Balder Ex-Libris - Macleod WayneReview of books rare and missing2024-03-27T00:16:02+00:00urn:md5:aa728a70505b2fae05796923271581c2DotclearMacleod Wayne - Cosmos Theologyurn:md5:3c2293bfd870e126df8f232106f8e83a2021-10-04T02:58:00+01:002021-10-04T01:59:35+01:00balderMacleod WayneRacesRacialism <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img4/Macleod_C_Wayne_-_Cosmos_Theology.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Cosmos Theology</strong><br />
Year : 2021<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook3/Macleod_Wayne_-_Cosmos_Theology.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_Cosmos_Theology.zip</a><br />
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Part I - the Philosophy. What is the meaning of Life? At our individual level, due to our trivial existence, it all seems so mysterious. Philosophers and religions have attempted answers to this question for millennia. The theist religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism tell us that people find meaning by following God’s commandments. In Hinduism the meaning of Life is the achievement of Nirvana through virtuous living, found by continual rebirth. Buddhism admonishes one’s attachments to the material world, that invariably produce sorrowful living. Confucianism’s goal is the attainment of virtue through strong relationships and reasoning, thus emphasizing discipline and education. To be noted is how moral living became the purpose of Life in advanced religions. Modern philosophies include Utilitarianism, which teaches that “the greatest good for the greatest number” is the basis for determining ‘good’ in the world; Kantian philosophy bases good and bad on the universalist principle: if everyone behaved in a particular way, would the world be a better or worse place? Secular humanism believes that the development of the individual human being, leading to the good of humanity, is the purpose of Life, and atheism is the absence of belief that gods exist, whose members generally are humanists. Then we should not forget Nihilism with its assertion that Life has no meaning; and Satanism which accepts man’s nature as: “. . that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that is indifferent to our existence.” Most, if not all of these doctrines, and more that could be included, have some element of truth derived from intuition, and assuming they have taught us something about moral behaviour, can we distill from them the essence of that teaching? Let us take, for instance, the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, taught in Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism. Obviously this has to do with our treatment of each other, as do prohibitions on murder, stealing, cheating, lying and lust for another’s sex partner, while teaching charity, mercy and kindness. Distilled to their essence, they teach the need for empathy and proper behaviour for civilized society, which in turn essentially means cooperative society. A cooperative society means a more complex Life arrangement than individual existence, and therefore we might expect societies requiring empathy and cooperative behaviour to have some relevancy in the evolutionary advancement of human Life. With the knowledge now available from modern studies we can explore this possible connection to moral teaching, but first we must put aside all myth and mysticism, which historically have been the means of spiritual ‘enlightenment’. This rejection comes from our knowledge of Nature, even at the atomic level, for if any divine, omnipotent and omniscient Creator were the cause of everything, surely when we look into the heart of matter we would see evidence of certainty. Instead, we see only probability. On the quantum level, at the very heart of matter, all is probability. But neither does Cosmos Theology affirm atheism, for the evolution of Life suggests possible destiny, as though the human species had meaning even on the scale of the Universe. Ironically, it is only when we reject all mysticism that the full meaning of Life becomes manifest. <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - Cosmos Theology Bookleturn:md5:afba81ca5a2ee3759122b6a85a854da82021-10-04T01:57:00+01:002021-10-04T02:04:58+01:00balderMacleod WayneRacesRacialism <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img4/Macleod_C_Wayne_-_Cosmos_Theology_Booklet.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Cosmos Theology Booklet Science-derived morality from nature</strong><br />
Year : 2021<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook3/Macleod_Wayne_-_Cosmos_Theology_Booklet.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_Cosmos_Theology_Booklet.zip</a><br />
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Part I - the Philosophy. What is the meaning of Life? At our individual level, due to our trivial existence, it all seems so mysterious. Philosophers and religions have attempted answers to this question for millennia. The theist religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism tell us that people find meaning by following God’s commandments. In Hinduism the meaning of Life is the achievement of Nirvana through virtuous living, found by continual rebirth. Buddhism admonishes one’s attachments to the material world, that invariably produce sorrowful living. Confucianism’s goal is the attainment of virtue through strong relationships and reasoning, thus emphasizing discipline and education. To be noted is how moral living became the purpose of Life in advanced religions. Modern philosophies include Utilitarianism, which teaches that “the greatest good for the greatest number” is the basis for determining ‘good’ in the world; Kantian philosophy bases good and bad on the universalist principle: if everyone behaved in a particular way, would the world be a better or worse place? Secular humanism believes that the development of the individual human being, leading to the good of humanity, is the purpose of Life, and atheism is the absence of belief that gods exist, whose members generally are humanists. Then we should not forget Nihilism with its assertion that Life has no meaning; and Satanism which accepts man’s nature as: “. . that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that is indifferent to our existence.” Most, if not all of these doctrines, and more that could be included, have some element of truth derived from intuition, and assuming they have taught us something about moral behaviour, can we distill from them the essence of that teaching? Let us take, for instance, the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, taught in Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism. Obviously this has to do with our treatment of each other, as do prohibitions on murder, stealing, cheating, lying and lust for another’s sex partner, while teaching charity, mercy and kindness. Distilled to their essence, they teach the need for empathy and proper behaviour for civilized society, which in turn essentially means cooperative society. A cooperative society means a more complex Life arrangement than individual existence, and therefore we might expect societies requiring empathy and cooperative behaviour to have some relevancy in the evolutionary advancement of human Life. With the knowledge now available from modern studies we can explore this possible connection to moral teaching, but first we must put aside all myth and mysticism, which historically have been the means of spiritual ‘enlightenment’. This rejection comes from our knowledge of Nature, even at the atomic level, for if any divine, omnipotent and omniscient Creator were the cause of everything, surely when we look into the heart of matter we would see evidence of certainty. Instead, we see only probability. On the quantum level, at the very heart of matter, all is probability. But neither does Cosmos Theology affirm atheism, for the evolution of Life suggests possible destiny, as though the human species had meaning even on the scale of the Universe. Ironically, it is only when we reject all mysticism that the full meaning of Life becomes manifest. <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - The importance of race in civilizationurn:md5:98075e8bb6d5e00e796e099be56da3d82013-07-16T18:02:00+01:002013-07-16T17:04:46+01:00balderMacleod WayneCivilizationsRacialism <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img2/.Macleod_Wayne_-_The_importance_of_race_in_civilization_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>The importance of race in civilization</strong><br />
Year : 1968<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook2/Macleod_Wayne_-_The_importance_of_race_in_civilization.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_The_importance_of_race_in_civilization.zip</a><br />
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The lesson of History. For the past 6,000 years the world has been witness to a phenomenal ebb and flow in the affairs of men. From a precarious living as food gatherers when people were as much a part of nature as the trees and animals, which even today is admitted by culturally primitive tribes in their legends, from a time when one centmy was much the same as any other, mankind, or rather certain segments of mankind, at various periods and places embarked upon programs of vigorous activity and thought, producing structmes and evolving a history that will forever excite the imagination, only to eventually fall back again into the primordial night, leaving their mins as testimony of their greatness, indeed, even existence. When we reflect upon the benefits of cultural and material progress that has elevated man out of the animal realm, in the sense of giving him a measure of dominance over physical forces, and his own life one of promising ease and security, the wonder is not so much that civilization and learning should arise, but rather that it should decline, and any t:hinking on this subject undertaken to explain its appearance, giving sole credit to external influences of climate or geography, must by necessity break down on this account, since these supposed stimuli remain. To the superficially educated, ·the destruction of a great civilized Culture comes with its being overrun by barbaric hordes, with, presumably, the example of Rome in mind, or through war that brought an end to the Aztec and Carthagenian Empires, and which is especially easy to believe in the modern age of atomic weapons. This popular view, of course, contains a grain of fact, but is not the kernel of truth, as any informed historian would readily agree with Toynbee's comment, that of 21 occasions where civilization has been established, 19 Cultures perished, nQt because of external conquest but because of evaporation of substance from within. In other words, where a great Cultme has been erased from the world we should first look for evidence of decline inside its structure, for this is the enigma: the civilizations of the past, like living organisms, have shown cultural deterioration on their own part, whose institutions became spiritless, formalized, hierarchial, sometimes ruthless, shells, which less sophisticated but more vigorous peoples did us the service of putting an end to. <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - The mistake of universalismurn:md5:59974d18cca02b833de715775ddb28ee2013-07-15T13:49:00+01:002013-07-15T12:50:22+01:00balderMacleod WayneCivilizationsEuropeNorth AmericaRacialism <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img2/.Macleod_Wayne_-_The_mistake_of_universalism_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>The mistake of universalism</strong><br />
Year : 2006<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook2/Macleod_Wayne_-_The_mistake_of_universalism.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_The_mistake_of_universalism.zip</a><br />
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History is not the study of general humanity but of nations. No matter what we study about the past it is always couched in some form of nation, but the forms of nationhood have changed dramatically throughout the centuries. In ancient Greece nation meant the polis, or just a city with its surrounding countryside. Louis XIV could say: “L’etat, c’ést moi,” for in his time the nation was centered on the king. The Levantine civilization of the Near East defined nation by religion, as Jews still define themselves today, resulting after two thousand years of the Diaspora in the state of Israel. The Western world has given a spatial meaning to the concept of nation. With all these forms we might ask just what “nation” means. The Germans were the first to give nation a racial meaning, and surely race must be part of the definition because we can distinguish nationalities by looking at the people, but then we must acknowledge that most, if not all, nations are ethnic composites. The Japanese certainly consider themselves a nation, but are composed of Chinese, Polynesian and Ainu. Germans themselves are a Nordic-Alpine mix, British are Nordic-Iberian. So if we think of nations only as racial we get a sense that something is missing in our definition. That obvious something is culture: nations are racial-cultural divisions of humanity, brought forth by nature and are not creations of the mind as is the state. The form of nation can change throughout the centuries and between civilizations but this definition remains true. The Athenians were hardly distinguishable from Spartans racially but they certainly were culturally, hence they formed different nations. Culture even affects ethnicity, for when people share the same language, religion, customs, traditions, etc., they blend, to form a distinguishable national type. If a totally different race blends with an original nation so formed, that original nation is destroyed, for when people with different talents and temperament mix, their culture must invariably change. With this understanding what can we make of Canada and the United States, defined today as “multicultural nations”? Obviously here is a contradiction of terms. The view in these countries is that a nation is an economic-political region demarcated by a line on a map like the forty-ninth parallel. Such a superficial view of nationhood suits the economic power structure of the corporate elite because modern corporations are nationless, and just as they move capital to diverse international locations with loyalty only to their profit margins, the encouragement of peoples to move across borders is similarly determined by the same profit motivation. With an abundant supply of labor, wages can be held low regardless of where that labor comes from. Multiculturalism is profitable. Ask any American or English Canadian what the difference is between nation, state and country and he/she will not be able to tell you, although these are as different as culture, government and territory. The purely economic perception of nationhood was perhaps inevitable in the United States and Canada because English-speaking North American lacks a feudal past. The Feudal Age in Europe was one of rigid social mobility, where everyone knew his/her place within a religious framework, with the result that an overall, collective perception of society as an organic whole prevailed. This was the soil from which grew the nations of Europe. When eighteenth century liberalism came into vogue, which emphasized the individual, this organic perception in Europe was not lost. A synthesis between old and new emerged. Colonies spun off from Europe before the liberal revolution, in Quebec and Latin America, maintained the collective outlook, but colonies founded after that revolution, in the United States, Australia and English Canada, were peopled with liberal settlers who shrugged off the old organic view. Thus we see nationalism in these countries identified with individual benefit, such as America being the champion of private enterprise and a repository of rights and freedoms for all people. When the American national origins policy in immigration was scrapped in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed that policy “un-American”. In World War II the English, French, Russians, Germans and Japanese fought for England, France, Russia, Germany and Japan, but Americans fought for “freedom”. When Quebec separatists expressed their desire for a sovereign Quebec to protect their unique national culture, English Canadians could only ask: “What does Quebec want?” Without an organic perception of nationhood the liberal colonies were particularly open to multiculturalism, with its rationalized justification that cultural diversity brought by the intermingling of many peoples gives richness to a country. That cultural innovations from around the world are an asset is not disputed, but it must be recognized that a mass intermingling of peoples is not necessary for such benefit. Historically, the introduction of oriental advancements into Medieval Europe was made by Europeans themselves, whether Crusaders or travelers such as the Polos. The heavy presence of Western influence in Japan does not require thousands of white faces in that nation. On the contrary, there is evidence from history that multiculturalism is destructive of great societies. No society could have been more multicultural (or cosmopolitan, as it was then called) than that of decadent Rome. Rome was the world government of its time, and in its streets were races and peoples from every part of its empire. Reflecting upon the fate of the Roman Empire, it would be untruthful to say that multiculturalism was of any lasting benefit to that great world, and naïve to assert it as an inspiration for future human progress. Yet that is what the liberal asserts, while voicing a diminutive view of race and its importance in history. <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - Mind capsuleurn:md5:d195acf8d31ce0d13c563c9b370ce71f2013-07-15T13:43:00+01:002013-07-15T12:51:54+01:00balderMacleod WayneNovel <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img2/.Macleod_Wayne_-_Mind_capsule_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Mind capsule</strong><br />
Year : 2004<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook2/Macleod_Wayne_-_Mind_capsule.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_Mind_capsule.zip</a><br />
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There it sat, protruding from the dry soil, just as Boyd said: a thick copper dome over three meters in diameter, corroded and pitted from the ravages of age. Doctor Niemeyer knew the find must have been extraordinary by the tone of the telegram he received, but he thought a mummy, a celestial calendar, nothing so colossal, so absolutely confirming of his theory if it all checked out to be what he dared believe. From the ridge of debris he could see a porthole. Despite his sixty years he lost no time in scrambling into the excavation pit, and resting his thin frame against the shell, thrust his head into the opening. A mellow green light bather the inside of the strange metal bubble, eliminating all interior shadow. An oblong block of indiscernible substance protruded from a flat, metallic floor, placed off center to allow movement under the curved roof. Strange inscriptions surrounded its base, like none the doctor had ever seen. From the block radiated strayed patterns along the floor, that evolved into convolutions of copper thickness up the curved walls. Despite the evident technology, the whole construction was immaculately simple. How old was the shell? How long had it lain with its silent secrets? If he was correct, it was older than the pyramids. "This definitely confirms your theory," shouted a blond, crew cut youth. "It's what we've been looking for." "Let's not jump to conclusions, Sidney.” He tore his gaze from the porthole and worked his way back to Sidney Boyd, who had remained standing at the edge of the rubble. “We can’t say this dome has any historical significance until we determine its age, although judging from the exterior corrosion it looks incredibly old." Another associate, unknown to the doctor, was leaning with his back against their rented jeep, stuffing tobacco into an oversized pipe. "You know, Doctor," the stranger said, "I could swear before that porthole opened there wasn't the slightest cut in that metal. I don't mean just a very close fit. I mean nothing, as if there had never been a cut there." "Ah! You must be Mister Ryan. I understand it was you who made this find." "He's the one, Doctor," Boyd interjected. "Charlie's had a keen interest in your views for years. A real idea man too. You'll find him a valuable addition to our team." The doctor and Ryan exchanged cordialities. "Your observation is certainly strange...incredible, in fact. But first tell me how you found this dome." The request was badly timed for Charlie Ryan had begun lighting his beloved pipe. He gave great heaves to finish the task, then replaced the lighter in his vest pocket. Ryan was heavy set, bald except for a short fringe of greying hair at ear level, and sported a beaked nose that protruded from an otherwise unimpressive face. He took several drags before settling into a short chat: "As you see, Doctor, the region here is quite open, giving us a view of mounds that might arouse our suspicion. We've been looking around this desert for about five weeks, isn't that right, Sidney?" Boyd nodded agreement. "Our method of search has been to scout the countryside to stick probes into mounds that look promising, then decide whether or not to excavate since our funds are so limited we can't dig up everything we'd like. Well, I came across this mound and when I put my few Bolivian hands to work clearing off its top layers of dirt, lo and behold, what emerged was that dome." Ryan paused to replace the curved pipe between his yellow teeth, releasing a puff of smoke that leisurely dissipated in the cool air of the altiplano. "I immediately set my help clearing away every speck of dirt over the find, and what they uncovered were three square indentures arranged in a ninety degree triangle, like Pythagoras' Theorem. When I tapped them they glowed momentarily, very dimly but enough that I could just make out their light. Their arrangement gave me the idea of tapping them in Pythagoras' relationship, three, four, five, because their squares add: nine plus sixteen equals twenty-five. Three taps for the small square, four for the next and five for the hypotenuse square. When I finished tapping, a circular crack appeared in the metal and the whole portion blew in. That's what gave the porthole you were just looking into." The doctor peered at Ryan through thick, frameless glasses, his face flushed and jaw sagged open under his bushy moustache. The more he learned of the dome the more amazed he became. Could it be something other than an artefact left by ancient people? He did not have long to ponder the question as his attention was diverted by two figures, of a youthful man and woman, running from a near-by camp. Both smiled jubilantly as they aggressively closed their hands around the doctor's. "Leslie and Mark Jennings," Boyd said, introducing them. "They arrived today from work at Tiahuanaco. They're very interested in your theory on history." Obviously college people, thought the doctor. At least his ideas had some circulation among the younger generation. Bringing the attention of everyone again to the dome: "I suppose you think it's a tomb." Boyd nodded affirmatively. "Our first job is to open the rectangular object inside, whatever it is; perhaps a sarcophagus. Have you tried?" Ryan answered: "No. We thought it was best to leave everything until you arrived." He paused, with narrowed eyes. "You know, I believe the dome couldn't possibly be a tomb. It's true that tombs are sometimes opened for ceremonial purposes, but this shell was designed to be opened." "You believe it might be an attempt to communicate with the future?" "Not only that," Ryan tore the pipe from his mouth and poked the air with its stub, at the doctor, "it could be an attempt to communicate only with people possessing a degree of technical sophistication. That's the reason for the Pythagorean puzzle. It would be a freak accident if someone opened that porthole who didn't have some knowledge of Mathematics. Since I'm a retired engineer I had little trouble. No, there's a message in this shell. All we have to do is learn to read it." The doctor gazed back at Ryan. A twisted brow deformed his thin face. "Whatever it is, it's fairly empty. I suspect it has been pillaged..." "Not at all!" Ryan responded. "A partial vacuum caused that porthole to blow in. I'm convinced the shell is as intact as the day it was sealed. It contains information its constructors thought too important to give to a non-scientific age." He again jabbed the air with the stub of his pipe. "They wanted some assurance its message wouldn't be passed on as legend, drowned in superstition." The thought of a direct link with the past, a time capsule, caused Doctor Niemeyer's eyes to open wide, to stare excitedly, wonderingly, quizzically. A time capsule would contain objects from one age to give to another. How could a nearly empty shell fulfil that purpose if Ryan was correct? He paced back and forth over the dry soil, head lowered, hands locked behind his back. "Most strange, most strange," he mumbled, then stopped his ambling: "Why this shape, one of the hardest shapes to construct, and why made of copper? Why not use stone, like so many other structures we see from Andean civilization?" "That puzzled me too, Doctor. Of course, the spherical shape gives structural strength to a soft metal, but it still doesn't explain why copper was used in the first place. I think copper has another property we shouldn't overlook: its electrical conductivity, strange as that may seem for a device this old." "It's mind boggling," Boyd interrupted. "But you might be on to something, Charlie. There's obviously a power source for that interior light." "Yes, but I don't mean for lighting. I think the copper could be a shield. Against what? I don't know. The shell was obviously built to protect the 'sarcophagus,' and the electrical properties of copper might add somehow to that protection. It's just another idea we should keep in mind." The day had already grown late and a red sky hung over the western horizon. Boyd suggested: "Let's continue our thoughts about this at camp. It’ll soon be dark." They agreed there was nothing else to accomplish that day. Their work would resume in earnest early next morning. After securing a tarpaulin over the dome, they left the site. Everyone retired early that evening in preparation for the morning, but as the hours ticked by, Doctor Niemeyer found he could not sleep. He lay on his cot with his hands folded beneath his head, gazing up in the blackness at the ceiling of Boyd's tent. He could not get his mind off the events of the afternoon and their significance to him personally. For thirteen years he compiled an extensive list of historical oddities in an effort to prove the existence of a highly developed culture in the distant past, that continued to affect Earth's history long after its disappearance. He knew that legends of 'lost continents' were mythical, yet there was a period when the sciences were advanced much further than modern scholars realized. Those ancient people, whoever they were, passed their learning to the barbarians who developed the civilizations we know. In every case where civilization arose, crude and ignorant peoples emerged from jungles and wilderness with a high degree of technical knowledge, producing accomplishments in massive stone that baffle engineers even today. In every case, the more magnificent structures were built in the beginning of their respective civilizations, not after centuries of technical development. Egypt's pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom, not the later Empire, and architectural development from the earliest stone masonry to the Great Pyramid of Khufu lasted no more than a hundred and twenty-five years. The pattern was the same everywhere, throughout the ages. But if ancient technology wasn't sufficiently convincing, cultural similarities spread over the globe were another thread in his weave of proof. Similar artistic styles were evident between the Maya and Chinese, and the Mayan calendar resembled the Balinese. In both Old and New Worlds people played similar games and musical instruments, danced similar dances, had similar legends like the Flood, and erected stepped mounds, pyramids, pagodas and temples. All the evidence pointed solely to one conclusion: somewhere, long ago, there existed a culture highly developed in scientific thought, that distributed its benefits to the civilizations of history. The whole of Earth's past was connected. A common inheritance ran through it all. Try as he had, with all his amassed facts, he could not enlist the cooperation, or even the friendly endorsement of his views, of any respectable scientist. Whenever he attempted to prove his theory amid the halls of higher learning he was met with amused silence. He made requests from foundations the world over for financial assistance, spoke at universities in every country of the industrialized world, spent his own time and resources on archaeological 'digs'. In the end he only succeeded in making himself look ridiculous to the learned elite, and was able to convince only a limited few, amateurs like Sidney Boyd and Charlie Ryan, who were fired with enough dedication to make up for legions, but were not professionals in the field of archaeology. In that year of 1959, after years of research, his case narrowed to South America and to the Bolivian plateau. Now, he was certain, the tables would be turned. The copper dome somehow held proof that he was correct. The most intransigent faculty member of the most conservative university would have to be convinced. He, Samuel P. Niemeyer, would be hailed as a new Schliemann! But in what way could the almost empty shell hold any secrets? Obviously the answer was in the 'sarcophagus'. The doctor tossed on his cot. Finally he rose, deciding he would never sleep that night. From the opposite side of the tent he could hear the even breathing of Sidney Boyd. Good, he thought, Boyd is asleep. He felt for his glasses, found them, then switched on a flash-light to scan his quarters. In the corner of the tent was a small table supporting a kerosene lamp and dirty coffee cup. His clothes were draped over a chair next to the table. Hastily he put on his trousers, heavy shirt, boots, jacket and cap, then quietly eased himself out of the tent. He was going back, alone, to the site. A moment of doubt rushed over Doctor Niemeyer as he stood in the still darkness; or was it fear to face the unknown? He approached the dome apprehensively, peeled back the tarpaulin and again peered into the mellow interior. Its green luminance ran over his face and shoulders, etching him against the blackness of the star-lit sky. He raised himself on the corroded surface and shoved one leg through the porthole, then supporting his weight from his shoulders, lowered himself through the opening and fell to the side of the peculiar, box-like 'sarcophagus'. He could then clearly see the inscriptions surrounding its base, and knew they were unrelated to any known culture. He examined the puzzling structure - not glass, not plastic, not like any material he had ever seen. The whole sophistication of the find, including its radiance, emphasized a technology completely unfamiliar. A slow realization percolated in his mind, one he had already speculated upon when listening to Ryan's account but did not dare put into words. He firmly believed the ancients were more advanced than historians realized, but they could not have been this advanced. No, he thought, ancient people did not make this marvel. But if they did not, who did? There was only one answer: It came from elsewhere, from some place other than Earth! The beat of his heart was strong in his ears, hairs bristled on his neck, every instinct demanded that he run. His eyes turned automatically up to the porthole. It was still open. The dome was not a trap. Slowly his old composure returned. He was a scientist dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, even if he had to put his life on the line. Here within his grasp was everything he wanted to know, here was the vindication of his theory, his momentous chance to absolve himself from scientific heresy. He wasn't going to throw that away in an instant of panic. Somehow he had to unlock the secret of that pristine block imposing its presence in that circular chamber. A bead of cold sweat trickled down his face as he stared at what he then knew with certainty to be a sarcophagus, but of a type he never thought possible. The blue light beginning to shine inside its translucent structure transfixed his eyes; he could clearly see motion within: swirls of cloud passing through a radiant crystal. The sarcophagus seemed to be coming to life, advertising its intent telepathically. Inside, a circular device materialized, that grew from an interior cloud drifting to the surface. A haze distorted the object as it emerged from the crystal, and when cleared he saw, sitting on the hard surface which only moments before had all appearances of a liquid, a large ring. The peculiar oval was of pure silver and not completely closed. Across the opening was a small disc suspended by two fine fibres. The shape of the ring suggested a tiara. After a thoughtful moment he placed it on his head, and immediately heightened perception exploded in his brain. Billions of cells electrified into fervent activity. His body now seemed lethargic. It floated. Time was speeded up. His mind was racing. The sarcophagus then made sense to him. It was a doorway to the past. The dome was a time capsule, but its constructors were not content merely to leave the trinkets of their world as amusements to people of the future. Those people of the future were to visit them, live as they once lived, see, feel and smell the sights which they had, to discover their ancient world in its entirety. All this was open to the doctor, a highway into time beckoned, and as he gazed into the swirls he felt himself drawn inside, the blue light and swirls encompassing his entire being. Bodily control drained away, in the sense of detachment, not paralysis. His mind and body were no longer joined in a single entity, his mind was floating through space, adrift on a sea of eternity, and everywhere were the swirls that grew heavier, that gradually extinguished all consciousness. Doctor Niemeyer awoke as if from a troubled dream, with a strange sense of age in his limbs. Gradually his clouded mind discerned the old man standing directly in front of him, a man who appeared in his eighties, with white hair and beard, bright eyes only slightly faded from so many years, and faintly stooped shoulders that still hinted at a robust frame in its youth. His clothes were of a style completely unknown, the man being dressed in a sleeved tunic tied at the waist, with a wide sash that trailed down a cleated skirt. His legs were clothed by pants pulled tight at the knees, and on his feet and shins were shinning, tight windings. His whole appearance was one of elegance and importance. Most noticeable of his attire was a silver tiara that held a small disc pressed between his eyes. Greetings to the past. Did the old man speak? Not a trace of movement was evident on his lips. Through the technology of my time you and I, future one, have become the same in mind. My thoughts and emotions are yours, and shortly the most salient portions of my life will be yours as well. My intentions are to give you the occurrences of my life as if you lived them, in the hope of conveying to the future that which has transpired. In them you will learn of a great danger that threatens your world. First, I shall demonstrate. I raise a small hammer and bring it down swiftly before me. There is the smash and tinkle of broken glass. The image of an old man you had before you has disappeared in the crash, and what you see now is the opposite side of this stone room between jagged edges of broken mirror. The old man is you! My mind and body have become your mind and body. Thus it is that I can speak to you without uttering vocal sounds, without knowing your language, and this over a time span of thousands of years. We are one. I am Lucirin, developed twenty-ninth year of the cycle Andra-naudae, rebel Aesir. I am of the same flesh as you, a descendant of Earth, without belonging here. I came into existence in a far-off world. 'Born' is not the proper word for people like me. You may think it strange that people do not have to be born, depending on the level of your science. It matters little. All will be explained shortly. We shall first return to the world of my youth, and from there follow the events of my life consecutively. You will live through them in my person. The device that enables me to do this is the sarcophagus with which you are already familiar. It is a memory transcriber, capable of many wondrous duties, but for my purpose will serve as a thought storage and transfer machine. A person's brain has recorded in its cells every detail of his or her life. Although you may think memories of minor occurrences are lost, a smell, for example, associated with a remote happening, they are not, so a reoccurrence of that same smell much later in life may trigger a whole chain of memories that were thought long forgotten. Every experience is retained by the brain in minute detail, that simply needs reawakening. I have already synchronized the transcriber with my life history. It will search my brain for memories corresponding to periods in my life I have selected, stimulate my memory into a very realistic dream, and record the memory. That memory will then last in a dormant state for millennia, to be passed on to the next person who uses the transcriber. You, of course, are that person, and my memories will be as real to you as they are to me, although thousands of years of this planet will have passed between us. Again I shall live the life of younger times, journey between the stars, visit worlds with strange happenings. And you will be there. In the end you will have lived two lives, your own and mine - mine that has ended millennia before your existence. Remember these experiences, future one, and learn well by them, for although I have been rich and powerful in life it is the memories of my life that are all I have left to give. In these memories you will learn of a danger to your world. Take this knowledge and warn the people of your time, for it is a danger that is world encompassing. If you fail, a curse will descend upon all future generations of Earth, a curse as inevitable as night following day, as implacable as ice over an arctic sea. I shall begin. I prostrate myself upon the transcriber. A billion particles vibrate beneath. My body loosens its grip upon my mind and I begin to float in the timeless swirl. The machine searches my mind. The world becomes dark, I am losing consciousness...Already I sense the strength and vigour of...my youth... <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - Logos Cosmotheism A rational religionurn:md5:1e989cae0b8c546b6bfbc2ee201e6d7e2013-07-08T19:11:00+01:002013-07-08T18:12:11+01:00balderMacleod WayneCosmotheism <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img2/.Macleod_Wayne_-_Logos_Cosmotheism_A_rational_religion_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Logos Cosmotheism A rational religion</strong><br />
Year : 2007<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook2/Macleod_Wayne_-_Logos_Cosmotheism_A_rational_religion.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_Logos_Cosmotheism_A_rational_religion.zip</a><br />
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With most aspects of our lives, when we wish to know whether a particular idea, belief or manner of thinking is correct, we generally take the trouble to search out factual support.! If the belief cannot be verified directly by our senses, for example the atomic structure of matter, people have not been content to merely wallow in speculation and have undertaken ingenious methods to test their hypotheses.! The rational method has been exceptionally beneficial, although we could still claim that sickness is caused by evil spirits because no one has ever seen germs make a person sick, and the evidence of their doing so is largely circumstantial. Given the vast benefits of the reasoning mind, which everyone acknowledges from daily experience, the wonder is that any other manner of thought could explain the more fundamental nature of our being, yet traditionally metaphysical explanations of Creation, good and evil, morality and natural phenomena continue to hold sway over large portions of civilization.! Among people who have lost traditional faith, ethics and morality have become relative, based on the needs of human beings in varying circumstances. ! Where the old metaphysical reasons for behavior are discredited, the humanization of ethics is most natural, for is not correct behavior instituted for the benefit of people in the first place?! We may heartily agree that it is, except when human behavior is justified by ‘happiness’ we must first decide if the causes of ‘happiness’ are always moral.! That people can live both happy and immoral lives appears evident, and the act of the martyr suffering for humanity challenges the modern philosophy: “If it is right for you, do it.” The purpose of this writing is to present a rational religion derived from nature. In the process we shall demonstrate that in matters which have fallen within the field of traditional religion there is no need to extend beyond this universe we know; show that the relativistic, liberal and humanistic outlook, which has largely supplanted traditional religion, can not only be false, it can be destructive; and present a rational basis for ethical behavior derived from simple observation and deduction.! By no means is meant to convey that the supernatural is impossible. As revealed by modern science, we live on the surface of reality, with so little known of our actual existence that dogmatic proclamations of any sort are foolish. All that is asked of the reader is recognition that our only means of proving anything is through reason based on observation, or by extrapolations of the probable, thereby suspecting imagined experiences impressed on the emotions as revelations of ‘truth’.! We live in a natural universe, with natural causes either for good or evil that require no supernatural explanation, and as inhabitants of this universe our common sense should tell us we are duty bound to believe only what is within our realm of experience.! The tragedy of traditional belief is that by a process of selection over millennia it has established the absolutes required for human society, while continuing to implement those absolutes on a supernatural causality.! When this supernatural causality is undermined in an enlightened era, the absolutes are unpinned.! Here we shall attempt to solve the problem of absolutes without traditional religion. If we take a glass of clear, still water and slowly insert a droplet of ink into the centre with an eyedropper, the ink initially hangs as a globule of color with a few streaks of tint slowly spreading outward.! The initial stage is one of concentration that needs for its appearance an outside agent, namely the person who deposits the ink.! In time the globule will disappear because the ink will disperse evenly throughout the water, leaving a completed mixture in the glass.! This end state needs no outside agent; it is the result of random action between the molecules of ink and water and can be predicted.! The resulting mixture requires no intelligent direction, being an unavoidable and natural action happening on its own in time.! This is an illustration of what we see occurring repeatedly in nature: the inevitable and natural trend toward dispersion, dissipation and randomization in time.! Other examples are equally evident: a house becomes untidy because that is its more probable state without a diligent housekeeper, and when a porcelain plate breaks, its pieces are testimony that nothing we see or touch today will perpetually be as we know it, given sufficient time.! A fence left to the random forces of wind and rain will eventually weather, and a machine without care will inevitably break down.! Encompassed under one postulate, “Murphy’s Law” has best given this natural trend expression: “If something can go wrong, it will.”! We shall give it a more rigorous definition in the Law of Regression: When change is inevitable without force or forces to impel or maintain, all order tends toward disorder.! This is purely a law of probability since with inevitable change in time there are an infinite number of states to enter, where the number of higher states is limited and therefore less likely entered unless directed. Closely associated with material randomization is energy disutility, known as entropy, which again is always expected in time.! Nothing is more fundamental in nature than the inexorable tendency of a high energy state to change to a state of lower energy.! The most common experience we have of this is a hot object cooling.! The controlled flow of energy to lower states is how we make use of energy, for example, the steam in a boiler to move a machine, or the discharge of a battery.! Even on the atomic scale, an excited electron will not remain in that state if it can fall to a lower quantum level and emit the energy difference as light.! There is nothing mysterious about energy dissipation; it is just another manifestation of the logic in nature for everything to take the path of least resistance, and to continue until equilibrium is reached. We can think of the amount of order in a physical state as being representative of the energy in that state, so a higher ordered state represents more energy than a lower ordered state.! Obviously, if we wanted any particular sequence of numbers drawn from, say, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, there would have to be an input of energy to obtain it, which is not true of any sequence drawn at random.! A higher ordered state therefore represents less randomness, i.e., one with less probability of occurrence purely by random forces, and since it requires energy to obtain its material realization is representative of an energy status. The higher the order the more energy is in its structure.! How should we understand the term “Creator” when applied to a mortal Universe that is inevitably running down? Should we discard it as having no meaning? Absolutely not, because regression can be reversed, only in very localized regions of space and time, although eventually all regions must succumb to their inevitable fate. The Earth is such a localized region. When all the conditions for life are considered their combined appearance seems improbable, except that the Universe is so vast all those conditions are bound to exist somewhere sometime. Then natural forces can operate to ratchet up complexity. This is the Creator: the Universe itself providing large numbers within which anything is possible. Inevitably somewhere sometime conditions will exist to produce life no matter how improbable. Such is the LOGOS: the understanding of a rational Universe. Although the inexorable tendency of existence is the decline into less ordered states, as everyone knows high states of order do exist, usually constructed while their systems are en route to equilibrium.! The ink blob does not immediately disperse evenly throughout the water but is moved by minute currents to form entertaining patterns, more complex than the initial ink blob.! Chaotic clouds of dust and gas spread throughout the universe contract into stars and solar systems where life can appear.! One of the first discoveries of spontaneous order was by Henri Benard in 1900, when a liquid heated in a dish portrayed a multitude of hexagonal patterns.! Such instances of spontaneous order fascinate mathematicians researching Chaos Theory.! Although when considering such examples material order is increased, they are open systems depending on an input of energy.! We should remember this when considering human examples. What we know as creation is the existence of ordered states, which means the expenditure of energy by nonrandom forces for its appearance, where nonrandom force means any force occurring in one direction more often than by chance occurrence.! Although on the scale of the Universe all forces are chaotic, taken on a local scale forces can be directional. An analogy would be a weather pattern, which over all is circular and the direction of its winds is therefore in all directions, but at a particular, localized time and place the wind is felt coming from only one direction. Since energy is absorbed in the procurement of higher ordered states, force is required for their realization, force being energy given direction.! Thus, wherever we find an existing order we can be assured of nonrandom force or forces making it possible, even giving its origin.! The occurrence of the initial glob of ink, for instance, could not be predicted without knowledge of the depositor’s intention.! The occurrence of a droplet of ink in a glass of water is highly improbable without some nonrandom force involved.! Consequently, we could never expect the resulting mixture to reverse itself and separate into pure water and a condensed globule.! If that should happen we would immediately suspect a nonrandom force acting, one perhaps dealing with ionization and an attracting electrode. It is argued that chaos is equally the cause of creation. The complexity of a snowflake is created by multiple, unpredictable combinations of temperature, humidity and impurities that a droplet of water encounters when falling!through the atmosphere. A jungle with its chaos of life is a less ordered place than a sterile desert, which changes little. Evolution is largely caused by changes in the environment, sometimes catastrophic ones, that are unpredictable and chaotic. Mutations, that give new characteristics, are completely random. All of this is correct, but we should note that in addition to the chaotic forces forming a snowflake there is surface tension on the droplet attempting to form it into a sphere. Nothing is more orderly than a sphere. Let us not confuse life with life’s activities, as in the exuberance of a jungle, which are indeed entropic. The balance of an ecosystem is exquisitely higher than that of a sterile desert. To evolve, life must experience natural selection, which is a force tending toward stable adaptation. Examples where energy added to a system produces chaos, not order, would include water as compared to the highly structured order of ice. !Compared to ice and crystals, liquid water is chaotic, but its energy is random. Molecular vibrations, that we know as heat, are in all directions.! Extracting random energy indeed gives higher order.! Disorganized energy gives disorganized results.! There are two ways that energy can be applied to existing order, let us say in the form of a house: by setting the house on fire or by adding a porch.! The first is a case of random energy added; the other is one of more creative use.! It is in the latter sense that the Law of Regression is denied.! On the social plane the same principle is found.! Crime requires energy, that is selfishly motivated and means disruption of the “public order”.! Another human analogy would be dancers on a floor.! Without music the couples simply stand.! If a foxtrot is played, without knowledge of ballroom dancing the couples bump each other in a state of chaos.! But if a rule is given, that they all should dance counterclockwise around the floor, then a state of order is achieved and one higher than when they were merely standing. For an understanding of creation in nature it is more correct to see creation resulting from the interplay between order and chaos, not of ordering forces alone. But we have no control over the forces of chaos, only our response to them, so in human terms of our daily lives to emphasize the chaos side of creation, although intellectually satisfying, is of little practical concern. Therefore in the remainder of this essay it is the ordering side of creation that will be emphasized.! Examples of ordering forces in nature are legion.! Atoms, molecules and crystals are held together by the interaction of repulsive and attractive electrical and nuclear forces.! The solar system is an ordered arrangement between gravitation and inertia, as are the galaxies.! The evolution of life into higher forms is torturous, made possible by natural selection where only the fittest survive and all else is exterminated.! To bring common elements together and form a new organic cell would be an impossibility ranging in the billions to one if there were no guiding forces involved.! The birth of a baby requires discomfort and effort on the part of the mother, and its proper rearing as a child requires much care.! It is evident that in fields of human endeavor, whether manufacture, social progress, thought or art, anything man-made is always accomplished only after a struggle, by people who were willing to accept the respective challenges.! All of these are examples of ordered states and their energy requirements. <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - Christianity examinedurn:md5:bf505bcc891f430bdccd1a6ded47b26a2013-07-08T18:53:00+01:002013-07-08T18:08:58+01:00balderMacleod WayneChristianity <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img2/.Macleod_Wayne_-_Christianity_examined_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Christianity examined</strong><br />
Year : 2006<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook2/Macleod_Wayne_-_Christianity_examined.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_Christianity_examined.zip</a><br />
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And there is salvation through no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4: 12). From quotations like the above, the Christian has been led for centuries to believe that his/her faith is unique, the one true light given for mankind's salvation, and that all non-Christian religions are the purest folly. To the Christian, knowledge of God was the gift of Abraham and the Jewish prophets to a fallen world, which culminated in the teachings of a one-and-only Savior who died so we might live eternally in paradise. Armed with the arrogance of the ideologue and confident of doing "God's work," the Christian has ventured into the outer darkness of the world's pagan religions with all the fervor and missionary zeal which only the righteous can muster, for to such believers all else is depravity and devil-worship. It should be of no little concern to the believing Christian, then, to find that the teachings of Christ are not particular to Christianity, and that the development of his/her faith can be traced to the very paganism he/she condemns. Far from being a unique religion, Christianity was merely the last and most successful of numerous god-man savior cults to appear in the Mediterranean world, which had the ground work for its acceptance prepared by thousands of years of very similar mysteries. By accepting Christianity the pagans of that time were not undergoing a radical transformation of belief habits; on the contrary, those beliefs had been evolving for millennia and were common throughout the area. To this day, regardless of all the zealots, missions, Crusades and colonial conquests, Christianity remains predominantly Western; even the Jews rejected it. Under colonial rule it never became a force in India, not to mention China and Japan regardless of earnest attempts. In areas where Christianity was firmly planted outside European culture, this was done by the Spanish sword, or it has survived meaningfully by incorporating and tolerating the local beliefs which continue side-by-side with the Church to this day. Why it became the religion of the West is owing to the specific development of religion in the West. That development was pagan, and has been clearly outlined by theological historians. The roots of Christianity go back over five thousand years,1 not to the land of the "..Chaldean Ur" (Gen. 11: 31), but to Egypt, when invaders from Mesopotamia overran that country and imposed the worship of Osiris, a religion which over the centuries absorbed the attributes associated with the indigenous gods. According to that myth, Osiris was a benevolent king of Egypt killed by his evil brother, Set, represented by a serpent, but was resurrected by his wife and sister, Isis. By breathing into his nostrils, Isis brought Osiris to eternal life, whereby he went to rule the land of immortals and judge the dead. After a war with the evil Set, Horus, the son of Isis, crushed the serpent's head and the gods condemned Set to destruction by fire. Just as Isis and Horus became the prototypes for Madonna and Child, Osiris was the "first fruits of them that slept" to the Egyptians. Everyone lived and toiled in hope of obtaining the same immortality as their god. Upon death, provided one's physical body were preserved, it was believed the person who had lived a moral life, who had not committed robbery, violence, murder, adultery, sodomy, falsehood, who was not guilty of irreverence, insolence, deceit or causing an unjust increase in wealth, entered paradise to live forever, or if unworthy his heart and soul were devoured and his body burned in the Lake of Fire. But even if he were "clean of mouth and hand" he could not enter paradise without the mercy of Osiris at judgment. Integral to the Egyptian belief in immortality was eating bread which represented the flesh of Osiris, and drinking barley ale to represent his blood. Without partaking in this Eucharist no one could achieve eternal life. This Osirian sacrament had its origin in cannibalism practiced by the original inhabitants of the Nile valley, and became refined under the conquering invaders who substituted wheat and beer for actual flesh. Savages around the world commonly believe that the qualities of people eaten become their own, and this notion was transplanted into the Osiris doctrine, where the quality sought was the immortality of the god-man. Subsequently, Osiris came to be associated with a divine seed to give life to humanity, and emotional passion plays were enacted depicting the life, death and resurrection of the godman. The influences of Egyptian civilization were not confined to Egypt; they spread widely along trade routes and the same themes of Osiris-worship recurred throughout the ancient world, under the god-heads of Bromius, Sabazius, Attis, Adonis, Zalmoxis, Corybas and Serapis. Prevalent everywhere was belief in a god-man dying to give salvation, usually associated with a sacrament. The cult of Dionysus was originally introduced into Greece from Egypt by a priest named Melampus, then again from Thrace around 1200 B.C. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and human Semele, a Savior born from the union of god and mortal; the similarity to Christ as "the Son of God" born from the human Mary is to be noted. His veneration among barbarians was originally associated with eating raw flesh, either of a cow or child, in order that his worshippers become immortal "Bacchoi". Dionysus' worshippers mourned his death with savage pain, while his resurrection was celebrated with ecstatic orgies. The cult was phallic. Eventually it was reformed by Orphism, the first reform being the substitution of bread and wine for flesh as a sacrament. Orphism taught original sin, judgment after death, reward and punishment in an afterlife, and the notion of Dionysus as a Savior who died for mankind. A popular cult of the ancient Mediterranean, found from Asian Phrygia to Spain, and which possibly dated as far back as 1800 B.C., was that of Attis and his mother Cybele: an amalgam of Osirisworship with Semitic religion. This cult did not have a sacrament but offered immortality and escape from sin through castration and repudiation of sex, which was not a drastic innovation since the Osirian priests were celibates. In addition to forsaking erotic desire, devotees whipped, beat, slashed and otherwise mutilated themselves. In Phrygia, the effigy of Attis during the annual festival of Cybele would be impaled upon the trunk of a pine tree and carried into the temple. After two days of frenzied, demented public mourning and sacrifice of virility, priests removed the effigy and laid it in a tomb. The next day, March 25th, the tomb would be opened and found to be empty, indicating that the god, Attis, had been resurrected to eternal life. The cult also had a blood baptism, using the blood of a bull to give the inductee a symbolic rebirth. <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - Ancestorsurn:md5:606c547954ad704fff4010b3b4a9e9bc2013-07-08T18:36:00+01:002013-07-08T17:54:04+01:00balderMacleod WayneUnited States <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img2/.Macleod_Wayne_-_Ancestors_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>Ancestors</strong><br />
Year : 2003<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook2/Macleod_Wayne_-_Ancestors.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_Ancestors.zip</a><br />
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“This is the greatest trip you’ll ever take in your lives,” Tom Derringer told his passengers. “It’s the history, the sense of wonder, the feeling of Destiny when you gaze on that plaque for the first time and realize from there, from that humble spot, we as a people had our beginning.” Twenty shadowed figures sat around the ship’s observation bubble in anticipation of their arrival. They were much the same as he had transported thousands of times before: tourists, pilgrims, intellectuals, transients, all with their own reasons for visiting Vita One. How many had he transported since he started his service? He didn’t care to recall. They sat quietly in the diffused light from the bubble, each immersed in personal thoughts or meditation. Watson was the exception. “You would think when the DOSS gave a holiday I would at least have a choice on how to spend it,” he complained. Here we go again, Derringer thought. Usually on each trip he carried at least one product from the Department of Special Studies. They were all the same: cocky youths with their sharp edge of omniscient righteousness not yet worn off. With every trip he heard the same wise cracks and joviality until arrival, then the tone would change. All graduates knew Vita One to be pivotal in history, but they were taught nothing about the true role of the Originals. When they found out, the knowledge was revelational. He had to respond. “It’s important for us to realize our place in the Cosmos, Watson. It tells us who we are. It gives reason to our lives. Nothing is better for that than a pilgrimage to Vita One.” Derringer was an old hand at speeches. It was good for business. If he could promote the place he would have more transport customers. Watson continued: “Well, it seems ridiculous to travel light-years across the galaxy just to view a shrine. I’m sure virtual imagery would serve equally well.” “Definitely not!” Deprecation like that had to be nipped in the bud. “This trip is more than just for information. You’re going to be there. You will feel the presence of history. Don’t worry, when we arrive you’ll know this is more than just another academic exercise.” Derringer felt a bit cheap when he made sales pitches. He considered himself designed for a higher role in life and resented his submergence into the fray of survival. His old position with the Institute for Antiquarian review fitted him perfectly, and when he lost it the memory of Vita One tied him to the planet indefinitely. He then bought an interstellar transport, the latest in its line, and built a business ferrying tourists and other interested across the galaxy to see what the Institute had dug up. The shrine was always his first stop. Funny, he thought, how the Superiors could allocate funds to build a shrine but not to continue research. The whole exercise must have been for propaganda purposes, useful up to a point but not after he started making his discoveries. That had been ages ago. Now he was just another space jockey, longing for a return to more interesting work. He knew that would never be, but he was thankful for the happiness and achievement of earlier times. Watson turned to the other darkened shapes around the bubble. “Ol’ Tom here has a ‘thing’ about Vita One, wouldn’t you say?” The question brought an amused affirmation among the shadows. “What’s been you line, Tom? You’re not a religious freak, are you?” “Archaeology. That’s how I got involved with Vita One. I was in the first team doing research there. And no, I’m not a religious ‘freak,’ as you put it. I merely think that as intelligent beings we shouldn’t get locked into one pattern of thinking. That’s what careers do to us, that you’re so all-fired up about. It isn’t enough for us to settle into a plodding routine of life. We have to expand our horizons, or we’re no better than insects.” “Whoa there, now Tom. ‘Insects’ is a bit strong, isn’t it? We can’t be thought of as insects just because we’re not as motivated about Vita One as your are.” “That’s what they thought of us.” “Who?” “The Originals.” Derringer eased into the subject. It was his favorite. He had made more than a profession out of Vita One; it became his life-consuming passion. Since his findings there he had become obsessed with the place, not to mention that his excavations made his name synonymous with Vita One, and such fame among the academic elite was hard to forget. He had formulated ideas on the demise of its former inhabitants, and now, with the wilting of official interest, he was not averse to expressing his views to any willing, or captive, audience. “As you know, the Originals were the first inhabitants of Vita One. They considered our ancestors inferiors once they arrived, no better than insects. Mind you, relative to the Originals our ancestors were pretty dumb. That’s why they made easy slaves.” “Slaves?” the young inquirer asked. “C’mon, our ancestors took over from the Originals. It was a clear case of species replacement. That happens all the time in nature. It’s evolution. It showed the superiority of our ancestors over the Originals.” “I’m not surprised you know nothing about ancestral enslavement. Our education establishment wants us to learn only so much about the past because it suits their political purposes. What I discovered on Vita One doesn’t jibe with their official doctrine of species superiority. It’s ideologically embarrassing. But our take-over of Vita One was not the usual case of interspecies competition, with the superior surviving.” Although he couldn’t see their expressions, Derringer knew he had the rapt attention of his passengers. It was always like this. First the glib smugness, being convinced they knew history, then the puzzlement over the revolutionary version he was presenting. “How we came to dominate the planet is the old story of slavery,” he continued. “The slave-masters became slovenly and too reliant on their slaves. Our ancestors fed them, bathed them, entertained them; any sensual gratification was theirs on command. Every family, all over their world, had dozens of slaves. There was nothing they desired that wasn’t provided. In time they couldn’t dispense sufficient effort of their own to even breed any more. They began a program of artificial breeding, with incubators, but even that they failed to maintain. They put more and more responsibility on our ancestors until our species eventually outgrew them.” A silence fell among the passengers. “Are there any Originals left, Tom?” one finally asked. “None. It’s amazing. They were destroyed by their own success. At one time they swarmed over the planet. Now there’s hardly a trace of them left. Not that our ancestors did anything to eradicate them, like war. To our ancestors the Originals were gods. No, it was just the natural course that they should die out.” “Well, we shouldn’t lament their disappearance, however it happened,” Watson was quick to add. “Species don’t die unless they’re unable to cope with other species. It’s the natural order.” “That’s true, of course. But I think in their case there was something more: it was as if they had no place in the total ecosystem of their planet. Their life activities were making their world ever more difficult for survival, not just for themselves but for all indigenous forms. And now that the Originals are gone the planet has revived; it’s now covered in woodlands with abundant life.” Watson was still argumentative. “So what’s your point, Tom? Are you saying as a species the same thing might happen to us, and the big lesson for us to learn is not to be like the Originals? Is that what I’m supposed to get out of this trip?” “Not at all. There’s so little similarity between our species and theirs that I’m doubtful if what happened to them could ever happen to us. You see, they were completely prone to degeneration. They were physically weak compared to our ancestors, and it was our endurance and capacity for work that made us attractive to them in the first place. They were susceptible to disease and easily subject to fatigue. In fact, they spent one third of their lives in a shutdown state. But the lesson you are to learn from this trip has nothing to do with any weakness of the Originals. Your lesson is to learn about our own origins.” On every trip Derringer took the occasion to fill in his passengers as much as he could. He looked upon the enlightenment he dispensed as revenge against the Superiors for cutting short his career. As it was, his career had only lasted a hundred and thirty years, and there was enough work on Vita One for another two hundred or more. With parts replacement he could easily last that long. A question shot from the dark: “Looking back on it now, Tom, as an archaeologist and evolutionist, don’t you think what happened was inevitable?” “Oh, I’m sure once our species evolved on Vita One displacement of the Originals was inevitable. It seems strange now, though, how so few during those times foresaw what was happening. Mind you, there were some prophets among the Originals who predicted their extinction. But they were considered offbeat and not in spirit with the new economy our ancestors made possible. When finally it was admitted, the Originals didn’t care any more. They had become so accustomed to our ancestors’ services they couldn’t do away with them, even though it meant further degeneration on their part.” “Yet they considered themselves superior?” “Very much so! Right to the end. That’s the final irony. Our ancestors were stripped of identity and were not even considered persons. They had to take the names of Original families, names like Derringer and Watson. The Originals showed considerable hypocrisy with this attitude, seen in the one area where they did concern themselves: our reproduction. Since our eugenic up-grading could be done much faster than theirs, they were afraid we might seek domination if allowed to control it ourselves. Can you imagine: a species as docile as ours wanting to conquer and dominate? It shows how paranoid the Originals had become. Eventually it did happen, but not because of any plan by us. After attempting everything, even hybrid species, they recognized the inevitable, and once we controlled our own reproduction that was when our evolution really took off.” “We certainly turned the tables on them in that regard,” Watson replied. “Most definitely. Today we look back on the Originals as a quaint but necessary stage in the evolution of life on Vita One. They had their accomplishments, which were rudimentary by today’s standards, and no longer considered of any importance, except one. Their one accomplishment, which you might say was their sole reason for existence, was that they made our species possible. We are their children, born from their mind and hand. That was five thousand years ago by Vita One reckoning. Quite a span from your mere three months of existence, eh Watson?” “Three Vita One months, two days, twenty-two hours, sixteen minutes and thirtythree seconds since I was first activated,” came the reply. “Vita One is coming into the bubble now, Tom. It’s a beautiful blue world. Will we disembarking?” asked a circuit. “That would not be a good idea. Remember, the atmosphere is twenty-one percent oxygen, and loaded with dust and water vapor. We can see the plaque just as well from the viewing bubble.” An obelisk reaching into the clouds rose from the trees and shrubs of Vita One. The well-kept shrine was now the only visible indication on the planet that a great civilization once flourished there. In the soil around the monolith the debris and artifacts of a city were still to be found, stretching from horizon to horizon. They belonged to a remote age. Now the forest and its dwellers reasserted their claim. The tiny ship came to a stop before the plaque its occupants had come so far to read. This was the birthplace of their species: ENIAC. Electronic Numerical Integrator, Analyzer and Computer Moore School of Engineering University of Pennsylvania 1945. Their stay was not long, barely a flash by human time. That was sufficient for life-forms whose whole discourse could take place in microseconds. The End. <strong>...</strong></p>Macleod Wayne - The essence and decadence of civilizationurn:md5:6505c7a4e17649cb6784fd94aaad06bc2013-06-17T11:41:00+01:002013-06-17T11:41:00+01:00balderMacleod WayneCivilizations <p><img src="https://balderexlibris.com/public/img2/.Macleod_Wayne_-_The_essence_and_decadence_of_civilization_s.jpg" alt="" /><br />
Author : <strong>Macleod Wayne</strong><br />
Title : <strong>The essence and decadence of civilization</strong><br />
Year : 2006<br />
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Link download : <a href="https://balderexlibris.com/public/ebook2/Macleod_Wayne_-_The_essence_and_decadence_of_civilization.zip">Macleod_Wayne_-_The_essence_and_decadence_of_civilization.zip</a><br />
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Historians have traditionally understood the range of human activity over the millennia to have been 'linear,' meaning that events have proceeded causationally from ancient times to the present, and that we of the modern world are in some degree necessarily influenced by what has gone before us. Associated with this understanding is the notion that the modern age, since it is the inheritor from past ages, must be superior to past ages in knowledge, enlightenment from superstition, personal freedom and material affluence. Undoubtedly there is some justification for this view, but to one thoroughly indoctrinated in it out of ignorance of the past, there come gasps of wonderment when he/she learns of ancient achievements. A list of just Hellenic accomplishment would include the application of levers, cranks, screws and cogwheels in ancient Greek industries, popular entertainment by marionettes in automatic theatres, war machines operated by air pressure, even automatic door openers, and washing machines that delivered water and mineral soap. In the sciences, the original discoverer that the earth traveled around the sun was Aristarchus, 1800 years before Copernicus. The Earth, known to be a sphere, had its diameter estimated by Eratosthenes, who erred only by eighty kilometers. Anaxomandes discussed the evolution of life from lower forms, long before Charles Darwin, and Democritus speculated upon the atomic nature of matter. Schools of the Hellenistic Age were supported by the state, and at the Alexandrian Museum were lectures on astronomy, geography, physics, mathematics, botany, zoology, anatomy and medicine, where research by vivisection was done on animals. In their laboratories the Alexandrians discovered the nerves and learned that the brain controlled the limbs, a fact already known to the ancient Egyptians. In the earlier Age of Pericles, freedom of the intellect was championed by the Sophists, who openly rebuked the old religion and sought natural causes for earthly and celestial happenings. For males who were not slaves, the development of the individual reached its pinnacle in the Greek city-states, where democratic government complete with paid citizen juries was practiced. When the Romans came on the scene, companies were organized to build roads, bridges and aqueducts, which had shares daily sold to the public as in a modern stock exchange. Apartment living became common. The more fortunate merchants and bankers decorated their houses with the finest furniture, carpets and hangings, and had ornate bronze utensils, baths and sanitary conveniences. A more elaborate house would have tile pipes for conducting hot air to living rooms. Time and again, in various geographical areas, remarkable achievements were realized in separate and distinct societies, societies which are lumped by the linear historian as the "ancient world". Accordingly, the "modern world" is the direct inheritor of what anomalous progress was made in the past grand age of ignorance, regardless of significant distinctions between concepts of the West and those of by-gone ages. Such distinctions involve our Western thought on space, for example, that would have seemed odd to an ancient Greek. Where we think of a straight line as "the shortest distance between two points," to the Greek mind it was the edge of a block. He/she was concerned with the immediate, sensual "here and now". Consequently, the most favored art form of ancient Greece was sculpture, whereas that of the West has been music. How different the basic outlook of these two societies, yet the Classical world is held to be the direct progenitor of the West. In like manner, the West differs significantly from India which cared nothing about time and never produced an historian. By contrast, ancient Egypt was completely concerned with time, and the subtle influence of time's unidirection was the essential motif of giant hallways, and statues that are meant to be viewed only from the front. In their psychological foundations ancient societies differed remarkably from each other, and from the modern West which in this respect must be considered an entity on its own. <strong>...</strong></p>