SPOILER ALERT -- plot details are included. I freely admit that I'm not a huge fan of Matt Damon. I don't go out of my way to see his movies. Actually, the truth is that I rarely go out of my way to see anybody's movies. I do like his movies better than Ben Affleck's, for what its worth. After all, Damon didn't make Gigli. And he was decent enough playing amnesia victim/master assassin Jason Bourne in the series of movies with remarkably improbable plots, but killer action sequences. Casino Royale, which introduced the modern version of James Bond, would not have been nearly as good if The Bourne Identity hadn't inspired its director, Martin Campbell. On the other hand, all Damon did was say words other people wrote and pretend to be someone he isn't. My opinion of actors has been adversely affected by hearing them speak off camera, I do admit. Yet this weekend, I spent a couple of hours watching a Matt Damon movie I knew nothing about, The Adjustment Bureau. Mostly, I felt like watching a movie because my body hurt too much to do anything else, but that's another story. The timing was simply exquisite. I was still a little irritated that I recently spent time (and money) reading Sam Harris's book Free Will, which proved to be a monumental waste of my time, just as I had anticipated. I turned on the television and tuned in just as the movie was starting. I only missed a few minutes in the very beginning, and the opening credits. Big deal. It had been small consolation reading Free Will gave me an excuse to write something for my blog. I'm … [Read more...]
Mental masturbation
When someone goes out of his or her way to ask me to do something very specific, I usually try to accommodate them, especially if the request is reasonable. Though I've been quite busy editing the draft of my coming novel Secondhand Sight, my friend Sean made a point of asking me to read Free Will by Sam Harris. I protested that I was busy writing and editing my novel. Readers of my first Robert Mercer mystery, titled Coastal Empire, have been clamoring for the sequel, which won't come after Secondhand Sight. I don't want interest to wane, while I'm screwing around reading another writer's book. Sean persuaded me by countering that the Harris book was short, and an "easy read." So I splurged on Amazon, shelling out $3.99 for the Kindle edition. What a sucker I am! Oh, it was short, all right. And an easy read. But more importantly, the book proved to be an utter waste of my time and money. Love ya, Sean, but I should have just kept writing. Do not assume that I fail to appreciate Sam Harris as a writer. On the contrary, I thought his book The End of Faith was quite good, though I disagreed with most of his conclusions. It was quite brave of Harris to admit that he believes in a spiritual facet of the universe that inexplicably exists, but cannot be defined in conventional, scientific terms. The "Fourth Horseman" clearly departed from Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins on that point. Harris said he prefers the term "mysticism" to "spiritualism" to describe this phenomena he accepts, because he believes the latter term has more … [Read more...]
The science of eternity
I'm somewhat accustomed to receiving presents on my birthday, but it was something of a surprise when a friend sent me a present on his birthday. I felt pretty bad, because I didn't get him anything. His gift was a link to the website for the Campaign for Philosophical Freedom, specifically directing me to a page featuring a program divided into eight parts called The Science of Eternity. It's the best present I've ever received to commemorate someone else's birthday. It turned out to be quite educational. I learned something about Sir William Crookes, the brilliant British scientist. Crookes was a chemist who discovered the chemical element thallium, essential for medical equipment such as MRI machines. He was also a physicist who invented the vacuum tube, essential discoeries making the computer monitor and television screens possible. The program also exposed me to the work of Sir Oliver Lodge, another British physicist who invented wireless telegraphy, which also contributed to the invention of television by Scottish engineer John Logie Baird. All three men were also founding members of the Society for Psychical Research, and the video claimed these men allegedly carried out experiments that "proved" life continued after physical death of the human body. The substantiation for those claims turned out to be a bit difficult to find; the interviewee and presenter alluded to the existence of proof of the afterlife, but didn't describe or elaborate on it. The definition of scientific proof offered was "repeatable experiments backed up with a theory that has a … [Read more...]
Akiane Kramarik
Akiane Kramarik is an extraordinarily gifted young artist. Her work has been featured on ABC, Fox, CNN, and international television. She has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer, Lou Dobbs, Craig Ferguson, and Peter Jennings. Her story is an interesting one. She allegedly grew up in an atheist household with absolutely no exposure to Christian dogma, yet her work became famous for the realistic religious imagery she has translated into art. Nevertheless, I'd never heard of her until I was reading the book Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo. A friend lent me his copy, being well aware of my keen interest in learning about the near death experience. In this instance, the book recounts an NDE experienced by four-year-old Colton Burpo, who almost died after the doctors at the hospital misdiagnosed his burst appendix and failed to treat it for several days. His story affirmed my belief that NDEs are not merely pleasant hallucinations produced by ketamine reaction in a dying, strictly materialist brain. Todd Burpo hammered home that Colton had accurately conveyed new memories obtained while his physical brain was literally separated from his obviously still-functioning mind. He apparently gained new knowledge of information to which he could not possibly have had access while undergoing a life-saving medical procedure. Colton accurately recounted where his mother and father were during his surgery and what they were doing while he could not possibly have known by observation. His physical body was in surgery in a different part of the hospital at that time. He … [Read more...]
A new voice from Each Voice Publishing
Tammy Rainey's trilogy of short stories, Painted Ponies, is nothing short of extraordinary. Take After describes the relationship between father and son in the wake of a close call with death. The Last Best Hour spends the last moments of a condemned prisoner in conversation with an important literary figure conjured from the recesses of his memories. The title story shares the relationship of widowed mother and son as they carry on tradition begun by his late father. Poignant, touching, and jarring at times, these stories will tug on your heart strings. Available in a variety of ebook formats, including the Kindle at Amazon, the Nook at Barnes and Noble, and the IPad plus a variety of other ebook reader formats through Smashwords. Brought to you by the innovative and creative voices from within Each Voice Publishing. … [Read more...]
