If you don't know about the latest scandal revealed by James O'Keefe and Project Veritas, you should check out the link below. An undercover reporter posing as a student advocate for Hamas and ISIS was told by an assistant dean at Cornell University that representatives of those terrorist organizations would be welcome on campus, and "grant" money might even be made available to help pay for the expenses of their visit. An associate dean at an Ivy League school doesn't know that ISIS are the terrorists beheading the prisoners they don't burn alive? Or doesn't care? … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 30 March 2015
March 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The only source of knowledge is experience. – Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was arguably one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. This quote is particularly interesting because there are some renowned modern scientists who would try to convince you the opposite is true -- they actually claim that careful inference is superior to personal experience. However, seeing is indeed believing. In my book Divine Evolution, I wrote about my personal experiences -- yes, I do mean to imply there were multiple occurrences -- with ghosts. Many of these paranormal experiences were witnessed by other people. And in another chapter, I wrote about my personal encounter with the risen Christ on the night I connected the dots that linked Matthew 7:7 and Revelations 3:20. Then in my Counterargument for God, I sought to examine what I perceive to be a connection between the near death experience, or NDE, and ghosts, which of course could be called ADES, for after death experiences. My personal experiences were not hallucinations. They were nothing less than evidence that strongly indicates that the mind and brain are actually separable entities. There is scientific evidence to support my claims, known as corroborated veridical NDE events. These events involve a person who has a medical emergency of some nature that puts them temporarily in a state near death, and they claim to have out-of-body experiences. What makes these claims of particular interest are two facts: their medical condition can be verified, and these people make a specific claim of acquiring … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 29 March 2015
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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right. -- Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter The above lyric can be found in the song "Scarlet Begonias" from the album/CD Live From the Mars Hotel. Yes. I confess that I was once a Deadhead. There was a time in my past that I sought wisdom from the music of the Grateful Dead and their leader, Jerry Garcia, the primary singer and lead guitarist. However, when Bob Weir, rhythm guitar player and alternate voice of the Grateful Dead suggested that, "Too much of everything is just enough", I recognized that line wasn't clever or wise -- it was stupid. That line was from the song "I Need a Miracle Every Day" and it reminded me of the band's participation in the infamous "acid tests" conducted by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, documented by Tom Wolfe in his book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Too much of anything is too much of that thing. Too much of everything will more than likely cause your premature death. Case in fact: Jerry Garcia is no longer a member of the Grateful Dead because he is dead. So I soon decided to stop seeking to gain philosophical wisdom from people who gained fame through their abuse of LSD, in favor of slightly more conventional sources. The line from "Scarlet Begonias" will always remain true, though. If I hadn't first read Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion advocating atheism, I never would have ultimately written my books Divine Evolution and Counterargument for God. That is indeed a most strange place for me to have begun to truly see … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 28 March 2015
March 28, 2015 by 1 Comment
Most people do not pray. They only beg. – George Bernard Shaw The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw was a prolific writer, literary critic, author of the famous plays Pygmalion -- which later was turned into the famous musical My Fair Lady. Shaw has been the only winner of both an Academy Award and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also a member of the socialist Fabian society, a staunch advocate of eugenics, a serial adulterer, and a man who once wrote a Dublin newspaper to declare "with inflexible materialistic logic, and to the extreme horror of my respectable connections, that I was an atheist." Hey, nobody's perfect. His personal faults aside, Shaw was absolutely correct in his astute analysis of prayer and the human condition. By and large, we humans do not pray to God and give thanks for the wonderful gifts we have received. Instead, we tend to beg our Creator for materialistic possessions that we still covet in spite of our blessings. Or for personal miracles. But rarely does it seem that we ever just say "thanks." … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 27 March 2015
March 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Don’t get it right. Just get it written. – James Thurber James Thurber was a very funny man. His short story "The Catbird Seat" is one of my all-time favorites. And in my opinion, there is an element of truth in any clever expression of good humor. However, if there is intention to publish, this quote only applies to the first draft. And if you plan to sell what you write, I strongly recommend hiring a professional editor. … [Read more...]
