By Brian Fields, on May 23rd, 2011 According to a Pew Report, 41% of Americans believe the rapture will happen by 2050 (presumably in their lifetime). Listen folks, there’s no difference between believing it will happen on a specific date, believing it will occur in your lifetime, or believing it will happen at all.
All of it is magical (and wishful) thinking. So, if you believe that the rapture will happen, and mock those who picked last Saturday as their ticket “home”, you should reconsider your position. 2,000 years of rapture predictions have happened with people thinking it will happen in their lifetime, and all of them have proven wrong.
What gives you the “faith” that God has picked YOUR life as one that Jesus will come back to earth for? Why do you insist that you are somehow more special than those other people? In fact, why do you have faith at all he will come back?
By Brian Fields, on March 22nd, 2011 http://www.i-newswire.com/pennsylvania-s-first-himalayan/97232
Found this article today:
Pyramid Holistic Wellness Center, 120 Merchants Row, Rutland, VT 05701, March 21, 2011 – Dr. Margaret Smiechowski, North America’s foremost expert on Himalayan salt, is pleased to announce that her latest salt cave design is set to be revealed on March 29th, 2011, at the opening of the Tranquility Salon and Wellness Center in Carlisle, PA. Like all of her salt caves, the Carlisle cave features eco-friendly building materials and a highly sophisticated climate-controlled environment. However, this cave represents what Dr. Smiechowski calls the “new generation” of caves in the United States.
Continue reading More “Woo” comes to Central Pennsylvania!
By Brian Fields, on April 29th, 2009 A week ago, I went to the American Atheists 2009 conference, and for the most part, had a great time. Melisa and I got to meet a lot of great people, and talk, and heard some great speakers.
One experience, however, has stuck in my mind since the conference, and I thought I’d share about it. I’m pretty much a left-wing liberal secular humanist atheist, while my wife is a dyed in the wool right wing Ayn Rand objectivist atheist. This, in itself is causes some interesting discussions in our house, but hey – Discussion of differing ideas is what makes the world go around, right?
Well, that’s kind of what disappointed me. When I mentioned that fact to the people at our table after Mike Malloy said he couldn’t see how you could be right wing and atheist, (And hearing some of the loud agreement with that statement at the conference), I was dumbfounded as to how close-minded some of our fellow atheists seem to be on this topic. When my wife mentioned some of the ideas of objectivism to a lady at our table, she (the lady in question) became livid at the idea that government shouldn’t help the indigent and the poor. This seemed to color the rest of the conversation we were having as well. Now, I do disagree with this statement, but it seems to me that this type of thing should be able to be discussed without the obvious anger and revulsion at some logical and rational level.
In any case, it seems that even we, who claim to be open minded and rational, tend to have a bit of work to do in our own camp as well.
By Brian Fields, on April 27th, 2009 One thing I hear frequently from Christians is the idea they have that God wants (Insert thingy here). Usually people come up with this after praying, or say that God speaks to them in a quiet voice. I wanted to write a note to suggest to those people that they should perhaps consider that the voice comes from another source.
My daughter once suggested to me that perhaps this is our dreaming world, and that when we dream, that is reality. I’ve heard this to suggest things like astral projection and the like are real things as well.
I wanted to offer this other point of view as a way to “test” the “reality” of both of these claims.
Let’s take as premise that our brains are devices that process information for our bodies. Our lives are spent gathering new information that is processed by our brains.
Our brains are capable of taking that information and re-arranging it in all sorts of ways, but there is only so far you can process information. For example, you might pick up clues from body language and such that Harry is cheating on Sally, but in order to figure out that it’s with Jane Smith from Cleveland, you must have some knowledge of Jane. You can’t divine out of thin air that bit of information.
So, as test, think back over your life throughout those answers to your prayers. Have you ever received a NEW bit of information from God? A single one? Or, rather, has it always been information that if you thought really hard, you could have come up with on your own?
My answer to my daughter’s case was: Have you ever received a single new bit of information in your dreams? How about when you were awake? It was simple to point out to her that in fact, like every one else, her dreams were her body’s way of working out information relationships for things that she ALREADY KNEW. Thus, her dreams can’t be any form of reality.
In any case, food for thought…
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