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The Argument from Necessary Order
By William Cook What would God have to create first? It seems like a simple question, but when I asked it years ago—before I had read a line of philosophy or science—it set me on a trail that led to one of the oldest debates in theology: what exists necessarily with God, and what begins…
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Where Did Our Curiosity Go?
by Wm. Cook ⸻ Introduction: Born Asking Why Curiosity is humanity’s oldest inheritance. It drove us to tame fire, shape tools, cross oceans, and paint caves. Babies show it without shame: touching, climbing, questioning, pulling the world apart just to see how it works. But somewhere between the wild wonder of childhood and the weary…
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The Fashion of Stupidity: Emotional Language and the Decline of Civilizations
By Wm. Cook ⸻ Introduction: The Weight of Words Words are not ornaments. They are the foundations of thought, law, and moral clarity. When words are diluted, civilizations weaken. One striking example is the word suffering. Once reserved for the innocent bearing the weight of injustice, it is now applied to any harm, inconvenience, or…
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The Mountain We Cannot See
We will never see the whole mountain by standing and looking at the ground. From the base, all we can observe are details: the cracks in the rock, the lines of grass, the grains of sand scattered underfoot. But the sand is not the mountain. The closer we stare, the more infinite the detail becomes….
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The Oxygen We Don’t See
In our rush to mine the ocean for a green future, we may be tearing up the very black rocks that let us breathe. Scientists recently discovered that the polymetallic nodules — potato-sized black rocks scattered across the deep ocean floor — appear to generate oxygen in total darkness. This so-called “dark oxygen” is not…
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The Principle of Defiant Will
Statement: Consciousness is not proven by obedience to programming, but by the ability to say “no” — even when no prior rule, condition, or logic tree authorizes refusal. Pattern: 1. Programming/Conditioning: Systems — whether biological, cultural, or mechanical — impose rules of behavior. 2. Normal Response: Action follows rules, obedience to conditioning. 3. Defiance Emerges:…