Can You Imagine a World without Sin?

Life Without Sin


Can you imagine that? What would that look like?

Allow me some sci-if geekiness to illustrate or; at least, set the background. Ex Machina is a movie that wrestles with artificial intelligence (AI). Spoiler alert. If you haven't seen it and might want to, stop reading, go watch it, think about it for a day and then come back to this article. The quest for AI is to create a machine that is self-aware and can think for itself having it's own desires and agenda. The interesting thing for this movie is that it woke me up in the middle of the night thinking about it. Well, that and the Mexican food indigestion.

This AI machine wound up having it's own agenda and demonstrated it by behaving very selfishly. It became narcissistic. It wound up doing some bad things to decent and good people in order to preserve it's own "life." It did evil to protect itself.It was manipulative in order to achieve it's goal.
So...is that sin? Is that what makes us autonomous humans? Is our desire for our own rights, agenda and fulfilling our needs or wants what makes us human? Does our self focus define our humanity?

In case you are wondering, the biblical definition of sin is rebellion and lawlessness against God. It is also falling short of the mark defined by God. Thus, God gets to define what sin is. Every human on earth does not get to have their own definition of sin, good and evil. There is either one definition of sin or none. There cannot be 7 billion different definitions for sin.

Here is some more sci-fi geekiness. A new Star Wars movie will arrive soon. People are going nuts with anticipation. What makes these so popular and iconic? The adventures are grand. The scale is huge: galactic in fact. The plots are fun. The imagery and action are unique. But without the concept of the force and good versus evil, they would not hit us at our soul issues. The force hits a core in humans. We want to believe in good. We want to believe in power. We want power to do good. The problem is that our experience shows us that you cannot have good without evil. We always observe this as a battle.

The force is intriguing because it hits an innate desire we all have and wrestle with. Are we truly autonomous? Do we make our own decisions? Does fate impact us? Can we have control over our own destiny? And if we have power, would we use it for good? Always? Or would we be inclined toward selfish motives and actions? Why is the dark side so powerful and so easy to fall into? Why is emotion and passion only a tool toward and for the dark side?

That Mexican food is really keeping me awake here in the middle of the night. Or maybe it is these concepts. Or both?

Can we imagine a life without sin? John Lennon wrote a famous song about his version of this. But if you look closely at his life, you will find he stunk at it. His narcissism essentially broke up the Beatles. What a jerk? He was not nearly as much of a musician or singer as Paul was. He was jealous. Just look at Paul's post Beatles track record and popularity. John was abusive of people and especially women. His track record was narcissistic control with fits of rage. He was violent and domineering. His Imagine song seems like a pipe dream he had a desire for but could not fulfill.

Can you imagine a world without sin? Can you imagine your own life without sin? Can you imagine you not sinning? What would this all look like? What would earth be like without sin? Here are some thought points:

No one would kill any human, ever. There would be no killing. Period. No religious wars. No political wars. No serial killers driven by whatever weird, narcissistic motives drive them. No gang violence for power, turf, drugs or money.

There would be no addictions. No abuse of alcohol or drugs to numb pain. Of course, if there were no sin, there would be no pain and thus, no reason to numb ourselves for a time in order to avoid it.

There would be no hatred. There would be no arguing. There would be no fighting or controlling others. Humans would not misuse, abuse or even use others. There would be very little internet comments since there would be no trolls causing fights over any and everything just because they can. There would be no dislike button since there would be no need for it.

There would be no laws! Everyone would do what was right and best for each other. We would not spend billions of dollar$ fighting for our own rights and desires. We would really be free. So, there would be no need for police or prisons or armies or weapons; well, except to protect us from animals that may want to eat us. Or maybe that desire by animals would be gone too.

This is all just to whet your appetite for such a world. There will be such a place. It will eventually happen. I know a guy. Well actually, I know The Guy Who will make all this happen.

So if this causes you to think, let's dialogue about this and have a fun discussion about the topic and what that place would look like. If, however, you are a troll and just looking for a battle so you can spew your agenda without having a conversation and listening to others, please excuse yourself because you are not invited nor welcome to participate.

Let's day dream or night awake think, like I am now as the Mexican food with too much fat and peppers is keeping me up. I love you. I long for what is truly best for you; not merely, what you think will make your existence happy. There is only true freedom and peace found in dying to self and letting The Guy live His sinless life through you.

Have a great day, or night, or everything. Just, have a great! Have a great life. Pursue a sinless life. Help show the world a life without sin. Be an example. Make the world a better place. Give people hope. There will eventually be a world without sin. Start your own circle of a world without sin. Seek the best for others. Help them to dream and create a world without sin. Let's spread this healthy dis-ease. Let's be the force for good. Let's use our passions. emotions and energy to create and do good.

A world, a universe, a galaxy without sin is what we were made for. It is what our soul desires. We just cannot and do not bring it about when we focus on ourselves, our needs/wants, our desires for our rights to be met or allowed and our own personal agenda that our dark side truly drives.

Live passionately and enthusiastically. Do good. Create good. Find out what real love is and do and be that. Be love. Focus on others. Create your own little influential circle of love and good where sin is not.

What would that look like?
        
     

Giving 50 the Finger

    

Telling 50 what I think of it: it's not a diet; it's a lifestyle of being healthy and strong.

I got motivated: positively by Beni Johnson in the middle of a sermon with her husband talking about her health and strength progress and negatively by health results from a blood test for my new health insurance having slightly elevated blood pressure and bad cholesterol; and BMI is a stupid number since it fails to take muscle weight into consideration. Yes the USA is too overweight but it’s just as bad that the norms defined by BMI are for anorexics.

So here is what I did starting in mid-March 2015. Eat a lot of meat and veggies. Protein: beef, too damn much chicken, fish and eggs...Unlike body builders I actually season things with some butter, pepper or hot sauces. Fresh, frozen and canned veggies with no sugar... Lots of veggies. I probably eat a little too much fruit for most of my carbohydrate intake but no juices since they are all sugar without the fiber. That's where I get most of my sugar. Pretty much killed off desserts: cake, pie, cookies, blah, blah, blah, but once in a while green tea ice cream after sushi! Kill the bad white stuff: no flour, sugar and very little rice and potatoes. After doing this for a month I lost all desire for sugar. No regular or diet sodas or drinks with fake sweeteners. You know what happens if you put sugar in your car’s gas tank? Pretty much the same thing that happens in your stomach. I do consume Lots of nuts and dark chocolate with high cocoa percentage so sugar is minimal or none. Plenty of coffee or tea straight. (I may add cinnamon for fat burner and good breath or honey for carbs.)  First cup of coffee gets coconut oil and might have cocoa powder or cinnamon for fat burners. Lots of water. Some honey for pre-workout carbs when I am dragging. Plain yogurt or cottage cheese for weekday breakfast protein; read the labels on these to get mostly milk and not additives like plastic. I have used very few powder or pill supplements; other than, Aleve for soreness and inflammation. I don’t worry or detox via juicing because spinach and beans take care of that. I can’t take oatmeal because it goes right through me painfully. [In late July I started adding in 1 protein shake per day.]

I lift weights nearly every day. Some cardio; known as cycling, for fun and sweating. I don't like to run, so you can't make me. Won’t do it! Not gonna’! My knees don’t like jogging either. I walk a ton at work. I lift after work when I get home because I am not an early riser and it takes me 6 hours to loosen up anyways, so shut up; I'm not getting up early to work out and then sweat through my dress clothes and tie all day. Yuck! My primary goal was to get rid of the belly and see muscles. Say “No” to dad bod. Most of the belly is gone, muscles are popping. Now, I want to see the six-pack and be built like a super hero; almost there.

Typical Regimen:

Chest day:

Light warm up flyes x3 sets

Bench 3 x 10 progressively heavier warm up sets but all light since I am now old and takes a while to get the blood pumping and loosen the joints, 3 x 5-9 heavy working sets wide grip, 3 x 10 cooling down sets with varying grips until mostly working triceps to failure.

3 x 10 sets heavier machine flyes mostly for stretch and burn targeting outside and higher pecs.

Sometimes I’ll skip the weights just do a variety of pushups with planks and spiders so I get more ab than chest work done. I have big boobies already.

Back day: all super sets

5 sets of pull-ups with leg assist on most sets since I am still working up to being a pull-up machine. Currently sets 3-5 start with as many pull-ups as I can do and then put my feet on a chair or bar to stand into a full pull-up while focusing on the squeeze in the lats and lower back then do the negative without assistance.

Superset with bent over rows: first and last set are alternating arm dumb bell rows, then barbell 5 x 8-10 alternating over and underhand grips. 3 heavy working sets.

Machine pull downs 3 x 10 wide overhand then 3 x 10 underhand narrow grip to target different areas in the middle of my back...

Superset with lighter rows which finish with 3 x 10 sets of machine rows with full stretch and some cheating to do negatives, some of these are underhand grip, not underhanded like con artists and politicians.

Now that I am in good shape with a strong back, I will start adding dead lifts. [Added 3 sets 5-10 reps in July. I do these after the heavy rows when my back and hands are exhausted so I only go a little heavier than my body weight.

Shoulder day:

3 x 10 clean and press warm up sets followed by 3-4 heavy super sets of shoulder press followed by cleans, mostly barbell work here but can be dumbbell.

Then 2 x 10 heavy dumbbell presses alternating arms.

4 x whatever heavy shrugs superset with dumbbell front, side and rear lateral raises to failure...sit down and cry; if I can breath.

If I am feeling more psychotic than usual I will take a 25 or 35lb plate in back yard and do shuttle runs carrying it: 3 x 4-20 yard distance. Dodging around and over little dogs while sprinting with the plate makes these very challenging. [I now do this regularly and currently finger-hold a 25lb plate in each hand while attempting to run.]

Arms day:

I use either a curl or Olympic bar for variety and grip width changes.

Superset curls followed by overhead triceps extensions: 3 x 10 warm up sets, then 3 x 8-10 working sets with heaviest weight I can do without much cheating; these wind up being a bit more than ½ my body weight. [Skull crushers hurt my shoulders too much with elbows in. I guess I am aging.]

Then superset dumbbell curls with controllable weight using different angles 3-4 x 8-10, followed by same number sets of machine triceps push downs with good form only cheating last set with slow negatives.

Legs:

Usually on chest and arm day:

7 x 8-12 hamstring curls superset with leg extensions, first 2 and last set are light warm up and cool down. I don't go real heavy because I want small enough legs to road cycle.

Usually squats on light or rest day from above.

6 x 8-12 squats either front or rear for variety, again not very heavy, more for cardio and good form.

Stomach:

Abs 2-3 times per week and usually on rest day between 4 body parts so there is a day between arms and chest:

Leg lifts to flat and twist scorpions for obliques usually on bench press warm up and cool downs since bar already has weight to hold me down while doing these nasty things.

My version of crunches hanging off both sides of an ottoman for a stretch until abs are burning, then crunch left leg to right arm etc. to failure.

2-3 sets of 15 of these damn toe-tap things my brother showed me: stand on one foot, balance yourself while reaching down with opposite side hand to touch toe, then stand back up without falling over or letting other foot touch the floor; do for both feet to complete 1 set.

When I walk, sit at my office desk or drive I spend part of that time tightening my abs and flexing them as hard as I can. At my chair I will, when I think about it, keep one foot on the ground and lift the other leg off the seat so I can feel the belly contracting. Every little thing matters.

This has made me healthier in many ways. I feel great and strong. I sleep well. My pants are a lot looser and my upper shirts and sleeves are tighter. Soon I will need to buy new clothes to fit this new old guy. It’s hard being this age when you are so ripped.