Attempts at communicating with the dead puzzle me. Oh, how I wished to receive an unambiguous and comforting message from my deceased mother! I got a message. And it was comforting. Yet, I still walk around with a shade of skeptical doubt. Maybe, like faith in God, some level of doubt is unavoidable. Read more
Is ChatGPT intelligent? The answer may not matter to professors or journal editors. Students could plagaraise their term papers so easily that even the smartest professor would be fooled. Journal editors are beside themselves with worry over the factual accuracy of their published articles and, like the professors, over plagairism. Virtually every academic who has experimented with ChatGPT is astonished at its high level of proficiency and uncanny capacity for assembling relevant data into readable form. Will the tsunami of AI-generated text and soon-to-be-developed video inundate traditional researchers and writers? We will drown, never to be heard from again? Read more
Reports of Near-Death Experiences suggest we humans are more than mere meat. An afterlife awaits us. What could this mean? Can we learn from science? Read more
Francisco Ayala (1934-2023). Scientist. Leader. Man of God. Franciso passed away this week. He was 89. We remenber Francisco for his contributions to genetics and for his leadership as president of the American Academy of Sciences. In the field of Theology and Science, Francisco sought to maintain the intergrity of evolutionary biology in religious circles. I thank Francisco for being a gift to both lab and pew. Read more
Do you want to get born again? Like the Greek idea of the immortal soul, the Indian idea of reincarnation relies on a soulechtomy--that is, the removal of an immaterial soul from a physical body. Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains add the wheel of rebirth until the soul realizes its oneness with the All, the ground of all reality. The soul is then liberated from reincarnation. Read more
Our Immortal Soul escapes the body's death. Once the soul escapes the body, it continues to live on with other souls in the realm of eternal ideas. Well, that's what Plato tells us Socrates taught us. Does this give you hope? Read more
Jesus recommended that we keep our prayers short. He modeld the prayer of all prayers, "Not my will but your will be done, O God." This post has links for one short prayer for each of Lent's 40 days. Read more
You're past prime if you're 75, says Republican presidential candidate Nikkin Haley. CNN commentator Don Lemon says Nikki Haley is past prime at 51. When do I stop attending my own birthday parties? Read more
What curdles the fibers of my soul is symbol stealing. Christian symbols are meant to mediate divine grace to forlorn and sin-sick souls. The cynicism endemic to American Christian nationalism subverts symbols of divine grace and redirects their energies to bolster not just patriotism but also manifest destiny, jingoism, militarism, and most importantly, the dominance of the Republical Party. What we may be witnessing is the theft of the human soul by powers that could become as destructive as they are demonic. Read more
American Christian nationalists warn us to not trust our pastors, especially if those pastors are liberal or progressive. Why? Because only political organizations such as Turning Point USA truly grasp the fact that America is a Christian nation. Must we choose between America and God? Read more
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