It's that time of year when the world is in love (with Christmas shopping. We're apparently skipping Thanksgiving this year.) Naturally, the thieves are trying to get an early start on grabbing those stocking stuffers, and seem to be looking to stuff their stockings with gifts purchased by defrauding our BB&T credit card. Fortunately, our bank has excellent fraud protection. Customer service notified my wife and I less than 24 hours after the abnormal transactions began to appear on our account. By mutual agreement BB&T canceled that compromised credit card number so no further charges would get approved, but not before our identity thieves managed to order Walmart gift cards and cell phones through an online account. The customer service representative assured us that we wouldn't be held responsible for the fraudulent charges, but nevertheless I was perturbed by the idea someone successfully used my name to steal from a business that heavily discounts merchandise to benefit the customers. Not to mention, credit card holders are forced to pay higher interest rates because the credit card companies can't afford to eat the losses, either. These thieves were using my identity to steal from you. We all pay higher prices at Walmart to compensate for the losses to shoplifting. We all pay higher interest rates on our credit cards--not only to mitigate losses due to bankruptcies and failure to pay by the cardholder, but also because of fraud. As a result, I'm not a big fan of liars or thieves. But in our case, the story has a happy ending. Walmart emailed to … [Read more...]
Archives for 2018
D’Andre Swift’s highlight reel
Okay, Bill B. This blog's for you... I laugh every time I watch this clip from the Auburn game. Notice how the defender never lays a hand on D'Andre Swift. Doesn't even come close in fact, forced to just turn his head and watch helplessly as the superb UGA tailback runs right past him. https://twitter.com/SECNetwork/status/1061446743240466433?fbclid=IwAR0lWBp5ncxzrlrCMK6ZwZtZXM4nS-OD_WPheAjBCA4J0h3-c-twqXzwzew The Auburn player shouldn't feel too bad, though. D'Andre Swift made the entire Wildcat defense look silly in the Bulldog's previous game, with two ankle-breaking cuts on the same play. Great vision. https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status/1058823096759541762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1058823096759541762&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saturdaydownsouth.com%2Fkentucky-football%2Fwatch-spectacular-dandre-swift-td-run-gives-georgia-14-3-lead-before-halftime-over-kentucky%2F Once Swift has faked and juked his way through the defense, nobody's going to catch him. Now that he's healthy, D'Andre Swift is the best running back in college football. It's sheer poetry in motion--a portrait of the artiste as a young man. While there's never a bad time to be a Dawg, some seasons are better than others. However, this appears to be the beginning of a golden era for Georgia football. And D'Andre Swift is proving to be a very special football player. … [Read more...]
Thoughts on The Living Cosmos by Chris Impey
Science is a discipline that theists should be able to enjoy and appreciate--after all, theists invented science in their quest to learn about God. Science should not seen as a potential threat to religious belief. Anyone who claims that science somehow eliminates any need for a God simply doesn't understand existential science very well. Over the past decade or so, I've read a number of "popular" books about biology, paleontology, cosmology, Darwin's theory of natural selection (or "evolution") and other related topics in a personal quest for answers to my personal philosophical/existential questions: Who am I? Why am I here? How did I come to exist? When contemplating those questions one must also ask related questions like: How was the universe created? How did life originate? These latter questions are considered scientific by nature. Of the numerous books I've consumed on related subjects, among the very best I've read was a book titled The Living Cosmos written by Chris Impey, an astronomy professor at the University of Arizona. While I disagreed with some of Professor Impey's conclusions, he is without question an extremely talented writer. He mixes in plausible-sounding scenarios that create vivid imagery that convey his secular ideology regarding religion and evolution, whether he's providing a fictionalized account of the martyrdom of Giordano Bruno or one of an asteroid strike causing the K-T extinction, while grazing dinosaurs remained oblivious to their imminent doom. Professor Impey very accurately described the highly improbable cosmological … [Read more...]
What constitutes a miracle?
Paul Wood says that the headaches were so bad that he couldn't walk down a hallway without using the walls for support. X-rays showed a malignant brain tumor was the problem, although his neurosurgeon thought an aneurysm might have caused bleeding on the brain. His surgery was abruptly canceled after new x-rays revealed the tumor had vanished. Medical professionals refer to this phenomena as "spontaneous remission." One day the patient is dying of some incurable malady, and the next day has completely recovered. Statistically speaking, survival is not the expected outcome. When a person has what is normally considered a fatal illness or injury, we should naturally expect that person to die within a relatively short period of time, or at least have surgery or other treatment to save that person's life. There is no natural explanation for a tumor (and all symptoms) to simply disappear. But rarely, it does happen. According to the pastor of Gravity Church, Paul had inspired his fellow congregation members by saying, "No matter what happens to me, I'm going to be okay. I trust God." Nothing that anyone could possibly say would ever convince Paul Wood that he had not received a miraculous cure from God, facilitated by the power of prayer. Skeptics might argue that Paul's condition was inaccurately diagnosed and his doctors were incompetent, or might look for some other way to explain the inexplicable, but while Paul's recovery might be the exception and not the rule, it's hardly the only exception. Miracles appear to happen relatively frequently, once we start looking … [Read more...]
Molecular Biologist Franklin Harold’s thoughts on abiogenesis
Described as "one of the world's most respected microbiologists" on the jacket of his hardcover book in our local library, Professor Franklin Harold of Colorado State University has included some fascinating observations In his book The Way of the Cell on the topic of abiogenesis, or the scientific hypothesis about the origin of life. If one cares about the mini-reviews on the back cover, they would seem to lend credibility to his claim of expertise on the subject, given the enthusiastic endorsement of his book by renowned biologist Lynn Margulis. Dr. Harold appears to be imminently qualified to write about the subject in question. In my opinion, his chapter titled "Searching for the beginning" is so remarkable we should start at its beginning. Professor Harold writes, Of all the unsolved mysteries remaining in science, the most consequential may be the origin of life. This opinion is bound to strike many readers as overblown, to put it mildly. Should we not rank the Big Bang, life in the cosmos, and the nature of consciousness on at least an equal plane? My reason for placing the origin of life at the top of the agenda is that resolution of this question is required in order to anchor living organisms securely in the real world of matter and energy, and thus relieve the lingering anxiety as to whether we have read nature's book correctly. Creation myths lie at the heart of all human cultures, and science is no exception; until we know where we come from, we do not know who we are. [emphasis added]"Franklin Harold, The Way of the Cell Many people who argue … [Read more...]
