Thursday, February 28, 2013

Personal Video recording and Big Idea number 65 is wait for it ..God

I was fascinated by a story |I heard on the radio the other day highlighting the growth of video recording of car journeys. The reasons being :

1) Increasing cost of car accidents- to individuals and insurers
and
2) The low cost and miniaturisation that is possible in the solution.
Here's an example of a UK unit.

Seems that this sort of technology is being included in new US models - I've just got a Mini DV camera from Maplin's the ED20 produced by AEE Technology for the incredibly low price of £50.
It's used mounted on your ear but not sure if I'll use it while I'm driving perhaps for crowded moments on the pavements or vlogging.


 

 

God is a concept and Big Idea number 65

This follows the ideas of Religion and Theology from the last couple of posts - it is for me  worth thinking about God away from Religion and Theology ...

In hindsight it seems slightly puzzling that although I took what religious studies I had to at School and also went to Sunday School (not out of choice) for several years (from I guess about 7 to about the age of 10) that some basics (as below) did not get imparted or embedded with me- I'm not sure what is taught as religion now but think something factual (History of religion?) and a social/comparative course would be of value - whether you 'believe' or not it is a big question and reflects something in  how society has arrived at where it stands today.
Ok so God is an  old white guy?
Here's a 'picture'/representation of god it tells us more about religion than god (being westernised and male).

Anyway salient points  that can help us become involved in the God question when it crops up:

Theism - Belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially (?) belief in one god as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his/her creatures. - Conversely (for completeness) Atheism is disbelief in the existence of God or gods.

Deism - Holds that there is a god but he/she having done the creation thing is not actively involved in day to day stuff it's a view established by the  thinkers during the times of reason and  enlightenment. The good aspect (for me and my interpretation) here is that Deism adheres to 'Christian' values but does not rely on slavish followings of the bible.

Monotheistic religions have a single god Islam Judaism and Christianity  fit this bill (I suppose as so called Abrahamic religions they actually share the same god although I expect some strict adherents to each of these religions would probably argue about this.) The Baha'i faith is also of the  Abrahamic tradition but is often overlooked, it has routes in Islam and has a  somewhat crazy annual calendar of 19 months with 19 days in it.

Buddhism and Daoism are religions with  no god as Buddha says "gripped by fear men go to the sacred mountains sacred groves sacred trees and sacred shrines"
Taoism/Daoism is more complex in its hierarchy of deities although Tao itself is not God, nor is it a god, nor is it worshipped by Taoists it does have many gods, most of them are borrowed from other cultures and religions. These deities are within this universe and are themselves subject to the Tao.

Polytheism -is religion several gods a good example of Polytheism is ancient Greece but it is worth noting that within Polytheistic religions the gods have a hierarchy for the Ancient Greeks religion the top god was  Zeus although he was not omnipotent.

Pantheism - is the religion that holds that God is found in everything in the universe poets liked this one and (again from me) Pantheism sounds a bit new age to me but has some big name exponents and credibility(?)

Oh yes and John Lennon also had a view on God.