Karen Buck (White)

Congratulations on progress for Kalindi; I really hope that things continue to improve for the both of you. I thought your thoughts about life and living each moment to the fullest with the love that surrounds us was FANTASTIC.  Your outlook on life is something to be admired and I appreciate the fact that you shared those profound thoughts. Thanks & take care!!!

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

Thank you for sharing such wonderful news.

The quotations you posted for living life to the fullest are thoughts we should remember each morning as we rise to face the day.

Blessings to you both as you share the remaining years together. May they be many.

Al Peffley

Tom,

Thank you for the update on Kalindi's health status. These trials in life can strengthen our faith if we decide to let go and let God, my friend. Sharing the peace you find thoughout this trial with her will help you both immensely, both emtionally and spiritually. You already know this to be true. We learn most from the deeper "valley" journeys in life than the peaks of success. We can have all kinds of wealth and prestige in life, but without our well being health we have nothing of great value to share for true happiness in our remaining years.

My brother Don (also a HHS grad) was in the hospital most of Octobter after orthoscopic heart surgery a few months earlier to repair a valve. He passed from pneumonia and intestinal infections on November 3rd in a hospital ICU in Connecticut. It was a humbling experience for the whole family, but also a good experience because we all were reminded that we are "perishable" in the physicial sense but not the spiritual sense. He accepted his fate with a gentle smile to his son at his bedside on his last day of consciousness. I told him I love him from my nephew's cell phone on speakerphone mode just before his last breath. I will travel back there Wednesday to help his sons bury him at a National Memorial Cemetary for military veterans. We will celebrate his life the next day with his church community and military veteran friends. His 88th birthday would have been yesterday. He loved Jesus, America, and his family. He was a good man. His wife died last year.

We will keep Kalindi in our daily prayers. God bless you both.

Al & Bon

Betty Weiks (Rickard)

Tom, 

So thankful that Kalindi is making progress.  I am praying for both of you as you continue to find your way through this recovery time.

I'm praying that you will know the mercy of our Lord Jesus, who never asks us to become more aware, or rise to any higher level of knowledge.  He says, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me."  John 14:6  For a long time I thought I had to do something to reach Him, then I finally realized he was the one reaching for me. He offers us eternal life.  It is a gift.  There is nothing we can do to earn it. Eternal life is not something that we wait for.  It is available for us now. By definition, it is the gift of relationship with Him, a connection that will last forever. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 6:23

I would be happy to have you contact me directly if you would like to explore this truth further.

bettygrace42day@gmail.com

Betty

Tom Chavez

Dear Karen, Linda, Al, Betty, and anonymous silent majority,

Thank you so much for your friendship and love, which I whole-heartedly reciprocate.

Betty, I very much appreciate your comments. Thank you for inviting direct contact, but I prefer to share our discussion openly, so everyone can benefit.

You wrote previously about the power in the name of Jesus. That reminded me of Sri Caitanya’s verse: “O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benedictions to living beings, and thus you have hundreds and millions of names like Kṛṣṇa and Govinda. In these transcendental names you have invested all your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach you by your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.”

In different cultures and on different planets the Lord is known by different names. Because the Lord is absolute, there is no difference between Himself and His holy name.

In the relative world a name is different than its referent. Chanting “water, water, water” will not quench our thirst. But when we call on the Lord’s holy name, He is immediately present. 

When many devotees come together to sing the names of the Lord, it is called sankirtan. Lord Caitanya started the sankirtan movement in India over 500 years ago, and now it is spreading all over the world. Below is a picture of Sri Caitanya in sankirtan.

You write that Lord Jesus “never asks us to become more aware, or rise to any higher level of knowledge.” Jesus instructed, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” and “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” To be perfect, we need spiritual knowledge and tangible spiritual advancement. If we faithfully call out to Him or offer devotional service, He will help us, as confirmed: 

“By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.”—Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.7

The materialists consider themselves very intelligent in their quest to conquer nature, but they are actually becoming more and more entangled in complicated reactions. A devotee of the Lord remains always humble, as exemplified by the faithful theist, Isaac Newton, who said, “What we know is a drop. What we do not know is an ocean.”

Therefore Sri Caitanya recommended: “One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.”

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Betty Weiks (Rickard)

Hello again, Tom, 

This is becoming a very interesting discussion! I'm glad that you appreciate my comments.  I think that my comments about not having to strive to reach Jesus and his free gift of eternal life may have been confusing.  I simply meant that like any free gift it is ours for the taking. We don't have to clean ourselves up to accept it.  Otherwise the thief who died on the cross next to Jesus wouldn't have been given that gift. Jesus told that man that "today you will be with me in paradise." 

That doesn't mean, at least as far as I understand it, that we shouldn't try to better ourselves spiritually. I don't want to come across as having all the answers, because I'm not a theologian, but I am a serious student of God's word.  I mean I really pour over it everyday.  Everyday there is something there that becomes more meaningful to me.  You are totally right that Jesus wants us to keep his commandments.  I don't disagree. I do believe that with the power of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, we are being transformed more and more each day to be like Christ. That's why I really try to study the Bible everyday. So that I can keep looking to see what he requires of me.  (Feeding the hungry, keeping control of my tongue, visiting the sick, helping those who need financial assistance, etc.) 

Matthew 7:7-8 reads as follows: (Jesus is speaking) "Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks finds, And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." 

There is a very brilliant man that you may have heard of, who grew up in India.  His name is Ravi Zacharias.  I recently watched a clip on YouTube that you might find interesting.  He really is an expert.  I'll warn you that once you watch one of his talks you'll want to watch more.  He is an excellent apologist.  I haven't yet figured out this format well enough to give you a direct link, however here is the info for the first link I watched.

  It was intitled "How Do You Know That Christianity is The One True World View?

                     youtube.com/watch?v=nWY-bxBACOPk

I hope you'll be able to watch that.  If you do, let me know what you think. By-the-way, how is Kalindi's recovery?  I'm still praying for her.

Betty

Tom Chavez

Well, here we go, Betty!

Thank you for suggesting YouTube videos of Dr. Ravi Zacharius. He argues that the Judeo-Christian tradition is fundamentally different from other religions. He says that the life of Jesus—his teachings, crucifixion and resurrection—demonstrate unique exclusivity. 

He claims to test the origin, meaning, morality and destiny of religions for logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and personal relevance. He concludes that only the Judeo-Christian worldview is coherent and truthful. This is how I understand him. 

I see religion as part of the human search for truth and meaning, and I see different religions as different schools of thought. Any religion may have spiritually advanced practitioners and valid insights into the truths about God, the self and nature.

I may be loyal to my school and think it is best for me, but why should I say that other schools are wrong or useless? This approach leads to fanaticism, “We are right, everyone else is wrong.” Soon you have Christians versus Moslems, Shiites versus Sunnis, Catholics versus Protestants, Buddhists versus Hindus, etc.

I began to question the truth and coherence of my Christian faith during the Vietnam war. Innocent children were napalmed to death without any chance to know about Jesus. It made no sense that they were eternally condemned to hell without being ‘saved’. More generally, why are some people born into happy lives of luxury and others into impoverished suffering? 

Reincarnation was more logical to me. “As you sow, shall you reap.” As automotive innovator Henry Ford said, “Genius is experience accumulated over lifetimes.” This life is the resultant reaction to past lives. Research into past life memories offers empirical confirmation for the logic of karma and reincarnation.

I don’t want in any way to denigrate or minimize faith in Jesus, his example or the miracles of his life. I accept the validity of his teachings, but I empathize with Mahatma Gandhi, who had the misfortune of living during the rule of the British Raj, when they ruthlesslly exploited India in the name of so-called Christianity.

My top issue with Christians is their support for animal slaughter. There are many Biblical verses condemning meat eating. The animal industry creates huge suffering for animals, adverse environmental effects, and disease and suffering for humans. I appreciate that many Christians follow the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” by practicing vegetarianism.

If I want to criticize, I can find bad examples aplenty with every religion. I prefer to look for truth and good examples. I tend to steer clear of those who claim that their religion is the only true way.

Thank you for your inquiry about Kalindi. She has been home for a week now, and is strengthening daily. Meanwhile, I get to be the househusband since she can't do the regular housewife chores. I'm really looking forward to her full healthy recovery!

Tom Chavez

The Antikythera Mechanism

In 1901 an ancient shipwreck over 2,000 years old was discovered off the coast of Crete. Over several decades, divers brought up a total of 82 discolored, corroded bronze fragments of an instrument which has become known as the Antikythera mechanism, named after a nearby island. The three largest pieces are now on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, and are pictured below.

For decades scholars were unable to make sense of this strange mechanical device. Crammed inside, obscured by corrosion, are traces of technology that appear utterly modern. Nothing else as sophisticated as this has ever been discovered from antiquity. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of the Greek letters inscribed on the front and back indicated a construction date of about 100 to 150 B.C.

X-ray imaging in the 1970s and 1990s revealed that the device must have tracked the paths of the Sun, Moon and planets with impressive accuracy. One investigator dubbed it “an ancient Greek computer.” But X-ray images are difficult to interpret, and mainstream historians neglected the artifact. Erich von Däniken claimed that it came from an alien spaceship.

In 2006 Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in Wales published CT scans of the fragments, revealing more details of the inner workings, as well as hidden inscriptions. Experts have been working to decipher the inscriptions, and to infer the mechanism’s missing pieces, perhaps destroyed or still on the sea bottom.

The device was like a clock, but with at least seven hands to measure celestial time, representing sun, moon and the five visible planets. A rotating black and silver ball showed phases of the Moon. Inscriptions explained which stars rose and set on any particular date. Two dial systems on the back show a calendar and the timing of lunar and solar eclipses.

James Evans, historian of astronomy at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, thinks that the eclipse cycle represented is Babylonian in origin and begins in 205 B.C. Alexander Jones, at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York, says one inscription reveals that tiny spheres, fiery red for Mars and gold for the Sun, represented orbital motion. 

The Antikythera Mechanism was an analog astronomical calculator millenia ahead of its time. Which begs the question, what else is lost from ancient human history?

A heck of a lot, I would answer. There is abundant archaeological evidence that human civilization has experienced great cycles of advancement and regression over millions of years. 

The evidence has been misinterpreted, filtered out and set aside in deference to the reigning paradigm of evolution, a paradigm which is overdue for a revolutionary multi-disciplinary takedown.

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

The Antikythera Mechanism most obviously did not come from an alien spaceship. It is atributed to Archimedes.

Robert Bramel

The AM is indeed fairly impressive viewed through the lens of what we know to be the primitive state of human knowledge thousands of years ago. As an analog device it may have been useful for approximating a number of interesting celestial parameters. It is made entirely of low-sophistication metals available at that time. Ultimately nothing about that device is inconsistent with what we already knew about human capabilities back then. When someone finds an ancient device made from modern materials (e.g., silicon dies, ferro ceramics, field-effect transistors), or better still, devices incorporating technologies beyond current capabilities we may have to revise the current model of gradual human development. Until then...

It ought to be trivially easy to support any claim of alien or ancient intellectual superiority with some object or idea that is unequivocally advanced beyond our technologies; imagine how easy it would be for any one of us to provide an advanced object if  we were transported back one thousand years (or even 50). And yet, nothing like that has ever happened. What is the reasonable conclusion? Very likely there have been no alien visitations or advanced ancient human cultures.

Tom Chavez

The California Gold Mine Discoveries from Table Mountain

In 1849 gold was discovered in the gravels of ancient riverbeds on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in central California. At first, solitary miners panned for flakes and nuggets in the auriferous gravels which washed into open stream beds. But soon gold-mining companies dug shafts, following the gravel deposits deep into the mountainsides. The miners found hundreds of human artifacts and, more rarely, human fossils.

Many significant discoveries were made at Table Mountain in Tuolumne County where miners dug vertical tunnels through layers of volcanic deposits or horizontal tunnels that ran below the volcanic deposits. At Table Mountain hundreds of feet of volcanic latite (similar to basalt) covers rhyolithic tuffs, which in turn cover the gold bearing gravels in ancient stream beds.

Geologists obtained potassium argon dates of about 9 million years for the latite. The auriferous gravels are between 30 million and 55 million years old. The principal discoveries  of human bones and artifacts came from the very lowest levels of the gravels near the bedrock.

The most important discoveries were reported to the scientific community by J. D. Whitney, then the state geologist of California. His detailed reports can be found in his book The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California, published by Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1880.

Here is one of many examples described by J. D. Whitney:

Paul K. Hubbs, former State Superintendent of Education, residing in Valejo, California, reported taking human skull fragments from the gold bearing gravels under the volcanic cap of Table Mountain: “From a shaft in Table Mountain, 180 feet below the surface, in gold drift, among rolled stones and near mastodon debris. Overlying strata of basaltic compactness and hardness. Found July, 1857.”

Fragments of this human skull were sent to the Museum of Natural History Society of Boston, and to the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. But we do not hear about the discoveries from Table Mountain or the many other discoveries of ancient human remains from around the globe. Why is that?

William H. Holmes, of the Smithsoniam Institution illustrates the attitude of most scientists in his response to J. D. Whitney’s book. Holmes wrote, “Perhaps if Professor Whitney had fully appreciated the story of human evolution as it is understood today, he would have hesitated to announce the conclusions formulated, notwithstanding the imposing array of testimony with which he was confronted.”

In other words, if the evidence, even an imposing array of evidence, doesn’t support the theory of evolution, the evidence should be rejected.

Darwinists routinely assert that modern humans like ourselves appeared fairly recently on earth, between 150,000 to 100,000 years ago. The California gold mine discoveries are not isolated counterexamples.

The book Forbidden Archeology, authored by Thompson and Cremo, document numerous other cases showing that humans like us have existed on earth for up to hundreds of millions of years. This is consistent with historical accounts found in the ancient Sanskrit writings (Vedas) of India.

Robert Bramel

Here is an interesting discussion of the skull:  https://www.sequoiaparksconservancy.org/tales/the-mystery-of-the-calaveras-skull

It's especially interesting, apart from the claim that it was a human skull, that it could be millions of years old and not fossilized. Fossilization occurs in as little as 10,000 years, yet this non-fossilized skull lasted millions of years. That in itself has to be an amazing anomaly. Even at the time the skull was considered a hoax set up by miners. Evaluation of the physical characteristics of the skull suggested to scientists at the time that the skull was "no more than 1000 years old".Too bad no one got photographs as it had lain in the ground. Piltdown man is another interesting read.

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

I am in agreement with you that Darwin's theory of evolution falls short.

In the dating of things in the past, I have three caveats:

First:

The dating of organic matter through carbon-14 process is approximate at best. Exposure of the material to nuclear radiation skews the dating considerably - With some specimens being dated in the future!

Second:

I will make the claim that there was a global flood about 14,000 years ago. I base this not on mythology, or the Bible or the Sumerian texts, but on hard geological and archaeological evidence. It was actually a world wide tidal wave which traveled around the Earth somewhere between 60 times to 90 times. The how and why of it is another story.

Anyway, this caused immense redistributions of solids material with new "earth" being mixed or overladened with old "earth". This makes long term dating quite questionable.

Third:

The dating of material based on radioactive decay of mother isotopes down to daughter isotopes has a very big problem. Apparently, it has been implicitly assumed that the decay began when the material was near or on the surface of Earth.

I have made the claim that the nuclear core of a planet decays to normal matter on its surface. This means that the breakdown of radioactive isotopes began on the surface of the nuclear core - far below the surface of the Earth. There would be an immense amount of time before this material reaches the surface of the Earth. Therfore, the radioactive dating of mother to daughter decay chains is considerably off by the the current dating procedure. In essence, radioactive material thought to be incredibly old is much younger.

THe human species may go back a million years or so, but certainly not hundreds of millions of years.

Tom Chavez

Gregg, in your previous entry you stress that the Antikythera mechanism could not possibly be alien, which again provokes my suspicions about your Homo Sapiens bona fides. “Methinks the gentleman protesteth too much.” And now you again betray yourself with your alien science regarding skewed carbon-14 dating, worldwide floods, and planetary nuclear core technology. Who are you? And what have you done with the real Gregg Wilson?!

Anyway, let me take advantage of your super alien intelligence. How do you account for tidal forces which ’spaghettify’ planetary bodies? According to human physics a body near a massive object such as Sagittarius A* would experience stronger gravitation pull on the side closer to the massive object, while the far side from the massive object would experience less gravitational pull. This gradient in gravitational field strength causes tides, tidal locking, formation of ring systems within the Roche limit, and spaghettification of objects. What is your alien explanation of these effects by graviton forces?

And what is your base motive for denying human existence beyond 100 million years ago? I hope it is not some kind of alien prejudice!

Tom Chavez

Bob, in your entry on the 19th you claim (gross materialist that you are) that a truly advanced civilization would be evidenced by so-called ‘modern’ materials like “silicon dies, ferro ceramics, field-effect transistors.” 

Allow me to suggest a more subtle concept of advancement. 

Before we make a building, machine or mathematical theorem we envision a conception within our mind, just as Einstein famously performed thought experiments. The concept comes first internally, and then we may manifest it externally. Hence, we say “mind over matter.”

The production of internal plan or conception is a function of mind and intelligence. 

In yoga or Vedic philosophy, mind and intelligence are differentiated in terms of function and subtlety. The mind functions through thinking, feeling and willing. Intelligence offers a frame of reference, including values, by which we relativize order and meaning, among other things.

A child may imagine so many things, but it takes intelligence to actualize them.

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur

  indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ

manasas tu parā buddhir

  yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ

The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the conscious self] is even higher than the intelligence.—Bhagavad-gita As It Is 3.42

A truly advanced being will operate on the level of mind, intelligence and consciousness. For example, there are reports of Marion apparitions, angels and aliens. What they exhibit is considered impossible according to our gross material science, and therefore such reports are often derided and rejected by smart guys like you. 

Histories from Mahabharata describe celestial personalities, like Ganga, who could manifest themselves in human form. Advanced technology on the subtle level affords the ability to change shape, form and bodily constitution and to quickly transport oneself through various dimensions, planets and realms. They may have the knack to pick up others' thoughts and emotions and to understand and speak their languages.

Bob, you operate on the level of gross physical materials. You say it would be trivial to produce an advanced object if you were transported back 1,000 years into the past. Okay, smart guy. What would you produce to prove that you are from the future if you were transported back 1,000 years to medieval Europe? 

Remember, if you fail to convince, you will be put into a mental asylum to live out your days. Now, tell us how you would produce silicon dies, ferro ceramics, or field-effect transistors, please! How will you explain the value of such things to your medieval contemporaries and what language would you use, since English as you know it would not be understandable? I doubt you could even produce a match, what to speak of a transistor.

Tom Chavez

Bob, the mixed message of your Nov 20th entry is not clear. First you give a URL to an article supporting the existence of human remains many millions of years old. Did you read that article carefully? It offers evidence to support the thesis that modern type humans existed in very ancient times.

Then you add your own thoughts about possibilities of hoax. Of course, materialists offer many hypotheses to explain away evidence contrary to their scientistic faith. It might have been a hoax, it might be a recent intrusion into a more ancient stratigraphic layer, it might have been anomalous dating, etc., etc. Blinded by material science they cannot penetrate illusory conceptual paradigms and their own false egoistic urge for prestige.

All conditioned persons are subject to mistakes, cheating, limited perception and illusion.

Material scientists take great care to purify their chemical reagents and calibrate their instruments. But they have little clear idea how to purify and strengthen their own materially conditioned intelligence and consciousness. Therefore, they become attached to dogmas and misleading theories, entangled in material complexities and miss the actual point of human life.

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

You are on a real tear here this morning. Once a month, I signal the mother ship and they send down new, exciting information. We use mirrors.

The Antikythera Mechanism was made of brass. This is consistent with the time period of Archimedes and he certainly had the knowledge to design such an item.

In December 2012, astronomers confirmed that there are wandering planets - not attached to a solar system. If there was a world wide flood then human civilization was 99% wiped out. We do NOT know how advanced human civilization was prior to the Great Flood - but probably more advanced than we are now. Assuming that a wandering planet passed through our solar system - quite close to Earth - then the passage past our planet would have lasted about two to three months. This would have strongly dampened gravity between the two planets. The tidal effect would have been the same as by the Moon, only many times stronger. Since the Earth rotates - once a day - the tidal wave would have passed over the Earth 60 to 90 times. There are soil layers in certain locations which show 60 to 90 layers. These layers are not hardened rock but loose - meaning they were formed geologically recently.

The Bible, including books that were banned by emperor Constantine ( ~ 400 AD.), gives timeline histories consistent with such a flood. Specifically the books of Enoch. Sumerian texts give the same history.

I wil explain how such wandering planets come into being in a later post.

Tom Chavez

Mahabharata 3: Santanu, Satyavati and Bhishma

It’s been a while since I left off the story of Santanu and his marriage to the celestial goddess, Ganga, who drowned their first seven children and then took away the eighth child, promising to return him one day. Santanu tolerated his misfortune and threw himself wholeheartedly into governing his kingdom.

Santanu was an ideal king, full of virtue, free from avarice and malice. In splendor he was like the Sun, in impetuous courage like the wind. In anger he was like the Lord of Death, Yamaraja, and in patience he was like the earth.

Under Santanu’s rule all living entities were protected, including the birds and beasts and every created being. He was so great that all other kings bestowed upon him the title “King of kings” and became peaceful and virtuous under his protection.

Santanu would often visit the banks of the Ganges, the only spot which gave him comfort. One day, about sixteen years after losing Ganga, he noticed that the river had become shallow, and was not flowing normally.

Searching for the cause the king came upon a lustrous and beautiful youth, who had checked the river’s flow with his celestial weapon. This youth was Santanu’s son, but the king did not recognize him, although he recognized the king.

The king, wondering much and imagining that the youth might be his own son, addressed the river saying, “Show me that child.” 

Ganga, thus addressed, assumed a beautiful form in person, but to spare Santanu she showed herself in a different aspect. Santanu did not recognize that beautiful female bedecked with ornaments and attired in fine robes of white, although he had known her before. 

Ganga said, “O king, that eighth son is now trained in military arts and has studied all the Vedas with his superior intelligence. He is fully conversant with the duties of a king. Accept now this child of yours, given to you by me.”

Santanu accepted the youth very happily and went with him to his capitol where he installed him as the heir-apparent. By his perfect behavior the prince soon pleased his father, the government ministers and, in fact, all the citizens of the kingdom. 

Thus, king Santanu and his son Devavratta lived most happily for four years. 

Then, one day, as the king wandered in the woods along the bank of the Yamuna River, he perceived a sweet scent wafting on the breeze. Following the scent he came upon a dark-eyed maiden of celestial beauty, the daughter of the fisher king, named Satyavati. 

Satyavati’s beauty, amiableness and fragrant scent attracted the king to get her for his wife. King Santanu approached her father and requested her hand.  

Her father said, “O king, I have long cherished a desire in my heart. I know you are truthful. If you desire this maiden as a gift from me, pledge to honor my desire and I will give her to you. I could never obtain any other husband for her equal to you.”

The monarch said, “When I hear the pledge I shall say whether I can grant it or not. If it is capable of being granted, I shall certainly grant it.”

The fisher king said, “O king, the son of Satyavati should be installed on the throne and no one else. That is my desire.”

Santanu had no inclination to agree to this. With his heart afflicted by desire he returned home to his capitol. After some time his son Devavrata perceived the change in his father and asked him why he seemed depressed and melancholy. What was the problem?

Santanu told his son that he was worried for the kingdom, that he had only one son, and what would happen to the dynasty if Devavrata should meet an untimely end on the battlefield? The dynastic line would have no successor.

The intelligent Devavrata went to the king’s old devoted minister and asked him about the cause of the king’s depression. The minister told him about Satyavati and her father’s demand.

Devavrata then went, with a retinue, to the fisher chief and begged for his daughter on behalf of his father. The chieftain informed him that although Santanu was most qualified, his one objection was that there was a rival for the throne, in the person of Devavrata himself. 

Devarata then vowed that he would never accept the throne, and that only Satyavati’s son should be the king. Satyavati’s father appreciated Devavrata’s vow and truthfulness but expressed another doubt. If Devavrata had a son, then that son might challenge Satyavati’s son for the throne.

Devavrata then told the chief of fishermen, “I have already renounced my right to the throne. I shall now settle the matter of my children. Before all the assembled witnesses I vow to remain a celibate brahmacari and to never associate with a woman for all my life.”

Hearing this, the chief of the fishermen was fully pleased and immediately presented his daughter Satyavati to Devavrata for his father, Maharaja Santanu. Then the demigods, apsaras, and assembled sages showered flowers upon Devavrata, exclaiming, “He is truly Bhishma (the terrible)!” Consequently, Devavrata is renouned in history as Bhishma, he of terrible vow.

Bhishma took Satyavati to his father and explained what had happened. His father, highly gratified, blessed his son that death would never come to him as long as he desired to live, but would only approach after first being invited by him.

(To be continued)

Al Peffley

Wow, Gregg, you got me laughing so hard tears came to my eyes! 😂

I believe the destructive planet in the elliptical orbit that you refer to causing the great flood is called "Wormwood" in the Holy Bible.

Tom, don't be too harsh on Bob. We can agree to disagree on honorable terms, can't we?

Gregg Wilson

Hi Al,

I posted (#401) an article by Pierre-Marie Robitaille, Ph. D., The Ohio State University. He gave extensive evidence that the Sun is a liquid. It cannot be hydrogen, helium, etc because these elements are entirely vapor at the temperature of the Sun. That leaves a liquid of the light carrying medium - called Elysium.

When there is a nova, it is actually a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion). A nova goes on for weeks or even months. The mainstream scientific idea that a star runs out of hydrogen and heluim and therefore can longer maintain nuclear fusion released energy against the incoming gravity - subsequently imploding, forming a neutron star, then detonating fantastically is nonsense. A liquid does not implode but it does vaporize.

Given the theory that gravitation is caused by a universal flux of gravitons, that leads to the following:

When a planet, or star, has normal matter from the nuclear breakdown of the nuclear core (on its surface), it is the normal matter which causes a body to have a differential gravitational field. Gravitons entering the normal matter (of a planet or star) loses velocity as they impact normal elements or liquid Elysium. Coming back out, they lose more velocity to the normal matter (atomic elements). This creates the up and down of the body's gravitational field. The nuclear core of a planet or star completely reflects the gravitons. So, a nuclear core does not have a differential gravitational field.

When a solar system forms, with planets and a star - there is an overall, differential gravitational field. If the star undergoes a nova, its Elysium vaporizes. This will incinerate the surfaces of the planets but it will not propel the planets outward. Boiling Elysium has high temperature energy but not much mass. Planets with a nuclear core will strongly resist being pushed outward. However, the resulting neutron star will not have a differential gravitational field. With no "attraction" by the neutron star, the planets will simply wander off. This is the source of "wandering" planets no longer held within a solar system.

Presumably one of these planets passed through our solar system, close to the Earth, and caused a gigantic tidal wave on the Earth.

Tom Chavez

Al, good to see you again. I've been missing your voice here. 

Bob, sorry if I was too harsh. I just want to challenge your scientistic conceits.

Gregg, I'm still waiting for an explanation of how gravitons account for tidal forces. Wandering planets, as interesting as they may be, are not going to distract me from this question.

Tom Chavez

How old is the Universe?

In 1650 James Ussher, Anglican Archbishop and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin, published the exact date of creation: Sunday 23 October 4004 BC. Other scholars found similar dates: Scaliger 3949 BC, astronomer Johannes Keplar 3992 BC, and Isaac Newton c. 4000 BC.

Bishop Ussher’s date was incorporated into the King James Bible printed in 1701. Young earth creationists still hold that the earth is 6,000 years old. A 2017 Gallup creationism survey found that 38% of US adults believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

In the early 1900s, there was no scientific concept of the age of the universe, says Stanford University associate professor Chao-Lin Kuo of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. “Philosophers and physicists thought the universe had no beginning and no end.”

In 1977 scientists at the University of Chicago estimated that the universe is 20 billion years old based upon radioactive decay of Rhenium 187, which has a half-life of 40 billion years. 

In 1992 Josef Hoell and Wolfgang Priester of the University of Bonn studied the spectra of quasars and concluded that their ‘best fit’ model indicated a universe 30 billion years old. 

In 1998 Nobel laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore inferred from observations of very distant supernovae an estimated age of the universe of 13.3 billion years.

In 2012, based upon data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), the age of the universe was estimated to be 13.772 billion years.

In the Sept 2019 edition of the journal Science, Inh Jee, of the Max Plank Institute in Germany, suggested an age for the universe of around 11.4 billion years.

Carl Sagan wrote, “The most sophisticated ancient cosmological ideas come from India. Hinduism is the only religion in which time scales correspond to scientific cosmology.”

Actually, Vedic time scales far exceed modern science. Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Vedic writings describe the universe cycling, from beginning to end, through partial devastations and recreations over a period of 311 trillion years. Modern estimates for the age of the universe roughly correspond to a minor sub-cycle of that period.

The universes are said to emanate in seed form from the pores of Maha-Vishnu, who reclines in yogic slumber in the maha-tattva. During his exhalation universes emanate and expand, and during inhalation they all collapse and re-enter his transcendental body.

Thus, myriad universes are created and destroyed with Maha-Vishnu’s every breath.

Maha-Vishnu is said to be an expansion of an expansion, several times removed, of the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa.

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

There is a gravitation flux throughout the Universe. Any graviton will travel about 3,000 light years before it collides with another graviton. Therefore, in our solar system, they travel in straight lines. For the Earth and Moon, the corridor straight between them causes a lack of gravitons traveling between the Earth and Moon, because the two bodies reflect the gravitons on the outside surfaces that are away from the two.

The Earth rotates. This means that the surface of the Earth has angular momentum. Or, if you prefer, centrifugal force. The oceans are obviously liquid, so a tidal effect occurs in the oceans facing the Moon because of the lack of gravitons coming straight down.

Beam me up, Scotty!!

Betty Weiks (Rickard)

Tom,

As I've been remembering to pray for Kalindi, this scripture came to my mind. "In his kindness God has called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.  So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation,"  I believe in the power of prayer and using God's Word to pray over people.  I pray that each day your wife will grow stronger and stronger, so that she can relieve you of her "housewife duties." Although I'm sure you are happy to offer up your kind service as a sacrifice of love for her! ;o}

There are a few points you raised in your response to me (#582) that I would like to clarify.  First, in regard to Dr. Ravi Zacharius, you summarized his view as stated in the short video correctly. However, I noticed that you haven't, at least as far as I remember, actually stated your personal view of Christ Jesus.  Who do you believe him to be?  I thrink it is an important question to answer, if you would. You said that you "accept the validity of his teachings," but if that is true, what do you do with what he said about who he is?

I have a fundamental difference from you in that I don't really like to think of myself as "religious."  Rather I have an ongoing personal relationship with Jesus. He has had the most profound influence in my life. The works you quote from are not on my bookcase, so some of the sayings have no understanding for me. I'm sorry for that, but it doesn't mean I reject persons with beliefs other than my own.  When you quote Mahatma Gandi, "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." you seem to be lumping alll Christians into one collective group. I didn't say "I'm right and you are wrong."  Honestly, it seems like sometimes you are more interested in being right no matter what you are talking about on this forum. I'm wondering what has happened in your life to caused you to be so critical? Unless I'm reading you wrong,  It just comes across that way to me.

Perhaps it  began with Vietnam. I am also saddened by what happened to the innocent children. For the longest time the very gift that God gave to each of us as individuals, the gift of freedom of choice, has plagued us. I don't blame God for what has happened to those children. I believe that the innocents are with him in heaven even now.  He is the only right judge, and we are not. I believe that one bad choice after another over all time has placed us into the place our fallen world finds itself today. Those choices began in the garden with Adam and Eve.

I doin't share your belief about the killing of animals. My husband is a hunter and every year he harvests game annimals and birds that are a part of our diet.  I don't like the cruel treatment of any creature.  Perhaps you have lifted out of context scriptures about eating meat. Check out the writings of Paul.  Most of his references to eating meat had to do with meat being offered as pagan idols.  He said that we shouldn't eat meat if it "offends a weaker brother."  He also said that he ate meat. All that said, our Thanksgiving dinner will include those in our family that are vegans and those that are vegetarians.  Some how we are all able to sit at the same table and love each other in spite of our differences.

I don't share the belief that you have about reincarnation. I know you will argue that with me, but I believe what God's word says about having one life to live.  It all comes down to what you believe about who Christ says that he is.

I doubt that I have caused you to change your beliefs, but I pray you will consider what I have shared with you. May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter what is on your table!

Tom Chavez

Gregg, your graviton explanation about ocean tides makes sense, to some degree. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how to fit gravitons into a standard physics or how to perhaps replace or redefine standard concepts and entities to make a consistent alternative physics.

I will make statements below, representing my ignorance/understanding. Please comment on them or correct them from your alternative viewpoint. I am comparing gravitons to photons for the sake of expressing myself. Perhaps this is confusing me, let me know your view.

1. Standard physics considers a graviton to be a hypothetical particle, without mass like a photon. 

2. There are various ways to detect or infer the presence of photons, such as a photomultiplier tube, Compton scattering, etc. They can be described by Maxwell’s equations. 

3. There is no way to detect gravitons. How do we know they exist?

4. How do you know, or why do you think, that gravitons travel much faster than the speed of light?

5. What is the source of gravitons? Can they be generated now? Or were they only generated in the past? 

6. How do gravitons create a field of uniform flux in all directions? Light will come from a luminescent object, from certain direction but not equally from all directions. It seems that gravitons have to come equally from all directions. Is that right? (For example the cosmic background radiation is said to come from all directions, although it is not quite uniformly distributed.)

7. How do gravitons interact with ordinary matter? I think you mentioned, in reference to wandering planets, that gravitons are absorbed by the ‘nuclear core’ of planets. Can you offer more detail about that?

8. How do gravitons push ordinary objects like people, cars and feathers to create a force accelerating them analogously to conventional gravity? In other words, how do they interact with the objects? 

9. Is it that gravitons are simply hypothesized to replace conventional gravity because you consider conventional gravity obviously wrong for some reason? What is the reason that conventional gravity is wrongly conceived?

10. From a practical point of view, standard conceptions of gravity and gravitational force equations obviously work, at least in aeronautics and astronautics, don’t they? Why not just accept conventional physics?

Thanks for taking the time to consider my questions.