Grove Holiday Recipes

René Descartes famously said, I think, therefore, I am.

What was he talking about? At the time he was taking a radically skeptical viewpoint on everything in life. However, he was also trying to salvage some point of certainty from which to build up meaning.

He reasoned that if he had doubts about things, that meant he was thinking. Therefore, his self must exist because he was aware of the doubts in his thoughts.

Descartes was aware, but was this consciousness?

Kinds of Awareness

Rocks exist, and events happen to rocks. Rocks, however, don’t have any experiences because they are without awareness. They don’t sense things and they don’t react to their environment. In our material universe, this is the natural state of all non-living things.

Microbes exist. Unlike rocks, they sense their environment. They even retain certain functional memories of their context, which helps them thrive in their environment. They will act with force when they sense danger. However, even though they sense things, it is unlikely they have any experience of their existence. Their awareness is only instinctual and reactive. They have no desires; they are not happy or sad.

Dogs exist, sense and experience their context. They come with preprogrammed instincts, but they also have capabilities beyond that. They learn so they can do the things that they want. By all appearances they experience happiness and sadness. Dogs think (especially the motivated ones), but they do not seem to be self-aware. (For example, they don’t pass the mirror test.) They do retain memory of experiences. They have active desires informed by what they have learned. But, they live in the moment of experience, aware of their present. There is no indication that they contemplate their existence.

Humans exist. Although they have some instincts, they rely on learning more than any other species. Humans have experiences and are aware they are experiencing their existence. They envision plans to achieve desired experiences. Afterwards they may have good memories of having lived the experience with friends. Aware of themselves, they contemplate themselves and assess the meaning and purpose of their existence. They are aware of their past, present, and potential future. Humans desire not only the resources to live with a good physical quality of life, but they also need reasons to live.

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I believe that Christianity is what makes the most sense of human existence, but it also is full of weird.

God

The Christian god is a being that exists by necessity, therefore, God was not created. God is a maximally great being. There is no superior or even equivalent being. All power, intellect, knowledge and good morality is of and originates from God. This single infinite being is in three distinct persons (called Father, Son & Holy Spirit). These persons exist in harmonious continuous relationship.

God is the source of all being, and the origin of all other existence. God made all space, energy, matter and living things by speaking them into existence out of nothing. God made humans with intellect, free will and inherent personal value, finite beings in the image of God.

God the Son took on humanity; Jesus of Nazareth was born a dependent human infant. For a time he set aside his powers of deity, but in his person he continued to be God. He learned as a youth and grew to human adulthood. He participated in the full range of human experience, including both good and the bad. Jesus even died, brutally killed for no fault of his own. However, God then raised Jesus from the dead.

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Musical keys start on a named note and go up following a pattern.

Scales and Names

Every musical key has 7 notes that go up from the first note. The 8th note following it sounds similar to the first one although it is higher. It is an octave up.

That 8th note also has the same name as the 1st because the notes going up (or going down) repeat in a cycle. All these notes together are called a scale. A scale is a set of notes that all sound good together.

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Materialism - 2025 October

Today we can say really that materialism has become an irrational belief.” - Michel-Yves Bolloré

(Quote context and citations are in the note links).

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Good News: Read all about it!

Find out about

• The Simple Good News
• values that you (and others) can choose that strengthen relationships
• how this makes sense of spiritual things that are otherwise confusing
• and please choose this way of living

This is an approach for living based on what Jesus taught and is pragmatically useful both for those that follow Jesus or for those that just admire him.

I'm Larry Grove, and my wife is Melanie. We have three adult sons and our family has continued to grow.

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