Folly To Believe. & Jesus, Santa & The Postman!

As a little child he noticed that there was a metal flap covering a hole in the front door of their house. On most days there would be letters on the floor below this slot. He wondered about this and became quite curious, so he asked “Mom, where do those letters come from that I see by the door on most mornings?” ” Oh you mean the mail, they come from the Post Man” He never once saw this Post Man, but he believed his mother. Around Christmas a similar occurrence took place though certainly not a frequent event. However this mysterious visitor was purposely introduced to him. He did not have to inquire, it was Santa Claus and he brought presents to all good girls and boys. He never saw this Santa Claus but he believed his mother.

His curiosity increased with time over these mystery visitors, until one day he saw a soldier on the front porch, a man in uniform, like he’d seen in some movies. The man was carrying a brown sack and holding envelopes like the ones that appeared on their floor by the door. Suddenly he realized that it wasn’t a soldier, it was the Post Man. He no longer believed in the Post Man, because now he knew. Unfortunately the figure of Santa Claus did not share the same fate. He simply matured and realized the impossibility of Santa, strange though he yearned for the day’s of innocent belief and all the wonderful fantasy associated with this fairy tale.  He learned that when you “know” there is no reason to believe, but an even greater lesson was that when you don’t know, then you cannot know that what you chose to believe, is true. The reason for your choice is "not knowing" What is true is based on factual evidence and belief only applies to fairy tales, wishful thinking, or desire, all of which arise from the state of not knowing.

                                                         Why it is Folly to believe!

If we understood life, then we would have no questions, there would be no confusion. We would know, therefor, belief would serve no purpose. We have no need to believe that there is a sun and it shines, we know it. We only believe, when we don’t know. Therefor, we can see quite clearly that if we don’t know, then how can we possibly know, that what we choose to believe is true. Another way to look at this is that, we have chosen (what we believe in), in a state that lacks understanding and clarity, in other words confusion.  Therefor we are really saying, that you believe because you are confused, then you say that you are no longer confused because what you’ve chosen out of confusion, has ended your confusion, this is confusion in perpetuity. In short we’ve made a decision to believe and what to believe, from a state of not knowing, nothing has changed. You’ve gone from a state of knowing you don’t know, to a state of just thinking that, now you know. This is a perpetual state of confusion. Understanding negates the need to believe, you may not as of yet understand life, but now you can understand why, to believe is folly.

Can you see the point? If you knew what life was, how it came about and its purpose you would not have to “believe”. Of course you don’t know any of this so you believe what someone else has told you or written down in a book. Also you have not researched your belief, you have not researched what others believe and you have not considered that you are unaware of all there is to believe in. If you took a logical approach eventually you would have to admit that you cannot possibly make an informed decision. (One), there is no way to know that what you choose to believe is true.(TWO) Understand there is no need to believe when you now something is true. (THREE), You can’t know what you believe is true because the reason you believe is because you don’t know. Believing is an act of self contradiction, you are simultaneously stating that you know and don’t know. And as further proof of your confusion, you will ignore what is logical and continue on with what is illogical, further verifying your confusion.  Further adding to the abstraction of belief is this fact, you are not even believing in an actual deity, what your believing in is your own concepts of the deity, this is really a form self worship.

Let's see the incoherence involved in belief. I believe because I do not know. Then I forget that I don't know and say what I chose to believe in - is true. How can you say what you believe is true when the reason you believe is because you don't know? This is why as a global species we've reduced our existence to sex, greed (stuff) and violence and in the process destroyed our environment. We've instead of knowing, invented what we know. Yes we are morons with some meager talents thrown in. Sorry to be so blunt however we are running out of time. We are a dreary little species fighting among ourselves over what basically amounts to shallow, myopic gratifications. Billions dead from wars, starvation and pollution demonstrating to the Universe that we are not a viable species. Even if there isn't a hidden truth that we should awaken too, it is still no reason to do what we've done, what we are doing. Wake up at least to the fact that we are not awake and we do not know.

Bill Rogan AKA DT  

PS: Ask yourself if we should be reproducing, bring more people into this unstable environment, in the long run making it more unstable.

                                                  

My Thought's Keep Going Back.

                                                                                                                                     

5/25/2019

Forty nine years ago today I returned from my tour of duty in South Vietnam. Here is a story I have written about that deployment.

                                                 My Thought’s Keep Going Back.

As of late my mind keeps going back to random memories, and the only recognizable commonality is the time of year. Perhaps this is happening because I am now old and recently lost a loved one, my brother who I miss dearly. It was March of 1969 the weather was hot and humid, normal for the jungles of South Vietnam. I am in the back of an Army deuce and a half, the bed is open with side rails and I am standing holding on to the top rail as the truck heaves and bounces going down the rough jungle path. It is more a path than a road and the tree branches are brushing up against my body. I am in this truck with other soldiers that have been in country for some time so this is not new to them however it is to me and George. We are replacements, newly assigned to an artillery battery about three clicks from the Cambodian border, where just beyond, lies the Ho-Chi Minh trail. ( a North Vietnamese supply route to the south) At some point, it dawns on me we could be ambushed at any time, I chamber a round and set the fire selector to full auto. No one even looked around at me when the noise of the bolt sliding forward sounded, they were already locked and loaded.

We arrived at the Battery around two PM and George and I having been together for about two weeks now, waiting for our assignment had become good friends. Unfortunately we were not assigned to the same gun. We remained friends throughout our tour of duty (now called deployment) and traveled home together and visited each other, his New Jersey home was fairly close to my Pennsylvania home. There was an occasion when I stopped in his hometown of Newton and gave his house a call, his mother informed me that George was killed in a car accident. I can still feel the shock and sadness at the news. George was a good person, and I will never forget him.

These memories are now so vivid that George is here, alive, and we are throwing a football back and forth, the day is waning but it is still hot. I am watching the football soaring toward me fairly high in the air when I hear a low whistling sound that I immediately recognize as incoming artillery fire. As the first round explodes George runs toward his gun while I run toward mine. These guns are 105 mm howitzers that are self propelled, many people would mistake them for tanks but they are bigger, the crews can actually stand up inside them and fire the artillery piece. George and I being new are positioned outside our guns and our job is to feed rounds into the firing crew as they “hopefully” return fire. I have donned my helmet and flack jacket and my heart is pounding as the rounds are getting closer and closer to my position. In order to accomplish this, the enemy had to have someone that could see us, calling in the fire on our position (a forward observer) because the soldiers shooting at us could not see where their rounds were landing in relationship to our position. Our gun sergeant looking through a scope caught sight of the enemies muzzle smoke and got a fix on their position. Then the orders started coming for me to set the rounds, charges and fuses and start feeding the artillery shells into the crew to begin returning fire. It seemed like a long time however; only minutes had passed. We are now in a full blown artillery battle, the rounds are exploding fairly close, there is a small army pick-up truck parked about 30 feet from where I am standing and a round goes through the canvas roof and explodes inside the cab shredding the truck like paper. I hear the first sergeant yelling my name “Rogan take cover” I enthusiastically oblige. I enter into a sand bagged bunker where a few soldiers are already seeking cover. I remember thinking “ a ground attack is coming”, there is an opening in the bunker that we may have to fire out of and I tell one of the other soldiers to clear the ledge. In retrospect I cannot imagine that I was thinking that clearly. Thus began my indoctrination into the Vietnam War, a War whose controversy continues to this day. It has always been my feeling that some people in South Vietnam did not want to be under Communist rule and that was why we were there. Today that War is viewed mostly with negative memories however for soldier’s in combat there is only one issue, survival. All US artillery personnel  survived on that March day in 1969, however that night we sent two tanks out to clear the enemy from the area, only one tank came back the other was destroyed and took casualties.

War is organized killing and we’ve become very good at it. Today I think of all war as the inevitable outcome of people, that lack the ability to get along, because the intelligence that would allow them to do so is absent. It is March of 2019 today there are soldier's globally deployed and if they are lucky they will survive and perhaps have memories like the one I am sharing. It is said that as we age we gather wisdom yet old men do not refrain from war because they are wise, old men are simply not up to the rigors and stress of combat. Wisemen do not have wars. Today instead of being wise with age I find myself more and more confused. I do not understand how we can say we love our children and send them to War. Wise people that love their children would find a way to keep their children safe. Is it possible that wisdom is tiered and we are now at a level that allows us to be wise enough to see, that we are not wise?

Bill Rogan

Acworth, NH

Charlie Battery 3rd Battalion 6th Artillery 52nd Artillery Group, Pleiku South Vietnam. 69/70

My thought’s and heart are with all that served, those that were wounded and those that died serving. Today I’ve come to the realization that we were misled and used by politicians for purposes that were not in tune with our service. Today many of the Vietnam veterans are suffering the ill affects of the war and the chemical's used in the field, chemical's that we were assured were not harmful to humans. This is just one of many lies that a government lacking compassion has perpetuated on its loyal soldiers. Today the United Sates of America in many ways is not what soldiers would be proud to defend.