So true. This guy, Alex Jones and Hannity, give a whole new kind of depth to the phrase Hate Radio. Every once in a while I tune in to it for a glimpse through the looking glass of Crazy. They almost make Limbaugh seem rationale in comparison.

Nah, just kidding. Just kidding. Limbaugh is just as much a disgusting human being as these whack-a-doodles.

The real fun is when their followers come a-trolling on this blog. I like to call them Poop-Shooter, for no particular reason. LOL

It seems that Bryan Fischer is not aware that the Pharisees were the uber-religious that Jesus cautioned his followers about in the New Testament. It would be difficult to both be highly religious and seek to remove religion at the same time.

You mean the teapubs no longer have the honor of being the American Taliban?

How can one be a "secular fundamentalist?"

Being a "fundamentalist" assumes that there is some underlying religious philosophy that someone believes in so strongly that it acts as a governing force dictating their life choices.

"Secular" means not being overtly connected to religion; of being separate from religion. People with a secular outlook are intentionally trying to avoid fundamentalism.

Fischer's lack of logic makes my head hurt.

Speaking of Flush Limburger, I suppose he thinks we should be grateful because he doesn't want to kill all of us.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,163548,00.html

Fischer chose his words cunningly and perniciously. I'm as secular and non-believing as one can get, but I have neither the need nor desire to drive Christ or christianity from the public square. I do want to release Christian dogma's stranglehold on our laws and civil life, an improperly favored position it has had for far too long. In this vein, I ardently want to keep all religions separate from government endorsement and funding, which is what Teahadists like Fischer see as Christianity's natural right. My desire to do that has no Talibanic qualities at all. Quite the contrary; freedom OF religion presupposes freedom FROM religion, an idea that Fischer and his ilk find intolerable, because they are Talibanic: wrathful, righteous, intolerant, and bent on forcing their theology on everyone.

I chuckle at the idea of fundamentalist christian fanatics in the public square trying to hold their own in rational debates without falling back on tautologies or concepts such as faith, the suspension of objectivity and rational inquiry. If they were any good at that, they'd convince us all, and wouldn't need to pervert our laws to get their way.

Religion makes me want to puke !

Sofferclese...

I chuckle at the idea of fundamentalist christian fanatics in the public square trying to hold their own in rational debates without falling back on tautologies or concepts such as faith, the suspension of objectivity and rational inquiry.

I am neither fundamentalist, Christian nor fanatic, but I'm willing to take that challenge...

42: MY PERSONAL ANSWER TO THE ULTIMATE QUESTION OF LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING

Douglas Adams, in his "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" stories, hypothesized a race which, in their curiosity about finding the reasons for their existence, built a massive computer and asked it to give them the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, And Everything. The computer told them to come back in a few thousand years and it would give them the Answer. They returned on schedule, and the computer told them that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, And Everything was "42". They asked "What kind of Answer was that?", and the computer said "A perfectly good one. Now, all you have to do is come up with the Question."

We, the Human Race, have been asking for that Answer for millenia, ever since the first Homo Sapiens looked up at the stars in the night sky and asked itself, "Why am I alive?" We've also come up with some very intriguing and highly diverse answers, starting with Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic, Japanese, Chinese and Native American mythologies, and continuing today as Hinduism, Confucianisn, Wicca, Judaism, Christianity, Moslem, Communism, Atheism and Secular Humanism. (I know that some people believe that some of these are not Religions, but they are all Belief Systems which attempt to explain Man's Place in the Ultimate Scheme of Things.)

The major problem with all of these Belief Systems (yes, including Christianity!) is that none of them can dare accept that ANY of the others can be just as Right as IT is. Simply by entertaining the notion that some other system may have the Right Answers, a Belief System negates its reason for existance by inherently implying that It could be Wrong. This has been the justification for more bloodshed throughout history than any other reason; though most wars have started for economic, social or political reasons, or just plain Greed, War has always been propagandized for mass consumption among the populaces as "Us against the Unwashed Heathens". This makes it more palatable for sensitive tastes.

I have come up with something Different. Based on some objective evidence, some subjective interpretation, some scientific facts and theories and a few fanciful leaps of logic, I've come up with a Belief System which not only accepts that ALL of the above Belief Systems can have some element of Truth, it also provides explanations for phenomena which are heretofore unexplained and provides a schema for defining Life, The Universe and Everything.

First of all, all religions exist due to the human need for belief in Immortality. Each believes every human possesses Manna, or a Soul force, which retains the memories and consciousness of the human mind after death. Enough empirical evidence of reincarnation, near-death and out-of-body/astral body experiences exists to support that contention. However, humans tend to have difficulty believing in things which they cannot sense exists. Most people believe only in what they can sense by sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell; personally, I would like to add memory and imagination to this list, as one allows you to recall the passage of Time and the other lets you imagine future occurences. Without the awareness of Time, the other senses are meaningless.

Now, then... How do the senses work? Why can they not sense that which I contend exists? Senses detect variations in certain physical phenomena which have scientific existence. These variations take place in various physical media and processes, and can be expressed as variations in Spectrums, or Spectra, within these media and/or processes. Sight detects visible Light, which is a relatively small section of variance bands within the Spectrum of Electro-Magnetic Radiation. Hearing detects audible sounds, which fall within, but by no means encompass, the Spectrum of Cyclic Vibration within Matter. Touch involves two differing but inter-related Spectra, those of Inter-Molecular Vibration, or Heat, and Environmental Pressure. Smell and Taste both detect variances in Chemical Reactions, either through small particles in the air reacting with chemicals in the nose or chemicals in substances reacting with those in the taste buds of the tongue.

The Human senses are inherently limited. All of these Spectra contain variations which either cannot be sensed or cannot be withstood due to sensory overload. The Electro-Magnetic Spectrum includes all wavelengths (the number of EM waves over a specific distance, for our purposes expressed as 'W') of radiant energies. As W gets lower, the length of the wave gets longer; perversely, the longest wavelengths are short-wave radio. Then come regular radio, radar, microwaves, infrared and the visible light rainbow. The shorter waves encompass ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma radiation and Cosmic rays. The Spectrum of Sound includes subsonics below 50 cycles per second (CPS), which are sent out by seismic activity and can warn many animals of impending earthquakes or volcanic eruptions; the human hearing range, from 50 CPS to about 20,000 CPS (mine have been tested up to 23,000 CPS); and ultrasonics, which have uses from motion detectors and dolphin and bat sonars to the new-fangled instruments used by the dentist to clean your teeth. The human system has limited tolerances to heat and pressure. Try touching liquid nitrogen or white-hot iron, or breathing vacuum or sticking your hand in a 10-ton press, and you will rapidly understand what I mean. The chemical reactions which taste and smell can detect are considerably more subtle; in some ways, the nose and palate can easily be the most discerning of human detectors. However, even they have their limits of tolerance; human tissue tends to break down when the Ph of an item becomes too alkaline or too acidic.

Now, Time is the odd man out; we are aware of the passage of time, and yet it is strictly monotonic. A Second is a Second is a Second, no matter how it is measured or what occurs during it. Time does not vary; it does not stretch or shrink, no matter how slowly or quickly it may seem to pass from the subjective viewpoint. Until recently, that is. Astro-physicists have theorized that some gravitational fields, such as those of black holes, may be so intense that Time may actually s-t-r-e-t-c-h as one approaches the Event Horizon, the edge of the area that even Light cannot escape. Some even theorize that these black holes could act as gateways into other Space-Time Continuums. Space-Time Continuums would contain separate Universes, each of which would have its own natural laws and rate of Time... Hmmm...

How would you differentiate between Space-Time Continuums? Well, speed can be defined as a unit of distance covered in a specific length of Time. If there were Something which moved at a Constant rate of speed in each Continuum, then perhaps these differing rates could be compared over constant distances in order to determine the difference in Time. Now, Light, or more specifically, all energy in the EM Spectrum, moves at a constant speed of 186,000 Miles per Second, in our Continuum. What if we try to imagine the results if Time were variable?

Why can't we, as humans, detect these other Continuums? Well, picture this... You are living in a world in which the only available band in the EM Spectrum which works is the color Red. Radio waves, microwaves, ultraviolet, even the colors Green, Blue and Yellow not only don't exist, they CAN'T exist. The entire world is seen only in monotonic shades of Red, from bright Red to darker shades, all the way down to black. All of a sudden, up pops a scientist who says "There are other colors out there - Green, Blue, even Radio!" You would think he was a lunatic, because there is obviously nothing but Red! The same applies to our Continuum; we have difficulty conceiving of other Universes, separated from ours by a mere difference in Time.

Surely, we can find some way to move a vehicle from one Time to another, right? Well, maybe we have, and the result was a disaster. In 1943, a scientific theory was tested in the Philadelphia shipyards. An attempt was made to render an American gunboat invisible to radar, by setting up an electro-magnetic barrier around the ship of such intensity and harmonics that radar waves would literally slide around the ship. Well, it worked... Too well. The ship literally disappeared from sight for a few seconds, and when it came back... What survivors there were couldn't describe where they had been, and most of those had difficulties with their sanity. Those who didn't survive, according to eyewitnesses, died in bizarre fashions; some spontaneously combusted into piles of ash, some simply disappeared, and some were melded bodily into the bulkheads, walls and decks of the ship, as if both ship and crewman had occupied the exact same Space at the same Time. Imagine the ship moving through a Continuum at a SLIGHTLY different rate of Time as the crew on board, just for a few seconds... The experiments were discontinued immediately, but records of the incident, highly classified until recently, do exist.

Alright, so Space-Time Continuums could exist, separated from each other by differing rates of Time. So What?

So, let's imagine a Spectrum of Space-Time Continuums, which we will call the c-Spectrum ('c' being the scientific notation for the Speed of Light). We can only perceive one band of this c-Spectrum, that corresponding to c=186,000 MpS. Those Continuums close to ours, such as c=185,900 and c=186,100, would probably have similar natural laws and may even be almost identical. However, if we postulate the differences in Time and its effect on the speed of energy in each Continuum, BIG differences would appear. (Remember, speed equals distance over time, or S = 'd' / 't').

What would happen as 't' approaches Infinity? Well, the speed of energy would get slower and slower, and the amount of energy capable of traversing a distance would become less and less, until atomic structures could not maintain the energy to prevent their specific gravity from drawing together the component parts of the atom. Electrons would draw together with protons, canceling each other out and resulting in solid cores of neutrons. The neutron bodies of the Continuum would gravitate slowly together, to the point that the Continuum would consist of one massive block of neutronium.. a dead continuum, a point-mass universe.

Now, as 't' approaches Zero, the opposite would happen. Energy would become dominant, matter would become more 'slippery' and malleable by energy, to the point that matter could be manipulated and controlled by the lightest of energies. Then, as we get closer and closer to 't' = 0, matter could no longer hold itself together, and the Continuum would consist of Pure energy, without the constraints of atomic structures or particles. Pure energy...

What if... that Pure Energy was ... alive? Alive and sentient? What would life be like for such a creature? Personally, I believe it would be unbelievably BORED! Imagine sitting about with a Universe of power at its 'fingertips' and having nothing to do but twiddle its imaginary thumbs! Now, suppose, since it is freed of the constraints of matter, that it finds it is able to send bits and pieces of its sentient energy out of the c-Spectrum, into a medium which we shall call the Astral Plane, which maintains borders with, but does not actually co-exist with, the Continuums of the c-Spectrum. It finds that, in the nearer c-Spectra, the portions sent there can manipulate the matter and energy found to create forms, forms which can host the Sentient Energy for a time. These forms could manipulate the matter around them to create whatever they wish by a mere exercise of Will, and yet... since they have no experiences to draw upon, they would have no idea as to what to Create!

These beings (for the sake of argument, we shall call them Deities) could 'look' farther down the c-Spectrum and find Continua in which matter would not be so easy to manipulate, where a sentient being would have to interact with the environment rather than be in total control of it. Sentient beings would have to have receptacles of matter in these Continua, in order to interact with it and prevent the sentient being, or Soul, from returning to the Astral Plane and back toward the Lighter, or more Energetic, end of the c-Spectrum. Matter and evolution could be slowly manipulated by the Deities, from a distance of many Continua, until a medium capable of retaining the Soul, the sufficiently-developed Brain, could be developed.

Now, one major problem with religions as they exist today is that they are all very univercentric. In essence, they say "Since this is the only Universe We know of, this must be the only Universe there is, and since We (i.e., Mankind) are the most Advanced race We know of, We must be the Chosen of God!" This is much the same as saying, "Since everyone is blind, there must be no such thing as light!" There is absolutely no reason that I can think of, that would require the Powers-That-Be to populate only one plamet in one Universe out of all the Continua in the c-Spectrum.

Let's think a few minutes about what Life would be like in our neighbor Continua. Physical laws in those nearby would probably be similar to ours. If anything would be different, those in which Time moves faster, those closer to the Light, would be probably be more technologically advanced, since they have had more Time to experience. Hmm.. Consider this... IF more technologically-advanced races, farther along the paths of evolution than we, were to develop a Cross-Time drive which enabled a ship and its crew to maintain their temporal integrity while passing between Continua, what would it have to be like? First of all, since each universe consists primarily of empty space and vacuum, and since these Explorers would be unable to guarantee arrival within a breathable atmosphere, this ship would have to be airtight and capable of movement through space to the nearest habitable planet. Now, consider that almost all reports of UFOs and their inhabitants describe the "aliens" as evolutionarily advanced humanoids, wouldn't it be possible for these "aliens" to come from planets in alternate universes rather than from other planets in Our Universe? In fact, given the existance of the c-Spectrum and the results of the Philadelphia Experiment, isn't it even more likely? IF we were to reopen the experiments which resulted in the Philadelphia tragedy, might WE not be able to develop a Cross-Time drive? If we did, and traveled to other Earths in other Continua, might WE not be the "aliens" in our own UFOs?

As we move farther up the c-Spectrum scale, the physical laws would become more and more "slippery". Matter would become more and more mutable as the Quantum effect increases (trust me on this). In our universe, energy transforms matter primarily through the excitation or dissolving of molecular bonds, not by directly influencing the nuclear particles; the sole exceptions are fission and fusion, both of which require tremendous forces of energy to initiate. However, as energy became faster, it would develop a higher kinetic potential, making energy more capable of directly controlling matter. Molecular and atomic bonds would become more fragile. Nuclear energy would probably become easier to release, yet at the same time easier to control. At higher levels, even thought would become a more powerful and palpable force, capable of influencing matter. At the highest levels, as "t" approaches 0, thought would become the primary "director" of matter, as natural matter becomes more and more tenuous ('ecto-plasm'?) and takes its "cue" on how to form by the strongest-willed "mind" within the environment, or Continuum.

By the way, It is noteworthy to consider how Time would pass on these higher planes of existance. As the mind becomes released from its material bonds, it would naturally 'think' faster since it would no longer depend on clumsy electrochemical processes to convey thought processing. However, Time itself would be slowing down, almost to a crawl. Why, in all the Time that our Continuum has experienced, from the "Big Bang" until Now, only a week might have passed at the highest end of the c-Spectrum. (After all, it took God 'six days' to create the world, right?!)

Is Time Travel physically possible? Probably not. If one managed to travel physically out of the Time-Space Continuum, i.e. warping Time, one would almost certainly end up passing into another Continuum, with an alternate timeline and history. Our theoretical Time Traveller could not be able to change his own past or view his own future; he would only be changing the past or viewing the future of someone almost identical to himself. If he managed to return to his original Continuum and timeline, he would probably find the only difference was his absence.

Is Time Travel theoretically possible? Yes! The television show, "Quantum Leap", comes the closest to a possible theory of Time Travel. Consider; each Continuum in the c-Spectrum possesses a History and a Timeline. The History of a Continuum is immutable; it cannot be altered without changing the Continuum irrevocably. Each Continuum has a Timeline, a constant rate of Time at which it passes from the Past through the Present into the Future. However, in order for the Astral Plane, the extra-Continual medium, to allow passage from one Continuum to another, its' Timeline would have to be variable! The Astral Plane, as it is called, is probably a special case of the c-Spectrum, where delta-T, the difference between Times, equals Zero (0)!

In essence, the Astral Plane would have to be Outside of, and unaffected by, Time! This leads to the following speculation; IF the Astral Body could travel through Time and observe this Continuum's Past, Present or Future, could the Astral Time Traveller affect the Future through knowledge gained through this travel? He would be unable to affect History, but could he not remember the Future and, by doing so, affect the Present? This could, in theory, explain observed psychic phenomena, such as Telepathy, Precognition, Clairvoyance and other sensory experiences, captured by "memory" and "imagination", our senses of chronal awareness, and translated to our concious minds as Prophecy, Deja-Vu experiences and "hunches". In essence, one's Astral Body, released during a trance-like state or while asleep, could travel back in Time along the Astral Plane, "visit" the body's host at some time when it would be receptive, again while in a trance or asleep, and impart part of its memories of the future to the entranced host. Such messages would be retained only a short time, like a dream, yet could be stored in subconcious memories. Then, when the person actually experiences the event which created the memory, he would experience Deja Vu. Those who could retain these memories more fully would be considered as Prophets, or Clairvoyant. Some Prophets may even be able to move their Astral Bodies forward in Time to the Future and observe future events beyond their lifespans, such as Nostradamus or Cagliostro. The problems inherent in this practice, however, lies in the difficulty of discerning which future timeline to observe; if the Astral Body should accidentally be diverted to a nearby parallel timeline, the events observed may be similar but not identical to his home timeline's future history.

Now, what happens to one's "Manna", or "Soul", after the medium capable of retaining it within a Space-Time Continuum, the neural paths of the Brain, is no longer able to perform that function? In other words, what happens after Death? (the BIG Question!) All religions speculate on this process to some degree, according to its own tenets, and asks its followers to accept its speculations on Faith, since "truly sensory" data is extremely scarce and subjective in nature and the processes which occur do so outside of the observable Space-Time Continuum. However, some data does exist, as evidenced by "near-death" experiences and child prodigies, which clearly fits in with the theoretical existence of the c-Spectrum and the adjacent, yet Timeless, Astral Plane.

Essentially, the Astral Body would be released from the physical body onto the Astral Plane. What it would perceive there may be guessed from witness accounts of near-death experiences, which almost uniformly describe " a dark tunnel, leading toward a bright light at the end". This "light" is almost always described as "extremely bright, yet not blinding", and usually attracts the unfettered Astral Body. In terms of the relationshiop between the c-Spectrum and the Astral Plane, those continua which are located near the end of the c-Spectrum would contain more energy than mass, thus displaying a higher energy-potential which may be perceived by the Astral Body's "senses" as radiant light. If the Astral Body refuses to move toward the "light" for whatever reason, it may either attempt to retain its hold upon the places and things which it experienced in Life, leading to existence as a "ghost", or become lost in the darker reaches of the Astral Plane, a self-imposed form of damnation caused by fear of "Heaven's Wrath". As the Astral Body moves through the Astral Plane toward the "light", it tends to perceive more and more "old friends" beckoning him forward. I theorize that, although such entities may still remain in the higher-potential continua, it is more likely that the memories of the Astral Body may be influencing the more malleable matter of the continua, shaping it into images of what the mind of the Astral Body wants to see.

Why do I think the entities the Astral Body meets are idealized versions of his own memories? My theory, which cuts to the heart of why I do not proselytize and stated earlier that All Belief Systems are true in some degree, lies in the motivations, which may only be guessed at, of that Pure Energy being at the very end of the c-Spectrum whose existence I hypothesized earlier. Why would such a Being send off bits of Its Manna, or Soul material, off to experience Life, only to have it return after Death? Having all this Life Energy Itself, I believe It decided to send Souls off to live and then return for the primary purpose of Its own entertainment! These Souls would act as media, capable of retaining Memories, which It could "play back" like a recording, allowing it to enjoy those Life experiences vicariously, which It could never truly experience Itself. Thus, those Belief Systems laying claim to an Omniscient Being sitting in Judgement would be true, as every sin ever committed by a person and every good ever performed would be reviewed after Death. Your primary reviewer? The one being you can never lie to, or fool, or deceive... your own Higher Self. Call it 'Superego', or 'Conscience', or 'Higher Power', but we each have a part of our subconcious mind which tracks everything we think, or do, or say, This Higher Self keeps a record of what is called 'karma', and helps determine how nuch we have accomplished, or failed to do, in our lives.

Karma is the system of perfect cosmic justice. One can lie to police, or courts, or even yourself, temporarily, but your own Higher Self knows and remembers the Truth. It tracks where you have advanced and failed in your past lives, and helps you decide, along with the Spirit Masters, what lessons you need to work on in your next life, and how to facilitate your selection of your next life to work on your karmic lessons. One has to wonder how many times Adolf Hitler's soul has gone through concentration camps, gas chambers, medical laboratories or starvation in Africa, to try to learn what he did to others was wrong...

About twenty years ago, I developed a theory which may explain many forms of hitherto unexplainable phenomena. I submit it to you for your perusal, for critique and possible modification , because 1) I value your knowledge and opinions, and 2) I don't want to come off as a total jerk by having some college sophomore catch something I got wrong and declaim me as an idiot to one and all!

I was studying psychic phenomena at the time, and began wondering why science could not develop a plausible theory which could explain how such phenomena could exist. After reading up on the subject, I realized most “psychic researchers” were not attempting to explain how psychic powers work, but just measuring statistical phenomena and taking anecdotal evidence that it did work. I decided to apply my limited knowledge of physics and mathematics to the problem.

The first thing I did after determining I would attempt to find out, in scientific terms, how psychic abilities work, was to make some assumptions.
1) At least some psychic phenomena are based on true psychic abilities. Enough anecdotal, subjective and objective evidence exists that I can assume that psychic abilities are valid.
2) The laws of Mathematics, the language in which science is described, are valid throughout existence.
3) Parallel Dimensions do exist. Hawking and Wolff postulate their existence and cite observation of Quantum Mechanical effects as their proof. Who am I to say them Nay?
4) Mass creates distortions in the space-time continuum, which are manifested as Gravity Wells (GW). The larger the Mass, the greater the distortion. Some GW distortions are so powerful that they form tunnels between Parallel Universes; these tend to form as Event Horizons around Black Hole singularities.

Smaller GWs can still have some effect on adjacent universes. For example, scientists have calculated the mass of the Earth to be so heavy that the molten core would have to be entirely made up of nickel, iron and heavier elements. However, samples of molten magma suggest a far lighter material; theories have developed which suggest the very center of the Earth would be a weightless environment, more likely to be gaseous than solid. Why the assumption on a heavier core? The effects of the Earth's GW would require a huge amount of Mass to create, IF the only mass to create it existed only in this space-time Continuum. However, if adjacent planets, in parallel dimensions but occupying the same Spacial coordinates, added their GWs to that of our Earth's, that could explain the deep Gravity Well with lighter mass than expected. Which leads to Assumption 5) Gravity Wells tend to have planets and/or stars associated with them in the same Spacial coordinates in Adjacent Universes. Even if a spot associated with an adjacent GW did not initially contain a planet, the GW would tend to draw interspatial matter toward it, in sufficient time creating a new planet.

6) Hawking proposed a Big Crunch / Big Bang theory, which dovetails neatly into my c-Spectrum theory. Essentially, he proposes that, as a universe approaches the end of its Life Cycle, when Gravity is forcing almost all its mass together into one solid lump (the Big Crunch), the rate at which time moves begins to slow down due to gravimetric forces, just as it would approaching the Event Horizon of a Black Hole. Then, just as the universe collapses in on itself and implodes/explodes outward as a new universe (the Big Bang), time stops momentarily, then reverses itself. Thus, Time in any particular Space-Time Continuum, is always running in the Opposite Direction of that of both of its Adjacent Continuums. This Time Counter-Flow Effect is the major reason why Adjacent Continuums, occupying the same spacial coordinates but having differing timeflows, do not overlap (at least, not much).

Now, if this Time Counter-Flow Effect explains why Adjacent Continuums don't merge, what prevents this continuum from crossing over with the next one over? After all, time is flowing in the same direction for both, and both are still occupying the same spacial territory. Well, Hawking and Wolff start to waffle at this point, stating that Time in these two separated dimensions is flowing at rates different enough to prevent interaction. Why? I didn't get that from reading their works, but I believe I have figured it out.

Given the assumptions above, I made a few more. Assumption 7) Given that Parallel Universes are actually the same Spacial universe undergoing transformation over and over again at BC/BB time, separated only by different rates of Time, All of these Universes possess equal Total Energy Levels. [E.1 = E.2 = ... = E.n] Some energy leaks out through Black Holes, but this energy is replaced by that from Quasars and Pulsars, which are essentially the terminuses of Black Hole Event Horizons from the other Adjacent Continuum. PLEASE NOTE that Mass drawn into a Black Hole becomes transformed into free Energy at the Event Horizon before being catapulted out the next continuum. How? E = mc^2. As you approach the Event Horizon, the Speed of Light slows down. At the EH, c => 0, c^2 => 0, and mass accelerated at c^2 turns to energy. Thus, one universe's Black Hole, connects to the next universe's Quasar or Pulsar, astronomical objects which expel far more energy than their mass should account for. By Osmotic Leveling, it is not an unfair assumption that the Energy Levels of all these universes sharing and trading energy should be approximately equal.

Assumption 8.) The Total Energy Level of any particular universe is equal to its Total Potential Energy (that energy trapped within the form of matter, or Mass) plus its Total Free Energy (that energy propagated as Electromagnetic waves, such as light, microwaves, radio, x-rays, cosmic radiation and [here's a biggie] thought or Soul Energy). [E = m + e] Most forms of energy we deal with on a day-to-day basis tends to be that associated with properties of matter (vibration, kinetic, chemical transformation, etc.) and light. I believe that souls have energy, and can be contained within mass, but has no associated mass of its own, so I group it in with Free Energy.

Here comes the BIG ASSUMPTION. 9) Given A7 [E.1 = E.2 = ... = E.n] and A9 [E = m + e], it may be deduced that as each universe matures and transforms, each subsequent universe possesses more and more free energy (e), consequently less and less mass in it (m). Given that and a generalized form of Einstein's E = mc^2, as each universe's total mass decreases, the Speed of Light increases geometrically inversely. How can the Speed of Light increase? It would be propagated at the same rate; the spacial coordinates referencing Point A and Point B would be the same. (remember, all these universes occupy the same space.) 300Gm would be the same distance in different universes. Remember, Speed equals Distance divided by Time. So, if the Distance hasn't altered, the rate at which Time passes (Δt) has. In this case, as Δt decreases (ie. a Second takes longer to occur), the Speed of Light would increase. Thus, a slower Δt results in a faster Speed of Light, alternating direction with each universe, but losing that alteration in the Total Energy Level calculation due to the fact that c is squared. The alteration in Δt would occur at the same time as the Big-Bang/Big-Crunch, remaining constant throughout that particular Continuum.

Still, what keeps the universes apart? Electrons and other nuclear particles of the atoms in matter vibrate at a constant fraction (about 98%) of the speed of light. Electro-magnetic waves move at the speed of light, and the interference from the quantum field caused by the subatomic particles' vibration blocks and reflects this radiation, which permits interaction between different forms of matter within the continuum with that particular speed of light.

This quantum field, which is a constant fraction of the speed of light (c) and what is called the Quantum Signature (QS) of this universe, is what keeps matter belonging to this particular space-time continuum IN THIS SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM. Since QS is about .98c, and masses with differing Quantum Signatures cannot interact, masses belonging to universes with different Speeds of Light cannot interact (which in part explains why, in any given universe, the Speed of Light for that universe is constant.)

Now, why do I refer to my concept as the "c-Spectrum" theory? Imagine all those universes sharing the same spacial coordinates along a line based on the differences in their rates of time, starting with Δt => Infinity and heading off to Δt => 0. The Speed of Light (c) would be increasing in magnitude after each BC/BB, each continuum would be higher in free energy than the previous and have less mass in it, until finally the universe appears which has insufficient mass to initiate the Big Crunch! This universe would have very little mass in it, in the form of stars and planets, and a WHOLE LOT of Free Energy. But, with so little matter to propagate that Free Energy, (Light usually comes from conversion of mass in some form or another) what form would that Free Energy take? Remember when I included Soul Energy in my list of forms of Free Energy? This is why. I postulate that this last universe, with the same Total Energy Level as any other, would be filled with Soul Energy, enough Free Soul Energy that the Universe itself could become sentient, and ALIVE! Personally, I believe the hierarchy of spirit guides, spirit masters and angels who occupy the penultimate continuum before the last, join together at the last BC/BB to form a gestalt entity, possessing all the memories and feelings of all those who have existed since the beginning of Time-Space, to form that entity we refer to as God/Jehovah/Yahweh/Allah/All-That-Is. After all, energy, even that of thought, cannot be destroyed, only transformed. The entity which would become God, because this last continuum would last for eternity, would be itself eternal…

Consider this... Much of the Creation of God seems based on cycles... Big=Bag-Big-Crunch, Reincarnation, Cycle of Life... Does God have a ultimate purpose in creating Souls? I contend God created us, those divine sparks of conciousness we call our Souls, so that, after learning and experiencing all there is to learn and experience, the Spirit Guides and Spirit Masterswhich occupy Heaven, which once were Us, can join together in that last Big-Crunch/Big-Bang of the penultimate universe in a huge, powerful Gestalt, with all the memories, all the emotions, all the thoughts, of every creature who ever swam, crawled, walked on all the planets in all the Universes, and become... Him.

God created Us, so that, in the End of Time, We can create God.

I need to divert here for a second, to explain about spaciotemporal coordinates. Lay people tend to use the terms "dimension" and "space-time continuum" interchangeably, such as "He's off in another dimension", or "Mr. Mxyzptlk, the Imp from the Fifth Dimension". These are misuses of the term and have no relation to true dimensions. A Dimension is simply a Frame of Reference, by which one may state how many units of measurement from a given point within that frame of Reference you may find another given point. The First Dimension, Length, lets you measure the distance, in one coordinate, between two points on a line. The Second, Height, allows you to measure between two points on a plane, using two coordinates. The Third, Depth, gives three coordinates to locate a point within Space. The Fourth, Time, allows one to locate not only where a point is, but when, anytime between the Big Bang to the Big Crunch. I maintain that the Fifth Dimension is the Rate of Time, from Δt => Infinity to Δt => 0, which identifies not only where and when a point is, but in which Continuum.

Now, picture yourself as a living sentient Universe, spending an Eternity of twiddling your non-existent thumbs and wondering to yourself, "Gee, I wonder what I am going to do today." Then, you notice a very special continuum, off by itself, one which is a Very Special Case. This Continuum has the Fifth Dimensional Coordinate of Δt = 0 . This Continuum has some very Unique properties. Because its Δt = 0, that means Time doesn't actually affect it, so All Times taking place in it are all at the Same Time. Past, Present and Future do not exist there, only whenever you want it to be. Because Time does not exist there, all Speeds between spacial coordinates are Instantaneous, you only have to want to be at a place, to be there. What is really neat about this all-space no-time continuum, is that it coexists with all of the c-Spectrum, allowing access to every point in Time and Space among all of the Universes, from that annoying little point-mass Universe at the other end, where there is insufficient Free Energy to initiate the first Big Bang, to your own Universe. You decide to get the whole ball rolling so that, in Time, you will exist, so you send some of your Free Energy down to that point-mass Universe, just enough to set it off. BANG!

After enough time watching the Universes oscillate, you start sending bits of yourself down the Astral Plane, (that is what the special universe was, in case you hadn't guessed), down to find homes to stay awhile and experience Life, with subconcious orders to come back when they were through with it and tell you all about it. These Soul Entities tend to land in stars, planets, rocks, plants and living creatures at first, until they got the hang of things, then they found more complex media to lodge in, media capable of logic and memory, of developing language and imagination, followed by art, science, politics and reason. These Entities kept going back down, again and again. Did I forget to mention that God believes in Recycling? After a while, these Entities started to develop homes and cities in the Higher Planes, where they could rest and recuperate between trips in the more Material Planes. They began developing hierarchies and bureaucracies, and even a sort-of police force, to help plan those trips Down Below, and help those in need of guidance during their stay. They kept doing these trips, because they found them to be great educational experiences, learning lessons after enough tries to raise their energy levels and advance themselves.

How do Psychic Abilities come into all of this? We are, in essence, Fifth-Dimensional Beings, temporarily attached to Fourth-Dimensional Bodies. We use the Astral Plane as a conduit, to reach and enter our bodies before birth (or, in some cases, shortly after) and leave our bodies and return to the Higher Energy Levels after we die. (By the way, the Higher Free Energy at the high end of the c-Spectrum explains "the Bright White Light at the End of the Tunnel" reported in so many Near-Death Experiences.) Some of us are attached more loosely to our bodies than others. These people have often had NDEs themselves, or other transcendent experience which has loosened the connection. These people are more aware of the Astral Plane than average people, and can sometimes extend their senses, their reach or their entire astral body onto and through the Astral Plane. The result? Clairvoyance, clairaudience, precognition, postcognition, prophecy, "deja vu", remote viewing and aura reading are all extensions of the senses to other places or other times through the Astral Plane. Telepathy, empathy involve communication between minds, using the AP as a conduit. Telekinesis invloves the forming of a part of your astral body and the manipulation of objects with the Astral limb; very difficult to do, but the one most wished for. Astral Projection, is the temporary return of your astral body onto the AP for observation of other realms or consultation with those spirit guides assigned to help you. Channeling provides a direct connection with those spirit guides while still retaining reference to the "Real World". Last but not least, teleportation, the very hardest to do, involves the physical transfer to the Astral Plane, through it to your destination and back out. There are very few cases of this documented. The Philadelphia Experiment, however, may lead one day to its use on an everyday basis.

What was the Philadelphia Experiment? This is going to take quite a bit of explaining, but its' implications are enormous. This incident really happened; scientists and survivors have slowly revealed more and more details as the years have passed. Hollywood even made a movie based on it, titled "The Philadelphia Experiment" and starring Michael Pare, about 15 years ago. You should be able to find it in any well-stocked video store, in the 'Science Fiction' section. Just remember that it's a Hollywood treatment; the incidents shown in 1943 actually happened, but the rest of it is pure fiction.

Back during World War II, a theoretical physicist named Howard Tesla went to the military with a theory he had which could render the new sensing technology, RADAR, obsolete. He claimed he could develop equipment which could make ships and aircraft invisible to RADAR, by making the vessel transparent to radio waves! The military took him up on his offer. The project was labeled Top Secret, and titled Project Rainbow (an ironic name, as you will see). In October of 1943, a destroyer escort named the USS Eldridge, based out of Norfolk, VA, was temporarily assigned to the classified naval shipyard in Philadelphia, PA. Equipment based on Tesla's theory was rigged on board, the ship moved out into the Delaware River, and the equipment was turned on. The radar operators on nearby ships were astonished to see the USS Eldridge disappear from their radar screens. It worked! It really did!

However, the military brass and scientists observing, including Tesla, of course, were flabbergasted when the ship followed suit a few seconds later, surrounded by a rainbow-colored haze, and vanished from the harbor before their very eyes! They later found out, from reports from officials in Newport, that a small patch of green fog appeared in Newport harbor, and when it cleared, there sat the Eldridge! It sat there for a few seconds, then vanished again, like it had been a mirage! Less than a minute after it had disappeared from Philadelphia, it reappeared back on the Delaware River, sailors frantically running about on deck. The ship was intact, but the crew...

Members of the crew were affected in bizarre and horrible ways. Some were missing, never to be seen again. Other men were somehow merged with the ship, their bodies' molecules fused with decks, doors and bulkheads and horribly burned along the points of contact with the metal. The survivors could barely describe their experience; some were incoherent, driven insane by it, while others failed to find the words. The military quickly put a Super Top Secret blanket over the entire affair; the crew was forbidden to speak about what happened with anyone, ever! Over the next few months, most of the surviving crew vanished; eyewitnesses swore that they saw some of them disappear in plain view, in mid-sentence. Project Rainbow was officially shut down, viewed as too hazardous to use.

What really happened to the USS Eldridge? My c-Spectrum theory can easily explain it, and suggests the full potential of the phenomena, which has never been (officially) explored. Tesla's theory essentially suggested that radar works by bouncing radio waves off solid matter, due to the fact that electrons and nucleii of the atoms in matter vibrate at a constant fraction (about 98%) of the speed of light. Since radio waves move at the speed of light, the interference from the quantum field caused by the subatomic particles' vibration blocks and reflects the radio waves, which the radar receiver catches and interprets as an echo. Tesla's equipment, called Tesla Coils, would set up a Guassian magnetic field around the ship which would interfere with this quantum field and allow the radio waves to pass through without reflecting.

Unfortunately, what Tesla did not foresee, and what is explained by my c-Spectrum theory, is that this quantum field, which is a constant fraction of the speed of light (c) and what is called the Quantum Signature (QS) of this universe, is what keeps matter belonging to this particular space-time continuum IN THIS SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM! By altering the QS of the USS Eldridge, the Tesla Coils forced it to move out of this continuum and into a realm of space outside of, but contiguous to, all space-time continuums; my theory suggests this realm is the medium through which all continuums may be accessed, and what is known in Metaphysics as the Astral Plane.

Now, if you know anything about Astral Projection and travel on the Astral Plane, you probably know that, while projecting, you can travel from anywhere to anywhere instantaneously, merely by wanting to be at your destination. My theory states that this occurs because Time, as we know it, does not truly exist on the Astral Plane. Since speed (s) is defined as the movement between two points (distance = d) over a period of time (t), if tΔt = 0, s = d / 0, or in other words, all speeds on the Astral Plane are infinitely fast! One moves astrally simply by picturing where they want to be, and one is there! How did the USS Eldridge appear in Norfolk harbor, 300 miles from Philadelphia? Simple; members of the crew panicked upon seeing the AP, instinctively recognizing it as where one goes when one dies, and desperately wanted to go home. So, they did! Upon realizing they were home, others couldn't believe where they were and just as desperately wanted to return to Philadelphia; with the Tesla Coils still operating, their wish was its command, and the Eldridge bounced back to Philadelphia. (it is also possible that the Coils were turned off at this point, at which point the Eldridge may have been pulled back to its starting point, like a bungee jumper being brought back to his by the cord.)

What happened to the crew? Imagine a bus with no seats or seat belts, loaded with people both inside and on top. Now, picture this bus accelerating from a standstill to 60mph in 10 seconds; some of the people on top are going to fall off, while others on top will maintain an handhold and hang on. Now, picture the same bus slamming on the brakes for a sudden stop; more will fall off the top, while others inside will be flung against stanchions, bus surfaces and through the windshield. I maintain that, because the crew were not connected with the ship, by seat belts or other connective devices, many crew members were affected by the Tesla Coils at different rates than the ship. In effect, their bodies were occupying the same spatial coordinates as the ship, but out-of-phase with it, thus becoming immaterial with relation to the ship. Some fell off the deck or through the hull; still others occupied the same spatial coordinates as decks and bulkheads when the Tesla Coils stopped, and all became solid at the same time. (Ouch!) The burns probably resulted from minor fusion reactions caused by atomic nucleii merging too close to each other in the same space.

The implications, if my theory is correct and if you think things through to logical conclusions, as I have, are truly and utterly MIND BOGGLING!! A ship could be designed, using the Tesla Coils as a drive, which could not only travel from any point in the universe to any other point in less time than it takes to walk around the block, but it could even travel through time (since temporal coordinates are also controlled by will on the Astral Plane) and to other space-time continuums, even ("Dare I say It?" "Dare! Dare!") to those Higher Realms we earth-bound mortals call (whisper it with me...) Heaven!

Imagine it! A Face-to-Whatever Conversation with the Big "G" Himself! While I'm Still ALIVE!! AND COME BACK!!!

Whew! I'm sorry, I got a little carried away there. By the way, what would be the best design for such a ship? It would have to be self-contained with full life support. It would need to be space-worthy; after all, an awful lot of the universe is vacuum, and I could end up anywhere. In order to ensure a smooth transition to and from the Astral Plane, everything on board would need to be connected as tightly as possible to the ship hull itself. To ensure the Tesla effect occurs evenly, the Coils should be situated throughout the ship in a smooth, geometric formation, like a torus (picture a smooth donut) so all the ship has equal exposure to them. This means the ship would have to be round, like a sphere, or maybe... a disc?!!

Think about it...

Geez, guy, way to totally screw up the thread.

If you have to write a long, torturous article, do it on your page, and LINK TO IT!!

This post was 8,138 words. For comparison purposes, the original post was 536 words. I really did try to read your post, but I gave up about 1,000 words in, since he came off kinda boneheaded.

Instead of saying every religion is right (quite possibly the ultimate cop-out), why not say all of them are wrong? You falsely state that a-theism is a belief system.

Then you let out this whopper:

Each believes every human possesses Manna, or a Soul force, which retains the memories and consciousness of the human mind after death. Enough empirical evidence of reincarnation, near-death and out-of-body/astral body experiences exists to support that contention.

No. There is no evidence that reincarnation exists. "Out of body" experiences is nothing more than the misfiring of a certain section of the right frontal lobe of a person's brain.

Consider this: Close your eyes. How do you know where your hands and feet are if you're not seeing them? You where their location because a part of your brain tells you where they're located. You can clearly visualize it in your head.

Now suppose instead of closing your eyes, you were instead watching a video feed that cover the entire field of your vision. You know, like one of those virtual reality type thingies they put on your head. Now suppose what you watch on that video feed is the back of your body from a camera placed about 7 feet away behind you.

If you watch that for a while, say about 5-10 minutes, soon the part of your brain that can detect the positioning of your limbs will go out of whack. What happens when this goes out of whack? You have an out-of-body astro projection type experience.

That's right. You can actually induce an out-of-body experience. In other words, when we experience these things, it is nothing more than our brains misfiring. No your consciousness didn't leave your body. The consciousness is produced by your brain, and your brain stays in your head. End of story.

A few other side issues of note: Sound is typically measured in Hertz, not cycles per second. The human hear range is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

It's been known for a very long time that gravity drags on time. That's what Einstein's theory of relativity was all about. The greater the mass, the greater the gravity, the more that objects slows down time.

Time travel is possible, but only going forwards. You can't go backwards. If you could orbit a super massive black hole and return to earth, you would be a time traveler. Also if you approach the speed of light, you're also a time traveler.

Just as ice is solid water, matter is solid energy. That's what that whole E=mc2 is all about. No, pure energy cannot have a consciousness. Poetic, but no. Otherwise, you'd have to admit that atom bombs, when detonated, can think. That is utterly absurd.

So your response has to run over two screen-lengths long? You're not helping!!

Alva...

Otherwise, you'd have to admit that atom bombs, when detonated, can think. That is utterly absurd.

You are right... That is utterly absurd... That is also not what I said...

Thought IS energy... NOT ALL energy is thought... If thought were not energy, the snapping of bio-electric impulses between neurons, an electro-encephalograph would have nothing to register...

There are many forms of energy - fission, fusion, electrical, mechanical, heat, light, metabolic, chemical, mass... Any physics student can tell you that energy cannot be destroyed, only converted from one type of energy to another... Energy can be stored in a medium, like the chemicals in a battery or the manetic fluxes of magnetic tape... I'm saying the brain is just a similar medium, holding the Soul while it's capable of doing so, then releasing it when it is no longer capable...

David, you're using science to engage in a babblefest. Here's a suggestion. Study psychology.

Nerves generate impulses via balances and imbalances in electrolytes.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/nerve4.htm

If you're really telling me that balances between sodium and potassium ions contains a human soul, then we can commit genocide by playing with a salt shaker.

Again, you insult by oversimplifying...

You don't like what I believe, fine... You have the freedom to say what you want, as I do...

I also have the right not to listen to you...

'Ignore'...

Classic too long, didn't read post at #1.8

I'll just note that David cites the Philadelphia Experiment as real....make of that what you will

PS: It's Nikola Tesla, not Howard Tesla....

David M. Johnson:

I have come up with something Different. Based on some objective evidence, some subjective interpretation, some scientific facts and theories and a few fanciful leaps of logic, I've come up with a Belief System ...

By your own terms, you didn't meet what you called my challenge. You're not a Christian Fundamentalist fanatic, and your scheme, exhaustively though not at all clearly articulated, is subjective and fanciful. The responses to your dissertation, and your counter-responses, both confirm my reaction.

gravity drags on time: We have a problem with the definition of time. Einstein is supposed to have said that time is what is measured by clocks. What do clocks measure? They measure the rotation of the earth on its axis. Calendars measure the earths transit around the sun. Clocks are human inventions designed to measure a process. Time is what we call the measurement. It too is a human construct. It does not exist as an inherent entity in the universe. It is our way of measuring motion.

The Universe is a process, a sequence of events. According to our latest scientific theories, this process began when all the energy was concentrated into a "cosmic egg" which exploded. This explosion began the process that led to the creation of galaxies, stars, planets and eventually on this planet at least creatures with the intelligence to measure things. The big bang set everything in motion and time is a way of measuring motion. Even it a divine power created the universe, time is still our way of measuring the process that the prime mover set in motion.

When we talk about time travel, etc. we are talking nonsense, because time is a measurement. It measures a process by comparing one process to another process of known regularity. The standard we use to measure all motion by is the rotation of the earth on its axis or its rotation around the sun. We can measure events that happened in the past by measuring backward from the present or from another event, such as the birth of Christ. But we cannot go back in time because we cannot reverse the process. We can forecast events in the future, like the weather, but that is only an educated guess. We can never know for sure because there are too many entities moving at the same time.

If clocks run slower or atoms break down more slowly outside the earths gravity, it means that the process we are trying to measure has slowed down. Gravity drags on the motion or process we are measuring. Gravity does not drag on time.

Alva, Why don't you stick to your guns instead of counting David's words.

David,

I really like that you are thinking about this, but I think you really need to get into nuclear physics. One glaring error I saw was your analysis of nuclear particles "vibrating" - We don't know that they do and this analysis of nuclear particles only exists in String Theory which is NOT universally accepted.

Another is this statement:

In our universe, energy transforms matter primarily through the excitation or dissolving of molecular bonds, not by directly influencing the nuclear particles; the sole exceptions are fission and fusion, both of which require tremendous forces of energy to initiate.

No matter does NOT transform primarily through the exitation or dissolving of molecular bonds. An element is defined by the number of protons it has and nothing that happens molecularly changes that, therefore the element is not transformed. What transforms elements is INTRAnuclear changes - when an atom for some reason changes the number of protons it has (and there are many ways to do it! - not just fission or fusion - and it happens naturally all the time! For instance, think K-40). In fact, it is theorized that all atoms are unstable, it is just that their disintegration rates (changes going on in the nucleus) take so long that we don't know that they are, in fact, disintegrating.

Keep on reading David!!! I would love to hear your theory in about 10 years!!!

Alva,

David is not really wrong when he is talking about time. Time is something we really don't understand.

For instance, say you lived in 2 dimensions - Flatland. The only things you could know are what happens in the x direction and the y direction - the plane. The z-direction would be meaningless to you. But say an object with 3 dimensions passed through your plane. What would you know? You would notice something in the x and y directions changing and you would be able to document the movement that "change" - you would probably call it "time".

oar...

True, I forgot to include nuclear decay, along with fusion and fission... I tend to refer to Newton's Third Law of Thermodynamics as "Entropy, Entropy, All Winds Down"... I said "matter" because I felt "chemicals" or "molecules" would not be sufficiently encompassing...

My refernce to the Philadelphia Experiment was to point out that IF it occured as reported, my c-Spectrum theory could be used as a basis for explaining how it could happen, what went wrong and how it could be used to develop inter-dimensional craft... Whether you believe it happened or not is irrelevent... I also wanted to point out that such craft would likely resemble classic descriptions of UFOs...

I tried to explain your point about Mr. A. Square from Flatland in the first few paragraphs of my treatise, in my example of colour-blind people not believing in any hue other than red, but some people are not able to grasp the concept that, just because you cannot perceive something does not mean it couldn't exist... In the valley of blind men, the one-eyed man is king...

oar...

I really like that you are thinking about this, but I think you really need to get into nuclear physics.

I would love to... I've only had a few physics courses, for my BS in Computer Science... I've been more involved with Math and Logic... If I ever won a lottery, I'd want to go for a Master's and Ph.D in Physics, but Physics textbooks are hard to find outside of college campuses...

David,

The way to GENTLY get into nuclear physics is to read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", by Richard Rhodes. Then there is a real good biography of Niels Bohr out there that you could probably find on Amazon that discusses his theories in a very readable way. I don't have the exact title - I gave my copy to someone years ago and didn't get it back. Then get "Atom, journey across the subatomic cosmos", by Isaac Asimov. It is really old, but it introduces you to the terms that are still being used and what they mean.

After that, if you want more details, go to Amazon and look for books on nuclear or quantum physics - ignore the ones on nuclear engineering or health physics because they don't really discuss the theory, they get more into the nitty-gritty about how to...

Physics textbooks aren't that hard to find outside of a college campus. You can find hundreds of them on Amazon or a few in most public libraries.

Also, I too have to take exception with your contention that atheism represents a belief system. Not believing in something is different from believing something doesn't exist. As an atheist I am indifferent to the concept of god. Atheism is NOT a religion or a belief system. I don't regularly give it any thought. I don't believe in god the same way I don't believe in flying fairies with magical powers. It is for the same reason as this that I don't believe that humans have any existence other than physical. I suppose that there is a possibility that humans represent some force other than the combination of chemicals in the physical body, but I see NO empirical evidence to support that contention and frankly think it is just one more attempt by people to make themselves more than they are. We are animals whose existence is limited by the physical and who only matter to the extent that we or other similar animals think that we do.

I'm sorry, but this new agey gobbledygook is incomprehensible. David is using scientific theories that he doesn't understand, and that others don't understand to make claims that the supernatural exists. That would be called "slight of hand". It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. Well, let me tell ya, the physicists working at CERN do not get their data by grasping moon beads, and we shouldn't either.

David is attempting to put various theories together and yes, although, there are some glaring holes in his theory, he does show streaks of genius in his approach. I'm not going to discourage him just because he hasn't gotten it altogether yet. You ought to read some of the stuff that major theoretical physicists put out about the meaning of "soul" and it's relationship to the physical world!! I'm hoping he continues and ignores all the people who can't see what it is he is attempting to do.

oar...

Thank you...

The new system used by Newsvine doesn't allow you to make 'friend' requests any more... If I could, I would...

You see what I am trying to do... Arrive at the truth of the purpose for our existence through science and reason, not mythology...

"Hundreds of people in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore attacked a Christian neighborhood Saturday and set fire to homes after hearing accusations that a Christian man had committed blasphemy against Islam's prophet, said a police officer."

The fact that the Teapubs pretty much know they can't get away with things like this here, and the fact that things like this are not uncommon throughout the Muslim world (all of those countries have blasphemy laws), along with the fact that in Islam conversion is a one-way street, is what makes me think that Islam is not "the ultimate refinement of monotheism" that the Muslims claim it is. And this kind of fundamentalism has been going on in their societies since the 13th Century after the Mongol Invasion destroyed the civilized version of the religion and the society that preserved the knowledge of the ancient world and invented algebra and such.

Religion is evil.

I'm starting a Church of Eros and Aphrodite. We hold all erotic materials sacred. Ergo, porn filters are a violation of our constitutional rights.

The url for your last point is http://www.alternet.org/belief/millions-assets-and-hundreds-attorneys-christian-right-waging-war-church-state-wall

thank you...the comment program here only allows so many edits in a five minute timeframe and after the last time i hit post i couldn't fix that link.

What happens to the CC's stand on contraception and divorce, maybe even abortion, if priests are allowed to marry?

Russ writes: "Majorities of Catholic Americans believe the church needs to change its stance on several controversial issues"

Getting blood out of a stone is easy peasy, compared to changing a two thousand year old church. It was only "yesterday"- Standard Catholic Time- that Galileo got a retrial.

Many Catholics have already opted out, and found newer ,more accepting places of worship.

The piece also notes that no apology for this policy has ever been issued.

That's because God told whichever old white man was the Prophet at the time that the ni**ers weren't human, and then later God changed his mind, and you can't apologize for God since he never makes mistakes.

/snark

It is no wonder that many are leaving church and going back to their roots and becoming pagan. Pagans know other people follow other gods and have no problems with that, unlike the organized religions that all have one claim that 'we have the one true faith and all others are lies'.

Do pagans pass the collection plate? If so they aren't any different. Money and power are soon followed by greed.

Paganism is generally an individual faith. Though it is common for people to seek out others of like mind for celebrations and such, there is no giant United Church of Paganism, or the like. People, of course, try to make money off of it occasionally, but it is not standard practice to tithe.

The church changing its stance on anything means that it isn't a rule or guideline from God... but something they pulled out of thin air. Making the entire institution a fraud.

But noticing this would require logic... something most theists don't bother with.

The same part our founding fathers missed when they restricted citizenship to white land owning men while claiming to represent 'We the People'.

Intellectual integrity cannot be assumed.

Everyone knows that ALL Real Americans are Christians and have nothing to do with the Devil's Works.

(Please turn on Snark-O-Meter before taking offense)

Sorry, but there are a lot of "power greater than any one of us" out there - think hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, etc...

God is just another "control mechanism" created by people to run the lives of other people.

Exactly what does this "recognition of a power greater than any one of us" do for you exactly? -especially a "power" who really doesn't want to make us know in any way that it exists or what it wants?

A hurricane or volcano makes it clear immediately that it doesn't care if we exist or not, but it does make itself known to us!!

bfly, religion has never gotten along with each other very well. Even different Christian sects have historically had very bitter differences with each other. Then their own bible commands them that their god is a jealous god and doesn't tolerate people worshiping other gods, then you have a problem. The Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths all instruct their followers to kill one another if anyone tells them to worship differently. That doesn't exactly lead to a lot of hand holding and singing "Kumbaya".

There's a very simple way to solve this problem. People simply need to stop believing in fairy tales and nonsense. There are people who believe in reality and then there are people who are delusional. Reasonable people aren't prone to murdering others for disagreeing with them.

NICE! I like this

Religion is a means of getting groups of people to do what they would be reluctant or unable to do on their own.

This includes the building of hospitals and schools AND the persecution of others.

When religious groups band together in order to harm others, their leaders should be held responsible -- as in 'go to jail' or 'be hanged as a murderer' responsible. Then the abuses will stop.

We have to stop seeing the "power/powers greater than any of us" as a person or group of persons or as something that "thinks" a person or group of persons is special and more important than other entities in the universe.

I do not mean to imply that the power/powers are not completely blind.

The problem with so many of the religions is that they posit a power that gives special status to whatever group "worships" it/them. Any group that thinks it is special by divine right can justify any sort of violence against anyone who is not a member of the group. It will go to any lengths to suppress any idea that challenges their specialness.

"...only leads to violence against Muslims in predominantly Christian countries." Yeah, those Christians are a violent bunch. Every week you read in the paper and see on the news that another Christian has car-bombed or suicide bombed a public place; and they are forever kidnapping Muslims and beheading them. Tsk, tsk.

Any time any religion has "bring others into the fold" as it's prime directive, there is going to be a whole host of problems stemming from intolerance masked as "I love you and don't want you to suffer eternal damnation."

RE: 5.6

Sue, take a closer look at Christian history. Between the Salem witch trials, the Inquisition and the Crusades, Christian history is every bit as vile and violent as Islam.

The only reason why Christians aren't beheading people is because the west is more civilized and developed. Our own nation was set up in part to keep the crazies in check.

Not that this has stopped them from car bombing doctors, or blowing up women's clinics. Would the Army of God Christian crazies be so eager to engage in mass murder and terrorism if their ideas were based on logic and reason instead of god's big book of bad ideas?

Religion is incompatible with a civilized and reasonable world. When people have imaginary friends that tell them to kill others, then that person should be put in a straight jacket and given a thorazine drip.

The Truth is beyond religion...because religion is controlled by men and women, and ultimately they try hard to corrupt it...the battle between good and evil...

If you had not noticed even truths can lie...?

How ?

.Stop violence against women'....a truth, right ? Wrong...it is both a truth and lie...

It polarizes the issue of abuse, and men and women...in fact in lesbian relationships all the abuses are lesbian women....so what can be said except...

From Eve to Eve...feminism will show us how truths can lie...and if we look at the life of poor Gloria Steinam, 'mental illness'...was 'the patriachy' of her mother and her life...tragic that she responded to negatively attacking men.

RE: 5.9

Caesar, there are many, many rules listed in the book of Leviticus. For instance:

• God doesn't like you going to fortune tellers.
• If you're a fortune teller, you die.
• If you curse your parents you die.
• If you sacrifice an animal for God, you gotta eat it that day or the next day. After that, left overs are verboten!
• When you harvest your crops, you're not allowed to do a thorough job.
• If you have a vineyard, you're not allowed to pick up grapes that have fallen on the ground. Instead you gotta leave that for the poor to eat.
• You're not allowed to cross breed animals. God doesn't like mules and ligers.
• You're not allowed to grow more than one kind of plant on a field.
• You're not allowed to wear clothes made of two different kinds of material. God hates cotton polyester blends.
• You ARE allowed to marry your ex-wife's sister, but your ex-wife has to die first.
• When you plant a tree that grows fruit, you're not allowed to eat the fruit for three years. On the fourth year, you gotta sacrifice the fruit for God. On the fifth year you can eat it.
• You're not allowed to eat meat with blood still in it. God hates his steaks medium rare.
• You're not allowed to cut the hair at your temples or trim your beard.
• You ARE allowed to practice self mutilation, but only if it's because you're not bummed out about someone who's died.
• You're not allowed to get a tattoo.

And then there's the sexy stuff....

• You're not allowed to molest immigrants.
• If you have sex with your neighbor's wife, you both die.
• If you have sex with your dad's wife, you both die.
• If you have sex with your daughter-in-law, you both die.
• If a dude has sex with another dude, they both die.
• If you marry a woman AND you marry her mom, all three of you die.
• If you have sex with an animal you and your buddy Rover dies.
• If a woman has sex with an animal they both die.
• If a man marries his sister and has sex with her, then none of his friends should talk to them ever again (bringing forth generations of lonely banjo players)
• If you have sex with a woman while she's menstruating, then none of your friends should ever talk to you again.
• If you have sex with your aunt, you die.
• If you have sex with your uncle's wife, you die.
• If you marry your brother's wife, you're not allowed to have kids.
• You're not allowed to have sex with your mom.
• You're not allowed to have sex with your sister or half sister.
• You're not allowed to have sex with your grandchildren.
• You're not allowed to have sex with your daughter, even if you adopted her.
• If you have sex with your female slave, then you gotta be punished, but you can't be put to death. Find yourself a ram to sacrifice real quick.

However, despite all these rules, nowhere does the bible mention anything about two women have sex with each other. That's right. Man on man sex is right out. But just like most red-blooded American men, God simply loves lesbians!

Alva,

To the best of your knowledge, are the rules in Leviticus for all of us to follow, or just for the priestly caste (those of the house of Levi)?

I have heard it both ways, and so am left wondering.

Not that I am concerned about displeasing the Almighty. Too late on that account --shrimp, crab, and bacon are just too yummy.

John, I'm not aware that anyone has argued that it should only apply to the priests. My understanding is that it was meant to apply to everyone.

Paul was strongly opposed to the girl-girl love, but he was a severe prude about pretty much everything sex-related.

Nor does it state which brand of religion that is protected, it just states religion so therefore the belief it only applies to christians is made up in the christian mind. Funny how our bible citing constitutional worshiping morons ignore that.

The Wiccan rede states, "An it harm none, do as thou wilt."

Wiccans despise intolerance, which means, no one else can tolerate them...

Pro-life has nothing to do with it.

It is a case of

“I am your employer therefor I own every fraction of your life. What you can or can not do on your own time is for me to decide”.

This library thing reminds me of the argument a while back that any business should be able to deny contraceptives to women based on the companies religious beliefs. In either case religion and politics is a bad mix.

"that any business should be able to deny contraceptives to women based on the companies religious beliefs"

This, of course, assumes that corporations can practice religion, and so far, very few court decisions have brought Citizens United into the mix.

However, just this week a Pennsylvania federal district court ruled that Seneca Hardwood, a lumber company, had standing to challenge the birth control mandate of the ACA while a sole-proprietorship didn't [they said the owner could challenge as an individual]... Strikes me as getting it backwards...

It is ironic that these right wing Christian leaders claim that God gave us freedom of choice and yet these same leaders do everything they can to restrict our freedom to choose. They believe that anything short of the Spanish Inquisition is not forcing their Christianity on other people. But they are no different than those who conducted the Inquisition, just their methods are different but no less coercive. Unlike the French Revolution, ours did not attempt to diminish the power of the clergy to interfere in politics. The only Constitutional restriction is on Congress and the states by way of the 14th amendment. Our wall of separation does not include a reciprocal bar on religion injecting itself into politics.

Said by a guy who follows a party that wants to take away individual choice and insists its their way or the highway. Funny how when anyone says choice it never comes out of a conservative. But then again typical conservative rant, accuse others of what you are guilty of.

You have to discriminate...there is good and evil in all things...

Discrimination is either good or evil...

But who gets to choose what is good and evil? The personnel at the Library in Salem thought the ability to look up Wicca was evil. Most people would not agree with that. If you believe in the Bible then you should not eat shell fish. What if a Town Council passed a law saying no restaurants in the town could serve shrimp? Would that be OK with you? In fact, I think you should let me decide what is good and evil. We might have a much different town than you're used to.

Duluthian, 12

The Bible probably wasn't meant to be a culinary guide in any case.

My guess is that good and evil are things most people would be able to readily identify. Unfortunately, identifying it does not always lead to the proper way of addressing it or acting on it. I like what Alexander Pope said,

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

as to be hated needs but to be seen.

Yet seen too oft, familiar its face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Evil men and women will corrupt everything...do you think the pedofiles, the homosexual/immoral pedofiles were obeying the 10 commandments when they did what they did...?

Attack the 'cancer'...not the body ?

Can i say this ?

I'm sorry, I have to laugh; pedo-files? Also: the homosexual/immoral pedofiles?

Is that a gay man's walking chronicle?! Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's shoes?!

And in this case the body is the cancer, the whole of it. This is men and women playing god, evil or not, here they come!

India, here's an update on O'Brian

Cardinal Keith O'Brien was summoned to Rome as early as October 2012 to answer charges of sexual impropriety.

It was previously thought that allegations of misconduct had not emerged until February 23, when a story was published in the Observer describing unwanted sexual advances allegedly made by the cardinal against three serving priests and a then-seminarian in the 1980s.

However, The Tablet can report that after a priest lodged an allegation with the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal O'Brien was asked to travel to Rome to answer the accusation.

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/latest-news/5108

Thank you so much Helen! I read that. So Cardinal O'Brien is 75 years old the 17th March. Men...!

Sometimes I think that men are the best argument for women priests the Catholic Church could make. :)

The Cardinal was summoned to Rome to answer the accusation... and left in office. Did the Church take meaningful action before the accusations became public?

The accusations concern actions that happened 30 years ago, when the Cardinal was in his 40's.

Maybe to promote a culture of honesty, caring, and commitment the Church should only recruit priests from married men and women that have successfully raised children into adulthood. Nothing like staring a 30-year mortgage in the face to prove one's mettle.

John Seeking Enlightenment,

Now there's an excellent idea. A mortgage and three children got us in gear!

Sandy,

Truly religious, God- loving people of any religion are not egotistic, but kind, tolerant, and non- judgmental. They seem to have a "quiet soul" which prohibits fanaticism.

I have seen that many times, whether Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu. There is a definite serenity there.

As a Catholic, I see it in my pastor and in many men and women in my church.

I did mean to advocate for tolerance. I am aware of divisions and do not view religion/spirituality evil. I am aware that some atheist/agnostic people lean toward ending religion. Others ignore it.

I am aware that there are many religious people with loving, peaceful, tolerant hearts. I believe there are many devout and loving people of various religions who are manifesting peace. Others have been taught to be dominant, which is not peaceful.

Evil...can conquer anything man or woman creates....look at communism, capitalism, socialism, democracies, even feminism ?

John, 1-5

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness can not overcome it.

No, Evil will not prevail.

It's in the Book.

Just because "GOD" is not mentioned in the storyline does not suggest that “there may be no GOD”.

Old Bat,

When I want to study theology, I don't use The Wizard of OZ as my text, in any case! LOL

St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa theologica) and St. Augustine, (City of God) are much better teachers.

More time consuming, though.

You are totally wrong Caesar, there is NOT good and evil in everything. You cannot make a blanket BS statement like that and not prove it sooo, prove it!

Evil is within the human mind and no where else!

I would never mistake irrationality and ignorance as benign. It is responsible for so much evil.

So right, India.

Hi Tony, I am glad I made a once through of the blog before turning in. Hope you had a good weekend. The weather here was amazing. We took a walk and had a great Sunday! Good to see you.