(There are a few versions of this story in circulation. They are all relatively close in their narratives. The basic story is verified by the records of Lloyd's of London.)
In 1829, a lady from Yorkshire, England, Sarah Richey, embarked on a voyage from England to Australia, in search of her long lost son Peter, rumored to be living in Australia. In October of that year, as her ship, The City of Leeds, wallowed in the waters off Australia, and as Mrs. Richey prayed for success in her difficult quest, what at first appeared to be the hand of bad luck began to make life difficult for the crew of another ship.
The sailing ship Mermaid sailed out of Sydney Harbor, bound for the other side of Australia. After 4 days at sea, a terrifying storm drove the Mermaid onto a coral reef. The entire crew managed to scramble onto some rocks.
After 3 days, another ship, the Swiftsure, anchored near the rocks and picked up the crew of the Mermaid. After 5 days at sea, this second boat for the crew of the Mermaid was itself swept onto rocks! The passengers and crew of both ships, however, were stranded at that location for only 8 hours, when another ship sighted them and closed in for the rescue.
When the crew of this boat, the Governor Ready, heard that this was the third ship for the crew of the Mermaid, many began to grumble about bad luck people. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and the survivors of the Mermaid and Swiftsure sinkings were crammed onto the decks of the Governor Ready.
This time, after only 3 short hours, the Governor Ready caught fire and sank! All aboard managed to make it to the lifeboats. There were no casualties.
A mere 18 hours later, a government boat, the Comet, sighted the life boats, hove to, and picked-up the steadily increasing number of survivors. The Captain of the Comet had to put down a near-mutiny, to keep the survivors of the 3 shipwrecks on board among his crew.
Just 5 days later, whatever force sank the first 3 ships attacked the Comet -- another terrifying storm dismasted the ship. As it leaked badly, the spooked crew of the Comet took to the lifeboats, abandoning the sinking ship to the survivors of the Mermaid, Swiftsure, and Governor Ready sinkings. In short order, they found themselves in the water the fourth time, clinging to flotsam, kicking away hungry sharks.
Within 18 hours, the next victim appeared on the horizon -- the Jupiter. Bursting at the seams with sailors and passengers after retrieving the survivors, the Jupiter managed to sail for only two days more before it, too, slammed into a reef, punching a hole in her hull and sinking.
Mrs. Richey's ship, the City of Leeds, was on-hand, however. Every last man, woman and child of all 5 previous ships were retrieved, and made comfortable, as the boat continued its voyage to Australia.
Mrs. Richey, in the meantime, became deathly ill. As the ship's doctor, Thomas Sparks, kept watch over her, Mrs. Richey called-out again and again for her son, in her fever.
Dr. Sparks, anxious to do something to fulfill the dying woman's last wish, saw a crewman of the Mermaid strolling by Mrs. Richey's door. Dr. Sparks called out to the sailor, and demanded that he pretend to be Mrs. Richey's son. The crewman agreed, and walked over to the bed.
As he stared at the groaning woman's face, and the doctor explained that the dying woman was Sarah Richey from Yorkshire, the sailor went wide-eyed, and burst into tears. "Doctor," he explained, "My name is Peter Richey, and that is my mother!"
Sunday, February 28, 2010
The Beale Treasure
Supposedly, in April, 1817, Thomas J. Beale and several others arrived in what is now Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then traveled north into what is now Colorado, in search of buffalo. As they camped one night, one of their party discovered an extremely rich vein of gold, which the group mined for the next 18 months. As sometimes happens, they came across a vein of silver in the same locale, and mined that.
Returning east in 1820, Beale enjoyed "wine, women and song" as a guest in the Washington Hotel in Lynchburg, Virginia, disappearing in the Spring.
In 1822, Beale returned to the same hotel in Lynchburg, and did the same. Before his departure, however, he left an iron box of papers in the custody of hotel owner Robert Morriss.
Morriss was faithful to his duties as a trustee of the papers, but Beale never returned. In 1845, Morriss assumed that Beale was dead, and he broke into the box.
Inside the box was a letter and three sheets of paper bearing numbers. The letter explained that Beale had buried the treasure -- some 3 tons of precious metal -- at an undisclosed location, and that the 3 papers were an encoded explanation of the matter, an encoded list of heirs of the treasure, and encoded directions respecting how to find the treasure, in Beford County, Virginia.
Morriss tried for many years to decode the sheets of numbers, without success.
Before his death he left them to an undisclosed third party, when later published a pamphlet revealing that he had managed to break the code of the least important paper, only. The paper reads as follows...
“I have deposited in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford’s, in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles: ... The deposit consists of two thousand nine hundred and twenty one pounds of gold and five thousand one hundred pounds of silver; also jewels, obtained in St. Louis in exchange for silver to save transportation ... The above is securely packed in iron pots, with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone, and are covered with others ...”
Since that time, no human being has been able to break the code of the paper revealing the location of the treasure.
A website claims that this has been done, and even purports to show photos of the empty underground treasure chamber, but careful review of a sample of the website's author's interpretation makes it clear that his claim that he has interpreted the numbers is false, and that, in turn, hints that the author is merely buying time for his own treasure hunting.
I have examined a copy of the sheet of numbers ostensibly revealing the location of the treasure, and have discerned enough to see that the sheet comprises a real, breakable code. Here it is...
71, 194, 38, 1701, 89, 76, 11, 83, 1629, 48, 94, 63, 132, 16, 111, 95, 84, 341, 975, 14, 40, 64, 27, 81, 139, 213, 63, 90, 1120, 8, 15, 3, 126, 2018, 40, 74, 758, 485, 604, 230, 436, 664, 582, 150, 251, 284, 308, 231, 124, 211, 486, 225, 401, 370, 11, 101, 305, 139, 189, 17, 33, 88, 208, 193, 145, 1, 94, 73, 416, 918, 263, 28, 500, 538, 356, 117, 136, 219, 27, 176, 130, 10, 460, 25, 485, 18, 436, 65, 84, 200, 283, 118, 320, 138, 36, 416, 280, 15, 71, 224, 961, 44, 16, 401, 39, 88, 61, 304, 12, 21, 24, 283, 134, 92, 63, 246, 486, 682, 7, 219, 184, 360, 780, 18, 64, 463, 474, 131, 160, 79, 73, 440, 95, 18, 64, 581, 34, 69, 128, 367, 460, 17, 81, 12, 103, 820, 62, 116, 97, 103, 862, 70, 60, 1317, 471, 540, 208, 121, 890, 346, 36, 150, 59, 568, 614, 13, 120, 63, 219, 812, 2160, 1780, 99, 35, 18, 21, 136, 872, 15, 28, 170, 88, 4, 30, 44, 112, 18, 147, 436, 195, 320, 37, 122, 113, 6, 140, 8, 120, 305, 42, 58, 461, 44, 106, 301, 13, 408, 680, 93, 86, 116, 530, 82, 568, 9, 102, 38, 416, 89, 71, 216, 728, 965, 818, 2, 38, 121, 195, 14, 326, 148, 234, 18, 55, 131, 234, 361, 824, 5, 81, 623, 48, 961, 19, 26, 33, 10, 1101, 365, 92, 88, 181, 275, 346, 201, 206, 86, 36, 219, 324, 829, 840, 64, 326, 19, 48, 122, 85, 216, 284, 919, 861, 326, 985, 233, 64, 68, 232, 431, 960, 50, 29, 81, 216, 321, 603, 14, 612, 81, 360, 36, 51, 62, 194, 78, 60, 200, 314, 676, 112, 4, 28, 18, 61, 136, 247, 819, 921, 1060, 464, 895, 10, 6, 66, 119, 38, 41, 49, 602, 423, 962, 302, 294, 875, 78, 14, 23, 111, 109, 62, 31, 501, 823, 216, 280, 34, 24, 150, 1000, 162, 286, 19, 21, 17, 340, 19, 242, 31, 86, 234, 140, 607, 115, 33, 191, 67, 104, 86, 52, 88, 16, 80, 121, 67, 95, 122, 216, 548, 96, 11, 201, 77, 364, 218, 65, 667, 890, 236, 154, 211, 10, 98, 34, 119, 56, 216, 119, 71, 218, 1164, 1496, 1817, 51, 39, 210, 36, 3, 19, 540, 232, 22, 141, 617, 84, 290, 80, 46, 207, 411, 150, 29, 38, 46, 172, 85, 194, 39, 261, 543, 897, 624, 18, 212, 416, 127, 931, 19, 4, 63, 96, 12, 101, 418, 16, 140, 230, 460, 538, 19, 27, 88, 612, 1431, 90, 716, 275, 74, 83, 11, 426, 89, 72, 84, 1300, 1706, 814, 221, 132, 40, 102, 34, 868, 975, 1101, 84, 16, 79, 23, 16, 81, 122, 324, 403, 912, 227, 936, 447, 55, 86, 34, 43, 212, 107, 96, 314, 264, 1065, 323, 428, 601, 203, 124, 95, 216, 814, 2906, 654, 820, 2, 301, 112, 176, 213, 71, 87, 96, 202, 35, 10, 2, 41, 17, 84, 221, 736, 820, 214, 11, 60, 760
Returning east in 1820, Beale enjoyed "wine, women and song" as a guest in the Washington Hotel in Lynchburg, Virginia, disappearing in the Spring.
In 1822, Beale returned to the same hotel in Lynchburg, and did the same. Before his departure, however, he left an iron box of papers in the custody of hotel owner Robert Morriss.
Morriss was faithful to his duties as a trustee of the papers, but Beale never returned. In 1845, Morriss assumed that Beale was dead, and he broke into the box.
Inside the box was a letter and three sheets of paper bearing numbers. The letter explained that Beale had buried the treasure -- some 3 tons of precious metal -- at an undisclosed location, and that the 3 papers were an encoded explanation of the matter, an encoded list of heirs of the treasure, and encoded directions respecting how to find the treasure, in Beford County, Virginia.
Morriss tried for many years to decode the sheets of numbers, without success.
Before his death he left them to an undisclosed third party, when later published a pamphlet revealing that he had managed to break the code of the least important paper, only. The paper reads as follows...
“I have deposited in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford’s, in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles: ... The deposit consists of two thousand nine hundred and twenty one pounds of gold and five thousand one hundred pounds of silver; also jewels, obtained in St. Louis in exchange for silver to save transportation ... The above is securely packed in iron pots, with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone, and are covered with others ...”
Since that time, no human being has been able to break the code of the paper revealing the location of the treasure.
A website claims that this has been done, and even purports to show photos of the empty underground treasure chamber, but careful review of a sample of the website's author's interpretation makes it clear that his claim that he has interpreted the numbers is false, and that, in turn, hints that the author is merely buying time for his own treasure hunting.
I have examined a copy of the sheet of numbers ostensibly revealing the location of the treasure, and have discerned enough to see that the sheet comprises a real, breakable code. Here it is...
71, 194, 38, 1701, 89, 76, 11, 83, 1629, 48, 94, 63, 132, 16, 111, 95, 84, 341, 975, 14, 40, 64, 27, 81, 139, 213, 63, 90, 1120, 8, 15, 3, 126, 2018, 40, 74, 758, 485, 604, 230, 436, 664, 582, 150, 251, 284, 308, 231, 124, 211, 486, 225, 401, 370, 11, 101, 305, 139, 189, 17, 33, 88, 208, 193, 145, 1, 94, 73, 416, 918, 263, 28, 500, 538, 356, 117, 136, 219, 27, 176, 130, 10, 460, 25, 485, 18, 436, 65, 84, 200, 283, 118, 320, 138, 36, 416, 280, 15, 71, 224, 961, 44, 16, 401, 39, 88, 61, 304, 12, 21, 24, 283, 134, 92, 63, 246, 486, 682, 7, 219, 184, 360, 780, 18, 64, 463, 474, 131, 160, 79, 73, 440, 95, 18, 64, 581, 34, 69, 128, 367, 460, 17, 81, 12, 103, 820, 62, 116, 97, 103, 862, 70, 60, 1317, 471, 540, 208, 121, 890, 346, 36, 150, 59, 568, 614, 13, 120, 63, 219, 812, 2160, 1780, 99, 35, 18, 21, 136, 872, 15, 28, 170, 88, 4, 30, 44, 112, 18, 147, 436, 195, 320, 37, 122, 113, 6, 140, 8, 120, 305, 42, 58, 461, 44, 106, 301, 13, 408, 680, 93, 86, 116, 530, 82, 568, 9, 102, 38, 416, 89, 71, 216, 728, 965, 818, 2, 38, 121, 195, 14, 326, 148, 234, 18, 55, 131, 234, 361, 824, 5, 81, 623, 48, 961, 19, 26, 33, 10, 1101, 365, 92, 88, 181, 275, 346, 201, 206, 86, 36, 219, 324, 829, 840, 64, 326, 19, 48, 122, 85, 216, 284, 919, 861, 326, 985, 233, 64, 68, 232, 431, 960, 50, 29, 81, 216, 321, 603, 14, 612, 81, 360, 36, 51, 62, 194, 78, 60, 200, 314, 676, 112, 4, 28, 18, 61, 136, 247, 819, 921, 1060, 464, 895, 10, 6, 66, 119, 38, 41, 49, 602, 423, 962, 302, 294, 875, 78, 14, 23, 111, 109, 62, 31, 501, 823, 216, 280, 34, 24, 150, 1000, 162, 286, 19, 21, 17, 340, 19, 242, 31, 86, 234, 140, 607, 115, 33, 191, 67, 104, 86, 52, 88, 16, 80, 121, 67, 95, 122, 216, 548, 96, 11, 201, 77, 364, 218, 65, 667, 890, 236, 154, 211, 10, 98, 34, 119, 56, 216, 119, 71, 218, 1164, 1496, 1817, 51, 39, 210, 36, 3, 19, 540, 232, 22, 141, 617, 84, 290, 80, 46, 207, 411, 150, 29, 38, 46, 172, 85, 194, 39, 261, 543, 897, 624, 18, 212, 416, 127, 931, 19, 4, 63, 96, 12, 101, 418, 16, 140, 230, 460, 538, 19, 27, 88, 612, 1431, 90, 716, 275, 74, 83, 11, 426, 89, 72, 84, 1300, 1706, 814, 221, 132, 40, 102, 34, 868, 975, 1101, 84, 16, 79, 23, 16, 81, 122, 324, 403, 912, 227, 936, 447, 55, 86, 34, 43, 212, 107, 96, 314, 264, 1065, 323, 428, 601, 203, 124, 95, 216, 814, 2906, 654, 820, 2, 301, 112, 176, 213, 71, 87, 96, 202, 35, 10, 2, 41, 17, 84, 221, 736, 820, 214, 11, 60, 760
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Is It Possible That "The End Is Near"???!!!
(Originally I wrote this piece for translation into the Vietnamese tongue. So, if it reads a little too simple for your taste, it is because I was making it easy for my translator.)
The Vietnamese people, whose chief religions are Buddhism and the Catholic faith, should be very interested in the fact that certain Buddhist writings and the Catholic Bible seem to agree that the world is about to end!
The thing which makes a big impression is not that the writings say what they do. Instead, it is the fact that the writings agree.
The Prediction of the Buddhists of Tibet
Writings of Tibetan Buddhism teach that the end of the world as we know it will occur shortly after the 14th Dalai Lama is dethroned, about 2,500 years after the birth of Gautama Siddartha -- Buddha.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was overthrown by the Chinese in 1950.
Gautama Siddhartha was born around 500 B.C. 2,500 years after his birth yields a date of the year 2,000.
Today.
The main predictions about the end of the world in the Bible can be found in Jesus’ “End of the World” homilies, in three of the four gospels.
The Fig Tree
Jesus says,
30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32 "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.
33 In the same way, when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the gates. Matthew 24:30-33.
In the Bible, the fig tree always symbolizes Israel, Israel’s people, or the Jewish religion. So, we ask ourselves, Did the fig tree, Israel, somehow “put forth leaves” recently? Yes -- in 1948, when the United Nations voted to create the country of Israel, again.
The Odd Statement About Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers
Jesus says,
19 Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days. Matthew 24:19.
Most Bible commentators take this verse about the End of Time as an expression of pity by Jesus for women who are about to give birth or who just gave birth.
That is an error.
In every single verse where Jesus uses the word “woe,” or “ouai” in Greek, the language in which the gospels were written, “woe” is always a nasty threat!
Why in Heaven’s name would Jesus threaten pregnant women and nursing mothers?
The answer is that He’s not threatening pregnant women and nursing mothers, but rather women who should be pregnant or who should be nursing, except for the fact that they got an abortion!
In other words, today’s abortion movement is an End Times marker!
Jesus’ Statement About Sodom
The city of Sodom in the Book of Genesis was famous for the homosexual behavior of its people.
Jesus says,
28 Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;
29 on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
30 So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. Luke 17:28-30.
Is it an accident that Jesus chose to use Sodom as His picture of the end?
Note well what has happened in America, the country which is the leader of the Western world: The United States Supreme Court recently struck down all laws against homosexual sex acts, and states have begun passing laws creating homosexual marriage! Several countries in Europe have imitated the United States in this way.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
Jesus’ Statement About the Destructive Thing on Holy Ground
Jesus says,
15 "When you see the desolating abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
16 then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,... Matthew 24:15-16.
Since 1978, at least, the nation of Israel has been armed with hydrogen bombs. Estimates range between 40 and 200. A hydrogen bomb in the land of Israel where Christ lived would surely qualify as a terrifying destructive thing on “holy ground.”
Jesus' reference to Judea is intriguing. Israel's nuclear program, named "The Samson Option," indicating that the intention of the program is to bring down the roof on Israel's enemies if and when Israel is losing its battle for survival, was installed in silos in Judea, in the foothills of the mountains of Judea.
Paul’s Statement About the “Great Falling Away”
In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul tried to sooth their fears that the world was about to end…
1 We ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him,
2 not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a "spirit," or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first... 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.
The Greek word for “apostasy,” referring to a revolt against the Christian religion, is sometimes translated “the great falling away” by translators, who believe that Paul would not mention such a thing unless it were a very, very large revolt against the faith.
From this we draw the conclusion that the world will end after a great falling away from Christianity.
Now, look what is happening in the world. In Europe, church attendance has fallen to about 10% of the Christians, there. In the United States, the numbers are beginning to be just as bad. So few men want to be ministers and priests that the Protestant churches have begun accepting women as ministers, though the Bible forbids this, and even homosexual ministers with boyfriends, though the Bible very nastily condemns that. The number of homosexuals priests in Catholic churches is large, and they have caused a terrible scandal in the United States, and Catholics are becoming discouraged.
Muslims in Europe are giving birth to babies at about 8 times the rate of Christians, because Christians use birth control. In a few generations, Muslims will outnumber Christians in the voting booth, democracy will be voted out of existence, and Christianity declared illegal.
In other words, the “falling away” is happening today, as we converse, here.
The number of Buddhist and Christian prophecies that seem to be coming true is large enough to cause worry.
Maybe it is time to love your spouse and your children, and go to temple or church!
The Vietnamese people, whose chief religions are Buddhism and the Catholic faith, should be very interested in the fact that certain Buddhist writings and the Catholic Bible seem to agree that the world is about to end!
The thing which makes a big impression is not that the writings say what they do. Instead, it is the fact that the writings agree.
The Prediction of the Buddhists of Tibet
Writings of Tibetan Buddhism teach that the end of the world as we know it will occur shortly after the 14th Dalai Lama is dethroned, about 2,500 years after the birth of Gautama Siddartha -- Buddha.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was overthrown by the Chinese in 1950.
Gautama Siddhartha was born around 500 B.C. 2,500 years after his birth yields a date of the year 2,000.
Today.
The main predictions about the end of the world in the Bible can be found in Jesus’ “End of the World” homilies, in three of the four gospels.
The Fig Tree
Jesus says,
30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32 "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.
33 In the same way, when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the gates. Matthew 24:30-33.
In the Bible, the fig tree always symbolizes Israel, Israel’s people, or the Jewish religion. So, we ask ourselves, Did the fig tree, Israel, somehow “put forth leaves” recently? Yes -- in 1948, when the United Nations voted to create the country of Israel, again.
The Odd Statement About Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers
Jesus says,
19 Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days. Matthew 24:19.
Most Bible commentators take this verse about the End of Time as an expression of pity by Jesus for women who are about to give birth or who just gave birth.
That is an error.
In every single verse where Jesus uses the word “woe,” or “ouai” in Greek, the language in which the gospels were written, “woe” is always a nasty threat!
Why in Heaven’s name would Jesus threaten pregnant women and nursing mothers?
The answer is that He’s not threatening pregnant women and nursing mothers, but rather women who should be pregnant or who should be nursing, except for the fact that they got an abortion!
In other words, today’s abortion movement is an End Times marker!
Jesus’ Statement About Sodom
The city of Sodom in the Book of Genesis was famous for the homosexual behavior of its people.
Jesus says,
28 Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;
29 on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
30 So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. Luke 17:28-30.
Is it an accident that Jesus chose to use Sodom as His picture of the end?
Note well what has happened in America, the country which is the leader of the Western world: The United States Supreme Court recently struck down all laws against homosexual sex acts, and states have begun passing laws creating homosexual marriage! Several countries in Europe have imitated the United States in this way.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
Jesus’ Statement About the Destructive Thing on Holy Ground
Jesus says,
15 "When you see the desolating abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
16 then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,... Matthew 24:15-16.
Since 1978, at least, the nation of Israel has been armed with hydrogen bombs. Estimates range between 40 and 200. A hydrogen bomb in the land of Israel where Christ lived would surely qualify as a terrifying destructive thing on “holy ground.”
Jesus' reference to Judea is intriguing. Israel's nuclear program, named "The Samson Option," indicating that the intention of the program is to bring down the roof on Israel's enemies if and when Israel is losing its battle for survival, was installed in silos in Judea, in the foothills of the mountains of Judea.
Paul’s Statement About the “Great Falling Away”
In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul tried to sooth their fears that the world was about to end…
1 We ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him,
2 not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a "spirit," or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first... 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.
The Greek word for “apostasy,” referring to a revolt against the Christian religion, is sometimes translated “the great falling away” by translators, who believe that Paul would not mention such a thing unless it were a very, very large revolt against the faith.
From this we draw the conclusion that the world will end after a great falling away from Christianity.
Now, look what is happening in the world. In Europe, church attendance has fallen to about 10% of the Christians, there. In the United States, the numbers are beginning to be just as bad. So few men want to be ministers and priests that the Protestant churches have begun accepting women as ministers, though the Bible forbids this, and even homosexual ministers with boyfriends, though the Bible very nastily condemns that. The number of homosexuals priests in Catholic churches is large, and they have caused a terrible scandal in the United States, and Catholics are becoming discouraged.
Muslims in Europe are giving birth to babies at about 8 times the rate of Christians, because Christians use birth control. In a few generations, Muslims will outnumber Christians in the voting booth, democracy will be voted out of existence, and Christianity declared illegal.
In other words, the “falling away” is happening today, as we converse, here.
The number of Buddhist and Christian prophecies that seem to be coming true is large enough to cause worry.
Maybe it is time to love your spouse and your children, and go to temple or church!
The Money Pit
In 1795, a boy living on the Atlantic coast of Canada rowed his small boat out to an uninhabited island, known as Oak Island, to explore it.
There he found a big oak tree with a rope hanging from a limb over a hole in the ground filled with dried mud. The teenage boy thought, “Treasure lowered into a hole by pirates!” He hurried home and returned to the island with two friends, to help him dig for treasure.
The three boys dug down to 10 feet, and found a layer of oak logs, and thought, “Treasure!” and pulled-up the logs, but only found a small empty space and below that some more dirt. At 20 feet down and 30 feet down, they found the same thing -- layers of oak logs over a small empty space and more dirt.
The boys thought, “There must be treasure down here! If there is not, why would someone do all of this work?” But, more than 30 feet down was too much for teenagers. So, they filled-in the hole with the dirt they had taken out, and promised to return as adults.
In 1803, the three boys, all more than 20 years old, now, purchased the part of the island with the hole, formed a company with their money and the money of friends and bought much equipment to dig down to treasure. They dug again down to 30 feet, and then to 40 feet, 50 feet, and so on, each time finding the same kind of layer of oak logs, as before, which they pulled up.
But then, at 90 feet, they found a flat stone, with a code chiseled into it, looking like this…
The code easily translates to these English words: “Forty feet below two million pounds are buried.” “Two million pounds” in those days were equal to about $500,000,000, or about 5,000,000,000 pesos.
The young men began digging like crazy people! They pulled up the oak logs beneath the message, and dug deeper, but soon they were taking out one bucket of sea water for every two buckets of dirt. The Sun was setting. So they hammered metal rods into the mud, and were certain from the sounds they heard while hammering that a few feet down into the mud, at the 98 foot level, their rods struck two wooden boxes filled with metal! Treasure! They all went to bed that night, thinking that when the Sun came up in the morning they’d climb down their ladders and find pirates’ gold!
In the morning, the money hole was filled to the top with mud and water! All of their work was ruined! They did not know it then, but a few feet below the 100 foot level were two tunnels, filled with coconut hair, bringing water from the nearby ocean to protect against someone digging that deep. The young men tried to pump out the water and mud, but the hole just kept filling again. They gave up.
In the years after that, one company after another was formed to try to get down to a treasure in the hole. It is said that, over the years, machines for drilling wells brought to the surface a single gold coin, and 3 links in a gold chain. At 154 feet drillers reached what sounded in the drill pipe like a box made of concrete containing a wooden box filled with metal. At 196 feet drillers cut into pieces of wood which scientists dated to 1575. In the early 1970s, drillers got the biggest shock of all -- drillers drilled through a brick ceiling into empty space! A room, beneath the island, over 200 feet down!
They lowered a television camera down the hole they had drilled, and saw what looked like 3 large wooden boxes, a human hand floating in water flooding the tunnel from the drilling, and a dead human body, in a sitting position!
Drillers drilled hole after hole into the ceiling of the underground room and -- surprise, surprise! -- the roof of the room suddenly collapsed, and the 200 feet of dirt and mud above it sank down, and form a huge crater on the surface!
Since that disaster, a company has been slowly sinking a giant metal tube into the ground, hoping that someday men may climb 200 feet down a ladder in the tube and bring up an enormous treasure.
No matter what, the Oak Island Money Hole is amazing. More than 400 years ago, someone managed to dig more than 200 feet down into the mud of an island surrounded by ocean, build a treasure room with a brick ceiling, and then build a vertical tunnel above it protected by a trap -- tunnels filled with sea water!
There he found a big oak tree with a rope hanging from a limb over a hole in the ground filled with dried mud. The teenage boy thought, “Treasure lowered into a hole by pirates!” He hurried home and returned to the island with two friends, to help him dig for treasure.
The three boys dug down to 10 feet, and found a layer of oak logs, and thought, “Treasure!” and pulled-up the logs, but only found a small empty space and below that some more dirt. At 20 feet down and 30 feet down, they found the same thing -- layers of oak logs over a small empty space and more dirt.
The boys thought, “There must be treasure down here! If there is not, why would someone do all of this work?” But, more than 30 feet down was too much for teenagers. So, they filled-in the hole with the dirt they had taken out, and promised to return as adults.
In 1803, the three boys, all more than 20 years old, now, purchased the part of the island with the hole, formed a company with their money and the money of friends and bought much equipment to dig down to treasure. They dug again down to 30 feet, and then to 40 feet, 50 feet, and so on, each time finding the same kind of layer of oak logs, as before, which they pulled up.
But then, at 90 feet, they found a flat stone, with a code chiseled into it, looking like this…
The code easily translates to these English words: “Forty feet below two million pounds are buried.” “Two million pounds” in those days were equal to about $500,000,000, or about 5,000,000,000 pesos.
The young men began digging like crazy people! They pulled up the oak logs beneath the message, and dug deeper, but soon they were taking out one bucket of sea water for every two buckets of dirt. The Sun was setting. So they hammered metal rods into the mud, and were certain from the sounds they heard while hammering that a few feet down into the mud, at the 98 foot level, their rods struck two wooden boxes filled with metal! Treasure! They all went to bed that night, thinking that when the Sun came up in the morning they’d climb down their ladders and find pirates’ gold!
In the morning, the money hole was filled to the top with mud and water! All of their work was ruined! They did not know it then, but a few feet below the 100 foot level were two tunnels, filled with coconut hair, bringing water from the nearby ocean to protect against someone digging that deep. The young men tried to pump out the water and mud, but the hole just kept filling again. They gave up.
In the years after that, one company after another was formed to try to get down to a treasure in the hole. It is said that, over the years, machines for drilling wells brought to the surface a single gold coin, and 3 links in a gold chain. At 154 feet drillers reached what sounded in the drill pipe like a box made of concrete containing a wooden box filled with metal. At 196 feet drillers cut into pieces of wood which scientists dated to 1575. In the early 1970s, drillers got the biggest shock of all -- drillers drilled through a brick ceiling into empty space! A room, beneath the island, over 200 feet down!
They lowered a television camera down the hole they had drilled, and saw what looked like 3 large wooden boxes, a human hand floating in water flooding the tunnel from the drilling, and a dead human body, in a sitting position!
Drillers drilled hole after hole into the ceiling of the underground room and -- surprise, surprise! -- the roof of the room suddenly collapsed, and the 200 feet of dirt and mud above it sank down, and form a huge crater on the surface!
Since that disaster, a company has been slowly sinking a giant metal tube into the ground, hoping that someday men may climb 200 feet down a ladder in the tube and bring up an enormous treasure.
No matter what, the Oak Island Money Hole is amazing. More than 400 years ago, someone managed to dig more than 200 feet down into the mud of an island surrounded by ocean, build a treasure room with a brick ceiling, and then build a vertical tunnel above it protected by a trap -- tunnels filled with sea water!
God's Gift to Me
I just want to publicly thank God for his absolutely amazing gift to me. Her name is Risé. She is wonderful. She gives and gives and gives, while I am imperfect and a lot of work for God and man. It's unbelievable! And, I tell her that she's "good meat"! You adults can interpret that properly, I think.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
Another Exothermic Trick for the Little Folk
I love science tricks and magic tricks, especially for the little ones.
God put us here to make folks smile. When you are dead, and pulled up that tunnel to your judgment, I have read that they ask you, "How did YOU make use of the time I gave you on Earth, to make MY world a better place???!!!"
I think that these little things will help, because they shock and amaze the little ones, and make them smile.
Buy a roll of Wintergreen Lifesavers
,
and the take one of them into a closet with two pairs if pliers, and after your eyes have become accustomed to the dark, snap the life saver in half with the pliers.
You will see them throw off light.
God put us here to make folks smile. When you are dead, and pulled up that tunnel to your judgment, I have read that they ask you, "How did YOU make use of the time I gave you on Earth, to make MY world a better place???!!!"
I think that these little things will help, because they shock and amaze the little ones, and make them smile.
Buy a roll of Wintergreen Lifesavers
,and the take one of them into a closet with two pairs if pliers, and after your eyes have become accustomed to the dark, snap the life saver in half with the pliers.
You will see them throw off light.
Hello, Kevin Atteridg
Thank you for joining my blog. Our little world, and our little country, needs fellowship more than ever. Hopefully, I'll energize your thinking in that general direction.
The Clever Way God Built Our World
It is good to know that, as we wrestle to tune the world in to the problem of global warming, God built into reality certain safety mechanisms which buy time.
As glaciers melt and retreat worldwide, the water enters the oceans. When the average depth of the oceans evens out, we find that a net majority of the water has made its home at the Earth's "belly," the equator.
This is the geophysical equivalent of a twirling ice skater moving her arms from above her head to a position extended outwards from her shoulders.
Just like the ice skater doing this, the change "puts on the breaks." Inertia is greatly magnified. The crust, in the vicinity of the equator, tries very hard to slow down the Earth's rotation. This sets the crust at war with the momentum within the UNDERlying magma.
Result: A worldwide increase in volcanic activity!
This vastly increases volcanic dust in the upper atmosphere. This reflects away a surprising amount of Sunlight, cooling off the Earth somewhat.
You can see this happening in a surprising way: Every other New Years Eve, nowadays, our government adds a "leap second" to our clocks, to account for the decrease in Earth's rotation from water thrown to the equator after global warming.
There's a dark side to all of this:
Those earthquakes in Haiti a few weeks ago and in Chile last night?...
Undoubtedly, they were accelerated by global warming.
When you drive your car in Philadelphia or Magnolia or Sharon Hill or Havertown, you really, really do contribute to earthquakes elsewhere!
As glaciers melt and retreat worldwide, the water enters the oceans. When the average depth of the oceans evens out, we find that a net majority of the water has made its home at the Earth's "belly," the equator.
This is the geophysical equivalent of a twirling ice skater moving her arms from above her head to a position extended outwards from her shoulders.
Just like the ice skater doing this, the change "puts on the breaks." Inertia is greatly magnified. The crust, in the vicinity of the equator, tries very hard to slow down the Earth's rotation. This sets the crust at war with the momentum within the UNDERlying magma.
Result: A worldwide increase in volcanic activity!
This vastly increases volcanic dust in the upper atmosphere. This reflects away a surprising amount of Sunlight, cooling off the Earth somewhat.
You can see this happening in a surprising way: Every other New Years Eve, nowadays, our government adds a "leap second" to our clocks, to account for the decrease in Earth's rotation from water thrown to the equator after global warming.
There's a dark side to all of this:
Those earthquakes in Haiti a few weeks ago and in Chile last night?...
Undoubtedly, they were accelerated by global warming.
When you drive your car in Philadelphia or Magnolia or Sharon Hill or Havertown, you really, really do contribute to earthquakes elsewhere!
Genesis 1:1-2
1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,
2 the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2.
Old Testament Committee translator Bruce Vawter, in his book On Genesis, says that the Committee had to choose between separating Verse 1 and Verse 2 with a period, or not doing so. Doing it as the King James Bible does it -- regarding "when" as not implied and so getting rid of it, and then ending the verse with a period -- creates an appearance that the God-inspired author intended to teach creation from nothing.
The propblem with doing that is that that makes Genesis talk at the plaintext level in a fashion the people who wrote it never would have talked. No other contemporary creation epic -- and there are a lot of them -- talks about creation from nothing. All talk about creation from pre-existing materials with no effort to explain where the pre-existing materials came from.
Eliminating the period and adding "when" to Verse 1:1 seemed to make the joinder of Verses 1 and 2 say precisely what the ancient author would have said.
The period at the end of Verse 1:1 therefore seemed to impose modern philosophy on ancient thinking, and to result in propogandistic non-translation.
The Old Testament Committee of the Catholic Church therefore punctuated Genesis 1:1 with a period.
Genesis 1:1 contains 4 types, or words symbolizing Biblical concepts...
"wasteland" = an analog of the Wildernerss Type = "not yet saved world."
"darkness" = the Darkness Type = "God's condemning judgment."
"abyss" = the Abyss Type = "sea of damnable souls.."
"wind" = the Wind Type = "a special presence of God."
Gaster further notes that the Hebrew word underlying "swept" is the same word used in Deuteronomy to describe an eagle hovering protectively over its clutch.
Inserting the types' interpretations, and Gaster's logic...
1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was "the not yet saved world," and "God's condemning judgment" covered the "sea of damnable souls," while a "special presence of God" swept lovingly over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2.
In effect, Genesis 1:1-2 sets up a scene where God is poised to save a damnable world.
That's the point of this section. It is not teaching the sciencer of creation. It is about salvation.
2 the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2.
Old Testament Committee translator Bruce Vawter, in his book On Genesis, says that the Committee had to choose between separating Verse 1 and Verse 2 with a period, or not doing so. Doing it as the King James Bible does it -- regarding "when" as not implied and so getting rid of it, and then ending the verse with a period -- creates an appearance that the God-inspired author intended to teach creation from nothing.
The propblem with doing that is that that makes Genesis talk at the plaintext level in a fashion the people who wrote it never would have talked. No other contemporary creation epic -- and there are a lot of them -- talks about creation from nothing. All talk about creation from pre-existing materials with no effort to explain where the pre-existing materials came from.
Eliminating the period and adding "when" to Verse 1:1 seemed to make the joinder of Verses 1 and 2 say precisely what the ancient author would have said.
The period at the end of Verse 1:1 therefore seemed to impose modern philosophy on ancient thinking, and to result in propogandistic non-translation.
The Old Testament Committee of the Catholic Church therefore punctuated Genesis 1:1 with a period.
Genesis 1:1 contains 4 types, or words symbolizing Biblical concepts...
"wasteland" = an analog of the Wildernerss Type = "not yet saved world."
"darkness" = the Darkness Type = "God's condemning judgment."
"abyss" = the Abyss Type = "sea of damnable souls.."
"wind" = the Wind Type = "a special presence of God."
Gaster further notes that the Hebrew word underlying "swept" is the same word used in Deuteronomy to describe an eagle hovering protectively over its clutch.
Inserting the types' interpretations, and Gaster's logic...
1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was "the not yet saved world," and "God's condemning judgment" covered the "sea of damnable souls," while a "special presence of God" swept lovingly over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2.
In effect, Genesis 1:1-2 sets up a scene where God is poised to save a damnable world.
That's the point of this section. It is not teaching the sciencer of creation. It is about salvation.
Subatomic Particles Behave Like They Can Think
All of us who had high school physics saw the basic light wave experiment. If we have a light source up above pointing down, and an opaque plate with two pinholes in itself, directly beneath the light source, on the table directly beneath the plate we see the basic wave interference pattern -- the exact same pattern generated on the surface of a pond when two pebbles are thrown in and the two sers of waves intersect.
What we didn't know, when we did that experiment, was this...
If instead of a steady light source we have a photon gun releasing photons one at a time, so that as some of them race downwards toward the two-hole plate their trajectory accidently takes them through one of the two holes, even though their is no "wave" coming through the other hole of the plate, they form the wave interference pattern on the table below (where the pattern is recorded on film).
Whereas, if the holes are covered-up one at a time, first one, then the other, the film shows no interference.
Do you understand what is going on? It is as though the falling photons look down and think, "Oh! Look! TWO holes! That means that I am supposed to form the wave interference pattern below! Okay!"
There is an answer: It's never really a wave interference pattern. It's a SPACE interference pattern. Get it?
What we didn't know, when we did that experiment, was this...
If instead of a steady light source we have a photon gun releasing photons one at a time, so that as some of them race downwards toward the two-hole plate their trajectory accidently takes them through one of the two holes, even though their is no "wave" coming through the other hole of the plate, they form the wave interference pattern on the table below (where the pattern is recorded on film).
Whereas, if the holes are covered-up one at a time, first one, then the other, the film shows no interference.
Do you understand what is going on? It is as though the falling photons look down and think, "Oh! Look! TWO holes! That means that I am supposed to form the wave interference pattern below! Okay!"
There is an answer: It's never really a wave interference pattern. It's a SPACE interference pattern. Get it?
Arrest that Car!
Because we trust science too much, Americans stopped believing in things like curses -- something evil hanging over a person or object, usually at the request of someone filled with hate.
The true story of a particular car, and of the curse which hung over it, warns us that curses are very real.
On June 28, 1914, a car known as a 1914 Graf and Stift Double Phaeton carried Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sophia through the streets of Sarajevo, in Bosnia.
Suddenly, a revolutionary ran up to the car and fired his gun several times at the Archduke and his wife, killing them both.
The assassination started World War I. 20,000,000 people died.
The next owner was General Oskar Potiorek, commander of Austrian forces in Bosnia. Shortly after receiving the car, his army was defeated, Potiorek was removed from his job, and he became insane and died in a poorhouse.
The next owner was an Austrian Army captain. Exactly nine days after getting the car, he drove it into two farmers, killing them, and then he smashed the car into a tree, killing himself.
The next owner was the Governor of Yugoslavia. Within four months he crashed the car four times. In the last crash, he lost his right arm. The Governor believed that the car was cursed. He ordered that it be destroyed.
The next owner, Doctor Srkis, bought the car before it could be destroyed. In six months, the car rolled over, crushing him.
The next owner was a jeweler who committed suicide in a year.
The next owner was another doctor whose patients all stopped going to him, because they were afraid of the car. The doctor sold the car.
The next owner was a race car driver. During a race, the car smashed into a stone wall. The driver was thrown over the wall, and he died on hitting the ground.
The next owner was a farmer in Bosnia. One morning, the car simply stopped. Another farmer tied the car to the back of his horses and wagon, and began to tow it to a repair shop. Suddenly, the car started by itself, smashed into the wagon and horses, and chased the owner down the road, running over him and killing him.
The next owner was a mechanic who fixed the car and painted it. As he drove six friends to a wedding, there was a crash. The mechanic and four passengers were killed.
The next owner was a museum in Vienna. During World War II, a bomb from a plane bombing the German army fell onto the museum, crashed through the roof, and exploded next to the car.
The museum has not yet learned its lesson. The car and the museum room were repaired, and it sits there today.
The true story of a particular car, and of the curse which hung over it, warns us that curses are very real.
On June 28, 1914, a car known as a 1914 Graf and Stift Double Phaeton carried Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sophia through the streets of Sarajevo, in Bosnia.
Suddenly, a revolutionary ran up to the car and fired his gun several times at the Archduke and his wife, killing them both.
The assassination started World War I. 20,000,000 people died.
The next owner was General Oskar Potiorek, commander of Austrian forces in Bosnia. Shortly after receiving the car, his army was defeated, Potiorek was removed from his job, and he became insane and died in a poorhouse.
The next owner was an Austrian Army captain. Exactly nine days after getting the car, he drove it into two farmers, killing them, and then he smashed the car into a tree, killing himself.
The next owner was the Governor of Yugoslavia. Within four months he crashed the car four times. In the last crash, he lost his right arm. The Governor believed that the car was cursed. He ordered that it be destroyed.
The next owner, Doctor Srkis, bought the car before it could be destroyed. In six months, the car rolled over, crushing him.
The next owner was a jeweler who committed suicide in a year.
The next owner was another doctor whose patients all stopped going to him, because they were afraid of the car. The doctor sold the car.
The next owner was a race car driver. During a race, the car smashed into a stone wall. The driver was thrown over the wall, and he died on hitting the ground.
The next owner was a farmer in Bosnia. One morning, the car simply stopped. Another farmer tied the car to the back of his horses and wagon, and began to tow it to a repair shop. Suddenly, the car started by itself, smashed into the wagon and horses, and chased the owner down the road, running over him and killing him.
The next owner was a mechanic who fixed the car and painted it. As he drove six friends to a wedding, there was a crash. The mechanic and four passengers were killed.
The next owner was a museum in Vienna. During World War II, a bomb from a plane bombing the German army fell onto the museum, crashed through the roof, and exploded next to the car.
The museum has not yet learned its lesson. The car and the museum room were repaired, and it sits there today.
Was That Dinner, or the Holy Spirit?
Once when I was sitting in my yard, reading a book, a large, beautiful, white dove landed in the yard of the family from Vietnam living next door.
Later I told the wife from Vietnam about the dove. I said, “In the Catholic Church, the dove is the symbol of the piece of God we call the Holy Spirit!”
The wife from Vietnam answered, “Peter, when you see a white dove flying, you say, ‘There goes the Holy Spirit!’ In Vietnam, when people there see a white dove flying they say, ‘There goes dinner!’”
One of the very interesting stories in the Catholic Church concerns how a man referred to as “Fabian the Manure Shoveler” became Pope.
In the year 236, the Pope named Anterus had just been killed by the soldiers of the government of Rome. The Christians of Rome gathered to elect a new Pope.
A short distance away, Fabian, the slave of a Roman prince, was buying cow manure for his master’s gardens, and shoveling the manure into his wagon.
As the Christians of Rome prayed for a sign from God which would tell them who to elect to the position of Pope, they saw a large white dove fly from the roof of a building, down the street and land on the head of Fabian, as he shoveled manure!
The crowd took this as a sign from the Holy Spirit. They ran down the street and grabbed the slave Fabian and elected him Pope!
Perhaps the dove was the Holy Spirit, and not dinner. Fabian was one of the great Popes of the Church.
Later I told the wife from Vietnam about the dove. I said, “In the Catholic Church, the dove is the symbol of the piece of God we call the Holy Spirit!”
The wife from Vietnam answered, “Peter, when you see a white dove flying, you say, ‘There goes the Holy Spirit!’ In Vietnam, when people there see a white dove flying they say, ‘There goes dinner!’”
One of the very interesting stories in the Catholic Church concerns how a man referred to as “Fabian the Manure Shoveler” became Pope.
In the year 236, the Pope named Anterus had just been killed by the soldiers of the government of Rome. The Christians of Rome gathered to elect a new Pope.
A short distance away, Fabian, the slave of a Roman prince, was buying cow manure for his master’s gardens, and shoveling the manure into his wagon.
As the Christians of Rome prayed for a sign from God which would tell them who to elect to the position of Pope, they saw a large white dove fly from the roof of a building, down the street and land on the head of Fabian, as he shoveled manure!
The crowd took this as a sign from the Holy Spirit. They ran down the street and grabbed the slave Fabian and elected him Pope!
Perhaps the dove was the Holy Spirit, and not dinner. Fabian was one of the great Popes of the Church.
Was the World Trade Center an Inside Job?
Why in heaven's holy name would the World Trade Center's destruction have been an inside job?
Insurance.
The federal and state tax returns of the owners for the preceding few years will tell you if there was motive.
How could it have been an inside job? In other words, who did what to achieve it?
Judging these things has become impossible. Online, there are films of planes hitting the buildings with a flash preceding impact, and films of planes hitting the buildings with no flash. The flash would have been a rocket from a device planted in the nose of each plane, armed to blast a hole in the side of each building to insure good penetration.
Which film is real? Which was tampered with? Who knows?
I have carefully watched the films of the buildings falling. The buildings dissolve like water. They really do fall like buildings being blown up with demolition munitions planted in the core. And everyone forgets WTC 7. Why did that building fall? And why did all three buildings fall so perfectly into their footprints? They fell symmetrically after asymmetrical damage. The South Tower even began to fall to one side because of the net shearing effect of the plane, but it still fell straight down.
Yeeech!
Did something like the following occur?...
Federal intelligence agencies discover the plot to destroy the World Trade Center months in advance. They go to the owners and tell them.
The owners are "multi-jillionaires" who are being bled to death, financially, by overproduction of rental space in the metropolitan area and in the rest of the world. They'd love to get out of the business before their estates are wiped out by costs. The terror plot is the perfect opportunity. "We can 'sell' the buildings to the insurance companies!" they think.
So, with massive payoffs to key government officials, they refrain from making arrests, they carefully mine the cores of the buildings, including Building 7, with munitions to do controlled collapses, they find out in advance through good intelligence work which planes will be hijacked on 9/11, and then they quickly and carefully attach special auto pilots onto each plane, to make sure that the terrorists don't mess things up by being clumsy.
The terrorists don't know it in advance, but they can't miss. The Pentagon and White House planes are also equipped with auto pilots, since the bad guys have to succeed well enough to snow everyone into thinking that these are well-trained dedicated people-killers, not a bunch of fumbling Muslim idiots.
But they are fumbling Muslim idiots. One of the World Trade Center terrorists supposedly "piloting" a World Trade Center jet flunked his Cessna flying lesson a few times, just before 9/11. As auto-pilots take over, the terrorists probably believe that Allah is guiding their planes miraculously.
It's not Allah. It's insurance money.
Boom. The planes hit, the buildings are set on fire, and the world is allowed to watch for a few hours, to let the impact of the fires sink in.
Then, buttons are pressed, and the buildings carefully demolished, and insurance claims are made.
Insurance.
The federal and state tax returns of the owners for the preceding few years will tell you if there was motive.
How could it have been an inside job? In other words, who did what to achieve it?
Judging these things has become impossible. Online, there are films of planes hitting the buildings with a flash preceding impact, and films of planes hitting the buildings with no flash. The flash would have been a rocket from a device planted in the nose of each plane, armed to blast a hole in the side of each building to insure good penetration.
Which film is real? Which was tampered with? Who knows?
I have carefully watched the films of the buildings falling. The buildings dissolve like water. They really do fall like buildings being blown up with demolition munitions planted in the core. And everyone forgets WTC 7. Why did that building fall? And why did all three buildings fall so perfectly into their footprints? They fell symmetrically after asymmetrical damage. The South Tower even began to fall to one side because of the net shearing effect of the plane, but it still fell straight down.
Yeeech!
Did something like the following occur?...
Federal intelligence agencies discover the plot to destroy the World Trade Center months in advance. They go to the owners and tell them.
The owners are "multi-jillionaires" who are being bled to death, financially, by overproduction of rental space in the metropolitan area and in the rest of the world. They'd love to get out of the business before their estates are wiped out by costs. The terror plot is the perfect opportunity. "We can 'sell' the buildings to the insurance companies!" they think.
So, with massive payoffs to key government officials, they refrain from making arrests, they carefully mine the cores of the buildings, including Building 7, with munitions to do controlled collapses, they find out in advance through good intelligence work which planes will be hijacked on 9/11, and then they quickly and carefully attach special auto pilots onto each plane, to make sure that the terrorists don't mess things up by being clumsy.
The terrorists don't know it in advance, but they can't miss. The Pentagon and White House planes are also equipped with auto pilots, since the bad guys have to succeed well enough to snow everyone into thinking that these are well-trained dedicated people-killers, not a bunch of fumbling Muslim idiots.
But they are fumbling Muslim idiots. One of the World Trade Center terrorists supposedly "piloting" a World Trade Center jet flunked his Cessna flying lesson a few times, just before 9/11. As auto-pilots take over, the terrorists probably believe that Allah is guiding their planes miraculously.
It's not Allah. It's insurance money.
Boom. The planes hit, the buildings are set on fire, and the world is allowed to watch for a few hours, to let the impact of the fires sink in.
Then, buttons are pressed, and the buildings carefully demolished, and insurance claims are made.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Another Science Trick for Kids 5 to 100
Men, in Winter time go put on your best pair of shoes. Find a good fluorescent bulb, and grip it in the center. Douse the lights, and walk across the rug. As your shoes build up static charge on the rug, the fluorescent light will light-up in your hands!
The kids will be amazed.
The kids will be amazed.
Does Isaiah 30 Predict the Destruction of the WTC?
After 9/11, versions of a fake Nostradamus prophecy about 9/11 were circulated in the web rumor mill...
The London Bus Bombing
The Madrid Train Bombing
28 ...and with repeated winnowings will he battle against them (and a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to send them astray)...
"In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb", The third big war will begin when the big city is burning"
"...on the 11 day of the 9 month that...two metal birds would crash into two tall statues...in the new city..and the world will end soon after"
In fact, a chapter in the Bible, Isaiah 30, comes pretty darn close to descibing 9/11.
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, Who carry out plans that are not mine, who weave webs that are not inspired by me, adding sin upon sin...
25 On the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall...
26 The light of the moon will be like that of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times greater (like the light of seven days). On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people, he will heal the bruises left by his blows.
"ALLAH AKBAR!!!"
27 See the name of the LORD coming from afar in burning wrath,...
27 ...His lips are filled with fury, his tongue is like a consuming fire;...
28 His breath, like a flood in a ravine that reaches suddenly to the neck, Will winnow the nations with a destructive winnowing...
The London Bus Bombing
The Madrid Train Bombing
28 ...and with repeated winnowings will he battle against them (and a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to send them astray)...
30 The LORD will make his glorious voice heard, and let it be seen how his arm descends...in driving storm and hail.
Seeing a Ghost
This post is in answer to Phil's comment in "More Ghost Ectoplasm."
Yes, I have seen a traditional ghost with my eyes, when I was about 4 years old, in the Frankford house, which was haunted back then.
Barb slept in the front bedroom. Mom and Dad slept in the middle bedroom. The boys -- Chris, myself, and Mark -- slept in the back bedroom. We had moved into the house several months before.
My bed was closest to the door which opens into Mom and Dad's bedroom.
On the night I saw the ghost, I was a little 4 year old kid tucked under his blankets, who had awakened in the middle of the night, and I was waiting for sleep to return.
I remember lying on my left side, peering out of my blankets into the bedroom of our parents, which was illuminated by ambient light from the streetlights outside. The house was filled with the gentle sound of the snoring of my parents and siblings.
Suddenly, I had a strong feeling that something was about to happen. The feeling had "direction" -- I knew that it was going to occur in my parents' bedroom. So, I peered into the darkness of their bedroom as they snored.
As I did so, I saw a slightly translucent ghost with a flowing gown float into their bedroom. I couldn't see past their bed, but I deduced that the thing was floating because of the way it moved -- like a balloon in a gentle breeze, instead of a walking person. It's appearance was neither male nor female, but somehow I knew that it was female.
As it reached the end of my sleeping parents' bed, it turned left and floated directly toward me. I thought, "Oh, no!" and I pulled my blankets tightly over my head.
After a few minutes I peeked out of the blankets in the direction of my parents' bedroom, and saw no ghost, and was relieved.
I turned over beneath my blankets, to sleep on my right side -- and froze.
There it was, right in front of me, standing between my bed and that of my sleeping brother Chris, bent over and staring intently at sleeping Chris' head.
I was half-sitting, half-laying-down, on my right side, too astonished by the sight to do anything but stare.
The thing turned its head around to the right, and stared into my face. I do not remember what she looked like, at all.
Then the thing straightened-up and turned toward the hallway door to our room and floated into the hall.
That was then end of that experience.
I have a theory about why that happened. Ouija Boards were regarded as a benign pastime, in those days. Barb had just gotten one as a birthday present from Mom and Dad. I remember being down the basement, staring intently at the process as Barb and Chris played with that Ouija Board. I, and undoubtedly Barb and Chris also, hoped very strongly that something would happen.
Nothing happened that we could detect. But I think that our joint concentration accidentally created the ghost that I saw.
Note what the ghost did -- it came from the direction of Barb's room, and into our room and stared at Chris.
It visited the two people who had touched the Ouija planchette. And I was "observed" because I had observed the game.
Interestingly, years later, the ghost activity was strongest in the basement, where the Ouija Board game took place.
I currently believe that human concentration "creates" ghosts. Tibetan Buddhists call these created entities "tulpas." Occultists call them "thought forms." I believe that the create things are inherently benign unless you try to communicate with them. If you attempt communication, an evil spirit -- a demon -- jumps into them and makes it come alive.
Since Ouija Boards are, per se, an attempt to communicate, they always create demonic tulpas -- tulpas with demons inside.
So, in my opinion, there was a demon inside that thing, looking at me, that night.
Why do these tulpas exist? Why can human concentration create them?
God made us in His image. I belief that tulpas are "positively predestined" to be prayer vehicles and answer-to-prayer vehicles, sort of "creatable from nothing" by people.
But, because God gave us the ability to walk away from Him, too, we can pervert tulpas and change them into demon vehicles.
That is why "cursing" is a sin, in Catholicism. Cursing works. When we concentrate negatively with anger, we create a "negative tulpa" -- in effect, a negative prayer vehicle, occupied by a demon, able to do damage.
Barb and Chris and myself accidentally created the ghost which visited us that night, and which stayed in the Frankford house for years.
Never play with a Ouija Board. Never participate in a séance -- really, exactly the same thing.
Don't even stay in the same house where those things are occurring, while the Ouija Game or séance are occurring.
People will think that you are being foolish and a really wimpy nerd.
But they won't understand when suddenly their life starts becoming a string of bad luck events, because something invisible has latched onto them.
Yes, I have seen a traditional ghost with my eyes, when I was about 4 years old, in the Frankford house, which was haunted back then.
Barb slept in the front bedroom. Mom and Dad slept in the middle bedroom. The boys -- Chris, myself, and Mark -- slept in the back bedroom. We had moved into the house several months before.
My bed was closest to the door which opens into Mom and Dad's bedroom.
On the night I saw the ghost, I was a little 4 year old kid tucked under his blankets, who had awakened in the middle of the night, and I was waiting for sleep to return.
I remember lying on my left side, peering out of my blankets into the bedroom of our parents, which was illuminated by ambient light from the streetlights outside. The house was filled with the gentle sound of the snoring of my parents and siblings.
Suddenly, I had a strong feeling that something was about to happen. The feeling had "direction" -- I knew that it was going to occur in my parents' bedroom. So, I peered into the darkness of their bedroom as they snored.
As I did so, I saw a slightly translucent ghost with a flowing gown float into their bedroom. I couldn't see past their bed, but I deduced that the thing was floating because of the way it moved -- like a balloon in a gentle breeze, instead of a walking person. It's appearance was neither male nor female, but somehow I knew that it was female.
As it reached the end of my sleeping parents' bed, it turned left and floated directly toward me. I thought, "Oh, no!" and I pulled my blankets tightly over my head.
After a few minutes I peeked out of the blankets in the direction of my parents' bedroom, and saw no ghost, and was relieved.
I turned over beneath my blankets, to sleep on my right side -- and froze.
There it was, right in front of me, standing between my bed and that of my sleeping brother Chris, bent over and staring intently at sleeping Chris' head.
I was half-sitting, half-laying-down, on my right side, too astonished by the sight to do anything but stare.
The thing turned its head around to the right, and stared into my face. I do not remember what she looked like, at all.
Then the thing straightened-up and turned toward the hallway door to our room and floated into the hall.
That was then end of that experience.
I have a theory about why that happened. Ouija Boards were regarded as a benign pastime, in those days. Barb had just gotten one as a birthday present from Mom and Dad. I remember being down the basement, staring intently at the process as Barb and Chris played with that Ouija Board. I, and undoubtedly Barb and Chris also, hoped very strongly that something would happen.
Nothing happened that we could detect. But I think that our joint concentration accidentally created the ghost that I saw.
Note what the ghost did -- it came from the direction of Barb's room, and into our room and stared at Chris.
It visited the two people who had touched the Ouija planchette. And I was "observed" because I had observed the game.
Interestingly, years later, the ghost activity was strongest in the basement, where the Ouija Board game took place.
I currently believe that human concentration "creates" ghosts. Tibetan Buddhists call these created entities "tulpas." Occultists call them "thought forms." I believe that the create things are inherently benign unless you try to communicate with them. If you attempt communication, an evil spirit -- a demon -- jumps into them and makes it come alive.
Since Ouija Boards are, per se, an attempt to communicate, they always create demonic tulpas -- tulpas with demons inside.
So, in my opinion, there was a demon inside that thing, looking at me, that night.
Why do these tulpas exist? Why can human concentration create them?
God made us in His image. I belief that tulpas are "positively predestined" to be prayer vehicles and answer-to-prayer vehicles, sort of "creatable from nothing" by people.
But, because God gave us the ability to walk away from Him, too, we can pervert tulpas and change them into demon vehicles.
That is why "cursing" is a sin, in Catholicism. Cursing works. When we concentrate negatively with anger, we create a "negative tulpa" -- in effect, a negative prayer vehicle, occupied by a demon, able to do damage.
Barb and Chris and myself accidentally created the ghost which visited us that night, and which stayed in the Frankford house for years.
Never play with a Ouija Board. Never participate in a séance -- really, exactly the same thing.
Don't even stay in the same house where those things are occurring, while the Ouija Game or séance are occurring.
People will think that you are being foolish and a really wimpy nerd.
But they won't understand when suddenly their life starts becoming a string of bad luck events, because something invisible has latched onto them.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
More Ghost Ectoplasm, But Not Very Significant, IMHO
This is the second ectoplasm shot I took in the Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs, near Pike's Peak. You'll feel like you are playing "Where's Waldo" as you scan it for cognizable figures.It features "Mona Lisa" looking down at, and strangling, a humanoid figure; a "firebird" attacking from the left; and all kinds of demon heads looking toward the situation.
I really don't think this is significant. I think that it is just ectoplasm.
How the Dawson's and Eitelman's Are Cousins of Marilyn Monroe!
Yep, she's a cuz. Technically, Marilyn is in our parents' generation. She is our parents' 9th cousin, and so she is our 9th cousin 1ce removed, and our kids' 9th cousin 2ce removed. Here's the lineage...Marilyn Monroe was the daughter of
Charles Stanley Gifford who was the son of
Frederick Gifford who was the son of
Charles Gifford who was the son of
Lydia Tompkins who was the daughter of
Uriah Tompkins who was the son of
Micah Tompkins who was the son of
Sarah Coe who was the daughter of
Sarah Pabodie who was the daughter of
Elizabeth Alden who was the daughter of John and Priscilla Alden, Pilgrims on the Mayflower.
John and Priscilla Alden also gave birth to
David Alden, brother to Elizabeth Alden; David was father to
Alice Alden, 1st cousin to Sarah Pabodie; Alice was mother to
Mary Paddock, 2d cousin to Sarah Coe; Mary was mother to
Alden Sears, 3d cousin to Micah Tompkins; Alden was father to
Edward Sears, 4th cousin to Uriah Tompkins; Edward was father to
Philo Sears, 5th cousin to Lydia Tompkins; Philo was father to
Susan E. Sears, 6th cousin to Charles Gifford; Susan, of course, was mother to
May Katherine Pitman, 7th cousin to Frederick Gifford; May was mother to
Edward "Bobo" Decatur Eitelman, 8th cousin to Charles Stanley Gifford; Bo was father to
Our parents, 9th cousins to Marilyn Monroe
...making us Marilyn's "9th cousins, 1ce removed,"
making our kids Marilyn's "9th cousins, 2ce removed."
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Ghosts Exist (Part II)
Okay, here's my photo of an orb manufacturing an ectoplasmic ghost. You can see the orb speeding through the ghost-illusion's "mouth" beneath the "eyes," at about the 4:00 o'clock position.
The photo was taken a few years ago in Colorado Springs, in Colorado's famous "Cave of the Winds," here...
http://www.caveofthewinds.com/
I had the guide turn off all lights for about 10 seconds. I pointed my digital camera straight up, toward the cave ceiling about 20 feet above us. (So, you're actually looking at something "looking straight down" at the camera [assuming that that thing can "look"].)
Before and after the lights were turned off, there was no steam up there coming out of the rocks to account for the greenish ectoplasmic "cloud."
The photo was taken a few years ago in Colorado Springs, in Colorado's famous "Cave of the Winds," here...
http://www.caveofthewinds.com/
I had the guide turn off all lights for about 10 seconds. I pointed my digital camera straight up, toward the cave ceiling about 20 feet above us. (So, you're actually looking at something "looking straight down" at the camera [assuming that that thing can "look"].)
Before and after the lights were turned off, there was no steam up there coming out of the rocks to account for the greenish ectoplasmic "cloud."
My Suggestion to a Convicted Pedophile
Years ago, a man who was sexually victimized by his uncle when he was a little kid "did it" to his own 4 year old daughter. When he was caught, he did not defend himself, and he asked to be sent to Jersey's state prison for sex offenders, Avenel.
Years later, he was paroled from Avenel. He has done well on parole.
Recently, he found out that his daughter will be turning 18 soon, and wants to look him up, and talk. He asked me what he should do and say.
I suggested that he convene a large meeting of family members and close friends who are adults and who know about his crime. I suggested that he sit everyone down at such a meeting, including his daughter, go up to a podium so that he is the center of attention, and apologize and tell her that it is her right to hate him until he dies, and tell her that he will support her efforts to hate him if that is what she wants.
He said that he would do this.
Years later, he was paroled from Avenel. He has done well on parole.
Recently, he found out that his daughter will be turning 18 soon, and wants to look him up, and talk. He asked me what he should do and say.
I suggested that he convene a large meeting of family members and close friends who are adults and who know about his crime. I suggested that he sit everyone down at such a meeting, including his daughter, go up to a podium so that he is the center of attention, and apologize and tell her that it is her right to hate him until he dies, and tell her that he will support her efforts to hate him if that is what she wants.
He said that he would do this.
The Love Experiment
Maybe a dozen times in the course of my law career, when I had a case of neighbor suing neighbor, or of neighbor filing criminal charges against neighbor, I suggested that instead of paying my fee to me, they spend a fraction of that sum on groceries, and leave it with a written invitation to seek friendship.
I argued that such an approach comprised a true adventure in human affairs, and would challenge all connected with the people in the case to strive to be more-than-normal.
No one ever accepted the challenge.
I have been charitable in a substantial material way, in the face of hatred, twice. Let me tell you, it was hard!
The really, really, really hard case involved a Vietnamese family I befriended. I spent years being a good friend to the husband, wife and their little girl. Because my wife and I had never had a daughter -- our one daughter, Rachel, died in utero just before the due date -- I came to love their daughter, Lesle, as though she were my own. In addressing me, Lesle formalized my first name by calling me "Mr. Peter." The high point of every week was a telephone call from this little one, who rejoiced at the knowledge that she made her neighbor so happy, by grandly announcing, "MR. PETER, IT'S LESLE!!!," and every time, I was very, very happy.
But the husband, though he always remained a good provider, began to sink into alcoholism and violence. I told my wife that I foresaw the day where we would have to choose sides, and simply because the wife was much more financially dependent and because in Vietnamese society the wife was always expected to be the caretaker of female children, it was clear that we would have to support the wife.
So, while I struggled to maintain my friendship with the husband, I began to put a lot of time into getting the wife ready for independence. Always with the husband's permission, I helped her with her college courses, I helped her study for and acquire her real estate license, when real estate was good. I helped her do an advertizing project for a substantial employer, I gave her a portion of my fee in that project, I provided free legal services to save her from her mortgage, I got her a scholarship to college, I got her a Summer of free babysitting for her daughter at the local Y summer camp.
During this time, the little daughter, Lesle, and I became closer. She needed explanations for the craziness and anger and violence between her parents. I gave her the explanations, and she was more at ease. Oh, my heavens, I loved that little girl, and I still do.
But on the day I acquired for the mother the summer-long summer camp experience for the daughter, a strange thing began to happen: The mother sudden began to hate me! It started as a ripple in the water, but quickly became a tidal wave: I wasn't allowed to use her nickname. I couldn't be alone with her. I couldn't be seen in public with her. (That really hurt.)
Finally, one day, a Vietnamese girl I had never met caught up with me outside a church and warned me that she had been told that Lesle's mother was about to publicly accuse me of trying to get into her pants!!!
Lesle's mother did not know that at the time, for a reason I will not go into now, I was the only potent male on earth who could prove that this was not really possible.
Nonetheless, I was hurt to the bottom of my soul by the news. How could someone do this??????? It was like shooting and killing the police officer who has stood in front of you and taken a bullet for you!!!!!!!
When the mother's American stepfather called me a week later, and complained that his stepdaughter had announced that I was trying to talk my way into her pants, and fired me as his lawyer, I faxed to him the proof that that was not possible.
He was astonished, called me back, and said, "Pete, this is amazing! But this means that T---g is lying!" I said, "I know, but forgive her."
Lesle's mother was enraged that I had been able to prove my innocence. She called me up and yelled at me. Her own mother, in turn, called me up and yelled at me.
Then Lesle's mother accused me to her family of stalking her.
When the grandmother called me up and victoriously announced that there was an accusation against me that I couldn't defend against, I told her, "L--, how could I 'stalk' her? I don't even know where she is living, I don't know her cell number, her home number, her work number. I don't know where she is working. How could I 'stalk' her??????? Additionally, today she has called me 32 times from her unlisted number!!! I will be able to prove this with my cell phone bill. And listen to this phone message!!!" I then played back to her mother a telephone message left about one-half hour before, inviting me to meet with her alone, to discuss some family pictures I had recovered from the trash for the little girl, Lesle, when she grew up.
Lesle's grandmother suddenly grew deathly quiet, as she listened to the recorded message, and quietly hung up.
As these things were happening, it was time for me to make a big decision.
Before Lesle's mother started treating this guy helping her so much with shocking, unexplained raw hatred, I had promised to give her certain amounts of money, to help her to survive this rough period.
She had broken my heart, with her hatred. And I knew that soon she would rip what was left of my heart out of my chest, throw it on the ground, stomp on it and spit on it by taking little Lesle out of my life.
So, I had to choose: Respond to hatred, with hatred, by withholding the money?
Or, be loving in the face of raw, undeserved hatred?
I'm stupid. So, I decided in favor of love.
I found out where Lesle's mother worked, a new nail salon. I put $1,000 cash in an envelope, walked into the nail salon, asked Lesle's mother for a manicure and pedicure, and while she treated me with cold, hate-filled silence, she performed the requested services.
At the end I smiled sadly and gave her the envelope, and left.
About a month later, I dropped off a second envelope with even more money in it. She accepted it without a "thank you," and hated me.
And I went to the chapel and prayed and prayed and prayed that I would still have little Lesle in my life.
We were able to babysit Lesle for several months more, while her mother continued to treat me like smelly rotting garbage. (I was not allowed in her condo, ever, especially with other people there, but even if she wasn't there. I wasn't even allowed to drive into her condo's parking lot!)
Finally, when my wife and I sensed that something very wrong was happening in Lesle's home, and we began to ask questions, her mother became enraged, and took her from us.
The moral of the story is this: Don't look for things to get better for you when you are charitable in the face of evil. Instead, look for things to get worse. You are going to pay, while you are punished for opposing evil with good. You will not be allowed to see the effects of good. You will be reviled, and rejected, I think essentially because the world is a very, very bad place.
I have my favorite Bible quote on my desk in front of me, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew:
"Foxes have their dens and birds of the sky have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head."
The knife still in my heart tells me that truer words have never been spoken.
But, I am still glad that I did all of that!
Be good.
I argued that such an approach comprised a true adventure in human affairs, and would challenge all connected with the people in the case to strive to be more-than-normal.
No one ever accepted the challenge.
I have been charitable in a substantial material way, in the face of hatred, twice. Let me tell you, it was hard!
The really, really, really hard case involved a Vietnamese family I befriended. I spent years being a good friend to the husband, wife and their little girl. Because my wife and I had never had a daughter -- our one daughter, Rachel, died in utero just before the due date -- I came to love their daughter, Lesle, as though she were my own. In addressing me, Lesle formalized my first name by calling me "Mr. Peter." The high point of every week was a telephone call from this little one, who rejoiced at the knowledge that she made her neighbor so happy, by grandly announcing, "MR. PETER, IT'S LESLE!!!," and every time, I was very, very happy.
But the husband, though he always remained a good provider, began to sink into alcoholism and violence. I told my wife that I foresaw the day where we would have to choose sides, and simply because the wife was much more financially dependent and because in Vietnamese society the wife was always expected to be the caretaker of female children, it was clear that we would have to support the wife.
So, while I struggled to maintain my friendship with the husband, I began to put a lot of time into getting the wife ready for independence. Always with the husband's permission, I helped her with her college courses, I helped her study for and acquire her real estate license, when real estate was good. I helped her do an advertizing project for a substantial employer, I gave her a portion of my fee in that project, I provided free legal services to save her from her mortgage, I got her a scholarship to college, I got her a Summer of free babysitting for her daughter at the local Y summer camp.
During this time, the little daughter, Lesle, and I became closer. She needed explanations for the craziness and anger and violence between her parents. I gave her the explanations, and she was more at ease. Oh, my heavens, I loved that little girl, and I still do.
But on the day I acquired for the mother the summer-long summer camp experience for the daughter, a strange thing began to happen: The mother sudden began to hate me! It started as a ripple in the water, but quickly became a tidal wave: I wasn't allowed to use her nickname. I couldn't be alone with her. I couldn't be seen in public with her. (That really hurt.)
Finally, one day, a Vietnamese girl I had never met caught up with me outside a church and warned me that she had been told that Lesle's mother was about to publicly accuse me of trying to get into her pants!!!
Lesle's mother did not know that at the time, for a reason I will not go into now, I was the only potent male on earth who could prove that this was not really possible.
Nonetheless, I was hurt to the bottom of my soul by the news. How could someone do this??????? It was like shooting and killing the police officer who has stood in front of you and taken a bullet for you!!!!!!!
When the mother's American stepfather called me a week later, and complained that his stepdaughter had announced that I was trying to talk my way into her pants, and fired me as his lawyer, I faxed to him the proof that that was not possible.
He was astonished, called me back, and said, "Pete, this is amazing! But this means that T---g is lying!" I said, "I know, but forgive her."
Lesle's mother was enraged that I had been able to prove my innocence. She called me up and yelled at me. Her own mother, in turn, called me up and yelled at me.
Then Lesle's mother accused me to her family of stalking her.
When the grandmother called me up and victoriously announced that there was an accusation against me that I couldn't defend against, I told her, "L--, how could I 'stalk' her? I don't even know where she is living, I don't know her cell number, her home number, her work number. I don't know where she is working. How could I 'stalk' her??????? Additionally, today she has called me 32 times from her unlisted number!!! I will be able to prove this with my cell phone bill. And listen to this phone message!!!" I then played back to her mother a telephone message left about one-half hour before, inviting me to meet with her alone, to discuss some family pictures I had recovered from the trash for the little girl, Lesle, when she grew up.
Lesle's grandmother suddenly grew deathly quiet, as she listened to the recorded message, and quietly hung up.
As these things were happening, it was time for me to make a big decision.
Before Lesle's mother started treating this guy helping her so much with shocking, unexplained raw hatred, I had promised to give her certain amounts of money, to help her to survive this rough period.
She had broken my heart, with her hatred. And I knew that soon she would rip what was left of my heart out of my chest, throw it on the ground, stomp on it and spit on it by taking little Lesle out of my life.
So, I had to choose: Respond to hatred, with hatred, by withholding the money?
Or, be loving in the face of raw, undeserved hatred?
I'm stupid. So, I decided in favor of love.
I found out where Lesle's mother worked, a new nail salon. I put $1,000 cash in an envelope, walked into the nail salon, asked Lesle's mother for a manicure and pedicure, and while she treated me with cold, hate-filled silence, she performed the requested services.
At the end I smiled sadly and gave her the envelope, and left.
About a month later, I dropped off a second envelope with even more money in it. She accepted it without a "thank you," and hated me.
And I went to the chapel and prayed and prayed and prayed that I would still have little Lesle in my life.
We were able to babysit Lesle for several months more, while her mother continued to treat me like smelly rotting garbage. (I was not allowed in her condo, ever, especially with other people there, but even if she wasn't there. I wasn't even allowed to drive into her condo's parking lot!)
Finally, when my wife and I sensed that something very wrong was happening in Lesle's home, and we began to ask questions, her mother became enraged, and took her from us.
The moral of the story is this: Don't look for things to get better for you when you are charitable in the face of evil. Instead, look for things to get worse. You are going to pay, while you are punished for opposing evil with good. You will not be allowed to see the effects of good. You will be reviled, and rejected, I think essentially because the world is a very, very bad place.
I have my favorite Bible quote on my desk in front of me, from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew:
"Foxes have their dens and birds of the sky have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head."
The knife still in my heart tells me that truer words have never been spoken.
But, I am still glad that I did all of that!
Be good.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Two Clever Ways the Speed of Light Has Been "Beaten"
As far as I know, the following is absolutely true...
Scientists have discovered that when two photons are emited from the same molecule at the same moment, they are "entangled." So, if one such photon flies left, and the other flies right, each will possess its own "strangeness" -- rotation. No matter how far apart the two particles are, "entanglement" is the characteristic such that, if one photon is interfered with, the other instantaneously, at that moment, loses its "strangeness," or rotation. This has been proven experimentally. Information -- that the other particle has been interfered-with -- thus moved from one to the other particle faster than light speed.
The other way is just as amazing. If certain molecules are lined-up like soldiers on parade, as in a crystal, if light is flashed into one side, as a photon enters one side of the molecule, a photon leaves the other side. The effect seems to be instantaneous. As the new photon traverses the space between its parent molecule and the new receiving molecule, and enters the new receiving molecule, a new child molecule comes out the other side of the second molecule, and so on.
In this way, no time is ever "wasted" traversing the space occupied by the molecules. As a consequence, a photon coming out of the other side of the crystal comes out at a point ahead of a photon traveling alongside the crystal, thus effectively "beating" the speed of light.
Scientists have discovered that when two photons are emited from the same molecule at the same moment, they are "entangled." So, if one such photon flies left, and the other flies right, each will possess its own "strangeness" -- rotation. No matter how far apart the two particles are, "entanglement" is the characteristic such that, if one photon is interfered with, the other instantaneously, at that moment, loses its "strangeness," or rotation. This has been proven experimentally. Information -- that the other particle has been interfered-with -- thus moved from one to the other particle faster than light speed.
The other way is just as amazing. If certain molecules are lined-up like soldiers on parade, as in a crystal, if light is flashed into one side, as a photon enters one side of the molecule, a photon leaves the other side. The effect seems to be instantaneous. As the new photon traverses the space between its parent molecule and the new receiving molecule, and enters the new receiving molecule, a new child molecule comes out the other side of the second molecule, and so on.
In this way, no time is ever "wasted" traversing the space occupied by the molecules. As a consequence, a photon coming out of the other side of the crystal comes out at a point ahead of a photon traveling alongside the crystal, thus effectively "beating" the speed of light.
Monday, February 22, 2010
"Politicians Who Support Gay Marriage Not Catholic"
The heading here is taken from a headline in the "Catholic Star Herald" serving the Catholics in southern New Jersey. (February 19, 2010 issue.) A Roman cardinal said something akin to those words.
I guess I should begin by saying that I, personally, am against gay marriage.
And I should also add that any pro-gay-marriage politician falls apart and surrenders if asked if he supports marriages between people and animals. Years ago, I secured a relatively heavy jail sentence for a lady who was nicknamed "German Shepherd Lady" by the DA's Office in Philadelphia who supported herself by the sale of certain provocative photographs connected with her name. Suppose "German Shepherd Lady" were to manage to accumulate every freak in the United States who wants the freedom to marry animals into her legislative district. Should the state senator for the legislative district support the right to marry animals? Suppose he is cowardly and says, "Yes." And then, while his wife is standing there, he is asked if he will support the applications of German Shepherd Lady herself and her friends to take all of the teaching positions at the school where his daughter attends first grade. Life is complex, so things are not that simple.
But that "life is not simple" business cuts both ways.
The cardinal and the the legislator are invited to a debate. The debate is in front of the local abortion clinic. With 5,000 citizens watching, the cardinal is asked, "The Catholic Church opposed the current pro-choice constitutional amendment. The amendment passed, 4,000,000 votes to 2,000,000 votes. Do you support the responsibility of Catholics to not interfere with the perfectly-legal process of getting an abortion? In other words, do you support rule of law, or do you advocate civil disobedience, beginning with civil disobedience by yourself? To put it more bluntly, do you support the right of this pregnant woman walking in at this moment to be protected by the law, or is anyone supporting that laws be obeyed until they are changed 'not Catholic'?"
He adds, "Additionally, should Congress pass laws forcibly taking the money of X at gunpoint and paying it to Y, just because Y is a family man with kids? I ask that because in effect that is exactly what happens. If people refuse to pay taxes, ultimately IRS agents with guns come and arrest them and put them in jail. Suppose a gay head of household, barred from getting married, objects that therefore he is entitled to a personal deduction for the 19 year old college student living with him, just as Mr. and Mrs. Heads of Household are entitled to personal deductions for their college students. So, he absolutely refuses to pay federal income tax to the extent of the personal deduction. Do you support his arrest and imprisonment, so that Catholic heads of household can get their personal deduction?"
2,000 of the 5,000 citizens watching the debate are Catholics worried about this attack on their income.
What should the cardinal say?
Additionally, the liberal politician argues, "The Church opposes abortion. And the Church says that it opposes use of artificial birth control -- condoms, the Pill, and so on. Fair enough. But I have noticed that whereas you condemn politicians who support and vote for gay marriage and condemn politicians who support and vote for abortion, and use your pro-life budgets to oppose abortion laws, no one actually sees the Church actively opposing use of artificial birth control, and no parish really has an anti-artificial-birth-control component in their budget. Could that be because the vast majority of Catholics including the large majority of Catholic Church goers quietly support use of artificial birth control so that if the Church goes after it wildly, contributions will dry up and the Church will essentially shut down?"
The politician points at the audience. "Do you say that those parents who support use of contraceptives are not Catholic?"
"Also, studies have shown that the reason why the support for abortion exploded in the 1960s is because use of contraceptives exploded in the 1960s, where contraceptive use generates a massive, powerful social ethos in favor of using abortion as a 'contraceptive backstop.' So, should not the Church publicly oppose contraceptive use by Catholics just as loudly and violently as it opposes abortion?"
The politician points again to the audience: "Do you condemn the Catholics in the audience who support birth control use, and say that they are not Catholic?"
I'm not trying to confuse anyone. But we live in a pluralistic society, characterized by opposing points of view.
When a bishop or cardinal makes one of those statements "platonizing" a principle by implicitly or explicitly driving a leader out of the Church, shouldn't they do it only after doing it to themselves?
Life is complex.
Let us pray constantly for each other and for society.
I guess I should begin by saying that I, personally, am against gay marriage.
And I should also add that any pro-gay-marriage politician falls apart and surrenders if asked if he supports marriages between people and animals. Years ago, I secured a relatively heavy jail sentence for a lady who was nicknamed "German Shepherd Lady" by the DA's Office in Philadelphia who supported herself by the sale of certain provocative photographs connected with her name. Suppose "German Shepherd Lady" were to manage to accumulate every freak in the United States who wants the freedom to marry animals into her legislative district. Should the state senator for the legislative district support the right to marry animals? Suppose he is cowardly and says, "Yes." And then, while his wife is standing there, he is asked if he will support the applications of German Shepherd Lady herself and her friends to take all of the teaching positions at the school where his daughter attends first grade. Life is complex, so things are not that simple.
But that "life is not simple" business cuts both ways.
The cardinal and the the legislator are invited to a debate. The debate is in front of the local abortion clinic. With 5,000 citizens watching, the cardinal is asked, "The Catholic Church opposed the current pro-choice constitutional amendment. The amendment passed, 4,000,000 votes to 2,000,000 votes. Do you support the responsibility of Catholics to not interfere with the perfectly-legal process of getting an abortion? In other words, do you support rule of law, or do you advocate civil disobedience, beginning with civil disobedience by yourself? To put it more bluntly, do you support the right of this pregnant woman walking in at this moment to be protected by the law, or is anyone supporting that laws be obeyed until they are changed 'not Catholic'?"
He adds, "Additionally, should Congress pass laws forcibly taking the money of X at gunpoint and paying it to Y, just because Y is a family man with kids? I ask that because in effect that is exactly what happens. If people refuse to pay taxes, ultimately IRS agents with guns come and arrest them and put them in jail. Suppose a gay head of household, barred from getting married, objects that therefore he is entitled to a personal deduction for the 19 year old college student living with him, just as Mr. and Mrs. Heads of Household are entitled to personal deductions for their college students. So, he absolutely refuses to pay federal income tax to the extent of the personal deduction. Do you support his arrest and imprisonment, so that Catholic heads of household can get their personal deduction?"
2,000 of the 5,000 citizens watching the debate are Catholics worried about this attack on their income.
What should the cardinal say?
Additionally, the liberal politician argues, "The Church opposes abortion. And the Church says that it opposes use of artificial birth control -- condoms, the Pill, and so on. Fair enough. But I have noticed that whereas you condemn politicians who support and vote for gay marriage and condemn politicians who support and vote for abortion, and use your pro-life budgets to oppose abortion laws, no one actually sees the Church actively opposing use of artificial birth control, and no parish really has an anti-artificial-birth-control component in their budget. Could that be because the vast majority of Catholics including the large majority of Catholic Church goers quietly support use of artificial birth control so that if the Church goes after it wildly, contributions will dry up and the Church will essentially shut down?"
The politician points at the audience. "Do you say that those parents who support use of contraceptives are not Catholic?"
"Also, studies have shown that the reason why the support for abortion exploded in the 1960s is because use of contraceptives exploded in the 1960s, where contraceptive use generates a massive, powerful social ethos in favor of using abortion as a 'contraceptive backstop.' So, should not the Church publicly oppose contraceptive use by Catholics just as loudly and violently as it opposes abortion?"
The politician points again to the audience: "Do you condemn the Catholics in the audience who support birth control use, and say that they are not Catholic?"
I'm not trying to confuse anyone. But we live in a pluralistic society, characterized by opposing points of view.
When a bishop or cardinal makes one of those statements "platonizing" a principle by implicitly or explicitly driving a leader out of the Church, shouldn't they do it only after doing it to themselves?
Life is complex.
Let us pray constantly for each other and for society.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A Counter-Intuitive Approach to Solving Global Warming
Suppose, instead of recycling paper, we outlawed paper recycling, and, instead, buried it.
Then, wouldn't we be putting carbon back into the ground, after the trees remove it from the air?
Proposal: Make use of nature. Open up vast, vast tree farms covered with those extremely-fast-growing Weyerhauser trees. Grind them up into cellulose and make various kinds of paper products with it. Make everything out of paper or cellulose.
Then, when the iltem is used, recover it using the same paper collection system in use tofday to recycle, but instead of taking it to the recycling plant, load it into hopper cars, and run the loads of paper to open pit mines on the old railroad rights of way, and fill the mines with paper.
Carefully cap-off the cellulose-filled pit mines. Any methane coming to the surface can be collected and burned to make electrivity, resulting in a CO2 re-release, with about a 95% recovery rate.
Each pit mine will become a wonderful passive energy source while it segregates carbon.
Then, wouldn't we be putting carbon back into the ground, after the trees remove it from the air?
Proposal: Make use of nature. Open up vast, vast tree farms covered with those extremely-fast-growing Weyerhauser trees. Grind them up into cellulose and make various kinds of paper products with it. Make everything out of paper or cellulose.
Then, when the iltem is used, recover it using the same paper collection system in use tofday to recycle, but instead of taking it to the recycling plant, load it into hopper cars, and run the loads of paper to open pit mines on the old railroad rights of way, and fill the mines with paper.
Carefully cap-off the cellulose-filled pit mines. Any methane coming to the surface can be collected and burned to make electrivity, resulting in a CO2 re-release, with about a 95% recovery rate.
Each pit mine will become a wonderful passive energy source while it segregates carbon.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Adam and Eve and Original Sin
I think that I finally figured out what Original Sin is, and the exact meaning of the story in Genesis 2 and 3.
So, here we go...
The Adam and Eve story is jammed with indicators that it is not intended by God to be viewed as an historical story.
The story affirms, for example, that God creates Adam in a "not good" state, by initially creating Adam alone, without a "suitable partner." See Genesis 2:18.
That is impossible.
Then it portrays God as erring by unsuccessfully trying to match Adam up with "lions, tigers and bears." See Genesis 2:19.
So, the story portrays God as "erring" after it accuses God of poor planning.
Then it has jokes built into it. For example, in Genesis 2:23, when Adam, after the creation of Eve and after she is introduced to him, says, "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken," the Hebrew actually reads, "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'ishshah,' for out of 'ishah' this one has been taken," because that is a pun in Hebrew: Adam is calling Eve a "HERMAN" for out of "HER MAN" she was taken. Ha, ha, ha.
The Satan serpent tells Eve that if she bites of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, she "will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad." Eve does it, and, voila, conscience kicks in. Suddenly she "knows" keenly that she is not "good" because she was "bad." Ha, ha, ha.
Adam's name "adama" is Hebrew for "red [clay]." Thus, God is portrayed as formed man out of clay like a potter.
Did God really make us out of red clay like a potter?
Eve is portrayed as having been made out of a "rib" of Adam.
Did God literally clone Eve like that?
Probably, not one of these things is literally true.
And, lo and behold, Catechism Paragraph 390 affirms that "the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language," implying that other parts can also be figurative.
But, probably because the Church has difficulty ungluing itself from its own history (where our Protestant brothers are afflicted with that problem even worse!), the Catechism adds the critical words, "The account of the fall in Genesis 3...affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man."
The problem isn't that that is an allegation that the first two ensouled Homo sapiens sapiens sinned. Hey, no problem. Of course they sinned.
The problem is that that "primeval event" which was a "deed" is clearly being focused as "Original Sin."
The Catechism is teaching that an historical event is Original Sin.
Thus, the Catechism declines to view the Adam and Eve story as entirely non-historical, and it affirms that Original Sin, rather than being a state of being, only, began as an event and then mysteriously became a state of being -- "concupiscence."
I have to reject that.
Why?
Well, first, it makes God into a horrible sovereign, who does something we would have executed Hitler for doing had he not committed suicide first: Bringing death to millions of people -- descendants of Adam and Eve -- though they were innocent of wrongdoing (because they didn't exist yet), as a punishment for the sin of two people.
Suppose you are a sovereign, and you say, "Ah-hah! That husband and wife over there disobeyed the law. As a consequence, I am going to condemn their children, their children's children, and so on, for the next 10,000 generations, to an early demise, because of their remote ancestors' sin." Would God send you to Hell for that decision?
Yes.
Well, Church theology accuses God of the same.
The Church's theologians have historically tried to get off this hot seat by saying, "Well, God didn't OWE non-death to Adam and Eve and their descendants, anyway. So He can take non-death away, if He wants! He's sovereign!"
Okay, then how about in utero death, crib death, lightning, volcanoes, etc.? God didn't just take away perpetual life of those innocent of the actual sin blamed for the taking away of perpetual life. He doles out pain and death very, very inequally.
And, no matter what, attaching not only mass future death, but also weakness and sin-proneness -- concupiscence -- to these things in effect has God "punishing" mankind by willing to do that which is ostensibly not "necessary" (because God's punishment is an act of sovereignty, right?): By willing to unnecessarily turn Adam and Eve's progeny into anxious mass-producers of sin.
God "punishes" mankind by using His will to "tickle" future mankind, with concupiscence, into committing vast, vast quantities of sin, kind of like Charles Manson presiding over orgies of sin in the Mojave Desert.
The whole thing doesn't explain anything; instead, it fills theology with giant troubling problems.
Then, there is the problem of "monogenesis" -- the insistence that every single human is a descendant of the first pair.
Apparently, this is to create an "unambiguous conduit of the stain of Original Sin" from Adam and Eve to ourselves.
Simple monogenesis, however, requires incest.
Historically, Catholic theology tried to get off this hot seat by saying, "Adam and Eve and their children hadn't finished falling. They were still morally superior to us, so incest was okay," or words to that effect.
Nah! I don't buy it.
What's the first thing Adam and Eve did in the story after Original Sin?
They put on clothing to cover their sex organs.
And how did God "punish" Eve? He made the reproductive process difficult.
And Cain was a cold-blooded murderer, for heaven's sake!!! How "morally superior" was that???!!!
Nah! Forget it! The initial families, after ensoulment of our species, absolutely needed the protection of the incest taboo, so that it would have evolved in families.
Otherwise, why did even Adam and Eve, in the story, need clothes vis-Ã -vis each other? In Deuteronomy, after teaching the incest taboo as a moral principle to God's people, Deuteronomy 27:22, Moses says this...
11 "For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. 12 It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' 13 Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' 14 No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out. Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
There it is -- the incest taboo is built-in.
So, God would not have made man such that the Original Sin stain willed by Him passed only if Cain and his brothers and sisters and their children committed incest.
Incest is out.
Strict monogenesis is out, too, as far as I can see.
The whole thing -- Original Sin as traditionally envisioned by the Church in theology still reflected a little bit in the Catechism -- just isn't workable, philosophically.
So, this is what I decided...
The Adam and Eve story is not the least bit non-fictional.
It is fiction.
It is a mere hypothetical, showing how man would handle every single moral decision if man were not graced.
After showing us the result of not being graced, the story promises a savior on a cross piercing the ground at Skull Place -- "he will strike at your head," Genesis 3:15 -- who would be nailed through the feet -- "while you strike at his heel," Genesis 3:15, who by that means would purchase grace.
Why is mankind like that? Why are we sin-prone, so that we need grace?
Answer: God's sovereignty.
God's sovereignty prohibits creation of a fellow God. God is one.
Therefore, we could not be substantially like God.
Being perfect vis-Ã -vis sin would have made us substantially like God.
So, God can't do that, because doing that is "against the shape of sovereign God."
But God can give us grace -- a participation of God, Himself, in ourselves.
But then there’s God's justice, which says, "NO! NO FREEBIES! NO PENNIES FROM HERAVEN! SOMEBODY HAS TO PAY FOR THAT GRACE BY BEING PUNISHED LIKE HELL AS A PRICE FOR THE GRACE, AND THE ONLY ONES WHO COULD PAY THAT PRICE MUST BE INELIGIBLE FOR PUNISHMENT!"
So, God the Son said, "I WILL! I'LL PAY!"
So, the "final ingredient" of man, grace, had to be paid for by Christ's suffering and death. Those who speculate that Christ did not have to suffer and die are wrong.
John's gospel teaches the "final ingredient" concept by having the waters of salvation mixed with the activating sacrificed blood of Christ following Eve out of the side of the "New Testament Adam" on the cross.
On the subject of concupiscence passed-down by monogenesis, I accept that concupiscence is passed down, but not as a punishment non-native to our species as originally created.
Instead, concupiscence is innate to created flesh made less perfect than God because God’s sovereignty required that we be less perfect than God. It would have been "against God-ness" for God to create fellow perfect beings.
So, there is concupiscence, but it's innate -- not a punishment.
And, there is monogenesis -- but it's not strict monogenesis.
Instead, I think that God ensouled large numbers of our species all at once, after they descended from an unensouled common ancestor several generations back.
So, here we go...
The Adam and Eve story is jammed with indicators that it is not intended by God to be viewed as an historical story.
The story affirms, for example, that God creates Adam in a "not good" state, by initially creating Adam alone, without a "suitable partner." See Genesis 2:18.
That is impossible.
Then it portrays God as erring by unsuccessfully trying to match Adam up with "lions, tigers and bears." See Genesis 2:19.
So, the story portrays God as "erring" after it accuses God of poor planning.
Then it has jokes built into it. For example, in Genesis 2:23, when Adam, after the creation of Eve and after she is introduced to him, says, "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken," the Hebrew actually reads, "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called 'ishshah,' for out of 'ishah' this one has been taken," because that is a pun in Hebrew: Adam is calling Eve a "HERMAN" for out of "HER MAN" she was taken. Ha, ha, ha.
The Satan serpent tells Eve that if she bites of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, she "will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad." Eve does it, and, voila, conscience kicks in. Suddenly she "knows" keenly that she is not "good" because she was "bad." Ha, ha, ha.
Adam's name "adama" is Hebrew for "red [clay]." Thus, God is portrayed as formed man out of clay like a potter.
Did God really make us out of red clay like a potter?
Eve is portrayed as having been made out of a "rib" of Adam.
Did God literally clone Eve like that?
Probably, not one of these things is literally true.
And, lo and behold, Catechism Paragraph 390 affirms that "the account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language," implying that other parts can also be figurative.
But, probably because the Church has difficulty ungluing itself from its own history (where our Protestant brothers are afflicted with that problem even worse!), the Catechism adds the critical words, "The account of the fall in Genesis 3...affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man."
The problem isn't that that is an allegation that the first two ensouled Homo sapiens sapiens sinned. Hey, no problem. Of course they sinned.
The problem is that that "primeval event" which was a "deed" is clearly being focused as "Original Sin."
The Catechism is teaching that an historical event is Original Sin.
Thus, the Catechism declines to view the Adam and Eve story as entirely non-historical, and it affirms that Original Sin, rather than being a state of being, only, began as an event and then mysteriously became a state of being -- "concupiscence."
I have to reject that.
Why?
Well, first, it makes God into a horrible sovereign, who does something we would have executed Hitler for doing had he not committed suicide first: Bringing death to millions of people -- descendants of Adam and Eve -- though they were innocent of wrongdoing (because they didn't exist yet), as a punishment for the sin of two people.
Suppose you are a sovereign, and you say, "Ah-hah! That husband and wife over there disobeyed the law. As a consequence, I am going to condemn their children, their children's children, and so on, for the next 10,000 generations, to an early demise, because of their remote ancestors' sin." Would God send you to Hell for that decision?
Yes.
Well, Church theology accuses God of the same.
The Church's theologians have historically tried to get off this hot seat by saying, "Well, God didn't OWE non-death to Adam and Eve and their descendants, anyway. So He can take non-death away, if He wants! He's sovereign!"
Okay, then how about in utero death, crib death, lightning, volcanoes, etc.? God didn't just take away perpetual life of those innocent of the actual sin blamed for the taking away of perpetual life. He doles out pain and death very, very inequally.
And, no matter what, attaching not only mass future death, but also weakness and sin-proneness -- concupiscence -- to these things in effect has God "punishing" mankind by willing to do that which is ostensibly not "necessary" (because God's punishment is an act of sovereignty, right?): By willing to unnecessarily turn Adam and Eve's progeny into anxious mass-producers of sin.
God "punishes" mankind by using His will to "tickle" future mankind, with concupiscence, into committing vast, vast quantities of sin, kind of like Charles Manson presiding over orgies of sin in the Mojave Desert.
The whole thing doesn't explain anything; instead, it fills theology with giant troubling problems.
Then, there is the problem of "monogenesis" -- the insistence that every single human is a descendant of the first pair.
Apparently, this is to create an "unambiguous conduit of the stain of Original Sin" from Adam and Eve to ourselves.
Simple monogenesis, however, requires incest.
Historically, Catholic theology tried to get off this hot seat by saying, "Adam and Eve and their children hadn't finished falling. They were still morally superior to us, so incest was okay," or words to that effect.
Nah! I don't buy it.
What's the first thing Adam and Eve did in the story after Original Sin?
They put on clothing to cover their sex organs.
And how did God "punish" Eve? He made the reproductive process difficult.
And Cain was a cold-blooded murderer, for heaven's sake!!! How "morally superior" was that???!!!
Nah! Forget it! The initial families, after ensoulment of our species, absolutely needed the protection of the incest taboo, so that it would have evolved in families.
Otherwise, why did even Adam and Eve, in the story, need clothes vis-Ã -vis each other? In Deuteronomy, after teaching the incest taboo as a moral principle to God's people, Deuteronomy 27:22, Moses says this...
11 "For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. 12 It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' 13 Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' 14 No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out. Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
There it is -- the incest taboo is built-in.
So, God would not have made man such that the Original Sin stain willed by Him passed only if Cain and his brothers and sisters and their children committed incest.
Incest is out.
Strict monogenesis is out, too, as far as I can see.
The whole thing -- Original Sin as traditionally envisioned by the Church in theology still reflected a little bit in the Catechism -- just isn't workable, philosophically.
So, this is what I decided...
The Adam and Eve story is not the least bit non-fictional.
It is fiction.
It is a mere hypothetical, showing how man would handle every single moral decision if man were not graced.
After showing us the result of not being graced, the story promises a savior on a cross piercing the ground at Skull Place -- "he will strike at your head," Genesis 3:15 -- who would be nailed through the feet -- "while you strike at his heel," Genesis 3:15, who by that means would purchase grace.
Why is mankind like that? Why are we sin-prone, so that we need grace?
Answer: God's sovereignty.
God's sovereignty prohibits creation of a fellow God. God is one.
Therefore, we could not be substantially like God.
Being perfect vis-Ã -vis sin would have made us substantially like God.
So, God can't do that, because doing that is "against the shape of sovereign God."
But God can give us grace -- a participation of God, Himself, in ourselves.
But then there’s God's justice, which says, "NO! NO FREEBIES! NO PENNIES FROM HERAVEN! SOMEBODY HAS TO PAY FOR THAT GRACE BY BEING PUNISHED LIKE HELL AS A PRICE FOR THE GRACE, AND THE ONLY ONES WHO COULD PAY THAT PRICE MUST BE INELIGIBLE FOR PUNISHMENT!"
So, God the Son said, "I WILL! I'LL PAY!"
So, the "final ingredient" of man, grace, had to be paid for by Christ's suffering and death. Those who speculate that Christ did not have to suffer and die are wrong.
John's gospel teaches the "final ingredient" concept by having the waters of salvation mixed with the activating sacrificed blood of Christ following Eve out of the side of the "New Testament Adam" on the cross.
On the subject of concupiscence passed-down by monogenesis, I accept that concupiscence is passed down, but not as a punishment non-native to our species as originally created.
Instead, concupiscence is innate to created flesh made less perfect than God because God’s sovereignty required that we be less perfect than God. It would have been "against God-ness" for God to create fellow perfect beings.
So, there is concupiscence, but it's innate -- not a punishment.
And, there is monogenesis -- but it's not strict monogenesis.
Instead, I think that God ensouled large numbers of our species all at once, after they descended from an unensouled common ancestor several generations back.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Most Ancient Ancestors Researched by Me
Our G-24 GF -- that is, our great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather was Alan Rufus the Red, Count of Brittany, and second cousin to William I, the Conquerer -- William the Conquerer.
Our lineal connection to Alan Rufus the Red -- our direct descendancy from him -- is one of the well-researched and legally-guarded genealogies of Western Europe. So, this is real. There is no exaggeration, here.
G24 GF Alan Rufus the Red, Count of Brittany, second cousin to William the Conqueror, was probably born around 1030 A.D. He accompanied William to Hastings in 1066 and commanded the Breton contingent there. In 1069-1070 Alan Rufus led an oppression of resistance in the North at William’s request. Our G24 GF was singularly brutal. Chronicler Simon of Durham wrote
“So great a famine prevailed that men, compelled by hunger, devoured human flesh, that of horses, dogs, cats…others, while about to go into exile, fell down in the middle of the journey and gave up the ghost. It was horrific to behold human corpses decaying in the houses, the streets and the roads: for no one was left to bury them in the earth…The stench was abominable and an extensive solitude prevailed all around. In the towns wild beasts were running in the streets.”
“So great a famine prevailed that men, compelled by hunger, devoured human flesh, that of horses, dogs, cats…others, while about to go into exile, fell down in the middle of the journey and gave up the ghost. It was horrific to behold human corpses decaying in the houses, the streets and the roads: for no one was left to bury them in the earth…The stench was abominable and an extensive solitude prevailed all around. In the towns wild beasts were running in the streets.”
A present-day genealogist gives a like assessment…
"[Alan Rufus] immediately established himself as absolute ruler and ruthlessly stamped out any pockets of Saxon resistance. The only diplomacy he understood was that of the sword. His methods, even by the standards of the time, were brutal and extreme. The Saxons were denied even elementary rights…"
William granted G24 GF Alan Rufus vast acreage in the north, around York. Alan immediately set to work in 1070 building what would later be called Richmond Castle, to protect his Norman rule in the North against angry Anglo-Saxon subjects. The same modern genealogist quoted above writes,
Richmond Castle was constructed as an object of fear to overawe the Saxons and to serve as a stronghold against any future attempts at rebellion.
From the air, our “family castle” looked like this…
William granted G24 GF Alan Rufus vast acreage in the north, around York. Alan immediately set to work in 1070 building what would later be called Richmond Castle, to protect his Norman rule in the North against angry Anglo-Saxon subjects. The same modern genealogist quoted above writes,
Richmond Castle was constructed as an object of fear to overawe the Saxons and to serve as a stronghold against any future attempts at rebellion.
From the air, our “family castle” looked like this…
Richmond Castle
One website refers to G24 GF Alan Rufus as the “richest of the rich,” as a result of his brutal, confiscatory conquest. We have what may be a contemporary painting of him, sitting in his great hall with his lady, his officers and servants…
Alan Rufus the Red,
ruling from the Great Hall
in Richmond Castle, North Yorkshire
The castle tower and other portions of the structure are standing even today…
Richmond Castle today
The remains of the two story high great hall, where Alan Rufus feasted
The better of two extant accounts suggests that from Alan Rufus, the pedigree is as follow. Dates are frequently lacking in chronicles of the events listed, here. Dividing the years accounted for by the biographies listed below by the number of biographies generates an average generational span, from the birth of one generation to the birth of the next, of about 34 years.
The son of Alan Rufus, G23 GF Roaldus Musard de Richmond, probably born about 1064, shortly before the Norman invasion in 1066, is said to have lost lordship over Richmond Castle because, owing money to the king, he paid only 10 of 200 marks owed.
However, there is some evidence that the surrender of control may have been a voluntary arrangement to retire dept, or an afterthought amending a larger rearrangement of leadership to settle political debts while keeping the castle in the family -- the next Lord of Richmond was the brother of Alan Rufus, Alan Niger. Perhaps an additional reason was that G23 GF Roaldus Musard de Richmond was just too young at the time to rule such a rebellious land. Roaldus remained lord of appurtenant lands and evidently functioned as castle “constable,” the “XO” in charge of castle defense.
Around the time the First Crusade succeeded in seizing the Holy Land back from the Muslims, the wife of G23 GF Roaldus Musard de Richmond bore him G22 GF Hasculfus Musard de Richmond. At some point, probably before the year 1120 A.D., The role of that son as Constable was declared by the King to be an inheritable title, sio that he was formally appointed first Constable of Richmond Castle as well as Lord of Demesne, Keddington, Chilworth, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Stainbury.
Early in the 1100s, something happened to the weather in the world. Maybe there was a long lull in volcanic activity, resulting in a clearing of dust in the atmosphere. Maybe the Sun emerged briefly from one of the arms of the galaxy, decreasing dust and increasing visibility between the Sun and the planets. Whatever. Something caused the weather to get warmer. Crop yields in the “champion” country of central England began to boom. Food prices plummeted. Huge livestock concerns began to appear. Food aplenty resulted in a population explosion. An era of increased prosperity seems to have smothered rebelliousness and increased loyalty among the Norman Richmond’s Anglo-Saxon subjects.
The son of Alan Rufus, G23 GF Roaldus Musard de Richmond, probably born about 1064, shortly before the Norman invasion in 1066, is said to have lost lordship over Richmond Castle because, owing money to the king, he paid only 10 of 200 marks owed.
However, there is some evidence that the surrender of control may have been a voluntary arrangement to retire dept, or an afterthought amending a larger rearrangement of leadership to settle political debts while keeping the castle in the family -- the next Lord of Richmond was the brother of Alan Rufus, Alan Niger. Perhaps an additional reason was that G23 GF Roaldus Musard de Richmond was just too young at the time to rule such a rebellious land. Roaldus remained lord of appurtenant lands and evidently functioned as castle “constable,” the “XO” in charge of castle defense.
Around the time the First Crusade succeeded in seizing the Holy Land back from the Muslims, the wife of G23 GF Roaldus Musard de Richmond bore him G22 GF Hasculfus Musard de Richmond. At some point, probably before the year 1120 A.D., The role of that son as Constable was declared by the King to be an inheritable title, sio that he was formally appointed first Constable of Richmond Castle as well as Lord of Demesne, Keddington, Chilworth, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Stainbury.
Early in the 1100s, something happened to the weather in the world. Maybe there was a long lull in volcanic activity, resulting in a clearing of dust in the atmosphere. Maybe the Sun emerged briefly from one of the arms of the galaxy, decreasing dust and increasing visibility between the Sun and the planets. Whatever. Something caused the weather to get warmer. Crop yields in the “champion” country of central England began to boom. Food prices plummeted. Huge livestock concerns began to appear. Food aplenty resulted in a population explosion. An era of increased prosperity seems to have smothered rebelliousness and increased loyalty among the Norman Richmond’s Anglo-Saxon subjects.
A Science Trick for Kids 5 to 100: Masking Tape Lightning
Take a roll of garden-variety masking tape into the closet. Wait a few minutes in the dark for your eyes to get used to the darkness.
Now, pull the tape off the roll, and stare intently at the point where the tape comes off the roll.
Right there, on the sticky side of the tape, at precisely the point where it comes off the roll, as you pull it off, you will see "artificial lightning."
Two Things on William Shakespeare
I am one of those people who thinks that Shakespeare was a committee, named after the man who was a member of the committee.
The coolest thing about Shakespeare is that we Dawson's and Eitelman's are his cousin, like so...
William Shakespeare is my 6th cousin, 8 times removed (and the 6th cousin, 8 times removed of all of my siblings and Eitelman 1st cousins).
This is because...
William SHAKESPEARE was the son of
John SHAKESPEAR who was the son of
Abigail WEBB who was the daughter of
John Alexander WEBB, Jr. who was the son of
John Alexander WEBB, Sr. who was the son of
William WEBB who was the son of
John WEBB who was the son of
Geoffrey WEBB, our great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather.
Time to go down the line, now, to us...
That same Geoffrey WEBB was father to
Alice WEBB who was mother to
William II RICHMOND who was father to
William III RICHMOND who was father to
Henry RICHMOND who was father to
John RICHMOND who was father to
Sarah RICHMOND who was mother to
Elnathan WALKER who was father to
Phebe WALKER who was mother to
Edward SEARS who was mother to
Philo SEARS who was father to
Susan E. SEARS who was mother to
May Katherine PITMAN who was mother to
Edward Decatur PITMAN who was father to
ELEANORE ANNE EITELMAN who was mother to
myself.
So, there it is.
Next, It is said by some that the King James Bible is "very Shakespearean" in its language, and that Shakespeare must have actually participated in the articulation of the English language translation of the King James Bible.
Lo and behold, for 2 years Shakespeare's organization was shut down by order of the crown as a measure to reduce exposure to plague in theatres -- in the 2 years prior to publication of the King James Bible!
So, he had time to do it.
Now, look at this coincidence...
When the King James Bible was published by the crown in 1611, William Shakespeare (the man -- not the committee) was 46 years of age.
So, go to Psalm 46 in the KJV, and count in 46 words from the beginning, and 46 words from the end (excluding "Selah," a procedural instruction to bow).
This is what we get...
Pss.46[1] God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.[2] Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;[3] Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.[4] There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.[5] God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.[6] The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.[7] The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.[8] Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.[9] He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.[10] Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.[11] The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Shakespeare jokingly encoded his name into the Bible's text!
Ghosts Exist!
Ghosts exist. I have actually photographed them! Anyone can! It's easy, if you know what to do.
(1) Use a digital camera with a flash.
(2) Take the picture in the dark.
(3) Take the picture at a place where one would think that ghosts are normally found.
(4) Say a prayer to God to make the ghost pose for the picture -- no joke.
(5) Take the picture when you, personally, are tired; tiredness attracts ghosts.
(6) Don't talk to the ghost.
Above is one shot I took. I took it about 10:30 p.m., about a year-and-a-half ago, in Magnolia Methodist Church graveyard.
The ghost you see here is of the orb variety. It is doing something astonishing: Assuming about 10 different positions during one flash, a few thousandths of a second long. You can tell that they are all the same orb, because of that telltale tab on them.
The white thing to the right is the gravestone the orb is coming around.
Bible Types and Word Pictures
One of the reasons why I remain a Catholic Christian is the presence of miraculous Bible types and word pictures in the Bible.
Types and word pictures comprise a systematic presence of symbols foreshadowing God's salvation process in the Old and New Testaments.
Types are words symbolizing components of the salvation process.
Word pictures are set forth in one or more verses, in which the action in those verses symbolizes components of the salvation process.
Usually, word pictures are constructed out of one or more types.
Here's a good example...
Near the end of the Book of Genesis, my favorite book of the Bible, Joseph the Patriarch introduces his two children to his father Jacob, who goes to bless them...
13 Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel's right, and led them to him.
14 But Israel, crossing his hands, put out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, although he was the first-born.
15 Then he blessed them with these words... Genesis 48:13-15.
Now, remember as we analyze this: This is a Jewish book in the Bible's Old Testament, and that these words are older than Christianity itself.
Here's the best painting of this event I could find on-line...
http://oneyearbibleimages.com/jacob_ephraim_manasseh.jpg
First, do you see the cross at Skull Place, in this very Jewish story?
It's Jacob's crossed arms, on the heads of Manasseh and Ephraim -- "skull places"!!!
And note well that blessing comes from that "cross" on a "skull place," just as blessing comes to the Church from the cross of Christ at Skull Place!
Types and word pictures comprise a systematic presence of symbols foreshadowing God's salvation process in the Old and New Testaments.
Types are words symbolizing components of the salvation process.
Word pictures are set forth in one or more verses, in which the action in those verses symbolizes components of the salvation process.
Usually, word pictures are constructed out of one or more types.
Here's a good example...
Near the end of the Book of Genesis, my favorite book of the Bible, Joseph the Patriarch introduces his two children to his father Jacob, who goes to bless them...
13 Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel's right, and led them to him.
14 But Israel, crossing his hands, put out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, although he was the first-born.
15 Then he blessed them with these words... Genesis 48:13-15.
Now, remember as we analyze this: This is a Jewish book in the Bible's Old Testament, and that these words are older than Christianity itself.
Here's the best painting of this event I could find on-line...
http://oneyearbibleimages.com/jacob_ephraim_manasseh.jpg
First, do you see the cross at Skull Place, in this very Jewish story?
It's Jacob's crossed arms, on the heads of Manasseh and Ephraim -- "skull places"!!!
And note well that blessing comes from that "cross" on a "skull place," just as blessing comes to the Church from the cross of Christ at Skull Place!
How the Dawson's and Eitelman's Are Descended from the Mayflower Pilgrims!
Years ago, when I started studying our family's genealogy, Grandmom -- mom's mom Anna M. Kearney -- told me, "Pete, look for the Sears genealogy! Look for the Sears genealogy!"
Well, I did, and I was amazed.
When I began to tell some of you, "Guess what! We're descended from not just one, but a few of the Mayflower Pilgrims!," you responded with that derisive grin which says, "Isn't that cute! He really believes that we're not descended from just pond-scum-sucking, trash-collecting low-lifes!"
Well, skeptics, here it is -- one of the lines from the Mayflower down to the present! Ha, ha, ha!
(1) The G-10 GPs of my generation, William MULLINS, later a Mayflower passenger, met and married Alice ATWOOD, later a Mayflower passenger, and gave birth to Priscilla MULLINS, later a Mayflower passenger.
(2) The G-9 GPs of my generation, Priscilla MULLINS, a Mayflower passenger, met and married John ALDEN, the cooper on the Mayflower, in Plymouth Colony, and gave birth to David ALDEN, of Plymouth Colony.
(3) The G-8 GPs of my generation, David ALDEN met and married Mary SOUTHWORTH, and gave birth to Alice ALDEN.
(4) The G-7 GPs of my generation, Alice ALDEN met and married Judah PADDOCK, and gave birth to Mary PADDOCK.
(5) The G-6 GPs of my generation, Mary PADDOCK met and married Judah SEARS, and gave birth to Alden SEARS.
(6) The G-5 GPs of my generation, Alden SEARS met and married Phebe WALKER, and gave birth to Edward SEARS. (There he is -- the man Uncle Eddie is named after -- NOT the doctor!!!)
(7) The G-4 GPs of my generation, Edward SEARS met and married Jemima ROOT, and gave birth to Philo SEARS.
(8) The G-3 GPs of my generation, Philo SEARS met and married Julia Anne CLINE, and gave birth to Susan E. SEARS.
(9) The G-2 GPs of my generation, Susan E. SEARS, after her first husband, Mr. Sorrell passed away, met and married Decatur PITMAN, and gave birth to May Katherine PITMAN.
(10) The Great Grandparents of my generation, May Katherine Pitman, met and married Michael George EITELMAN, and gave birth to Edward Decatur EITELMAN (named after his grandfather, NOT Stephen Decatur!!!)
(11) The Grandparents of my generation, Edward Decatur EITELMAN, met and married Anna M. KEARNEY, and gave birth to Eleanore Anne EITELMAN, and Uncle Mike and Uncle Eddie!
(12) My Parents Eleanore Anne EITELMAN met and married Edward J. DAWSON, and gave birth to humble Peter J. DAWSON and the rest of us!!!
Well, I did, and I was amazed.
When I began to tell some of you, "Guess what! We're descended from not just one, but a few of the Mayflower Pilgrims!," you responded with that derisive grin which says, "Isn't that cute! He really believes that we're not descended from just pond-scum-sucking, trash-collecting low-lifes!"
Well, skeptics, here it is -- one of the lines from the Mayflower down to the present! Ha, ha, ha!
(1) The G-10 GPs of my generation, William MULLINS, later a Mayflower passenger, met and married Alice ATWOOD, later a Mayflower passenger, and gave birth to Priscilla MULLINS, later a Mayflower passenger.
(2) The G-9 GPs of my generation, Priscilla MULLINS, a Mayflower passenger, met and married John ALDEN, the cooper on the Mayflower, in Plymouth Colony, and gave birth to David ALDEN, of Plymouth Colony.
(3) The G-8 GPs of my generation, David ALDEN met and married Mary SOUTHWORTH, and gave birth to Alice ALDEN.
(4) The G-7 GPs of my generation, Alice ALDEN met and married Judah PADDOCK, and gave birth to Mary PADDOCK.
(5) The G-6 GPs of my generation, Mary PADDOCK met and married Judah SEARS, and gave birth to Alden SEARS.
(6) The G-5 GPs of my generation, Alden SEARS met and married Phebe WALKER, and gave birth to Edward SEARS. (There he is -- the man Uncle Eddie is named after -- NOT the doctor!!!)
(7) The G-4 GPs of my generation, Edward SEARS met and married Jemima ROOT, and gave birth to Philo SEARS.
(8) The G-3 GPs of my generation, Philo SEARS met and married Julia Anne CLINE, and gave birth to Susan E. SEARS.
(9) The G-2 GPs of my generation, Susan E. SEARS, after her first husband, Mr. Sorrell passed away, met and married Decatur PITMAN, and gave birth to May Katherine PITMAN.
(10) The Great Grandparents of my generation, May Katherine Pitman, met and married Michael George EITELMAN, and gave birth to Edward Decatur EITELMAN (named after his grandfather, NOT Stephen Decatur!!!)
(11) The Grandparents of my generation, Edward Decatur EITELMAN, met and married Anna M. KEARNEY, and gave birth to Eleanore Anne EITELMAN, and Uncle Mike and Uncle Eddie!
(12) My Parents Eleanore Anne EITELMAN met and married Edward J. DAWSON, and gave birth to humble Peter J. DAWSON and the rest of us!!!
Will Earth Be Swallowed-Up by an IMBH Soon?
Hi, friends. My first post, here, will be about the thing in Switzerland which everybody seems to have forgotten -- the Large Hadron Collider.
I had some exposure to particle physics in college. (I was interested in nuclear weapon design and construction, believe it or not. The "man on the street" really has no idea how clever nuclear weapons are, in their design. Thank God nuclear weapon design and maintenance is complex, by the way.) In part because of that exposure, I was very interested when, in the course of construction of the Large Hadron Collider experiment in Switzerland, two LHC employees filed a lawsuit in Hawaii to stop the thing from operating. They said that there is a chance that the experiment could destroy the world. The employees lost -- the judge went with the vast majority of the scientists on the project, who say, "No danger."
But, the two employees were on to something, and the federal judge was wrong. Here's why...
The LHC is really akin to a giant Reagan Administration Star Wars weapon. It is two particle beams, each firing at the other extraordinarily-high-energy protons, travelling at extremely close to the speed of light.
These invisible beams are so much like beams envisioned in the Star Wars space weapon program that if you were to try to walk through the beams during operation, they would probably cut you in half.
When these two beams of protons are aimed at each other, so that they crash head-on, particles in the beams will smack together with such intensity that there is a risk, according to the people who filed the Hawaiian lawsuit, that they will form what is referred to as a "mini black hole." The mini black hole will smack into the side of the LHC, absorb molecules there, lose its momentum, be attracted by Earth's gravity, and drill down to the center of the Earth, where the Earth's gravity will force-feed the Earth to the mini black hole, until we are all sucked-in and destroyed.
Scientists responding to the lawsuit to prevent a federal shutdown responded, "Not so! Not so! We believe that something called 'Hawking Radiation' will be emitted by such mini black holes, even if they do form, causing them to evaporate in a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second. We can prove that that is the case -- high energy protons left over from supernovas in space smash into Earth's atmosphere all of the time -- and we're still here, right? Where are the mini black holes? Clearly, any mini black holes that were formed in the process evaporated!"
At this point I have to comment on a fundamental error in the scientists' discussions.
Black holes are everywhere in Western literature, now. "Black hole" this and "black hole" that. The media talk about black holes the same way the media talked about dinosaurs as our culture became aware of them, decades ago.
Ironically, in a critical technical sense -- and I swear that this is so -- BLACK HOLES DON'T EXIST. THEY NEVER HAVE EXISTED. THEY NEVER WILL EXIST.
A few of the amateur astronomers reading this are saying, with lip-quivering anger, "B-b-b-b-but how can you say that???!!! Th-th-th-there are NASA photos on-line showing jets of particles in space being emitted from b-b-b-b-black h-h-h-h-holes."
But any well-thought-out particle physicists reading this already know what my response will be.
Relativistic time dilation.
As gravity at a particular point in space and time gets bigger, time itself slows down.
As a black hole begins to form, an invisible shell of slowed-down time begins to form around it called the "event horizon." (This is where the name of that really bad sci-fi movie that my kids love so much came from.) The forming black hole's forming event horizon, itself, slows-down the formation of the black hole, itself! The black hole begins to form slower and slo-o-o-o-ower and slo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ower.
The effect of the event horizon is "asymptotic." Like a kid in the school yard 40 inches from the wall of the school, who always walks exactly, precisely half of the remaining distance to the wall with each step, the black hole never, ever -- in the history of the Universe -- quite finishes forming, just as the kid never quite reaches the school wall.
So, those things which NASA calls "black holes" emitting jets in their space photos...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080110.html
...are not really "black holes," because black holes slow down time at their own location as they form, always asymptotically interrupting their own formation!
That's good news, right?
Wrong. It's very, very, very bad news.
What it means is that black holes in formation -- what I call "incipient black holes" -- can never evaporate from "Hawking Radiation" because "Hawking Radiation," even if it occurs at all before a black hole achieves "black hole-ness," will, having been slowed down asymptotically by the black hole's own event horizon, take literally forever to evaporate the object.
So, if the Large Hadron Collider accidentally creates an 'Incipient Mini Black Hole," or IMBH for short, it will never evaporate.
Now, "Incipient Black Holes" or IBH's, and "Incipient Mini Black Holes," or IMBH's, are just as dangerous as the theoretical-but-really-non-existent black holes.
Again, look at the power and destruction being wrought by that thing in the NASA photo...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080110.html
It's not a black hole, but an IBH.
Why? What happens?
As the IBH or IMBH gets close to matter to absorb with its giant gravity, it smashes the matter and begins to pull the smashed bits into an orbit around itself called an "accretion disk"...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090419.html
As the ripping-apart occurs, the object, including its accretion disk, gets heavier and heavier and heavier. As it absorbs greater and greater quantities of ripped-up matter towards itself, more and more energy, with extreme power able to escape the giant gravitational field just above the event horizon, begins to be fired-off at the north and south poles of the accretion disk.
Voila...IBH's and IMBH's absorbing matter into their accretion disks all shoot out their own extremely high energy, extremely destructive particle beams.
An IMBH, if one forms in the LHC, will give rise to the following effects...
As the two particle beams collide, two protons, out of hundreds of billions, happen to collide so perfectly head-on that they begin forming an IMBH. Since the particle collision wasn't "perfectly perfect," the IMBH flies up at, say, 50% of the speed of light, and slams into the ceiling of the LHC tunnel.
Foom! The IMBH instantly begins absorbing LHC tunnel ceiling molecules, and ripping them apart. A powerful explosion results, blowing a hole through in the ceiling.
Unfortunately, increased mass in the IMBH structure from absorption of thousands of protons and neutrons from the LHC ceiling, and something called the net vector of the Brownian motion imparted to the IMBH by absorbed molecules, has slowed its escape to a mere 5,000 mph -- insufficient escape velocity to let the thing escape Earth's gravity.
So, it flies up to, say, 400 miles up, and then it begins to fall back toward the Earth.
The trajectory of the flight-up-and-flight-down sends the IMBH crashing into the Pacific, where, ironically, the intense thermonuclear fire of a hydrogen bomb begins erupting like a volcano out of the water of the Pacific Ocean, as the IMBH drills downward, deeper, deeper, deeper into the water, and then into the Earth's crust beneath the water, faster and faster toward the center of the Earth, 4,000 miles below.
The world watches with trembling as televisions follow-up reports of a fearful explosion at the LHC in Cern, Switzerland with reports on a "super volcano" near no known islands on the surface of the Pacific.
Then, suddenly, fo-o-o-o-o-o-op-p-p-p! -- the volcano stops.
And the entire world sighs with relief.
Except a few scientists at Cern, who have a suspicion...
Is an IMBH so deep under the ocean and under the Earth's crust now that the explosive power in the object's still-tiny accretion disk can't make it to the surface?
Yep!
So, as the weeks pass, seismographs around the world begin recording a new, completely unprecedented variety of rumbling.
The IMBH is no longer as "mini" as it used to be. The object is now in the gravitational center of the Earth. The Earth's own gravity is force-feeding the Earth itself to the accretion disk. As the gravity of the IMBH structure grows, the "particle beam" coming out of the IMBH's north and south poles blasts with a mightier and mightier blast, cutting a cavern in the center of the Earth made of super-heavy plasma which is quickly sucked-into the accretion disk. As the new rumbling begins to be detected on the surface, the cavern is 100 miles wide.
A few weeks later, the plasmic inferno breaks through the Earth's crust. Two days later, the Earth collapses into the accretion disk, and the end of our time on Earth has come.
As Hawaii begins falling toward the accretion disk, the federal judge who decided the case things, "Shucks! I guessed wrong!"
So, I vote, "Shut down the Collider. It's not worth the risk."
I had some exposure to particle physics in college. (I was interested in nuclear weapon design and construction, believe it or not. The "man on the street" really has no idea how clever nuclear weapons are, in their design. Thank God nuclear weapon design and maintenance is complex, by the way.) In part because of that exposure, I was very interested when, in the course of construction of the Large Hadron Collider experiment in Switzerland, two LHC employees filed a lawsuit in Hawaii to stop the thing from operating. They said that there is a chance that the experiment could destroy the world. The employees lost -- the judge went with the vast majority of the scientists on the project, who say, "No danger."
But, the two employees were on to something, and the federal judge was wrong. Here's why...
The LHC is really akin to a giant Reagan Administration Star Wars weapon. It is two particle beams, each firing at the other extraordinarily-high-energy protons, travelling at extremely close to the speed of light.
These invisible beams are so much like beams envisioned in the Star Wars space weapon program that if you were to try to walk through the beams during operation, they would probably cut you in half.
When these two beams of protons are aimed at each other, so that they crash head-on, particles in the beams will smack together with such intensity that there is a risk, according to the people who filed the Hawaiian lawsuit, that they will form what is referred to as a "mini black hole." The mini black hole will smack into the side of the LHC, absorb molecules there, lose its momentum, be attracted by Earth's gravity, and drill down to the center of the Earth, where the Earth's gravity will force-feed the Earth to the mini black hole, until we are all sucked-in and destroyed.
Scientists responding to the lawsuit to prevent a federal shutdown responded, "Not so! Not so! We believe that something called 'Hawking Radiation' will be emitted by such mini black holes, even if they do form, causing them to evaporate in a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second. We can prove that that is the case -- high energy protons left over from supernovas in space smash into Earth's atmosphere all of the time -- and we're still here, right? Where are the mini black holes? Clearly, any mini black holes that were formed in the process evaporated!"
At this point I have to comment on a fundamental error in the scientists' discussions.
Black holes are everywhere in Western literature, now. "Black hole" this and "black hole" that. The media talk about black holes the same way the media talked about dinosaurs as our culture became aware of them, decades ago.
Ironically, in a critical technical sense -- and I swear that this is so -- BLACK HOLES DON'T EXIST. THEY NEVER HAVE EXISTED. THEY NEVER WILL EXIST.
A few of the amateur astronomers reading this are saying, with lip-quivering anger, "B-b-b-b-but how can you say that???!!! Th-th-th-there are NASA photos on-line showing jets of particles in space being emitted from b-b-b-b-black h-h-h-h-holes."
But any well-thought-out particle physicists reading this already know what my response will be.
Relativistic time dilation.
As gravity at a particular point in space and time gets bigger, time itself slows down.
As a black hole begins to form, an invisible shell of slowed-down time begins to form around it called the "event horizon." (This is where the name of that really bad sci-fi movie that my kids love so much came from.) The forming black hole's forming event horizon, itself, slows-down the formation of the black hole, itself! The black hole begins to form slower and slo-o-o-o-ower and slo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ower.
The effect of the event horizon is "asymptotic." Like a kid in the school yard 40 inches from the wall of the school, who always walks exactly, precisely half of the remaining distance to the wall with each step, the black hole never, ever -- in the history of the Universe -- quite finishes forming, just as the kid never quite reaches the school wall.
So, those things which NASA calls "black holes" emitting jets in their space photos...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080110.html
...are not really "black holes," because black holes slow down time at their own location as they form, always asymptotically interrupting their own formation!
That's good news, right?
Wrong. It's very, very, very bad news.
What it means is that black holes in formation -- what I call "incipient black holes" -- can never evaporate from "Hawking Radiation" because "Hawking Radiation," even if it occurs at all before a black hole achieves "black hole-ness," will, having been slowed down asymptotically by the black hole's own event horizon, take literally forever to evaporate the object.
So, if the Large Hadron Collider accidentally creates an 'Incipient Mini Black Hole," or IMBH for short, it will never evaporate.
Now, "Incipient Black Holes" or IBH's, and "Incipient Mini Black Holes," or IMBH's, are just as dangerous as the theoretical-but-really-non-existent black holes.
Again, look at the power and destruction being wrought by that thing in the NASA photo...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080110.html
It's not a black hole, but an IBH.
Why? What happens?
As the IBH or IMBH gets close to matter to absorb with its giant gravity, it smashes the matter and begins to pull the smashed bits into an orbit around itself called an "accretion disk"...
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090419.html
As the ripping-apart occurs, the object, including its accretion disk, gets heavier and heavier and heavier. As it absorbs greater and greater quantities of ripped-up matter towards itself, more and more energy, with extreme power able to escape the giant gravitational field just above the event horizon, begins to be fired-off at the north and south poles of the accretion disk.
Voila...IBH's and IMBH's absorbing matter into their accretion disks all shoot out their own extremely high energy, extremely destructive particle beams.
An IMBH, if one forms in the LHC, will give rise to the following effects...
As the two particle beams collide, two protons, out of hundreds of billions, happen to collide so perfectly head-on that they begin forming an IMBH. Since the particle collision wasn't "perfectly perfect," the IMBH flies up at, say, 50% of the speed of light, and slams into the ceiling of the LHC tunnel.
Foom! The IMBH instantly begins absorbing LHC tunnel ceiling molecules, and ripping them apart. A powerful explosion results, blowing a hole through in the ceiling.
Unfortunately, increased mass in the IMBH structure from absorption of thousands of protons and neutrons from the LHC ceiling, and something called the net vector of the Brownian motion imparted to the IMBH by absorbed molecules, has slowed its escape to a mere 5,000 mph -- insufficient escape velocity to let the thing escape Earth's gravity.
So, it flies up to, say, 400 miles up, and then it begins to fall back toward the Earth.
The trajectory of the flight-up-and-flight-down sends the IMBH crashing into the Pacific, where, ironically, the intense thermonuclear fire of a hydrogen bomb begins erupting like a volcano out of the water of the Pacific Ocean, as the IMBH drills downward, deeper, deeper, deeper into the water, and then into the Earth's crust beneath the water, faster and faster toward the center of the Earth, 4,000 miles below.
The world watches with trembling as televisions follow-up reports of a fearful explosion at the LHC in Cern, Switzerland with reports on a "super volcano" near no known islands on the surface of the Pacific.
Then, suddenly, fo-o-o-o-o-o-op-p-p-p! -- the volcano stops.
And the entire world sighs with relief.
Except a few scientists at Cern, who have a suspicion...
Is an IMBH so deep under the ocean and under the Earth's crust now that the explosive power in the object's still-tiny accretion disk can't make it to the surface?
Yep!
So, as the weeks pass, seismographs around the world begin recording a new, completely unprecedented variety of rumbling.
The IMBH is no longer as "mini" as it used to be. The object is now in the gravitational center of the Earth. The Earth's own gravity is force-feeding the Earth itself to the accretion disk. As the gravity of the IMBH structure grows, the "particle beam" coming out of the IMBH's north and south poles blasts with a mightier and mightier blast, cutting a cavern in the center of the Earth made of super-heavy plasma which is quickly sucked-into the accretion disk. As the new rumbling begins to be detected on the surface, the cavern is 100 miles wide.
A few weeks later, the plasmic inferno breaks through the Earth's crust. Two days later, the Earth collapses into the accretion disk, and the end of our time on Earth has come.
As Hawaii begins falling toward the accretion disk, the federal judge who decided the case things, "Shucks! I guessed wrong!"
So, I vote, "Shut down the Collider. It's not worth the risk."
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