Ted Talk about Vulnerability, Connectedness and Whole-Heartedness

Posted by Neal Campbell on Dec 21, 2011 in acceptance, beliefs, change, science | 0 comments

I’ve worked through a lot of stuff in the last year. This TED talk covers some of the stuff I’m still working through.

“Stories are data with a soul.” -Brene Brown

North Korea at Night from Space Proves Communism is Death

Posted by Neal Campbell on Dec 19, 2011 in beliefs, politics | 0 comments

I’m not a fan of light pollution and the way you can’t see stars in a city, but ultimate light represents life. This satellite photo shows communist North Korea above capitalist South Korea at night. South Korea is alive with light while North Korea is completely dark.

Let’s hope the end of Kim Jong Il’s life will result in the end of a regime where North Korea’s people don’t have enough to eat and will have light at night, if they want it.

Hate Fake

Posted by Neal Campbell on Nov 26, 2011 in beliefs, politics, rant, tech media | 0 comments

I’m not a fan of the Muppets now that I’m old. Now I’m a Jim Henson fan. I’m more interested in the puppeteer than the puppet.

As we move toward the next election, the paid pundits on the left and the right tell us it’s going to be Romney V. Obama, even though very few Republicans give a damn about Romney. I gotta say it’s weird for me because I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative and that’s what Romney’s record suggests he is too. I just don’t believe him. He comes across as 97% inauthentic. I’ve experienced enough of that in my personal life to know it when I see it.

The other night, I decided to watch the Republican debate. I put out a few tweets and then got one back from someone pretending to be named Jen Littlefield. The twitter names is jPENNAME!!! This person may tweet again, but hasn’t tweeted sense he or she tweeted,

@nealcampbell are you looking for an actor or a president. Why do people always want their candidates to sound like Dr. Phil. Geesh.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Happy Steve Jobs Day

Posted by Neal Campbell on Oct 16, 2011 in Apple, beliefs, Featured | 2 comments

Steve Jobs Silhouette Stay Hungry Stay Foolish 1920 x 1080

Made by Neal on a Mac.

By request, versions optimized for iPad and iPhone…

for iPad

for iPhone (vertical)

Why is the wallpaper for iPad square? Someone asked so I explain it here with a template you can download.

The God Thing

Posted by Neal Campbell on Jun 18, 2011 in beliefs, GOD | 0 comments

People who don’t buy into the God concept tend to have a problem with me, but they shouldn’t. Neither should Christians that I criticize. I had a little fight with Leo Laporte when he was criticizing my ex-wife when she was envolved with an atheist but the truth is there are few people I respect more than him. Thank Zuckerberg for the, “It’s Complicated” Facebook relationship status.

Here’s the deal with me…

I believe in belief. Belief works no matter what you believe. Young Muslim men will make themselves into bombs because they BELIEVE. Christians will be mean to gay people and protest abortion clinics because they believe homosexuality is an abomination to God and abortion is killing innocence. Belief is like fuel for life. It motivates!

Here’s the thing though …

I believe in God because that belief fills in blanks for me. I grew up trying to understand God through the Bible. That works because it’s the way billions of people have come to a maybe true understanding of what God is all about. The problem is you can’t study the bible truthfully and not find imperfection. Just like me, and you, and any attempt to know and understand what that God thing is about … everything is flawed … including that book.

My sense is that God is a He and a She and a Do and a That. If there is a God, God is bigger than religion and to really encounter God makes religion shrink to pretty much nothingness.

I simply cannot believe that supreme intelligence cares about the minute details of my life, but I can total believe in an idea of love that created people to love and doesn’t like it when we don’t love. Everything I’ve experienced in trying to understand what God IS suggests that God is simply love. I quickly dropped the Bible as fully true because of the parts that inspire hate and oppression. I don’t reject the God the bible introduced me to, though. I love that concept!

My gay friends who follow Jesus know God loves them because that’s what God is. Our churches have become about rules and make believe. I don’t like that. If God is love, church should be too and all too often it’s just a place where mean men make the rules.

I sin when I fail to love, but when I love I smash right into what the God thing is all about. I believe God is technology. I believe God is love. I believe God is AWESOME!

Where I Stand

Posted by Neal Campbell on Jun 4, 2011 in beliefs, GOD | 3 comments

To say the last few months have been crap on toast is only getting at the start of the point. I came very close to giving up. In the process I dealt with what I believe about God and the bible. I wrestled with my beliefs and came through the process feeling pretty positive about what I believe. I’m pro God and not a big fan of the bible.

I’ve gotten to the place where I believe God is love and Love is god. Sin is only a failure to love (failure to love oneself, failure to love one’s neighbor and/or failure to love God/Love). I believe the narrative story of the bible, but I do not believe the bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God. I believe the bible contains scripture inspired by God that is immutably true, but it also contains stuff that has nothing to do with God. Jesus didn’t promise a book. He promised a spirit.

I believe the bible shows an unfolding understanding of the concept of God by people who longed to know him. I believe the understanding continues beyond the church’s canonization of the book we called the bible. I believe all written truth is scripture inspired by God, although I’m not sure if God is a who or a what. I believe bible writers wrote scripture, I believe Albert Einstein wrote scripture, I believe Julia Child wrote scripture, I believe The Shack contains scripture, I believe you and I sometimes write scripture and I believe all scripture is inspired by God, but not everything in the bible is scripture. Our spirits tell us what’s true and what isn’t. For example, our spirits tell us God is not pissed off if we wear a poly-cotton blend.

I use common terms to identify with folks, so I will call myself a Christian to connect with someone, but ultimately, I am not a Christian. I believe that Jesus is God made flesh sent to connect, redeem and solve the difference between God and man. I don’t believe you have to believe it. I believe His death and resurrection saved everyone whether or not they pray a Billy Graham prayer. Any other belief is grace +. I don’t believe God needs a decision of faith. I believe God did everything through the person of Jesus to make everyone ultimately one with who God is. I am a believer in Jesus, but not a follower. I believe to follow Him requires giving up everything (family, money, dreams … everything) to work for the poor because that’s what HE said. I’m not ready to do that.

A decision to acknowledge God and Jesus and what Jesus did creates a spiritual reality for believers that cannot be scientifically understood or classified. Belief has power regardless of the aim of the belief. Belief has benefits whether it’s based on truth or nonsense. I do better when I believe than when I struggle to understand what is true.

I think of God as a concept more than as a person. I believe in the God concept and want to know and understand the God concept as much as a person can without developing another sense of blessed assurance that makes me think I’m right and you’re wrong (if you don’t agree with me).

God is love, and therefore, I will try to love you whether you love me or hate me because I think that is the best goal of life.