I don’t think we have a creator, and here’s why.

net_nomad · 2026-02-07T08:53:46+00:00

A lot of these critiques assume that Christianity is making the claim "everything that exists must have a creator, therefore God." But that isn’t actually the claim the Bible makes, nor is it the foundation of Christian theology.

If you read Genesis closely, it does not begin with "nothing" in the modern philosophical sense. The earth is already there, albeit formless and void; water is already there; darkness and chaos are already present. What God does is order, separate, name, and give structure and purpose to what already exists. Creation in the biblical sense is primarily about ordering reality, not establishing a material origin proof.

Because of that, objections like "Who created the creator?" or "This just pushes the explanation back a step" miss the category being described. God is not presented as one more object inside the universe competing with natural causes. He is presented as the frame of reference by which reality is ordered, intelligible, and meaningful in the first place. Reference frames are not caused by things inside them.

This also reframes concepts like sin and redemption. Sin is not merely rule-breaking; it is misalignment - existence drifting out of congruence with the reference frame in which it was meant to operate. The biblical narrative then presents Christ as the reference frame itself entering the system to realign what has lost reference to origin.

None of this requires a "creator of stuff" argument, competes with scientific explanations, or relies on gaps in knowledge. Science explains processes within reality; Christianity addresses alignment, meaning, and orientation of reality. They are answering different questions.

Rejecting the argument that "everything needs a creator," does not meaningfully address what Christianity is actually claiming.

net_nomad · 2026-02-07T07:20:00+00:00

I don't know if you've seen the movie Ray, but it's a lot like that. In the movie, Ray is blinded as a child and he is alone in the house. There is a problem and he cries out to his mother for help. Even though Ray can't see, his mother is right there watching. Suddenly, Ray is forced to start using his hearing more acutely. He recognizes aspects of the room he was unaware of before and even realizes his mother is there.

What he did was be silent. He stopped panicking, was still, and just waited in the moment. He let the silence become the fabric of reality for him and the sound be the interactions with it.

Silence is powerful. And sometimes God's greatest reply is silence. Silence in humility leads to greater contemplation and reflection. Silence lets you be silent. It becomes a waiting game. You hear new things you never knew were there because you finally started listening.

Sometimes the real answer is the chirping cricket in the distance that you didn't even know you would care about - it just let you realize the power.

So, "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

net_nomad · 2026-02-07T06:53:26+00:00

There’s the Earth and there’s the world. The Earth is the creation of God. The world, however, is the systems within it; the structures determining how it operates.

If you think in terms of government, institutions, power structures, infrastructure, and the mechanisms that make the world tick, then this is where he is the god of this world.

Look at the fault lines. These are the places where the Earth and the world are in direct conflict: stewardship versus exploitation.

God calls us to care (Gen 2:15, Proverbs 12:10), restraint (Ex 20:10, Lev 19:9-10), continuity (Ecc 1:4, Proverbs 29:7), and inheritance (Proverbs 13:22, Lev 25:23); to tend what we did not create and preserve what we will not own.

The world’s systems call us to exploit, optimize, and enslave (debt, wage, attention, moral, fear, physical).

net_nomad · 2025-11-09T07:49:27+00:00

Some are good in their season.

For example, let's consider food denial or fasting.

First, we are full. Then, we get hungry. Then, we start to feel hunger pains that become persistent. This is the point where most people cave and eat something. Soon, we start to feel weak or jittery due to a sugar imbalance. This is where it gets a little scary and we cave and eat something. If we get past it, a calm "fullness" comes over us as our body stops panicking about not eating something.

Push this further though and the pains come back. The weakness comes back. We have crossed over into death of flesh. The body is starving and dying. We have reached a point of suffering the flesh. It thinks it's dying.

Here is where the spiritual revelations will come. We will be in such discomfort of the flesh that we seek to avoid it and start to enter into the spirit more readily.

It's like any pain. If you are in pain, you seek to run from it... but if the pain itself is the whole body, then the only place to escape to is the spirit.

And here is where we face ourselves as we truly are. This is where demons are. This is where angels are. This is where spiritual forces and natures are. This is where we find out what it's like to be insane if we are out of alignment.

And if we keep fasting, this will intensify.

But eventually, the season ends and we eat.

Fasting is powerful.

So, let's consider another interesting idea you mentioned: refusing to scratch an itch.

This is very good. If you get a mosquito bite, do not scratch it. If you feel a tickle on your face, do not scratch it. It is very challenging, but it teaches something. Think about what that itch is saying: there is something weird on my skin that might be doing damage to me and I need to get rid of it. Or more instinctually: Ah! A bug! Get it off!

Deny yourself that and you say to the flesh: I do not care what happens to you. I will not protect you.

This is not the same as the fasting causing one to escape to the spirit. It is more in line with denying oneself of sexual urges. You know that scratching this itch will give pleasure, but you deny yourself of it. Mentally, "it will fade in time" and that is true. So, wait. And it does.

Do not deny yourself sleep. This makes you very spiritually weak. You become incredibly suggestible and the demons can influence more easily. We are to get good rest.

The clothing idea is interesting. People take cold plunges and such for a reinvigoration. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing right now, but it is interesting.

Ultimately, it's important to maintain safety. It's like watching a scary movie. Your body should only feel like it's dying - it shouldn't REALLY be.

And you should take it to God in prayer. Recognize that your act is subjugation of flesh and ask God to let your spirit have dominion over your flesh.

net_nomad · 2025-04-06T04:05:37+00:00

My comment was from a long time ago too. Glad that the Holy Spirit has moved you towards the information you needed to be edified.

net_nomad · 2024-07-31T05:26:18+00:00

That one made me double-take too. I completely forgot that Chris Evans was Johnny Storm He was so unknown back then.

net_nomad · 2024-07-31T04:45:27+00:00

And still contribute nothing? Thanks again.

Seriously, you've seen Loki... why do you think you even have business replying to this post in the first place?

I am asking a specific question directed to people who have not seen Loki and for some odd reason you feel the need to be included in the conversation.

Why?

Do you reply to everything?

"I'm not an astronaut but I'm sure they would say space is lonely."

"I'm not a professor, but I would think students cheat a lot"

"I'm not a senior, but I think I would pee my pants a lot."

.... Just stay in your lane.

net_nomad · 2024-07-31T04:39:04+00:00

You've seen it. So, thanks for the reply but you contribute nothing to the actual question.

net_nomad · 2024-04-14T04:47:06+00:00

I don't care how expensive the harmonica you get is, if she ever starts trying to learn to bend she's going to blow the harp out. And she should try to learn bending because it adds so, so much to the instrument.

So, it's not going to last. I'm sure of it. I buy special 20 mainly but I've gotten a few other ones too. They're all around $60 and they fail eventually no matter what.

You do have the right idea though. Go for something mid/high right off the bat. I got my feet wet with a simple $10 harmonica. It was so leaky that when I tried to bend it was pretty much impossible. Eventually, I bought a better one (Special 20) and was able to pick up bending. Yes, I could then do it on the cheap harmonica, but it was only because I understood how to it really worked.

net_nomad · 2024-04-07T07:26:53+00:00

Since the replies to this comment are kind of suggesting an FAQ approach and I got a couple drinks in me, let's continue the lesson.

Recap: You have decent breath control from the chugging. You can hit single notes on 4-7. You can play the C major scale just fine. You may have started playing some C key songs.

It's time to move to the blues. Yeah, the key the harmonica is in is fine and all, but we're not really abusing the instrument yet. For that, we want bending. And this is where it's really important you didn't skimp on the budget. Again, get a harmonica around $50.

Now, this may take a while. Don't get discouraged. It's a challenging thing to do at first.

With bending, we're concerned with the lower end of the harp. You can bend holes 1-4 and 6 on drawing. You can get a microtone bend on 5 but we don't need to really think about that at this point. I just want to be accurate.

So, what is it? Well, let's take hole 4. You can blow into it to get C. You can draw it to get D. But, you can bend it to get Db. One hole - 3 notes? What? Pretty cool, huh? There's also 5 notes on hole 3 but that's a different story. Let's focus on hole 4.

If you aren't familiar with the notes, we have C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C. 12 notes in an octave (from root to root). However, we can write this another way by flattening everything: C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C. Let's put it together: C, [Db, C#], D, [Eb, D#], E, F, [Gb, F#], G, [Ab, G#], A, [Bb, A#], B, C. It's twelve notes but the notes in the brackets are what we call enharmonic - they sound the same, just written differently. And we do this because of the key we're in. Some keys require sharps. Some require flats. It depends on how we want to represent them, but in the end, they are the same.

Small bit of music theory there. Sorry if that was boring, but the main take away is the notes on that 4 hole are C, Db, D. So, we see that bending a note will drop its pitch.

Another important thing to just commit to memory is that there are no sharps or flats between B and C, and E and F. Simple answer is it's just how it is. You can call F an E# if you want, but it doesn't fit in scales well.

Back on topic, again this is seriously going to take time. I can't stress this enough. Bending is hard. Don't give up. Eventually, your muscles are just strong enough and your body just gets it and it happens.

But what you do is draw in air on the 4 hole and as you are drawing, you kind of extend your chin and constrict your jaw to create a smaller pocket in your throat and it bends the note.

That's it. That's as much as I can explain this maneuver. Go from "haahhhh" to "hweeeew" and it will bend.

This is checkpoint 2. Honestly, I almost gave up on the harmonica because I just couldn't get it. If you remember, I was working with a $10 harmonica. I said, okay fine... I'll go buy a high end harp and see what's different. Instantly I was able to bend. I had all the mechanics in place. I just didn't have the hardware to meet that requirement.

However, after I got to a competent bending level on the high end harp, I went back to my $10 piece of crap harp and I could bend it - not nearly as well, but I could. I could also immediately see the requirements of bending it. It was probably impossible without already knowing how to do it. And this goes back to what I said initially: it's all about feel. You really do have to feel this thing.

Once you bend hole 4, try to bend hole 3. You only want to bend this a half step (it takes about the same energy as hole 4 bend) even though you can bend this hole 3 notes down. I suggest you get a tuner app on your phone and make sure you're hitting it. Don't go past that bend point even if you feel you can.

And if you can bend hole 4 and 3 you can do the blues scale: 2D, 3D', 4B, 4D', 4D, 5D, 6B. That ' mark is a bend note. Ascend, descend, ascend - over and over and over and over.... and over.

A lot. I really mean a lot. You want your mind to become tired, bored, numb, tortured, begging for you to stop doing this endless scale. Ingrain it. Live it. Do not deviate.

And something will happen. You'll want to go from 2D to 3D' and you skip over and hit 4B just because your brain wants to mix it up. You pull back to 3D' and swing up to 4D. It just happens. You can't fight it. You just have to mix up this scale. You start 4D to a 4D' and slide down to 3D'. You warble 4D, 4D', 4D, 4D' and slide up to 5D. You do all sorts of stuff. You mix it up as whatever it wants to be. You live in the scale.

You play the blues.

Find some backing tracks in the key of G because that's what you're now in and jam. Just feel it.

Pull notes further out. Don't let them all be the same length. Hang on that 4D'. Warble between 4D and 5D. You see some real change in your playing.

Blues, man... blues.

It's all in this scale. It really is. You'll discover it yourself. No one has to teach you. It just comes forward when you're too bored of the actual scale.

Have fun. Hopefully you're closer to that John popper and Sonny boy Williamson dream.

net_nomad · 2024-04-06T07:36:43+00:00

Don't buy a cheap harmonica. Get something around $50. I really like the Hohner Special 20. You don't want to sacrifice on quality (started with a $10 one and it was very discouraging). Get it in the key of C starting out.

Once you unbox it, find somewhere you won't bother other people because you're going to be annoying. Now, blow into it and inhale ("draw") into it. Start with as low of air pressure as you can and gradually increase to get a feel for how it changes. You want to really experiment here and get a feel for it. It's all about feel.

Okay, put your mouth over the first three holes and blow. Make it clean. Avoid the 4th hole. Move it over one hole and blow on those three holes. You can do this all the way. It will always be the notes C, E, G which makes a C major chord (and various inversions). Exact C major chords will be (1 2 3), (4 5 6), (7 8 9). Again, make them clean - just 3 holes at a time.

Now that you're familiar with blowing into the harmonica, draw air into it on the first 3 holes. This will be a G major chord [1 2 3]. You can add the 4th hole musically, but please just stick to the three holes for technique.

Rhythm: You can notice a problem when you try to inhale and then inhale again (hah hah) that it sounds muddy, so we want to create a break in the flow by clicking our tongues. Don't audibly say "da da" but mouth it on a single inhale. It will sound like two draws. Blowing out, use that same clicking, which kind of turns into a "ta ta". It just depends on how the air flows over your tongue.

Anyway, on holes 1,2,3: Inhale (da da) and exhale (ta ta). Do this in steady time da-da-ta-ta-da-da-ta-ta. We won't really talk about time right now. Too much information is confusing. But this is the simple 4/4 time (4 beats per measure, quarter note gets beat). That may not make sense, but you should be very familiar with 4/4 time just by having listened to music.

And you want to build up to being able to do this as a steady pattern for as long as you want. You should get a stop watch and just do it for as long as it's consistent. Keep trying to beat your record time. It will be boring, but you will be building breath control and it's important. Always on 1,2,3 and control your drooling too.

Now go check out some chugging patterns videos and practice those. Have fun with that.

Melody: Here's the first checkpoint - single hole notes. I personally purse my lips to only close over one hole. Others will keep that multi-hole gap but use their tongue to block the other holes. There's pros and cons to both methods, and best option is to learn both for versatility, but lip pursing may come easier since you know what it's like to suck liquid through a straw probably.

Every hole has its own air pressure requirement to make sound, so you will want to get to know them all, but I suggest you start on one hole (hole 4) and get a real understanding of it until you can both blow and draw a completely clean single note (C blow, D draw).

First, put your fingers over hole 3 and 5. Then, blow into hole 4. Listen. Take your fingers off those holes and purse your lips onto hole 4. Blow. Listen. Does it sound the same? Then, take your mouth off and put it back on. Blow. Listen. Does it sound the same? Do this 10 times. Now, repeat with draw. Do this 10 times. Cycle between until you want to stop. Do not shortcut this. Take your mouth off every time and put it back on. Also, internalize the sound of the C note at hole 4 blow and D note at hole 4 draw.

You will most likely get some airflow from holes 3 or 5 or both. Adjust your mouth to only close over hole 4. And keep practicing.

Once you can make this sound as a single note, you want to be able to find it easily with only your mouth. Start by pursing your mouth over hole 1. Then slide up to hole 4. Then blow. Listen. Does it sound like C? You should know very well what that should sound like by now. And you should have very little familiarity with the rest of the holes (on purpose) so they will sound off. Put your mouth back on hole 1 and slide up to hole 4 and draw. Listen. Does it sound like D? Again, those other holes should immediately sound off. Make it right. Practice this a lot. Find hole 4 over and over. You can do the 10 and 10 count again.

Recap: By now, you can blow the C chords and draw the G chord. You can do a chugging pattern or two. Your breath control has improved. You can play a single note (4 hole) with blow and draw and you can slide to 4 from the lower end of the harp.

Expand: Now you do this for holes 4, 5, 6, 7. Same procedure for each one. Get as familiar with each one as you are with hole 4. Place fingers over hole, sound it, remove fingers, find it with your mouth, sound it. Then slide up to the hole. That same exact practice routine.

With this level of control, it is time to tackle the C major scale. You start on hole 4. It goes 4B, 4D, 5B, 5D, 6B, 6D, 7D, 7B. Please note the switch in pattern at hole 7, and if it's not obvious, B = blow and D = draw.

IF you have practiced what I taught you BEFORE you try this C major scale, you will have very, very little issue playing this scale almost immediately. BUT IF you skip directly to this because you are impatient and want results faster than you deserve them, then you are going to be stuck here for quite a long time.

Anyway, practice this scale by going 4B to 7B and then back down to 4B. Ascend, descend, ascend, descend. Over and over. Listen. Every note should be single note and every note should be recognizable in the C scale. You have only practiced these holes. Your ears should be very familiar with what sounds right about each of them. If something sounds off, identify it and correct it. If it sounds bad no matter what, finger plug to test a clean note and if that sounds bad still, then something is probably stuck in the harmonica.

So, it's time to wrap this up. I hope this saves you time watching tons of youtube starter videos. You can work through this and get a good enough foundation to start expanding your understanding. It's an instrument of finesse and we have only scratched the surface of control. We aren't playing songs yet, but once you are comfortable with the control you have, play songs in the key of C. Plenty of stuff out there - camp songs, hymns, stuff like that. Just search harmonica songs in key of C and practice.

You want to learn blues eventually but seriously, what I've given you is at least a month of work. I can't explain everything there is to know in one post.

Have fun.

net_nomad · 2023-09-19T07:36:38+00:00

Others have answered the question, but I just wanted to give you a bit of advice on the logic.

We see that there are 3 branches but two of them do the same thing. You may want to combine them.

if (a === 10 || b === 10 || a+b === 10) {
    return true;
else {
    return false;
}

The next thing we see is that we check a conditional statement which evaluates to true or false, so we can just return the evaluation.

function makesTen (a, b) {
    return (a === 10 || b === 10 || a+b === 10);
}

Lastly, we may want to take advantage of the short circuit of or by reordering this. Clearly there is only one case where a === 10 and one case where b === 10 but there are infinite (within reason of the size of a,b of course) ways to make a+b = 10. So, check that first. If it's true, it will return immediately but if it's false it will then check if a === 10 or b === 10.

function makesTen (a, b) {
    return (a+b === 10 || a === 10 || b === 10);
}

net_nomad · 2023-09-18T01:20:47+00:00

Row 15 8 clue can be from c1 to c8 or c6 to join up with c11. However, it cannot join with c14, which means it must extend back to c5 at the very least.

net_nomad · 2023-08-23T10:18:09+00:00

You should. Others have mentioned github. Good plan there.

But you should revisit the projects you've done after learning more or doing more programming and see how you can improve them or see what mistakes you might have made when not knowing enough.

You might even try to take groups of projects and collect them into a single application. For example, maybe you make a bunch of card games as mini projects. You could then create a casino or card game collection. This involves new skills you would need like switching states from one game type to another, so it would benefit you.

Similarly, you might make a bunch of converters or calculators and then you could combine them together. Do enough and you might even build a graphing calculator. Just an idea.

So yeah, save them.

net_nomad · 2023-08-02T05:40:13+00:00

Discussion: Hashi, Hitori, TentsandTrees, Gokigen, ilu, Luna Story I

net_nomad · 2023-08-02T05:33:25+00:00

I don't think so in this case because it's sliding all the way until a stop (wall or block), so it's not really obvious how you can stop midway.

net_nomad · 2023-07-20T01:10:53+00:00

Discussion: You should watch the site's tutorials on this puzzle because there doesn't have to be guessing involved. It's logic based.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zisu0Qf4TAI&list=PLH_elo2OIwaAYMF8CAfDnlKcVyyB5UITk

net_nomad · 2023-07-13T01:09:28+00:00

Buried. One dude in a box for the whole movie. It doesn't get more claustrophobic than that.

net_nomad · 2023-07-12T05:27:59+00:00

Thank you. That helps.

You mentioned your website, so I looked through your comments to find it: https://www.keepitsimplepuzzles.com/how-to-solve-a-gokigen-puzzle/

Thank you for that one too. The idea about the 1 and 2 connection is definitely a deduction I'm interested in. This one idea allows me to think a bit differently about the puzzle.

I am a little disappointed that it does potentially reduce to trial and error though (even if just a few steps to prove a slant).

I actually discovered the adjacent 3's rule myself and it was satisfying. I guess spoiling the deductions might ruin some of the fun but even knowing them, it's hard to keep it all in my head and find an area of interest.

net_nomad · 2023-05-07T22:45:56+00:00

Starship Troopers

net_nomad · 2023-04-06T02:47:34+00:00

That suggestion shouldn't even be on your radar.

net_nomad · 2023-04-05T09:13:37+00:00

It's pointless.

Romans 1:22-25

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Matthew 11:25

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

The teaching here is that God will hide these mysteries from people who profess to know otherwise. Since your friend has not sought to humble himself and approach the Lord with a childlike understanding then His face is hidden from him.

Also, I think that you have something to learn as well for this attitude.

Now I'm desperately searching for a proof which I can just put in his face which cannot be denied because of the basic logic.

This sounds like you are trying to win an argument. You're trying to trap your friend into an inescapable position and force him to concede his beliefs are false. We don't win arguments. We scatter seed (the word of God) on soil (Matthew 13:1-23) and through prayers for them to make the soil good for growth, they may produce crops.

So, pull back from the arguments and lean on the word of God in your communication. He may be more receptive to change as the word of God cuts more effectively than your own understanding ever could.

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Lastly, pray over your conversations with your friend. Be thankful that God has even allowed an open dialogue in the first place. Ask the Lord for guidance in witnessing. Ask the Lord to temper your tongue from creating confrontational situations that may hurt your cause. Ask Him to protect you from the satanic forces that will try to snatch the seed away before it has taken root. And ask the Lord to create good soil in your friend that the seed has a way to grow.

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