview. While they may seem like small victories, sometimes, they’re the best encouragement you can get.

3) Don’t act like it’s the job seeker’s fault he still doesn’t have a job.

This goes hand in hand with the above point. This is a huge self-esteem killer, and on top of that, is very likely to make the dedicated job hunter annoyed with you, cutting off your chances of helping them out. It’s true that some people don’t want a job, but the ones who are out looking are trying, and treating them as though they aren’t is not going to sit well with them. The economy is in still in the tank, even if it’s possibly getting better now, and it’s still difficult to find employment. There’s no sense in blaming this on the person trying to overcome it.

4) Job search sites are helpful, but not everything.

Use all reputable, available job search sites to find potential job opportunities. It’s way easier than looking for now hiring signs, which many places don’t even put up anymore. Still, encourage job seekers to do as much in person as possible, since establishing a connection with other people at the job will help in getting hired. This isn’t always possible, but it should be done whenever it is.

5) Don’t get discouraged if they don’t take every tip you give them.

Sometimes, job seekers know something you might not. For instance, you might know someone is good with computers, so you send them a bunch of IT and computer analyst jobs. What you don’t know, but the job seeker does, is that just being “good with computers” doesn’t qualify them for these jobs, and that additional training or knowledge may very well be required. This doesn’t mean you can’t show them how they may be qualified for a position they think they aren’t qualified for, just bear in mind there might be more to the job than you understand.

Hopefully, these tips can help you better assist someone in finding a job. Positive support will go a long way toward keeping them motivated and applying, and new tips and tricks can help them polish their technique. Good luck to you and those you may be helping.

However, consensus beliefs (that is, beliefs commonly held by a large group of people) remain quite common, and many people hold to them, by definition. So why do we have them?

The simplest explanation is that they have merit. If a lot of people individually come to hold the same beliefs and ideas, there’s a good chance there’s some truth to them. As such, I think any commonly agreed upon ideas are worth examining. This doesn’t mean you should blindly follow them, of course, but you should consider there might be a reason for the ideas to be so popular.

Of course, there’s also the possibility the ideas caught on somehow, and once they became popular, people used my reasoning above to think that if lots of people think in a particular way, it must be the right way. This only perpetuates itself unless people know how to think for themselves.

Of course, it’s also possible to have more than one set of consensus beliefs, held by more than one group of people. The example that comes to mind most readily is politics, in which we have a conservative consensus and a liberal consensus. There’s also a growing libertarian consensus in the U.S. This is still an oversimplification, but it illustrates my point of multiple groups of consensus.

So, why buy into it? Because it makes sense to you. To take an example, of all the political views I mentioned above, I most identify with the ideas of liberals. The idea that people should all have a minimum standard of living makes sense to me. But, that doesn’t mean I agree with liberals on everything. For instance, I think gun control laws should be minimal. The right to own weaponry is a Constitutionally protected right, and shouldn’t be given up. While I can see some laws limiting weaponry to be reasonable, they all need to be carefully considered and weighed against the Constitution, as well as be narrow in scope to not have unintended consequences later on.

I use this example to show that you can buy into the general idea a group espouses while still holding your own opinions. Gun control isn’t the only area I disagree with liberals on, but it’s a well known area and easy to explain quickly. I still like the general philosophy of liberals, and I picked it up because it was out there and well known because a lot of people agree with it and can explain it well. But then, I examined it more, and brought in my own experiences to refine it into a worldview that makes more sense to me.

My point in this is to show that generally agreeing with a group consensus isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes, there is merit to consensus beliefs. That merit is how many become popular in the first place. The problem is only when you accept consensus beliefs blindly, without examination, simply because it’s popular. I have no problem with anyone who disagrees with me, so long as they disagree intelligently and not just because the group says it has to be one way. I’m certainly not saying that liberal ideas are the only ones that make sense, but it’s all in how you think about it and the process you use to come to your beliefs and ideas. I only used liberals as an example since that’s generally where I fall on the political spectrum.

So, if you commonly treat what’s popular, or common beliefs, as bad solely because it is common, I’d urge you to reconsider. Sometimes, there’s value to be found in beliefs that are held by a large group of people. Don’t take them all at face value though, just consider them and think about the merits they may have. Sometimes, the crowd really is there to see something good. Just don’t follow the crowd without thinking first.

Here are some things people have done that have had a big impact on me, even though they are small things:

-I’ve been asked me why I was angry all the time, and what I was going to accomplish by it. This person was concerned about me and how I dealt with things, and wanted me to be able to express what I wanted productively. Thinking about it, I realized I would accomplish nothing by lashing out the way I used to, and it would be more constructive to do something about the reason I was angry instead of just yelling.

-Invited me out to a gathering of people and engaging me. I’m an introverted person, and I don’t talk much unless I have something to say. By talking to me and pulling me into the conversation with others present, they pulled me into the group and included me, making me realize how much I valued relationships with other people. Since then, I’ve realized it’s good to put in a lot of effort to make good friends and spend time with them, and do so often.

-Told me all the good things that they saw in me. Let’s just say it was a rough time in my life, and hearing that gave me a much needed confidence boost to realize I could push on and make things better.

-Invited me into the dorm community at college. Three people in particular went out of their way to make me feel included in the things that were going on in both our dorm and around campus at large. That made me feel like it was safe to put myself out there and get to know people, which helped me make a lot more friends and get to know people better. Not only that, but it makes social situations easier for me to this day. It probably helped that a lot of us were huge geeks anyway.

-I’ve thought about doing a few things just because it’s assumed you should by society at large. Then I thought about what a couple close friends would think of it and realized it would be really stupid to follow through. Just by being friends with me and accepting of me, they stopped me from doing some stupid things.

So yeah, those are just some examples. They’re all small things, and a lot of people do these kinds of things without even really thinking about it. But they really do matter. Sometimes, if one person doesn’t do it, someone else will. Other times, it really takes someone close to a person to get the message across, and just being close to that person is significant all on it’s own. In any case, don’t underestimate how you’ve effected others in your life. You’ve probably done more than you know, unless you’re extremely aware of how people react to you. So if you’re wondering what you’ve done that’s worthwhile, just think of the little things. They usually matter more than you realize.

So, what’s a soda lover to do? Make your own! You may not be able to get all the flavors you’re used to, but you should be able to find something you like. You only need two things to do it too: some carbonated water and a fruit juice that doesn’t use corn syrup. Sticking with 100% juice is probably healthiest, though if I’m making soda I usually worry about flavor first after being sure there’s no corn syrup in the drink. I like using martini and margarita mixers as they usually have enough flavor to still have some kick after being diluted. I just dilute them with carbonated water to make soda instead of the relevant alcoholic drink.

The high quality mixers usually have fruit juices and cane sugar rather than corn syrup, and they are completely worth the extra dollar or two. With juices, it might be worth picking up a concentrated fruit juice to mix with the tonic water, though it also might be harder to find a concentrate that doesn’t use corn syrup. If you prefer fresher juices, by all means stick with those, as they’re likely healthier anyway, and the trick is to try to make it as healthy as possible.

If you really want to stick with more familiar flavors, you can probably find some recipes floating around the internet, then just substitute healthier alternatives, most notably table sugar for corn syrup. You can also leave out all the food coloring not already in your ingredients if you go this route. While not appreciably healthier, it at least kicks some of the stuff out.

Still, I prefer making my own flavors from juices and heartily recommend you try it out. They have more tang to them than colas do, and they’re as simple as mixing tonic water with juice or a mixer of some kind until you have the taste you want.

In any case, if you’re a soda lover or just looking to try something new, I hope this gives you some ideas. Happy mixing.

Evolution is real. It is a scientific theory. This means it has been tested in ways as rigorous as we can devise, we have observed the process, found supporting evidence, and not found contradicting evidence. This means, unless we make some new discovery that throws a gear in the works, evolution is a good explanation for how complicated life arose from simple life. Such a new discovery is likely to only cause us to refine our view of evolution though. Basically, that evolution happens is a fact. How it happens is currently the domain of theory.

For an example, consider gravity. It is also a theory. For a long time, we used Newton’s laws of gravity to model it. We still use these laws in most circumstances, since they get the job done. However, we also discovered that at very high speeds, gravity does some funky, unexpected things. This is where Einstein’s theory of general relativity comes in. It is a more specific theory of gravity, but it served to refine our knowledge of how gravity works, not invalidate Newton’s work.

This is what will likely happen when the next great discovery on evolution is made. It will refine our knowledge and make it more specific, rather than invalidate what we already know.

In any case, I think if anyone told you gravity is just a theory, you’d probably laugh at them. I hope you would anyway. It is a theory, but it’s quite an important part of our knowledge.

If someone tells you something is just a theory as a way of dismissing it, it’s because they don’t understand that scientific theories have lots of testing and observation go into them before they are called theories. They don’t just think something up and call it a theory. When they’ve just thought it up and are getting ready to test it, it’s a hypothesis. Don’t let the way words are used casually detract from their meaning when they are used in a scientific context. Understand that in science, words are used very precisely, to be sure everyone is on the same page.

Additional resources:

Evolution: Fact and Theory
Scientific Evidence Supporting Evolution Continues To Grow
Evolution Is a Fact and a Theory

I used to have a very hard time falling asleep. I could spend hours laying in bed not sleeping. Sometimes, I just wasn’t tired. Other times, my mind just didn’t want to stop thinking. And when I was younger, it was truly annoying having a bedtime, because the fact was, I was not going to sleep anytime soon.

Eventually, I decided I wasn’t going to strictly abide by a bedtime anymore. Certainly, I would head to my room at the appropriate time and be appropriately quiet. But I got a feel for what volume the TV could be on without anyone hearing outside my room. I listened for when my parents went to bed so I could turn my light on and read. Then, I would play video games, read, and watch TV until I couldn’t hold my eyes open anymore. Then, it was an easy matter to fall asleep. My body just didn’t want to be awake anymore, so it was going to sleep whether I liked it or not.

I liked it way better than trying to sleep on my own. So, for me, the first step was simply to stop trying to sleep when I wasn’t tired. But it wasn’t the end. After all, becoming exhausted in order to fall asleep does get old after awhile, and  doesn’t lend itself well to the scheduled lives most people lead. I still had to wake up for school after all.

However, staying awake until I couldn’t anymore had another effect. After falling asleep quickly and easily for a long time, I learned what happens when I go to sleep. Not in a way I can explain, but rather I could observe how I felt going from awake to asleep as I kept just sleeping easily after staying awake for far too long. After seeing how that worked, I eventually learned to just do it whenever I become tired and wanted to sleep. Now, when ever I feel tired and would like to sleep, it’s a simple matter to lay down, close my eyes, and shut down within a few minutes. It’s not perfect mind you. I still get overly stressed and start thinking too much sometimes when I’d rather just  get some shut eye. But most of the time, it really is just time to lay down and go to sleep.

So, in short form, if you want to try this:

1) Start staying awake until staying awake is a struggle.
2) Lay down, get comfy, and go to sleep quickly due to being extremely tired.
3) Eventually, after many repetitions of steps one and two, learn to put yourself to sleep by noticing how you go to sleep quickly when extremely tired. This should happen subconsciously.

Naturally, sleep deprivation is considered a bad idea in the medical community, so it would be wise to consult a medical professional first. I wouldn’t expect something horribly bad to come of this so long as you’re smart about knowing your limits (protip: don’t drive after being awake for 24 hours straight), but getting a professional opinion on the matter can’t hurt and could possibly help a lot. It could also catch any issues that might be specific to you if you have any health complications that too little sleep might adversely effect.

Say what? People who don’t believe in magic have no reason to think it works, right? Well, right, but they also know that some people do think it works, and sometimes remarkable things happen or seem to happen. So, they’ve studied it and come to some of their own conclusions. Whether or not they’re right about all paranormal effects resulting from these phenomena, you definitely want to know about their insights, because they are all real effects observable in other areas of study, and they are things that you can do to trick yourself into thinking you’re performing some paranormal activity when you aren’t. By no means is this list complete, but it should give you something to think about.

1) Confirmation Bias

This is when you subconsciously pick and choose your evidence. The time you nail the exact card being drawn from a deck of cards sticks out in your mind more than all the times you get the wrong card. That one part of one dream you had (and wrote down), then it happened sticks out compared to all the dreams you had that have never come true. Forcing eight heads in a row to come up out of ten coin tosses, even though most of the time you end up with four to six. Unfortunately, this really doesn’t mean anything, because statistically speaking, that one time is insignificant compared to all the times nothing happened.

Wikipedia’s Article on Confirmation Bias

2) False Memories

Ever have a dream, then something happens just like what happened in the dream, and that causes you to remember the dream you had? If you didn’t write it down, what may have happened is you constructing a false memory instead. It’s actually very common for us to construct false memories, because our memories aren’t anywhere close to perfect. It’s just how we are. Anytime you have a vision, dream, or other prediction of the future, but don’t write it down before the future event happens, it could be you creating a false memory of predicting the event instead.

A News Story on Meta Religion about False Memories

3) The Placebo Effect

Technically speaking, this is something that happens when you think you should be healing, so your body activates systems designed to induce healing. In most clinical trials of new drugs, there are two groups of people told they are receiving the new drug, but one group is given a placebo pill, which is just a capsule containing sugar, milk, and/or other inert substances that don’t provide any medical benefit. And sometimes, people taking placebos show just as much improvement as those taking the real medication on trial, and it’s simply the act of taking a pill causes the body to use it’s own healing systems to take care of the problem.

Now, the first area to look for a placebo effect is in energetic healing. When people go to see a healer, if they fully believe the healer can help them, they actually might. However, the way it happens would be by inducing a placebo effect in the patient which causes their bodies to heal themselves. Obviously, placebo effects don’t cure everything, but they can hit a lot of common ailments that aren’t too serious, and even some serious ailments. To be clear, this is not to say placebos could replace real medicine, however, they are a real effect shown to exist and they are scientifically explainable.

Another area where you might see a “placebo effect” is in general energy manipulation. I put it in quotes because it’s not truly a placebo effect, but a lot of people seem to believe it’s a similar response. Basically, you expect to feel subtle energy, so your body obliges you and provides a tingling sensation to simulate the feeling of subtle energy. Heat, cold, wind, and tingling are all common perceptions to energy manipulators, which makes sense, because people commonly associate these feelings with energy of some kind.

Read about the placebo effect at Science Daily

In Conclusion

The point of this isn’t to say the paranormal does not exist. If you read my site, you know I do believe in paranormal things. Rather, the point is to air some real science that explains at least some of what seems paranormal, and to remind everyone that just because it seems paranormal doesn’t mean it is. In general, people interested in the paranormal are far more easily swayed than those who don’t, because those who are interested are inclined to believe things like “anything is possible” and “you can’t know for sure”. While both of these things are technically true, they are not license to throw out all the knowledge we have, and doing so can lead to problems. So just remember to keep your head about you, and don’t be too quick to label things as paranormal when there may be another explanation.