Up here at the Old Place, we are what some would call “God-fearing people.” Fear, meaning, implicit trust in God’s providence, not the kind of fear that can manifest itself when we are exposed to the appearance of supernatural beings such as angels and saints, or apparitions of the dead. The assumption is that these are sent at the behest of a “supreme being,” God. Without getting into religion, there are three ways to consider the concept of a supreme being: 1. There is one supreme being; 2. There are many supreme beings. 3. There are no supreme beings.
Pick up the Holy Bible and turn to Exodus, where God introduces Himself
to Moses. When Moses asks God, “When they shall say to me, ‘What is his
name?’ What shall I say unto them?” God replies, “I AM THAT I AM.” The importance placed on that phrase, as God
uses it to identify Himself in the burning bush, stems from the Hebrew
conception of monotheism, that God exists by Himself for Himself, and is the uncreated
Creator who is independent of any concept, force, or entity; therefore "I
am who am" (ongoing).
Next, primitive man espoused the belief in many supreme
beings based on the magnificence and power demonstrated by nature: thunder,
lightning, earthquakes, the scorching of the sun, and the fury of the sea. We know them as Zeus, Apollo, Helios, and
Poseidon. They even called the planet “Mother Earth” because, like a woman, the
planet brought forth life. This concept is rare in modern culture.
Many people are raised in this belief by their parents. Others turned to this belief and away from belief in God because of a significant event in their lives. God somehow failed to live up to their expectations of what any all-powerful supreme being should have done…not “could” have done. These "atheists" often make a very public god out of empirical evidence, a smoke screen they privately ignore. The irony is that despite a total lack of empirical evidence, most avowed atheists do seem to believe in the likelihood of other intelligent life out there in the vastness of the cosmos, just not a supreme being who created the whole thing.
It is noteworthy that there are currently no earthly religions that deny the possibility of “life out there,” so at least we agree on something. To suggest that we are alone is best left to an old quote from Star Trek by Mr. Spock. “There are other forms of intelligence on earth, doctor. Only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man.” To wit, only human arrogance would assume homo-sapiens are the only intelligent life form in the universe.
Humans, so far, can not create supreme beings, but often make gods of things. The concept of a god is all about perception and control. A child looks up to his or her parents as if they were gods. They provide all wants and heal all ills. To a student, their teacher or a professor is like a god, one who can change their entire future with one grade. To a working adult, their boss is like a god, nuff said. The wealthy sometimes cast themselves as gods by becoming drunk on power, because they can give themselves everything they desire. The unimpeachable hypocrisy of the atheist is that they embrace all these concepts and thus forgo any interest in the safety of salvation.
So, Col. Jim, what’s it got to do with Safety? Safety is about First Order Thinking, the prevention of undesired loss… a plan to maintain life. Safety is also an action closely tied to Second Order Thinking, intentionally following a plan for managing the consequences that come after the first step in a process. For people, the first step is life, and this is where safety comes into the deal. Life is a process that can result in a near-infinite number of consequences, all of which can end in death, even before birth. Broken down into its simplest form, the second step then is that period in our existence after our life is over. To accomplish this, I recommend a simple system created by my friend Col. Eric Bertolet, “Work safe, Play safe, Live safe, and Love safe.”
Sitting in a rocker at the Old Place, I am, Col. Jim.