There are quite a few excellent candidates for President in 2016, but I have a personal favorite, Dr. Ben Carson. Please don't misunderstand -- for example, I like both Scott Walker and Dr. Rand Paul well enough and think either of them could also be a good man for the job...just not the best man for the job. Ditto Mike Huckabee. I like that Huckabee supports the Fair Tax. However, without reading details of his plan to reform the tax system, I'm confident that Dr. Carson will likewise simplify our tax code. What gives me this confidence? Radical simplification is absolutely essential in order to create new economic growth. Dr. Carson is obviously a very smart man, and after reading his editorial essays and listening to his speeches, I am very confident his primary objective will be solving our problems, rather than consolidating his political power. In my opinion, what is usually identified as his greatest weakness as a candidate is also Dr. Carson's greatest strength -- he's a medical doctor, not a professional politician by any stretch of the imagination. Dr. Carson has never held any political office, in fact. So he's not a polished politician. He's not "politically correct." However, Dr. Carson is a brilliant thinker, and a terrific public speaker -- very articulate without a teleprompter, as this inspiring speech he gave at the prayer breakfast demonstrated. And he is a man accustomed to hard work - and a man known for getting things done. For example, Dr. Carson became internationally famous after leading a team of his fellow neurosurgeons in the … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 2 May 2015
Biggest thing I learned my first year in the NFL is nobody gives a crap about what you did last week. The league is about what have you done for me now. That's the NFL. It's also our culture. So you keep working hard because that's the biggest truth about football. -- Andrew Luck Once upon a time, while arguing about a call with the referee during a game, coach Jerry Glanville famously claimed that the initials of the NFL really meant "Not For Long" rather than "National Football League" because a bad call could cost someone his job. And it's obviously true. The NFL Player's Association has estimated that the average length of a player's career is 3.5 years. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell replied: There is a little bit of a misrepresentation or a misunderstanding on that. Frequently, it is said that the average career is about 3.5 years. In fact, if a player makes an opening day roster, his career is very close to six years…If you are a first-round draft choice, the average career is close to nine years. That 3.5-year average is really a misrepresentation. What it adds is a lot of players who don’t make an NFL roster and it brings down the average. Only the best of the best football players make it into the NFL, and then mostly because of their God-given, natural athletic talent. However, the right to stay there must be earned every day, by preparation and hard work. … [Read more...]
To whom would an atheist pray?
I can understand how a person can become an atheist -- after all, in my book Divine Evolution, I described how I came to believe in God, after at least a decade of materialistic, apathetic agnosticism created by my advanced education. Like many atheists have done, I came to believe that much of what I learned in school conflicted with the "Young Earth Creationism" worldview to which I was indoctrinated at an early age, and so I discarded my previously held religious beliefs in favor of nothing. Strangely enough however, at any point during this period I now call my apathetic agnosticism, if you'd asked me if I believed in ghosts, my answer would have quickly been something along the lines of, "Absolutely. My friend's family owns a house that I'm sure is haunted, and I've been there many times. I have personally experienced ghosts." Personal experience can have a very powerful impact on someone's worldview, I can attest. At the same time, I would have equivocated on the same question asked about God and given a much different answer because of my lack of personal experience with God at that time. In retrospect, it now occurs to me that my acceptance of the "reality" of a supernatural ghost and simultaneous rejection of a supernatural God seems a bit silly. To be brutally honest though, I really wasn't putting a whole lot of thought into existential questions at that point in my life. Quite frankly, furthering my professional career and raising a family were much higher priorities for me. Rarely if ever did I go to church during that extended period of my … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 24 April 2015
Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. -- Carrie Fisher The line above is from actress Carrie Fisher's one-woman play titled Wishful Drinking. Superstar-famous due to her iconic role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise, Fisher weathered the storm of dealing with personal addiction problems and mental health issues while under the intense media scrutiny typically accorded a Hollywood A-lister. She is an accomplished author as well as a famous actress -- Fisher's novel Postcards From the Edge was a bestseller, made into a movie. In Wishful Drinking, Fisher confronts the demons that have caused so much pain in her life with grace and humor, sharing with her audience the pain of her husband leaving her for another man, which led to her brief stay in a mental hospital. Near the end of her show Fisher said, "I heard someone say recently that many of us only seem to be able to find heaven by backing away from hell. And you know, while the place I've arrived at in my life isn't precisely everyone's idea of heaven, I could swear that sometimes, if I'm quiet...I can hear the angels sing." Fisher paused and then somewhat pragmatically added, "Either that, or I've f##ked up my medication." … [Read more...]
Can a Christian believe in ghosts?
My novel Secondhand Sight won the 2013 Reader's Favorite international book award for Fiction in the Horror category. However, the novel is not one that I'd recommend to everybody because the plot involves paranormal activity. Ghosts are treated as real entities in my book, because I believe they really exist. I do realize that not everyone believes in ghosts. It even seems that some of my Christian friends agree with my non-Christian friends about the subject of ghosts, even though they disagree about practically everything else. Most atheists reject the idea of ghosts because they don't believe any supernatural or paranormal phenomena is real. Yet I've had Christian friends also say they don't believe ghosts are really the spirits of dead people. They think ghosts are actually demons pretending to act like a dead human, presuming that we know how disembodied spirit should normally behave. Some of my Christian friends don't think there is a biblical basis for believing that ghosts are real, but they are mistaken. In my opinion, Christians should be open to the possibility that ghosts exist because of something that's in the Bible, words spoken by Jesus himself. Luke 24: 36-39 describes the first encounter that Jesus had with the disciples, after his crucifixion and resurrection. The New International Version Bible (NIV) reads: 36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be upon you." 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they had seen a ghost. 38 He said to them, "Why are you troubled, … [Read more...]
