Interesting article in “The Atlantic” magazine (2020-03-15, Katherine Harmon Courage and Quanta).
Byline: “Scientists have struggled to develop new antibiotics. Enter: the machines.”
Preview: a read-only copy of the forum. To post or reply, use the current forum.
The war with bacteria
8 posts · 3 participants · started Mar 16, 2020, 4:53 PM
That was an interesting article, which among other points, highlighted an antibacterial compound called “halicin”. But until that drug is affordable & easily accessible, and has been well tested, holistic practitioners recommend ingesting plenty of (low or no sugar) prebiotics & prebiotics (such as Kombucha) to replenish the “good” bacteria (which traditional pharmaceutical antibiotics destroy) in the intestinal tract. In fact, researchers have learned that a healthy immune system is dependent on a healthy digestive tract. That article also wisely (but barely) mentioned the value of proper nutrition, PH (meaning adopting good dietary and emotional habits that produce a less acidic/more alkaline body chemistry) and increasing our oxygen levels via deep breathing, cardiovascular exercises, and proper sleep (ideally at night). Also add good personal hygiene to that list of recommendations. (All of that advice is also helpful when trying to overcome viral infections. I know from personal experience that such advice can be quite helpful.)
Have you ever wondered why it is necessary for scientists to keep developing new antibiotics or even small machines to win the war with bacteria?
Consider any kind of home cleaning product you may use: they generally say something like “kills 99.9% of all bacteria.” Why don’t they kill 100%? Killing 999 of 1000 germs seems like a good idea at first. But what about that 1 germ in 1000 that doesn’t die? It doesn’t die because it’s stronger than the others. And for that reason, it will create a new generation of bacteria which is also stronger than the previous generation. Which takes stronger chemicals to produce the same result. This includes antibiotics. By this way of thinking, we are evolving an enemy that keeps getting stronger.
I’m not talking about multi-celled creatures like small insects or other small organisms visible in a microscope. These are part of our dimension. I’m talking about all single-celled microscopic life forms as examples of life in a lower realm: the molecular plane of existence, the second dimension, or the second floor of The Orvonton Hotel. Whatever you want to call it, they don’t have personality or free-will dignity but they are reasonably aware of their surroundings.
urantia4me said: “…holistic practitioners recommend ingesting plenty of (low or no sugar) prebiotics & prebiotics (such as Kombucha) to replenish the “good” bacteria (which traditional pharmaceutical antibiotics destroy) in the intestinal tract. In fact, researchers have learned that a healthy immune system is dependent on a healthy digestive tract. That article also wisely (but barely) mentioned the value of proper nutrition, PH (meaning adopting good dietary and emotional habits that produce a less acidic/more alkaline body chemistry) and increasing our oxygen levels via deep breathing, cardiovascular exercises, and proper sleep (ideally at night). Also add good personal hygiene to that list of recommendations. (All of that advice is also helpful when trying to overcome viral infections. I know from personal experience that such advice can be quite helpful.)”
Ultimately, this way of thinking (I believe) will prove to be much more efficacious. Especially the part about “emotional habits.” These single-cell creatures are alive and have their proper place. Balance is so important. It’s only when the balance is upset that these living creatures become a threat. And as beings of the second dimension, they are much better prepared to make war than we are. In my opinion, we must learn to make war no more against beings in any dimension.
Randy
Anyone with a mind has an opinion and that opinion is a reflection of that mind.
Interesting comments. Is this war winnable? I doubt it. We’re learning to manage it both personally and perhaps globally (someday). Not now. I am an octogenarian and count myself as fit as a fiddle. Why me I ask out loud? I didn’t take pre or probiotics, or swallow extra pills and whatnot. I note that my progeny are less well off. My siblings were too, as were my parents. I see people every single day who have physical and mental afflictions of one sort or another. My life has been an experiential continuum, no doubt as is yours, marked by flashes of insight, plus hard work and a lot of other activity, the biggest of which is the ability to adapt to today’s conditions. Plan for tomorrow but deal with today. A huge part of my philosophy involves discerning what I can do, as against what I cannot do, to improve the quality of my life. People everywhere automatically do this every single day, in spite of bacterial, viral and amoebic illnesses. I think the researchers need to keep at it.
Back to the book . . .
Things went haywire with the bacteria a very, very, very, very long time ago. Very early on in the life implantations scheme.
65:2.3 [Part III]The bacteria, simple vegetable organisms of a very primitive nature, are very little changed from the early dawn of life; they even exhibit a degree of retrogression in their parasitic behavior. Many of the fungi also represent a retrograde movement in evolution, being plants which have lost their chlorophyll-making ability and have become more or less parasitic. The majority of disease-causing bacteria and their auxiliary virus bodies really belong to this group of renegade parasitic fungi. During the intervening ages all of the vast kingdom of plant life has evolved from ancestors from which the bacteria have also descended.65:2.4 [Part III]The higher protozoan type of animal life soon appeared, and appeared suddenly. And from these far-distant times the ameba, the typical single-celled animal organism, has come on down but little modified. He disports himself today much as he did when he was the last and greatest achievement in life evolution. This minute creature and his protozoan cousins are to the animal creation what bacteria are to the plant kingdom; they represent the survival of the first early evolutionary steps in life differentiation together with failure of subsequent development.65:5.2 [Part III]But throughout all of this biologic adventure our greatest disappointment grew out of the reversion of certain primitive plant life to the prechlorophyll levels of parasitic bacteria on such an extensive and unexpected scale. This eventuality in plant-life evolution caused many distressful diseases in the higher mammals, particularly in the more vulnerable human species. When we were confronted with this perplexing situation, we somewhat discounted the difficulties involved because we knew that the subsequent admixture of the Adamic life plasm would so reinforce the resisting powers of the resulting blended race as to make it practically immune to all diseases produced by the vegetable type of organism. But our hopes were doomed to disappointment owing to the misfortune of the Adamic default.“But our hopes were doomed to disappointment owing to the misfortune of the Adamic default.” Thus, my question: Is this war winnable?.Ironic the Life Carriers experience disappointment.Mara wrote: “Is this war winnable?”
Ok Mara, let me respond to your question with another question: what if nothing ever died? Speaking strictly in mortal terms, if nothing ever died then in a very short time our world would become an extremely crowded place. Also, what would we eat? In a manner of speaking we eat (and die) because matter is recycled on our world.
The situation is very complex of course. But why must we approach it by thinking of it as war? The answer is to make a profit. Our world is pretty much ruled by the profit motive. And great profit is derived by engaging in war on many levels. Like the Life Carriers, the human race is currently engaged in conducting an “experiment” on itself. Part of that experiment is based on the fact that there are probably more people alive right now on Urantia than ever before. We live in a world of Blessed Abundance. But there are only so many resources to go around. TUB calls it “land/man ratio.” War is also fought to protect resources.
you also wrote: “A huge part of my philosophy involves discerning what I can do, as against what I cannot do, to improve the quality of my life. People everywhere automatically do this every singe day, in spite of bacterial, viral and amoebic illnesses. I think the researchers need to keep at it.”
I agree. Have you ever heard of “The Serenity Prayer?” I discern that you have. My faith is based upon the Serenity Prayer, and I suspect we may have this in common, as well as our interest in The Urantia Book.
Let me speak a little more about “emotional habits.” Parasites are probably the most successful kind of life on our world. But they don’t necessarily feed on matter. There are parasites who feed on emotion. Especially the negative emotions. In a manner of speaking, fear makes people more susceptible to dis-ease. Researchers know this. So do the corporations they serve. They have learned to make a profit by promoting fear.
There are only two ways to control a civilization: the first is through “hope” and the second is through “fear.”
Which one do you prefer?
Randy
Anyone with a mind has an opinion and that opinion is a reflection of that mind.
I wondered why I posted this topic in the first place. At that time nations of the world were coping with a rampant disease – the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a big rush to develop vaccines to defeat it. This topic seemed relevant at the time (at least in my mind), but apparently not of much interest to UB readers, even though the book does mention that very little has changed in life diferentiation and development, regarding bacteria, etc. (65:2.4) since the very early times of our biologic adventure. I hope we don’t get stuck in the weeds on the word “war”.
Nations have plenty of problems to solve on many fronts. Hopefully the more advanced ones can offer helping hands to the less advanced. I hope we move forward, not backward. Civilizations can crash, because they are not innate in the individuals of the races of mortals. But science is innate. Morality is innate. And religion is innate in the individuals of the races.
16:9.5 [Part I]Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of the races. They must be nurtured by the combined contributions of the constitutive factors of man — science, morality, and religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion always survive the crash.This gives me some comfort, though it is not entirely comprehensible to me.
10:7.5 [Part I]The mortal mind can immediately think of a thousand and one things — catastrophic physical events, appalling accidents, horrific disasters, painful illnesses, and world-wide scourges — and ask whether such visitations are correlated in the unknown maneuvering of this probable functioning of the Supreme Being. Frankly, we do not know; we are not really sure. But we do observe that, as time passes, all these difficult and more or less mysterious situations always work out for the welfare and progress of the universes. It may be that the circumstances of existence and the inexplicable vicissitudes of living are all interwoven into a meaningful pattern of high value by the function of the Supreme and the overcontrol of the Trinity.The function of the Supreme is easier to grasp. The overcontrol of Trinity is what I don’t get.Mara,
Covid is a virus not a bacteria and not a naturally occurring one at that. It’s here to stay and may mutate into less harmful forms in time. Perhaps the Life Carriers might have something to do with that.
Randy
Anyone with a mind has an opinion and that opinion is a reflection of that mind.
