Monthly Archives: February 2014

Question: What is the Ultimate Reality

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WindowView is in a sense another way of saying “world view” except that a line of reasoning and an appeal to ‘data’ or information that is before us is indeed part of the real objective to presenting the Window. It’s YOUR window, you look, you see, you assess and in the end only you can conclude what is real.  But lets visit the vital questions in life for a moment.  If Darwin’s theory on evolution is all there is to being, then we are the result of chance and randomness in the universe. But Darwin had his doubts about evolution and the data today support good reason to doubt his theory. So, then, what is reality? What are the consequences to getting the correct data to determine who you are?

Dr. Samples offers the following list of critical factors and questions in his book “World of Difference.”

“An accurate road map supplies valid directions that profoundly guide a person’s life decisions. Therefore, a well-thought-out course, or worldview, needs to answer twelve ultimate concerns that philosophers identify as “the big questions of life”:

1. Ultimate Reality: What kind of God, if any, actually exists?

2. External Reality: Is there anything beyond the cosmos?

3. Knowledge: What can be known and how can anyone know it?

4. Origin: Where did I come from?

5. Identity: Who am I?

6. Location: Where am I?

7. Morals: How should I live?

8. Values: What should I consider of great worth?

9. Predicament: What is humanity’s fundamental problem?

10. Resolution: How can humanity’s problem be solved?

11. Past/Present: What is the meaning and direction of history?

12. Destiny: Will I survive the death of my body and, if so, in what state?

When a worldview elucidates reasonable answers to these ultimate questions, life (and death) issues become much more comprehensible and easier to get through.”

The concept of WindowView hinges on the fact that evidence from science, Scripture, changes around the globe, and a timeline sequences that follows a known chronology going forward, all this presents a convergence of driving forces.  All this provides an affirmative answer to the first questions and all the data from there on becomes easier to see. But what about these ultimate questions.  You have asked them, we all have. But have you taken time to look through the Window?

Director, WindowView.org

 

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Risks for Global Change

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WE ARE ALL AT RISK
A recent MarketWatch article starts this way:

“A poll of participants ahead of this year’s World Economic Forum at Davos found 10 areas of highest risk to the world. Such risks are “defined as an occurrence that causes significant negative impact for several countries and industries over a time frame of up to 10 years,” according to a report issued before the conference slated for this month in Switzerland.

1. Fiscal crises in key economies: The biggest concern, according to the report, remains whether wealthy countries can keep it together. “The report lists fiscal crises as the top risk advanced economies remain in danger of fiscal crises. …

Aside: This article relates how global economic instability could (ironically) stem from (complex political scenarios and ) falling oil prices as described elsewhere.

The MarketWatch article outlines these additional factors for global risks:

2. Structurally high unemployment/underemployment: The flip side of income disparity is the persistent unemployment and underemployment of millions of people.

3. Water crises: Huge population growth is placing big demands on freshwater supplies, notably in China and sub-saharan Africa. …

4. Severe income disparity: With employment in developed countries still suppressed in the wake of the financial crisis, and huge unemployed populations in developing economies, income disparity is a huge issue for Davos participants.

“Income disparity is also among the most worrying of issues. It raises concerns about the Great Recession and the squeezing effect it had on the middle classes in developed economies, while globalization has brought about a polarization of incomes in emerging and developing economies. This is true despite the obvious progress in countries such as Brazil and lower levels of poverty in several developing countries in Asia and Africa.“

5. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation: Similar to the fear of global governance failure is the fear that concerns over climate change won’t be addressed. “Climate change, ranked fifth on the list, is the key driver of such uncertain and changing weather patterns, causing an increased frequency of extreme weather events such as floods and droughts,” according to the report.

6. Greater incidence of extreme weather events: … Of note, is the finding that huge populations in coming years will be born in developing countries with potential exposure to hurricanes and typhoons, posing greater risks of damage such as was caused in the Philippines last year by a huge storm.

7. Global governance failure: This one amounts to the fear that … in the end international institutions aren’t actually able to get their act together.

“Given that global risks can be addressed effectively only through international collaboration, it is hardly a surprise that global governance failure is also included in the list as the risk of seventh highest concern,” the report finds.

8. Food crises: Nothing gets people riled up like not being able to eat. …

9. Failure of a major financial mechanism/institution: Perhaps not surprisingly … concern over failures financial institutions remains very high.

“Five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with its system-wide impacts, the failure of a major financial mechanism or institution also features among the risks that the respondents are most concerned about, as uncertainty about the quality of many banks’ assets remains.”

10. Profound political and social instability: No. 10 on this year’s list is profound political and social instability potentially caused by military actions or aggressive foreign or trade policies on the part of global or regional powers.

———————– From the Window —————————-

The above ten cited concerns are not necessarily directly linked to biblical themes, but some are. For the serious Bible student, the idea of global governance is something that might link all ten issues. One day, soon, according to the Bible the world will turn to a single over arching global governance … a one world government. While climate change, as a whole, is not described in the Bible, numerous other events and the making of the one world government easily connect to the risks we see today. How will humans in a material context respond to changes in a way that leads to a single governance? We suggest material and spiritual forces bring us to such a point. And to understand that viewpoint takes time looking through the Window!

Director, WindowView.org

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Raising Estimates on Sea Level Rise

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“A team of Rutgers University researchers has attempted to answer that question and localize it by studying past sea-level rise along the East Coast, as well as other factors that could influence what happens along the New Jersey Shore.

In recently published studies, they conclude that sea level at the Shore – already rising faster than at any time in the last 4,300 years – could go up by 11 to 15 inches more than the global average by 2100.

While levels worldwide will generally increase less than a foot by 2050, those at the Shore will likely rise 1.5 feet, according to a mid-range scenario. By 2100, local levels could climb 3.5 feet, bringing unprecedented flooding.”

Quotation above from Full article

Why is sea level rise important?  Our answer: because the topic of change affects every living being on the planet. And if that is linked to what life is and will be in the future, then change heightens our senses concerning a deeper look at the value and meaning of life itself.

The underlying position one can adopt from time spent looking through the ‘window’ is that driving forces in material and mind open one’s spirit to seeing life in the context of purpose and a future. Too many people either don’t take time to look at their life in the context of our origins, information from both science and Scripture, and further make too many conclusions by assumptions. Global change is one aspect of the multiple perspectives one gains by a good long look. You are alive … here … now, so why not look if indeed the WindowView reveals something special about life and that you are not here by chance.

Director. WindowView.org

 

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