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Nature and Ecology

Climate Change Is Affecting Our Oceans

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – June 7, 2021

The Ocean has become the world's greatest garbage dump. Sooner or later, we will be witnessing a Smokey Ocean in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

Our ocean is the greatest absorber of carbon dioxide in our planet, more than the rainforest of the same area in the Amazon forests.

But what have we done to it? Do you know that it's legal to dump trash in the ocean?

The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (“Ocean Dumping Act”) prohibits dumping materials into the ocean that would adversely affect human health or degrade the marine environment.

But it is perfectly acceptable to dump your raw sewage, paper, rags, glass, metal, bottles, or similar refuse, as long as you are at least 12 miles away from the nearest shoreline.

A wide variety of man-made objects can become marine debris; plastic bags, balloons, buoys, rope, medical waste, glass and plastic bottles, cigarette stubs, cigarette lighters, beverage cans, polystyrene, lost fishing line and nets, and various wastes from cruise ships and oil rigs are among the items commonly found.

The US military used ocean dumping for unused weapons and bombs, including ordinary bombs, landmines and chemical weapons from at least 1919 until 1970.

While our oceans continues to absorb carbon dioxide, the level of carbon dioxide underneath is more than enough for its capacity to absorb. This is because of the enormous wastes we are throwing to the seas.

This is the "State of Our Ocean" as the United Nations celebrates Earth Day annually on the 22nd of April. It's purpose is to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis and environmental degradation and the need for immediate action.

The Great Flood Revisited

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – July 18, 2021

The Earth during Noah's time was corrupt and was filled with violence. Whatever men and women thought then were only evil and this went on and on through the ages. Our situation today is very similar. Could it be that God will be sending us another great deluge? If so, does this mean that today's Noah is already here, only we don't know him yet?

Going Back to Nature

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – October 23, 2021

Going back to Nature with the rivers, forests, and trees as well as the birds, butterflies, and the bees is not going backwards in time. It's not going away from a civilized to an uncivilized world. It's not leaving the glamorous city life just to live a hermetic life in a quiet, lush, greenery. It's not escaping life.

But the luscious and serene place I used to live in has now become a haven for smoke belchers, reckless chauffers, carriers of deadly corona variants. Living has become stressful, uglier, and deadlier as days go by. I want to have a wider breathing space, unrestricted by lockdowns and quarantines. But the show must go on.

1. Classes as usual.

2. My 5th cosmic book (2021), "Surviving Two Years of Global Pandemic", is now being processed for publication in the States.

3. I'm now starting to write my 6th cosmic book for the year 2022, temporarily bearing the title, "One With the Light".

4. Then, "Quantitative Approaches to Phenomenology" where I'll discuss factor analysis, cluster analysis, correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and other multivariate tools and techniques that could reinforce the qualitative approach to ASI's Phenomenology.

Let's keep ourselves busy for humanity.

Grounding and Earthing

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - April 29, 2022

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." —Albert Einstein

Being grounded with Nature allows us to be connected with each other. We all came from her womb and she very well knows all our ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

We are all her children after all. She gave us life and continues to nourish, sustain, and protect us, even in times when we are unaware of her presence. We can always invoke for her guidance and assistance. As a mother, she considers it her duty and responsibility to always look after her children.

What a great love Nature has showed on us. In return, let’s acknowledge our corresponding love and respect to our Mother Nature by:

(1) Loving the minerals, stones, rocks, mountains, and other objects as thyself for we all came from them; it was from them that all creatures, including us humans, came from. Their imprint is already in us, in our genes and DNA. They continue to influence our ways of thinking , feeling, and behaving, whether for better or for worse.

(2) Loving the plants, trees, for they too are alive like us. Deprive them of food—air, water, sunshine, fire, and soil—and they grow weak and even die.

They have feelings too like us. They can be sad and happy too. Let them listen to music and they become animated and lively. Chop their trunk or branches and they shed tears. Being unable to move from one place to another, they are most vulnerable to external aggression. And their primary aggressors are human beings.

(3) Loving the insects and the animals. For they too have life. Killing them is no different from killing a human being. Science says life is made of the same ingredients consisting of atoms and molecules while religion says that we all—including minerals, plants, trees—originated from the same spirit of God.

(4) Loving the spirits that dwell in the trees, forests, streams, rivers, oceans, caves for they too form an essential part of creation. In particular, love the enchanted spirits (engkantos), dwarves, gnomes, and fairies. They deserve our respect. They’re all creatures of our Lord God Almighty. Protect their homes and shelters.

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They must have known that we were coming so they prepared a smorgasbord of abundance and wealth for us that can last for all the generations to come. They are our hosts and hostesses.

Our subhuman kindred are all our sources of life. Let’s take good care of them for they will continue to nourish and sustain us despite the destruction and damage we have inflicted on them.

Let’s be one and in communion with them for society depends on them.

Pantheism and Panentheism

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – May 2, 2002

The Google dictionary defines

(1) Pantheism as a doctrine which identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God.

Its doctrine declares that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe.

(2) Panentheism as the belief or doctrine that God is greater than the universe and Nature. It includes and interpenetrates the entire Cosmos.

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My take:

God manifests itself through Nature. Nature has become a replica of the image and power of God. It partakes all the attributes of God. Nature is God. This is pantheism.

I go beyond. Nature’s Godhead stems from the world beyond, in the 5th dimension. Giving rituals, songs, dances, agape, and other liturgical services to Nature is a way of adoring God.

It’s similar and parallel to celebrating the Holy Mass, which consists of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

I can worship God through the Holy Mass. I can also do the same act of worship through Nature, a more pragmatic and convenient way to do, in fact, especially for those who have not been reached by the religious services of clergies.

Salvation can be achieved not only through the Holy Masses. The Holy Eucharist is enacted daily merely for purposes of commemorating the passion, crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Master and Lord Jesus, the Christ.

Salvation is inclusive and encompassing. Its path covers all the breadth and depth of the entirety of all creation. Even my favorite pets as well as the stones, insects, earthworms, honeybees, butterflies, plants, and trees in my little garden can lead me to salvation and to God.

This does not mean, of course, that I’m already saved. I still have to work for it every moment of my life, not in the pantheist, but in the panentheist way.