Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN IS "PURE": CORRECTIONS
I love science . But I did not score well in high school chemistry. Yet, I passed.
Since then for fifty years I have been haunted my chemistry defects.
Yesterday , for example, I posted--
"Purity is an illusion, a delusion, a nonexistent hypothecation. A hope."
Today, I added:
"Then there is hydrogen . The first element in the chemical periodic table of elements. Hydrogen is odorless , colorless, the lightest of all elements and the first element."
Yesterday I wrote:
"Light is not pure, light consisting of frequencies of diverse kinds; neither fresh nor salt water are pure, water consisting of minerals, hydrogen , oxygen; gold is laced with trace impurities; air itself has many gases, oxygen being but one; dirt is not pure; neither is any flesh pure, animal, vegetable, insect, other. Purity exists in the abstract mind, as an abstraction; but not in the realm of reality as we know it.
"These thoughts were inspired by the reading of Plotinus' THE ENNEADS (1941), where he writes:
"The purification of the soul is simply to allow it to be alone; it is pure when it keeps no company; when it looks to nothing outside itself; when it entertains no alien thoughts--be the mode or origin of such notions or affections what they may, a subject already touched--when it no longer sees in the world of image, much less elaborates images in veritable affections. Is it not a true purification to turn away towards the exact contrary of earthly things?"
P.193
"Thus, the scriptures that declare "to the pure all things are pure" (Titus 1:15) is more sensible, in light of the quote from Plotinus, 3rd Century African philosopher. For no one (Rom. 3:10-12) is pure, as even all of our veritable thoughts and minds are corrupt!

"The purity of remote fictional society is illusory as "Friday" a character from a remote island . This was proven by the Sentinelese slaying of the Christian missionary."
That was yesterday's knowledge.
Today, having later read after yesterday's posting about interstellar pockets of pure hydrogen gas, that even lack helium, the second chemical element of which stars are made, if helium is fused with hydrogen, I had to retract, to go back, to correct myself and my erroneous quasi-cosmic assertion, "that there is nothing pure." Wrong! Hydrogen has been found to be pure! https://www.google.com/…/64416-fossil-cloud-remnant-from-bi…
Now I suspect that hydrogen may be to chemistry as number 1 is to numeracy; as "A" is to literacy. For if hydrogen is pure or can be pure, in interstellar space as scientists have recently found it to be, it is the one thing at least that is pure ! Amen!
https://www.quora.com/Can-we-say-that-every-element-is-made…